“From the days of John the Baptist until
now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay
hold of it.” Matt 11:12
because our Lord has called and united a team of obedient disciples who have
all sacrificed. You are a part of the
team by praying and participating financially.
Money you earn could have been spent on selfish desires, but instead was
given towards an everlasting harvest. These who go on the bikes to the villages
would not be able to do it without your participation. The harvest is truly plentiful. The workers are us; the united, the
sacrificial, the faithful, the obedient. Let us continue to pray for even more laborers
here in Liberia and supporters abroad. I
believe that as we unite, we will be utterly amazed, far beyond our dreams, at
the harvest that will come from our obedient sacrifice.
“The Lord has assigned to
each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it
grow. So, neither he who plants nor he
who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters
have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.” 1 Cor 3:5-7
reports, sometimes skimming them in haste of other things. You see the numbers.
Numbers on paper create small effect. Below is a story from within one of those
numbers.
left their mission in Grand Bassa County at 3:00 in the afternoon to return to
our base. They arrived at 9:00 in the morning. The following day they drove
throughout the night for 18 hours on a bad road. They suffered, wrecked, bled, were
bruised, were in danger, risked, slept for a few hours on the ground in a
village, and returned rejoicing!!! Mission accomplished! The Gospel of Christ
and His word of Salvation and hope was taught and preached!!! For that, the team – you and I – joyfully
sacrifice and greatly suffer. You read
in the report that we went on 86 missions to 139 villages, without knowing the
cost.
United, each team member
doing their assigned task, forcefully advances the Gospel of our Lord.
“Letters to the Church” by Francis Chan.
He says,
“We pursue Jesus, and suffering always accompanies Him. As
believers, we spend our days pursuing Christ Himself, Christlikeness, and the
mission of Christ, none of which can be done apart from suffering… As we are
fixated on and obsessed with our pursuit of Jesus, we know suffering and
persecution will come at us from all sides…Part of the reason we have created a
culture of non-committal Christianity that avoids suffering is that we don’t
treasure Him enough, we don’t love the lost enough. We want Jesus, but there are limits to what
we will sacrifice for Him, for His mission, for the lost. We want Him, but there are also lots of other
things we want in life…We are to fall in love with Him, to the point where it
actually becomes a joy and desire to give our lives to Him in return.”
Paul said, “What is
more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them
rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him… I want to know Christ and
the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings,
becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection
from the dead.” Phil 3:8-11.
“Paul was obsessed with knowing Jesus, he even wanted the fellowship of
sharing in Christ’s sufferings… There’s a level of love we can reach where we
actually grow to want that. To want that
type of intimacy, where you feel as if you were nailed right there next to
Him. You could lose everything – your
reputation, comforts, possessions – and count that all a bunch of trash,
because it is all worthless compared to knowing Christ.” *
- 3
were baptized - Our
first indigenous missionary team in Wacco village of Capemont County are boldly
advancing. They are surrounded by 3 unreached Muslim tribes, the Vai, Gola, and
Mandingo. They went on 26 missions to 16 villages/towns and did one conference
while teaching 80 students in the school they started. Rest? Hardly! - We
sent teams on 86 missions to 139 villages/towns in 7 Counties - We
did 3, three-day regional trainings. Many
are unable to attend our school so we send teams out to do trainings. - We
have an hour radio broadcast every day. The broadcast presents the Gospel
and teaches scripture. - Our
dentists treated 20 patients and extracted 24 teeth. We have the only dentist
in 6 counties. The Gospel is presented to every patient, many of which
are Muslims. - In
January, we acquired 3,000 Gideon pocket Bibles. Again, in February we acquired another 3,000
Gideon pocket Bibles. Hundreds of
thousands of bibles have been distributed in over 1,000 villages. For
those who are illiterate, we have given away many audio Bibles on small memory
chips, in their dialects, that can be used in phones and music players. - Our
water filter team did follow-up visits in 28 villages/towns. They also did assessments in 24 villages. Every home that receives a filter also
receives the Gospel. - Our
adult literacy team is training adult students. - We
have the only known Christian book store in 6 counties. We sell NT/OT Bibles at cost that we get in
Monrovia. We can purchase a Good News
Bible for $3.50. We also sell reference
books and dictionaries. This is a much
needed and appreciated service. The
Gideon Bibles we hand out freely as part of a Bible training program.
- URGENT PRAYER REQUEST. 10 men from Woodside Bible Church are coming to spend 2 weeks with us. They will be going into four villages of the Muslim unreached Vai and Gola tribes to show the Jesus film and do evangelism. Pray that our Lord will prepare the people to hear and receive the Gospel!!!
- Our Lord says to pray for more harvesters to be sent into the field. Truly the harvest is plentiful and the workers few. Pray for more indigenous harvesters. Pray that our Lord would send more Western missionaries full time and for short term.
- Pray that our Lord will use us to train and send an army of Liberian warriors that will reach into the 393 unreached tribes of West Africa.
- Pray for our team now on mission in Ivory Coast, we are trying to lease property that will be used as a base. Our primary goal is to train and send indigenous missionaries into the 36 unreached Muslim tribes of ivory Coast.
the mission. None is used for administration. Tax-deductible receipts will be sent
each January.
Financial
Report for February:
Maryland County installing home water filter systems
project
repairs
2 week class on our base
week class within Liberia
and labor
Church, by Francis Chan, pages 140-142.