Missionary Update: The Wacasers [December 2012]
Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
Dear Friends,
Our outreach trip to Argentina was a tremendous success in terms of evangelism. Our Projeto Vida (Project Life) team called “Doulos”, had a full week of opportunities sharing the gospel in the public schools and parks just across the Brazil/Argentina border. When their activities had come to a conclusion and the bus began to return home the motor blew up and over 35 workers were stranded on a deserted stretch of highway. The broken down bus is our newest, so it was the least likely expected to have major mechanical problems.
The newest Projeto Vida bus broke down on their Argentina trip.
But, now it is nearly a thousand miles away in a shop waiting on expensive repairs to be done. We had to find alternative travel arrangements for the team and volunteers to get back to our base and that too brought on an unexpected expense. We realize that trials like these are a part of serving the Lord in this fallen world and that this kind of difficulty (and much worse) faces every generation of God’s children. We are not discouraged. We are thankful that we had the opportunity to take the love of Christ beyond our borders and for the privilege of seeing many turn to Christ. We also realize that this breakdown in equipment didn’t catch the Lord by surprise, so we’ll look to Him to meet our needs to keep this effective ministry going.
American Football is becoming popular in Brazil, which has presented unique evangelistic opportunities.
As I’m writing this, there are a couple of football coaches in the US meeting to discuss the details of a plan to come down to Brazil next June to hold an evangelistic football camp/workshop. One of these men came last year to work in a different town in Brazil and he and his group had great results, both in evangelism and sports. The football team they ministered to just won the Brazilian national championship last week. I am in a unique situation in Brazil because of the rapidly growing interest in American football here and some of the head coaches are my friends and are asking me to introduce the gospel to their teams. We still have openings for other volunteers who either play or coach football and who would like to use this opportunity to share their faith with many who do not know Christ. We are also in great need of inexpensive or donated football equipment, so you can also be greatly helpful through that means. Please contact me at the attached addresses and/or phone number.
My leg and foot are nearly mended after breaking them a few weeks ago. The injury did slow me down more than I wanted to admit. I discovered that I am not as patient as I need to be with things that are beyond my control, but I also learned that I just have to be.
Bro. Bobby has had to learn to be patient after breaking his leg and foot.
There are things “beyond my control”, and making broken bones heal faster is one of them. I was grateful to learn that there were no ligaments or tendons torn and thus, no need for surgery. I probably won’t be able to take a group to hike in the nearby mountains until next year, though.
Each week we go out to a new community called “Corbellia” to share the gospel and seek an open door among the people there. We are very well received by the people, but we have yet to locate a strategic meeting place to hold Bible studies for groups. The Lord has placed a desire in our hearts to plant a church in this community, so we will continue to minister to them as we keep our eyes open for the opportunities to expand the ministry there.
We are very grateful to you who have prayed faithfully for us throughout the year of 2012. We are also thankful to God for you who have contributed financially so that we might be able to carry on the various ministries here in southern Brazil. We trust that the Lord will bless you and that you will rejoice to know that you have been a true blessing to us in this partnership. We hope you have a wonderful 2013!
In Christ’s love,
Bobby, Charlene and Brennen Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279-1
Bairro Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR Brasil
(813)436-9980
robertmw[at]brturbo.com.br
Click here to give.
Read more
FaithWORKS Report [December 2012]
THANKSGIVING CONFERENCE
[You can also read service-by-service recaps of all our Conference sessions by scrolling through these posts on our FaithWORKS blog.]
The Lord blessed us with an encouraging Thanksgiving Conference hosted by New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. Terry Adkins is the pastor of these gracious and missions-faithful saints of the Lord.
The theme of our Conference was “PLANTING CHURCHES IN ALL KINDS OF SOIL” and was inspired by 1 Corinthians 3.6: “I have planted, Apollos watered; BUT GOD GAVE THE INCREASE.”
The Lord was glorified in the messages preached from His Word. They all emphasized, not only God’s sovereignty over the increase of His own Gospel, but also His promises to make His Kingdom and churches grow when we obediently and faithfully plant and water His Word. We all renewed our own commitments to plant and water faithfully and IN DEPENDENCE UPON GOD TO MAKE HIS WORKS GROW!
Two of our missionaries were present and preached: Sheridan Stanton and John Mark Hatcher. God blessed us to have them among us and benefit from their ministries in the Word.
There is an enthusiastic spirit of interest and involvement in the ministry of Baptist Faith Missions that is increasingly demonstrated among our fellowshipping churches. We are continuously praying to God for this, and we are committed to doing everything we can to see it come to fruition.
