Global Harvest 14 India.pdf

2019

There are sheep out there, waiting to be taught....

Mission Information Magazine for Churches of Christ Editor: Wayne Barrier Founding Editor: J.C. Choate Associate Editor, Design, Lay-out: Betty Burton Choate Publisher: World Evangelism Publications Team Members and Contact Information:

Wayne and Janet Barrier: 3000 County Road 10, Florence, AL 35633; Email: [email protected]; Phone: 256-766-2807. Mrs. J.C. (Betty) Choate: 708 Burton Drive, Winona, MS 38967; Phone: 662-283-1192; Website: WorldEvangelism. org; Email, [email protected]. Jerry and Paula Bates: P.O. Box 172, Winona, MS 38967; Phone: 870-897-2373; Email: [email protected]. Louis and Martha Rushmore: 705 Devine St., Winona, MS 38967; Phone: 662-739-3035; Website: gospelgazette. com; Email: [email protected] Barbara Oliver: 607 Devine Street, Winona, MS 38967; Phone: 901-517-7274; Email: [email protected] Edmon L. Gallagher: [email protected] Nathan B. Daily: [email protected] Joey Barrier: [email protected] Jeremy Barrier: [email protected]

What is the purpose of Global Harvest???

What else could it be but to say, throughout its pages, “Lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white unto harvest”? These are pivotal times. With technology and communication being what they are, we have such amazing and powerful tools for reaching into any country with the Gospel

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— even those that seem closed or antagonistic toward Christianity. God has truly supplied! On the other hand, it has been many years since the world has seemed so volatile. We could be on the brink of major conflict, engulfing humanity in the worst of wars. Since the work of the church is the spreading of salvation through the preaching of the Gospel, if we will do our part, God will overrule to bless us with opportunity. Let us be praying for each other!

Are you a part of our support team yet??? SINGLY, we can’t do much; TOGETHER, we can evangelize the world!

e invite submission of feature and report articles from biblically-sound brethren, along with colored photographs, for inclusion in future issues of Global Harvest.

isclaimer: We believe that we must answer to God for what we teach and promote. It is our purpose to be biblical in all that we do and, to the best of our knowledge, we will not promote in these pages the work of unsound brethren. Because we cannot personally know all that anyone believes and teaches, we ask your help in guarding against unknowingly publicizing those who are either liberal or fanatical. If such material is inadvertantly printed, we ask your understanding and cooperation.



Global Harvest

Volume 12

U.S. Activities Editorials

u The Brazil Mission Model ..............Wayne Barrier..6 u What the Great Commission Means..J.C. Choate...7 Specials and Services u Provisions for the Age ..... BBC...........................4 u Tracts for Evangelism and Growth.................. 13 u In Search of the Lord’s Way ....Chris Lyon....... 17 u House to House ......Matt Wallin......................... 17 u Apologetics Press ......Dave Miller...................... 21 u World Video Bible School ................................. 22 u World Bible School ......John Reese.................... 23 u Mission Printing ......Richard Renfro................. 23 u Project Rescue ...... Ronnie Crocker................... 24 u Focus Press ......Jack Wilkie................................ 25 u Gospel Broadcasting Network ......Blackman... 26 u World English Institute ......Richard Ady.......... 27 u Encourage One Another ......Jeff Jenkins.......... 28 u Valley Cities Church ......Arthur Barry............... 20 u Endless Mountains Church ......Jeff Wyeth....... 20 Team Reports u One Gospel for All ... Jerry Bates.........................8 u From Guyana to Myanmar ... Louis Rushmore.. 9 u The Voice of Truth International ...... .............. 12 u Maywood Missionary Retreat...........................14 u World Evangelism School of Missions..............15 Central and South America, Europe and Asia u Biblical Institute of Central... ....George Hall... 29 u A Prayer from the Heart .... Randal Matheny... 31 u Iglesia de Cristo ...... Helmut Garcia.................. 32 u Northern Ireland Report ..... Maurice Brown... 33 u “WhatsApp” ...... Kenneth Peters....................... 34 u The Work in Romaina ...... Harvey Starling...... 35 u French Speaking World ......Barry Baggott....... 36 u New Work in Italy ......Scott Shanahan.............. 37 u Hunger Preparation in Malawi ... R. Stephens......38

2017

Foreign Activities

u Southwest School of Evangelism .... Makinde.....39 u School of Biblical Studies ......Solomon Aguh... 40 u Mauritius ............. Sylvio Salomon.......................41 u Restoration Roots in Africa .. John Reese...........42 u The “Lost and Found” Bible .... Lynn Camp.......42 u Myanmar Mission..... Wayne Barrier................. 53 u Working with the China Team .... Joey Barrier...54 u Jungle Churches .... Jeremy Barrier......................55 u Persecution in Myanmar .... Philip Lian........... 55 u The Gospel in South Korea .... M. Parsley........ 56 u McKee’s Indonesia Report .. Colin McKee...... 57 u Work in the Philippines .... A. Brumley............. 59 u Parkers in the Pacific ....... Wayne Parker.......... 60 u Pacific Bible College .... Robert Martin.................60 u Sonlight in the Pacific ....... Randy English........ 61 u Campaign in 2019 ...... Kent O’Donnell.............62 u Walk by Faith ......... Lilani Thomas.......Back Cover Pakistan and India u Meetings in Pakistan ..... Sajjad and Ali............ 43 u Toba Tek Singh, Pakistan .... Shahid Khokhar.. 44 u Chandigarh, India........... Earnest Gill............... 45 u Activities in New Delhi, India .... Davids.......... 46 u Eliya School of Theological Studies....Elijah...... .47 u The Work Goes On .... Ricky Gootam............... 48 u Evangelism in Tamil Nadu ... Philemon Rajah.. 49 u Ministry throughout Tamil Nadu .... Arjunan.....51 u Work in Kangayam... S. Rajanayagam.............. 52 “World Evangelism Publications” [formerly J.C. Choate Publications] is a service, rather than a business. Yes, we print and sell books here in the States, written by faithful brethren. We print enough to sell enough to give away many thousands each year. We know this part of our work will continue to bear fruit for many decades, after all of us have gone to our reward. Betty (Mrs. J.C.) Choate

A4 little quiz from the pages..

1.In the Brazil mission model, U.S. missionaries primarily serve as ____________, while the ________ __________ do the outreach. P.16 2. Name some ways the influence of Christ and Christianity have changed the world. P. 18 3. Name some tools God has supplied to enable Christians today to evangelize the world. P. 19 4. What effects would persecution have on Christians today? P. 25 5. Christians in Lima, Peru go into the _______ Mountains and the _________ jungles to evangelize and to encourage churches. P. 32 6. What method does Kenneth Peters use for Bible studies with people in other countries? P. 34 7. Christians in Romania are translating what into their language? P. 35

Global 8. The French language is spoken in Harvest how many countries? P. 36 9. In 1898 ________ __________, moved to Africa and did much to spread the Gospel throughout Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. P. 42 10. What happened to Ivan Martos’ Bible? P. 42 11. Who works with churches of Christ in Pakistan? P. 43, 44 12. What religion is dominant in India? P. 46 13. In the Telugu language, what does “Satyavani” mean? P. 48 14. Since work was begun among blind people in India, approximately how many have been converted? P. 49 15. Going forward, we walk by faith, but when we look back we can see God’s ____________ care in our lives. Back Cover

Provisions for the Age Betty Burton Choate

Naturally, before we do anything, we would want to be absolutely sure that it is necessary. This principle would apply to mission work just as it would to any other undertaking. I believe there are four reasons that make evangelization of the entire world during our generation a necessity. The first two reasons are based on the individuals involved: Myself and the person to whom I must teach the truth. Every Christian should reason from this point of view, first. Is it necessary, for my own sake, to evangelize the world? From our former studies we have found that the answer to this question is “YES”. It has been said that “you can’t go to heaven alone,” and this is true. As Christians we must be doing all within our power to win, either directly or through out combined efforts, at the least, one soul to Christ during our lifetime. If we don’t make this our task, we are refusing to obey countless commands in the New Testament. “Let your light so shine . . . that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father

which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). “Go and teach all nations ...” (Matthew 28:19). “How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14). Going on, we have such statements from the Bible as these: “In meekness, instruct­ing those that oppose themselves.” “Preach the word.” ­“Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his ways hides a multitude of sins.” “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you.” “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God.” “And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.” These verses, and many, many others, teach us of our duty not only to ourselves but also to the rest of mankind. If we are to be saved, it is not enough that we obey the first principles of the Gospel — the remainder of our obedi­ence lies in the teaching of that truth to oth-

ers. There­fore, it is necessary for our own soul’s sake that we be “mission minded”. The words of our Lord are still ringing in the ears of the church: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Never, as long as time stands, will we be free of that responsibility. It is a burden on the soul, but as we have seen in looking back over the past decades, we don’t carry the burden alone. In fact, God Himself is the visionary and the enabler, so that it is possible for us to do in this 21st Century what the church of the first century did! How can that be accomplished? Originally, Jesus spoke to His apostles — twelve men! Today, there are literally millions of Christians in the world, with hundreds of millions of copies of the complete Word of God! What advantages we have! But there is much more! Through seas, rivers, roads, and airports, the entire world is accessible to us, wherever we may choose to go: just buy a ticket, get Continued on page 19

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We Need Your Help!

In order to make Global Harvest the informative, useful, and inspiring magazine we envision, we must have input from brethren, churches, and program projects throughout the brotherhood and all over the world. We will try to make you aware of services available and of needs you might help to cover.

We need four things from our readers/participants:

(1) Your name, address, phone number, and email address. (2) Submissions of articles (with accompanying high quality color photos; if sent over the internet, photos must be at least 200 dpi and 4x5 in size). Articles need to be story-form, rather than general ‘report’ form; they need to focus on a particular event, specific method of work, some turn of events, an exemplary person, etc. Writing should be succinct, professionally done, without exaggerations or embellishment of truth to make a more exciting story, allowing 750 to 1000 words for one page, preferably 11 pt., “Times New Roman”. (3) Please understand that we cover services made available through brethren of printing, magazines, and various programs of work. We do not solicit or accept paid advertisements. (4) At this time it is our intention to print Global Harvest twice yearly, in the interest of helping bretren to be more aware of what is being done and of what needs to be done. Financial support will be greatly appreciated from brethren who will make a personal donation to receive the magazine individually, and from congregations that will pay for bundles to be supplied to their members. Individual donation: $5.00 per copy Congregational donation: $75.00 per 25 copies; $125.00 per 50 copies

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Global Harvest Editorial:

The Brazil Mission Model Wayne Barrier

Heritage Christian University’s Center for Mission Training and Information (CMTI) recently hosted a forum to bring together a group of former and current missionaries from Brazil with individuals representing congregations interested in foreign missions. The

World Evangelism Missions team coordinated the event and provided guidance for the program of speakers. I was greatly impressed with the quality of efforts discussed by these Brazil workers representing the major population centers of the country. They described their work, results, and plans. I believe their combined effort is one of the most effective programs in the world. I was impressed by their cooperation, will-

Wayne and Janet Barrier World Missions (Jeremy Barrier,

have been involved in mission work for over 30 years and their work is overseen by the Double Springs, Alabama congregation. Wayne serves as the Double Springs missions’ minister and directs their World Evangelism Missions program with work in Asia, Latin America, and Europe. The Barriers coordinate integrated evangelism efforts including mass media teaching, follow-up campaigns, and training of brethren for teaching and leadership. The program involves a team of 10-12 U.S. workers and 30 foreign co-workers. To accomplish training goals, World Evangelism Missions funds and directs the operation of 10 Bible schools in Asia that provide training to over 500 students yearly. Continuous campaign efforts to provide follow-up to mass media programs are coordinated and supported by the Double Springs team. In addition, the Barriers help with radio, literature, and television programs directed by the Winona, Mississippi World Evangelism team. They also closely cooperate with

Madison Church of Christ). Joey Barrier, who serves as co-director of World Evangelism Missions, and Jamie Barrier also work under the oversight of the Double Springs congregation. Wayne and Janet have served as adjunct faculty members of several colleges over the past 40 years, including Heritage Christian University and Faulkner University. Wayne presently serves on the board of directors for Heritage Christian University and Janet serves as a Heritage faculty member. Wayne is Editor of Global Harvest and a staff writer for The Voice of Truth International. Wayne, Joey and Jeremy direct the Maywood Missionary Retreat, the World Evangelism School of Missions, and the newly formed Heritage Christian University Center for Mission Training and Information. The Barriers are blessed to work together with their children, Jenny, Jamie, Joey, and Jeremy and their families. They have seven grandchildren. The Barriers live in the Florence, Alabama area.

ingness to share ideas and support of one another as they do their separately sponsored, overseen, and supported works. The components of their work include (1) Mass evangelism using radio, television, and literature (2) follow-up evangelism using Gospel meetings, campaigns, correspondence study and intensive Bible teaching seminars, and (3) extensive education and training efforts to support congregational formation and development. Mass evangelism programs were designed to fit local and regional needs. These included (1) television or radio broadcasts to very large populations in the Portuguese language, (2) regional and local programs to target specific groups, (3) extensive translation, printing and distribution of teaching literature in Portuguese. Mass media programs generate large numbers of interested listeners and viewers that are provided teaching literature to begin the process of study. Follow-up evangelism programs provide more personal Bible study to those responding to mass evangelism efforts. Campaigns, Gospel meetings, small study groups, and intensive Bible teaching seminars are used. These efforts are resulting in many baptisms and formation of new congregations. Missionaries and local brethren work together to conduct this phase of work. Bible teaching materials are adapted from numerous books and tracts already available in the US. They are translated and printed in the Portuguese language. Continued on page 16

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What the Great Commission Means to Me J.C. Choate [Deceased]

J.C. and Betty Choate

moved to Pakistan to begin the Lord’s church in Karachi in 1962. Following five years of work, with six congregations established, they moved to Colombo, Sri Lanka to plant the church in that city. In 1968 they moved to New Delhi, the capital of India. In 1974 it became possible to begin airing the Gospel over Radio Sri Lanka, “the Giant of Asia”, with India as the target of programs in five of her major languages. J.C. did broadcasts in English, Sunny David spoke in Hindi, Joshua Gootam was the Telugu speaker, P.R. Swamy preached in Tamil, and P.K. Varghese was the Malayalam speaker. The printing of literature — monthly magazines, Bible correspondence courses, study books, and tracts — put follow-up tools in the hands of local preachers and Christians. The result has been widespread teaching of the Truth and a great harvest of souls. Television has replaced much of the radio coverage. Preacher training schools have been established, as well as a program for training local Christians to evangelize [JC School of Evangelism]. J.C. went to his eternal reward in 2008, but the work that he began continues through the efforts of the World Evangelism team.

“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:15,16). Our Saviour spoke these words to His apostles just before His ascension into heaven to take His place at the right hand of God. These men who were gathered around Him had followed Him since His baptism by John in the Jor­dan River; they were loyal and faithful to Him even though they did not always understand Him. But this command they could under­stand. Peter had just asked, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” and Christ’s answer had been, “Tar­ry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high: ... after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, ... ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in Ju­dea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:6-8). Christ was speaking to the men who would be the first members of His body, the church, and He was giving them the instructions they were to follow. This command to go into all the world and preach the good news of the gospel was not an idle one — it was to be the propelling force that should move God’s people not only in the first century, but throughout every generation since that time. In making the statement we have just quoted, Jesus gave two com­mands:

the first one is to the church; the second one is to the world. What did he say to the church? Go and preach. What did he say to the world? Believe and be baptized. For years, we of the body of Christ have won­dered at the blindness of our religious friends when they fail to understand the second command, that they must believe and be baptized to be saved. But we have neglected to turn the mirror around and look at ourselves in it. Is it any more unforgivable for them to refuse to obey than it is for us? As individual Christians we have complied with the second command, but we have somehow failed to see the importance of the first one-to go and preach this Gospel to others. Are we also blind to the whole truth? When I think of our attitude toward the great commission, I am re­ minded of the statements Jesus made concerning the man with a beam in his eye who tried to pick the mote from his neighbor’s eye. And He said, “Thou hypocrite!” That isn’t a very pretty word, is it? And yet many times we are no more than pious hypocrites. We can’t see that we are failing our Lord even more than is our neighbor who is in religious error, probably out of ignorance of Jesus’ command to the lost. And that ignorance may be because we as his neighbor have never Continued on page 18

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One Gospel for All People Jerry and Paula Bates

As we have traveled many different places over the last ten years, we have come to realize that the world is a complex place. Modern technology often exists side-by-side with ways of living as old as ancient man. As the title suggests, there is one Gospel for all of the nearly eight billion people on the earth. However, there is no one method of teaching that will reach the world. Oftentimes, people look for one method or the best method to reach the lost, and they seek to utilize that method almost to the exclusion of options. Sometimes, they even decry the use of other methods as being old, out-ofdate and ineffective and therefore should

be discarded to the trash piles of history. We must realize that people are living in many different situations; therefore, one method that works well with one group will be relatively ineffective with another. Thus, all methods should be utilized as much as possible. Notice some examples of great contrasts in ways of living that we have recently seen. In some parts of India one can still see people tilling the ground or harvesting the crops by hand. On the other hand, combines are becom-

ing more common. One can see large trucks transporting materials from one place to another, while horse or ox carts continue to use the same roads. There is a great amount of difference between

Jerry and Paula Bates: Jerry attended Freed-Hardeman University and Mississippi State University. After beginning preaching, he earned his MAR from Harding Graduate School of Religion in Memphis, TN, and now holds an M.DIV from Heritage Christian University. He has been preaching for 25 years, working with churches in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi. Since 2007 Jerry and Paula have been working with World Evangelism in Winona, MS, associated with the late J.C. Choate and his wife, Betty. He serves as Associate Editor of The Voice of Truth International, and Paula also works daily in the office, serving as the bookkeeper. In addition to printing and distributing vast amounts of literature, World Evangelism sponsors many TV/radio programs and Bible schools, primarily in India. Jerry and Paula make 3-4 mission trips each year, working with the TV speakers, Bible schools, and national coworkers. Jerry’s passion is teaching in Bible schools, and he also serves as instructor in some Bear Valley Bible Institute’s extension schools. He has taught courses in Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Nepal, Myanmar, Viet Nam, and India.

