Report from “Ricky” William Shanks in Gainesville GA
4565 Persian Trail; Gainesville, GA 30507; Phones: 843-569-8729-Home; 843-725-9283-Cell

Website: AnswersFromTheBible.ORG - Dial A Bible Study: 770-835-4000 (Ext. 3 for Spanish.) Gainesville church of Christ (GCOC.org) 2815 Wallace Rd. Gainesville GA 30507 meeting location

August 2021

Dear Brethren,

I have not heard back from the radio station about allowing a program. So I am pushing ahead with preparations for the mule camp festival. Since it is very hard to type with my right hand (will explain later) I am thankful I have about five weeks to get ready. There are massive amounts of literature to prepare and print. We are also piggybacking on the festival with an evangelistic gospel meeting one week later so things have to be done for that as well. This meeting is where each saint of the local flock will be engaged by inviting 10+ of their family & friends to come. Stats show when done face to face, 10% will come. Please pray for our success in these efforts.

I am continuing to study with Joshua, between his problems and mine we have been slower than usual. A heavy break out of Covid has continued here. The family with 10 children have had it along with others.

The new converts are still growing and doing well. Tammy lost her dad and has been dealing with that. Brian is doing well. He even made a job change this week because he had to work with a man who would not quit cursing at him. Once he decided he would not allow that kind of influence he immediately found a new job. I was very proud of him. Please continue to pray for Cara Ann and Sergey. She called to check on me and we had a good talk with promise that they still are seeking. We had a young man call Wednesday evening who was searching for a church that follows God’s plan instead of man. He had listened to someone from a church of Christ preach on the internet and thought I need to check them out. So keep me in your prayers that our study will go well.

On a personal note, my eye disease has not gotten noticeably worse lately, thank the Lord. Never the less I still have tunnel vision, (retinitis pigmenetosa). So going into a dark area is not recommended. Since my last report, it was well overtime to change the air filter in the attic HVAC. Yelp, I fail from the attic to my kitchen floor again when I made the wrong step. So, this has slowed me down this month. I dislocated my shoulder many muscles injured in my right arm. My son is coming soon to put flooring down to prevent this from happening again. As I recover, I squeeze as much work in as possible. Other than my fall we are doing well, the Lord sure looks after us.

Thank you for all your prayers and encouragements, Ricky

Report from “Ricky” William Shanks in Gainesville GA
4565 Persian Trail; Gainesville, GA 30507; Phones: 843-569-8729-Home; 843-725-9283-Cell

Website: AnswersFromTheBible.ORG - Dial A Bible Study: 770-835-4000 (Ext. 3 for Spanish.) Gainesville church of Christ (GCOC.org) 2815 Wallace Rd. Gainesville GA 30507 meeting location

October 2020

We hope this report finds you doing well and less stresses from the traumas inflicting the world. Read Psalm 37 for perspective as well as James 4:1-12. No matter what happens in the world around us, our hope is in heaven. Christ is the only one whom we should be trusting in to obey. We should not let the world overwhelm our obedience to God. However painful it may be, sometimes we need such reminders that this world is not our home!

The work with the new converts is very encouraging and they continue to grow in knowledge and excitement. At present I’m teaching them how to teach what they have learned already. Tammy is overwhelmed with having to take care of her dad. He was a hoarder and she is trying to clear out his house which has been a major undertaking. Pray for him that he obeys the gospel. He and Iare studying together. Nevertheless Tammy continues to grow in the Lord. It was so encouraging that about half of the flock showed up to help her clean out her dads place and assist her with liquidating it all. We have individual studies with Sergey and CaraAnn weekly and they are growing much. The new in Christ who come out of the world have a lot of strings attached to them from this dark world. One by one they must recognize these attachments and keep on cutting those ties that might try to pull them back into the ways of the world. It doesn’t help the matter when our nation chooses to promote oppression of religion and to plunge deeper into darkness. However it may be an opportunity for us to shine brighter with God’s light as our world’s darkness deepens.

From the hurricane coming through here we had banners down and needing repair. Providentially Sergey has worked in tree services and was equipped to climb the trees to raise the banners even higher than they were before. I will be replacing some and putting up more. Some ads will also be placed telling of the service.

