STATE MISSIONS: Here You Go Again!
Here You Go Again!
I am so thankful to be a part of the BMA of Arkansas association of churches and to see God pouring out His blessings upon your efforts in sending forth witnesses to carry the precious gospel to our friends, families and neighbors across the state.
Ready for Lift Off!
I want to encourage all Missionary Committeemen to attend the meeting called by Chairman David Inzer this Thursday, July 14 at 10 a.m. in the fellowship hall of South City Church next door to the State Missions office. The advisory Committee and I will be presenting Jake and Amanda McCandless. Jake is a candidate to your Mission staff to serve as your newest state missionary working in the community of Pea Ridge in Northwest Arkansas.
With the election of Jake on Thursday, you will have eight men involved in mission work. With your blessing, his start date will be Aug. 1.
God Is Good All the Time.
To quote Bob the builder, “Can we do it? Yes, we can.” Due to two works organizing last fall and because of your faithful and generous support of this department in and throughout the pandemic, God has provided the necessary funds for such a time as this. Please, I want to reassure you that the office is well able to maintain our current works as well as adding Jake’s. So much so that, after a few months, we will reevaluate our position concerning adding yet another.
Please do not assume that we have more money than we need. For we are striving to invest your mission money in more mission works as quickly as the funds are available.
From Our Missionaries
Misión Creciendo en Cristo (Growing in Christ), North Little Rock: Juan Carlos Posadas writes, (7/3) “It took us all day to get to Dallas, Texas for the SOAR Student Conference. The church van broke down on the way. We had to rent a car, and drive home to pick up my minivan. It was difficult to get there, but listening to the testimonies of the youth, we realized that it was worth it. Pray that God confirms the call to each one of them.
“When we realized we wouldn’t be back in time for our congregation’s 7th Anniversary thanksgiving meeting, we had an impromptu thanksgiving meeting in the minivan.
“The special guests for our anniversary were Roberto and Patricia Marcelletti, the new missionaries in Northwest Arkansas. They both sang, and Roberto brought the Word of God. On Saturday night, Bro. Roberto shared with us the topic ‘Christian Marriage — A Real Perspective.’ The celebration continued Sunday as Bro. Roberto shared the theme of a church that lives the mission of God. It was a blessing to hear the testimonies of the brothers. Among other things, they mentioned their gratitude to God for being in a church that studies the Word.
“After the service, we had lunch, then we broke piñatas, had a sack race and finished playing soccer. We thank God for His fidelity to this mission. We are excited to see what He has in store for the future of this church.
(7/10) “I took a four-day vacation last week and took my kids to the beach on Hilton Head Island, SC at the invitation from my sister, Nancy. We visited my other sister, Loida in Atlanta, Ga. Her family had the flu, which turned out to be COVID. I was the only one in the family who was infected.
“On Sunday, we had to hold the meeting virtually. I will fulfill the quarantine as I hope not to infect another member of my family. Thank God, the symptoms are mild and I feel that I am already recovering. I appreciate your prayers for my health and that of my family. Blessings.
Ebenezer, West Little Rock: Ruben Isturiz writes, “On Sunday, July 3, we had an inspiring service celebrating the Fourth of July. We remembered the value of freedom. Testimony of what God is doing in the lives of the brothers in Ebenezer has been hopeful.
“From July 4-8, my family went on our vacation. Thank God, we had a good time in San Agustin, Fla. — a city full of history. The Spanish, English and American influence can be seen in the city. We were able to enjoy the fireworks in front of the bay. There were good times with family.
“We had no Berean Groups (Home Groups) last week. This week we will resume the training for the groups we want to grow. During summer, when our attendance is usually low, it is a good time for leadership training. Pray for this time. To God be glory!”
Faith Chapel, Flippin: Johnny Shew writes, (7/3) “What a week at Faith Chapel! We were so busy all week preparing for our outreach event, we barely had time for anything else. Sunday morning, we had a really good number, but the amazing thing is that more than a third of them were under 13 years old, and these were all regulars. Praise God!
“For our outreach, we set up the grill and coolers and popcorn machine outside our building to serve the foot traffic to the City Park for the Independence Day celebration, concert and fireworks. Our mother church, The Bridge, was there to help and support us. We served hot dogs, chips, cookies, popsicles, popcorn and water to the passersby. We met a lot of people, invited them, handed out ‘Guide to God’ tracts and had a really good time. There seemed to be less foot traffic than last year, and we found out later that they were running busses from remote parking to help people get to the park, but we still served a lot of people. One man in particular stood out. As he walked by, we offered him food, water and everything we had. He very nicely said thank you, but he had just eaten supper, so we invited him to come back. But as he was leaving, so was Bro. Hershel, and you know he always shares Jesus when he has the opportunity and I saw them speaking.
“I got busy with some of the neighborhood boys, and even prayed with one of them for his father who had broken his back. When I looked back down the street, Bro. Hershel and that man were standing in the middle of the street praying, and he got saved right there. Praise God! That made the whole event worth it! We exchanged information and Jerry said that he is new to Flippin and would come to worship with us next week! Oh, I love to see God work!
“We thank you for your prayers for us, Flippin and our mission. Please continue, especially for Jerry, and for Benny’s dad. God is hearing them and answering.
(7/10) “Well, this week was different at Faith Chapel. All four of our families that have young children were out for different reasons. In one family, the kids had a bug; in another, the parents had a bug; another was out of town camping and we haven’t heard from the fourth yet. We sure missed all those kids, and hope they are all back next week!
“I hope you all saw the video on our Facebook page of them singing ‘Jesus Loves Me,’ if not, you should, it is so sweet. The page is ‘Faith Chapel Missionary Baptist Church.’ There is also a good video on there of our recent baptism at Cotter Spring. You should watch them!