rural and urban lifestyles. Within the same country one can experience huge economic/sociological contrasts. While some can cite statistics of widespread and growing access to the internet, there continues to be millions of people with little access to the internet, many having little access even to electricity. For many, simply obtaining clean drinking water is a daily chore. For those people, a well pumping clean water is the greatest blessing to their livelihood and is a greater concern to them than obtaining the “living water”. Some live in large beautiful homes while others live in squalor, sometimes almost within sight of one another. Many have grown up learning about God, Jesus and spiritual things from birth, while there are still millions of people who have no knowledge of the one true God. Their spiritual activity consists of going to an idolatrous temple and offering a sacrifice to that god in hopes of obtaining a blessing. The above discussion illustrates the diversity that exists among the peoples of the earth. One should not expect one method to work equally well among all groups of people. As we travel to many countries and places, endeavoring to teach others about God, we have come to realize even more that there is a place for all methods reaching the lost. We believe that one should listen to the native workers as to what is needed, rather than dictating to them how to do their work. As we talk with various people about evangelism, we have seen many methods being used. World Evangelism sponsors TV/radio programs, primarily in India, which bring in hundreds of contacts every week. There are numerous other similar programs in India and other Continued on page 10

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From Guyana to Myanmar with the Rushmores Louis Rushmore

Overseas in 2018, we concentrated our efforts abroad in Guyana in South America and Myanmar (Burma) in Asia. January 30 through March 2, Martha and I traveled throughout the tropical nation of Guyana. There, we hosted two different programs in venues within reach of every church of Christ in the nation. One series of workshops was intended to edify church members in general, whereas a second series of seminars presented more in-depth lessons for preachers as well as additional Christian brothers and sisters who are particularly interested in working for our Lord. I spoke to male Christians and to general audiences of men and

women; Martha taught sisters in Christ. While our primary focus was on edification of Christians, we also had opportunities to engage non-Christians with the Gospel. My Guyanese co-speaker in 2018 was brother Thomas George. He is a remarkable Christian and well-versed in God’s Word. It was an honor for us to be fellow-laborers for Christ. Brother George is the past director of an incountry school of preaching in the interior adjacent to the border with Brazil. He is an Amerindian and supports himself with subsistence farming— vegetables, cows, pigs and chickens. Brother George is a humble man who lives beyond the trappings of the 21st century—without amenities we take for granted (e.g., electricity, radio, TV, Internet, running water, etc.). However, because of his fervent zeal and knowledge of the Bible, he is positioned to do a wonderful work for God. Through funds placed in my hands by supporters, we acquired a used motorcycle and funded anticipated maintenance for a year, so that brother George can men-

Louis and Martha Rushmore married on January 1, 2017. Louis and Bonnie Rushmore were friends with Bob and Martha Noland for the past 25 years or so; Bonnie and Martha were best friends. Both Louis and Martha lost their spouses to cancer in 2015, and only in December of last year they decided to marry. Bob Noland was a preacher for many years, and he also served as an elder. Consequently, his wife Martha was an active wife of a preacher and of an elder. She brings that experience to her marriage to Louis and accompanies him to his stateside preaching appointments nearly every week across several states. Martha joins Louis in daily office and literature warehouse duties at the World Evangelism Building in Winona, Mississippi. Louis Rushmore is an avid writer of Bible study books, tracts and religious articles, many of which have been translated into numerous languages. He is Editor of The Voice of Truth International and Gospel Gazette Online magazines. Martha Rushmore is a Staff Writer for VOTI and a Ladies’ Day and ladies’ class speaker.

tor Christians in 14 churches of Christ that are even further in the bush and off the grid than he is. He also continues to teach some courses at the school of preaching that he formerly directed. Later in the year, we were able to finalize purchase of and have delivered a new, robust ATV to other Amerindian brethren. These brethren reside atop a mountain, also not far from the border with Brazil but elsewhere in Guyana from where brother George lives. Four brothers in Christ will alternate using the ATV and taking the Gospel to distant villages where there are churches of Christ assembling. There are no roads in this part of the country. Christian brethren from the lowlands accompanied the ATV as it was flown to brethren in the highlands and presented to them. These two Gospel Chariots will assist fellow Christians in a remote part of the world to strengthen Christians and reach out with the Gospel of Christ to non-Christians, too. These dear brethren who are using these conveyances are unsurpassed in their passion for sharing the Word of God under conditions not much unlike those trod upon by the apostle Paul and other first century Christians. We could learn much from these Guyanese Christians! Being associated with a warehouse of Christian literature, Martha and I were enabled to haul new and reclaimed Bible materials, communion ware, etc. to a shipper for shipment to Guyana. Possibly $100,000 worth of literature and Bibles made its way to Guyana, whereupon, it was distributed to nearly every church of Christ in that nation. The country is small enough and eager brethren there are sufficiently

Continued on page 11

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One Gospel for All People Continued from page 8

countries sponsored by other Christians, and these also bring in numerous contacts. They can potentially reach literally millions of people with the Gospel, but results often take time to appear. For example, we know of one person in India who was converted primarily by listening to radio teaching, yet he listened for three years before ever calling in for more study. Regardless, all contacts require personal teaching at some point. We help print massive amounts of literature in various forms. We have learned that printed materials are a great help in evangelism; however, there are different uses of literature. On our last trip to India, we were talking with one brother who distributes large quantities of literature, and he remarked on its importance. He commented that most people were too busy to engage in long personal Bible discussions but will read a piece of literature. He especially likes distributing tracts because they are short, easy to read and cheap to print. However, he also stated that tracts do not work well among college students. Since tracts are printed on just a single sheet of paper, they may often be thrown away, but students will keep and read books like The Voice of Truth International. All of our co-workers in India print a short monthly magazine, and they believe that this method works extremely well. These magazines are cheap to print, and thousands can be easily distributed by mail to interested people regularly. On the other hand, nothing can completely replace books consisting of longer discussions of a topic. Books of this type can, alone, often take a person from unbelief to being ready to give his life to the Lord in baptism. One such book, The Church of the Bible, has been translated into at least 50 different

languages, with about 150,000 copies printed since 1968. It is still by far our most popular book and has helped convert thousands of people to New Testament Christianity. Nevertheless, there are many languages in which it has not been printed, and we plan to soon print it in the Ukrainian language. Other books can greatly help the church to grow spiritually in certain areas, but again, we rely on the native workers to decide what is most needful, since we obviously cannot print everything. In recent years we have helped print Rust As A Witness by V. P Black in several languages, which have helped many congregations to grow in giving, and we will continue to print this book in other languages.

Some of our co-workers love to teach through seminars. Sometimes, they will gather contacts from TV programs in particular locations for a day of intensive teaching. This allows them to simultaneously teach many people basic doctrines of the Bible, and several baptisms often result from gatherings like this. As we travel, we also use this method to teach deeper lessons, such as leadership, to several preachers or other Christians over a period of several days. These people can then go back to their congregations and teach them the additional truths they have learned. Sometimes, one needs to focus on a specific group of people. For example, our co-worker in India, Philemon, works extensively with the 15 million blind

people in that country. Large quantities of The Voice of Truth and the Seekers Bible Course are printed in Braille and distributed to the blind, as well as audio Bibles. However, since most blind people are very poor, and many are angry at God and life in general due to their situation, benevolent aid must be coupled with evangelism before many can be reached among this group, which Philemon is also doing. This brief discussion doesn’t even touch many additional ways one can use to spread the Gospel, but hopefully, this will help one to realize that all methods can and should be used. Our passion is personally teaching in different countries in seminars, churches and Bible schools, and as we travel, we are continually looking for ways to help the native people to be more effective in their ministries. While it is truly a joy to look into the faces of eager students as we help them better understand the Bible, we feel we can be even more effective by giving them additional tools to enable them to be effective in their work. There are many more opportunities and

needs than we are able to fulfill, but it seems that God can utilize even meager efforts to accomplish great things. Do not worry so much about doing great things, or what is the best thing to do. Rather, simply concentrate on doing whatever one can and, with God’s help, we can truly accomplish great things in His kingdom (Ephesians 3:20). V

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From Guyana to Myanmar with the Rushmores Continued from page 9

Delivery of the ATV transport to brethren in Guyana.

dedicated so that we can contribute to making a real difference for good with the Gospel of Christ in Guyana. October 4-22, Louis and Martha served our Lord in Myanmar. I taught for two weeks in a Bible school about an hour from Yangon. On behalf of the Bear Valley Institute of Bible, I taught courses to several men, and Martha taught ladies. Myanmar is also a tropical nation with a jungle setting. As was the case in Guyana, also in Myanmar, it was my pleasure to not only worship with our Christian brethren but on occasion to preach for them, too. Some of our closest relationships among Christians are with those abroad. Though not going to India this year (or Singapore and Sri Lanka), we continued to interact with Christians in various locations in both northern and southern India. We sent

The Rushmores with one of the classes in Myanmar.

funds with others traveling to India for the ongoing Hindi TV broadcast and follow up. In addition, we sent money for the publication of Christian literature in various Indian languages. Stateside, Martha and I continued to travel to congregations to apprise them of our mission work or to present biblical lessons. Our travels took us to speaking appointments in Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida and Ohio. Whether traveling or back in the office in Winona, Mississippi, we worked on The Voice of Truth International and Gospel Gazette Online, a quarterly printed religious journal and a monthly Internet magazine. I also published some books this year. Tracts and books combined, I have nearly 30 pieces of literature in print presently, and I have plans of publishing a few more books that I have put together over the last forty-six years—should the Lord grant me to live long enough and to be able to fund them. Martha and I labor under the oversight of the elders of the Siwell Road Church of Christ, 4075 South Siwell Road, Jackson, MS 39212. Our Christian ministry is made possible by Christians and churches of Christ, for which we are heartily thankful. We covet your prayers. V

Books and Tracts by Louis Rushmore:

For prices and to order, call: World Evangelism Publications

662-283-1192

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The Vo i c e o f T rut h I n t e r nat i o na l Betty Burton Choate Volume 100!!! A milestone in our history! The first issue of The Voice of Truth International was printed in 1994, a small printing for the beginning because there were no subscribers and no supporters. J.C. Choate served as the Editor, with Byron Nichols as the Associate Editor. The format was similar to Reader’s Digest, a perfect-bound black-and-white booklet with graphics and divided into topical articles. Numerous well-known and biblically sound brethren were invited to be staff writers. What changes have come about during these intervening 24 years? The format itself remains the same except that, now, we have upgraded to full color, making each issue a treasure to read and preserve. The intention from the beginning was to make The Voice of Truth International a magazine that could be shared with brethren and seekers all over the world. Currently it is printed in India for circulation in that country and to surrounding nations. Usually seventeen to twenty-two thousand copies are shipped to the States for churches and individual subscribers here, and for mailing to about 60 other countries, making a total of approximately 35,000 to 40,000 copies of each quarterly issue! Six thousand copies are also printed in Nigeria and an additional five thousand in Ghana. In addition to the English copies, The Voice of Truth International is translated and printed in the Indian languages of Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Paite, and also Braille. A few issues were also translated into Spanish, and we would like to do more but are in need of capable volunteers who can do the translation and layout.

We have individual subscriptions in the US for The Voice of Truth International for $15 for a one-year subscription or $25 for two years. Congregations can receive a box of 35 copies of 4 issues for $350 per year.Many congregations do order boxes to be shared among their members and/or given to contacts in their area. Because so many copies are shared overseas, free of charge, some time back we came close to the “overdrawn” point in the TVOTI bank account, so we made an appeal to churches and brethren to put us in their budgets for monthly contributions so that we could continue using the magazine as a major outreach tool. We are very thankful that the response to that appeal was enough to keep us solvent. Because The Voice of Truth International was intended primarily as a study tool for people in nations where other biblically sound materials would not be available, each issue carries about fifteen topics: God; Evidences; The Word of God; Salvation; The Church; Doctrine to Live By; Christianity in Action; Worship; Daily Christian Living; The Christian Home; Textual Studies; Bible Characters; Charts and Outlines; Humor; Poems; additional fillers. As issues continued to accumulate, in effect a library of materials dealing with the various topics would be available for the recipients! V

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Available NOW! Full-color, pocket-sized, tri-fold tracts on 109 topics, written in old-time Gospel clarity. Call 662-283-1192 for a list of the titles and to place your order.   

These conveniently-sized tools will be helpful for outreach and for strengthening young Christians. Our special price is only fifteen cents each, or $7.00 for 50, plus postage.

J.C. Choate



 J.C. Choate

We are thrilled with the increasing use of the tracts we have printed, in English, and in a growing number of languages overseas. In addition to the original 76, these new titles have been added:

seven studies by Louis Rushmore:

u The Foreknowledge of God Explained u What About Instrumental Music in Christian Worship? u The New Testament Church Is Divine in Organization u Did Dinosaurs Really Exist? u To Drink or Not to Drink? u The Nuts and Bolts of Pornography u Foul Language

one tract by Ron Williams:

u When Families Deal with Grief and Loss



u Will a Man Rob God? u How to Study God’s Word



u Training Children in Obedience

these new titles by Jerry Bates:

and these by Betty Burton Choate:

u Training Children in Disobedience



u Satan — Do You Recognize Him? u Fig Leaves Are Back in Style! u How Do We Approach God? u The Heavens Declare u The Wrath of God u The 21st Century Holocaust u Doubts and Fears: Satan’s Challenge u Women’s Liberation or Exploitation of Women? u Where Grace and Mercy End u Why Did God Do This to Me? u True Science? It Follows a Known Path! u He Lifted Up His Eyes u How Do I Wear Christ? u What Does Prayer Accomplish? u The Soul and Its God u In a Time of Persecution, Can I Endure? u To Whom and Through Whom? It is our intention to continue to add to the titles we offer. Many churches are ordering these handysized, succinct, and biblically-sound tracts. We encourage you to order a set for $20, or bundles of a single title at $2.50 for 25. Call 662-283-1192, or order online at www.gospelgazette.com.

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Maywood Missionary Retreat Plan to join us!

The 13th Annual Maywood Missionary Retreat is scheduled for May 2-4, 2019. Missionaries from all over the world come together each year for 2 days of exciting meetings, fellowship, meals, and retreat. The Maywood environment is excellent for “recharging and regrouping” for the next year of work. Speakers cover topics ranging from current mission work issues to personal experiences and workprograms. About 100 are expected this year. Contact Joey Barrier at 256.577.6999, [email protected], Janet Barrier at 256.766.2807, [email protected], or Betty Choate at 662. 282.1192, [email protected].

Hey! How would you like to give away a million dollars? It’s fake, of course (Uncle Sam hasn’t started printing million dollar bills YET) but God’s plan of salvation on the back is real. This is an eye-catching little tract. 35 cents each; $30 for 100. Call 662-283-1192

email: Choate@ WorldEvangelism. org

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World Evangelism School of Missions Plans are complete for World Evangelism School of Missions activities in 2019. Seminars are planned for January, February, August and November. Topics for seminars include Missionary Sponsor Relationships and Reporting, Finance and Financial Management, Logistics and Foreign Travel, Mission Field Relationships, The Biblical Pattern for Mission Work, Evangelistic Program Development, Teaching and Preaching in the Mission Field, Training Local Workers. These lectures will provide excellent guidance from experienced men for any churches and individuals interested in entering into a new mission effort. We encourage you to make plans to attend, contact us, and reserve space in our facilities for your overnight stays. Our first concern is obeying the Lord’s command to take the Gospel to the entire world. Let’s work together to do that. A weekend seminar for an individual congregation is planned for January 27, 2019 at the Madison Church of Christ (Madison, Alabama) with an ad-

ditional seminar in the fall at a location to be determined. A mission forum is planned for September of 2019. The monthly seminars and missions forums will be conducted at Heritage Christian University in cooperation with their Center for Missions Training and Information (CMTI). Several guest missionaries will be speakers, along with Wayne,

The “World Evangelism” team... Through the Bible, God, Himself, chose the written

word as His enduring tool for reaching the world with His message. In our six decades of mission work [including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Philippines, Myanmar, Viet Nam, and seminars and teaching in Bible schools in numerous additional nations], through monthly magazines, Bible courses (in conjunction with WBS), and books, we have augmented the effects of radio and television programs in the major languages of India, resulting in the establishment of hundreds of congregations and the saving of hundreds of thousands of souls. Our quarterly magazine, The Voice of Truth International, is shared with brethren throughout the world, and is printed in bulk in India, Nigeria, and Ghana. Here in the States more than 200 books written by faithful brethren, and 120 pocket-sized, tri-fold, full-color tracts are featured in our catalog. Each year, thousands are shared free of charge with brethren overseas. We are so thankful to be tools in God’s work of evangelizing the world. Check our website: WorldEvangelism.org; for personal contact: [email protected]; catalog:World Evangelism, P.O. Box 72, Winona, MS 38967; phone: 662-283-1192.

Lest We Forget Dr. Philip Slate has worked diligently to bring together the mini-biographies of brave missionaries of the early Twentieth Century. These men and women — 84 of them — are pictured in the collage shown on the front cover of his book. Anyone reading the book will be humbled by the courage and faith of these Christians who blazed the trail for those of us who would follow them. Lest We Forget is affordably priced at $8.00 per copy and can be ordered from World Evangelism, P. O. Box 72, Winona, MS 38967; Phone: 662-283-1192.

