Week Of Thanksgiving 2008

Matthew 11:28-30
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Here we are! The Lord has brought us to our seventh year! One week of years has flown by in some ways and in other ways it has seemed like decades of work. 2008 has been another blessed year.

Our 2008 theme was rest based on Matthew 11:28-30. The point was not to stop working for the Lord, but focus on trusting the Lord and resting in Him with the work he had given us to do. I thank God for the opportunities he blessed HBF with to serve both in our church, Cass County, the metro and around the world. Our first fabulous fifth service of 2008 set the tone for our work for the year. God had given us opportunity to serve the Lord in our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. Perhaps the greatest thing that I thank God for in 2008 is the maturity of the vision of HBF in personally involving their lives in the ministry of the gospel. It has been a tremendous blessing to see the congregation invest their time and money in ministering the gospel in Cass County, Kansas City, Illinois, Mexico and India. Dots on the map are not the measure of accomplishing the mission, but the quality of the relationships God has given us with key men in key cities across our county and the world has been truly amazing.

I am thankful for Roger Grant and the all the Kingdom Kid workers at HBF. As that area of ministry has continued to explode, the workers have faithfully served our Lord and allowed the Lord to bless His church. Much of the growth of HBF is a result of the faithful ministry of adults in the elementary ministries of our church. As we look forward to another seven years of service to the Lord (should he tarry) we end this season as we started. Feeding the lambs is the key to ministry to the sheep. A special praise goes out to God for Jamie David who kicked off the Fun in the Son ministry this past summer. It rounded off our commitment to feeding the lambs while building the sheep. God has been awesome!

I thank God for growth! While numeric growth is nice (but comes with responsibility) the growth I'm most thankful for is the growth God is bringing to my life and the church as a whole as we trust him for things far beyond our ability. In reality we are truly in a position where we must trust him for each step and I pray that we never lose our confidence in His ability to work in and through the most common and simple of vessels.

I thank God for the quality connection Blake Anderson brought to our 2008 Vision Conference. Again what an awesome relationship with a key man in a key city. God used Blake this year to speak directly to us when and where we needed it. I am thankful for the friendships God has given us with other like minded ministers and congregations across our community, the metro, the US and the world. Pastors like Mike Blake and the ministry of Maple City Baptist have not only spoken their love but shown it in so many ways over the years. I hate to start naming names because I will miss very special people but suffice is to say God is encouraging and an encourager to those who minister his gospel message faithfully.

I am extremely thankful for our relationship with Doug Pearson and most recently Karl Silva and a host of mighty men of faith in Asia. I know in 2009 God is going to continue to expand our vision and purpose as we look upon the field in a whole new way.

This past spring God blessed HBF with the addition of Randy Foster to the pastoral team as our first associate pastor. Randy have been a great blessing to the ministry of HBF and the office staff. Randy recently started our newest fellowship called Real Life and it is going very well along with all the fellowship classes at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday. I am so thankful for the faithful service of our leadership team and the work of the office staff at HBF.

Personally I have a plethora of personal praise and thanks to our Lord. God has provided me the best wife a man can have, but it helps that she is the best pastors wife a man could have. Samuel and Elisabeth are absolutely the most joyous blessing and investment that I have. As much as I am thankful for the Lords blessing upon the souls of HBF and the ministry, ultimately I am thankful for the wife who will be with me until my death and the children who will bear the true fruit of my walk with the Lord.

This year we have experienced the loss of three long time members of HBF. Ms. Kathryn Curtis, John Daugherty and Susan Ryle. We are never prepared to lose members but the passing of John was a collective shock to our congregation due to the circumstances and young age of John. Having said that, we are at peace knowing John is absent from the body and present with the Lord. In every case each one of these losses was difficult but each was exceptionally glorifying to our Lord. I can honestly say that these dear saints glorified God in thier lives and in thier deaths. I thank God for serving with them in ministry and look forward to catching up with them shortly as we meet the Lord in the air.