Randy Jones, the President of BFM, also presented to the Conference some of the activities we have pursued this past year in our efforts to expand our outreach and cultivate our relationships with our contributors. We believe that cultivating personal relationships with our supporting churches and Giving Friends in our fellowship is one of the Lord’s means of stabilizing, strengthening, and increasing our missionaries’ support funds. Fellowship [partnership] in the Gospel is God’s ordained mandate, model, and means for our participation in His Mission…serving God together in this, our mutual ministry in the Gospel.
Several churches were represented by the attendance of their pastors and members, and especially from the greater-Detroit area. We are increasingly encouraged by that. We are especially appreciative also for Pastor Gary Harrah and the brothers and sisters of the Grace Missionary Baptist Church in Wyandotte, who not only came to attend the Conference services, but also joined in with New Hope’s members to help serve us with the meals and the hospitality.
[You can view several pictures from the Conference on our Facebook Page.]
SALARY INCREASE
One of the goals we had set for ourselves this past year [2012] was to be solvent enough to give each of our missionaries a 5% year-end lump sum appreciation bonus [which would have amounted to about $1,030.00 per year]. However, when we presented and discussed our prospective budgets for 2013, We don’t have remaining funds to do that.
But, after considering and praying over one of our other goals – to give them a 5% increase in their base salary – we did move to adopt that proposal. So, beginning in 2013, trusting God to provide it, we will increase their salary base from $1,717.00 to $1,803.00 per month. The Lord has given us an increase of about 3% in the monthly General Fund offerings during 2012 [when compared to the same offerings during 2011].
We are communicating this also to all of you, their Giving Friends, praying to God and hoping we will all respond together with commensurate increases to the monthly General Fund.
For the past six years or so, we have been appealing to all of us in our BFM fellowship to take note of the on-going needs of our missionaries for increases in their monthly General Fund offerings. We have been paraphrasing an appeal Abigail made to King David in 1 Samuel 25.17: “Now therefore KNOW and CONSIDER WHAT YOU WILL DO.”
Will you help us provide this much-needed and belated salary increase for our missionaries’ basic and essential living expenses BY INCREASING YOUR PERSONAL OFFERINGS TO THE MONTHLY GENERAL BY JUST 5% – or more – as the Lord enables you?
If everyone of us increases our contributions to the monthly General Fund by even that amount, we can more than supply this modest salary increase for our missionaries.
WINTER CONFERENCE
January 20-23, 2013
Hosted by Park Ridge Baptist Church, Gotha FL
Host Pastor, Ben Glover | 407.719.9861 | bentonglover@aol.com
Please make your plans to attend this Conference. We will be posting the
program and other additional information on our website’s Events page
and also on our FaithWorks Blog page soon!
Read more
Missionary Update: Odali & Kathy Barros in Brazil [December 2012]
Odali and Kathy Barros have served the Lord in Sao Paulo, Brazil for many years. In addition to leading their newest church, they also run “Alpha Omega Family Development,” which provides a home and stability for needy people, many of whom are recovering drug addicts, etc.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We hope all are enjoying on this Thanksgiving the blessing of our Lord and Savior. We are all doing great. God has done and is doing great things in our lives and ministry. At the moment we have no plans for our furlough. We still have not received our children’s documents. Pray that they will come at the right time.
Our services have been wonderful. Sunday morning we work to a great extent with children and teens. We have a group of about 60 that come faithfully. It is so wonderful to see them change their
behavior as they keep coming. They come from homes that are a total wreck.
The Sunday night services have been great. We have several couples that have been coming for about a month now. Sunday night we had 3 of them that made professions of faith. Pray for these new converts. We will continue teaching on the doctrine of the Baptist church. Several of these adults had attended other evangelical churches. So they have been taught several doctrines. They will be a great blessing to the church.
We still spend lots of time with our children on Sunday morning. Since they come from so many homes where the suffer abuse of all kinds. Kathy and I love to sit out in front of the church and the children come and hug us. The young man that we mentioned a few months ago that came to church high on drugs is still coming. He has changed so much. Pray for him. His name is Clayton.
On Sunday night we plan for the next Sunday school. We decide what the menu is and everyone helps giving something for the meal. Everyone loves to give for the kid’s meal. Below is our last meal. The little boy in blue that is watching me cook is my helper. When he started coming to church he was absolutely terrible. His name is Bruno and his mother is HIV positive. That can kind of tell you where he is coming from!!!!!