Joey, and Jeremy Barrier. In addition to seminars and forums, the annual Missionary Retreat also provides mission work training and information. The retreat is at Maywood Christian Camp in Hamilton, Alabama on May 2-4, 2019. Contact Joey Barrier (256.577.6999), Wayne and Janet Barrier (256.766.2807), or Betty Choate (662.283.1192).

Mission Training Manual by Wayne Barrier $10.00

The perfect study material for anyone considering doing mission work in a foreign field.

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The Brazil Mission Model Continued from page 6

The final component of the process is training and education of Bible teachers, leaders, and preachers. Missionaries lead these efforts in most areas, but local brethren are also involved everywhere and lead in many locations. Specific efforts include (1) future preacher and teacher training camps and programs, (2) preacher training, (3) leadership training, (4) Bible class teacher training, (5) mentoring in every training category, (6) equipping of preachers, teachers, and leaders with study materials, guidance, and opportunities to work. Positive meaningful feedback was emphasized in this phase of the evangelism process. The Brazil workers reported on efforts conducted over a 40-plus-year period. During this time, the church has grown from less than 50 known brethren to hundreds of congregations in the country. Congregations are developing at different rates and there are several with hundreds of members led by elders. Brazilian congregations are sponsoring and supporting mission work in their own country as well. This model is Biblical and if used will produce the best possible results in almost every field across the world. The Brazil model is strong, effective, scripturally sound, and financially efficient. Missionaries from the US primarily serve as leaders with much work conducted by the local brethren. Congregations are forming and local brethren are leading their worship. Speakers for this program were Randy Short, Jamie Richardson, Roger Copeland, F.H. Gates, and Dr. Kirk Brothers. The CMTI program is directed by Joey Barrier. >

Guide book and Commentary for Bible reading for a year!

Order from: David Conley: [email protected] or Order from: World Evangelism Publications P.O. Box 72, Winona, MS 38967

Mission Training Manual Wayne Barrier

This manual is used as the textbook for mission training classes conducted by brother Wayne Barrier in response to requests by individual congregations. They are also part of the curriculum of Heritage Christian University, taught by Joseph and Jeremy Barrier in evening sessions. $10.00

Missionary Stories Wayne and Janet Barrier

This is a delightful book, illustrated with many pictures in full color, so that the reader has a small glimpse of the people who are featured in the stories. You will experience events in Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Viet Nam and Cambodia, getting to know the Barriers who have been involved in foreign mission work for more than thirty years. $7.00

We have news that brother Keith Sisman of Cambridge, England, died unexpectedly. He was a great student and writer of the history of the church. You don’t want to miss his book, Traces of the Kingdom. Order from www.chulavistabooks.com

Keith’s website is a treasure to study: traces-of-the-kingdom.org

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Spotlight As the SEARCH staff travels around the country visiting different lectureships, Gospel meetings, and family encampments, we find many members of churches of Christ who have never heard of IN SEARCH OF THE LORD’S WAY. While we understand that some people have simply given up on television due to the decline in decent programming, this media is still the number one method of reaching the masses with information. After thirty-seven years of continual weekly sharing the good news via radio and television to every comer of this nation and several other countries, we wonder why so many in the USA look blank when SEARCH is mentioned in conversation. Others say things like “I think my grandparents watched that program when I was a kid.” Or, “I don’t think we can get that where we

House to House / Heart to Heart is a tool that helps local churches of Christ spread the gospel. The front and back pages are personalized with your information. Share House to House to invite people to your services, advertise an event, write an article, and share an attractive presentation of the truth with those you hope to reach with the gospel. Each copy costs just 0.34! Find more information at get.housetohouse.

live.” My response is “Yes, you can get the program where you live, either by cable television, Internet, satellite TV, radio, or regular airwave TV.” I was talking recently on the phone with a preacher from a church of Christ in Pennsylvania. I had called him the week before to ask if he would follow up on a request from a lady in his town. She had completed the correspondence course SEARCH offers listeners. He promptly called and talked with her and was very encouraged by her response. This preacher went on to say how difficult it is in his part of Pennsylvania when the members try door knocking. SEARCH gets into homes and hearts when other efforts don’t seem to work! Our goal is to work with the local church of Christ to evangelize as many as will listen to the Gospel. When the seed is planted in

com. View past issues at housetohouse. com. We will even provide a free website for your congregation (example here: demo1.churchofchrist.info). House to House works with congregations in every state in the US and has gone into more than 80 countries. Each issue is printed in English, and several are printed in Spanish and French. Contact Matt Wallin at [email protected] to get started.

Chris Lyon good hearts, it will grow! During the next several months SEARCH is asking for as many churches as possible to work with us. SEARCH will provide, at no charge, graphics and information regarding where and when the program can be seen in your area. Please have announcements made about SEARCH during assembly times and use our graphics in your bulletin each week. Let’s work together and make an effort to let congregations be more aware of this ministry. SEARCH is ready to assist you in reaching into your community with the Love of Christ and the plan of Salvation. >

In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083, (405) 348-3242, (800) 321-8633; www.searchtv.org

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What the Great Commission Means to Me J.C.Choate [Deceased] Continued from page 7

tried to share the truth with him! To most of us, the great commission is no more than a few words that we believe, but not very strongly. We have heard our duty along this line pointed out so many times that our ears have callouses on them about an inch-and-a-half thick and our hearts are covered by an even thicker shell. And, brethren, we just don’t much care! We are content to drift along in our little world of indifference and let the rest of mankind go by, unsaved. I wonder: What will it take, short of that final jolt at the end of the journey, to get us to realize that the direction every “little world of indif­ference” floats toward is HELL! We can’t drift and float into eternal salva­tion — we have to paddle like the devil is after us, because he is! And the majority of us have already been caught, and just don’t realize it. Brethren, the consequences of failing to preach the Gospel to all the world is eternal punishment for every person responsible. When

will we wake up to the pit that lies before us, and all mankind? But there is another reason for going into all the world and telling the story of Jesus. Just think for a minute: What would this world be today without the influence of Jesus Christ? What would your own life be with­out Him? Think what a blessing this one Man —God’s Son — has been to all those who have accepted Him! And yet there are millions of people who have never even so much as heard the name of”Jesus”. They have not even an inkling of an idea that almost two thousand years ago this Jesus died for their sins. They have never been told of the perfect example after which they can pattern their own lives. They have received none of the blessings that come to all Christians. Just place yourself in their position for a minute. Wouldn’t such a life be one of terrible darkness? Well, you as a Christian can turn that darkness into light. It is your responsibility to do everything in your power to see that these people hear the story of Jesus.

Will You Take the Challenge? 1. Will you determine today to give just $1.00 extra each Lord’s day for missions? 2. Will you encourage others in the congregation to do the same, working toward 100% participation among the membership, to reach the goal? Please write us: World Evangelism Team, P.O. Box 72, Winona, MS 38967; or call: 662-283-1192; or email: [email protected].

But this is more than a responsibility; it is a privilege. Just think: you have a Saviour! He has wiped away your past sins, and continues to plead with God on your behalf. He has given you full instructions as to how to conduct your life. He has blessed you abundantly with both material and spiritual gifts. He has promised to save you for all eternity; to give you a home with Himself and the Father. How much more could a people ask? And yet, all that He wants in return is for you to share this blessing of Christianity with the rest of the world! Can we be true Christians and do any less? I think not. Christ gave everything He had, even His life, for mankind; not only for you and me, but also for those in other lands who have never heard His name. Surely, if He gave all, we can at least share what we have from Him with those who deserve it as much as we. May God help us, as the church and as individual Christians, to refocus our aim in life so that we will “Go ye therefore and teach all nations...” >

Prepare to have your intellect, emotions and existing beliefs set on fire when you read this book! Paperback and Hardback available. Michael Shank: [email protected] [email protected] http://www.muscleandashovel.com

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Provisions for the Age Betty Burton Choate

Continued from page 4

on that plane, and in a matter of hours you can be almost anywhere on this earth, with access to those citizens. When you get there, you have many tools for evangelism: word of mouth, advertisements through many mediums, radio, TV, printed materials, and public gatherings. But look at the many great additional tools God has supplied for our use, just in the past two and three decades: We have the Internet, YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp individual Websites, and other mass-media methods of connecting. Many churches today are putting their worship services on the Internet, making the lessons available for people all over the world! Countless sermons have been shared over YouTube and on individual church websites. Through Facebook, thoughts and even lessons can be shared with “friends” everywhere, inviting responses and interaction. Souls can be introduced to the Truth and can be won to Christ through these exchanges. We also have great avenues through World Video Bible School, World Bi-

ble School, World English Institute, House to House printings, Apologetics Press, Focus Press, Search for the Lord’s Way, Mission Printing, Gospel Broadcasting Network, and other organized efforts too numerous to name. If all of us continue our individual works but also pool our talents and materials to further utilize the tools God is supplying, we CAN bring the Gospel to the whole world in this generation! I am compelled to think of one point J.C. made in his appeals for help with the work he wanted to do: He said that if each American Christian gave just $1.00 more each Sunday, to be set aside in the treasuries for the sole purpose of world evangelism, there would be approximately $1,250,000 additional dollars more EVERY WEEK for world evangelism! In a year’s time, that would be about $62,400,000, with not one penny subtracted from the local budget! Now, what could be done with that money, accumulating every year? THE CHURCH COULD HAVE ITS OWN WORLD-WIDE 24-HOUR-A-DAY TV CHANNEL, OR WHATEVER

ELSE SEEMS MOST EFFECTIVE IN THE GROWING ARSENAL OF TOOLS! Sufficient funds would be continually given to provide man-power to keep everything going smoothly, and for the necessary follow-up tools! What we need, first, is a strong, faithful-to-the-Word congregation to take the leadership in sponsoring this proposed work, and then we need every member of the Lord’s church to be made aware of this new effort so that all of us can work together to achieve the goal of evangelizing the whole world! Let’s get on board! Brethren, I beg you to listen to this idea and to set in motion this great work in the congregation of which you are a member. Convince the Christians under your influence to partner with us, so that our Lord’s parting command to His people can be obeyed. Please contact us with your commitment to work to> gether:

World Evangelism P.O. Box 72 Winona, Mississippi 38967 662-283-1192

Choose a wonderful gift for yourself or someone you love — or select these classbooks for the next 3 quarters of study:

Excellent for class or personal study.

Three books — 13-lesson studies of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit — that will enrich your spiritual life. $8.00 each or a special price for the three, $18 plus shipping. Hurry! Don’t miss out on this best gift of gifts!

Call 662-283-1192 or write [email protected] to place your order.

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Valley Cities Church of Christ in Sayre, Pennsylvania Arthur Barry

This was the first church plant of the Antioch Initiative launched 10/19/14 and is the only congregation of the church of Christ in Bradford County, PA.

The Lord’s Church in Sayre continues to hold out the word of life in this community, though the desired response is still not forthcoming. VBS was a great success thanks to the devotion and hard work of the brethren who came from Kittanning and Camp Hill. Quite a few contacts were made, and I enjoyed following up with Chuck and Elizabeth Talada who joined us in church with their two sons the next Sunday. I studied with them the following Tuesday and received very positive feedback from Chuck and the boys. Plans were made for a further visit, and they were excited about coming to church again. Unfortunately, that is as far as things went and they have not answered the door, or the phone, since then. I had talked briefly with Christopher, a wounded warrior as he came out to sit on his porch. He said he was interested in studying the Bible, but he had a friend arriving for a visit, so he told me to look out for him on the porch and stop for a visit some other time. A few days later I saw him on the porch and parked my car. When I climbed out, he got up and headed inside. I called to him and he looked at me but continued in and closed the door behind him. A fair bit of the work follows that pattern and it is hard not be discouraged sometimes. I am praying for God to open hearts, and there are still contacts that are promising. Of the 10 youngsters who visited for VBS we have been able to get four to church at least

once, but Sandy did not have a single child in class this past Sunday. Sandy has taught the class for three years now and this is only the second time that has happened. She does enjoy getting to sit in on the adult class, though. We have given thought to offering an after-school homework club for local children as we see that as a definite need. I have spoken to the area schools and the idea is welcomed enthusiastically. There is nothing of this kind except for something just beginning for Athens elementary children, sponsored by the local Calvary Baptist group. We knew this building is in a great location and we intend to utilize our porch in ways that afford us an informal interface with the neighbors. One idea is to have “Prayer on the Porch” once a week. Another is to have coffee and donuts out there, or hot chocolate as it gets colder. Any ideas are welcome. This Saturday some brethren from the Kittanning church will be treating us to our annual early Thanksgiving dinner and we are hoping to have visitors for that. I have had positive responses from several contacts we have been working with. Plans have been confirmed for a visit from Sojourners next July 8-18, thanks to Dave and Lynn Laton, from Prattville, Alabama, who have been involved in the church planting in this area. We will be hosting a Gospel meeting in conjunction with this activity. We are still waiting for our numbers to grow, but we are also still counting on God to hear our prayer to open hearts. May it be so. > May all the glory be His. Arthur and Sandy Barry

ENDLESS MOUNTAINS CHURCH OF CHRIST Jeff Wyeth I was at the soup kitchen and several came and sat by me and we had a great conversation about baptism--Amy Stirling, Alica Ball, and three others. I talked with a couple of the soup kitchen workers also. I also received a couple of calls from Oliver Houck, the one I baptized, and I spoke with the other girl that was baptized, Alisha Whitsell. I was at Wal-Mart looking for someone to talk to and went downtown to walk, hoping to find others. I also got a request to lead someone to Christ in Liberia, Africa. This is a woman who has become a widow and is unhappy with her Catholic church. I notified someone I knew in the church of Christ over there to help that widow find the truth. After losing her husband she has lost hope in having a way to feed her kids and herself. My contact person in Liberia said they would give God-like assistance. Wednesday, I had a Bible study with Carl Wiesneski and his wife, Elizabeth. She has Alzheimers so things don’t mean much to her. We talked over two hours. He explained that they would be going to their winter home in Maryland soon. I also spoke with two other men who sat beside us. Teresa had a ladies Bible study with Molly Rivera, Mary Grace Destefano and Kelly Donovan. We had a very nice Bible study and picked up Mary Grace from her new place about 10 miles away & took her home and then Faye and her family. The van is doing for us what we wanted it for. We are helping many but it also gives me a chance to have Bible studies. > For contact with the Barrys and the Weyths, go to: Don Myers: [email protected]

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Apologetics Press

Our History and What We Believe Dave Miller In the late 1970s, there was a need to make available more scripturally sound and scientifically accurate materials in the field of Christian apologetics. The idea for Apologetics Press was born—an idea that soon became a reality. The necessary legal steps then were taken to allow the work to be recognized as non-profit and tax-exempt by both State and Federal governments. In 1985, Apologetics Press moved into its own custom-built, 11,000-squarefoot building that was debt free upon completion. Financial records are managed by certified public accountants, who also submit to the appropriate agencies all documentation required by State and Federal law. Currently, Dr. Dave Miller serves as the Executive Director. Dr. Miller, Kyle Butt, Eric Lyons, and Dr. Jeff Miller compose the fulltime professional writing staff, assisted by an auxiliary staff of scientists and other writers including Dr. Joe Deweese, Dr. Jerry Fausz, Dr. Michael Houts, Dr. Branyon May, Dr. Justin Rogers, Dewayne Bryant, James Spencer, Dr. Caleb Colley, Kevin Cain, Dr. Earl Edwards, Robert C. Veil, Jr., Melvin Otey, and Matt Vega. A.P. also has an excellent office support staff that includes secretaries, a production administrator, a graphicsdesign artist, and a general manager.

What We Believe

The following principles of truth are accepted by those who actively participate in the work at Apologetics Press: Faith in God and the Bible must be based on evidence, and not blindly

accepted (1 Thessalonians 5:21; Acts 17:11; 1 John 4:1; John 8:32). God exists, and man can know that God exists, by means of His manifold revelations, both in nature and through the inspired Word of God, the Holy Bible. The Bible depicts Deity as singular, i.e., there is one and only one divine essence or Being (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 45:5; James 2:19). However, the Bible also clearly depicts God as a triune Being—three distinct persons within the one essence—with a triune nature (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14). Each person of the Godhead (the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit) is fully Divine. The entire material Universe was specially created by this almighty God in six days of approximately 24-hours each, as revealed in Genesis 1 and Exodus 20:11. Both biblical and scientific evidence indicate (a) a relatively young Earth, in contrast to evolutionary and old Earth views of a multi-billion-year age for the Earth, and (b) that many of the Earth’s features must be viewed in light of the universal, catastrophic flood of Noah’s day (as described in Genesis 6-8). Christianity is the one true religion (John 14:6), and Jesus Christ is the only divine, resurrected Son of God and Savior of the world (1 John 4:14). The 66 books of the Bible are fully and verbally inspired of God, and have been transmitted faithfully; hence, they are inerrant and authoritative, and a complete guide for moral and religious conduct. Salvation is a free, gracious, unmerited gift from God which mankind

can receive by confessing faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God (Romans 10:910), repenting of sin (Acts 26:20), and being immersed in water for the remission of past sins (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38). Those enjoying salvation are (a) members of the one, true, undenominational church (described in the New Testament), which is the body of Christ (Ephesians 2:22-23; 4:4), and (b) those who are living faithfully in service to God (Revelation 2:10). At some unknown point in the future (Matthew 24:36), Jesus will be “revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8), while the righteous will be given “eternal life” in heaven (Matthew 25:46). >

Welcome to the Apologetics Press Bible Class Curriculum

“When are you going to produce a Bible class curriculum?” For a period of many years, that question has been posed to Apologetics Press over and over again. It is hard to believe that the desire of so many has now come to fruition. We are pleased to announce the release of the Apologetics Press Bible School Curriculum: Exploring God’s Word.

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This year has been good to us! With your help the Lord’s work here continues to grow by leaps and bounds. We are producing more new programs, and reaching even more souls than we ever have before. Your help is essential to making these Bible lessons available to millions of people all over the world. In fact, this year to date, the free online videos have received over 4,000,000 views! With these online views skyrocketing, DVDs are in less demand. However, we estimate that we will still send out over 150,000 DVDs to places all around the world. Let me share with you some of the other exciting news and also a few of the new programs you are helping us to produce.