As we thank God for the past and close the door to where he have been, we now continue our focus on the things yet before. I see the wisdom of the apostle Paul as he wrote to the Philippians to forget those things behind and press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Ultimately Jesus is where we are going and is the praise and thanksgiving of the places we have been. As we move forward I pray that we seek the Lord Jesus Christ fervently to meet the needs of our future as we have trusted him to meet the many needs of our past. Without him we can do nothing.

1 Thessalonians 5:24
Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.

Week of Thanksgiving 2007

2007 was yet another year of grace and growth for the body of Christ. We concluded our Nehemiah study titled, "Rise Up and Build" and went into a series called the seven realities of HBF. The seven realities of HBF basically define the core values of HBF.

There was much excitement and anticipation surrounding the completion of our new facility. We hoped to take occupancy by Easter of 2007 but that would not be the case. 2007 marked the last Vision Conference held in the west campus of the Harrisonville Christian School. Our faithful Friend Gene Purtle brought the bread along with a new friend from BEAMS Bible named Ben Graham. We had another great vision conference in 2007of course the theme was "Prepare To Launch" and that is exactly what we were preparing to do.

HBF took possession of our building the last week of May. We held our building dedication June 3, 2007 on a Sunday evening. Dr. Jeff Adams, Sr. Pastor of Kansas City Baptist Temple, was our special guest speaker for this celebration. Jeff did a great job of challenging us to stay focused on the Mission of God as we launched out to be part of a mission greater than ourselves. He also pointed out our rich heritage and our connection to those who have gone before us. It was a tremendous evening. We made sure to honor as many people as we could that evening. We were off and running!

The praise band did a great job of getting up and running. Ron Kassen, Matt Franklin, Erin Melton, Mark Filer, Mark Wilson and James Horton did an excellent job of pulling the praise band together in just a few short months.

Just as God had tempered my zeal the year before through the loss of my father, our church faced a big shock in July of 2007 as we lost Eric Montgomery in a swimming accident in Lakewood. God used the loss of this nineteen year old young man to shake up several folks who needed to establish a personal relationship with the Lord. God had been drawing Josh Sites to repentance for years, and he finally yielded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and accepted Christ the evening after Eric's visitation. It was a wonderful blessing to see God work so mightily through Eric's promotion to Heaven. To this day we are still seeing the fruit from this tragedy. Praise God for his power over death and hell and the grave!

2007 brought several transitions. Tracy and Michelle handed over the reigns of the STORM ministry to Tom and Becky Feurt. Jim Boyette was our official discipleship Pastor and took on the new position of Facilities Manager. It was clear that Roger Heath's adult class was becoming a young families class and Bob Bohlken handed over the reigns of the Berean ministry fellowship to Jim Boyette.

HBF's membership had grown to 192 members and we were steadily growing. Along with numeric growth we could see very tangible spiritual growth in the body of Christ. Bryan Hunter, who gave his first devotion only a few years before at a men's breakfast, had been unleashed to establish the Kingdom Kid's ministry on Tuesday nights during our adult Bible study. 2006-2007 was the maiden voyage of this home grown children's ministry, but there was no doubt the good hand of God was upon Bryan, Trish and this area of ministry. From the inception God used Bryan to build adults as he fed the lambs. Who needs AWANA's when you have T.N.T. When we entered the building we changed our Tuesday night bible study to Wednesday night. Bryan changed the acronym from Tuesday Night Training to Training iN Truth! I praise God for his provision to HBF in this area and so many others as He continues to build his church and bring the right people at the right times to build the body of Christ. Our 2007 VBS was great too! We were in the new facility and the energy and technology at our disposal was excellent. All praise to God for his grace!

