Two days have been set for our mission team to minister at the Teshie Orphanage Centre during our upcoming Ghana, West Africa trip. We will present two sessions of the “Far Out Far East Rickshaw Rally” Vacation Bible School to the children at the orphanage. The dates for this ministry will be Tuesday & Wednesday, October 19th & 20th at 2:30pm GMT. Please pray for these opportunities and for the children of Teshie.
A dear friend of mine has moved on to a new job. David Dinkins has left Bradford County as County Extension Director to assume the same position in St. John's County. I had the honor of being a part of a reception in his honor recently. You can read about some of the accomplishments of this devoted agent in this article in the Bradford County Telegraph http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12978292&BRD=2150&PAG=461&dept_id=377017&rfi=6.
Bradford County's loss is certainly St. John's County's gain. God bless you David!
Visa applications have been submitted to the Embassy of Ghana in Washington, D.C. Please pray that this process goes well and the documents return with time to spare. Almost 1,000 posters were also shipped out today to Zion Evangelistic Ministry. These will be used to promote the upcoming crusade. The construction team will be meeting on Thursday to discuss the building process and tools needed.
Please be in prayer for all of these preparations. October 9th is the departure date for the construction team and October 14th is the departure date for the ministry team.
Thanks to Hurricane Jeanne I, along with many, many others, am temporarily without electricity at home. The power went off around 5pm Sunday afternoon. It is interesting that it went off at about the same time two weeks ago with Hurricane Frances and on a Sunday too!
I tried to post an audio blog last night with my cell phone out on the front porch with all of the wind blowing and stuff like that, you know for that real reporter sound; however, when I checked it today only about half of it was understandable. I guess the wind was creating problems for the cell signals too.
The New River Solid Waste Association landfill was closed today as is a lot of other agencies. A day off is good, but without electricity there isn't a whole lot you can do. I'm able to post this thanks to having a full battery charge on my laptop and the telephone service still works.
The last time the power was out with Hurricane Frances it did not come back on for five days. I certainly hope that is not the case this time.
Please be in prayer for the upcoming 2004 Gathering of the Clouds Crusade dates:
Saturday, October 9th: Construction Team and I depart for Ghana.
Sunday, October 10th: Construction Team and I arrive in Ghana.
Monday-Friday, October 11-15th: Construction begins on building for Zion Evangelistic Ministry.
Thursday, October 14th: Ministry Team departs for Ghana.
Friday, October 15th: Ministry Team arrives in Ghana.
Saturday, October 16th: I will be preaching during a Ghanaian wedding.
Sunday, October 17: Ministering in local church.
Monday-Friday, October 18-22nd: Gathering of the Clouds Crusade.
Saturday, October 23rd: Showing of the movie "Passion of the Christ".
Sunday, October 24th: Ministering in local church and both teams depart Ghana.
Monday, October 25th: Mission teams arrive in Florida.
Also, please be in prayer for all of the preparations and finances for this trip along with family members that will be waiting at home.
The crusade itinerary will be updated as info becomes available at this site: http://www.jamescroft.org/Ghana%20Crusade%20Itenerary.htm.
Information about financial contributions for the Ghana mission trip is available at: http://www.jamescroft.org/Ghana%20Crusade%20Contributions.htm.
Florida is once again in the direct path of a hurricane. This has become an all too familiar drill for Floridians. This time our area of the state is expected to have some severe weather conditions Sunday, Sunday night and Monday morning in the form of 40-45mph sustained winds, 70mph wind gusts, threats of tornados and rain sufficient to cause flooding. Please be in prayer for all who have been and will be affected by this hurricane.
We completed revival services at Sardis Baptist Church in Worthington Springs tonight. The services were well attended and there was a sweet spirit in the church. I would like to thank Pastor Paul O'Steen for allowing me the opportunity to minister to his congregation.
Mark Lowery, 2004 Ghana Construction Team Leader and officer with the Baker County Sheriff's Department, will leave today for Pensacola to assist law enforcement officers in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan.
Team member Sonja St. John, also a member of OPT (Olustee Praise Team), and I will begin revival services at Sardis Baptist Church in Worthington Springs this morning and continue through Thursday night. OPT will be leading the worship in each service. If you have never heard them minister in song you have missed a blessing!
Please continue to be in prayer for these and other 2004 Ghana Mission Team members as we move into the last few weeks of preparation for our trip.
Planning for using a digital projector during the 2004 Gathering of the Clouds Crusade was in full swing late Friday night. David McKinney and I met with Jon Fletcher at his home to discuss how the screen should be constructed for the crusade in Ghana, West Africa next month.
A video camera will be used to capture the activity taking place on stage and in the music area during the crusade. This will then be projected live onto a large 20' x 25' screen near the stage for the crowd to see. This will help everyone present have a good view of the music and preaching service.
On Saturday night the plans are to show the hit Mel Gibson film "The Passion of the Christ" on the giant screen. There is no admission charge to the movie or the crusade.
Pictured above discussing the test image projected on a much smaller version of the screen are (left to right) James Croft, David McKinney and Jon Fletcher.
More information about the Ghana Crusade can be viewed at http://www.jamescroft.org/Ghana%20Crusade.htm.