Proof for God

We were blessed to have Kyle Butt come and teach this needed program. In 8 lessons, Kyle presents the evidence for God and His divine Word. One particular lesson in this program received over 135,000 views online within the first month of being made available!

Premarital Counseling

In this important series of 8 lessons, Glenn Colley shares wisdom designed for couples who will soon marry and who want to help create a happy, durable, Christian home.

Apocrypha

As always, Don Blackwell has done an amazing job in this 31-minute lesson as he looks at the background and context for recognizing the canon of inspired books of the Bible.

New Website

We are blessed to have a new and updated store website that gives a fresh look and easier access to WVBS programs. Viewers can navigate to the WVBS Online School, the Free Video, and the Store websites all from one place at WVBS.org.

Free Online Videos

This is where we continue to see phenomenal growth. As mentioned above the number of views has continued to skyrocket. Last month alone, our online videos received over 25,000 views. You are an essential part of making these videos available!

Free Online Bible School

13,000 students are now actively taking studies through the Free Online Bible School. Almost 9,000 of these students are not yet Christians, making this an excellent evangelism tool.

One Nation Under God

This faith-based fiction novel is a powerful story about God’s providence for His nation and His people. The author is Rudy Cain and written by Elizabeth Turner Beall.

Other Projects Completed:

Biblical Timeline - 10 lessons on 2 DVDs by John Hall. Poster is also available. Bind Us Together- 7 lessons on 2 DVDs by Doritta Johnson Colossians - Online School Program by Russell Haffner Church History 2 - 18 lessons on 5 DVDs by Chuck Horner Ultimately the success of these efforts is in God’s hands, but we know that without your help none of this would have been possible. Please continue to assist us in this great work for the church as much as you can. Also when possible, tell others who may be able to help. Our commitment to you is to continue to provide new and exciting tools that are useful in reaching the lost and in edification. With this thought in mind we are moving toward making as much of our DVD material as we can available on the internet where it can be accessed for use in evangelism and edification, free of charge. To accomplish this great task we ask you to please continue helping WVBS through your prayers and financial support. Thank you. May God bless you and your family, and may He always receive the glory. Present Student Enrollment: 12,934 Formal Students: 3,440 Informal Students: 2,310 Auditing Students: 7,184

Enjoy free access to 372 faith-building, Bible-based videos. Internet SEARCH campaign www.wvbs.org 1-512-398-5211 office 1-877398-5211 order online [email protected]

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World Bible School About Us:

WBS is one of the most proven, cost-effective means of equipping Christians to fulfill the Great Commission. The ministry has taught millions of truthseekers by mobilizing tens of thousands of everyday, volunteer Christians. WBS teaching is something Christians of all ages can do on their own as a WBS Study Helper. Churches can use WBS programs to equip their members and involve them in evangelism. WBS Study Helpers provide Bible lessons to Students, encourage them and guide them to grow in faith and knowledge. They can share Jesus with web-based lessons as online friends. They can also use printed lessons by

mail like spiritual “pen pals”. WBS can often help them connect their Students with local Christians for further study, fellowship and even baptism. WBS’ Bible lessons provide pure Bible Truth. They share the Good News of Jesus, the plan of salvation, how to develop a personal relationship with the Lord and Christian living. Learn more.

Christians sharing Jesus with WBS. O Each year, about 18,000 WBS Students request baptism. (That’s one baptism request for every $77 given to WBS.) >

WBS by the Numbers: O Over 1.5 million studying the Bible at a time. O One student enrolls every thirty seconds. O Students in all the world’s 200-plus countries. O Some 8,000 volunteer, everyday

John Reese: www.worldbibleschool.net; 800-311-2006

Mission Printing, A Work of Churches of Christ

Mission Printing has great volunteers, especially like those shown above at the Belt Line Rd. Church of Christ. We are blessed with more than 30 congregations who participate in the collating and stapling of our tracts at their facilities. They help Mission Printing to supply 3 million free gospel booklets to the world each year.

We ship four ocean containers per year with more than 750,000 booklets of religious material to many different places. Mission Printing is helping many groups throughout the brotherhood by shipping their biblical material in our containers. We have shipped boxes of children’s Bible flip charts from the Global Seedsowers in Abilene, pallet

loads of WBS Bible correspondence courses in different languages from Bro. Jim McPeak in California, pallet loads of Bible commentaries from Truth for Today in Arkansas, and trailer loads of biblical material from World Evangelism in Mississippi. This year, several missionaries have visited and toured our facility in Arlington, TX. They have come from Cameroon, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Australia, and India. We have just started an effort to help Bro. Paul Oppong of the North Bronx, New York church with tens of thousands of booklets for distribution in the Northeast United States. There are many thousands of immigrants in some of the major cities of that area, and Paul is anxious to distribute our material. God continues to bless Mission Printing in “World Evangelism > by the Printed Page.” Richard Renfro [email protected]

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Ronnie Crocker Evangelism is somewhat like a competitive sport. Ephesians 6 tells us our opponent is not “flesh and blood”. In addition to describing our protection, it also illustrates a power God provides to His ministers, which is the Word of God. In the 1970s ABC’s Wide World of Sports transmitted great sporting events right into our homes! We enjoyed the Olympics, World Series, Super Bowls, and big boxing matches. This show began with exciting music and video clips, as the announcer said, “Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport! The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat! The human drama of athletic competition. This is ABC’s Wide World of Sports!” In the book of Acts, we see the Gospel spanning the globe with eternal implications. We read about the agony of defeat as people rejected the Gospel, ministers were imprisoned, and Christians were

killed. We read about the thrill of victory, as multitudes of souls were added to the Lord’s church. One of them, a terrorist of churches of Christ before he was converted, led the spread of the Gospel into Europe and the rest of the world!! Today, through the efforts of foreign mission works like the World Evangelism Team (the Barriers, Bates, Rushmores, and sister Choate), we see the Gospel continuing to span the globe! Evangelistically, these brethren feel the emotional ups and downs, as they make disciples worldwide! At Project Rescue (www.projectrescue.org), we feel the range of emotional extremes on a daily basis, as we live among 20 recovering addicts! The typical man we try to reach obeyed the gospel in his preteens and wandered into the world of drug addiction in his late teens. In his thirties, after he ruined his life with prodigal living (2 Timothy

2:25,26), he enters our 1-year inhouse drug program and resides in one of our 12 apartments. The Balm of Gilead we offer and apply is the Bible. We are assaulted with the agony of defeat when our restoration (Galatians 6:1) efforts are rejected. We feel the thrill of victory when a sinner is converted “from the error of his way” and his soul is saved “from death” (James 5:19,20)! Certainly, the apostle Paul felt the agony of defeat over the souls who rejected his efforts to save them (Romans 9:1-5). The thrill of his evangelistic victories in Philippi surely motivated Paul to keep on keeping on: “Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved.” Philippians

4:1

The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat! Our “joy and crown” consists of members of the churches of Christ coming to us from 22 states (so far). Through this ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18,19), we serve as a bridge back from the far country for our prodigal (drug addicted) sons, grandsons, brothers, fathers, and husbands. It is exciting to see our program members being reconciled back to God, the Lord’s church, their families, the workplace, and society as a whole. > www.projectrescue.org

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25 Brad Harrub, Focus Press, Inc.

NEW ONLINE RADIO SHOW

Listen Live Tuesday’s and Thursday’s at 10:00 CST;

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Contact Us: Address: 625 Bakers Bridge Ave, Suite 105 Franklin, TN 37067; Phone: 615-324-5870; www.focuspress.org; 866-313-6474

If Persecution Begins in America Jack Wilkie

There are two ways to learn life’s important lessons: by observation and study of the information available to us (the wise way of learning), or by the experience that comes from not observing and studying (commonly called “learning lessons the hard way”). I’ve often heard it said that persecution would be a good thing for the church, but I think that view is based on the second way of learning – the idea that we would learn the lessons of persecution the hard way. But I’m not convinced we have to go through persecution to learn. Shouldn’t we be faithful and do the things we’re supposed to do without having to be threatened first? On the other hand, maybe these are lessons we do have to learn the hard way. Whether it takes that catalyst or not, the lessons are there to be learned just by looking at what happened to the early church. Here are four that stand out to me: 1. We would be fully dependent on one another. The kind of love and unity Jesus commanded in John 13-17, “Love one another as I have loved you”, would be followed with “the world will hate you” in John 15:1225, and John said the same thing in his letter (1 John 3:1316). The answer to persecution is care for one another. If we are confronted everywhere, without, with hatred, the only natural choice is to turn within to find love and support. 2. A lot of our petty divisions would go away. The more the world hates us, the more we turn toward each other for love and community. And when we do that, we begin to realize that we’re on the same team with people we might not have cared for before. I’m not saying doctrine would be thrown out the window. What I am saying is that the minor issues that divide us now – matters of opinion, personality disputes, judging one another, etc. – would suddenly be seen for how ridiculous they truly are. Church hopping or avoiding one another would be a thing of the past. Congregations looking down on each other or refusing fellowship with each other over minor differences or past hurts would be unthinkable. Unity of the church isn’t valued very highly right now. Throw

in threats of financial loss, imprisonment, or even death, and I suspect we’d start finding more reasons to get along. 3. Half-hearted Christians would have to make a decision. Right now it’s incredibly easy to be a “Christian.” Very little commitment is demanded of most churchgoers today. Should we come to a time in which following Jesus is life or death, however, casual Christianity would rapidly disappear. Jesus said, “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much” (Luke 16:10), a point he reiterated in the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:21, 23). If a person can’t sacrifice time, preferences, sinful habits, or the things of this world for Jesus now, why would they be willing to do so at the cost of their own life? On the other hand, those who are faithful in that way now will be the only ones who remain should times of persecution come. There will be no such thing as a half-committed Christian. Continued on page 41

Where did we come from? It is a basic question that most science textbooks address first. The common answer is Big Bang cosmology, asserting that before the Big Bang there was nothing. But is this logical from a scientific perspective? Is there a better answer? In this powerful DVD Dr. Brad Harrub reveals the fallacy of the Big Bang theory and shares with students how true science fits beautifully with the creation model. Using modern textbook examples, Dr. Harrub dismantles the evolution and points out the complexity and design really observed in nature.

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Gospel Broadcasting Network: How Do We Reach Everybody?

8900 Germantown Road, Olive Branch, MS 38654; Phone: (662) 874-5508 Don Blackman GBN: Your 24/7 Resource for Truth and Salvation The Gospel Broadcasting Network delivers the message of salvation to people of every age through a variety of resources. GBN live Christian radio is changing hearts with the truth of the Gospel all day every day. Our goal is to save souls for eternity, worldwide, by providing free online Christian resources that answer your faith-based questions. Our mission follows Mark 16:15 of the New Testament, which says, “Preach the Gospel to every creature.” Our goal is to fulfill God’s desire for all people to know the truth of His Word so that they may be saved and spend eternity with Him. The Lord gives us this awesome responsibility, and He also gives us the ability to accomplish His will. We are reaching lost souls and those who want to go deeper into the Gospel by offering: A 24 hour a day, seven days a week broadcasting satellite network that’s accessible worldwide. Hearing the Gospel at any time helps bring people to Christ and supports existing Christians. Live streaming videos that cover topics relevant to today’s secular culture and provide advice for Christians who are in the world, but not of the world. GBN’s “Truth About” video series, where we share the Bible’s teachings on a variety of topics, including gambling, social drinking, tattoos and many other issues. The speaker shares chapters and verses directly from the Bible. Free Bible Correspondence Courses in cooperation with International Bible Teaching Ministries. These courses make learning the Bible easy and offer an experienced teacher for answering questions. GBN documentaries, educational videos and other popular GBN airings on our GBN Youtube channel. These videos can also be shared with others seeking the Word of God. Our Bible-based offerings help you navigate your daily struggles by communicating the truths of God’s Word. Every individual faces his unique challenges in life. All

our resources are available free of charge to help lead you to salvation through the truth of Jesus Christ, if you’re not a Christian, or to help you grow if you are. Please browse our website to see a variety of Biblical resources to help you more effectively serve the Lord such as: How can GBN help you reach your local community through Public Access Television? Has your local congregation been looking for new ways to reach those in your community? Many communities are unaware that their local public access television station can be utilized by any resident of the community to put Gospel material on the air. GBN can help you get on your local TV station with already completed TV episodes that will point viewers to your local congregation. For more information contact GBN on how you can bring this Gospel programming to your local television. While local TV will help you get into many living rooms, there are also new avenues such as Instagram that allow congregations to connect with a younger audience who spend a lot of their time on their mobile devices. GBN can also help you establish an Instagram account where you can reach a younger generation with the Gospel and point them to your local congregation. Other Services: Christian videos for kids that teach important Biblical principles. The entertaining and enlightening cartoons star Howie and Honey and illustrate moral lessons on a level young children can grasp. “Digger Doug’s Underground” program is also popular because it features familiar characters from Discovery magazine. Mobile apps for any platform, so you can take GBN with you wherever you go. Apple iOS, Android, Amazon Fire and Windows phones make it easy and convenient to watch or listen to everything GBN has available to share the Good News. GBN’s Daily Devotional email service so that you can receive thought-provoking and inspirational devotions in your inbox every day. The GBN newsletter, which keeps our members up to date on all the happenings at GBN. [gbntv.org] >

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Wor ld En g l i sh Ins t i t ut e Richard N. Ady

World English Institute (WEI) is a spinoff from my family’s mission experience in Taiwan half a century ago when we used English classes to attract students, and the Bible to lead them to Christ. A one-hour English class was followed by a Bible lesson translated into Mandarin Chinese. Students stayed for the Bible class to improve their pronunciation and their comprehension of spoken English. Some seed fell in fertile soil, and God gave the increase. When it appeared that China was opening up to Christianity in the late 80s, World English Institute was born with China as the target, but God had something bigger in mind. Since 1989, the Lord has used WEI to introduce people to Christ in every nation on earth. Most WEI students enroll to learn English, but their interest often shifts to the Bible. They come to learn

Every living thing must be cultivated — tended — or it wastes away from neglect and dies. Marriages are living things, and they must be cultivated day by day or they will wither from neglect and eventually die. Many marriages are like many gardens — full of weeds and briars, a few good things growing poorly in hard ground. But, ah! The marriage that is tended daily with love and thoughtfulness — that marriage nears the perfection of happiness planned first in the mind of God! from Betty Bits

English, but they discover something far more important. Through WEI, the Lord has led thousands of Atheists, Communists, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, even Satan worshipers to Christ. He has used WEI to plant churches of Christ in at least twenty-five nations and to build up congregations in many other places. In the beginning, WEI was a postal correspondence ministry, but it is now a predominantly Internet outreach ministry. The WEI teaching website is encrypted so that students who live in nations hostile to Christianity can study without risk. Thousands of WEI students live in Muslim nations where it is a capital offense to convert to Christianity. If you are willing to let God use you to save people who are lost and can’t find their way, log on to www.

worldenglishinstitute.org and sign up as a teacher. The rewards are “out of this world.” —Richard N. Ady in > Gresham, Oregon

We often have requests/orders for “that little orange book” — The Church of the Bible. This simple 13-lesson coverage of the Lord’s church has been translated into more than 50 languages and in excess of 150,000 copies have been printed. Churches are using it to better ground members in basic truths. The three titles [The Gospel of Christ, The Church of the Bible, and New Testament Worship] work well together. Only $4.00 per copy, 25% off for orders of 25 or more of one title. Order from:

World Evangelism P.O. Box 72 Winona, MS 38967 662-283-1192 or

WorldEvangelism.org

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Seven Ways Preachers Can Encourage One Another Jeff Jenkins

It happens over, and over, and over again. We hear about preachers losing their jobs or dropping out of ministry because the pressures are so great. This article is not about who is right or wrong when a preacher loses his job. I’m certain there is enough blame to go around. This is a plea from my heart that those of us who are preaching brothers will do everything we can to encourage one another. With apologies to those of you who are reading this who are not preachers, it is true that there is no one who can understand the life and work of a preacher better than another preacher. I have talked to more preachers than I can count who are suffering in silence. They have been chastised by their elders, their deacons, or some well-meaning fellow Christian. Their feeling is that they are under-appreciated. They feel that few really know all that they do. They feel that few really care about their families, their health, their mental well-being, and their spiritual walk with the Lord. Okay, take a deep breath. I know that some of you guys who are reading this would say, “Jeff, I’ve never felt that way, and those who have need to get over it.” I’m thankful you’ve never been treated like that or that you’ve never been made to feel that way,

but be careful brother, about saying someone who has needs to get over it. At least until you’ve walked in their shoes. So, most of us who preach understand these thoughts and feelings. This is a plea to all of us who preach to encourage, strengthen, support, and love a fellow preacher who is struggling. Let’s consider how we can encourage and support one another. If you are not a preacher, why not join in with us as we seek to encourage one another. OFFER WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT As we mentioned earlier, there are enough negative and critical words spoken in our world. Those of us who are preachers don’t need to add to what has already been said. Remember that as Christians we have been charged with speaking words, that are “good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.” (Ephesians 4:29) Make a phone call or a personal visit, send an email, a letter, a text, or a Facebook message. Sit down with someone who is hurting and just listen. Listen with your heart. Show compassion and concern. There are many ways we can encourage.

