January 2010

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

        We are overwhelmed with the joy of the Lord and so thankful for all He has done in our lives. Since Scott and I set out on our own to serve the Lord, God has blessed us at every turn. The Lord led us to the San Antonio area. Only two days after arriving here, Scott and I both had jobs with the owners of the land where we reside giving us full flexibility to work as much or as little as we want. They know that we are here to minister and are very supportive of us. It’s so amazing how this has happened right in the middle of an economic down turn, when so many people are out of work. People around here can hardly believe it. Praise God! Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and everything we need, will be provided for us.” God is so faithful.

I have been working at a Taco Stand that belongs to a sister in the Lord named Susanna. She and her husband Ray have been very kind to us giving us a place to park our trailer and the use of a small cabin. Susanna had just lost an employee and needed a replacement. The timing was perfect for our arrival. Scott called a contractor and they put him to work right away.  When Scott told the owner that he was here to minister in this area and would be needing time off here and there, the owner said, “Work whenever you want and take off as much as you want.”  Not only that, he has since told Scott that he is giving him all the electrical on the jobs and that he wants Scott to make all the profit. God is so amazing!! We have both been able to minister to our co-workers and God is opening doors. We have been fellowshipping at Susan and Ray’s house.  We have started going out into places like Whataburger to minister, and have also ministered in some church fellowships. We have also been helping my dad minister to the gangs down on the coast in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Lord moved greatly while we were in Corpus Christi. The Corpus police told us, that things have changed so much since we have been there that they can hardly believe it! They used to hate to go to work and now they enjoy it. Where there used to be nightly fights and drunks coming in causing problems, there has been peace. Praise the Lord. Scott and I are headed back there January 15, 2010 to continue helping Larry Goff (my Dad) minister in that area.

          I wish I could share about every time we’ve been out ministering, but it would just be too much, so I’ve just picked a couple of things to share about so you can get a better picture. The following is about our first time going to a Whataburger here in this area. Delia, a sister in the Lord from New Braunfels came with us. The Lord had put one particular Whataburger on Delia’s heart, so that’s where we went. When we arrived we went inside and started placing an order when Delia asked me “Just how do you do this? I have never done this before.” I said, “Well you just look around at the people and if God lay’s someone on your heart then you go talk to them. Has God laid anyone on your heart?” She said, “Well, what about those people that we passed outside?” So I said, “Well let’s go talk to them” We went outside and there was a woman standing outside her car. I told her that we were ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ and did she need prayer for anything. She looked at us with a shocked expression on her face and said, “This is just the worst time of my life.” She then proceeded to tell us about all the things that had gone wrong. Her husband was in the car and had just recently had open heart surgery. They had just been hit in a head on collision and were out of their home town, trying to deal with an uncooperative insurance company, etc… Well, we prayed with her and her husband, and ministered to them in song and encouragement. The woman just said, “I was at my wits end and couldn’t take anymore! You don’t know what you guys did for us, this just blows my mind!” They were so thankful and blessed. We then went into the Whataburger and the Lord used us mightily to minister to a lot of young people that were very receptive to the gospel. The Lord even gave Scott the name of one young man that was a new Christian and was so hungry for the Lord.  When we left, the entire staff came and were waving, smiling at us, and thanking us for coming. It was so awesome! We were all so blessed to see the Lord move in such a way through us.

The Lord has put several visions in our hearts in regards to how we want to reach the lost here. One thing that we want to do is mount speakers, a sound system, and a movie screen on our flat bed truck, so that we can just pull in some places to sing, share the gospel, and show Christian films, right from the back of our truck. There are places in San Antonio, where people live under bridges; I’m talking about hundreds of people with families. We would like to minister to these people. The Lord has also blessed us with an industrial Bunn coffee maker which we could use to make and hand out coffee. We just need the coffee urns to go with it. Lord willing we can have this accomplished by early spring.

  We appreciate your prayers and encouragement as we continue serving our Lord Jesus. God bless you all!

 

                                                In Christ’s service,

                                                    Scott & Valene Smith

 

Please remember my daughter, Grace in your prayers. She is due to have a baby the middle of March and we plan to be with her in Midland, Texas during that time. Thanks.