Archive - December, 2009

Jeff Bush’s prayer letter

December 16, 2009 in Ministry with 0 Comments

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The last month of 2009, has shown some of the greatest fruits of our 5 years here in Argentina. We are very grateful for how many blessings we have seen and we want to share a few of them with you.

On Friday, December 11th, we held the first graduation of the Macedonia Baptist Institute, a full-time bible institute to prepare servants for God’s work. There were 5 men who graduated and we are praising the Lord for the wonderful ceremony and testimonies given by the men who graduated. The men are already working in the Lord’s work, which is a great encouragement to us on the mission field. Each one of these men are already working in the ministry as either pastor, assistant pastor, youth director, and evangelism director. We praise the Lord for their lives as well as those that will continue studying next year.

The next biggest event was our evangelism Saturday before our 5th Anniversary. There were over 50 people to go passing out invitations for our big day and it was an exciting moment for us to see church people doing God’s work – getting out of the church and into the streets.

Both Grace Baptist Church as well as Lighthouse Baptist Church celebrated their 5th Anniversary in the month of December and it was a blessing to see how God worked. Pastor Matias Aguilera (a now graduate of the Institute) of the Grace Baptist Church did a great job of organizing and bringing people.

The Lighthouse Baptist Church had passed out around 11,000 invitations, prayed before every service for over a month, and placed a goal of seeing 300 people for the special service. The anniversary service was called “Community Day” and the goal was to open the church doors to the community. God blessed greater than we could have imagined and over 420 people showed up for the service!!! The city representative was present and we honored him and a policeman with a certificate for their service in our community. Our church building had recently been enlarged and every possible area was filled. The Gospel was sang, testified and preached and God was given the glory.

Our family is doing well and we are excited about our new addition that will be born in April. We are expecting our 4th child and praising the Lord that Mindy and the baby are doing fine.

Of course we always want to close thanking you for your prayers and give each pastor, individual, church and youth group an open door to visit us here in Argentina. Not only do we think you will be encouraged and excited about missions, but we believe that you will thank the Lord for every dollar you have given towards missions. To God be the glory!!

Here to Serve,

Jeff and Mindy Bush and family

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Don’t forget the Christmas offering for the Howeths

December 16, 2009 in Ministry with 0 Comments

Next Thursday evening we will take a special offering for the Howeth family. You know that they have had a very difficult time since Ethan got shot. Below you will find all of the information to help you know better what has happened.

I hope you will pray about giving a gift to help them with the financial pressures that they have encountered.

See you next Tuesday, December 22 for our Christmas service.

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I am sure that all the readers of this blog know about the horrible hunting accident that has brought terrible chaos and financial woes on the Tony Howeth family. Here are the links to things previously written on this blog so that you can be brought up to speed.

Ethan coming home in the morning

The Howeths need a van

update

Update on Ethan

News on Ethan

Latest from Northern Ireland

Ethan Howeth on Thursday Afternoon

Daily update on Ethan Howeth

Help the Howeth Family

Ethan Howeth may be moving to Atlanta

Update on Ethan Howeth

Please pray for Ethan Howeth

Abuse suffered by women in Arab world!

December 15, 2009 in Ministry, Persecution with 1 Comment

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We have missionaries serving in Northern Africa and other Arab countries. There is a systemic problem of abuse that women suffer in these countries. It makes the ladies very uncomfortable and for just cause.

I would ask you to pray for our missionary friends. Read these comments from this article so you will know how to pray.

CAIRO (AP) — The sexual harassment of women in the streets, schools and work places of the Arab World is driving them to cover up and confine themselves to their homes, said activists at the first-ever regional conference addressing the once taboo topic.

The harassment, including groping and verbal abuse, appears to be designed to drive women out of public spaces and seems to happen regardless of what they are wearing, they said.

“The religious leaders are always blaming the women, making them live in a constant state of fear because out there, someone is following them,” she said.

If a harassment case is reported in Yemen, Basha added, traditional leaders interfere to cover it up, remove the evidence or terrorize the victim.

I ask you to pray about this because as our missionaries live in these cultures it can become very difficult for the wives. They do not feel near as free to live a normal life as in other cultures.

There is an oppressive feeling to being in these north African countries.

They do need the gospel. I am so glad that we have young men and women that love God so much and want to preach His Word where hasn’t been heard so much that they are willing to brave these conditions.