ENCOURAGE A PREACHER’S FAMILY If you know a brother who is struggling, be sure to ask him how his family is doing? If your wife is a good encourager, ask her to call the struggling preacher’s wife. Ask about the children. See if there is anything that can be done to encourage the family. TALK TO OUR FATHER It has been my personal practice to keep a running list of preachers who I know are dealing with difficulties, as well as preachers who have contacted me to ask for prayers. I do my best to pray through that list on a weekly, sometime daily basis. One of the greatest gifts we can give to a brother who is struggling is the gift of knowing we are praying for them. If you tell someone you are going to pray for them write it down and be sure you follow through. (If you would like to be added to my list, please send me a private message, no details needed!) EXTEND GRACE & FORGIVE There are times that the preacher who is struggling is the one who is in the wrong. Perhaps he has brought his struggle on himself. I am not writing this to say that preachers are always right. Continued on page 30

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Biblical Institute of Central America A Two-Year Bible School to prepare evangelists and church leaders from the Caribbean to the Pacific shores of Central America George Hall

God desires a close intimate relationship with His children… all His children. This desire is the basis of the Great Commission. God wants those who know Him and love Him to “go into all the world” to tell those who don’t know God that He desperately wants to have a relationship with them. BICA has found a very effective way to accomplish God’s command. It is buried in the very words of Matthew 28. Teach them? Yes… Baptize them? Yes…but the first phrase after “go” is “make disciples” What is a disciple?... a follower? Yes… but our definition of disciple is a follower who teaches others how to make disciples... disciples teaching other disciples how to teach other people to be disciples! BICA has also found this process to be most effective when local believers teach other people in their community. A person from another nation or culture can be effective to some degree, but in Central America, the most effective teacher is another Hispanic, preferably someone from their country. BICA currently has schools in Honduras and Guatemala. It is our dream to expand to other Central American countries. There is a sense of national pride that makes the spreading of the good news of Jesus even more effective. BICA’s vision is to teach believers in every Central American country how to reach their fellow citizens. We will continue to pursue that dream by training local evangelists to teach their neighbors while also working to provide for themselves and their families. Andrew and Philip brought their brothers to Jesus. We are instructed to bring “all nations” to Jesus. We feel the

best way to accomplish that is to teach brothers how to bring their brothers. It is a two year intensive training program for evangelists and church leaders! In the students’ two years of preparation, they will develop an extraordinary capacity and passion to convert the lost. Each student in his/her years at BICA will have the experience of presenting more than 700 Bible studies to the lost. We send sustainable evangelists into the mission fields! These evangelists will preach and serve for the glory of God for at least 40 years… and all across the world, all without relying on foreign support. We are not opposed to foreign support for our students but we realize it is unrealistic to find support for almost 800 of our current BICA graduates and each additional in the future. Therefore, we teach them to have ministries that are self-sustainable by providing them the capital for the start of businesses when they graduate. Our costs are low for training each student! We are positively influencing the growth of the churches of Christ in Central America and the establishment of new churches of Christ all within a reasonable and conservative budget. We prepare women. BICA is one of the few institutes who prepare women to be powerful evangelists, to be leaders in women’s and children’s ministries, and to be the perfect partner if their husband shares in the ministry as well. MISSIONS LIKE NEVER BEFORE

Are you looking for a mission opportunity for church, team, family or friends? Mission teams partnering with BICA are growing in number and enthusiasm. Currently, the opportunity exists

to join with BICA students in Guatemala and Honduras to support local churches by evangelizing in the community, constructing of new or upgrading of existing church buildings, promoting and participating in campaign work, and encouraging BICA students. We work with your group as a partner to find the right combination of ministry opportunities for your team. U.S. staff volunteers assist groups in the planning process and in arranging travel plans. Mission opportunities are available year round.

W h y S h o u l d Yo u Go With BICA?

l God calls us to spread the Gospel l Short-term missionaries can make a lasting difference l Teams help reach lost souls with the Good News l Participants grow in faith and return home with renewed energy to be disciples l BICA leadership staff members accompany, lead, and transport the group trip in its entirety l Americans are able to join native evangelists and local medical professionals l The mission strengthens church member relationships - cross culture for team members and supporters l The team connects others from outside the church to help with the cause… encouraging community involvement l The trip supports and encourages evangelists who are actively saving souls l Team members build relationships in Central America Continued on page 30

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Biblical Institute Continued from page 29

Preachers Can Encourage One Another Continued from page 28

I know from my own life that all of us have to constantly watch ourselves. Our own decisions and choices l Suggested minimum age, high can bring pain to our lives and the lives school junior (parental consent doc- of our family. That is why we must ument required) constantly examine ourselves to be l Application sure that we are, “In the faith.” (2 Corinthians 13:5) l Background check DON’T PRY OR l Passport ASK TOO MANY QUESTIONS l Immunizations Some people (and this includes How do you plan for the trip? some of us who preach) pride theml Our US staff volunteers help you selves in knowing every sordid detail through each step. We suggest you: l Pick a trip leader (coordinator) or about every problem in the church. They want to be able to “report” to othtwo ers about the heartaches of those who l Announce the plans for the trip are suffering. and prospective dates I have seen preachers who pry l Request response for those interinto the lives of people just so they ested (get emails and text numbers will know. Be careful to not “stick your for group communication) nose,” where it is not needed. Be carel Host a planning meeting ful about asking too many questions. l Set deadlines for application, de- Someone who is hurting will tell you posit, and payment schedule what they want you to know or what l Set up an online donation site that they feel you need to know to be able is specific to the trip to help. l Get your congregation involved DON’T FORGET (prayer, fund-raising, collecting ABOUT ONE ANOTHER items) AFTER THE INITIAL CONTACT l Send regular emails and texts with Please don’t overlook this very reminders and updates important part of the helping process. Is the Lord Calling You? Many times, we reach out to a hurting This mission experience will brother, pray for him, encourage him, forever impact the lives of those that and then we forget about him. go, those that are served, and those Hurts and pains don’t quickly go that help in prayer and support of away. Make another phone call, send > another note, reach out again, sometime the faithful servants. George Hall: [email protected] after the initial contact. When a hurting

What are the Team Requirements?

brother knows that we won’t drop him it will mean the world to him. Since learning about the return of my wife’s cancer, one of my preaching brethren has texted me regularly just to say he is praying for us. It has meant more to us than he’ll ever know. BUILD UP PREACHERS IN THE PRESENCE OF OTHERS Work overtime not to be critical of a preacher in the presence of other preachers, church leaders, or members. If someone hears you “speaking out of school”, they will not feel that they can trust you when they need to be able to reach out. Brothers, those of us who preach are blessed to be a part of a very special fraternity. The best friends I have in my life are preachers. Some of them are older, some of them are younger, and some of them are my age (some of you are thinking, that would be the same as the older ones)! God has blessed my life beyond measure by my preaching brothers. Let’s help one another during difficult times. Let’s reach out to one another. Let’s thank God for one another. Dear Father, we know that we have some brothers who are hurting right now. Help us, dear God, to reach out to them. Help us to encourage them in every way possible. Help us to pray for those around us who are hurting. Dear Father, please give a special measure of Your grace to those who need it right now. In the Name of the One who will give us rest we pray, Amen. > Jeff Jenkins: thejenkinsinstitute@gmail. com

Will you GO, or will you SEND?

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A Prayer from the Heart J. Randal Matheny True and living God, Your works go before you and proclaim Your glory. In Christ we see Your love and goodness, the justice brought to man. You are worthy of praise. We love You, and desire that You dwell in our hearts. Come to us, for we have come to the Rock that shelters us above all tempests. Forgive us of the sin of anxiousness, O Lord, that inner turmoil over our many responsibilities or the dread concerning current events. Give us, Father, a sense of abundance and fullness that come from the bounty of Your goodness. We are thankful for technology that permits us to do more, be more efficient in our work, have greater contact with loved ones and friends, share the Gospel with the lost. Father, bless the work of the Good News in Argentina. May the brethren here be strong in faith. Send more workers into the field. Uphold the work of Colin and Lisa Graham in Bangor, North Ireland, and give them fruit from their labors. Bless parents as they rear their children in the fear of Your Name, transmit to them the joy of serving

Christ, and instill in them love in its purest form. Thank you, Lord, for reconciliation, to give us peace with You and in ourselves, for peacemaking as our objective. Thank You for the recorded history, in Scripture, of Your work to save mankind, for Your patience with the stubbornness of Israel and with the recalcitrance of the church. What a wonderful God You are to love and save us!

BBQ for region’s 30-year Mark The Gospel penetrated our Valley area in October, 1988, when two Brazilian families were sent from the state capital. (Vicki and I arrived in SJCampos in 1995 from Belo Horizonte,

to contribute to a small effort already begun.) On November 15, Brazil’s Proclamation of the Republic, we celebrated the 30-year anniversary of the church’s start here! We rented a venue for the day, about five minutes from our home. Douglas’s wife, Ludmila, planned a barbecue that went off exceptionally well. Afterwards, four men spoke between songs and prayers. Ten non-Christians joined us for the day. Two of the oldest converts, Paulo Lelis and José Roberto from the East Side congregation, spoke about their spiritual journey. These meetings encouraged the congregations and offered a vision for the work that the Lord Jesus Christ gave us to do. For that > we are thankful. Randal Matheny: [email protected]

These Forthright Publications are available. For prices and more information, you may call Barbara Oliver at 901-517-7274 or email [email protected].

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Dear brethren in the Lord and God´s faithful workers, my best regard and season’s greetings from Montecarlo congregation in Lima city, Peru. Hoping this message finds you in good health both physical and spiritual, and may God continue to bless you and your church work ministry in this current year. I am back in town after spending time with a rural congregation in the Andes mountain areas for about ten days. We want to let you know that we are planning to launch a Bible training center and missions with 10 students

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and up (both men and women), March 2020, to be held every three months during that year at the Montecarlo church building`s facility, starting from a Tuesday morning and continuing through the next week (almost 12 days in total). That would be a three-years’ Bible program in which some church members around the city and within Peru will be welltrained, and we make an open invitation for you to help us out on this church project. We will also be very grateful for you to come over to visit us, so we can host a five-days’ Mission and Evange-

lism Training Seminar in the first week in December 2019. Although we are not a wealthy congregation (located in Lima city in the northern area), all our efforts in these past years have been focused on visiting and helping out with church work with the neediest congregations around this whole nation. Our church does mission trips to the Andes Mountains and Amazon jungle`s remote areas four times a year, to teach and preach God`s Word and do the best we can, although money resources are not enough for the many things that need to be done over there. Together with some local church workers, we do those mission trips and we thank God for this work, since many people have obeyed the Gospel of Christ, and those church members at those remote locations are visited and encouraged. They are always happy for us to help out on door-knocking and having Gospel campaigns for them to stay faithful and work harder to build up the Lord`s church. I hope you all consider to partner with us and to visit us in Peru anytime. We will always be glad to have you, either in this coming year or in the nearest future. Romans 10:15 > Helmut Garcia: this is our church facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/ ideCMontecarloPeru

Spanish Materials Available for Evangelism and Grounding in the Faith

The Voice of Truth International magazine

WORLD EVANGELISM

Class and study books. Call 662-283-1192

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Northern Ireland Report Maurice Brown I was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where I attended the Church of Ireland in my younger years. After much searching, I came in contact with the church of Christ in Belfast, and became a Christian in 1978. I am currently a preacher for the Broadway Church of Christ in Rockford, Illinois, but I enjoy going back to my home country once a year, if possible. In October 2018, my wife, Tami, who is originally from Tennessee, joined me as we visited with my family, as well as church family. Northern Ireland has five churches of Christ, consisting of the Westway congregation in Belfast, two congregations in Bangor, one in Newtownards, and one in Coleraine. Tami spent 2 years in Coleraine, as part of a missionary team in the early 1980’s. We spent several days giving out about 600 postcards through the letterboxes of various homes in Belfast. These cards offered a free Bible Correspondence Course and contact information on the church of Christ. There is also a year-round weekly advertisement in the Belfast Telegraph newspaper to bring awareness of the church. Over the last several years, Brother Michael Keaney, who preaches for the church that meets on Southwell Road in Bangor, has kindly taken charge of sending Bible courses to anyone who responds to the ad or sends in one of the cards.

Michael Keaney & Jackie Thompson

On Sunday morning, I had the honor of preaching at the church of Christ in Bangor, which is small in number, but big in heart. We received a loving and warm welcome, even though it was a cold day! In the foyer was a rack full of tracts and literature that had been sent to the church by the World Evangelism team. The members were very grateful and appreciative. To show their appreciation, they gave me a check for $1293.54! Robin Coulter traveled 68 miles by train to worship and fellowship with us. He is a member of the church of Christ in Coleraine, and it was the first time we had seen him in over 30 years. We enjoyed spending the afternoon with him and catching up on the news. Tami and I went back to Bangor for the Sunday evening service. We participated in some great Gospel singing and heard a sound Biblical message by Michael Keaney. After worship, he and his wife invited us to their home for a “wee cuppa tea” and a nice chat. On the day before we left to travel back to the USA, we drove to Coleraine,

and Tami was able to visit with some of her friends from the church there. We also had a short tour of the church building, which had been recently renovated. It was a great ending to a wonderful trip to Northern Ireland! > Maurice Brown: mbrown53@comcast. net

Door-to-door distribution of tracts and invitations to meetings.

Tract rack with copies of The Voice of Truth International.

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My Experience with “WhatsApp” Kenneth Peters

I find social media, especially WhatsApp, a way of making a positive contribution to personal Bible study. One day, a sister in Christ living in Germany, with whom I was having a telephone conversation, asked me a question about the Bible teaching on the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. I suggested to her that she first read John 16 and then we would have a discussion, to which she agreed. Before we started our discussion, I asked her to read Acts 2 and then the end of Luke 24. After explaining the passages, especially how connected they are, I asked her if she would like to continue studying the Bible over the telephone. She said she was interested. Then she requested that we continue with John. That was the beginning of this experience of Bible study via WhatsApp. So we studied John’s Gospel and went on to look at his epistles. After those books, we went back to Acts and from there we proceeded with the other Gospel books. We have completed the study of the whole New Testament and we are now in the Old Testament. From once a week initially, our study soon upgraded to two days weekly. Also, she is now seeing situations where she can help to spread the Gospel message this way. She said she is in touch with two young Muslim women, so by the blessing of God it is all possible. In the meantime, I happened to speak with another sister in Christ, a resident of New Jersey, to whom I mentioned my study with the sister in Germany and immediately she said she was interested in Bible study. She was so excited about the idea that she wanted to study almost every day. But the only problem with that was the time difference of five hours between the UK and New Jersey. So we decided to study three days a week. Then I was speaking with my youngest blood brother who lives in Barbados. When I told him I needed to get off the phone because I had a scheduled appointment to study the Bible with someone in Germany he thought it was a good deed/enterprise, to which I retorted that it would be better if he would join us in the study. He said he would. I thought he was only joking, but I realized that he was serious. He asked when we should start. I suggested once a week on Saturday but he thought that wasn’t enough; he wanted us to study three times a week. Again the time difference was a challenge: he gets up 3 a.m. for the study, which corresponds to 8 a.m. UK time. He is so eager that if I miss calling him at 8 a.m. on the dot, he calls me. I gave him the choice to start the study either with the Gospel of Mark or John and he went for John (everyone seems to want to begin with

that book.) We are currently going through Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians. After one of the Gospel accounts, I move on to Acts, then to the Epistles. At the present time, we are half way through 2nd Corinthians. I also study with another blood brother who lives in the Caribbean Island of St Vincent. I introduced him to the book of Mark using a study aid called 90 Days Walk with Jesus through the Eyes of Mark, written by Malcolm Chusham. I asked my brother to order one copy of that book from the Internet, which he did. It uses a method in which the student is required to answer the questions asked, applying them to his own life. My brother liked the method so much that he is planning to start a course in his congregation based on that book and its study method. The way I conduct a study is quite simple. I ask the student to read the chapter we have decided to study. After the reading, I ask the student to tell in their own words what they understand from the passage. Then I let them say what they have learned from the passage we have read. For example, in a study of the conversation with Nicodemus, I ask the student to tell how one gets into the kingdom of heaven, instead of me telling them. One more example is related to the unity of the church. After studying the subject of the church in Acts and other passages, I ask the student to tell how many churches there are. When they ask questions, I answer either using elements straight from the Bible or from church materials. This teaching experience takes place in a social setting, and I believe this makes it even more valuable and appreciated by people, beside the fact that the telephonic conversation on WhatsApp is free of charge. So I now have altogether four students in various parts of the world. I benefit a lot from this whole personal evangelism experience because it helps me search the Scriptures in preparation for my lesson. The questions the students ask equally help me to dig the Scriptures. Also, after a lesson I go over it for a check of what I have studied with the student. In this way I grow in the knowledge of the Bible. Also the brother in St. Vincent has started the study with his wife and his 13 year-old son. The sister in New Jersey now is challenging some Jehovah’s Witnesses to study with her, all thanks to her knowledge > gained through simply studying the Gospel message. Kenneth Peters lives in Eastbourne, East Sussex, England

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The Work in Romania Harvey Starling BIBLE TRAINING SCHOOL UNDERWAY IN PITESTI, ROMANIA The 18th annual Bible Training School in Pitesti, Romania began Sunday night with orientation for all students and instructors. Marc Curfman and Joel Inman, both capable and very experienced Bible teachers, are instructing 40 students from the seven churches in Dolj, Arges and Valea Districts. The training school is completely funded by the Glendale church in Murray, Kentucky. The classes continue for two full weeks, with graduation on the last Friday of the school. There are 60 hours of class room teaching plus extensive outside study. The average age of the students is 39 years. They receive no payment for attending the school, but lodging and food as well as all study materials are provided. A number of those in the school are men who presently preach in the seven churches, children’s Bible class teachers, and others who desire a greater knowledge of the Scriptures. The two full weeks is extensive, and several take their vacation in order to attend. Others are retired, and some are university students who begin classes the following week. THE ENTIRE NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARIES TO BE TRANSLATED Plans are underway to translate and print a complete set of New Testament commentaries from English into the Romanian language in the near future. The book of Acts has already been printed, and the book of John has been translated and is at the printers now. Plans now call for the books of Hebrews, Romans and Galatians to be completed in the coming year. Adi Voicu, along with other Romanian Christians, have excellent knowledge of the English language and have helped to translate scores of booklets and tracts now in use by the seven churches. According to one of the U.S. men involved in the entire project, “This project of translating and printing commentaries of every New Testament book in the Romanian language will be a blessing to the Lord’s church is Romania for generations. Several Romanian denominations have had commentaries by their own scholars for many years. They

all teach Calvinism and have been readily available to the public. These new commentaries written by faithful Gospel preachers, mostly men from the Sunset Bible Institute in Lubbock, TX, will help students of the word to learn and grow in Bible truth.” THOUSANDS OF BIBLES FOR ROMANIA! A shipment of Bibles arrived a few days ago to use in the work of the seven churches. In the past five years over 5,000 Bibles have been purchased and distributed in concentrated efforts to get the Gospel to the people of Dolj, Arges and Valcea Districts. The financial sacrifices of congregations and individuals in the U.S. make the purchase of these Romania Bible possible. They are used in regular assemblies in the seven churches and in every special evangelistic effort’ as well as in one-to-one studies. ROMANIAN LADIES CONTINUE TO MAKE QUILTS The special project to make quilts for the needy continues in the seven churches in Dolj, Arges and Valcea. Pat Starling helped to get the work started some 15 years ago when so many were in need of warm bedding. The need continues today even though hundreds of quilts have been made through the years. Over 30 ladies participate in this work with the quilt materials coming from both the U.S and Romania. Ladies in the U.S. contribute materials for the quilt tops and these are taken to Romania by U.S. teachers. In recent years that has been Daryl and Ann Newton. The Midway church provides funds for the flannel and filler which is needed to make the quilts. Also several sewing machines have been purchased for this work. > Harvey M. Starling: [email protected]

Friday night youth study in Craiova, in the book of Acts.

