Ministry Update
Brent and Michele Howard
ChurchCare Construction, Grafton, OH
August 2023
Building Churches - Building Lives
Dear Family and Friends,
Let’s talk about God’s grand design. Most importantly, do you know God’s grand design for humans. It really is quite simple. God wants us to understand Who He is – The Almighty, Most Holy, Sovereign Lord. He needs us to know and recognize we are sinful people and that sin separates us from His holiness. God desires us to yield our lives to Him in obedience to His commands. Primarily through our submitting to Him as our Savior who paid the penalty for our sin, but also as our Lord who leads and guides us through life. Please contact us for more information.
God’s design for marriage has been distorted by our sinfulness. He lovingly and beautifully created a woman for Adam because it was not good for him to be alone. His grand design was for her to be a help mate to meet Adam’s needs and give Adam companionship. Adam would lovingly care for Eve. It is a beautiful picture. I am so blessed to be Brent’s helpmate and look out for his needs. I enjoy working alongside him in the construction of churches, in the presentation to churches, completing the financial paperwork that needs taken care of, and so many other ways that I can ease his load. Stay tuned for future information on my grand plan to help Brent take some much needed down time in the future.
As God’s grand design for marriage is fulfilled for a man, He next reveals His grand design for family. We saw God lead and guide throughout the years of raising our family, Ryanne and Riley, but even still we are thrilled with our new role of supporting and caring for Daniel and Ryanne as they welcomed our first grandson, Marcus Daniel on July 14th at 12:01pm. He was 9lbs. 11oz. and 22” long. We love our new role as grandparents to Marcus!!!
Did you realize that God has a grand design for the church? He commissioned us to be witnesses for Him and share the Gospel with all nations. Later He exhorts us to love one another, bear each others burdens, pray for each other, edify one another… In Hebrews 10:24-25 He encourages us to spend more and more time together as a church because we need to help each other to stay focused on God as the day of the Lord draws near. We need to quit pulling back from being busy and active in the church and follow God’s command – Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.
Brent and I love to look back on God’s grand design for our lives and remember how He guided, directed, and provided in the past. It gives us confidence that He will continue to do all those things for us. We have already been blessed to see how He has provided funds to help pay for our grand design Momentum. He provided a buyer for our old fifth wheel and we sold a lot of miscellaneous in a garage sale which enabled us to put a lump sum payment on the total. We have received special gifts of over $10,000 in the last few months since God provided our new trailer. We are so thankful, and we are confident that He will continue to provide. It will be soon time to move our fifth wheel to a new location. We appreciate your prayers as we prepare for another transition.
Prayer and Praise:
1. We have a very busy summer schedule. Thanks for praying for these trips as well as the weekly running around within the state of Ohio.
- Aug. 6 Heritage Baptist Church, Wasmpsville, NY am
- Aug 6 Open door Baptist Church, Cazenovia, NY pm
- Aug. 10-17 Michele travels to Orlando, Florida to visit dad
- Aug. 20 People’s Baptist Church, Newfield, NY
- August 25-27 Grace Baptist Church, Canton, OH marriage retreat and Recognition service
- September 3 Dryden Baptist Church, Dryden, NY
- September 5-7 Baptist Church Planters council meetings Grafton, OH
- September 17 Hillside Baptist Church, Hornell, NY
2. Please pray for the subcontractors at our project, Grace Baptist, Canton, to be diligent in finishing their part of the project as they are holding up completion of so many other areas.3. Praise the Lord for our faithful supporters praying and giving as well as those who have given special gifts.4. Praise the Lord for the safe arrival of Marcus and recovery of Ryanne.5. Pray for 2 small projects before we move to Nebraska this Fall. We have a carpet job at First Baptist Church of Lagrange and a porch project in Wayland, MI.
