I appreciate the opportunity to use the pages
of West Virginia Christian to announce a new work in which
the church in Barrackville is going to be involved. Many of you
may know that I have been making yearly mission trips to India
since 1991. Many of you, as individuals and the congregations
which you attend, have helped me financially with these trips.
For that I am deeply grateful.
The work that is going on there is truly amazing
as thousands of souls each year are responding to the saving message
of the gospel of Christ. (On my most recent trip, over 800 people
were baptized into Christ in the meetings that Peter Ray Cole
and I were directly involved). It is estimated that the retention
rate is between 75-85%. I personally believe it is one of the
greatest mission works going on in the world today.
For the past several years, a congregation of
the Lord's church in Cleburne, Texas, has overseen this particular
work. Near the end of 2007, they notified brother Ron Clayton
and expressed their desire to turn the oversight of this work
over to another congregation. Ron contacted the elders at Barrackville
to see if we would consider becoming his sponsoring congregation.
The elders and deacons at Barrackville met with two of the full
time workers in this mission work and with a preacher from India.
We had a lot questions concerning the work and what our involvement
would be.
After having our questions answered, we have decided
to accept this responsibility. Because we have been involved to
some degree for many years, we felt that we are in a wonderful
position to work even more closely with this great mission effort.
Ron Clayton and his wife Karen are in India at this present time,
but we are hoping they will be with us sometime in March to meet
the congregation here and to begin making plans as to how we can
best be of service to this mission team.
We realize the tremendous responsibility that
is involved in overseeing a work of this magnitude but we are
excited about the opportunity.
If you would like to know more about this work
please feel free to contact us and we will do our best to provide
you with the information you need. If you are looking for a mission
work to support on a regular basis as an individual or a congregation,
we would love to talk to you about the work in India.
Please keep us in your prayers as we accept this
challenge. - Steve Snider (for the Barrackville church of Christ),
PO Box 753, Barrackville, WV 26559. (304) 363-9060 (office); (304)
363-5203 (home). ssnider712@msn.com