I took a trip to Brazil in 2007 to visit Harold and Tammy in Brazil. It was a joy to see Harold and Tammy adjust to the culture and Language of Brazil! We took our second trip to visit Manuel Estabane in Juarez, Mexico. It was our great joy to continue to build a relationship with Manuel, Martha in Juarez as they are ministering in a key border city at a key time in history. Even as I reflect on our relationship with them, I can not help but pray for them and the church in Juarez as they minister in one of the toughest cities in our hemisphere. It's ironic that such a key city in the war for the souls of men and nations is just a car drive from Harrisonville. I praise God for his good hand upon our partnerships with like minded men and congregations all over the earth.

HBF wrapped up our sixth year in good stride. So many of the ministers of HBF had been working so faithfully so long, it was good for them to see the fruit of their labor. While they needed rest, it was refreshing to see the pay off in the souls of men, women and children.

Luke 5:4
Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.

Week of Thanksgiving 2006

2006 was an action packed year for HBF. We started the year with our usual all nighter at the armory. The family of God was continuing to grow as we trusted God to build his church. The cost of our new building project was locked in at around 1.2 million and it looked like we would be underway with construction of our new building by summer 2006.

The Heaths and Fuerts joined HBF along with many others from both near an far. Tracy & Michelle had a large graduating class that May, which in some ways, symbolic of the fruit of their faithful labor in the STORM ministry. The Passpoint class was formed and Steve Fleshman took over the responsibilities for what has now become the Lightwalkers ministry fellowship. The congregation as a whole continued to make disciples and I was determined to keep our eyes on the main thing and not to be distracted too much by our building project.

The Lord did a great job of getting us off to a good start with our 2006 Vision Conference. In many ways the 2006 Vision Conference became a pattern of things yet to come for HBF. The Lord laid Brian & Mindy Clark on my heart. We used to minister together at KCBT and I knew God had placed him as a key man in one of the most strategic cities in the world. He was just getting started and so were we, what a great combination. 2006 was the first year we had a "primary" speaker and it proved to be powerful! Our people were stirred and we knew that God had been in our midst that week. Along with Brian we also had Sam Stricklin with us, who himself, was just beginning his ministry with Edgar Fighali among the Arabic peoples of the middle east and Africa. Along with these special guests who offered solid challenges to me and our congregation, we were blessed by other encouraging guests like Mike Blake, Gene Purtle and Dave Shelby. This conference motivated Roger Heath to start the London Prayer Team later the following year.

While spiritual business as usual was the order of the day, the facilities team worked overtime to get our new building project kicked off while keeping it within budget. They all did a great job of getting things kicked off! The facilities team would meet at least once per week if not more for more than a year to ensure the new building would come in on time at budget. Much of the body's health can be attributed to the fine job these men did during that process. It freed me and the congregation to focus on equipping saints to accomplish God's mission. God was so good to the body through these faithful men. A special thanks to Bob Bohlken who really sacrificed until it hurt to see the project accomplished.

By June we were ready for our ground breaking ceremony. Among all the pomp were some really awesome memories. Harold giving the dedicatory prayer a few days before leaving for Brazil for over two years was very special. That as much as anything set the tone for what HBF is all about. The event itself was absolutely fabulous as Ms. Kitty (Kathrine Curtis) participated not only with the first scoop of dirt, but the now famous four wheeler ride with John Daugherty around the property. Who would have guessed how special that picture of John and (eighty plus) Ms. Kitty would become to our church family. It was simply a wonderful and poignant moment for our church family and friends as we celebrated both what God had done and what he was yet to do.

On a personal note, I was actually grieved a bit, as I thought during the very moments we were celebrating the ground breaking how I would probably be losing my father soon to cancer. Little did I know that just a little more than one month from that day, July 5th, I would say my last goodbye to my earthly father. I really do thank God for those difficult days, as I knew as I was experiencing them, that the Lord was allowing the good with the bad so I would be able to maintain my eternal perspective during those exhilarating days. In so many ways, God just provided that year in ways that are often just inexplicable.

