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MAY/J UNE 2009, #236 ® “Declare his glory among the nations, his wonders among all peoples.” Psalm 96:3

News to Know • BP Synod Registration

Info Now Online Presbyters and delegates and their families, friends of the BPC, and other interested folks are welcome to download the registration packet at www.bpc.org and register for this summer’s Synod in the hills of East Tennessee. It will be a blessing!

“True Religion and Undefiled”: Baldwin in Cambodia This woman is a widow who supports her two young daughters in the Village of Pbaom in Cambodia. She has no rice field and like many in this extremely poor area of subsistence farmers she weaves traditionally patterned Cambodian silk for making sombots (a traditional Cambodian skirt) to earn her “living.” She earns around $25 per month or so from her labors, but $10 of that goes to the company she borrowed money from to buy the silk. (Which seems to charge about 100% interest.) On the remaining $15 a month she must support her family and maintain her house.

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Western Reformed Seminary “Spaghetti in the Spring” Banquet This year’s celebration at the seminary raised over $2300 that will go toward purchasing much needed record-keeping software to save time and money in the office, as well as to bolster the General Fund. Over 100 attended this annual event in Tacoma, WA.

She is also a faithful Christian who comes to our church services every Saturday. To see so many hungering and thirsting for God’s Word and coming to hear every week really warms my heart. The plight of God’s people, though, weighs heavily on my heart and along with opening God’s Word to them I desired to ease their hardship in some small but meaningful way. The difficulty is that many “missionaries” have gone about establishing works throughout the area (and indeed the whole world) by offering monetary gain if people will convert. (Something to the effect, “If you convert we’ll help you out of poverty and make your life wonderful because that is what Christianity is all about.”) The resulting “Rice Christians” (for they convert to get bags of rice) often neither know nor care about salvation or the Savior, only mammon. It breaks my heart and limits what I can effectively do. Continued on page 2

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Patrick Hines Ordained Sunday, April 19, saw Great Lakes Presbytery commissioners and the Cincinnati BPC congregation gather for the installation of Rev. Patrick Hines in the position of Assistant Pastor at Grace BPC. Pray for Rev. Hines as he steps into this new phase of his ministry life.

“Summer” Vacation Camps Reach Hearts in Myanmar

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Presbytery Summer Youth Camp Dates Mark your calendars! (And ask your pastor for registration materials, too!) Summer camps will soon be here. The dates are: Florida: June 29-July 4 Great Lakes: July 13-18 Northwest: July 9-16

Banner Photo above: Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

This year the Lord has enabled us to conduct two Summer Camps. The first camp was held in Yangon in March. This one was designed only for unbelievers who have never heard the gospel before. We had nine campers from the mission field (see photo, left). All nine campers have confessed that they have accepted Jesus Christ, but only three of them had enough courage to be baptized. The second camp was held at Thinglei in April. Thinglei is a small village in Northern Chin State. Last year, one BP church was born here in May. Most of the people in this area are Christians but only a very few of them are familiar with the Reformed Faith, which is the true teaching of the Bible. So our focus here this time is not just sharing the gospel of salvation, but also defending and proclaiming the Reformed Faith. Most of the villagers accepted our invitation and came to the camp and also attended the worship services (photo, right). The Lord enabled us to present the Gospel to them from the Reformed perspective with boldness and power. We are so delighted in the Lord to see many people praisContinued on page 2

Presbyterian Missionary Union is a non-profit missions agency associated with the Bible Presbyterian Church. Our purpose is to advance the cause of missions that are biblically based and practiced and to stand against any compromise of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. PMU is directed by a Council of Christian leaders who volunteer their time to guide the ministry. To learn more about missions opportunities through PMU, or about the BPC, please contact us. The Missions Banner is published six times a year for interested individuals and churches. It seeks to promote the clear stand of the BPC by providing a biblical perspective on issues, fads, and theories in missions and church development. Our Editor is Len Pine, and our Publisher is Morris McDonald.