We are not there. We are not dealing with this but we can let them know that we love them and are praying for them.
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Kevin White’s prayer letter

December 15, 2009 in Prayer letters with 0 Comments

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Lets talk Money:

This past month we had our II annual conference on Finances. As our special speaker for the conference we invited Bro. Jose Zapata from Peru to be with us. He has been in management positions in several different companies including two banks. He has a tremendous knowledge of finances and has been teaching on the subject for many years. Our conference was from Friday to Sunday with a special business breakfast on Saturday morning. We were able to invite many people from businesses, schools, and friends and family to participate. Each service was a tremendous blessing with tons of visitors and decisions. Friday night we had around 70 people for the first service and then close to 80 in the breakfast Saturday morning. Saturday night we thought the attendance would be down because of it being the weekend but we ended up with the highest attendance with more than 80 present. It was truly a special service with 5 people receiving the Lord and many people making decisions to get out of debt. Sunday was the last day of our Financial Conference and the Lord gave us two great services. In the morning we had Sunday School, and then the morning service, and the Lord blessed us with many visitors and 99 in attendance with 5 professions of faith. In the night service, we had a great group with many of the same visitors returning and one lady that was dealt with and trusted the Lord. It was amazing because we had almost as many (94) at night as we did in the morning. Many made comments about how much they enjoyed the conference and how much it helped them with their finances and spiritual lives. We praise the Lord for the opportunity to get to know our speaker Jose Zapata and see how God is using him. We had more than 60 visitors over the three days of the conference and have been doing much follow up since then. We praise the Lord that many of those who visited are still coming to the services.

Whirlwind Tour:

Since we have been here in Bolivia we have wanted to visit many of the cities in the mountainous area of the country. This past month, we took what was truly a whirlwind tour of this area with a group of people from the church. We left one morning at 6:00am and traveled to the city of Oruro. That afternoon we left and took a 8-hour train ride to the city of Uyuni and the next day we visited to salt flats, which are the largest in the world. That night, we left in a small bus for a 7 hour trip via dirt road to the city of Potosi. This city was at one time the largest and most wealthy city in all of South America. From the time of the Spanish Conquest to recent years they have been mining silver and gold. They say that there was enough silver taken out of the mountains by the Spanish to make a bridge both ways from South America to Spain. After a day in this, one of the highest cities in Bolivia, we left for the political capital city of Sucre. It is a colonial city with the largest fossil remains of dinosaur footprints in the world. From there that night we left to return by bus all night to the first city that we visited and then from there to our city. Besides the amazing sites that we saw, the greatest impact was to see so many cities and towns that need a solid gospel preaching church.

Saying Goodbye:

For the past three and a half years we have had the privilege to work with a couple from Peru Jorge and Jenny Montenegro. They have been a great blessing to us and the church and a vital part of our ministry. We spoke with them a while back and they told us that they had been praying and felt like it was the Lord’s will for them to return to Peru and work in the ministry there. They will be greatly missed and we wish the best for them, but the ministry here must go on. We are working hard to prepare many of the leaders in the church to take more of the responsibilities especially those that will be left be Jorge and Jenny. Also this coming month, we have a young man that will be coming to help us during this time named Chrisitan Ching. He is Peruvian but his grandfather came from China to Peru to live and married a Peruvian. We know that he is going to be a great help here also and blessing to the people and church.

Prayer Requests:

Praise the Lord our last step of paper work is done and we are permanent residents.
Pray for our Christmas banquette and program this month.
Pray the Lord will prepare leaders for this upcoming year.
Pray for Christian Ching that will be arriving this month the help in the church.

Make Disciples by Ron Maggard

December 14, 2009 in Reading Notes with 0 Comments

Wedged between the word “disciple” in Luke 14:27 and verse 33, Jesus placed three very interesting lessons.  One about a tower, the second about an army and the third about salt.  I want to consider some thoughts regarding the first example of building a tower.

The word “disciple” has fallen into disuse today except in some circles.  It is a wonderful title with great meaning.  This title appears over 230 times in the New Testament whereas “christian” appears only 3 times.  Yet today we hear the title “christian” used far more.  Could this be because the word “disciple” has a meaning and requirements that many would rather not bear?

Jesus in the context of his teaching about being a disciple clearly uses this idea of building a tower to teach an important lesson.  He mentions sitting down, which has the idea of having a deliberate plan for what you are about to do.  If a pastor or missionary does not have a plan for discipleship it is doubtful that a church will ever be established.  If a church does not have some system to build disciples the meetings that it conducts will seem to be just a series of meetings to those who are attending.  Since we are commissioned by Christ to “make disciples” this should be our priority.

Jesus also mentions counting the cost.  I am convinced that much of the ridicule that Christianity and churches receive today is because of the unfinished work of discipleship on our part.  “… all behold it and begin to mock…”  We have spent decades building respectable buildings and ministries but we have failed miserably to build disciples.

Many have been admirable in their soul winning efforts and have brought people to a faith in Christ.  They have “laid the foundation” but that is where their building stops.  The poor testimonies that are the result of these “unfinished” disciples have resulted in the growth of heresy, cults and many tragedies within the ranks of Christendom.

Let’s make disciples!

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