With that in mind I have decided to expand the DABS to include a service of texting Bible questions. This is where they can TXT their question in to the same number and I will respond with where to find the answer directly in their Bible. I will promote it with headline “Answers From The Bible” with banners, cards and ads. Plus will include it with the college “free speech area” efforts. I pray the free speech area will not be taken away with the new government. We are still studying with a couple of young women at the campus student center on Thursdays.

Brethren, just about everyone in U.S. agrees this year things has been insane. What we may not have noticed is, the OPPORTUNITY FOR US TO TURN THIS “MESS - AGE” WITH THE MESSAGE OF HOPE FROM GOD. We need to LET GOD’S WORD SHINE and bring back the sanity. If we have not been shining His light as we should, God has given us a way to shine even brighter His salvation good news. Let’s not miss this opportunity! We need to get the word out that God’s way makes sense! God has the answers!

I pray for you often and thank God for you. Without your encouragement none of these things would happen. Thank you so much for holding up our hands in this most important work of shining His light to those in darkness.

To God’s glory both now and forever, Ricky Shanks

Report from “Ricky” William Shanks in Gainesville GA
4565 Persian Trail; Gainesville, GA 30507; Phones: 843-569-8729-Home; 843-725-9283-Cell

Website: AnswersFromTheBible.ORG - Dial A Bible Study: 770-835-4000 (Ext. 3 for Spanish.) Gainesville church of Christ (GCOC.org) 2815 Wallace Rd. Gainesville GA 30507 meeting location

September 2020

Greetings,
As mentioned last month our efforts have resumed at finding seekers at the local college. This has been very encouraging so far. With dozens of short “bookmark” Bible study cards given out to those interested and nine to enroll in a Bible correspondence course as resulted in personal studies with 2 students each week. With a short pause due to severe cold and fear they will think I have covid, I will continue their study next week. They both seem very interested so far. We look forward to God using His word to move and motivate them as we teach His word.

The new in Christ has continued to grow with excitement. Sergey and CaraAnn get with us weekly. Tammy is growing daily and becoming more mature in Christ each week. Her prayerful passion is to be a godly mother and to lead her estranged parents to seek after God as well. The first part is much easier in that she is so eager to serve God. The second depends on their hearts. Nevertheless she passionately tries.

I’m slowly getting the flock involved with nurturing them too. It is a little difficult to motivate saints to open up to new efforts in middle of pandemic. But still we are moving in the right direction. As soon as the paranoia of it all subsides we will schedule our gospel meeting to reach our lost friends locally that we had to postpone this year. Till then I will “shake the limbs” of students in college and see what fruit falls into our laps.

The flock remains at peace. As shepherds, we had to deal with another troubling devising situation which “praise be to God” resulted in a heart moved to repentance. We rejoice in this. I think brethren are being influenced more recently by how public figures are behaving in this election year. We must be quick to stop those who may try to mirrow such unloving attitudes. God calls us sheep for a reason and we must stop the mouths of wolves who come in to scatter the sheep. And it must be done as God instructs us to do it. His plan is perfect. And in His service we seek to honor Him and edify His saints in our trust. Thank you for your encouagement as always.

To His glory, Ricky

Report from “Ricky” William Shanks in Gainesville GA
4565 Persian Trail; Gainesville, GA 30507; Phones: 843-569-8729-Home; 843-725-9283-Cell

Website: AnswersFromTheBible.ORG - Dial A Bible Study: 770-835-4000 (Ext. 3 for Spanish.) Gainesville church of Christ (GCOC.org) 2815 Wallace Rd. Gainesville GA 30507 meeting location

July 2020

The Lord of the Harvest is still at work through His powerful word and our enemy is still at work in the world. You might call this report the best of times and the worst of times. Never the less we focus on the best, Phil. 4:8. Our efforts to broadcast God’s seed on social media seems to be more fluff that fruit. From the one hour programs and the short 3-4 minute one question videos, the stats seemed to be fruitful from Facebook. Examples: We have had over 56,000 minutes viewed and over 105K reached. Our most popular was on 7-4- 20 which had over 10k minutes watched of the 3.5 minute video on the subject of “What is Heaven?” It sounds impressive. However I saw almost no responses of people calling in or visits to our website AnswersFromTheBible.ORG. I’m the first to admit the site needs a lot of redo but it is functional and records activity. So with that many eyes on the video programs surely something good is coming from it. Upon closer inspection I discovered the average length of time watched was 20 seconds. Bubble burst moment. I also noticed we were having more tangible traffic from our banners and business cards than all the efforts put on social media. So back to the basics I go. Virus panic will still be challenging to work through but we march on in spite of it.