We had a great turn out for our 4th of July celebration at the park. As a church we kept plugging right along even though our construction project was delayed by months due to county code review, the Lord blessed as every month we continued to increase the savings account to get into our new facility. By the time we started the project in earnest it was fall and we saw quick progress! We were excited as a church as we completed 2006 with a zeal and excitement of what God was doing in our midst.

I should add one of the great blessings for us personally was the birth of our dear daughter Elisabeth Grace Hedges! She was born happy and healthy into the world October 5, 2006 somewhere between 10:30-10:40 A.M. at Shawnee Mission Medical. We owe God and her birth parents a tremendous thank you for the blessing who is Elisabeth.

I thank God for his good hand upon us. As we began our rise up and build series we certainly saw the body of Christ grow both spiritually and numerically like never before. I can not thank God enough for his goodness to his saints.

Psalms 26:7-8
That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works. 8 LORD, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth.

Doug Pearson Update

I just got off the phone with Doug Pearson and he has given a great update concerning the Lord's work in his life as he left just a few hours before the terror attacks in Mumbai. Doug is currently in the state of Gujarat just one state north of the state Mumbai is located in. There are strong indications that the terror attacks on Mumbai were at least impart staged and launched from Gujarat. While they were launching out to kill and destroy, God was launching Doug safely behind enemy lines to seek and save that which was lost. You just can't out bad God's goodness! It is another reminder that God is on time.

Please keep our brother in prayer as he returns early next week to work with our GG brothers in Mumbai. He will be returning to capitalize on the opportunities God has given to preach the power of Jesus gospel in the face of Satanic opposition. Please pray with me as we trust the Lord to open great doors of utterance in one of the greatest cities on the earth. There is not better time to present the love of Christ than when the hatred of Christ has been clearly manifest.

Week of Thanksgiving 2005

2005 was a busy, busy year. We finished up our Beth Moore study (for women) and John Eldridge (for men) and went into a study of the book of Revelation on Wednesday night. That set my agenda for midweek bible study the rest of the year.

Our Sunday services continued to grow along with the pains of expanding the Kingdom Kids ministry. The friction of trying to cover our Tuesday Night Bible Study would eventually yield the traction to start the amazingly awesome TNT. We became very concerned with finding larger venues to hold the congregation. We looked at the Assembly of God church around the corner, the Commerce Bank building on the square, the old Evangelical Free Church space in Southland Shopping Center along with Family Center's conference facility, and other tenants at the Mill Walk Mall. Every summer Tracy would say, we can save money if we stay here (at HCS) and we should drop a bit in numbers as we enter the summer. Every year we grew right through the summer! Praise God!!

Finances ultimately played a big role in our strategy for staying at HCS. Should we move and allow room for growth, or stay and go to two services? Ultimately we decided on an overflow room on Sunday morning and a larger office which we could use for classes would do the trick. That was a very wise choice as those accommodations worked out wonderfully. The facilities team was well under way. By the fall of 2005 they had interviewed the contractors and were prepared to make a decision on Bowden Construction. From the beginning of 2005 until the end of that year Tracy was busy collecting and collating data and preparing documents to see what our loan options consisted of. A special thanks to Tracy, the board, the facilities team and the membership of HBF for their faithfulness in that critical time of our church history. Our financial picture improved as we headed into 2005 but so did our growth. From the beginning we were concerned our finances may not allow us enough room to build large enough to accommodate our growth pattern. So we set our sight on what we needed not what we had.

The theme for our 2005 Vision Conference was right on the money! The Adventure of Life was the theme and we had Gene Purtle, Harold Hatman and myself lined us as speakers along with Sam Shockley. Sam Shockley at 60+ was preparing to go to the mission field of Zambia Africa on an extended short term mission trip. He was living the adventure of life as he and Mary trusted God to spend their retirement years serving God on the continent of Africa. Harold was preparing to quit his job, sell all he owned and go to Brazil, Gene was trusting God to set inmates free from the bondage of sin and God was about to launch HBF into our first building project. Talk about the adventure of life! We had a sweet Vision conference that year as God continued to knit our hearts together.

