Northwest News!

Steve Baker sent me the following article that I thought showed how crucial our work is.

Practising Muslims will outnumber worshipping Christians in Britain within 30 years, according to research published today.

Aaron goes in for his surgery at 1.30 PM our time (Greenwich Mean Time) and 7.30 AM Easter Standard Time.  Please pray for him.  The surgery will 3-4 hours long.

Also, please pray for Bro. Cesar who is working in North Africa at the moment and keeping the ministry going.  He needs more financial support.  I would like for our church to be able to help him out on a regular basis.  If you want to give toward his support, please just play the money in an offering envelop and mark it for “Missions” or for “Bro. Cesar.”

This will primarily be a notice for people who live in the States.  Our sending church, Vision Baptist Church, is hosting the 4th Pastor’s Conference for World Evangelism on Monday- Wednesday, May 5-7.  I believe the conference will be a big blessing to challenge and equip you to lead your church to be a world evangelism church.  My pastor has tons of experience of working in and leading others to get involved in world evangelism.  I know that he and the speakers will be a big blessing to you.  The cost is Free! Find out more details here.

The following came from here, and I thought there were some good ideas in the article.  We never want to forget why God has put our church here - to glorify God through reaching the world with the gospel.

There are things we can do to help our kids love the nations and the cause of Christ, even though a heart and calling for the Great Commission is ultimately something only God can grant. Here are a few ideas from Ryan and Anna, who are currently preparing to serve in Asia with their two young daughters.

1. Pray for missionaries as a family. We keep a stack of prayer cards on the dinner table and rotate through them during mealtime prayers.

2. Read missionary biographies to your children. The stories of Hudson Taylor, Adoniram Judson, William Carey, Gladys Aylward, and other missionary pioneers are captivating ways to orient a child’s heart on the most important things in life.

3. Draw the whole family into supporting missionaries financially. Teach your kids from a young age that being a good steward of their money involves channeling resources toward the the cause of Christ in missions. Older kids can donate some of their lawn mowing and babysitting money. Younger children can earn money doing chores around the house which can be set aside for missionaries.

4. Find your child a missionary kid pen pal. Many children of missionaries around the world would be delighted to get mail from a child their age in their parent’s culture. Your child (and the whole family) will learn valuable insights about living abroad through the eyes of a child. Additionally, when the missionaries visit your church, your child will already have a relationship with the MK and will be able to include them more easily.

5. Entertain missionaries in your home. Inviting missionaries over will be as much of a blessing to your family as to the missionaries. Host them for dinner or for a whole furlough. Build or buy your house with this in mind.

6. Take risks as a family. There are ways to live life which help children grasp the reality that discomfort and suffering are normal and rewarding parts of the Christian experience. Volunteer at a rescue mission; house a single mother; move to the inner-city.

7. Affirm and nurture qualities in your children which could serve them on the mission field. As your children grow in knowledge and skill, encourage them to think about how they could use their gifts in missions work. Then, if God says, “go,” release them to go!

8. Teach your children to be world Christians. Don’t expose them to only the American perspective on news and realities around the world. Go out of your way to make them more aware than the average American Christian about geography, world history, and the plights and perspectives of people across the globe.

9. Read missionary prayer letters to your children. Ask them questions about the content and look up facts about the missionaries’ location on the Internet.

10. Use missions fact books and resources such as Operation World, the Global Prayer Digest, the Joshua Project, and Voice of the Martyrs (VOM). Kids of Courage is the youth-oriented arm of VOM and offers activity books, spotlights on the persecuted world, and more.

Most of all, pray every day that your kids will develop hearts that mirror God’s compassion for the nations and love for his glory in them!

Here is Evan Williams’ latest prayer letter sent to us on 21 March.  They are missionaries on their way to Honduras and we support them every month financially, and I hope that you are praying for them.

Dear Pastors and Praying Friends,

Looking back, since our last prayer letter, we have seen how God never fails his children. While our family plans over the Christmas period did, our son was involved in a road accident, whichd by moving in the hearts of three pastors,. until mid-May, He, before beginning our 2nd Candidate school, at BIMI, on Junes, that God would bless us not work out as we had hoped, God used that time to prove His love to us. As most of you know so easily could have been fatal. It left him with a crushed ankle and a broken wrist, resulting in him having to under go surgery. God’s people came around us and through their prayers we were able to face this trauma and see our son get back onto his feet. He still needs your prayers and we trust that you will continue to remember him, asking God to complete the healing process that He has begun in his body.

