We are so excited about our new church directory and the chance for us to stay better connected with each other! This time we are wanting to do something a little different. We would like to include a picture of every one of you to go along with your contact information.

In order to do this, Olan Mills Portrait Studios will be set up at the church on Friday, March 16th, from 2:30-9:30 pm and Saturday, March 17th, from 9:30-2:30 pm to take your portraits. Just for participating Olan Mills will be giving you a free church directory and $25 certificate. You will have the option to purchase your portrait, but this is not necessary to receive a copy of the church directory. So mark your calendars and plan to be there to participate in this project!

A sign up sheet will be set out on Sunday, and if you have any questions, feel free to contact Trent Cornwell at 770-853-8148

• $290,509 came in offerings for the year
• $88,417 was given in Faith Promise offerings
• $38,277 was given in Special Mission’s giving and offerings
• A total of $126,694 was given towards missions in 2011
• $615,383 given to missions since the church started less than 6 years ago!
• The Nehemiah Initiative or our building fund has $37,255 currently
• $12,025 given to start a new church in Fulton County
• The equity position of Vision Baptist Church increased from $38,476 at January 1, 2011 to $90,917 at December 31, 2011.
• Vision Baptist Church has no debt.

Sunday School report We averaged 132 in Sunday School in 2010 and increased to 154 in 2011
Mission’s report

• Vision Baptist Mission now has 10 families going to ten different countries
• Vision Baptist Church now has 15 staff missionaries
• Vision supports 34 missionaries to 18 countries
• Vision commissioned five new missionaries

Vision for 2012

Outreach

• Give out 15,000 gospel tracts door to door around the church allowing us to touch over 50,000 people with the gospel
• Put up a sign on MacFarland
• Purchase signs to be used to point to the church
• Challenge each of you to give out 366 tracts above the door to door tracts which would amount to our church giving out over 50,000 total tracts this year
• Have a monthly church wide visitation breakfast and 2 hour door tagging
• New follow up system for visitors starting this spring.

Leadership

• Elect deacons
• Enlist more people in the deacons in training group
• Pray for teachers as they commit to another year
• Pray for those that are going to be involved discipling others
• Get more involved in Foundations

Plant a church some where in Fulton County and begin training future church planters for the USA

• Find where God would have us start the church in Fulton Country
• Rent a room that will be used for the services
• Plan to start on Easter Sunday
• I will personally be going down and preaching until God raises up a man
• Will be arranging a meeting with those that want to be involved in helping with the new church plant

Get a choir that will sing regularly

Seeing Vision grow

• Increase the number of non missionary and trainee members of our church. Ask God for an average attendance in the AM preaching service of 140 which is an increase of about 35 over present average-purchase more chairs
• Put in place a new follow up program that you can get involved with
• Find property and ask God to raise the finances for the purchase. Should have over $70,000 in Nehemiah Initiative at the end of the year as we are going now but asking you to pray with me that God would give us $300,000 to be able to buy-form a prayer team to work on this building and pray for what God might have for us

Develop a pastor’s prayer team

• Men that will meet with me before each service to pray
• Different men before Sunday School, AM, PM, and midweek

God has been very good to us as a church! I am so excited and blessed to be serving Him with you! Pray that God will do great things at Vision in 2012!

While going through Foundations, our discipleship ministry, Whitney realized that she was not truly born again. Holly Pearson had the privilege of going through the basic lessons of what it means to be saved. Whitney took the very brave step of admitting her need of a Saviour.

I thank God for Holly and her work in foundations and I praise God for the work of the Holy Spirit in Whitney’s life. Join me in welcoming Whitney to the church and the born again family of God!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Dear People of Vision and Friends,

Another year has come and gone. Vision is nearly 6 years old now. God has done great and wonderful things through His church over these years. We have seen souls saved, baptized, preachers ordained, missionaries commissioned, and all grown in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ!

I want to personally thank you for your giving. I know that these are not the best of times, economically, for many but that you have been faithful to give. I hope as you look over your giving record for this past year that you will see the grace and faithfulness of the Lord in your lives. Praise Him for how He has worked in your life.