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Help Take the Gospel to the French-Speaking World Barry Baggott

Few people realize in how many nations the French-language is used around the world and how much is yet to be done in taking the Gospel to those nations. Over 600 million people live in the 57 countries and territories that consider themselves part of the Frenchspeaking world. Yet we have no more than five American missionaries living and working among French-speakers in these countries, and almost all of these are in just two European countries. In spite of a shortage of missionaries to the French world, much progress has been made in the past 30 years. The number of French-speaking countries where the church of Christ has been established has gone from 11 to 34. The number of congregations has increased from fewer than 90 to nearly 700. Schools of preaching in six French-speaking countries are currently training scores of local evangelists. A wide selection of printed materials in French has been developed for use in evangelism and grounding of converts. Weekly Gospel radio broadcasts are heard in at least 14 French-speaking countries in Africa and the Caribbean. Nevertheless, an extraordinary amount of work is yet to be done. It is true that we must be busy evangelizing to reach the lost in the United States, where only one out of 240 people is a member of the New Testament church, but the task of reaching the French-speaking world is even more daunting: only one of 44,000 is a New Testament Christian! The Crieve Hall Church of Christ in Nashville, Tennessee, is working on several fronts to evangelize and build

up the Lord’s church throughout the French-speaking world. A school of preaching in Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire), West Africa, trains faithful men from various African countries to serve as evangelists. Crieve Hall fully supports this work, which is directed by Ivorian Christians. Crieve Hall also oversees a literature ministry called French World Outreach, which provides over 90% of the printed materials used by Frenchspeaking churches around the world. Crieve Hall provides the facilities for the work, a team of volunteers, and support for two full-time workers, Barry Baggott and Garrett McGilvray. Over 200,000 pieces of Gospel literature are provided each year through this work. These include tracts and booklets, New Testaments, correspondence courses, Bible school curriculum, song books, periodicals, commentaries and other books for Bible study. Another means of teaching God’s word to French-speakers around the world is an extensive radio ministry involving numerous weekly broadcasts heard in 11 countries. Many of these lessons are prepared and recorded by Barry Baggott, while follow-up is done by local Christians in each country. Barry and Garrett also make multiple mission trips each year to Frenchspeaking countries, mostly to countries where no American or European missionaries are serving the Lord’s church. The objectives of each trip depend on the needs in the particular country. In some cases they are working to establish the church where it does not yet exist. In others they are providing grounding, en-

couragement, and help in evangelism to local congregations. And in other cases they teach courses in schools of preaching or provide in-depth training and/or refresher courses to evangelists already serving on the field. Much of the literature and many of the radio broadcasts mentioned above are made available on Internet websites for French-speakers anywhere in the world. A French site intended especially for Muslim seekers of truth has also been created and is receiving nearly 100,000 visits per year. (There is considerable overlap between the French-speaking world and the Muslim world.) Fi n a n c i a l N e e d s As already mentioned, the Crieve Hall congregation provides full support for the school of preaching in Ivory Coast, facilities for the literature ministry in Nashville, and salaries for Barry and Garrett. Help from other congregations and from individuals is gladly received for other needs such as travel funds and money for printing and shipping of literature. The two most urgent needs at the present time relate to the radio ministry and the teaching periodical, Chemin de Vérité (Way of Truth): Radio: Several weekly radio broadcasts in the African countries of Ivory Coast, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are currently underfunded. In most cases, $50 per month would be sufficient to keep a program on the air. Chemin de Vérité: We send bundles of this periodical free of charge to Continued on page 37

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New Work in Italy Scott Shanahan

Please accept my apologies for not sending any updates lately. We have been traveling around a lot the last few weeks trying to secure sponsorship and support for our new work. We continue to move forward with the work in Italy and are hopeful that it will be a reality soon. We hope this report finds you well. Rebecca, Violet and I are happy to announce that we have a new overseeing congregation for our work in Italy. The Margaret Street church of Christ in Milton, Florida has decided to accept oversight of our work! We are very happy with their decision to take our sponsorship. They are a great, loving congregation whose elders want to be more than just a sending and receiving point for funds. They want to be intimately involved in our work and our spiritual development. We look forward to working with them. We will be moving down to Milton in a few weeks and then start making our final plans for Italy. For those of you whom we have not yet visited we will try our best to see you before we leave. I’ll be in touch to try and arrange a visit. If you are a congregational or individual supporter of the work, you can start sending your support to: Margaret Street Church of Christ, ATTN: Italian Missions, 6745 Margaret Street, Milton FL 32570 If you’ve already sent your support to Dunlap, do not worry about it; they will forward it along to Margaret Street when they get it. Thank you so much for all your prayers and continued support! We love you all very much and we should be in touch soon with great news about the work. > Scott Shanahan: [email protected]

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French-Speaking World Continued from page 36

every French-speaking congregation around the world for which we have an address, as well as individual copies to isolated Christians, Bible correspondence course students, and many other Truth-seekers. It is used as a tool for evangelism, for grounding Christians in sound doctrine and for edifying and strengthening them in their spiritual lives. For many congregations, this bimonthly publication is the only printed teaching material they receive in the course of a year. Unfortunately, because of ever-increasing postage costs and the growth of the French-speaking churches and our mailing list (it has grown from about 1,400 in 1993 to over 19,800 today), as well as the loss of some regular support from congregations that were unable to continue this year, the funds that we receive for producing and shipping Chemin de Vérité are woefully inadequate. In fact, the monthly shortfall for this important tool for evangelism and edification has risen to about $1,500 per month. If you or your congregation would be willing to contribute monthly to enable us to meet this need, please let us know. Or, if you can arrange for Barry or Garrett to speak to a church or group of Christians who might help, please do so. > Barry Baggott, Crieve Hall Church of Christ, 4806 Trousdale Drive, Nashville, TN 37220; Phone: 1-615-781-2137: email: fwo. [email protected] www.frenchworldoutreach.org

Teaching through a French Vacation Bible School.

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Hunger Preparation Ahead of Famine for Malawians “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’” Matthew 25:34-36 We have heard these verses quoted, but the Malawi Project and a group of Malawians are doing something to help combat hunger before its unwelcomed arrival. While direct food aid is necessary in times of crisis and famine, this church-related effort works to combat hunger in one of the poorest nations in the world. However, it is important to help fend away famine ahead of its unwelcomed arrival. When rains fail or too much rain prevails, or invasion of insects occurs, crops fail and people suffer. That is when the Malawi Project steps in with aid. Waiting for the crisis to arrive is not enough. In the past two years the Malawi Project has worked with community based organizations, churches, and local tribal authority to create what is known as the Joseph Projects. These programs are named after Joseph in the

Old Testament whom God instructed to create grain storage facilities in order to fend off major famine. Joseph complied, and the nation was saved. These projects follow intense educational preparation through distribution of 10,000 booklets, half in English and half in the native language, Chichewa, that teach the story of Joseph, and the way he prepared for famine. These booklets were followed by the use of drip irrigation projects to help raise additional food to offset famine. The next step was funding assistance for concrete floors, doors, windows and roof panels, for a storage facility. The Malawian groups took it from there, in one case 18 churches joined together to raise and store grain.

Crowd at Joseph 2

Three of these projects have been completed in less than a year, and plans call for more examples for their neighbors, showing what can be done when people band together to solve a problem. Of even greater importance is the fact the Malawians handled the heavy lifting on these projects. The Malawi Project gave only minimal funding, the Malawi churches did the rest. Four members of the Malawi Project Board traveled to Malawi in September and October to see these projects first-hand. Helping feed people is what it is all about. This program is yet another way to help them help themselves. For more information on the Malawi Project, and its assistance programs, go to: www.malawiproject.org

>

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SOUTHWEST SCHOOL OF EVANGELISM Greetings from staff and students of BVBIN & SWSE, IBADAN.Here is the summary of recent activities. 1. OVERVIEW: The Diploma (year-1) and Advanced Diploma (year2) students reported fully for classes as scheduled. Presently, we are through with the following subjects. Evangelism-1, NT Church-1, Life of Christ-1, The Pentateuch, OT-History (Joshua -Esther), Denominational Doctrines, Prison Epistles, Gospel of John, 1,2&3 John and the Book of James. 2. SPECIAL ACCOMPLISHMENT: One of our August 2018 graduates, brother Andrew Adeolu, is now serving as the evangelist of the just established Lord’s church in Bachita town, Kwara State. Brother Andrew is one of our present year-2 students, a native of Ilesha in Osun State. He is happily married and blessed with a kid. His mission is spreading the good news in the rural area. 3. EVANGELISM: Students of the school were able to evangelize in Asejire-Oyo State, Asejire-Osun State, Egbeda town-Oyo State, Ikire-Osun State, Butubutu village and environment and Ido-Ekiti in Ekiti State in the month of September, and our joint effort was blessed with five converts and two restorations. 4. SPECIAL CHALLENGES: The school van broke down twice during the month of September, and we were able to change the van gear and some other components that go along with it. Also, the printer and photocopy machines cost us some money. We bought toner for the two printers and complete drum unit for the photocopy machine. Lastly, the school now employs a brother as the school driver.

5. OTHER COMMENTS: A lover of good things just donated a fairly used bus to South West Nursery & Primary School to convey the less privileged children to the school from Monday to Friday. Also, I will be teaching on The GODHEAD on October 14 in IsheriOshun congregation, Mile-12 on October 21 and in Agege on October 28. CONCLUSION: We deeply appreciate your partnership and support for African countries and beyond. May the Lord keep on blessings all our joint > effort in Christ Jesus, amen.

Makinde Ebenezer Olufemi (Director of Studies for Bear Valley Bible Institute of Nigeria and Southwest School of Evangelism, Ibadan)

Six thousand copies of The Voice of Truth International are printed in Nigeria under brother Makinde’s oversight, and circulated throughout the country.

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Jos, Nigeria: School of Biblical Studies Solomon Aguh

68 SOULS ADDED TO THE KINGDOM

Since our graduation of 2017, with a student body of 137 students, our Weekend Evangelism Program has proven to be a tremendous success. Brother Naphtali Dagasamah continues to match our students to locations throughout the area every weekend. We now have over 14 congregations in and around the city of Jos. Through this program our students learn to take the knowledge they learn in the classroom and apply it to the people in the streets and villages. Our students have averaged conducting 651 Bible studies per month! They have baptized 68 people who believed, repented, confessed and expressed a desire to be baptized into our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. God’s word is still powerful! Our graduates in Chad (Pierre, Sabastian, and Lazarus) had a two-day Gospel meeting planned, and I was scheduled to do the preaching. The subject was Church Growth. Over 320 brethren came from 11 congregations in a 50-mile radius. The sessions went well, and we had 26 baptisms! Lazarus and Sabastian

are in good health, and each is planning to move to a new area to start preaching at four new congregations. I met with the children at our school on Friday morning. The school conducts two sessions each day because of limited classroom space. The first session is from 7:30 am until 12:00 and the second is from 1:00 until 5:30 pm. When we can build three more buildings, which will give us six more classrooms, we can have all 800 children during the day, and none will have to travel home from school in the dark. Each building costs $12,000. Would you or your congregation care to help?

OUR KITCHEN

The construction of our dormitory is complete. The only task remaining is the painting of the top floor and the outside of the structure. We plan to start this task in late October during the dry season. We do not have central feeding at the school, so each student is required to provide his/her own food. We do have a small outside kitchen for the ladies, who now live in the former male dorm, and we have constructed a temporary kitchen for the male students. Most students form groups and prepare their food on a small kerosene stove. Funds were not available, so the temporary kitchen was a project born of necessity. We had to use used metal roofing so rodents are a constant problem, along with sanitation. The cost of construction of a proper kitchen building is $7,843.57. Will you help us with this project? Please send a check to the Church of Christ, 1175 Pickwick Street, Savannah, TN 38372: attn. SBS kitchen. Thank you for your support in the past.

When the School of Biblical Studies, Jos, started in August 20, 1989, we were located on the Ring Road that by-passed the city of Jos. We were in a village named Furaka, whose water was supplied by a stream. One of our first tasks was to locate water and drill a bore hole on our campus. Our Lord provided a good source of water. We allowed the villagers to bring buckets twice each day and collect water for drinking. They have done this for over 25 years. This Christian act of kindness has helped cement our friendship and love for each other. Through the years the city of Jos has grown to over a million people, and we now find ourselves part of the city. Our first bore hole lasted 20 years but finally went dry. The city installed a water main along the Ring Road, but their service is sporadic at best. Sometimes we will go weeks without city water. A few years ago, we drilled another bore hole that provided us a limited source of good drinking water. When we increased our student body to 137 students, we found we needed an emergency source of water that could only be provided by our owning a water tanker truck. You helped us obtain this tremendous gift. With the funds you provided, we found a very good Mercedes truck shipped to Nigeria from Germany. It has a diesel engine and a new water tank. We bought and installed a water pump and painted the inside of the tank with antirust paint. Your gift is now in service! May our Lord bless you for your love and support for us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! > Riverchase Church of Christ: 1868 Montgomery Highway, Birmingham, AL 35244. Phone: 205 988-5808

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The Church in Mauritius continues to Grow Sylvio Salomon

As you may know, I was converted and baptized by missionary Russell DuPont, sent and sponsored by the Benton church of Christ in Benton, Kentucky to established the church here in 1970. I was privileged to be among those foundation members of the church in Mauritius. Between the 35/40 students qualified to be in the first Bible school in the Indian Ocean. I am the only one remaining in that group, fighting for the doctrine of the church of Christ as it is in the Bible until now, and for the remainder of my life in this world, God willing. Out of this beginning, by the help

of God, in my family my mother and my sister were baptized. After our wedding, Marianne, my wife, was baptized. Then, as young adults, my two daughters were baptized, and before they got married, both sons-in-law will be baptized. Now I want to share with you this great event, which took place at Joanne & Merlin’s place at Palmar. Melia and Maiva, their two daughters, were baptized and added to the church. At the same time, the daughter of Bruno & Marie Claire Toi was baptized. Bruno is the son of Harold Toi, baptized in 1980. Bruno & Marie Claire were baptized in

If Persecution Begins... Continued from page 25

4. Prayerlessness would be absurd. In my experience, prayer is often an afterthought today. We add a couple of prayers to our worship times. We keep a prayer list of those who are sick. But the idea of regularly (as in, every week or so) gathering solely for the purpose of prayer is given little thought in many cases. If we were dealing with great persecution, though, I suspect that’s another thing that would change quickly. Just look at the early church in the book of Acts – they didn’t do anything without prayer. One of my favorite examples is found in Acts 4:24-31, where Peter and John were released from arrest and immediately gathered with the church to pray – not that they would not be arrested or persecuted again – but for more boldness and confidence to keep preaching. Once again, the point is that we shouldn’t have to learn the hard way. It shouldn’t take imprisonments and death threats to get us to do what we should already be doing. The question is whether we’re willing to learn from the knowledge that is readily available to us, or if we will stubbornly refuse to do what we should unless we are forced to do so. Will we learn from the information available, or will we wait until times are difficult before we do what they did? It should not take external pressure to make us love each other with the same self-sacrificial attitude Jesus had (Philippians 2:1-8). We should do so because He first loved us.

