January, 2012
Imperial Beach, California

Dear Supporting Churches and Friends,

“Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late - and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work. To pray for revival while ignoring the plain precept laid down in Scripture is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble. Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience.” (A.W. Tozer)

Our greetings to each and every one of you in the precious and lovely Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, “a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.”  I trust this newsletter finds all well with you and yours, and the work of the ministry greatly prospering as you labor for the Master in His vineyard.  We pray often for you, and thank God for you.  As I begin this letter, please know that we truly appreciate your faithful financial support of our revival ministry, and most of all for your prayers and loving-kindness demonstrated towards us.  May God richly bless you for being fellow-helpers with us in the ministry He has given to us.  Linda and I love each and every one of you, and count it a great honor and joy to represent you as we minister in churches around the this great nation of ours.  We are grateful!

The year 2011 is behind us and the year 2012 is now before us.  How we thank God for yet another year to serve the Saviour and for new opportunities.  This may be the year when Jesus comes for His own at the trump and the shout for truly, “now is our salvation nearer than when we believed, The night is far spent, the day is at hand.”  Surely we must be found redeeming the time, not wasting one single moment on those things that do not matter.  May 2012 be a fruitful year and a year in which we see a sweeping revival and a great harvest of souls.

We are looking forward to revival meetings and other ministry endeavors this year in Oregon, Missouri, Wisconsin, Montana, Virginia, Alaska, Canada, and several California locations.  Our travel schedule is quite full this year, for which we praise the Lord.  We are looking to the revival meetings, family conferences, missions conferences, and one prophecy conference, with great spiritual anticipation.  Please pray with us we prepare for these ministry endeavors.  We do have some open dates, so if you have not already scheduled us for this year and can use us, or know of churches who are praying about having a revival meeting, please let me know.

It is a joy to report to you that the San Diego inner-city church plant continues to go well.  Please continue to pray for Pastor Jose Plascencia and his dear wife, Sharon, as they minister in a very difficult area of the city. 

I continue to teach the Bible Institute classes at our home church when I am not out on the road.  This has been a joy for me as I love teaching systematic theology, and have thoroughly enjoyed the interaction and interface with the students.  Linda ably assists by preparing the necessary PowerPoint templates for the classes, and handles all of the administrative duties associated with the institute. 

We are greatly encouraged by the news that one of our sister and supporting churches has planted a new work in the City of Imperial Beach.  We had prayed much for a new church plant here in this very needy community.  In addition to this new church plant, I continue to pray about another work here in the South Bay region of San Diego County.  I have a heart for the communities in this area, and particularly have a burden for the huge military constituency in the region.  There are 115,000 active duty military personnel in San Diego County, mostly Navy and Marine Corps members.  South Bay has a large population of military people, along with a robust multi-ethnic mix of people.  Please pray with us that we would see the Lord open the doors for more new works in the metropolitan San Diego area, and for our area churches to get a greater vision for reproducing themselves through church planting.  I recently preached for the second anniversary of Adelanto Baptist Church, andwas excited and encouraged to see
this new and vibrant work bearing much fruit in this small desert community.  May God increase these new works.

The Revival Thoughts writing ministry has now entered its 12^th year and has grown to international proportions.  In addition to our U.S. recipients, we now have recipients in several foreign countries. I was surprised to learn that some of my articles have even appeared on a website in Vietnam.  I am humbled that folks have been so supportive of this writing endeavor, and plan to continue it for the foreseeable future.

I continue to serve on the board of directors for Emmanuel Baptist Rescue Mission in Los Angeles.  We were deeply saddened that health issues brought about the resignation of former director Mike Davis.  He has returned to his home state of Pennsylvania.  Evangelist Joe Doyel has now assumed the role of our new director.  In addition to the rescue mission, I have been asked to assist in the establishment of a retreat facility for pastors and their wives in the Sierra Mountains.  In its formative stages, this will be a quiet place of respite for the servants of the Lord to use as a getaway for rest and spiritual renewal. 

Praise the Lord that my bride is now doing well and no longer must use a wheelchair or crutches.  We praise God for His healing hand of mercy upon her.  She is able to walk normally now, but has some ongoing issues that are being addressed to help her as she continues to heal.  God has been so good to me as I continue to enjoy good health after a rough couple of years with shoulder surgeries and the serious kidney injury I sustained in 2010.  Though my kidney is functioning at 100%, something the doctors were not sure would happen, I have found that I have still not regained a full measure of energy since the hospitalization.  But, praise the Lord, His grace has been sufficient for me!

For the past four years we have been using our 1997 Pontiac Trans Sport minivan in our revival ministry.  Though almost 15 years old, it has served us well and been a very comfortable and accommodating vehicle.  We had hoped and prayed it would continue to serve us for some time to come, but this last month it came to an ignominious end with a blown motor.  We would have to replace the engine with a remanufactured unit, and by the time we would do that, it would just not be cost-effective.  The older a vehicle gets the less reliable it becomes and the more repairs become necessary. I am very careful to maintain my vehicles in top-notch condition, and run them until they are no longer viable.  Having been a General Motors technician for several years, I have a pretty good idea when it is time to stop putting money into a vehicle.  Wanting to be a good steward of God’s provision in finances, we prayerfully decided to retire the minivan.  I had been considering purchasing a late model Honda Odyssey, but when I weighed the cost of the vehicle and the less than robust fuel economy, Linda and I prayerfully decided to downsize with the purchase of a Chevrolet Cruze.  This roomy little car is highly rated and has more interior room than any of its competitors.  It is as comfortable as our minivan seating-wise, and is reputed to produce very good fuel economy.  We feel this vehicle will serve us well when we drive to meetings as opposed to flying, which we have been doing more of in the past three years since retiring the RV.  We must have a reliable vehicle in this ministry as traveling is what we do.  So, we are thankful that the minivan held out until we were home rather than give it up out on the road hundreds of miles away. 

We love you folks, and thank God for you.  Hey folks!  Let us hear from you once in a while!  We love hearing from our supporting churches and get all of the news from your end of the line.  We miss y’all!  We greatly appreciate those who write to us, send us notes and cards, email us, or even text us. I will do my best to keep our communications to you frequent, and call pastors from time-to-time just to chat.  Got a church newsletter?  Great!  Please put us on your mailing list.  We do not blog, and we do not do Face Book or any of the other social networking things, but we do e-mail, and we do love to get newsletters and other sorts of newsy stuff.  So, don’t be strangers!

Your Fellow-Servants for the Cause of Christ,

Paul and Linda Mershon

“For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isaiah 57:15).