Bruno (in the blue shirt) is Odali’s special helper.
Bro. Odali prepares the kids’ meal–a weekly event!
We are coming to a close of another year and we are making plans for our ministry for the coming year. We will share with you in our next letter what God has placed on our hearts. Thanks for all your prayers and support. God bless all of your tremendously.
Odali & Kathy Barros
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
Blog
Caixa Postal 182
17400-000 Garca, SP
Brasil, S.A.
Read more
FaithWORKS Report [November 2012]
2012 THANKSGIVING OFFERING
We are now receiving our 2012-13 Thanksgiving Offering. We will use these funds to provide support services and other periodic commitments we make to our missionaries over the course of the year. Last year’s Thanksgiving Offering was $56,365.38. Coming into November, we have only $3,735.44 of that amount remaining after we have provided the services and honored the commitments to our missionaries so far this year. It is essential that we give as generous an offering as the Lord enables you to give.
Our Lord Jesus Christ commands each one of us to personally participate in the
advance of His Gospel “into all the world” “to all nations”. There are two ways
each one of us can participate: [1] Go ourselves…in person – as our faithful
missionaries have done and are doing; [2] Give offerings to help them go – as in
Romans 15.24, 2 Corinthians 10.15-15, and Philippians 4.15-17.
PASTORS: will you open the opportunity for the members of your church to give
to this much-needed offering? Encourage them to personally participate in the
increase of the Glory of Jesus Christ in every nation where our missionaries are
serving.
GIVING FRIEND: will you personally give an offering to help supply our
missionaries’ needs over the next year? If your church is not receiving a
Thanksgiving Offering, you can send your personal offering via any of the means
provided on our Donate/Support page. Click here to make a one-time donation via e-check or credit card now. “BRING AN OFFERING…Psalm 96.8”
THANKSGIVING CONFERENCE
We hope you can attend November 19-21. Please be in prayer for this conference as well! You can find the program and other additional information in this post.
KEEP UP WITH WHAT IS HAPPENING – AS IT HAPPENS!
You can keep up with what is happening in BFM as it happens by logging on to our website regularly, and especially the FaithWorks blog page. As our missionaries write their monthly newsletters, they are immediately posted there as we receive them.
ALSO OUR FACEBOOK – www.facebook.com/baptistfaithmissions
We are making daily posts there not only with our missionaries newsletters, but also with daily developments and updates. Bookmark the page and be in the know!
BFM EMAIL NEWS – we want to include you in our email bulletins. If you have not
signed up to receive our email reports, please do so by subscribing either through our
Facebook page, or by sending us an email at baptistfaithmissions@gmail.com.
ADVANCE PDF COPY OF THE MISSION SHEETS – This Mission Sheets issue
will be posted on our website before it goes to the printer. We will post links to the PDF
Mission Sheets on Facebook and also via emailed BFM NEWS.
MONTHLY GENERAL FUND OFFERINGS
We also continue to need increased and faithful MONTHLY GENERAL FUND OFFERINGS to supply their monthly Essential Maintenance Transactions [EMT]. Those essential commitments amount to more than $45,000.00 every month.
$20,426.00 for their salaries;
$10,950.00 for their standard housing and ministry allowances;
$11,918.11 for their monthly hospitalization premiums;
$1722.50 for the printing and distribution of their monthly newsletters and reports in The Mission Sheets. These disbursements must be made every month. They must be supplied through your monthly GENERAL FUND offerings, or else we will be required to reduce either their salaries or expense allowances to make the monthly GENERAL FUND supplies/disbursements balance.
YOUR FAITHFUL AND GENEROUS MONTHLY GENERAL FUND OFFERINGS ARE SUPPLYING THESE NEEDS so they can maintain their daily ministries unhindered by shortages of funds and undistracted from their service by wondering what they will have to curtail to keep their ministries going.
We love you and thank God for each one. All our offerings working together will keep them GOING AND GROWING for the Glory of God!
WINTER CONFERENCE
January 20-23, 2013
Hosted by Park Ridge Baptist Church, Gotha FL
Host Pastor, Ben Glover | 407.719.9861 | bentonglover@aol.com
Please make your plans to attend this Conference. We will be posting the
program and other additional information on our website’s Events page
and also on our FaithWorks Blog page soon!
Read more
Missionary Update: Mike & Beverly Creiglow in Brazil [November 2012]
Mike and Beverly Creiglow have served the Lord in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil together for 40 years. In addition to pastoring First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul, Mike builds his own boats and frequently travels up and down rivers to share the Gospel with those who have never heard.
