Even if I would have had a Bible back then, I could not have found the book of Psalms without going to the table of contents first. I knew absolutely nothing. But I listened to what the pastor had to say, and he says, open up your Bibles to the 119th Psalm, and he says, we're gonna take a look at the first few words of verse number 71. Go to verse 71, let's look at the first few words. It says this, it is good for me that I have been afflicted. What? I got a question for you. How is that possible? My goodness, my Bible clearly says it is good for me that I've been afflicted, and I ask you, how is it possible that affliction of any kind could be considered to be a good thing? On the surface, that didn't make sense to me. But God's Word is very clear to us about the answer to that question. Just look at the next few words. That I might learn. Wow. That I might learn. That I might learn what? Look at the last two words. Thy statutes. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes. And when Pastor read that verse, something hit me right between the eyes. It's one of those times that you feel, and many of you have been there, it's one of those times that you feel like you're the only the only one there being spoken to. That's what it felt like that morning. Do you know that pastors... I want you to leave your Bibles open, by the way, because I'm going to come back there to Scripture in a little while. Do you know that pastors' entire sermon was on verse 71 alone? He never made reference to anything else. Verse 71 was his message. The day that I stumbled through the doors. Was that a coincidence? Friends, I don't believe it was. At the end of the sermon, the pastor starts talking about something else. He starts talking about trusting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. What in the world is this man talking about? You've got to understand something. When I lived in that business world, every fiber of my being was consumed with business. If I had ever heard that before, it went in one ear and out the other. Why is this new to me today? You know, also, living in that world, the business world, I never did anything without a meeting or an appointment. When Pastor gave the invitation, I did not trust Christ, but I waited for him when he dismisses the service. I waited for him in the foyer, and I said, Pastor, I want an appointment. Let's have a meeting in your office. And we set it up. It was December 21st, 1988. And he's the man that God used to lead me to trust Jesus Christ as my personal Savior that day. Do you know, friends, I was 38 years old before I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior, 38 years old. And I was baptized there two weeks after that. It's not been an easy journey since then. You know, Satan's attacks are very real in the area of discouragement. And I appreciate your prayers about this. Attack number one comes like this. Look at you, Kerry, 38 wasted years. Why, look how God might have used you earlier in your life to help further His kingdom if you hadn't waited so long. Attack number two, without question, is in the financial world. Look at you, Kerry, you had it all, and you lost it all. Why, look how God might have used you that way to help further His kingdom if you hadn't been so foolish. Friends, it hurts. Yeah, I'm ashamed to tell you this too, but when I lived in that business world, I never ever saw a need anywhere. I never saw a need other than my own. And today I see needs every day of my life and it hurts to be reminded of what those resources could have been used for if I hadn't been so foolish. But God's word is very clear to us about something concerning Satan. His days are numbered. Praise the Lord for that. If you would have told me 20 years ago, Kerry, one day God is going to use you as a full-time missionary, if you would have told me that 20 years ago, I would have looked you in the face and I would have said, friend, You are insane. There isn't any money in that business. And that's how I would have looked at it back then. Missions, there's no money in that world. Count me out. And God had other plans. And I'll tell you briefly how that came about. People ask Terry and I, how did you end up in full-time ministry? It happened like this. Two missionaries came to our church and challenged us to pray about going on something they called a short-term missions trip. One week. Yeah, we can do that. We felt our hearts being tugged just a little bit, and we signed up with the attitude, get in, get out, get on with life. And that's how we approached it. And you know, our first assignment was to a country called Haiti. And when we got to Haiti, Terry and I just went to our room, and we just bawled. We just bawled. Our hearts were broken, and our lives were changed forever. And we were invited back. We served in Haiti several years, and Jamaica, helping them with vacation Bible schools, evangelistic meetings, medical clinics, whatever they needed help with. We signed up. And then our mission agency, Independent Gospel Missions, asked us if we would take over the country of Haiti or the country of Jamaica doing what it is that we do today. And I said, no. I didn't think that's what God was calling us. But we went ahead and put in an application to serve. We just didn't know what part of the world that we were going to end up in. And then I got a phone call. It was May of 2001. It's been just over 12 years ago. Pastor Newhart, who's our director, called and asked me, he said, they're going on a survey trip to the country of Grenada. Terry and I didn't even know where it