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Dear friends and family, 10/29/11

One of our struggles right now is balancing the desire to see Pilgrimage-Cedar Springs Camp ministry grow and the calling to pastor. While this has been a struggle for many years, it is at a new level now that I actually have a church to pastor. I had really hoped to be able to pastor a church and still live at the camp, but clearly that is not happening. We are seeing great things happen at the church I pastor in terms of new people coming into the church, and I am thoroughly enjoying this call and the role and duties of pastor.

Please pray for our kids’ protection. They are, in Josiah’s words, “missionaries.” They continue to interact with neighborhood kids where are renting a house in Cherokee Village, and we are discovering quickly that there are some serious problems going on in this neighborhood. Josiah continues to tell Colton that he needs to accept Jesus. We have taken kids to church two Wednesdays in a row, making the first time in many years there have been any kids besides our own at this church on a Wednesday.

At the same time, the ministry on Friday nights at Pilgrimage-Cedar Springs Camp continues to do well. Bobby and I continue to meet with two or three teens (at different times) from a Mormon family who accepted Christ six months ago and a little over a year ago. Two prayer requests concerning this: First, the older Christian appears to be getting involved with the wrong crowd and, I fear, is wandering away. Second, they need a solid Christian youth pastor in the Pocahontas area who would encourage them more than I can physically do. They also need Christian friends.

These teens live with their grandparents and an aunt and uncle. Last Friday the uncle, who is 20 or 21, needed a ride to Ravenden so I took him to camp with me and Karna took him the rest of the way to Ravenden from camp after the activity. He had such a good time he wanted to come back this Friday, and his wife wanted to come, too. While I can invite them to church, I can’t really invite them to my church because it is 40 miles from their house, and they have no way to make it that far – even if they were to decide to venture out of the Mormon gathering. Pray that God would reveal Himself to them in such real ways while they are under my teaching and making friends with Christians that they would be drawn to saving faith in Christ and fellowship with other true believers. Churches from the Little Rock area have stepped up and given this family and another family some things to meet some of their physical needs. But with basically only one local church (Koinonia Christian Fellowship, Imboden) actively involved with us, Pilgrimage-Cedar Springs Camp ends up being the closest thing to a church many of these families see on a regular, continuing basis.

Pray also, for the finances of Pilgrimage. After many hours of catching up, I finally got financial reports completed, and discovered that compared to last year, donations are actually up! But since Pilgrimage pays us a salary now, the net income is still way down, and at the current rate, Pilgrimage won’t be able to meet any its obligations by year’s end. Thankfully, I have a couple of little carpentry jobs that I can do and my back seems to be up to it, but with everything going on I just don’t know when I can do them. Also, Melissa is working hard trying to sell GoTreads to government agencies, which by itself could provide huge financial benefits to us and Pilgrimage.

Praise God that the Pilgrimage board was able to meet on Saturday (10/22) with most of us together and the rest participating via internet and phone. Pray with me that the plans made to move Pilgrimage forward will be implemented, and that Pilgrimage will move more quickly towards a broader ministry (beyond where it is now). To boil this whole letter down to one request: pray that God would lead more of His people to become involved in this ministry.

Thanks for all your support,

-Phil and Melissa Pinto