Three members of the 2004 Ghana Mission Construction Team received their immunizations for international travel on Friday at the Alachua County Health Department in Gainesville, FL. Mark Lowery, Ken Crenshaw & Curtis Richards sat through a required presentation by an International Health Nurse before receiving several shots. These immunizations included Yellow Fever, Tetanus, Hepatitis A and Typhoid Fever. They were also given prescriptions for Malaria pills.
The government of Ghana requires the immunization for Yellow Fever and the others are recommendations from the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
When I spoke with Curtis this afternoon he said he was feeling "stuck up".
This is the poster for the 2004 Ghana Crusade in October. It was designed by Jon Fletcher.
Revival services ended last night in Mayo, FL at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church. We had a wonderful week of services in spite of rain and the threat of Hurricane Ivan. There was a sweet spirit among the congregation. I pray that the Lord greatly blesses the church, each member and visitor. A special thanks to Pastor Ted Rushing and the congregation for the wonderful fellowship and hospitality.
I begin leading revival services on Sunday at Sardis Baptist Church in Worthington Springs, FL. This will be my first time preaching at this church. I'm also excited about OPT (Olustee Praise Team) leading the worship in each service. I hope you will be in prayer for these services.
This is a new audio feature for my blog. When you see the icon above all you have to do is click the arrow. You will then be asked if you want to open or save the file. This is your choice. If you save it will be downloaded to your computer, if you choose to open it will download and then begin playing through Windows Media Player or whatever program you have installed that will play MP3's. You will then hear the post that I have recorded. The files can be as large as 600kb so it may take a couple of minutes on a dial-up connection for it to download.
This will be a great tool for me to post to the blog on the move with any telephone - even my cellphone! This will also allow me to post more frequently and have more up-to-date info on the blog for your review. I think it will be a great tool for updating you from Ghana, West Africa in October!
Let me know what you think about this new feature.
The electricity to my home and some others in Olustee was restored around 10am today. Praise the Lord!
We all still need to be in prayer for those that are still without power and those that have lost homes, property, etc. due to the storm. We also need to be in prayer for the state of Florida as Hurricane Ivan now approaches our shore.
Even in the storms God is still in control!!!
I just learned that the weekend conference that had been planned for Huntsville Baptist in Lake City on September 17 & 18th has been cancelled. It may be rescheduled at another time.
I traveled to Quitman, Georgia last night to preach during a meeting of the Mercer Baptist Association at Evergreen Baptist Church. There was a great spirit during the service and a great time of fellowship afterward.
It was great to see some friends that I haven't seen in a while, i.e. David Cook the Director of Missions, Charlie Scarborough the Interim Pastor at Barney Baptist and Jerry Sapp from Morven Baptist. Of course, it is always good to make new friends too.
The trip went very smoothly in spite of all of the west bound traffic on I-10 and US 90. Apparently I-10 is under water in a few locations between Lake City and Jacksonville and traffic was being detoured onto US 90. I have never seen so much traffic on US 90 coming through my hometown of Olustee! It took a considerable amount of time to cross US 90 in Olustee, something that we are not accustomed to.
Electricity has been restored to some parts of Olustee, but NOT the part where I live. You would think as small as our town is that one switch would cover everyone. 8-)
Maybe a little wet and windblown, but still riding out the storm.
A lot of us in Florida lost power on Sunday due to the impact of Hurricane Frances. Thank the Lord that no one around me has suffered any major damages. I did venture over to my office in Raiford at New River Solid Waste Association this morning. Power is on at our building and that is where I've held up for a while even though our operation is closed until tomorrow (Tuesday).
We can all be thankful that the storm has not been as bad as it could have been and we can especially be thankful that God is in control even in the storm!!! Who knows, I may just have the message for the Mercer Baptist Association meeting on Tuesday night in Quitman, Georgia. 8-)
Jon Fletcher and I met on Friday night to work on posters & information handouts for the upcoming Ghana mission trip. Jon also designed a beautiful new poster that can be used for upcoming revival dates, etc. It looks much better than the one I was using. He is a very talented man. I pray that God richly blesses his efforts.
On Saturday night we met again to test out possible materials to use for a projection screen while in Ghana. Our plans are to have a 25' wide x 20' tall screen to project on to with a digital projector. We will use a video camera to feed to the projector so we can show events on the stage and music area on the large screen. This will tremendously help visibility during the crusade and may draw even more people too. We will also use the screen to show a movie to the crowd one night. This should be very exciting.
I hope you will join with me in praying that all of the technical equipment arrives safely and works as it should. We certainly want God to receive full honor & glory with every thing we do to enhance these upcoming ministry opportunities.
Members of the 2004 Ghana Mission Team for James Croft Evangelistic Association are: (left to right): Curtis Richards; Sonja St. John; Ken Crenshaw; James Croft (Evangelist/Team Leader); David McKinney; Jon Fletcher; Angela Lowery; and Mark Lowery (Construction Team Leader).
For more information about the 2004 Ghana mission trip visit http://www.jamescroft.org/Ghana%20Crusade.htm.
Photo by Jon Fletcher.
Many churches are cancelling worship services for tomorrow (Sunday). I received word this afternoon that Parkview Baptist Church in Lake City will be cancelling all services tomorrow. I was scheduled to fill in as teacher for the Sanctuary Class for Bobby Clark.
The services at my home church First Baptist Church of Lake Butler (http://www.afn.org/~fbcoflb/) have also been cancelled.
I'm just thankful to the Lord that Hurricane Frances has weakened. Let's all be in prayer for those that have been affected and for those that are still in its' path.