Despite this mishap, we were able to hold good to our deputation commitments. God blessed whose churches we visited, to present our ministry for support.  Looking forward into this quarter, we continue to look unto our Heavenly Father for our every day needs. How He provides is wonderful in our eyes. Now that we are up in the North East of the U.S has provided us with accommodation through a wonder family here, who have opened their home to us. During this time we will be sharing our burden for the lost souls in Honduras with fourteen churches, before heading down to TN. On the way there we will have a further four meetings 2nd. This will leave us with one further meeting, before the end of this quarter. Pray with us about these meeting with further support.

We do thank God for your part in all of these blessings. Yours in Christ.

It is now 2:45 AM, and I am just now winding down after a very long day.  We were on the road by 9.00 AM and took some time to shop for souveniours.  At 12.00 AM, we began our journey back to Northern Ireland.  After a car, a ferry, a bus, another bus, a taxi, a plane, and another car, we made it back to our destination 12 hours later.  I think that all of us who went on the trip will never be the same again.  From preaching to a crowded room of Nigerian men, to a picnic and service on the beach, to preaching to a group of believers and unbelievers in North Africa, to a huge community plate of couscous, to passing out literature in Spain, this was an unforgettable trip.  I hope that we have everything ready to show you on Sunday night, so come prepared to hear what God did.

The offering our church gave will go toward sending out literature in North Africa.  It was wonderful time to get away, to see our friends, who we enjoy so much, and to get fired up to serve the Lord.  Don’t miss Sunday!  Come and bring a friend.

Also, be in prayer for our pastor, Austin Gardner, as he is on his way to Bolivia at the moment.

This is the third day of our trip.  We started at 9.00 AM and began our journey to another country close by where we visited a some other friends and did some ministry.  It was great to give out Bibles and tracts to folks. 

The countryside that we drove through was beautiful with mountains, valleys and farms.  We stopped along the way for a sandwich and drinks.  We also filmed the testimony of a believer that we hope to show you when we get back.  He heard the gospel through radio and is one of the only Christians in his town of 100,000 people.

Today is Kyle’s birthday, so we are celebrating with a meal of Couscous and a birthday cake.  Kyle is a great young man, and I am very excited about what is going to do through his life and the life of his family.  Keep Grant in your prayers.  He had a temperature for several days but is feeling much better.

Our friends here are great hosts.  They have put together a great itinerary for us.  We have really enjoyed the fellowship with the believers and witnessing to unbelievers.  We have also had a great time visiting many amazing places.  We have been to the coast, to the mountains, to a cave that looks like the continent of Africa, to a place where we rode camels, and to the home of a local family.

Tonight, we go to help teach English.  We will keep you posted on what is going on.  I hope that you all had a good time at church last night.  I was thinking about you and praying for you.  We miss you and love you, and we look forward to returing back soon.

Today we had a very busy day of ministry.  In the morning, we went to preach and give testimony to some Nigerias who are living here.  They speak English so it was nice to be able to talk with them personally.  Mark did a great job with his testimony and it was fun to preach.

In the afternoon, we had a picnic at the coast with the church here.  We played football, Mark gave his testimony, and I preached a message to them from 1 John.  There were 19 folks there in total for the Wednesday service.

We stayed around talking and discipling for a while and then we at dinner.  It a great day today.  We met several believers and really enjoyed getting to know them and hear about how God is working in their life.  Pray for the men who attend the meetings who are unsaved.

Today has been an absolutely amazing day.  We started about 10.30 with a tour around the medina (old city and walls).  Bro. Aaron brought out a couple of great truths about Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone and the city being set on a hill just as we Christians should be (Matthew 5).

Before lunch, we had a time of fellowship where we all shared our testimony.  It was great to hear how God worked in the hearts of people from Peru, North Africa, Ireland, and Ohio.  It was a small taste of Revelation 5:9, “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.”

After a delicious lunch at our friend’s house, we went over to help do some ministry work and pray for this country.  Please pray for the work with Project North Africa for God to send forth labourers.  This is a country of 33 million people and as far as we know there are only 3 independent Baptist missionaries in the country and very few independent Baptist churches.  There are many people all around the country and in other countries in North Africa who are interested in receiving an Arabic New Testament.  Some of these prospects are genuine and some are not, but the vision Project North Africa has is to start churches in seven major areas that have poeple within a 2 hour’s drive radius. 

Tonight, we had the privilege of enjoying a cup of tea and snacks in a North African home.  Their hospitality was great and the food phenomenal.  We enjoyed Rife (a bread that you did in honey, jam, etc.), traditional cookies (Hellua), Mint tea, etc.  Please pray for the salvation of this Muslim family.

After the meal, we went back to our friend’s house for a bit of fellowship.  Thank you for continuing to pray for us.

We arrived safely here in North Africa after about 12 hours of travelling.  We have had some interesting and exciting adventures, and we are trying to catch them all on video to show you.  I will write more tomorrow, but just wanted to let you know for now that we have arrived safely and all is well.