By the fall of 2005 it was time to see what we could realistically afford to build. Bowden contractors had been hired, Joe Lampen was in the planning stages and HBF needed to come up with enough cash to see a building that could seat at least 300 people built on our property. Because of the generous giving of our small congregation which was just hitting the 100 in attendance mark, we had $59,383.72 in the savings ready to be used on the building prior to our Harvest offering in November of 2005. That is good giving by any standard. However we needed much more to build anything close to what the facilities team had predicted would meet our needs for future growth. We received a huge blessing of the Lord when HBF entered December of 2005 with $227,400.00 in the savings account ready to be used for our new facility. Wow! What a one time offering!!

Everyone knows I do not preach on giving unless we approach it in the text I'm passing through in my expository message. To HBF's credit, we did not have a capital campaign, faith promise or any of those things. We simply presented the reality, prayed and the Lord provided! It goes to show that when the Lord orders it, he will pay for it.

As we left 2005 and entered 2006 God made it clear that we were gaining momentum. Ultimately buildings will burn, but the souls of men and the Word of God are eternal. It was astounding to see our young church truly strike the balance of putting the souls of men in perspective as we trusted the Lord to provide a platform for us to launch out across the county, country and the continents with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Doug Pearson's Web Presence

Check out Doug Pearson's Web Site!

http://www.dougpearson.org/

Week of Thanksgiving 2004

2004 was a great year for us personally. We had the fortune of adopting our Son Samuel. It was an awesome thing for us to adopt Samuel! It was all so rushed that the nursery wasn't even ready when we left. By the grace of God a team from HBF cleaned, painted and set up Samuel's nursery while we were in Lubbock working through the adoption paperwork. Missouri was slow to approve our paperwork but they finally allowed us to come home with our bundle of joy after waiting two weeks. I can't express enough gratitude to everyone who helped us both here and abroad. Steve Miller went over and above the call in working to see this came to pass. He is the man!

The church continued to grow in 2004. The Brazil trip we planned to take to help Jeff establish his church and two others was executed in 2004. We had a great time in Brazil. Harold really was convinced of his call during that journey. He returned home and began preparing his family in earnest to return to Brazil as missionaries of HBF. It would be June of 2006 before God actually placed Harold, Tammy and Chase in the field. God was so gracious with us!

It was also in 2004 that the Lord blessed us with the ability to pay off the balance of the 20 acres we now have our church building on. A special praise and thanks to God for Art Harris the former owner of our church property. He was a joy to work with.

It was in 2004 that the facilities team was formed. Walt Cundiff graciously took the chair of this team and off we went planning the future home of HBF. The facilities team consisted of Walt Cundiff, Chriss Lemler, Bob Bohlken, JR Hatman, Chris Chiodini and myself. These men were a joy to work with and they obviously did a great job. By the grace of God we were able to stay focused on the Word of God and the souls of men through the entire process and HBF was not distracted from our primary responsibility to build the body of Christ.

Speaking of body building. The first class of D2 graduated and celebration was held at our home the spring of 2004! We were averaging 92 members on paper and about 70 in attendance. The pattern of doubling every two years has held from our inception. Today our membership on paper is over 300 but our attendance with children is in the mid to upper 200's. Run the numbers and you will see that God doubles our size every two years.

There were a number of key events in 2004 to praise God for:

2004 Vision conference was preached by missionary Randy Foster of Zambia and Gene Purtle of Keys are at the Cross Prison ministry.

The church property was paid in full.

HBF was privileged to participate in the Billy Graham crusade at arrowhead Stadium. It was an excellent time for our church family as we ministered in this historic outreach.

Our second Discipleship 2 class began September 2, 2004!

In November of 2004 we took our first level three missions trip to Brazil to train three pastors and their churches the philosophy of discipleship.

