Missions Minute - The Lytles (January 14th, 2026)

A few words from Steve Lytle!

God continues to bless what is happening at First Baptist Church of Strongsville.

As we continue to build a firm foundation at the Church, God has given such great life in the church and is adding to the Church little by little. He is doing something special here and we as a family are grateful to be a part of that. Situations like a gentleman repenting of sin and self and believing in Jesus for salvation, getting consistent in coming to the Church, and God restoring he and his wife's marriage or one of our young adults bringing her boyfriend who has grown up in the Catholic Church and him beginning to get serious about being in scripture and what a relationship with Christ looks like or a couple that attends bringing a Muslim co-worker that is very interested in Christianity and continues to wants to come or one of our older adults expressing her desire to reach her exercise class for Christ and intentionally having conversations with the ladies in the class to that end is just awesome to see and is in part credited to your account.

Personally, a recent highlight was a missions trip to Liberia that our 15 year old son, Hudson, and I had the privilege to be able to go on. We teamed up with Liberian missionaries with ABWE, Bill and Kathy Britain, and a retired pastor and his wife, Dr. Jim and Jeannie Vogel, to lead a conference in U-Lah, Liberia where over 75 church leaders (Pastors, Deacons, Evangelists, Teachers) received training and over 200 Liberian Christians were edified. Here are some details:

• We left on 11/13/25 in the evening and after about 24 hours of flying (with layovers), we landed in the capital of Liberia, Monrovia
• Liberia is 5 hours ahead of us here
• 11/15 was spent at the ABWE missions home in the 2nd largest city in Liberia, Gbarnga (pronounced Bang-a) in rest and prep for the conference
• 11/16 - I preached at Repentance Baptist Church in Gbarnga
• 11/17 - We headed out early for the conference. It was being held in the remote village of U-Lah which was about a 2 hour drive from Gbarnga. 
  • Day one of a two day Church Leader training began at 8:30am with registration
  • Training sessions began 9:30am. There were three, 1.5-2 hour training classes with and hour or so for lunch in there. Pastor Jim and I split leading the sessions. Pastor Jim began to walk through practical Church organization and responsibilities of Church leaders. I began to walk through answers from scripture to 5 big questions in life that are being asked by people regardless of age, phase of life, career or culture that Church leaders have to be able to speak to.
• 11/18 - Day 2 of the Church Leader Training continued with a similar schedule to the day before and Pastor Jim and I continued what we had begun to walk through. 
  • For these two days Hudson attended the sessions and played with kids from the village in between as well teaching some of the church leaders how to throw an American football that he has brought with him. 
• 11/19 - The General Church Conference began where over 200 Liberian Christians gathering to be edified. The General Conference went through Sunday the 23rd. For each day of the first four days of the conference, there was ladies, mens and youth breakout sessions in the morning, a midday service and and evening service. In the afternoon, Liberian Church leaders would go to homes in the village and surrounding villages and evangelize. Hudson and I led a youth breakout in the mornings. Jim led the mens group and his wife Jeannie led the ladies group. Jim and I split teaching in the midday and evening sessions. When there was opportunity, Hudson would hang out and play with kids from the village. On, Sunday the 23rd there was a morning Church service and then everyone began to head home after that. 
  • Lodging: For the Christians that came to the village, they stayed in the homes of those that lived in the village. Our team stayed in a hotel that was found in another nearby remote village. It was recently built due to a gold and iron ore mine that is in the area and the owner of the mines wanted a nicer place to stay when he came to see his mines. We were so thankful for western style toilets, running water and even air conditioning at night. Following full days of sweating, sun block, and insect repellant, we were even more thankful. 
  • Temperatures: The temperature stays somewhere between the high 70’s and low 80’s all year round with high humidity. 
  • 11/20 and 11/22 Hudson and I went out evangelizing with the Church leaders in the next town over - New Town. It was about a 25 minute walk away on dirt roads. What a joy it was to get to know the Liberian Church leaders and to be a part of seeing 17 Liberians turn from sin and self and turn to Jesus for salvation! Due to the efforts of the Liberian believers throughout the conference, there were 89 people from village the conference was in and surrounding villages that received Christ!
  • 11/23 - A church that was without a Pastor had 7 new believers that needed to be baptized so I was asked to baptize them in a stream that was not far from the village. What a joy it was to see these believers, in faith, take the step of baptism! And to get to be the one to get to do those baptisms was so humbling and exciting! 
  • Following the Church service, we made the drive back to Gbarnga. 
• 11/24-25 - The Brittains took us around to see and tour several partner ministries they work with: Liberty Baptist Elementary and Jr. High School, African Baptist Mission Health Center and The Baptist College of Missionary Physician Assistants. She also got to be part of purchasing a motorbike for a pastor who currently walks hours between villages to do ministry.
• 11/26 - We headed back to Monrovia to catch our flight back to the U.S. on the afternoon of the 26th. 
• 11/27 - We arrived in Cleveland on the evening of the 27th (Thanksgiving day) and it was so good to be back together as a family!

Your support helped to make this trip possible. Thank you! This trip was certainly an incredible opportunity for Hudson and I to get to do together but also it is a huge help in preparing our Church for the missions focus that we are working to build.

Thank you again for your continued support. We can’t truly express just how grateful we are to know that you are standing behind us.