November 5, 2012
Dear Brethren,
Many of you may know that we have had a local TV program for over 22 years. We have our own little studio and every Tuesday or Thursday night a couple of young men from church help me record and edit a half hour program. Many people watch the program that airs every Saturday and Sunday morning. They tell me and thank me. Many would never come to church, but they still tell me how much they enjoy it. There haven’t been many to come out and profess trust in Christ. Last week though I had some great news. At 6:30AM as I was getting the building open to start work a young man stopped by and introduced himself. He is one of two sons of the former mayor of Porto Walter. The mayor and his 2 boys were arrested and convicted of corruption and were in the local penitentiary. Demerval thanked me for the program. He said that he, his brother and dad watched every weekend and all three were saved while in there. He said, “When I went in, I thought I knew who Jesus was, but I didn’t know Him. Because of the messages that we heard now we KNOW Him!” Our teams that visit the prison every week took care of them while they served their time. All 3 are now free and I hope that they will get in church at Porto Walter.
We had a great baptism service last month. 24 new members. We have had a few other new members by church letter, too. Last Sunday we had 5 more people saved.
Zico and I took off for a visit to Porto Walter a couple of weeks ago, but didn’t quite make it. We had been on the river for over 4 hours and were just about an hour away when we had engine trouble. A very major tropical storm had been stalking us for over 2 hours. We had been through the edges of it because of the horseshoe bends of the river. At 5:30 it got ahead of us. Right then the motor banged a stump and started to vibrate. I thought, “There goes the brand new prop.”
When I stopped at a beach to check it out I discovered that the lower motor mount had broken and fallen off. No way to buck the current and continue up stream. Thank the Lord and Park Ridge Baptist Church for the satellite phone. Just as the storm slammed us I was able to warn Bev and the folks at Porto Walter that we were not going to be able to make it. What next? The engine was purring nicely and could turn the prop at idle speed, but nothing more. I asked Zico what he would rather do: find a house to spend the night or poke along until we eventually got back to Cruzeiro do Sul. He said, “Let’s go home.” The storm passed and the moon came out for a while. My really good and powerful flashlight helped us thread our way through all the stumps and shallows. It took us 10 hours and we arrived back in Cruzeiro at 3:30AM. After a couple of hours of sleep I got up and went to church for Sunday morning services. Zico was beat and didn’t make it to the first service of the day! I am grateful for the good health, stamina and drive that the Lord has given me.
Please pray for my safety and those who are working with me on the annex. We are putting up the steel structure for the third floor. I built and erected the columns. Today I will finish the last steel truss. Later this week we hope to get them up and the roof on no later than the 15th. I promised the church that I would build all this stuff myself to save them some money. Just this one job is a savings of $22,000.00. The church and Bev worry about my safety, which is understandable. The hours have been long for many weeks. I start my day at 5:00AM with prayer and devotion with several church members. Then it is work from dawn to dark. I have to keep up all my teaching and preaching, too, so pray for me.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike and Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
Click here to donate to BFM.
Read more
Missionary Update: Sheridan & Anita Stanton on furlough from Peru [November 2012]
Sheridan and Anita Stanton have served the Lord in Peru for 28 years. Their main ministry is church planting and they have helped establish churches all over the country. Sheridan also works to train pastors and Anita works with the ladies’ ministry and developing children’s material.
Dear friends,
The autumn mix of red, yellow, gold and orange has been amazing as Anita and I have traveled the interstates this past month. The first of the month we were in Michigan and had the opportunity to visit Niagara Falls for a few days on the Canadian side for Anita’s birthday. Then we came back to Michigan in time for the Annual Mission Conference sponsored by the Grace Baptist Church of Holly, Michigan –Pastor Bob Hopkins and the Lake Road Baptist Church of Clio, Michigan –Pastor Doug Armstrong.
October – 7 in the morning with the Grace Baptist Church, Holly, Michigan, and then with the Liberty Baptist Church, Burton, Michigan in the evening -Pastor Tim Works.
October – 14 with the Grace Baptist Church, Fairborn, Ohio, pastor Mark Pyle (am service). Emmanuel Baptist Church, Bellbrook, Ohio, pastor Darrell Messer (pm service), then back on Wednesday – 17 with Emmanuel Baptist for their Annual Missions Conference.
October – 19 we headed to Florida so we could be with our home/sending church, Jordan Missionary Baptist of Sanford, Florida on the 21st.
