Temple Baptist Church, Gulfport, MS

Since our next meeting for broadcasting video is Temple Baptist here in Gulfport, Mississippi we decided to attend church there today and check things out. Since we were here last year they have moved into a fabulous new building. It is beautiful. I almost hate to move all our equipment into their new church for fear I'll mess it up. It looks like I'll set up most of our stuff in the balcony so the people won't see most of our stuff.

Driving Along The Gulf

This afternoon it seemed like we kind of caught up on our work so we went for a drive along the Gulf of Mexico and took a few pictures. It was an absoluntly beautiful day for a drive along the Gulf.
 
 
 
 

Panda Palace

This evening we discovered the Panda Palace here in Gulfport, Mississippi. It is one of the nicest Chinese Buffet's that we have found. We really enjoyed ourselves there tonight. I enjoyed a plate full of crawfish. Mary filled up on crab legs. Everything was great. They even had pecan pie.

Converting Biloxi River Camp Meeting Videos

I spent most of the day converting videos from the Biloxi River Baptist Camp Meeting to archive wmv files for our website. I did take out long enough to go eat and walk for an hour in Sam's Club here in Gulfport, Mississippi. We are getting ready for our next meeting at Temple Baptist Church here in Gulfport.

Recover Day

Mary and I have not had hardly any down time for several weeks. Our old bodies are worn out. It was good to just have a day off. Although I continued to work on converting videos so we can archive the Biloxi River Baptist Camp Meeting to SteveBrownMinistries.com.

Biloxi River Pack and Load

We spent nearly the whole day packing and loading our video equipment at the Biloxi River Baptist Church. Pastor Jason Garner took us out to eat lunch at Sicily's Pizza Buffet in D'Iberville, Mississippi. This had to be biggest and test Pizza Buffet that we have ever been too. We enjoyed lunch with a large group of people from the Camp Meeting.

One Million Tracts

Tonight at the Camp Meeting at Biloxi River Baptist Church here in Gulfport, Mississippi we saw what One Million tracts looked like. The church has a printing ministry and sends tracts by the millions all over the world. They had a shipment of over one million ready to ship to the Philippines. They put the whole shipment on the stage so we could see what one million tracts looked like. I can tell you it is a lot of tracts. I think they said it was over 5300 pounds.

Live Gospel Concert Video

This afternoon we did something a little different. The Beck Family from Cullman, Alabama was here at the camp meeting and wanted to make a CD of their family. Mary and I recorded the Live Concert to DVD. We think we did pretty good for amateurs. It turned out to be nearly an hour of gospel music.

A Great Day At The Camp Meeting

We got up this morning at 6:45 a.m. and headed to the Camp Meeting at Biloxi River Baptist Church. Mary enjoyed a great breakfast in the fellowship hall while I worked getting ready for the days activities. We had great preaching and singing all morning but I think the best was tonight. We enjoyed our time at the church today. We met lots of friends from other churches that we have been to in the past year. The Lord has been very good to us today.

10th Annual Camp Meeting

Tonight was the first night of the 10th Annual Camp Meeting here at the Biloxi River Baptist Church in Gulfport, Mississippi. We enjoyed great preaching and singing until about 10:00 p.m.

Biloxi River - Ready for Camp Meeting

We spent the day setting up our video equipment at the Biloxi River Baptist Church in Gulfport, Mississippi. To our surprise they prepared steaks and all the trimmings in the Fellowship Hall for all the folks that arrived early for the Camp Meeting. After supper they had a wonderful prayer meeting and testimony time. We thoroughly enjoyed our first day at Biloxi River Baptist Church.

Tupelo to Gulfport, Mississippi

Today was a pack, load and travel day. We spent the morning packing up our equipment at Lakeview Baptist Church in Tupelo, Mississippi. A bunch of the men from the church loaded our equipment for us. That was a huge blessing. My back just keeps giving me problems. We arrived at out little Apartment at the BEAMS Headquarters about 8:30 p.m. tonight.

