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

June 2020

The work here continues to inch in a positive way. The flock now is meeting for both worship and Bible classes. All are in good health. The most vulnerable have not yet returned but wait on medical news to improve in our area. Georgia numbers are back up because of the riots, so the darkness continues to hover in our state. It is so good to see our brethren in person again. Greg Perkins came with his young people to go door to door and seems to have some wanting to obey the gospel soon. We are gearing up to accommodate a bible class in Spanish if that happens. He found a couple of English language contacts which I am following up on. We pray the Lord of the Harvest will give the increase to those seeking.

This last week we had a lot of visitors as result of splintering congregations of the Lord’s church. As mentioned a couple of years ago in my report, flocks of God’s people have not been immune to the world’s chronic “me isms.” God calls us to serve Him as Lord and King yet too often His people end up being more influenced by the world.

•   We as His people serve at the pleasure of our King.

•   As a flock of His people we are to be representatives of His character and His spokesmen.
  Yet as we have witnessed the “me, me” generation’s behavior in the world and how it has infected many brethren. Result, where once was a good fruitful flock in the past with godly elders, over time the behavior results in flock splintering and eventually closing their doors. Where are the humble saints who put God’s cause above all else? We have always been at war with darkness but it is sad to see the carnage created when a so few personalities can create such damage among God’s people. May the “King of Salem” (peace) reign.

  The Facebook (FB) efforts we make have now been changed. Out of 14 programs FB prevented us from going live 3 times. Thus we had to record it and post later. FB continuously changes how it works almost weekly. What works one week would not work the next. Because of the lack of consistent reliability for live broadcast we decided that short 3 minute prerecorded efforts would be more fruitful. They become more consistent with less interruptions and the finished product will focused on one subject at a time and titled with the subject. In addition to that, I noticed the demographics of FB heavily leaned toward older watchers (45 and above). These short videos are also being posted on Instagram (IG) which leans toward a much younger viewership. The first 3 are running already. We are using “googles most asked religious questions” as themes for now. These may not help mature saints much but will hopefully find those who are lost and seeking God’s salvation. IG does not have the statistics tracked like FB but we looking for connections locally that we can help study with in person. I can’t wait till the “fears” of virus will totally subside where we can mobilize our local saints in an evangelistic meetings and meet people in person with festivals, free speech areas in colleges.

  Stats from FB: 44K people reached. 35K minutes (583 hours) viewed from beginning of effort total of which the highest amount was last week. We now have 663 who follow the page. 13K post reached and 9K viewed video this week.

  My goal is that we find local good and honest seekers who will show initiative to ask and knock (Matt 7:7) with reaching out via TEXT or downloads from website above. Pray with us that the Lord of the Harvest will show us those in this area who seek Him. Thank you for your encouragements and we all serve Him to His glory!

  Honored to serve, 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.)

April 2020

The efforts continue to sow God’s seed into the hearts of those who are seeking. I’m going to share with you

the stats from our Facebook program “Answers From the Bible” on Wednesdays at 11 ET. This week will be week 8. Each week we have gotten more comfortable with the MANY hurtles we must jump through to keep from being distracting and focus on what God is saying in His word. I won’t list the many items here that need to be done for each program. Call me if you want those details. But each week seems to be gaining momentum. For these first 7 programs, even though a couple of them were train wrecks, here is a summary of results. FB says we have reached 19,000 and 19K have engaged with us. 243 have clicked on our links. I’m not certain these mean much. I continue to populate the website above with more Bible study materials. Feel free to visit and download any of interest to you. If someone would help me understand more about these stats I would love to hear from you. The ones who have clicked for information seem to be from other parts of the country. For example a sibling and niece in my family has

FB says all the stats above have come from GA and around this area. That is confusing to me. One who asked for the Bible course and DVD was from MO. Hopefully we will see such interest locally soon. The FB programs have been viewed for a total of over 12K minutes (200 hours). That seems to me an important stat. Again if I’m thinking wrong in this I would like to understand more, please let me know.

Concerning my recording the gospel message we use in our evangelism meetings, I have recorded all but the last part of the presentation of the gospel. I have agonized over exactly how to finish the series. So I am praying and hopefully will finish the 5th and last of the series soon. I will put them on thumb drives to give out and upload it to the site above when I finish it. So follow the site and you will be alerted to when it is uploaded.