2003 and now their daughter! Bruno is also one of the two Brunos with whom I share the pulpit, ready for the future, and for generations to come! For me, this is the best event of this year, by the grace of God. He helped us to witness our two grandchildren added to the church, which is the fourth generation of Christians in our family, and a good sign for our next generation. I truly hope that they will continue to put God first in all. Please add Mauritius to your prayer list. > Sylvio Salomon: [email protected]

It should not take the threat of persecution to get us to find out what is really essential and what is merely preference or personal pettiness. We should be willing to look past differences of opinion without being forced to do so (see Romans 14). Churches should not tolerate half-hearted, one-foot-in and one-foot-out Christianity. Jesus challenged those who would follow Him (Luke 9:57-62), yet we try to provide as easy of a path as possible to get as many as we can in the door. Let’s not wait for persecution to force our hands in challenging people with the call of Christ. Prayer should be one of the driving factors of every single congregation. It shouldn’t take a severe illness or hardship to call us to prayer now, and it certainly shouldn’t take mass persecution to cause us to devote ourselves to prayer in the future. What lessons do you think persecution would teach us? Can we learn them without having to be persecuted first? We’re excited to announce the launch of our new podcast! Each month the Think Deeper podcast will take an in-depth look at the topic covered in that month’s issue of Think magazine. In our inaugural episode, Joe Wilkie joins the show to discuss transgenderism. He shares clinical insights into the issue from a counselor’s perspective, the statistics, tips for parents, and thoughts for how the church can be loving yet uncompromising. Subscribe:Apple Podcasts (iPhone users) Google Podcasts (Android users) or, our YouTube channel >

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Restoration Roots in Africa John Reese

The Sherriff family had been involved in the Restoration Movement — in Great Britain. They helped carry the movement to John Sherrff’s birthplace, New Zealand. Later John joined the gold rush in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 1898 he moved to Bulawayo in what is now Zimbabwe, and opened stone works that employed workers in transit to the South African gold mines. At this point, Roy Merritt picks up the story: “One night Sherriff saw a fire in one of the laborer’s huts. Concerned that the fire might spread, he rushed across to the worker’s compound. Drawing aside the blanket across the hut’s door, he noticed that the laborer was looking at a scrap of paper in the light of a candle. ‘What’s that?’ Sherriff asked. The man said, ‘I don’t know. I just saw it blowing in the street this morning.’ He handed it to Sherriff. “When Sherriff saw it was a page out of the New Testament, it was as if

God had struck him with lightning: ‘I didn’t send you to Africa to get rich. I sent you to Africa to preach the Gospel to the people.’ Then Sherriff realized, ‘I’ve got people here from Zambia, from Malawi, and from all over this country. That’s where we’re going to get started.’ “So he started teaching his workers how to read, how to understand the Bible and how to preach. Then he started sending them back to their homes, saying, “Don’t go on down to Johannesburg. Go back and take the Gospel to your people.” Restoration churches today that exist in Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe have their roots in that singular event. The first missionary who went to Zambia was Peter Masiya. He started the first church in Mukuni near Victoria Falls. Later he moved to Mujala near what is known today as Sinde Mission. John Sherriff had heard that there was a restoration movement tak-

ing place in the United States. He came over here and visited some of our early Christian schools. The first recruits were W.N. and A’Delia Short. They went to Africa in 1921 and worked with Sherriff for two years. Then they moved up to join Peter Masiya to open Sinde Mission there. My (John Reese) father and his wife, Alice, went there in 1926. John Sherriff passed away in 1935, but his influence continues with some 3,000 churches of Christ in Zambia, and many thousands in Malawi and Zimbabwe. >

The “Lost and Found” Bible Lynn Camp

In July 1961, I boarded the Danube Express at Vienna’s West Train Stataion, travelling to Budapest behind the Iron Curtain. What a contrast between free Austria and Communist-occupied Hungary — so dark and drab! Businesses were closed. Signs were banned. People hardly dared to speak or smile. Carefully contacting names accumulated in Vienna, we met Ivan Martos, an officer of the National Bank of Hungary. He traveled to Vienna twice each year for bank conferences. Later, I arranged to meet Ivan at West Train Station. When he arrived, he looked like he had lost his best friend. Indeed, he had. Ivan related his bitter experience. Guards had boarded the train at the next-to-last

stop on the Hungarian side. Checking all passengers, they came to Ivan. His ID and travel documents were in order. But one guard made Ivan open his briefcase. Finding Ivan’s personal Bible, he held it up for all to see and angrily shouted, “What is a man in your position doing with a Bible?” Before Ivan could respond, the guard threw the Bible out of the window of the moving train. About two years later, at another Vienna meeting with Ivan, he was as upbeat as he had been downcast before. He had received a postal package in Budapest — it was his Bible! An apologetic note explained: “Our children were playing one day along the railroad tracks. They

found your Bible. Not knowing what it was, one of them took it to his grandmother who immediately recognized it as a Bible. Word spread quickly through the little village on the border. Some of our older people had possessed Bibles before they were banned and remembered the significance and power of the Word of God. We decided to conceal the discovery while those who so desired would make handwritten copies. The joyful task lasted two years. Please forgive our keeping your Bible so long. But you might like to know that we are now a secret band of about 30 who have baptized each other and seek to follow Jesus in our daily lives.” > From ACTION, worldbibleschool.net

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Meetings in Pakistan Sajjad Bano and Asghar Ali

I greet to you in the name of Jesus Christ. I am so glad to inform to you about 20th Annual Gospel Meetings which were held at Malir Church of Christ from 12 to 14 October 2018, and this year brother Asghar Ali came to Karachi from Lahore for the Gospel preaching . He is senior minister of the Church of Christ in Lahore and he came with his sonin-law, brother Obed Arthur. He is also a preacher of the church and works with brother Asghar in Lahore. It was so wonderful and glorious Gospel Meeting and seminar in these four days. Big crowds came to listen to the Word of God. On 16 October we arranged a seminar. Its topic was CHRISTIAN WORSHIP AND MUSIC. On 15 October eleven people were baptized and came in Kingdom to have salvation in the glorious name of Jesus Christ. Sajjad Adil: [email protected]

[Note; the work of establishing congregations of the church in Karachi began in 1962 with the arrival of the J.C. Choate family.]

Report from Asghar Ali on the Karachi Meeting: We both, Obed and I, reached Karachi on October 11, 2018 Thursday at 6:00 in the evening. Brother Sajjad with brother Waris came to Karachi International Airport to pick us up. We hired a local taxi and went to Malir Church of Christ. On our arrival, Sunday school children were doing practice with their teacher. We were welcomed by some members in the church and after having tea we went to the auditorium and had some discussion with church members, Sunday school teachers, and their singing team. The singing was very much appreciated by Obed who openly commended them. We accompanied the church members till 9:30 pm in the night and then we had dinner with brother Sajjad at his residence nearby. At about 11:00 pm we were given a room in the church building for sleeping. Before leaving us, Brother Sajjad asked brother Obed to share a message with the school children on Friday morning at 9:00 am. The meeting was started at 9:15 in the morning with prayer, and Brother Obed shared a message with the children concerning how we need to stand for our faith. Afterwards, he had a meeting with the school teachers and he advised them to be firm in truth and teach the same to the children.

Proper meetings were started from Friday evening at 8:00 pm and topic was the beginning of the Kingdom/ Church and second coming of Christ, which was to be shared in three days from Friday to Sunday by me. The building was full on all three days, especially on Sunday. Monday was rest day and on Tuesday I had a full-day seminar on instrumental music in the church building and it was full. This session was very useful and interactive. Questions were welcomed and people learned a lot. > Asghar Ali: [email protected]

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Growth of the Lord’s Church in Pakistan Shahid Khokhar There was a time when we were seekers, looking for the truth. We visited different churches to learn, to know and to realize the truths in our lives, but it seemed everything was not practiced exactly the way it is written in the Bible. We could have never imagined that the Word could make us alive spiritually and open our minds to a new world, a world filled with wisdom, a world that is no more a secret for us, a world where our souls can breathe freely. The Word fed us and brought nourishment to our empty souls. We felt that our missing part was being filled and we became hungry for more. It was not so long before we found the website named World Bible School and logged on to it. We could never believe that such a “minor” decision changed our lives as we started our regular lessons with utmost interests. Our motivated and dedicated teachers, like sister Mary McKinney, encouraged us to concentrate on the given verses from the Gospel. We shared the same teachings of the Bible with our other brothers and sisters and they believed and in this way with a small number, the church of Christ began in the city called Hyderabad in Pakistan. It has been eight years now since we started preaching the Word to our Christian brothers and sisters and we are glad that God has not only kept us in one city, but with His will and the encouragement of the World Evangelism team, God’s message is also spreading in the cities of Punjab, i.e. Toba Tek Singh, Multan and Burewala. In this month, five more souls were added to the church of Christ and we pray that they remain strong in His Word. The congregation in Multan is growing fast in numbers and I am asked by more individuals to visit their families in the outskirts of Multan. I am thankful to brother Shadman who was once my student on mobile phone for learning, and now he is supporting me in preaching and in visiting different families in his location. I would like to make a request for brother Shadman and

Shahid teaching in a home study.

for brother Waqas who are helping us in Burewala and Multan: they need our prayers and encouragement in spreading the truth among different sects of believers in Christ. We are glad to inform you that our elder son, Sterling, is enthusiastically studying the “Life of Christ” from https:// www.throughthescriptures.com/ in English and he is preparing himself for baptism soon. He is in his thirteenth year, and we are encouraging him that besides his academic degrees, he should also go for his religious studies. Our little Joy is studying in the 2nd grade and is much interested in art work and dolls. The youngest boy, Stanley, has taken his place in Nursery class, but is struggling to concentrate on his studies as both the older ones take their mother’s attention. We are studying and translating the following tracts in Urdu and Punjabi for our brother and sisters. 1. The New Testament Church is Divine in Origin by Louis Rushmore 2. From the Beginning by J.C. Choate 3. The Thief on the Cross by J.C. Choate We have also started sharing the book by Steve Williams, The more Excellent Way, with brother Waqas and Shadman. They had some questions from the 1st book of Corinthians and this book has really helped us to make them understand the 13th chapter in a more detailed and clear meaning. We are thankful for your prayers and contribution to spread His kingdom in this part of the world. All congregations send their love and prayers for you all. Blessings, Shahid and Congregation in Toba Tek Singh > Shahid Khokhar: [email protected]

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Chandigarh, India Earnest Gill

We pray all is well with you and the lord bless you with a sound health and mind for many more years. We are doing fine. Just get busy and making arrangements. We do get rain here these days and, as you know, Kerala got worst. I had sent a text message to the printer several days ago but perhaps he did not read it. On Saturday I talked to him and then he again gave the price for 2000 and 3000 for Holy Spirit in Punjabi. For 2000 with the same quality of paper will cost $2730 and for 3000 copies $3650. I also checked for Worship, Godhead, and Covenants in Punjabi for 2000 copies each. Each will cost $650 (a total of $2000). One will be a little more as there are additional pages in that. Regarding the price of the land, yes, prices in the city have become so high, but we need a place somewhere. I have been trying to find something available outside Chandigarh. Lately I visited a neighboring village and was told that a plot of land may be available there for Rs. 4-5 million ($60,000 to $70,000). I think if we get this kind of deal, we can ask them to give us 1/2 acre. That will be a great place where we can start more things. In the city, near our place, but in Mohali, there is a new area developing and plots are about Rs 13,000 to-18,000 per sq yard. Plots of 200-500 sq/yards are available.

I do not know who will be used by the lord to help us with the money for our own place, but I have firm faith in Him that once we start asking and He knows that our need is genuine, He responds positively. I believe we can achieve anything with the help of the Lord. I have learnt that we only can try to solve a problem, once we know what it is. I mean first we need to realize that there is a need. Now when we have accepted that, I think the Lord will show the way. I have been granted a 10-year visa for US. I had no plan but maybe the Lord has one. It was my cousin who invited me on her husband’s 50th birthday, and I applied in March. I got the visa after 2 months, when I went to the embassy. They granted it, even when the time was gone, and they knew I had no purpose to go. Maybe there is something that we do not know but the Lord knows. As the last quarter of the year starts, I am wondering about the next year’s lectureship because brother Russel is no longer able to come and help with the finances. We have not declared the dates yet, but believe that we need to arrange for the expenses before the time of the lectureship is on us. Brother Russel used to call me near this time and send 1/2 the amount early. That was $2000. Last year he sent 100% and did not attend the lectureship. We have been grateful for his contribution and efforts to make it possible. He had been supplying us 400 Hindi Bibles each year for the past several years. We have composed and printed a song book containing Hindi, English, Punjabi, Sadri (Bihari), Dogri (Jammu & Kashmir’s language). The script for the regional languages is the same that is used in Hindi. That way it can be used by

many people. Brother Russel had asked me last year to get the price but this year he did not come and wrote me that he will no longer be able to help with the Bibles and any other activity. I believe the Lord will provide, but thought it good to let you know so that you can also join us in prayer. This year we are in need of 500 Bibles. One Bible costs us about $3. We have ordered 5000 song books, and each one costs us $0.68. The Government has levied 18% GST on printed material. That has raised the prices very high, but I believe song books are necessary for the growing congregations. We have been asking the brethren to share the cost with us. Some have already come but they will pay for themselves only. Postage, too, has been increased a lot. For sending 10 books to a place we are asked to pay Rs. 100. We have a problem in the neighborhood. They had called the Police several times, claiming disturbance by the students and classes we have. We rented another place for the students. We also had to move to another apartment and the owner stopped us to do church activities. We are now very restricted but the Lord has been giving us strength. We have started praying that we should have a college campus where many people may be trained in the coming years and have a place of worship. It is good to learn that Ricky is planning to start a Youtube channel “BIBLE KI BAAT”. We already have started but could not upload the stuff because we need a basic setup to record the things. Moreover their language is Telugu and we need to work in Hindi and Punjabi. Pray for us. > Earnest Gill: [email protected]

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Activities in New Delhi, India Vinay David Had a good trip to Balco in the central part of India in the month of April, 2018. On this trip, I was accompanied by my father, Francis, as well as the Barriers: Jeremy and Kerry. We had great 2 full days of Bible Seminar from the Book of Ephesians and Colossians. During this trip, one Hindu girl obeyed the Lord, and another young girl came forward to study more about Jesus before she decided to obey Him in baptism. Again, in the middle of June, 2018, I went back to Balco for a week, and worked with the local congregation. I bought them five new ceiling fans because it was very hot inside the church building when I was speaking. As you know, both May & June are the hottest months in India. The temperatures go up to 115-120 degrees Fahrenheit. So the ceiling fans provided the church great relief from the heat. I also helped the congregation in building a baptistery inside the church building so that they don’t have to travel far to a river or a lake to baptize people. Actually, conversion is banned in this particular state of India (Chhattisgarh). Moreover, there is a strong presence of Hindu fundamentalists and extremists, which makes the situation even more sensitive and volatile. So when somebody is being baptized, it has to be done in a very hidden and quiet manner. In fact, sometimes when people are being baptized in a river or a lake, questions are being asked by the local people about their act. So keeping these things in mind, I decided to help them build a simple baptistry inside the church building. This will be safer, and convenient for the future. The Delhi congregation has been doing well. One Sunday back, I spoke

from 2 Kings chapter 5 about the little Jewish maid who served Naaman’s wife. On this particular Sunday, we had 3 young girls obeying the Lord. I was glad to baptize them, and I hope and pray that they remain faithful to Jesus and to His “One True Church of the Bible.” These three are now worshiping with the church that meets in Faridabad village, where brother Wilson preaches. Wilson and five of his family members were baptized on September 13, 2008. and the church has been meeting there regularly. Brother Wilson taught these three who were baptized. They all live in the same village. The TV work has been going strong. I just finished recording a fresh set of sermons. Many responses and contacts for the Hindi Bible correspondence courses, Hindi Bibles, and Hindi tracts are still being generated from our TV programs. As I said, the Bible correspondence work has been running well. In fact, just recently two of my students expressed their desire to obey the Lord. They said that they want to become members of the New Testament church. I was so glad to hear about this, and I have forwarded their contacts to local preachers in their

area so that they could help them with their obedience. Yes, we did talk to Ricky Gootam about the “Lads to Leaders” program. It will be a wonderful thing if a program like this can be run in India. In today’s world, many young people are losing interest in spiritual matters. The churches need to show more concern about them since they are the future pillars of the church. Anyhow, Ricky, will be sending us some details regarding how to develop such a program In India. In regards to airing our Hindi TV programs on YouTube channel, the Shubhsandesh channel people have already put our programs on YouTube. In fact, the Telugu TV programs are also on their channel. You just have to type the speaker’s name, and it will show their program. I shared this information with Ricky too, but he says the TV channel has not put all our programs, and that might be true. Anyhow, in regards to securing some financial assistance from Delhi congregation to run this YouTube thing, I told Ricky that he needs to talk to the elders about this matter since they are in charge of church financial matters. > Vinay David: [email protected]

Jerry and Paula Bates were with the church in New Delhi, India.

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ELIYA SCHOOL OF THEOLOGICAL STUDIES Elijah Vivek Sanamanda

The month of September has been very successful and productive for the mission of the Lord. It has been a wonderful sight to witness seven new souls being baptized for the remission of their sins and accepting “Christ as their Lord”. Among the seven newly baptized souls, three are the result of the efforts of the preaching school and they come from the same family. Brother Prasad Savarapu has been a full-time teacher for 30-plus years. He was a member of the Roman Catholic faith for more than 42 years. In the last ten months, as he planned to retire May 2018, he wanted to preach Christ, so he approached us to learn in the ESTS School. This July as he started to attend classes, study more into the word and understand about the Lord’s Church, he studied the Bible with his wife, Pusha and his son Pranay, about being part of the Lord’s Church. The result of this effort has been the baptism of their family. Brother Prasad is a very diligent learner and wants to drink into the deep waters from the Bible. He plans to graduate this December from the six months course and start working with the local church — Palakol Church of Christ — in the mission efforts. ESTS has been having classes for five days a week (Mon-Fri) with Saturday being a time for practical training – Personal Evangelism. The classes this month have been geared towards “The Plan of salvation” in the morning sessions and “Personal Evangelism” training in the afternoon sessions. Classes for the month of September have been taught by two of the elders – Venkanna

and Raju Matta in the mornings. Our pulpit minister, brother Ebenezer, has been overseeing the Personal Evangelism part of the course in the afternoon. Two of our baptized women, students from ESTS, Mangamma & Raghava, are very effective in teaching other women. We here in India believe that women can be the key to evangelizing the entire family. Students have been doing well so far in terms of learning and implementing the strategies for reaching souls. Soon we plan to have a door-knocking campaign in the nearby village of Perupalem. Please pray that the students do well in having a fruitful campaign and having a godly impact on the ones they meet in the course of the campaign. Our water plant has been the key for us reaching souls in our community. On a daily basis, students have been distributing about 420 – 480 tins (holding 5 gallons) of water, which is approximately 2000 – 2020 gallons a day.

