STATE MISSIONS: State Missions Works!
God continues to bless your State Missions works. Out of our current eight works, The Table in Springdale will organize this June. Praise the Lord! Our association owes a debt of thanks to Temple Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Pastor Andy Neal and Missionary Clinton Morris for their love and compassion for lost souls.
Our other works are progressing, and we are witnessing an increase in souls being saved and in the number of baptisms. Hopefully, there will continue to be a true longing for the things of God.
As always thank you for all your support, prayers and for allowing me to be a small part of this wonderful association of churches.
From Our Missionaries
Misión Creciendo en Cristo (Growing in Christ), North Little Rock: Juan Carlos Posadas writes, “I thank God because Sayra is back home, although my father-in-law is still in a complicated state of health. We plan to visit him at the beginning of June once the graduation ceremonies for Jose Carlos and Maria Fernanda have taken place. Please continue to pray for his profession of faith.
“Friday and Saturday, we participated in the youth camp, ‘Who am I?’ organized by the Hispanic Churches of Central Arkansas. We gathered 106 people in total, and, for the first time, the church from Ripley, Miss. participated. The event was a complete success for the glory of God. There was good teaching, worship, a bonfire, games, communion and a lot of challenges for the lives of the boys and girls. We thank God for these young people. We are praying that they are the generational takeover that God has for this movement of churches planting churches. We also thank God for the adults willing to impact the lives of these young people and their hearts to guide and instruct them during camp.”
Ebenezer, West Little Rock: Ruben Isturiz writes, “It has been a busy week from a ministry standpoint. I have had to prepare the Bible study for the baseball players with the Arkansas Travelers, prepare the Bible study for Ebenezer and prepare the conference for the Youth Camp.
“We had the baseball guys talking about Paul’s letter to Titus. It was a blessing to start a new season. Thursday, I visited the guys at the stadium to greet the ones from last year and the new ones on the team. I have five Hispanic players this year — three from the Dominican Republic and two from Venezuela. We met Sunday before the game to study the Word of God and pray for them.
“Friday, I traveled to Wynne for the ‘Hispanic Youth Camp’ of our association. It was a two-hour trip, but with the joy of carrying the precious seed. The overall theme was my identity in Christ. Friday night, I introduced the topic, and the next day I returned to Little Rock to fulfill a family commitment.
“Sunday was an inspiring service. In each service, we give a small theme that we develop from Sunday to Sunday. We continued analyzing the theme of, ‘What is the church?’ and its purpose, who belongs to the church? For the first time, someone from our congregation gave a sermon. We have three students in the seminary, and they are taking their preaching class. Last Sunday, it was the turn of Geronimo Martinez to preach. For his first time, he did an excellent job.
“I ask you, my prayer warriors, to pray for the family from Guatemala. The husband is having health problems and kidney problems. Pray for his health and for a doctor to finally find an effective solution for his kidney infection. Thank you for your support, may God be glorified!”
Faith Chapel, Flippin: Johnny Shew writes, “It was another amazing week at Faith Chapel! In only 13 days, we went from a bare slab and a pile of material to a dried-in building with shingles. That is amazing by anyone’s standards. We all prayed for the rain to hold off until we had the roof on and, praise God, about an hour after the roofing crew finished and left, it rained! Thank You Lord for hearing our prayers and thank You for Your answers!
“We will be working on the windows, doors and siding this week and will start on the electrical and HVAC. We still have a long way to go, but the progress so far is incredible!
“Again, we thank the Master’s Builders and our own members for all of their hard work. We pray God’s blessings for you all. You can keep up with our progress with pictures on the Master’s Builders Facebook Page or on our Facebook Page, Faith Chapel Missionary Baptist Church.
“We had a new record attendance Sunday with 69 and 12 first-time visitors. Praise God! Granted, some of them were the Master’s Builders, but we still had a great number without them! We were literally full! Praise God again! We can’t wait to get into the new building. We need it, and God’s timing is perfect!
“We thank you for your support and especially for your prayers. Please continue. God is answering them in a mighty way.”
The Table, Springdale: Clinton Morris writes, “We had some great meetings this week and invited several folks to visit the church. Even though most of them did not come, we are excited to keep inviting them. Drew is preaching through apologetics and is currently focused on systematic theology and an overview. I am looking forward to hearing where he goes within this message structure.
“This Sunday, April 23, Drew Whitton has an ordination service. We are meeting at Samaritan Community Center, 1300 N. Thompson St., Springdale, Ark. 72764. Fellowship time is 6-6:30 p.m., and the service starts at 6:30 p.m. There will also be a time to fellowship following the service. If you plan on attending, please bring shareable finger foods.
“Ordained men who would like to be part of the presbytery, we will be meeting at 6 pm ahead of the main service.
“Several families were away the last two weeks because of sickness and vacations. This seems like the time of year that this happens, since we saw similar things last year. With the new pollen season most of us get a bit sick.
“It was great to have Thomas and Kim Priest from Temple Baptist Church with us on Sunday. It is always a blessing to worship with others from our church family. Our game and fellowship time after the church service brought in a guest. He is considering coming back. This is a huge answer to prayer.
Faith Journey, Benton: Bryan Clay writes “This week has been a joyful week around Faith Journey and our people! We are still feeling the awe of the presence of God we had on Easter Sunday and the way His hand worked in our service that evening.
“We have begun to put together some discipleship packets for any new members or new believers that may come to the mission. These will give someone who is interested in learning how to begin their walk with Christ a direction on where to start. We need to continue to pray for our new believers in Christ as they are eager to know more about the Bible and what it means to be a child of God.
“We have recently had several first-time visitors, so please be in prayer that they will find a place here within our mission to serve God.”
Misión Gracia Soberana (Sovereign Grace), NWA:Roberto Marcelletti writes, “We were able to begin the discipleship with Angeles, our new convert to Christ. She is from Guadalajara, Mexico. She lost her husband in November. The Lord came into her life at such a crucial moment, having been widowed after almost 50 years of walking together.
Despite her great sadness, knowing Christ has given her strength and a new motivation to live so that her children and grandchildren can know the truth. This is a great challenge for her since she and her husband initiated them into Roman Catholicism. She comes to our discipleship with many questions and is eager to learn. That inspires us and challenges the brothers who, unfortunately, have lost their passion for Christ.
“This week we also continued with the two discipleship groups on Friday and Sunday after the service. Every day, the fruits of transformation necessary to certify that Christ truly came into their lives are more evident.”
Epic Life, Pea Ridge: Jake McCandless writes, “Both of our Connection Groups met this week. Our Woodbridge group was at full strength, but the Garfield group was down. Leaders of the Garfield group shared that they missed those who were out, but felt the conversations that happened were needed. In the Garfield group, a member shared about wanting to start a new group in June, which was exciting.
“Our pursuit to acquire a home to serve as our gathering hub took a positive turn this week. Thanks to Bro. White’s contact with the State Fire Marshalls, the local Fire Marshall created a path where we could be permitted to assemble without a fire suppression system. So, we’re back to petitioning the City Planning Committee. Pray for favor as we continue in that endeavor.
“We had some positive traction on social media this week, and the interest proved the need for a public meeting place.”
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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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