On the way to Gulfport we received a call from Lee that he was hurting badly and going to the emergency room. At first they thought he had a blood clot in his lungs, but the inital tests indicated that he did not have a blood clot.

Little Red Riding Hood

We had a very fun project this morning. We video'd the Lakeview Academy Kindergarten Class doing their dress rehearsal for their class graduation this Thursday night. They are doing a play entitled "Little Red Riding Hood" for their graduation. It is fantastic. There was one problem. One of their key characters was in the hospital this morning with numbness in his legs. If he gets to come to school in the morning they are planing another dress rehearsal with him and I'll video the whole play again. Maybe I can do a better job the second time around.

How To Keep A Sweet Spirit

Bro. John Bishop was at his best tonight. His message, "How To Keep A Sweet Spirit" was fantastic. I hope you'll take the time to view or listen to the message on SteveBrownMinistries.com. Bro. John is one of my favorite preachers. I am so glad we have this opportunity to be with him and his wife this week.

Our First Day With Evangelist John Bishop

We spent a wonderful day here at the Lakeview Baptist Church with Evangelist John Bishop of God Is So Good Ministries and his wife Donna. What a blessed privilege to get to be with Brother John and Mrs. Donna. They have been our heroes of the faith for a long time. We use to take young people to their youth camp some 25-30 years ago. It is certainly our privilege to get to do the video for this meeting.

Lakeview Baptist Church in Tupelo

We slept in a little late this morning and headed to the Lakeview Baptist Church here in Tupelo, Mississippi. Pastor Robert Garland had a bunch of teenage boys waiting to unload our van. That sure was a blesing. All I had to do was start setting up and that took the rest of the day.

Comfort Suites, Tupelo, Mississippi

WOW! This has to be the nicest motel we have stayed in since we started traveling with SteveBrownMinistries.com. When we arrived in town I called the pastor and he said we have a room reserved at the Comfort Suites. This motel is so new it still smells new. We are loving it. God is so Good!

Pack Up Under the Big Tent

After another great night of preaching and singing under the Big Tent here in Lexington, North Carolina it is time to pack up and leave. Some of the men stayed around and helped us pack and load all our equipment. All Mary and I have to do in the morning is pack our clothes and suit cases and we'll be headed to Mississippi.

Touch of Blue

Tonight we enjoyed the "Touch of Blue" from Denton, North Carolina singing several Bluegrass Gospel Songs. I especially enjoyed the message tonight by Brother Boyd Collins from West Virgina. You can see it all on SteveBrownMinistries.com
 

Cross View

The special music at the Davidson County Camp Meeting here in Lexington, North Carolina was by the Gospel Bluegrass Group called "Cross View". We enjoyed great singing and preaching tonight and we did not have to bundle up to stay warm. I did put on my suit coat toward the end of service when it cooled down a little.

The Cross View Gospel Bluegrass Group

Cold Camp Meeting

Mary and I thought we would freeze to death before the morning session was over at the Camp Meeting at the Fair Ground here in Lexington, North Carolina. It is hard to believe that it was hot last week and wet, raining and cold this week. This afternoon we visited the Goodwill store and got some warm clothes for tonight. We stayed warm for the entire evening. Mary did reach for the blanket that we took with us tonight. The singing and preaching have been fantastic all day. Our new publishing points for streaming the Live Video are working great.

Setting Up In The Big Tent

We did not get completely set up yesterday afternoon at the Big Tent here in Lexington, North Carolina. We spent the afternoon and late tonight finishing the setup. Then the big black clouds started rolling in again so we went to Wal-Mart to get some plastic to cover our equipment inside the tent. We have learned not to trust tents. We finally got back to the house about 11:00 p.m. tonight. We are wore out. We've been going full steam ahead all day long. Evangelist Boyd Collins from West Virgina treated us to a great Mother's Day meal at the Captain's Galley. We thoroughly enjoyed that. We tested every thing tonight and it appears that we are ready for the broadcast in the morning at 10:00 a.m.

