The Ray Workman Family: August 2008

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Canaan Land

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Really, there are no words to describe the beauty of Canaan Land. We spent last week there (August 9th-16th) and had a wonderful time! Ray, Sr., Ray, Jr., and Sara were able to help out with a few projects around the camp, and, of course, there was plenty of fun and hiking as well.

These are a few of the projects.

This time we hiked to the Sandbar Pool, Greenland Creek Falls, and High Bethel. While at Sandbar Pool and Greenland Creek Falls, Ray decided to try his hand at trout fishing and the rest of us played in the cool mountain water.

Ray, Jr. with his first catch of the day at Sandbar Pool......a small trout

Greenland Creek Falls

High Bethel is quite a hike, but it is definitely worth it for the view.

On Tuesday, we got to ride on the Wilderness Railroad, and on Thursday we rode "Old Henry" and the Bubba Bear ride then finished off the night singing and roasting marshmallows around a bonfire.

Wilderness Railroad

Bubba Bear Ride

You really have to watch out for those bears around the campfire!

You certainly can't help but see God's beautiful creation everywhere you turn. And to think that He created everything in six, literal, 24-hour days! What an awesome God that we serve!

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Ray was born into a very poor family. His father was a drunkard and went to prison when Ray was a young boy. When he was 8 years old, his family was torn apart, and the children were separated and sent to different foster homes. It was just a few months after this transition in his life, that he trusted Christ as his Savior. At the age of 16, he was taken out of the foster home, and sent to a boy's home. There, he was required to attend the church across the road from the home. He met Wanda at this church, and they were married the day before his 18th birthday. They continued in that same church for 23 more years. In 1992, the Lord used circumstances to begin moving them out of that church, and they began attending a church where the Gospel was preached. Ray started growing in the Lord, and realized the need to surrender his whole life to the Lord. In May of 1993, God called him to preach, and he completed his training at Ambassador Baptist College in May, 2002.
Wanda was raised in a well respected family. She was in church all of her life, but never heard that you must trust Christ and His shed blood ONLY or the consequence would be to spend an eternity in Hell when you die. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." (Romans 3:23-28) When she heard the Gospel preached, it was much different than what she had been taught all of her life. The Lord was faithful, and continued to convict her heart and show her she could never "earn" salvation (baptism, Catechism, communion, church membership, or good works). After about two months of hearing the Gospel, she trusted Christ as her Savior.

"...old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

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God has burdened our hearts to plant churches in Bladen County, NC. Our highest aim in life is to glorify our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and to point others to a saving knowledge of Him by grace through faith: "and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)