New Hymnals, 50 year Anniversary, and Vertigo

Hello all. I trust God has been blessing you in your life, ministry and family. We have been busy here at Old Paths with building, renovating and painting. We are planning on moving our auditorium to where our S.S. class/nursery and fellowship area is. It will allow us to have a useful alter/invitation area, more space for chairs/people, and (most importantly) the bathroom wont be 5 feet from the pulpit. We are very excited with the new look. I'll try to post pics when it is done.

New Hymnals:
When we started Old Paths, we were graciously allowed to use hymn books from Town Center Baptist Church (TCBC). Since then, not only have we grown but also TCBC has grown as well. We need more hymnals and they don't have any to spare...due to growth (a nice problem to have).
This last month we have been looking at almost a dozen different hymnals, trying to find the right one. We have settled with a new hymnal called Bible Truth Hymns (from Bible Truth Publication), and we are so pleased with it...we have simply fallen in love with it.
A good friend and supporter of Old Paths offered to pay for half of them, we took a special offering for the rest and were able to order them the next Monday. God is so good. We now have enough hymnals for 50 people. Thank you Brad.

50 Year Anniversary:
We have an Eighty-nine year old woman in our church who was a missionary for Thirty-four years in South America. She really is still a missionary (as we all are), as she sends a birthday card to everyone in her Mobile Home Park and puts in the card a tract and one of our church brochures.
She announced last Wednesday night that one of her first Indian tribes, where the whole tribe accepted Christ as their Savior, was celebrating 50 years of following Christ. It was such a blessing to her, to us as fellow Christians, and to all the faithful Christians who had a part in her work. Praise God that she is still alive to witness the fruit of her labor. Thank you Lord for our Senior Saints...thank you Lord for their faithfulness and may we learn through their example.

Vertigo:
The worst nightmare of any young or old pastor....I have not been able to preach the last two Sundays. Two Sundays ago, I went to bed late Sat. night with the start of the famous 24 hour flu, and was able to ask my very good friend, Pastor Jerry (from TCBC) to fill in for me. And then last Sunday I woke up so dizzy that I could not make it out of my room without holding on to the wall to stay up. After a few visits to the bathroom (I will spare you the details), I had to make the very difficult decision to not go to church. Instead, I had to go to the ER, where they diagnosed me with vertigo.
I have been blessed with a retired pastor/evangelist in our church, who is 86 years old. He has offered to fill the puplit when needed but could not do too much due to his health. I asked him (ten minutes before S.S.) if he would take over the S.S. lesson, and then they could just go home for the day. He took over the S.S. hour and told the folks that they were already there so they might as well stay there for the morning service and he did it all. He filled a need. In fact all of our men filled needs that day. Delbert even did the song leading. :-)
God has blessed me with men who are willing to fill in the gap. What a blessing. Thank you men.

Please pray for me. I have the same messages that I believe God wants me to preach...and I want to preach them sometime soon. :-)

We are excited with our move and with our new hymnals. We are having our very first evening service at the end of the month: a singspiration to really get to know our new hymnals. We are all looking forward to it.

Thank you for your prayers.

We just want to be a blessing,
Pastor Dan Zike
Old Paths Bible Church

First Communion

We had the privilege of having our first communion service a couple Sundays ago. It was a very special moment for us. Thanks to Town Center Baptist for lending us their communion set. It is wonderful when a church can partake in remembering Christ's death...and do so in unity.
I thank God for allowing us to have a church full of love and unity...I pray it stays that way.

The Lord has blessed us with visitors for the last three Sundays. Some have come and gone but others have decided to stay. Those that have stayed have inserted themselves into the ministry of our church. Last Sunday, we had reached 21 people. It was great having an almost full church building.

We have a praise...a good friend and servant of the Lord has offered to purchase new hymnals for us. We are jumping up and down with excitement about that. God has been so good to us. It is exciting, once again, to watch how God takes care of our needs.

Some prayer requests: we are planning on changing things around soon; moving the auditorium to a larger room. Doing so requires some small renovating. Pray we are able to make the move soon, safe, and inexpensively.
We are also in the need of a communion set, and a sound system.

Please be praying for two very dear Pastor friends of mine. Pastor Ben Townsend and Pastor Robin Wright have had some serious health issues. They are both recovering, and doing better. But I ask you to continue to pray for their health, strength, and recovery.

Thank you for your support through prayer. God has been answering prayer and working in ways that we have yet to see.

We just want to be a blessing,
Pastor Dan Zike

God gives us what we need

What an exciting Sunday...WE HAD FIVE (5) VISITORS!!!

It was such an exciting service...everyone was happy, the song service seemed to be more exciting, and God dealt with some folks that day as well.

Please pray that God keeps send us people who need HIM as well as people that we need. I am finding that people are looking for a church that simply loves them and shows honest concern for who they are. People have come who have been completely ignored at their church.
Pastors, be sure to hug your flock the next time you see them and tell them you really appreciate and love them.

I just had to write and share with you our great news and invite you to be praising God with us.

Pastor Dan Zike