If you’ve never heard Dr. Argile Smith preach, you’ve really missed a treat. He has a preaching style that is unique among ministers … he is a story teller. Brother Argile jokingly declares that his voice is the “Walmart garden variety,” because he is more soft spoken than most, but when he begins to weave a story, the congregation becomes hushed. I love listening to the way this man delivers the gospel. Brother Argile currently serves as senior pastor of First Baptist Biloxi, where he also teaches ministry courses on Thursday evenings as an extension of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Benjy warming up with the choir before Sunday evening worship.

Bro. Argile and Benjy were invited by Pastor Philip Caples to lead the congregation of New Palestine Baptist Church in revival last week. What a great revival team they were! It was a great week of singing and preaching and worshipping, and a few souls were added to the Kingdom in the process.

New Palestine is located in Picayune, MS, and is one of the oldest churches in the area. The sign out front indicates that the church was established in 1898. I love the ‘feel’ of this old church, with moss covered oak trees in the parking lot. I try to get a good pic every time we visit, but I just can’t capture the feel of it with my camera.

One of the many benefits of visiting the number of churches we do, is that we get to see so many creative ways of ‘doing’ ministry. This is one of my favorites … a very creative way to report the progress of the Margret Lackey State Missions offering. Looks like they are well on their way to reaching their goal!

On His Exciting Journey,

It’s a woman who disregards popular American culture where her marriage is concerned. Her standards are different … higher actually … than the standards considered politically correct. She doesn’t buy into modern-day ideologies where her marriage is concerned. She has learned that God’s role for a wife today is the same as it was in the Garden of Eden.

Pearls of Wisdom

I gained some fantastic wisdom from this book and a whole new outlook on my role as a godly wife. The authors, Connie Grigsby and Nancy Cobb, transparently share their own journey out of political correctness and into the role of helpmate. Here are five pearls to give you an idea of the wisdom they share:

• A wise wife does not buy the lie that it is her husband’s ‘job’ to make her happy.
• A wise wife understands that her feelings cannot be her guide … she does not wait till she no longer feels angry to forgive her husband.
• A wise wife understands that respecting her husband brings glory to God.
• A wise wife understands that she does not have to treat her husband like he treats her … marriages cannot be healthy with an attitude that says, “I’ll do my part when he does his.”
• A wise wife understands that she is 100 percent responsible to God for her behavior as a wife.

Let’s Grow Together!
I felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit, recently, to pull this book off my shelf and scan through it, and it awakened an excitement in me all over again! God has such a beautiful plan for marriages, and with good reason too … He intended the marriage to be picture of the believer’s relationship with Christ, but Satan has done a number on the marriage and muddied up the picture.

Sooooo … I’ve been talking about the book again, and women are getting interested again! Most Christian women KNOW their marriage should look different from what they see in our world today, but they need help recognizing God’s perfect plan AND Satan’s sneaky traps. That’s why I’m going to study this book again … and I’m inviting women of any age to join me. I plan to do it on Thursday mornings at our house (which is in the Picayune City limits). I’ll wait until the fall when the kiddies are settled back into their school routine, but I’m giving a heads up now, so you can make room for it on your busy calendars.

If you live in the Picayune area, and you’re interested in studying with other women who want to strengthen their marriage, leave a note in the comments section, or email me, or Facebook me if you’re reading this note there, and I’ll get back with you about the time and directions and such.

On His Exciting Journey,

Benjy LOVES to enjoy good fellowship and a good laugh, and as you can see, we found both at Belle Fountain Baptist Church last week. Belle Fountain is located in Ocean Springs, MS, and it has a rich history. From their church website, I learned that it was established in 1890, and it’s name means ‘Beautiful Life’.

Pastor Larry Darden, Dr. Don Boone, and Benjy were the leadership team for this revival. It was our first time to met either of these men, and we grew to love them and appreciate their sincere ministry to the body of Christ. Bro. Don serves as pastor of nearby First Baptist Vancleave, but is also available for occasional revivals. You can learn more about his ministry on their church website.

Benjy works full-time at the Stennis Space Center, so we decided to set up camp near the church, and he drove from our campsite to work each day. That made his drive shorter and it worked out great for McKenzie and me, because even though she still had school work to do, it ‘felt’ like a mini-vacation due to the change in scenery.

There was a car show in town the week we were there, and a number of the car exhibitors were camping near us! That was the fun part … the un-fun part was that our A/C went out early in the week, and things REALLY heated up during the day. The campground guide referred us to a local repairman, who turned out to be a Christian, and he got us fixed up as soon as possible. I was concerned about the cost of the repair, because we are trying to save our money for Benjy to record a new CD, but the Lord had everything in place to take care of our need … when we arrived back home from our trip, there in our mailbox was an unexpected donation from a fellow believer who had no knowledge of our repair bill. There was also an order for a couple of Benjy’s first CDs, and the total of those two donations was $1.00 less than our repair bill! I LOVE God’s way of handling things, don’t you?

On His Exciting Journey,