On the road with the Cuthbertsons

We want to start our prayer letter by saying thank you to everyone that faithfully prays for us. There is no way we could travel across this country and Mexico without your prayer support. God has protected us as we have traveled well over forty thousand miles in the past sixteen months.

 

God has been so good to us since we stepped down from pastoring Liberty Baptist Church in Pine

Bluff, Arkansas after thirteen years to enter full time missionary evangelism work. We finished 2022 being in fifty-one meetings across twelve states and Mexico. God allowed us to preach mission conferences, church camps, revivals, men's meetings, camp meetings and bible conferences. Sister Krista was able to speak four different ladies conferences as well. Every meeting was blessed of the Lord, but here are some of the highlights from 2022. 

 

In February of last year we traveled to Linaris, Mexico with our pastor, J.T. Baskins, where he and I 

preached together each night at the preachers conference. Each night the building was completely full. It was such a blessing to have the honor of preaching with my pastor. He has been preaching for over fifty years and is still just as excited to preach as he was when he first started.

 

Fast forward to July where we preached the Camp Victory church camp in Lynchburg, TN. There were over one hundred and forty young people at the camp and twelve made public professions of faith. We witnessed something on the last night of camp that I have not seen before. At the end of the service that night we gave the invitation and every single camper came to the altar. After the altar call, all of the young people stood and publicly testified that they wanted to give their lives to serve the Lord. I just stood there and watched God do "exceedingly, abundantly above" all that I could have imagined.

 

In September of 2022 I had the privilege of preaching the Stanfill Baptist Church community tent meeting in Jacksonville, AR. On the third night of the tent meeting nine men came forward and were saved. It was such a blessing to see grown men kneeling at an altar crying out to God to save them. We headed to Calvary Baptist Church in Valley Falls, KS after the tent meeting. Sister Krista conducted a junior church every service for kids 4-9 so they could have their own class and allow parents with younger children to be able to listen to the preaching without distractions. One night after I finished preaching a mother of four came forward to be saved. After she received Christ she told me that she was not planning on coming because she wasn't sure she would be able to focus on the sermon with her kids on the pew with her. She went on to tell me that when she found out there was a junior church for her kids she decided to come. Praise the Lord for my wife having a heart for children.

 

The last "highlight" of 2022 was the conference on depression, grief and anxiety that we held at Rose City Baptist Church in Vidor, TX in December. Pastor Tony Wilcoxson told me that his church had several tragedies take place in 2022 among the church families and felt it would be good to have a conference dealing these subjects. I preached every night and sister Krista did counseling during the day with ladies in the church that were struggling. On Tuesday night a lady in the community messaged Pastor Tony and told him she had been watching the services and wanted to know if someone could counsel her seven year old son who had found his dad dead a few months earlier. Pastor Tony asked my wife if she would be willing to counsel him and of course she said yes. That Wednesday night the mother brought her son and Sister Krista spent about an hour with him and then spent time with the mother. The mother messaged pastor Tony that night and said that it was the first time she had seen her son smile in months. Pastor Tony called me that next Monday to tell me the mother, her other children, her sister and her kids all showed up that Sunday and are still attending church.

 

There are many other blessings that we could share from 2022, but there just isn't enough room in this prayer letter. I would like to mention how God has allowed us to present Hands Across Borders Missions (I serve as Assistant Director along side the director Brother Gary Schwer) to several churches of which some took the ministry on for support. We were also able to help raise money for different projects for the mission. We love working with HAB and seeing how to Lord is using this ministry to plant churches, deliver over four million pieces of scripture throughout Mexico each year and begin an orphanage in the near future. If you would like to know more about HAB we would be honored to come present the ministry at your church.

 

I want to finish with a review of the first quarter of 2023 on the road. God had blessed us in the first four months of this year with a fully booked schedule. This year we have had twenty-three meetings in six states and in Mexico. We are preaching more missions conferences this year which is where much of our heart is. We want to help churches become more involved in reaching the world with the gospel. Sister Krista has developed a kids "Next Generation" junior mission class that she has done at different churches this year where I have preached their mission conference. These children learn about missions, how to lead someone to the Lord, the different nations and languages of the world, how to pray for missionaries and how to give to missions. The kids also get to facetime a missionary each night that are on the field and some that are on deputation. 

 

In January of this year we spent two and a half weeks in Tampa, FL preaching and doing soul-winning training at Westgate Baptist Church. Me and sister Krista knocked doors each day and took people out with us each night. One couple that went with us several times was Jonathan and his wife Deanna. Deanna is from Nicaragua and spoke perfect Spanish which was a great help since many of the doors we knocked were people from Spanish speaking countries. One night she translated for me at a house and five people from Cuba trusted Christ as their Savior. The added blessing was that the week after we left Florida the pastor of Westgate called me and said that Jonathan and Deanna came to him and said they wanted to join the church. When Pastor Pirt asked for their salvation testimony, Deanna said after translating the gospel over and over while out with us soul-winning she realized she wasn't saved. She said that when she got home from our last night out she asked Jesus to save her and then called her mom in Nicaragua and led her to the Lord! They are both faithful to church and in discipleship class each week.

 

This brings us to a few more things to mention before we close. Sister Krista has been part of group of Christian women who teach Bible to Chinese young people in Hong Kong. They teach online through Zoom and have had as many as three thousand students at one time learning the bible online. At the end of every class teachers give a clear presentation of the gospel. There have been over two hundred Chinese young people get saved and even some of their parents have trusted Christ. Sister Krista now has an opportunity to go to Hong Kong for a month this July with several other teachers to teach bible in numerous schools. We have her ticket purchased and are asking individuals/churches to prayerfully consider giving toward the rest of her trip. If you would like to financially be a part of this missions trip you can give by mail to the address below or contact me about how to give electronically. Only God knows the impact this trip will have on these Chinese children and their families.

 

I want to close our prayer letter by again saying thank you to everyone who prays for us and for every pastor that has had us in. We never take it lightly that we are being prayed for and that pastors trust us enough to minister to their people.

 

Please keep us in your prayers and if we can ever be a help to you and your church don't hesitate to contact us.

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Your Friends,

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Shawn and Krista

1st Chron 16:24

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