It’s been about 4 weeks since my last update, but I hope you have kept me and the team in your prayers. We certainly need them, as this year has been filled with many challenges and blessings. Since last month’s update, I have traveled from the East coast of Florida to the West of New Mexico. We were at a great church in Pensacola, FL pastored by Ted Trailer and saw a multitude of people respond to Christ. We are thrilled to be returning next spring for an Outdoor Adventure Weekend. Their staff is Christ-like and professional and has tremendous faith in what God will do, so we are expecting an unusually big harvest. Upon returning home, our ministry team traveled to Ruidoso, NM for 3 days to connect and relax. It was great to get out of the Texas heat away from work and have some fun playing together as a team.
Summer is a slower time of the year for us and has enabled me to spend time working on my book (due this November). I will continue to be submerged in this exciting and massive endeavor for the rest of the year. I never knew what I was praying for when I asked God to give me a book and publisher! It is a lot of work and I hope you will ask God to guide me in how to write each chapter.
Today, we have team members in different cities, on the road, working on 2 major events; in Des Moines, Iowa and Houston, TX. The event in Houston will be the largest Outdoor Adventure Weekend we have ever put on; with approximately 70 churches from all different denominations that are expected to take part. Des Moines is a possible crusade that we are very excited about!
We are thrilled about potential opportunities, but we ask you to pray for God to fling the doors open wide for us to preach the Gospel. I regularly ask God to use us to reach hundreds of thousands of lost people for His glory, but I know satan hates us and wants to stop our work. He has hit us hard this year with more cancellations than we have ever experienced in one year. At times, I have allowed myself to become discouraged, but I trust God for the miraculous and for building my faith. I’m asking for new opportunities in New York, the United Kingdom, China [yes China] and I’ve always wanted to do a Native American crusade. Will you pray for us and ask God if He would have you to financially help us? Reaching non-believers takes a lot of prayer, work and finances. We need your support. You can give through our website (www.jaylowder.com) or by clicking the "give" button located on the right side of this e-mail.
Lastly, two weeks ago, I was invited to preach at the "Faith Mission." It is a shelter for the poor and homeless and one of the first places that I ever preached. Believe it or not, the first time I spoke there I had to stop preaching in order to break up a fight between a drunken man and a prostitute. I was the regular preacher on the 3rd Thursday of every month. The night the mission administrator called me to tell me I was going to be a "regular" preacher on Thursdays, I was beside myself. I called my mom and dad and you would have thought I was going to be preaching at the largest church in America. My mother wasn’t ashamed that the only people in the world who wanted me to preach were the people at the mission- she was truly proud. It was great to get back to my roots and see over 20 people stand to accept Christ. I preached my heart out, as though there were 10,000 in attendance. There were about 150 folks of all kinds, including all different ethnic groups and many people from different walks of life. There were also two very special people who came out to hear me preach; these two people think I can out preach Billy Graham and they were sitting on the front row – Mom and Dad.
I still love the lost and will die trying to reach them, Jay