October- 18 we began a four day Revival Meeting with the Grace Baptist Church of Bradenton, Florida, Pastor Jim Burnham. The Lord blessed our meeting with power of the Spirit of God being gloriously manifested. We would have enjoyed attending the Annual Mission Conference of the Bryan Station Baptist Church of Lexington, Kentucky, but the dates conflicted with the meeting in Florida.
At this time Anita and I are in Atlanta, Georgia attending a conference sponsored by the NCCA – National Christian Counselors Association. We head for Glenville, Georgia tomorrow.
We continue to be graciously received by each church. New friends have been made and a lot of old friendships have been strengthened. The amount of miles travelled on furloughs never changes but Anita and I feel this furlough has been a little less stressful due to your faithful prayers. Thank you all so much!
PRAYER REQUESTS:
- Hilda Bayhi (Anita’s sister) has finished taking chemotherapy and radiation treatments for brain cancer and will undergo cyber-knife surgery to remove the four brain tumors on November 5th.
- Our son, Major Joshua Stanton, USAF, for his safety as a pilot flying missions in Afghanistan. Hopefully he will return to the States soon and see his new born son, Benjamin for the first time.
- God’s grace and protection as we continue our furlough travels.
- Anita’s knees are doing a bit better but still hurting her.
- For the Calvary Baptist Mission of Huánuco, Peru and all the churches and pastors of Peru.
For the churches reading this letter please consider giving a special, generous, Thanksgiving Offering designated for the General Fund of Baptist Faith Mission.
Until next month,
In HIM by HIS grace,
Sheridan and Anita Stanton
Furlough Address:
1012 Balsam Drive
Lexington, KY 40504
(859) 277-3716 – mission house
(859) 490-5370 – cell in States
(614) 500-8823
sestantonperu[at]hotmail.com – Sheridan
arstantonperu[at]gmail.com – Anita
Click here to give now.
Read more
Missionary Update: AJ & Barbara Hensley in Brazil [November 2012]
The Hensleys have spent nearly 15 years serving in Brazil. They run a vocational school and orphanage in Caraguatatuba and have also established a church and mission points throughout the city.
Friends and family,
The Lord is sooooo good!!! The work here in Caraguatatuba is going just AWESOME! Two weeks ago we had yet another baptism and God added three more souls to the kingdom.There were two more that were scheduled to be baptised but could not be on that date. Now we have those two plus three more. God is being honored here in Caraguatatuba. Sometimes we don’t know why things don’t go the way we think they should but we fail to remember that God sees the big picture and He sees and knows what is good for us and the hour that is right.
For some more AWESOME news, We now have a micro-bus (25 passengers and 1 driver) We took the van to the dealership and drove home with the micro-bus. That is with the van and the money that has been given for this purchase we are now the proud owners of a bus. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. The trip from the dealership was about 4-1/2 hours and we made it without any problems. The bus is a 2000 model so there are some things that will need immediate attention and then some things that can wait to be fixed a little at a time. My mechanic says that we need springs and shocks and we will need 4 or 6 new tires to begin with and about 1/2 of the lights work. But having this bus is such a blessing that I would not dare to complain. If you were not able to help with the purchase of the bus, maybe you are now able to give to help on these needed repairs. We are hoping to have the bus back in top notch shape before May of next year as we are planning on hosting 6 mission groups in 2013. Two of these groups will be work groups and others are planning Bible schools and other mission-related activities. It’s going to be an absolutely AWESOME year. Pray for the success of these groups and projects.
The vocational school is in progress. The last group this year put up the doors and now the glass is needed in the windows. We need the bathrooms done and the kitchen done, then we will be ready to open the dorm. But without the dorm being finished, we are planning to begin with a new group of boys on the first of the year. We have been in contact with a boys’ correctional facility and they are very interested in our vocational school. What they are asking us to do is take the boys that are incarcerated and teach them a trade so that when they go back into the real world, they will be prepared to be a functioning part of society. These young men are between 14 and 18 years old. They also are interested in us teaching English to these young men. God is opening many doors for us here. We have talked to the wardens and told them that we were greatly concerned in training these young men to have a vocation but our main concern is their spiritual lives. So we are going to have devotional with them each time we are together before we start our classes. After several meetings we have been asked to be on the board of the prison as a religious advisor. So we will begin with these young men no later than next week.