2004 marked a significant transition in our ministry. I began training disciples at a level beyond level three. That year I completed Discipleship one with a special young man named Jamie Davis! What a joy it is to pour our lives into those God entrusts to our care.

Week Of Thanksgiving 2003

This is the second day of our week of Thanksgiving. I want to reflect now on our second year at HBF! Personally it was a much easier start. Amy and I finished 2001 with a remodel of our temporary home in Harrisonville and within the first month (on January 30th 2002 to be exact) we suffered a once in a lifetime ice storm in our newly remodeled 800 sqft. home. It was narley to say the least. After one week without power and a yard and street that looked like a war zone, we pulled ourselves together. I want to thank Bob and Sarah, Jason and Ryan for really coming to our rescue during that time of need in our life. 2003 promised be a much smoother start for us personally as we acclimated to our new home in Harrisonville and prepared for another year of blessing. It was in 2003 that we took classes with DFS in hopes that we would work with foster children and may even have opportunity to adopt. God really blessed us in November of 2003 with and opportunity to adopt a child from a teenage mother in Lubbock Texas. A special thanks to Steve Miller who cared enough to be used of God to arrange the adoption of our first child in 2004.

God continued to bless the ministry of HBF in 2003. Just as we were about to see fruit in our personal life, God was continuing to produce fruit in the ministry of HBF. We saw a large influx of wonderful transfers from churches in the community. As a church planter you never want to build your church on transfers, but in our case, God brought these fine saints to help provide the stability and maturity to build his church. By the end of 2003 our congregation had grown to around 50 members!

The spring of 2003 fired us off to a wonderful start. Jeff Barker, who was about to go to Brazil later that year to start his work in Canoes, was the key speaker of our first vision conference. God knit our hearts as we prayed about what God would do with this fresh start in Brazil. Jeff was excited about Discipleship since he had heard about it from Steve Boshen at High Street. We were fired up about the possibilities God had before Jeff as he launched out.

Later in the spring we had our and only spring men's retreat in Branson Mo. This was an incredibly fruitful meeting of our men and the ministry in Brazil. Ron Kassen drove the boat on our fishing trip, Jeff busted the Word, and Harold Hatman was deeply convicted about Jeff's invitation to have him join him in Brazil. On the way home Harold shared his burden with me and we began to pray aobut Harold joining Jeff in Canoas.

Later that year we began making plans for our first mission trip to Brazil! This was a sweet time in the ministry of HBF.

It was in 2003 that we held our first Valentine's banquet at Pearl Street Grille! Michelle did a great job (as always) and we had a good time. Our Kingdom Kids ministry was being formulated. Much of the structure for the ministry we use today was laid in those foundational years. Another special thanks goes out to Rick and Becky Johnson who allowed us to use their Betty Luken notes for the entire curriculum!

The fellowship at HBF was exceptionally sweet during 2003 as we had many opportunities to fellowship. Every Tuesday night we had dinner before Tuesday Night Bible Study. Many of the ladies of HBf worked tirelessly throughout the years to provide dinner for our growing church family.

I thank God for his incredible grace and mercy upon his people. God has done many things in which we must give thanks and praise! Please drop me a line if you have any special memories you would like to share.

Discipleship was the priority in 2003. While the planting team and and some of the fruit from the first year invested our lives in discipleship with the new members of HBF we also started our first Disciplship 2 class. Our first D2 class met in the basement of our office on Commercial Street. It was a special blessing to launch our D2 class and see the body's knowledge and maturity grow as we looked forward to what God would do in our midst.