We were able to study with the contact mentioned in last report. They looked so encouraging and we were excited to be studying with them. However they may have ended the study for some unknown reason this week. It really saddens us how the devil never gives up in distracting. I’m going to try one more communication with them to see if they will continue.

However on a good note a couple we studied with last year has contacted us and wants to continue their studies to begin this Saturday. Please pray with us that the devil does not stick his ugly finger in the situation and rip it to pieces.

The flock here has missed each other’s presence so much. GA lifted its “stay at home” order this month and for us to use common sense before gathering. We did meet together and each family stayed a distance from each other. Unfortunately we are small enough in number we could all keep the proper distance. Communion was packed in sealed cups and bags and picked up as they came in and we as a one body were able to partake together. Leading up to the meeting we listed out items of cleaning & sanitizing needing to be address at the building. So the building was in top shape for our gathering. We hope soon to have Bible classes as well. Till then we will continue to have Bible classes through zoom.

The newer in Christ are holding on tight. The devil has tried extra efforts to pull them down with family distresses, to car accidents and that on top of the virus pandemic. Unfortunately our county here in GA is a hot bed of new cases. It is still accelerating and spiking. In response we continue to teach and continue to remind his saints that God is still with us and no matter what may come, we look to Him for our help and in Him for victory. How glorious it will be! Thank you for your wonderful encouragement and prayers.

Ricky

Report  from  “Ricky”  William  Shanks  in  Gainesville  GA

4565  Persian  Trail;  Gainesville,  GA  30507;  Phones:  843-569-8729-Home;  843-725-9283-Cell   Dial  A  Bible Study:  770-835-4000  (Ext.  3  for  Spanish.)

February  2020

Good news  at end…The work  preparing  a studio  is  just  about  finished.  I  still  have a  lot to  learn and do electronically.  We  are going to have a  couple  of practice  test  runs  the  next  two Sunday  afternoons,  “Lord Willing.”  We will  begin our effort to share the  gospel  via  the internet  on  the  18th.  It will  focus  on Facebook  live  at  first  then  to include    other  venues. We  will  try  boosting the local  exposure here  as much  as  we can afford. This  is  to  get face to  face Bible  studies  with them,  which  is  our  goal.  It  is  scheduled to  run on Wednesdays  at 11AM.  It is  my  understanding this  is  prime time for  Facebook  viewers.  The first of the weekly  programs  will  be  March  18th.  Tune in  if  you can.  I  will  need guest to  join  me  via  their  smart phone  often.  So if  there  is  someone in your  local  flock  who  has  a  working  knowledge of God’s  word and  able  to  quickly  (less  than 3 min.)  answer  questions  with book  chapter and  verse  please let  me  know. They  will  need to   have good bandwidth  at that time.  I would love to talk  with them and we can  schedule  them  to  join  us  in  this  effort.  Look  for  “Answers From the Bible”  (there  are  more than one)  or  “Bible  Compass”  with  my  name  connected  to it.  The learning  curve has  been  very difficult for me. There are dozens  of  tasks  leading up  and after each  program. I would  much rather  be  face  to face  in  front of  someone teaching God’s  word.  Hopefully  it will  all  become routine and  easier. The desired  result  will  be  many  other personal  studies  and rejoicing in heaven.  
 

Studies  with the  newer saints  are still  going well.  We  may  have lost one  back  to the world but the rest are flourishing. We  heard from Carrie again and  her friend. We did have another  study  and they  are thinking of obeying  the gospel.  Our society  today  has  been  so influenced  by  the devil  that he  has  gotten more and  more  in  such  “a  sinful  hole”  that  it  takes  more  extreme  efforts  to turn  away  from  sin so they  can  commit  their  life to  serve  God  in  baptism.  It is  getting less  frequent  to find someone whom repentance is  easy.    I’ve  seen that pattern in  several cultures. Nevertheless, with the right  heart it can be  done.  
 