“We did have six first-time and five return visitors though. One of the first-time visitors was the man that got saved at our outreach event, and he brought his family. What a blessing! And they returned for the evening service too! Everyone just loved on them, and said they will be back. Another was a man that we met and invited a couple of years ago. He reminded us of that, and he brought his family as well. I love to watch God work and build His church! You never know when a seed will bear fruit or a prayer will be answered!
“We thank you for your prayers for us, Faith Chapel, Flippin and the community that God sent us to. Please continue. God is hearing them and answering.”
The Table, Springdale: Clinton Morris writes, “I needed to recharge this week, so I made sure to take a full two days off. I have been going very hard at it the last five weeks and the stress and emotional exhaustion was catching up to me. I was glad to have had a few recharge days.
“Sickness within the groups we have been reaching out to has kept many of our next step relationships at a minimum. We’re praying that God will work in these delays.
“We are working on several exciting ministries. We are going to begin the Good Soil training program and equip a few leaders to start some small groups based on these teachings. We are praying that we will see where God will use these extensions.
“July 3 was amazing. Drew and I were able to come together and do The Table at a park! It was a hot dog cooking, God honoring, frisbee throwing, crawdad grabbing, guitar singing, sparkler lighting, gas-powered bike riding, firework watching, ice cream eating, good fellowship time.”
Faith Journey, Benton: Bryan Clay writes, (7/3) “Happy July 4th everyone! We are blessed by God to be able to live and worship our Lord in a free country. The Bible reminds us to ‘Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves’ (I Peter 2:16 NIV).
“We were blessed this week to bring the message three different nights at VBS/Mega Kids Camp at our sending church, Celebration in Haskell. The kids had a great time! They had many activities to choose from — art, science, cheerleading and archery, but the most exciting part of the week is that we had three salvations during this time! Praise God!
“We enjoyed our second fellowship at Faith Journey this week. We had three first-time visitors as well. We discussed the importance of sharing our own testimony and sharing the gospel of Christ with others. We also discussed using the divine appointments that God puts in front of us to help plant seeds that may be used as a future harvest. Keep sowing seeds!
(7/10) “Faith Journey had another good week! Some weeks you just feel like you’ve ‘had church.’ God was moving and speaking to our hearts during our service this week, and we feel so blessed to watch what He is doing in our mission.
“We spoke of the value of sharing our testimony with others. Sharing your story with nonbelievers and believers alike helps you relate to others on a personal level and helps to meet them where they are in their walk. I Peter 3:15 says, ‘but honor the Messiah as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.’ We would like everyone to be able to have their testimony ready at any time to share with others as a way to defend their faith.
“This coming week we will continue to make contacts with local business and neighborhoods to let them know that we are meeting and are eager to get to know them and willing to help serve in the community in any way we can. We are praying for a great week!”
Misión Gracia Soberana (Sovereign Grace), NWA:Roberto Marcelletti writes, (7/3) “This week we were studying Acts 13-14, and the Lord taught us what the church of the book of Acts did to be a church that reached the ends of the earth. The first thing I could see is that it was a powerful church, they prayed and the Holy Spirit told them to separate Paul and Barnabas to send them. The second thing I
observed was that the believers had a strong conviction, despite the violent opposition, they could do nothing to fulfill the task that God had entrusted to them. Another thing that was observed was they had a message that was in the gospel — no other, because in the gospel that is the life, death and resurrection of Christ — there is power to save. They also made many disciples. They had discipleship as something main in the ministry. Finally, they established new churches where they grouped the disciples.
“We continue to make contacts in the community and talk with the five men with whom I share the Word. We went to pray in Springdale and went to an area of apartments where Hispanics live called Brookhaven. Then we went to a mobile home area and there met a woman who was outside her house having a garage sale. We were able to share with her and we agreed to come back this week to visit her.
“We were also making preparations because this week we are going to invite the group of people we have witnessed to for a movie night. We are going to show the movie ‘Jesus.’ And lastly, we went to Little Rock to participate in the celebration of the 7th anniversary of the Growing in Christ Mission, led by Pastor Juan Carlos Posadas. It was a beautiful time of gratitude, testimonies and fellowship. We were able to share the Word of God both Saturday and Sunday.
(7/10) “We continue to meditate on the mission of God, and one of the things we can see is that we can appreciate the mission of God throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. We see after creation the chaos that brought the fall and then the promise of God to Abraham in Gen 12:3, the announcement of the gospel in advance through Abraham that all the families of the earth will be blessed. This is a key text, not only of Genesis, where it appears five times, but in the whole Bible. This verse declares that, despite everything that happened from Genesis 1 to 11, the final purpose of God is to bless humanity through his people who are bearers of this good news, which is what Christ was going to do for humanity. God’s mission is to preserve His people so that He can continue to carry the message to all nations.
“After several weeks of connections and prayer, we were able to hold our first event — a movie afternoon in the theater of the complex where we came. God surprised us since the movie theater was full, which has a capacity for 20 people. They were able to see the evangelistic film ‘The Changer of Times,’ which has a direct and very biblical message about the danger of separating morality from the authority of the person who said it. So, it is not the same to say that stealing is bad, as saying that stealing is bad because God says so, and the film spoke of the serious consequences of preaching morality without Christ.
“In the end, I made an invitation to start a Bible study on Saturdays at 6 p.m. on the life of Jesus and six people agreed to come.”
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Paul White
Arkansas State Missions Director Paul White pens a weekly column to inform the BMA of Arkansas concerning Arkansas Missions’ activity and includes individual reports from each church planter.
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