James Horton's Comments

I just wanted to say ....WOW....What a great Church family. God has worked mightily thru HBF and it's people. Feel free to post this for me if you want. If not , this is for you my friend I am honored to be a part of something so important as the spreading of the Gospel, and the teaching of our lambs. My family and I have been more than blessed by HBF and I can only hope in some way, we in turn have been one to the body as well. I was amazed by how many people turned up for ..well..celebration. How wonderful the Lord is to his people, fellowship, great meal, and not one fist fight or argument outta all those folks. I can't wait to see what is ahead for us as a Family. How exciting! While we were listening to our fellow laborers give thanks last night , my thoughts turned towards the new friends we have made and the old friends we had lost. We have reached a point where life stops giving us things, and starts taking things away. Knowing this , a verse comes to mind ;

1Pe 3:15
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and [be] ready always to [give] an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: I hope to have a long a happy life with you all... In Christ....James Horton Heb 6:10

HBF Week of Thanksgiving

Leviticus 25:8-17

Year One: 2002

After over a year of bible Study in Harold Hatman’s basement God gave HBF planting team the ability to rent the Harrisonville Christian School on Tuesday evenings for bible study the fall of 2001. The mission Board at KCBT approved my church planting plan in October and Heartland Baptist Fellowship held their first service January 6, 2002. Special thanks to Al Sanken, Harrisonville Christian School and the Harrisonville Mennonite church for their hospitality to HBF for so many years.

We were off! With an overhead projector (the old fashioned kind not a digital projector), hard metal chairs and a used mini mixer tied into the schools public address system, by faith we launched off into our first service. Our subject the great commission, our text Matthew 16:18 we were certain Jesus would build his church and the gates of hell would not prevent it.

What a blessing! God has been good. The one thing you really appreciate when planting a church is the Word of God and the souls of men. Ultimately what we start with is all we end with when our race is done.

The first twelve months are full of foundational firsts and special memories:

• Our first prospective member’s meeting.
• Our first men’s breakfast had a great attendance with 1/3 of our men in attendance. All four of us had a great time!
• Our first board of directors meeting.
• Our first supported missionary was Blake Anderson
• Our first baptism service with nine baptisms! You should see the pictures. Special thanks to Cornerstone Community church for allowing us to use their portable baptism tank.
• Our first ladies fellowship at our newly remodeled rental home at 805 S. highland.
• I was ordained and our churched was commissioned at Kansas City Baptist Temples World Outreach Celebration in April of 2002.
• Praise the Lord our home in Independence sold June 1, 2002.
• Our STORM ministry went to the River Ranch Resort for camp!
• We held our charter service June 9, 2002.
• Our first 4th of July celebration at the city park. The Sloan’s, Hedges and Chris Chiodini anchored the event for HBF.
• In the fall of 2002 the Lord introduced us to Jeff Barker who was on deputation. Jeff joined us for a Tuesday evening bible study. Little did we know, our introduction would impact our church so dramatically? We held our charter service June 9, 2002
• In November of 2002 we held the first Thanksgiving dinner in our new home at 2601 Matt Street.
• We discipled several people that year. I personally had the privilege of working with Brandon Filer, Brian Prettyman, Chriss Lemler and Brandon Filer that first year.
• We began holding quarterly baptism services at Antioch Southern Baptist church. Special thanks to Pastor Ernie Cecil who has been a wonderful friend of the ministry of HBF.
• We rented our first office space on Commercial next to Judie Franklin’s office. This location served as a class room and office space for years.
• We purchased our portable sound system.
• God added many faithful folks who are still with us that first year.
• Michelle Sloan put together our first children’s play. It was held at Antioch Southern Baptist Church.

We headed into 2003 just happy to survive! Harold took over the children’s ministry, Tracy had the Jr. High and high school. Ralph Sytkowski joined us and did a great job of organizing many of our makeshift arragnements for our makeshift worship facility. We purchased our trailer and men like JR and John Daugherty faithfully loaded and unloaded for five years. Those days were difficult and very rewarding. So many times you hear of church plants that go bad. I admit there were times when we felt like things might come unraveled but utlimitaly we trusted Jesus was building his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it.

We still claim the promises God delivered to us years ago:

1 Thessalonians 5:24
Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.

Charter of Heartland Baptist Fellowship

Resolved, that guided as we believe by the Holy Spirit, and relying on the blessing of God, we the undersigned, do here and now establish for posterity and ourselves an Independent Bible-believing Baptist Church.

