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STATE MISSIONS: Blessing and a Privilege
Paul White
Friday night, I traveled to DeWitt to attend the Prairie Association annual meeting held at the Sunnyside Baptist Church and friend and pastor Aaron Maxwell. Not only was I given time to share State Missions, I was also asked to bring the evening message in the absence of their elected speaker.
There was a good number present, and they seemed very appreciative for our state departments to be represented. I thank God for faithful, dedicated believers all over Arkansas and beyond.
Heading Toward the Barn
Saturday, Lord willing, we will attend the last local associational meeting of the year. We are looking forward to being at the Bowen Baptist Church in Delight and the Howard Association. As always, we are looking forward to sharing your State Missions work and having the opportunity to thank them face-to-face.
Calling all Churches!
Fall is here and so is the annual state meeting, which will be held in Conway at Central Baptist College Nov. 2-3. We are truly blessed to have such a nice, sufficient and centrally located place to gather. If it is not possible for you to make it for both days, I want to encourage you to at least make it a one-day trip. This would be a great opportunity to call some of your fellow churches in your area and carpool so you can take part in the meeting. Thursday has a list of activities, including the breakout sessions, Missionary Committee meeting, opening presented by the college and the annual message. Friday is when a lot of the business is taken care of, including reports from various departments and the election of missionaries. For the latest information and a preliminary schedule, visit BaptistTrumpet.com/BMAArk2023.
From Our Missionaries
Misión Creciendo en Cristo (Growing in Christ), North Little Rock: Juan Carlos Posadas writes, “On Saturday, the ladies had their monthly meeting and enjoyed studying the life of Mary of Bethany. After eating sandwiches and having a good time in communion, each returned home.
“Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to see my sisters and their families. Gabriela, Loida’s daughter, got married and we went to the wedding in Atlanta, Ga.
“Fernando Rivera preached in my absence. I thank God for the lives of these brothers who preach in the congregation. Last year, I had to look for someone to come to preach from other churches when I had to be away. Now the Lord has provided preachers from our own congregation.”
Ebenezer, West Little Rock: Ruben Isturiz writes, “We are grateful to our eternal God for the opportunity to congregate every Sunday and celebrate His blessings. In our celebration service, we had two impressive testimonies. The first one was from sister Avelina, thanking God for the visit I made to pray for her. Her knees had been hurting her for days. I prayed for her, and God relieved her of her pain. Glory to God!
“The second testimony was given by Victor Ahmed. He has been practicing the ‘Gospel Movement’ workshop, making his Oikos map (identifying the communities in which he lives), praying and blessing his five people. He told us that one of those people approached him and established a bridge of friendship. The interesting thing is that the person did not like Victor, but now he has been looking for Victor and has been able to build a bridge of friendship. Pray that very soon Victor will be able to present the gospel to him. It is a blessing to see people in Ebenezer who wanted nothing to do with the gospel, now they are trying to share the Word of God with those around them. Pray that we may see the fruit of a second and third generation of believers. Who can do these things? Only our God can convince and attract people in need of Him. To God be the glory!”
Faith Chapel, Flippin: Johnny Shew writes, “We had a great week at Faith Chapel! The weather is beautiful, and so are the colors of fall as the leaves are beginning to change. I just love this time of year.
“We had a really good morning worship service. Our numbers were a little down, but our spirits were up, and the Holy Spirit was with us in a mighty way. We observed the Lord’s Supper Sunday night, and it was as intended — we remembered Jesus, why He came and what He did for us. We remembered that He loved us so much that He gave Himself for us. We remembered how He sacrificed His body and shed His blood for the remission of our sins. We remembered how He rose again from the grave alive, and now sits at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us. And we remembered that He is coming back again. We remembered everything we could about Him, but most of all, we remembered to make our service and our worship about Him and nothing else. We believe the reason He is blessing our mission so much is because we want everything that we do to be about Him, not about us.
“The building is coming along, slowly but steadily. I finally get to tell you that the ductwork and insulation are complete. Praise God! I am glad that is over! We are finishing up the lighting now, and drywall will be done soon. The steeple was delivered after prayer meeting on Wednesday night. We all went up there after the service and helped unload it. I have received much good advice and many cautions about the installation of the steeple. Thank you all for the benefit of your experience, so we are making sure we have all our bases covered before we schedule the crane to lift it. It will be soon, and we can’t wait to see it up there.
“We thank you again for your prayers and support. Please continue; God is answering them!”
Faith Journey, Benton: Bryan Clay writes, “We had a good week this week at the mission. This week our worship leader and his wife held a women’s retreat at Lake DeGray. The ladies that participated had a good time and drew closer in their walk with Christ. It is always a blessing to see what God will do in the lives of people who seek Him with open hearts.
“Our children’s ministry has grown over the last several months. We are enjoying watching these kiddos learn about the Bible and getting to see them grow in faith, as well as watching how God is leading their lives for His purpose. Children are truly a gift of God, and we love that we can be a part of helping them develop a lifelong relationship with Christ.”
Misión Gracia Soberana (Sovereign Grace), NWA:Roberto Marcelletti writes, “It is a pleasure to be able to greet you and tell you all that God is doing in His grace in the NWA through our mission. We are seeing people join our discipleship groups every week. This week, five people joined the Springdale group. Last week two, a mother and her son, joined the Pea Ridge group, and a new family joined the Rogers group.
“We have three discipleship groups in three different cities and sometimes there are more people who are discipled than those who attend our Sunday service.That is wonderful.
“On Friday, I had my birthday and Patty, my wife, organized a party with the people who are in discipleship and more than 30 people came.
“We will never stop giving thanks to our heavenly Father since there are more people who want to be baptized. These would be our second baptisms that we are going to perform and we see how God guides our work. Yesterday, we had a beautiful service and a great attendance of 35 people.
“We ask for your prayers that the Lord will help us consolidate all this work.”
Epic Life, Pea Ridge: Jake McCandless writes, “I’ve used the phrase ‘doing life together’ often to describe the goal with small groups and Sunday School classes in the past, but it hasn’t been until using the approach we are at Epic Life that I have experienced it. We do life together. Last weekend, we spent the entire weekend with our small group. Only one of the five moments together was an actual church function. We genuinely like hanging out together. This is something we see with our groups.
“Our Woodbridge Connection Group, which averages nine kids ranging from third to eighth grade, had a fun night this week. For our multigenerational Discover Bible Study, we took on a ‘spooky’ Bible story by the fire. We read from Daniel 5 about the handwriting on the wall. It was a blast, and the passage was impactful. I love seeing kids see that the story of truth is far bigger than they make it!”
El Faro #2 Hispanic Mission, Cabot/Jacksonville: Michael Hight writes, “This week, I met with a guy named Keith. He told me he had lived here 11 years, and I was the first person to talk to him about God. We are planning to begin studying together this week.
“I hope this is a door the Lord is opening for future contacts. Please continue to pray for us as we are still learning the city, the people and the locations for reaching the people we are seeking. Thank you for your prayers and continued support.”