Now the good news. You may remember the young lady we meet for Bible study several months ago and it fizzled. After us praying intently about her she renewed the study and again it fizzled. Then a young man was connected with her. We had a couple of new studies and they learned what they needed to do and it fizzled again. Well, they showed up on Sunday for Bible study and worship last week. They were anxious to continue studies. We did so on Sat. and they came to worship the next day and home with us for our first potluck since the madness of virus panics. In those fizzles they had made several cycles of repentance leading up to their return to study with us. They had already learned what they needed to do and they pulled me aside and expressed all they had gone through and that they were ready to make their permanent commitment to the Lord. Thus we all

rejoiced with them in their new birth. Cara Ann McGuire and Sergey Barrs were added to Christ 8-2- 2020. Plans are made for them to marry on the 23 of August.

Earlier last week our family with 10 children, had the blessing of adding one of their children to Christ. Joshua Nave was very excited to place Becca into the hands of our Savior. However a few days later he had a disc blow out in his back and is in the hospital as I write this. So we rally the saints to assist as we can till he is back on his feet. The flock is at peace and it seems for the moment momentum grows toward sharing the good news with the lost. There are still some elderly who have not come out of their quarantine. We try to keep in touch and serve as we have opportunity.

Gratitude abounds in our hearts toward the Lord and you to help us in the work here. All glory belongs to Him both now and forever.

Ricky and Janice Shanks

Report from “Ricky” William Shanks in Gainesville GA
4565 Persian Trail; Gainesville, GA 30507; Phones: 843-569-8729-Home; 843-725-9283-Cell

Website: AnswersFromTheBible.ORG - Dial A Bible Study: 770-835-4000 (Ext. 3 for Spanish.) Gainesville church of Christ (GCOC.org) 2815 Wallace Rd. Gainesville GA 30507 meeting location

August 2020

With freedoms returning to us from problems cause by the China virus, so are blessings coming as well. Last month you saw Sergey and Cara Ann surrender their lives into service of the Lord. Also we rejoice in their marriage to each other this month as well. Their excitement is infectious to the local saints and good things are happening. We weekly meet with them for Bible study in addition to our assemblies and they are eager to share their hope with others. Their hearts are eager to share God’s blessing with others. They are being nurtured and I hope the momentum will continue both with them and their influence with the flock. Their faith deepens on a daily basis. Another study has happened because of their example and a new study begins tomorrow evening.

Tammy also remains eager to grow and is diligently learning God’s way to be a mother and also how to share God’s blessing with family and friends. She desires so deeply to help her estranged parents to seek after God.

We have reason to rejoice again when Del and Valarie opened their home to their neighborhood for Thursday night Bible study which Brownie teaches. Their neighbor (Margaret Hart) came and learned the truth and with more discussion the next day over the phone with Brownie, she was also baptized that night. She came to worship the following Sunday. Hopefully her husband will also seek God’s mercy soon.

We had plans to have booth again at the local festival in October but we heard
the city council would not give them a permit because of the virus danger. May
the Lord of the harvest direct us to good and honest seekers in another way. I found out that the local state college is having 50% students attend in person classes, so will try our free speech effort again soon. The local flock was prepared for our gospel meeting to be this last March but virus shut that down. I will see if we can get the flock to invite lost friends if we have it this fall. This paranoia and fear that has spread across the land has been far more injurious than the virus. If the flock is willing they know how it works now and are a lot more prepared to nurture and build them up. I’ve seen evangelistic efforts come to a standstill in flocks for many years simply by the reason “there is no interested in the area.” Personally in 40 years I have never found that area. Once in middle GA I was told by a “seasoned” preacher not to move to middle GA expecting success in evangelism. One year later the Lord of the harvest had given us over 1200 Bible students on courses (avg. of 100 per month) and more personal Bible studies than several could handle. The Lord also started bringing the increase from sowing so much seed. So even in this fear pandemic the Lord still gives the increase. It all is determined by how much we teach the gospel and so His seed.

Your love and fellowship are deeply appreciated. I pray the Lord is blessing you with growth and increase as we labor together in the work in our mission. To His glory both now and forever,

Ricky