The ladies of Novo Tempo had a Ladies retreat this month with around 80 ladies in attendance. There were ladies from 4 different Churches. They had 3 days of fellowship and Bible studies. Many lives were changed and many were given new hope through Bible study. We have these retreats each year and the ladies always come home renewed in spirit and ready to tackle all problems for another year. Our men are now wanting to have a retreat for themselves since the ladies came home so pumped up.
This month, our old brick layer had a tragedy in his family. One of his sons died with cancer. He had fought this disease for over 2 years but he lost the battle. The praise about this is that when a group of Americans were here we were able to talk to him about his salvation and he told us that he had Jesus in his heart. And then later in the month our son-in-law visited and reaffirmed with him his salvation. This helped in this time of grief to give console to the family. Also one of our Church members passed away and it was unexpected. He was just 58 years old and he is definitely missed.
Our granddaughter had her 4th birthday on the 30th so we made the 8 hour trip to celebrate with her. My son-in-law asked me to preach in the Church there in Sales. So we were able to bring Mary and the 2 girls back to Caragua for a short vacation.
We got back to Caragua last night and today myself and three other preachers will be traveling to Garca for a conference with various other pastors for three days. So as you can see our life is full of doing and going. Please pray for our stamina to hold out so that we can reach more souls for the Kingdom.
As I said we are having 6 groups this coming year but there is still room for you to come and see what God is doing with your mission dollars. Let me know when you want to come and we will turn down the bed and put some more water in the beans. We will be waiting for your call.
In His service,
Aj and Barbara
ajcaragua[at]gmail.com
Give to Baptist Faith Missions.
Read more
Missionary Update: The Radfords in Kenya [November 2012]
Nathan and Carrie Radford serve the Lord in Kitale, Kenya. Their main ministries include indigenous church planting, a prison ministry, and a hospital ministry for mothers with premature babies.
November 1, 2012
Dear praying friends,
Another month has quickly passed, and we are now at the end months of the year 2012. It is hard to believe that 2013 is just around the corner. Each year seems to go by faster and faster. I pray that we will commit ourselves anew to service to the Lord, wherever He leads us. I like Deuteronomy 13:4, which says “Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.” I pray that this would be our heart’s desire, that we would walk with the Lord, fear Him, keep His commandments, obey Him, serve Him, and cleave to Him. What a challenging verse from the Word of God.
The church plant in the village of Shangalamwe is continuing along well, for which I thank the Lord. My friend Roger Tate and I have been working with these dear people for several months now, and we have been able to see spiritual growth and progress. Some of the church members have grown discouraged as they have been faithful to go and share their faith, yet the work has been difficult and others have been giving excuses, etc. I tried to encourage them by sharing the verse in Galatians 6:9, which states “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” I reminded the church that we are to be faithful in serving the Lord, and leave the results with Him. Please pray for these members, that they would find strength and encouragement from the Lord and faithfully serve Him, no matter what the difficulties are.
We are also now meeting with a national, as he has been faithful to go and start different Bible study groups in the Kitale area. We have been meeting with him, sharing with him and training him to go and teach the lessons to other groups. The time will be coming where he will ask to see if the groups desire to be churches of the Lord Jesus Christ, so please be praying for him in the days ahead, that the Lord’s will would be done. It is good to do church planting using different ways, to compare and and see which is more effective in this culture. We covet your prayers as we continue to plant churches, with the Lord’s help, in the Kitale area.
The Annex prison ministry is continuing along well. We are now near the end of the course “Firm Foundations – From Creation to Christ.” The men coming seem to be really growing and doing well. I thank the Lord for this, and for their faithfulness to come and study the Word of God. I am also thankful for the cooperation of the head office of the Annex prison and also for the cooperation of the chaplains. Please pray for these men and their spiritual growth as they learn from the Word, as well as for the other men who have not yet decided to trust Christ and follow Him. How we need to share the Gospel message and share it with the lost. I love Luke 19:10, which says “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” We will keep you updated of this ministry.
In family news, please pray for each of us, and for our health and safety daily as we serve here. There are many health hazards here, and we would appreciate your prayers for our continued health as we serve in Kitale. Please also pray for us as it is now near the holiday season, and it is always hard to be away from those that we love. The Lord gives strength daily, and we are thankful for this. His strength is perfect when our strength is gone. We wish you all a great holiday season in America, and will be sure to keep you updated. God’s blessings to each of you.
Serving in Kitale,
Nathan and Carrie Radford
P.O. Box 4150
Kitale, Kenya
East Africa 30200
Click here to donate to BFM.
Read more
