Update from Pastor Carr

Hope in the Mountains

September 2020

Dear Friends,

Leslie and I hope that this update to all of our support team finds you healthy, strong, and hopefully transitioning back to as normal of a life as possible - hasn’t 2020 been a crazy year??  As always, we want to thank you for your continued prayers, financial support, encouragement, and friendship - it would be absolutely impossible to do what we do here in these mountains without EACH of you!!

As we have already noted, 2020 has been a crazy year, but the Lord continues to move in these mountains, and I wanted to share with you some of those ways He is moving and using you as a catalyst for His work!!  

First, we continue to “winterize” the main parts of our building in an effort to “retire the coal furnace.”  Thanks to the hard work done by our FIGHT NIGHT men sandwiched in between some great help from a wonderful mission team last month (North Harford BC in Jarrettsville, MD) and another team coming later this month (Thelma BC in Wetumpka, AL), we are hoping to complete this process well enough to radically reduce the usage of the coal furnace this winter.  Please pray for the resources to purchase the necessary carpet for the rooms (approximately $900 per room) and the remaining lumber and hardware to complete the framing of walls being built to close in hallways.  

Second, we were blessed to have a team join us this month from Severna Park BC in Severna Park, MD.  Their focus was backpacks with school supplies for the children in our homeschool ministry - Bruce Outreach Academy.  They provided 70 backpacks for our kids as this ministry has rapidly grown this year due to the public school situation in regards to Covid-19.  It’s another wonderful opportunity to build bridges to our community for the sake of the Gospel.  Thank you, Severna Park BC!!!

Next, though with mixed emotions, we said farewell to our own Pastor Jack, who has been one of our elders/pastors since DAY ONE of BOC!!  He was called to be a pastor of a church in Grantsville, MD.  We will miss him greatly, but we know this is where the Lord wants him and we are excited to see what God will do in and through him.  Please pray for Pastor Jack’s new ministry at Little Meadows BC, as well as for the other missionaries we have been blessed to send out this past year - our daughter JoJo, who is serving at the Well House in Birmingham, AL, and our own Deacon Russell, who is starting a chapter of Bikers for Christ in our region.  

We’ve also been blessed to recognize some accomplishments, as well as invest in the development of some of our leaders here at BOC this month.  We had SIX men who completed the reading of the entire New Testament as a D-Life group this year and have started the Old Testament this month (and joining the men is a brand new D-Life group of ladies who started this month)!!  Please pray for both groups (one has 6 men and the other 6 women).  We have also seen FIGHT NIGHT produce THREE new men who have started deacon training this month, as well as TWO from our first deacon class almost two years ago who have started pastoral training through Samford University’s Ministry Training Institute!!  Please pray for Mike C., Kenny H., Don F., Russell B., and John B as they continue to study, grow, and provide leadership in our church family!!

Finally, we continue to try to find ways to build a bridge to our community in order to share the Gospel, so would you please pray for us to have wisdom for the following ministries in regards to our effectiveness in sharing the Gospel with the ultimate end being fruit for the Kingdom??

*Clothing Ministry

*Food Distribution Ministry

*Movie Night Drive-THRU ministry (in place of our Pierce the Darkness ministry this year)

*Christmas Backpacks distribution in December (backpacks provided by Elmore Baptist 

Association) in partnership with Elmore Association (Wetumpka, AL), Faith Baptist 

Church (Glen Burnie, MD), and Gap Hill Baptist Church (Six Mile, SC).

*Christmas gift store for needy families in partnership with Central Park Baptist Church 

(Decatur, AL).

*Children’s basketball league (not sure how to proceed due to Covid-19 restrictions)

As you can see, we are “hopping” and we owe much of that to YOU, our partners in the Harvest here in the mountains of Western Maryland!!  Would you please pray for Leslie and me to be good stewards with what God provides through y’all??  Would you also please pray for me as I travel later this month and meet with churches and individuals in my “adopted home state” of Alabama in an effort to raise our financial support, as well as connect churches with a heart for missions with our church when it comes to construction, evangelism, etc.??  I know that sounds like a lot of praying, but prayer is the lifeblood of what we do here - and having you pray alongside of us is essential to the work!!

I think that’s about it for now.  I hope to be seeing some of y’all who are in Alabama later in the month.  I am also hoping to get around to our friends up north in the months ahead!!  We are a blessed people to have friends like y’all!!  If there is anyway Leslie and I can pray for you and your family, please do not hesitate to let us know - it would be our HONOR!!  Please feel free to call / text (301-697-4828), e-mail (pastorsteffan@gmail.com), or message me on FB!!  Love y’all!!!

Your Partners in the Harvest,

Steffan and Leslie Carr