Blessed by Blackabys

Have you ever been blessed by a family? Henry Blackaby is perhaps best known as the author of “Experiencing God” but I first heard him speak in 1975 and later was a guest in his home in Saskatoon, Canada, where he was pastor of Faith Baptist Church. His health issues of the past few days reminded me, that prior to meeting him I had never before been impacted by such Godly vision. I was to be blessed by him for years to come! But it was only the beginning of my relationship to the Blackaby family. When I joined the Faculty of Southwestern Baptist Seminary I was blessed to have the oldest Blackaby son, Richard (now President of Blackaby Ministries International) as my Graduate Assistant/Grader. I was blessed to have sons Mel (now Pastor of First Baptist Church, Jonesboro, GA) and Norm (now a Professor at Dallas Baptist University) in my classes and daughter Carrie (now Carrie Blackaby Webb and a missionary in Germany) as a Seminary secretary down the hall from my office. I was also blessed to know Henry’s nephew, Rob (now President of the Canadian Southern Baptist College & Seminary) during his Seminary student days, and in recent years blessed by nephew Peter (now a Mobilization Missionary with the Canadian National Baptist Convention) as a ministry partner in Vancouver, Canada. Being so blessed by this family reminds me of a verse in Hebrews 7:7 where, “the lesser is blessed by the better.” Do you have such a family that has blessed your life?

Join me this week in remembering the following global prayer concerns:
• Those affected by terrorist attacks in Kenya and other places in the world.
• Pray for Seminary students who will be leading a baseball camp with missionaries in Prague this week.
• Pray for Ken and Kathy as they begin a Greek/English Bible Study this month in Australia.
• Pray for the Connexxion Team Conference held this week in Germany.
• Pray for me as I lead a prayer conference at the Capital City Baptist Church in Mexico City on Sept. 28-29.