Hello from Michigan!

Things have been happening with BEM, and we would love to pass on a few updates of how God is allowing us to encourage small churches and their pastors.  

Our Annual Meeting was held on January 31^st, with a great attendance of 16 people, 12 in person and 4 on Zoom plus 2 new recruits.  We have a wonderful board consisting of Pastors (current and retired), Pastor’s wives, BEM Missionaries and businessmen. Our chairman grew up in Ghana West Africa!

In our last update we mentioned a “local” church (40 minutes away) who we have been helping over this last year.  While they have made the decision to close, they are still very much in the process of determining all of the details involved.  As they are without a pastor, Tim has continued preaching there as needed as well as offering suggestions, teaching material and hopefully encouragement along the way.

We have been busy since December 2025 planning for our two conferences this year, one being in Utah this past April and the other in Kokomo, Indiana this November.  While the conferences are only one day, the preparation is extensive, including mailings with both USPS and online as well as hours spent selecting and ordering books, program planning and scheduling etc.  In addition, with all of our BEM Missionaries living in different states, there is always that back-and-forth correspondence, phone calls etc. that are required to make sure that we all are on the same page.

Our April 18^th Small Church Enrichment Conference in Nephi, Utah was truly a blessing to all who attended!  There were 22 churches represented by Pastors, their wives, Lay Leaders and children, with a total of 79! It was so encouraging for us, as planners, to observe the enthusiastic fellowship and interaction throughout the day.  Our theme, “Enjoying Intimacy with God” was well received.  Through the preaching sessions and smaller breakout sessions, we believe that God’s Word was shared in impactful and practical ways.  We also ran a simultaneous children’s program, headed up by the local camp director from the camp these churches attend.  The 18 children that participated enjoyed engaging teaching, games and even a Bounce House!  Many of these children are home schooled and found this time of connection to be very special.  It was loud and a bit chaotic, but so special and worth it!!  We ended our time in Nephi, Utah with very Thankful hearts. 

We were/are thankful for the generosity and helpfulness of our hosting church, for the amazing lunch donation from Chick-fil-A, for the generous love offering from those attending, which helped to off-set the costs we incurred, for the Prophet’s Chamber they allowed us to use, for great weather  and mostly just for the Family of God and how HE has provided a way for us to be used in this way!  On a personal note, we are healthier than we deserve and do not take lightly that God has given us the mindshare and physical ability to be busy in serving in this way!

In addition, on our way home, we stopped in Harrah, Oklahoma for 2 days in order to reconnect with the church family we had served for 6 weeks in 2023.  We made two hospital visits, Tim attended a Men’s Bible Study on Saturday, preached on Sunday and we were blessed by a group Pizza lunch/fellowship before taking off for home that afternoon.  Once again, the Family of God was a blessing to us and hopefully we were to them as well!

Thank you to all who have prayed for us during the planning and doing of these various opportunities. Thank you also to those who have generously given to us and BEM financially in order to make this trip personally possible, as well as allowing us to be generous to participants and quality oriented in the planning.  We don’t take your prayer commitment and financial generosity for granted and continue to marvel at how God has used you to help make this possible!

Blessed to Serve,

Tim & Sandy Hewitt

BEM (Barnabas Enrichment Ministries)

   
  First Baptist Church, Nephi Utah and BEM Crew

 Fellowship Bible Church, Harrah Oklahoma