Now we begin a new year. I want God to continue to use me and to do even more. As you look over your giving pray and ask God what He would have you to do this year 2012. There is much to do. God has given us great grace and has given us favor with His people. We are really on the launching pad for what God is going to do with us! We haven’t seen anything yet!

The church will soon be six years old. We have been used greatly overseas. I am praying that God will allow us to do more in our community this year than we have ever done before. I want to reach out to our neighbors and friends with the gospel. I want our church to impact our community with the gospel. I am glad that you are on board and ready to see what God will do.

Maybe this is the year that He will give us land. Maybe this is the year that we will see more saved than ever. I am praying that God allows us to reach those farthest from Him with His message this year.

Your faithful giving makes all of this possible. Without you and what you do all the past would not have been possible but even more so the dream and vision for the future would never take place.

This year we will do all in our power to fulfill the King’s Command!

Grateful to God for all that He has done through you,

Austin Gardner

An Overview of Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro is located on the southeastern part of Brazil. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and by 3 other states of the Federation. It is the second largest city in Brazil and the 22nd largest in the world. The population of Rio de Janeiro is approximately 10,556,000. Rio is the most visited city in the southern hemisphere and is known for its breathtaking landmarks, amazing landscapes, and for the unique spirit of its people.

Rio de Janeiro is a city of contrasts, and though much of the city clearly ranks alongside the world’s most modern metropolises, a significant percentage of the city’s inhabitants do still live in areas of poorer quality housing. The worst of these poorer areas are the slums and shanty towns known as favelas, often crowded onto the hillsides where sturdy buildings are difficult to build, and accidents, mainly from heavy rainfall, are frequent. The favelas are troubled by widespread drug related crime and gang warfare and other poverty-related social issues (source).

Religion in Brazil

Brazil has the largest number of Catholics in the world. Roman Catholicism has been Brazil’s main religion since the beginning of the 16th century. It was introduced among the Native Brazilians by Jesuits missionaries and also observed by all the Portuguese first settlers. Brazil’s population is considered to be 90% Christian, with 73% of that population being Roman Catholic, and 15.4% Protestant (source).

There are small populations of people professing Judaism (186,000), Islam (150,000), Buddhism (215,000), Shintoism, Rastafarianism, and a few other religions. They comprise 20th century immigrants from East Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, or those of recent immigrant descent. Seven percent of the population consider themselves agnostics or atheists.

One of the most unusual features of the rich Brazilian spiritual landscape are the sects which use ayahuasca (an Amazonian entheogenic tea), including Santo Daime, União do Vegetal, and Centro de Cultura Cósmica. This syncretism, coupled with ideas prevalent during the military dicatorship, has resulted in a church for the secular, based on philosopher Auguste Comte’s principles of positivism, based at the Positivist Church of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro (source).

Would you pray that God would send more laborers to this city and country to lift His name high?

Check out bcwe.org!

I was actually in Burkina Faso when all the details had to be taken care of for the conference. As always they did a splendid job. I want to publicly thank them and all that worked with them to make it such an exciting night!

There was steak, potato, salad, and cheese cake! It was delicious and I think everyone throughly enjoyed themselves. There were also some games to play, corn hole, ping pong, and a tremendous game show host that gave away fabulous prizes.

We were blessed to have Pastor Tony Howeth and the men from Newton Baptist Church in Covington! Brother Tony preached and excellent message, as always. We were privileged to meet some wonderful new brothers in Christ!

Pastor Chris Grinstead and some men from Greater Heights Baptist were also with us. It was a tremendous blessing and privilege to have Brother Grinstead there. I love it when different churches can get together, love each other, and serve our great God together!

Two accepted Christ as their Saviour last night! That made the night all that much more special. Satan may fight what you try to do for Jesus but Jesus will always win!

Several of our men worked hard to bring their friends from work and the community and I think that was the second best blessing of the night. The best of course was seeing two get saved!

We were honored to have the Pilgrims sing for us. They came out of love for us and the work. They did a great job and we over worked them. Chuck Littlefield offered their services and the men seemed to really enjoy having them with us.

I love being in a room full of committed on fire men. I love having the chance to make a difference by preaching the Word of God.

The men all got down to pray and ask God to help us do more of what God would have us do in our churches. God does have big plans for us and it is time for us to wake up and do what we know to do!