Our evangelism meeting will  be on the  27th  and 28th  at end of  this  month.  I will  be able  to  speak  about it  in  our first  2  broadcast  which hopefully  may  bring out more  to the effort.  The flock  has  been  encouraged passionately  to invite their lost friends. They  have been asked  to have a  list  of 10 whom  they  are praying  about right  now. Then  7  to 10 days  before  the meeting they  are to go in  person, face to face and ask  them if they  will  come.  For  years  now  there  has  always  been no less  than  10% to come.  We pray  that will  remain true for this  meeting as  well.  
 

The flock  overall  seems  a little  more healthy. But the  rains  keep coming  just  about every  day.  Wettest  2 months  here  in  decades.  This has  not  helped their recovery.  Luckily  no  extreme  cold  temps  to go with  it. Hopefully  I will  be able to get the rest  of the  banners  replaced before long.  

We rejoice that the  kingdom  of  God grew  by  2 being  added  by  our Lord. Del  and Valeria Santos  came  by  our  booth  last  year  at  Mule  camp. Brownie reached  out to  them  with studies  in  their  home  and over  past few  months. They  decided to die with Christ in February. With no religious  background they  are  refreshing to help them  grow  in Christ without having  to undo the religious  confusion that  many  have.  The  first light  from God reached  his  heart  when  he started reading the Bible  but did  not get  much  from it, so  he stopped  and  started writing the Bible by  hand.  He is  now  up  to  Ecclesiastes  so far.  They expressed  interest in  our efforts  at the  festival  which  led to the studies.    They  have  a long way  to grow  but so far they  seem very  steady.  We hope  there will  be  many  more.

To  God be the glory.

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

Dial A Bible Study: 770-835-4000 (Ext. 3 for Spanish.)

January 2020
Even though this winter is not near as cold as others it seems to have much more sicknesses than normal.

Due to some storms lately I will have to replace all but one of my banners around town. They lasted a while so that is to be expected. From the many rains we have had, the mud will not support ladders standing on them. So I have to wait for a week without rain. In addition to that GA has had a very high flu rate. There has been a large portion of folks down with various kinds of flu like maladies over the past few weeks. This is slowing down the number of studies that can happen. After Janice and I got better we have been very careful to take precautions before going out. Hopefully others will be over all this soon. However we did lose one of our oldest (90) members of the flock and was buried last week. James Hollis had been suffering with breathing problems for years. We rejoice that he is now free of agony of his earthly vessel.

Our evangelistic efforts are mixed blessings. I had thought that almost all our studies with the lost had ended for various reasons. But Paige showed initiative to resume the studies and it seems to be going well. The study with Wayne has been on hold due to illnesses. Brian, a new saint, met and brought a friend last night from his connections with AA meetings. Hopefully we will be able to study with him soon. We have more new correspondence students so I working those to find more seekers. The new convert class is flourishing. Each of them is eager to come and study Sunday and Wednesday.

In an effort to speed things up in sowing God’s seed here, I’m trying to build and set up a studio in my house to broadcast a video Bible study over social media and pay for local market coverage. I need to find someone to run the equipment during the weekly broadcast. So far, I have the software, apple products for the videoing and broadcast equipment. So hopefully we can be up and running by next month. I really need a tech person to help.

We are planning two meetings this year to reach out to the lost in this area. The success of this is dependent upon the local saints doing the inviting. I believe the success of evangelism depends upon ... the effective working of every member to make the increase, Eph. 4:16. So members willing, we will have good fruit to come from this effort as well.

During this slow time it has been a good time to move my library/study to my home to make room for another class. I had to build a room in my basement and now slowly moving it all home. But through it all I have found some real strong young men at church. I need to get rid of some books. Come see us and I will load you up with some books of your own.

The church building is old enough that things are starting to break down. So repairs are underway. Also, with the construction of the highway they broke the water line again. This time the mud in the line completely prevented water flowing in the pipes of the meeting house. They quickly sent a plumber to come fix the problems.

You might like to hear how well Tammy is doing. Being new in Christ she has much to overcome. She is deeply heart sick over her family’s spiritual condition. She is so eager to share with them the good news of Christ. Each week when we study, she is almost in tears how she can help them. Only if we experienced disciples had such a passionate desire, what could we do?

Sincerely to God’s glory, Ricky Shanks