We believe our command to undertake this charter to be a biblical mandate as set forth in Scripture in the Gospel of Matthew 28:18-20 and that the 1611 Authorized Version of the Bible is the standard of our government and practice as a church.

We have so covenanted with one another, this 9th day of June 2002, and have thus set our signatures below as proof of our faith in God to enable us to do so.

J. R. Hatman
Barbara Hatman
Scott Shankel
Diana Shankel
Mark E. Filer
Serethenee Filer
Alicia F. Filer
Felisa Prettyman
Bryan Prettyman
Pat Shell
Kyle Grant
Aaron Sloan
A. Ann Sytkowski
Ralph E. Sytkowski
Paula Grant
Roger Grant
Tracy Sloan
Michelle Sloan
Austin Sloan
Jeff Cunningham
Monica Daugherty
John Daugherty
Brandon Filer
Chase Hatman
Tracy Daugherty
Kristen Hunter
Cathy Lemler
Leroy Chriss Lemler
Tammy Hatman
Ashley Hatman
Harold Hatman
Sharon L. Bohlken
Robert D. Bohlken
Beverly Newland
Mark Newland
Brian Hedges
Amy Hedges

Maple City Vision Conference

We returned Thursday night from our trip to Monmouth Illinois! It was a great vision Conference which included missionaries from Brazil (our own Harold & Tammy Hatman), London England (Brian Clark), Philippines (Eric Barbosa) and the USA (Tom Gang & Paul Wolfe).

Thanks to the team from HBF who cared for the children's ministry throughout the week. They did a great job! Because of their faithfulness, the entire congregation of MCBC was able to enjoy the blessing of hearing the Vision conference together. Thanks to Jamie Davis and the crew for their hard work!

Beau and Carrie Green were particularly gracious hosts! They took care of us and made our stay very enjoyable. Our entire family enjoyed the trip. Amy and I especially enjoyed being able to sit under the preaching together. We seldom have opportunity to attend church services together when I am not preaching. It was very refreshing for us. Thanks to all the folks who spoke and the dedicated workers from HBF.

I look forward to seeing our friends from Monmouth again in April when they return to relieve our workers during our Vision Conference.

India & Nepal Trip

Once again it has been too long since I have dropped by this blog site. Since my last visit I have visited India and Nepal. We had an incredible journey to meet Doug Pearson and Pastor Karl Silva of Mumbai. Pastor Silva pastors the Greater Grace Church of Mumbai, India. He has a prolific ministry that reaches across India and regions beyond.

While in Mumbai we had the privilege to meet many Indian Pastors. It was my particular privilege to spend time with a Pastor from Orrisa. Orrisa is the state of India that has received much attention due to the recent persecution of Christians by Hindu radicals. The reports coming out of Orrisa are very compelling. We must continue to pray fervently for the Hindu's who are persecuting the people and work of God. Likewise we must continue to pray for the displaced and suffering believers in Christ who are struggling to literally survive this satanic onslaught.

Our trip to Mumbai was excellent as we had the opportunity to join Indian Pastors in several settings and churches. One of the highlights of our trip was a visit to the orphanage and school that Pastor Karl started just North of Mumbai. Moving from Mumbai, we travelled to Kathmandu Nepal to visit the bible college. We met Pastor Rajan and several other Greater Grace Pastors from all over the country of Nepal. From Kathmandu we moved to the Pokhara then on to remote churches in the mountains Southwest of Kathmandu. The climb up the mountain to reach the church was difficult but worth it. Our team of Americans, along with Pastor Silva literally endured hardness as we ascended at least 3000 feet into the Nepali mountains.

After returning to Mumbai we had the privilege of joining the Greater Grace church of Mumbai for one more service. I was completely impressed with the work of God both in Mumbai and Nepal. I look forward to the partnership that HBF and GGWO of Mumbai will have in the days before Christ's return.