The Many Facets of the Gospel Ministry in Bolivia CIVIC EVENTS First I want to thank the Lord. Friday, March 6th, was the twenty-fourth anniversary of El Alto City (the large suburb of La Paz). This year there was no "Te deum" service at the beginning of the anniversary of this city, which was usually directed by the Roman Catholic Church. This year with the New Constitution of Bolivia, the Evangelical Churches of La Paz took the small service at the beginning of the grand “El Alto” parade. The service is to bless the official anniversary of El Alto. I had the privilege of directing the service. The Mayor and authorities of El Alto, with president Evo Morales and the vice president, all participated in this small service. We sang with the president "How Great Thou Art" and other hymns in Aymara language. Our friend, Rev. Romualdo Atahuachi, prayed in Aymara, and the Bible was read in Aymara. All of the service was broadcasted by the Bolivia national TV and other media. It was the first time that our evangelical Protestant Churches have participated in a City Anniversary in Bolivia. STREET PREACHING AND STREET PREACHERS Open-air preaching is prohibited in some places in Bolivia. But there are places where we can preach the gospel in the open air. The small square “El Tejar” is one of these places. Every weekend we are there singing hymns, preaching, and distributing tracts. Our surprise was that in these places we found some old men preaching of Jesus Christ (photo, left). We made friends with them to preach together. Our Church provides material for the preaching, some batteries for the megaphones, and tracts with our BPC address. Now we have a good preaching team. I have been praying for this Ministry, since we cannot do the preaching in the street alone. We decided to prepare in our BPC a fraternity dinner for street preachers. We gathered many preachers of the squares, streets, and buses, totaling forty-nine. We had a wonderful service of testimonies at the end of the dinner. Please pray that this passion to preach the Gospel grows in Bolivia. EVANGELISTIC AND BENEVOLENCE WORK We distributed 1500 copies of Gospel tracts in La Paz and 500 tracts in El Alto in March. We are waiting for more tracts in the mail. Also, we continue working preparing food, donated clothes, and tracts to help the people in Retamani area, where the mud-slides destroyed so many homes and lives recently (photo, left). We have a great opportunity to preach the Gospel and testify about Jesus Christ. We minister in Retamani every Saturday for two hours. Please pray for these efforts. Finally, the gospel testimony goes out to 1472 subscribers around the world through our Bible study, “Carta Pastoral.” — Rev. David Quisbert

True Religion, cont. Having been working in Takeo for almost 6 months, I’ve had opportunity to teach and explain about this many times. When there’s been great need I have done some benevolence giving. (Someone is always sick or out of food in one of the villages in which I am working.) I decided it was time to do more. Since they are paying around 100% interest (which robs them of 40% of their income), I loaned a few of the most faithful and needy the $100 to buy a batch of silk, interest free. This way I can help them without creating a culture of dependence or greed. It’s my prayer that God would bless this effort to help His people and glorify Himself through it. For more details (stories and pictures) about Pbaom, weaving, and the other work in Takeo province at Prey Pdao, please visit my website: http://baldwin.presbyterianmissions.org. — Rev. Mark Baldwin

Myanmar Summer Camps, cont. ing God for His glorious and wondrous grace they have discovered in Christ Jesus. After seeing the children's need for basic education, we started a pre-school at Thinglei under the BP church's care (photo, right). This is the first pre-school to ever exist at Thinglei. We call it Emmanuel Preschool. There are about 70 children there right now. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness and blessings in supplying our needs and His working in us and through us in the ministry since the beginning. I would like to say thank you very much to you for your unceasing prayer and financial support. Please continue to uphold me in your prayers as I am planning to visit the BP churches in the Southern Chin State next month to encourage the believers there in their trials and bring them the famine relief funds sent from PMU. To God be the glory and honor. — Rev. Khawl Ro Kim (Kima)