Pitching The BIG Gospel Tent

This afternoon we helped pitch the BIG Gospel Tent at the Davidson County Fair Grounds in Lexington, North Carolina. When we started it was hot and lots of sunshine. By the time we finished about three hours later it rained cats and dogs with a lot of high wind. While it was storming I was trying to set up our video equipment in the tent. I did not get it all set up in time for the service tonight so there was no broadcast. I really hate that because the singing and preaching was fantastic. I'll have to finish setting up tomorrow afternoon.
 
 

Baby Robins

This pair of Robins chose to build their nest in the middle of a wreath in the front window of the Currytown Baptist Church in Lexington, North Carolina. The 4 little Robins had just hatched last Saturday when we arrived and started setting up our video equipment. We have watched them grow every day this past week from the lobby inside the church. The 4 of them barely fit in the nest. All of the church kids get a real thrill watching them at every service. We have watched the mommy and daddy Robin feed many worms to the little ones. We finished packing up our equipment today so we won't get to watch them much any more. We are moving over to a tent on the Fair Grounds in Lexington tomorrow.

Insurance for Video Equipment

I finally got up the nerve to call the insurance man today and insure our video equipment. They want over $1800 per year to insure us. I guess you are suppose to be rich to be in this business. We'll just keep trusting the Lord to provide our needs. He has allowed us to keep going for 17 months now. We have been paying $500 per year for insurance until last month. We were told that our insurance was not going to cover us in the future so we had to change companies and they want $1800 per year.

Hamburgers & Tornados

Tonight before church at Currytown Baptist Church here in Lexington, North Carolina we had Hamburgers cooked on a huge barbecue grill. While we were trying to fix our burger and sit down to eat it the preacher said to run for cover. We all hunkered down in the hallway of the church while a tornado went by. The tornado missed us and did no damage but it was kind of scary for a little while.

Dr. Joe Arthur

I have heard of Dr. Joe Arthur for the last couple years but Mary and I have never had the opportunity to hear him until now. The preaching tonight was fantastic. Dr. Joe may have preached the longest message I have ever heard but he kept our attention until the very end. There is just nothing like great preaching and this was one of the best tonight at Currytown Baptist Church in Lexington, North Carolina. The singing was also wonderful tonight. The whole service was great. I hate to see this revival come to an end.

Our new publishing point with SimpleCDN.com seemed to work great tonight. The Broadcast was going great when I disconnected it after church. I hope those problems are behind me.

SimpleCDN Video Streaming

For the past couple months we have been using SimpleCDN.com for our video live streaming. I am beginning to think it's not so simple. We had problems with it again tonight about 2/3 of the way through the preaching. They are in the middle of changing over to a new system and they are going to discontinue the service we have been using. Now I have to learn a new way of streaming our video. All this learning new things is hard on me. I hope I get it working tomorrow.

No Broadcast This Morning

I checked that all was working last night just before midnight but this morning I could not log into our streaming server. This evening everything worked fine. I just don't understand what went wrong this morning. We enjoy great services this morning and tonight. This church is alive. I love to be in an alive church. Thank you Lord for the privilege of being here at Currytown Baptist Church.

Setup at Currytown Baptist Church

We slept way late this morning. I think it was about 1:30 a.m. this morning when we arrived in Lexington, North Carolina and got to bed. When we finally got up and started moving I spent the rest of the day up until nearly midnight setting up our video equipment at Currytown Baptist Church. I think I am ready for the broadcast of the Sunday morning service.

Gulfport to Lexington, NC

Today was a travel day for us. We were so tired from yesterday and last night that we did not get away from Gulfport, Mississippi until noon. We arrived after mid-night (about 12:45 a.m. 5-2-2009) at our place to spend the night in Lexington, North Carolina.