We are already planning next year’s conference so go ahead and  mark your calendar for January 25, 2013. We will go from 7 pm until midnight. We will try to do an even better job next year so put it down, plan to be here and invite all you know!

PPPastor Derik Lawrence, missionary Keith Shumaker and I had the privilege of having our picture made with two of the pastors and their wives. God is truly doing a great work there!

God was very good to us. We taught on Tuesday and Wednesday from 8:30 until 1 pm. We ate lunch each day with the pastors there at the church. God sent a great number of pastors. Two other missionaries also came to some of the meetings and were a blessing to meet.

Pastor Derik Lawrence did a great job every time it was his time to teach or preach. He was a blessing to the people of Burkina Faso. I pray that he will return and preach there again. Missionary Chris Fies was a great blessing and having an eye opening trip.

We saw the villages. We saw the city life. He dealt with working in another language and preaching through a translator. I believe that God is going to use Chris and the Voice in the Villages ministry.

Keith and Rebecca Shumaker are two of the most wonderful people that I know. Their love for God and the people of Burkina Faso is constantly obvious. I am honored to serve God with wonderful servants like them.

I want to thank them for all they did to host us. I want to thank Mrs. Rebecca for the way she dealt with 4 visitors in her home, met all of our needs, prepared so many meals, and put up with so many intrusions into an already hectic life. I think the Shumakers are great heroes.

On Wednesday after we preached we ran home and quickly changed into our travel clothes. Then we ran to the airport to board a plane from Ouagadougou to Paris, France. Then from Paris to Atlanta.

We arrived back home and were picked up by our good friend and coworker John Pearson. We came back just in time to go to the Thursday evening services at Vision. It was wonderful to be home. It was wonderful to be with God’s people at home again.

I want to thank all of you that prayed for us as we traveled. I want to thank such a wonderful church team that can handle everything in my absence to the same or a better level than when I am at home.

Vision is a wonderful church and we are blessed to serve with you!

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka District. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, has a population of around 11 million, making it the largest city in Bangladesh. It is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and forms the world’s 9th largest agglomeration and the largest city within the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Dhaka is known as the City of Mosques and renowned for producing the world’s finest muslin. Dhaka is also known as the Rickshaw Capital of the World . Approximately 400,000 cycle rickshaws run each day. Today, it serves as one of the prime centers for culture, education and business in the region (source).

The city of Dhaka has a population of over 11 million today and it is estimated to be growing at 4.7% per annum. Of this population, it is estimated that 46.7 % are living in absolute poverty with about half this group categorized as living in hard-core poverty. Landlessness, natural calamities, river erosion and lack of income earning opportunities push the rural poor to urban areas indicating a process of urbanization of poverty. This process is manifested by the sprawling growth of slum and squatter settlements especially in the capital city of Dhaka. Although the poor are an integral part of the city, their rights to live in the city are not recognized by the authorities including the central Government agencies and local government. There is the school of thought that the urban poor should be taken back to the villages and resettled there and indeed such a program is currently being implemented. The National Housing Policy recognizes that slum settlements should be upgraded with security of tenure. However successive Governments have been resorting to violent evictions and sometimes using subtle methods. Ironically during the period of the Caretaker Government, over 12,000 families were evicted in the name of cleaning up the city of criminal elements (source).

Religion in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the largest Muslim countries in the world, with 83% of the population claiming to be Muslim. Most Bangladeshi Muslims are Sunnis, but there is a small Shia community. The country saw wholesale conversions to Islam that began in the thirteenth century and continued on for hundreds of years. Muslim missionaries and mystics who wandered about the villages and towns were responsible for much of the conversions.

Hindus in Bangladesh in are almost evenly distributed in all regions, with concentrations in Khulna, Jessore, Dinajpur, Faridpur, and Barisal. They represent about 16% of the population. In the Chittagong Hills, Buddhist tribes formed the majority of the population. There are approximately 1 million Buddhists in Bangladesh, representing less than 1 percent of the population. There are less than a million Christians in Bangladesh, mostly Roman Catholic. The Christians in Dhaka make up 0.44% of the population, which means there are only around 48,000 Christians in the whole city (source).

Would you pray that God would send more laborers to this city and country to lift His name high?

Check out bcwe.org!