I had the wonderful pleasure of preaching a revival service at a new church in buck, PA from Sunday, April 15 through Wednesday, April 18. The church was founded by an evangelist friend, Jim Roland and he is pastoring with a faithful core group of about 35 members. Brother Jim saw the need for a traditional gospel preaching church in that area and responded to God’s call. True Gospel Baptist Church is located smack in the middle of Amish country, right on the main route in Buck, PA. They are presently leasing a beautiful building that served as a clubhouse for the local mini golf/driving range. The driving range is still open and many services feature curious peeks from would be golfers checking out the church service. The building is comfortable and sunny and seats about 75 people. The Sunday Morning service was packed with regulars and visitors. The meetings went well and my prayer is that those folks are further inspired to build up that ministry. It was a special blessing to preach following special music from the Roland family each service.
We stayed with a Christian couple serving in the church, Larry & Debbie Gayle. They own a beautiful country home in Quarryville near to the church. We enjoyed their friendship and hospitality as well as their dog, Bently. Our only complaint was that they fed us too much!
The Gayle’s took us one day to visit some Amish friends and we were invited in the house and also took a tour of the barn. This family wore the traditional Amish clothing and spoke with distinct accents. They were extremely happy and friendly. The older girls were cooking and hooking rugs while the little ones stayed by Linda, their mother. The house consisted of three large rooms, a kitchen with a simple table and benches, and two additional large rooms with nothing more than a few work tables, a propane lamp, and a small wooden “love seat” with cushions. Each room had fine crafted cabinets and wall partitions so that the house could be opened up for church services when their turn came around. The barn was big, housing about 40 Holstein milking cows, 4 very large mules and a few horses. The son drove up in the buggy and unhitched his horse after bringing his little sister home from school. They had a few sheltie dogs and 6 precious puppies. I held one of the puppies the entire time we were in the barn. My intent was to bring that puppy back to NH until I saw the look in my wife’s eye that told me she wanted nothing to with Amish puppies or any puppies for that matter.
We enjoyed our trip and the opportunity to be a blessing to the new church. The folks seem very excited about what God is doing and they have been faithful. Our fellowship with the Rolands was very refreshing and we hope to have them back to our church later this year.
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