was. Grenada, by the way, it's 90 miles directly north of Venezuela, South America. We didn't even know where it was. He said, they're going on a survey trip to meet the national pastors that's already been approved by the mission agency. Why don't you and Terry come with us and let's just see if maybe that's the part of the world that God would want you to serve. And I said, okay, Pastor Newhart, we'll go with you, but I'm not making any promises. And when we agreed to go, I was instantly burdened with two questions that I wanted to get answered by the national pastors and their wives. Before the week was over with, we got them together. At that time, it was Pastor Williams, Pastor Thomas, and Pastor Roberts. Those were the three that were approved that your pastor and his daughters met last year. And I said, I was burdened with these two questions. We got everybody together, and here was question number one. Went around the room to the pastors and wives. Do you really want Terry and I to come down here and work along your side? This is your country, your culture, your people, your ministry. Do you really want the two of us to come down here, work along your side, and bring other people with us? This is what we were expected to do. Went around the room, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, brother, please come. We need all the help we can get. That question was 100% confirmed. The second question was even more of a burden to me, and some of you here in the room remember this. October 1983, the headlines in our newspapers, the U.S. invades Grenada. There were Grenadians killed, and there were Americans killed, and there were Cubans killed, and I had to know. How do these people really feel toward us about all of that? When I asked the question, I was reminded of some things that I had forgotten. A man by the name of Fidel Castro, mid-80s now. He was in his 50s back then and Castro had visions of expanding his dictatorship to that part of the world. You know, if you look at a world map, Grenada would be a very interesting military hub between Cuba and Venezuela and Castro wanted it and he was there. Also, you know, I did not know this. I just did not know this. Grenada was seven days away from being overthrown by a communistic country. I did not know it was that close. But the prime minister of Grenada that did not want anything to do with communism, he and his cabinet were taken out and they were assassinated in cold-blooded murder. The Prime Minister of Great Britain asked Ronald Reagan for help, and that's when Reagan sent the military. You know, you get this many people in a room, and I know some of you are veterans from one time period or another, and God bless you for your service. Thanks to the U.S. and the U.S. military, Grenada has their freedom today. It gives me chills to even talk about it. Do you know when Ronald Reagan died, the entire country of Grenada flew their flag half-mast? They love America. And when we got that kind of a response before that week was over with in May of 2001, Terry and I surrendered. We surrendered to God. We surrendered to independent gospel missions. We surrendered to Grenada. And yes, this is where we'll serve. So we come back to America, and you know, Terry and I, then we have to go to missionary candidate school. Do you know that Terry and I started Missionary Candidate School in our 50s? We started serving the Lord. It's never too late to start serving the Lord. We went to Missionary Candidate School in our 50s, and when we left Missionary Candidate School, Terry and I were expected to do two things simultaneously. Terry and I were expected to do full-time ministry immediately. And we were expected to do full-time deputation immediately. And that's exactly what we've done for over 12 years now. And it brings up three prayer requests that I want to leave with you, these three prayer requests. You know, I want you to know that it's not an easy thing for me to talk about finances. You know, the world that I came out of probably has a lot to do with that. It's just not comfortable for me to talk about this. Terry and I do need monthly financial support for this ministry. We lost 10% of our needed support during the world financial crisis and just struggling churches that had to drop or lower missionary support. And we would just ask that you would pray that God would raise up new churches and new families that he would want to be a part of this ministry. We are very, very engaged. And that would be prayer request number one. Prayer request number two has to do with our van. When Terry and I are in the States, we live a good portion of our life in our van and out of a suitcase. That's what we do. We just go, just like we're doing now, we just go from state to state and sharing the ministry with folks. And we need help with maintenance on the van. And we don't want to be a burden to anybody, but if anybody would be able to help us with van expenses, that's what that jar is out there on the table. We'd be very grateful for your help. Lastly, it has to do with our 34-year-old son, Mark. Some of you heard this, read it through prayer letters. Our son, Mark, had a stroke last year. Nobody knows what caused it, but in order to save his life, they had to take out part of his brain. His brain was swelling so bad. and we're very thankful that Mark is still with us. We've got him in a little tiny rental home with a personal assistant and physically Mark has come a long way. He's gone from a wheelchair to a walker to a four prong cane to a single prong cane that he's mobile. And we thank God for that. Cognitively, Mark has a long way to go. His long-term memory is sharp, but his short-term, he gets very confused about things. And so please keep Mark in your prayer. But it brings up a question, friends, and I do appreciate your prayers on these things. Why are Terry and I here? You know, I find myself wondering why the Lord sent us here. And I ask myself those questions. Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. Lord? Are you sure? Lord, there ain't anything there. Why would the Lord send us to a place called Upper Darby, Pennsylvania? Lord, don't you remember Hawaii? You know, I'll tell you, and I believe this with all my heart, the Lord sent us here because he wants more of you to give up a week of your vacation and do this. I'm not kidding. He wants you to come and serve him in the country of Grenada on one of these short-term missions trips. It has nothing to do with Terry and I, but I'm telling you friends, it will change your life. You'll come home after a short-term missions trip and you'll have a whole new vision for world missions that you never had before. We have guests here that's done this before. Patty has been down Three times or four times? Three times, Patty's back. Terry came. By the way, Terry, I didn't mean to overlook you. Terry is one of our former team members from New Jersey. And before I go any further, would you mind introducing your family to the folks here? Before you leave today, there's some things we want you to get off that table back there. If you don't already have one, please get one of these blue prayer cards. You know, fervent intercessory prayer being lifted up before the throne is the greatest thing you could ever do for a missionary. Please get one of these 8x10 sheets that's in the middle of the table. What this is, this is a schedule of all the missions trips available to you for the next four years. They're already scheduled out. You can pick a year that would work for you. You can pick a week that would work for you. And you can pray it up. You know, we have people come to us and they say, this is something I always wanted to do, but I could never afford something like that. Friends, do not put a limit on what God is able to do for you. If God wants you there, you will be there. We've seen miracle after miracle. of funds coming in from unexpected sources to provide the way. There's also a sign-up sheet. If you have email, please put your email address on there. Terry and I will make you two promises about that. We will never give your email out to anyone else, and we will never, ever send you a forward of any kind. We don't do that. You'll just get updates on what's going on with the ministry and these trips and the people that we work with. Okay, back to Scripture for a moment. I left off with verse number 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. I want you to back up to verse number 67. Verse number 67 says this, Before I was afflicted, I went astray. You know, that's exactly what happened to me. But now have I kept thy word. And lastly, I want you to see something else. Look at verse number 72. It says this, The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. Do you know what I see here, friends? What I see here is that the author is trying to tell us that joy wasn't coming from all of this stuff. I don't want this to come out the wrong way because I want you to know there's nothing wrong with having nice things, okay? There really isn't anything wrong with having nice things as long as those things do not run your life. As long as the pursuit of the acquisition of those things don't control you, there's nothing wrong with having nice things. Do you know that America is a very materialistic country? The storage shed business is a billion dollar business in America. You know we got so much stuff we don't have any room for it, so we got to rent buildings to put it in. And you know these people in Grenada, they don't have any of this stuff. They don't have anything that we would consider of a material nature. But I want you to know something. They're happy people. They're happy. And they don't have any of this stuff to clutter up their lives. Boy, that says a lot about all this junk. We love them very much, friends. We really want you to be a part of this. And Terry and I will be with you every step of the way, meet you at the airport, take you to your room, and you be a part. People ask how many can come or how few. It doesn't matter, whoever the Lord raises up. We've had as many, this July we had thirty from one church in Paradise, Pennsylvania, come down. We've had as few as one come from a local church. If it's one person, we just plug you in, you know, to the rest of the group. Everybody works together and becomes a family by the end of that week, and it will change your life forever. Please get that, and you just pray up. You don't have to have any special skills or talents to do this. You really don't. you just pray, Lord, if this is something that you would have me do, then take me and use me however you would. Some precious people here that have done this before, and we want you to experience it because, really want you to experience it firsthand, because, you know, I can tell all the stories And I can show all the pictures, and it doesn't even come close to hands-on ministry, loving these children right into the kingdom. And please do that with us. I'm going to turn it back over to your pastor for a time of invitation, but I thank you for allowing me to share with you this worship time. God bless each and every one of you. Preacher?