With the generosity of the brethren we have installed 12 hand pumps for water in the community, which have been helping the people have access to water for their entire household. We have been having a lot of power cuts due to various reasons. With the support of the brethren we were able to purchase a 62.5 KV power generator with an automatic panel to meet the needs of electricity at the living facility, studio and especially the water plant. The generator has been scheduled to be delivered on Oct 5th and would be completely installed before the of third week of October. Please keep all these efforts in your prayers, which are being dedicated towards taking physical waters in to the community, through which we hope to teach about Christ and quench their spiritual thirst. Our Bible studio construction has been through a fair number of ups Continued on page 53

Distribution of Bibles to newly baptized members.

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The Work Goes On... Ricky Gootam

Our TV programs are going very well. We have been in mass media out-reach since 1975. We are known as “Satyavani” which means “Voice of the Truth”. We had this name from the time we started. We were on the radio, we are on the TV and now we are entering to internet. Many of the sermons are posted on Youtube but we are working of having our own “Youtube live” channel called “Satyavani”. To set it up we are looking at $1500 for onetime investment and $380 (for cloud steaming, internet and one person to manage that every month). We are praying to start this very soon and make it a reality at the end of August. We wanted to launch this on October 1st. We are also thinking of developing an app so that everyone all over can be reached via internet. Our TV programs right now come in three different satellite channels twice a week, and one channel comes twice every day. So we have an audience of 1 million viewers all over India. Every month 1200 finish our Bible courses and every day we get 200 responses. The Church in Kakinada is healthy. We have able men who can lead and families who support all the things we do from Kakinada. The congregation right now is 250+ (not including children). We have 130 families who are involved at Satyavani Church of Christ. We had Brother Lucus from Italy and Sister Liz from West Virginia for two weeks. They study in college in West Virginia. They were going to climb Mt. Everest in Napal, and one of our common friends suggested they go and see us in Kakinada, India. They stayed with us in Kakinada for a week and worked with our Children home kids. We had 350 children from different villages come to Kakinada that week. Next year we are planning to start a program called “Lads to Leaders—India” from Kakinada, India. So we wanted to give the kids and some of the preachers what is this and how we are going to do this. In this picture above you can see a “work book” which will be in Telugu on “Lads-to-Leaders: India”. This book has 18 chapters, and we are translating the materials to the Telu-

gu language first, then we are going to see how that program goes in Andhra Pradesh, and then we will take it from there throughout the country. There are 29 states in India and not all the states have strong churches. The church is stronger in the South India. Below is a group of students from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. These are nice college students who came and worked with us from July 4th to July 27th.

We had brother Roger Wright from June last week to July 5th. He has been with the church in Vincennes, Indiana for many years. That church and the Ford family from there are instrumental in the work with the Kakinada School of Preaching. Roger has been coming to India every two years for the last 23 years. When he was here, he got to work in a village called “Shahpuram” and also with some of the children home kids in Kakinada. He was here when the OSU college students came, so he counseled what to do and what not to do when they are in India. While the OSU group was with us we had another group from Oklahoma and Texas. This was led by my friend Lanny whom I have known from summer camps in Oklahoma. He is a great Gospel preacher. Thirteen Americans came with Lanny from July 21 to July 26th. We had our preachers’ workshop in Kakinada and also preachers’ wives workshop at which some American brethren spoke and the American ladies spoke to the preachers’ wives. Three hundred and fifty were present Continued on page 50

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Evangelism in Tamil Nadu P h ilemo n Rajah and Kingsly Rajah The J.C. School of Evangelism program started in the year 2007. Now we have completed 10 graduation programs and are presently training in the cities of Arakonnam (Tamilnadu), Yeswanthpur, and Mysore (Karnataka). This 18- month training program is designed to motivate church members in the field of evangelism. We thank God for the opportunity He is giving us to motivate and empower these Christian men and women who do have the zeal and burden to find new souls for their congregation among their day to day problems and challenges. The response from the members of the Lord’s Church is tremendous. We had a report from one of the graduated schools that they had added some 35 new souls this year through the students’ efforts. Also in another area, where the school program is currently going on, last month during the Bates’ visit they distributed and studied the Bible courses

personally with 200 new contacts, and we gave the Bible as a gift to 60 people who had completed the course. These same students through their efforts during their summer vacation time worked tirelessly and brought more than 12 souls to obey the Lord in baptism. Through the intensive classroom and field training of our school of evangelism program they continue to harvest. We humbly thank God for honoring the sincere efforts of His children. Also this month in the same place, they have organized a soul-saving festival and to encourage those course-completed people on to salvation. Please pray for these efforts. Apart from the monthly school of evangelism program, we are having one-day special Bible classes every month in 3 places for our television contacts. They are taught basic lessons, and we are leading them to Christ with the help of the local congregations. This outreach effort is bringing tremendous

Participants of recent Insight Bible camp for blinds and Braille literature to be given to them, displayed. 200 blinds were encouraged through word of God and benevolence.

results. Thank you for upholding this work. Surely, our television programs are helping the growth of the local congregations.

Insight for Blinds through Braille literature and Bible Camps

The Gospel and benevolence work among the visually challenged people is giving wonderful results since 1998. Nearly 600 blind people have been added to Lord’s church, and many more blind men and women are having the opportunity to know Jesus Christ and the message from cross for the first time in their lives through our Insight Bible Camps for the Blinds and the Braille literature that we produce and distribute through the camps. Though we face financial challenges now and then for carrying forward this ministry, God has been always gracious in our efforts to reach the blinds for Christ. During the time of the Bates visiting us in November 2018, we had the Insight Bible camp in two places. The first one was organized in the Trichy district, 135 kms. from our Madurai city. As we do for every Insight camp, we had also made two preliminary visits to arrange a rental place and food for the participating blinds and to invite them personally for the camp. We expected some 120 people but they turned out in good numbers, that is 190 attended the camp! Brother Jerry encouraged them with the word of God from John 3rd chapter, and it was really an eye opener message for them. Nearly 80 who could read the Braille language were provided with THE VOICE OF TRUTH BRAILLE magazine, a new volume printed through our new Braille printer purchased for the Insight office Continued on page 50

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The Work Goes On... Continued from page 48

that day in Kakinada. After we finished our classes for the preachers and their wives we gave 15 cycles to the Indian preachers.

There were 23 Americans in brother Lanny’s group. This was first time a group that big stayed and worked with us. They did a lot of work with our children’s home and with our preachers and with many villages. They got to visit our Leper Colony,

Tribal Jungle village, mountain village churches where we had to walk some places as there are no roads. We opened two church buildings, one in “Kolapari” and “Venkatapuram” villages in which we have been working for the past three years. We also gave 5 public audio systems to five tribal jungle churches. With the college students from Oklahoma, we went to many Jungle and tribal villages to evangelize in the northern part of the state of Andhra Pradesh. We were near the borders of Orissa State, Aruku Tribal jungle villages, Tuni area and also in Vijayanagram and Visakapatnam district churches. In the month of July with all our traveling and preaching, 42 obeyed the Gospel of our Lord and were baptized.

In some of the villages it is hard to be a Christian because in India 80% are Hindus.

Thank you for all your prayers for the work with us from Kakinada, India. The church in Stillwater, Oklahoma is the overseeing congregation and stateside coordinator of funds for Ricky Gootam’s mission work in the Kakinada area. > E-mail: [email protected] — http://www.satyavanicoc.com/

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Evangelism in Tamil Nadu Continued from page 49

in Madurai. Also Braille Bible lessons, SEEKERS, lesson 1 & 2, printed by us, were distributed to them. Twenty people were provided with AUDIO BIBLE in the Tamil language, costing $48, as a gift for completing the eight Seekers Braille lessons. Our visually challenged Gospel workers studied with these 20 people in person, one to one, and taught them the Bible lessons. We are expecting many of the attendees to the camp to obey the Lord in baptism soon. All of the participating people were provided with a bag of rice (5kg) and lunch as a gift, to show the love of Christ. Many of the participants in the camp made a promise to meet at least one sighted person daily and share with

them the Gospel message by distributing the Christian hand bills and Bible lessons. This effort is giving tremendous result in bringing them to God. The second Insight Bible camp was held in Madurai city at our “new” place purchased for the camp. It is actually an old building which needs to be repaired. Hence we conducted the camp in a temporary cloth shed (Shamiyana tent). By the grace of God and love of Christians, we have purchased this place. We humbly thank the compassionate Christians for helping towards this cause. Kindly pray for this work among the socially neglected under-privileged people of India. > Philemon Rajah: [email protected]

Paula and Jerry giving audio Bibles to those who completed the Braille Bible Lessons.

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Ministry throughout Tamil Nadu B. Arjunan We are very glad to work with the World Evangelism Team as fellow-workers in preaching the Gospel and fulfilling the Lord’s commandment throughout Tamil Nadu and sometimes in neighboring states. We are grateful for World Evangelism in evangelizing and harvesting souls through our media works as TV, Radio and our monthly magazine, and we are glad to share that now we have 10 thousand readers approximately! Though we print 7000 copies, the recipients share their magazines with others by making Xerox copies and distributing themselves. Out of these readers, we have 78 students who attend the quiz and win by answering 10 questions regularly. These questions will be taken according to the doctrine only covering the whole Bible. So we are very happy about these students’ enthusiasm. Thus our magazine ‘The Word of Christ’ reaches the unreached. We had gone to Turicorin, the Pearl City, to meet our magazine readers there personally. These people are regular participants in ‘Quiz’ of our magazine and score good marks. To encourage them, we presented them Bibles. After this session the ladies’ discussion from the Scripture took place. Glory answered them from the Scriptures. I had a class for World Evangelism Bible School students also after preaching in the special meeting. It was wonderful. We’ve finished our Second Round of Readers’ Seminar successfully. We thank God for His wonderful help in conducting such seminars. We had a new thought of introducing our monthly magazine and the publications of World Evangelism in all districts of Tamil Nadu State personally without missing. We started our journey of the First Round in 2001 at Nagercoil district, a coastal city, and accomplished our goal in 2008 at Tirupur district, the 32nd one. With sister Betty’s encouragement and counseling we started our Second Round in 2016 at Tuticorin, a coastal district and accomplished our trip in June 2018 successfully at Sivagangai district. Thus we have gone through all districts of Tamil Nadu twice and were in personal touch with many readers. Through our TV ministry many doors have been opened to meet denomination people and preachers to share the doctrine of Christ. One of the denomination preachers who previously belonged to RSS, a Hindu Formation, invited us to speak to his congregation in Ramapuram in Chennai. He loved to read sister Betty’s book,‘Can Man Find The Way to God?’ which was translated by us in Tamil. This book is moving fast among our readers and viewers. Many inform us that it is very useful to learn the only way to God, and it

is helpful to teach heathen people. This man received a copy and introduced it among his congregation members. We run ‘World Evangelism Bible School’ and train the students to preach the Gospel. The preachers who are working together with us teach classes in their places every week. Brother Jerry and sister Paula teach students twice in a year when they come to India. Our Batlagundu church meets in the new place and is worshiping God every Sunday. Some new souls are coming from different villages and attending the worship service regularly. We have Bible study program every Thursday. A man who has been attending the study understood the word and obeyed and took baptism. His name is Joshua. He belonged to a denomination church, ‘Layman Evangelical Fellowship’. Now he is steadfast in knowing the true doctrine, and he sometimes comes to our house to study and learn scripture even on week-days. Three more people from one family were baptized.

Arjunan (left) with readers and TV viewers in Chennai

On 27th of September six preachers were invited for a special Bible study program. They attended and decided to establish the Lord’s church in their villages. We discussed about evangelizing in our country where Hinduism is the dominant religion. The Indian Government is vigorously spreading their Hindu religion and building the temples everywhere day by day. Some of the judgments of our Supreme Court also are against the doctrine of our Holy Bible. Please pray for India. We pray for World Evangelism Ministries and we ask that you also pray for us. > B.Arjunan: [email protected]

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The Lord’s Work in Kangayam and Tamil Nadu S. Rajanayagam I am very happy to submit this work report on behalf of Tamil World Evangelism, stationed at KANGAYAM, Tamil Nadu, India to the World Evangelism that functions from Winona, MS, USA for the Global Harvest journal. First of all, we thank God for having blessed us to have a working relationship with World Evangelism since 1988 and we are more thankful to God for the privilege of spreading the Gospel in several capacities such as TV, monthly and quarterly journals, printing tracts on a number of topics, sending Bible correspondence courses to hundreds and, of course, distributing Bibles to many so that they can know the word of God. I want all of you to be aware that the Lord’s work is growing amidst challenges in this country of India. As we aware, no force can halt the marching of His army as the Lord Almighty is our commander-in-chief. The church where I preach is a self-supporting one, having facilities to hold meetings with large groups of people. So, we have been conducting Bible Lectures for the past 21 years and the latest one was on October 18 and 19, 2018, having the theme, “The Mind of Christ”. It was a well attended and, by our record book, at least 35 congregations from the States of Tamil Nadu and Pondichery participated. We had TEN different speakers, who did a wonderful job that really stimulated the minds of those who gathered, comparing our thinking with the Mind of Christ. Above all, we had 6 baptisms and through this act FOUR different congregations benefitted numerically. Since the media rules the world, we as Christians are to make use of the modern tool that helps us to reach people even in remote areas. By the support of World Evangelism, I preach the Gospel of Christ three times each week on a satellite channel that reaches a number of countries and the Tamil speaking people who live in those countries are listening. On their request, we send our literature to enable them to know more, and we visit them if they are in our country to study with them. Many who obeyed the Gospel through TV are now an asset to the local churches. I would like to share information about two ladies who are in Karaikkal, a town in another State of india. One is from Roman Catholic background and the other one is from a Pentecostal background. Since there is no church building for the Christians in Karaikkal to meet in, the former Roman Catholic lady opened her big house for the church meeting, which is not

a small thing. The other one, who obeyed the Gospel in our last Bible Camp in the month of May led several to accept the one true church and she is committed to bringing more from her old group. These are two examples to prove how the Lord’s work, through the TV outreach, is effective. We have established contact with many churches across Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry and are working closely with them through our regular visits, sending literature, holding Gospel meetings, etc. Of course, we send our monthly magazines to as many of the churches as we aware of and they all appreciate its usefulness. The printed page always has sustained power. Recently, we conducted a Bible seminar for the preachers and their wives. It was attended by around 40. Brother Jerry Bates taught on Bible Hermeneutics and Paula Bates taught “wise women”. We were encouraged by these lessons. The Bates have a plan to conduct two such seminars each year to teach on different subjects that are in Masters level of Bible school education. Since many of us here took Bible

All India Preachers Fellowship Seminar in Hyderabad: Antony, Kingsly, Vernon Douglas, and Philemon Rajah were among the many who attended.

courses on the basic level, these deeper studies help a lot. We thank God for this wonderful opportunity. Before I wrap up this article, I want to thank our motherly-care sister Betty for anchoring this great work that spreads its wings in different directions of the globe. Continued on page 54

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Myanmar Mission, 2018 Wayne Barrier Myanmar is a Southeast Asian nation of about 58 million people with most having a Buddhist background. The current work program is led by the Double Springs, Alabama congregation and involves a combination of regional campaigns, local meetings and training of local teachers, preachers, and leaders. Three major work sessions were held in 2018. During these sessions, teams of US workers visited several areas of the country to assist with campaigns and to teach in Bible schools located in Yangon, Hmawbi, Myitkina, Kalay, Taungyii, Magway Division, and Mandalay. Bible classes were provided for about 120 students who desire to develop teaching, preaching, and leadership skills. Teachers over the past year included; Wayne Barrier, Don Posey, Joey Barrier, Jamie Barrier, Louis and Martha Rushmore, Jerry and Paula Bates, Robin Dunaway, Damon Vincent, David Conley, L.T. Gurga-

nus, Jon Lucius, Daniel Hamm, Mark Reynolds, Dr. Steven Christian, George Achard, Jake Leonard, and Adam Miller. In addition to the US teachers, several local brethren are now teaching classes. The new Bear Valley Bible Institute program entered the second year in the fall of 2018 with 9 students seeking a BA degree in Bible. These students can become leaders in future training programs. In addition to work in Myanmar, several team members assisted with a training program for workers that travel into central China for campaigns and Gospel meetings. These trips are made several times each year and are reaching many people that have never had an opportunity to hear the Gospel. Literature is being translated and printed in local languages throughout the country. Bibles are also being purchased and distributed in the region. > Wayne Barrier: [email protected]

Class Books by

Betty Burton Choate Growing in the Image of Christ, $7.00 The Role of Woman, $6.00 Search for Truth, $7.00 Can Man Find the Way to God? $6.00

Excellent for class or personal study. Call 662-283-1192 or write [email protected] to place your order.

ELIYA SCHOOL OF THEOLOGICAL STUDIES Continued from page 47

and downs in the building process. We are working diligently to get it up and functional before the end of December 2018. We have two sound engineers who are working with this project as they finish up their previous commitments in other projects. There is a scarcity of quality materials for finishing the interior of the studio. The outside construction of the studio is complete and we have received the raw materials for the studio insulation. The project has been delayed for reasons that are beyond our control in respect to construction. We are striving to get things working and we covet your prayers for completion of this studio project. The following months — October, November and December — are the months in which many Indian cultural and traditional pagan celebrations take place all around the country. Sometimes on these occasions Christians are persecuted, and we ask your prayers for our safety and also that Christians will stand their ground in Christ when facing these challenges. We appreciate each one of you who keep us in your prayers, support our work, and most importantly encourage us to continue our efforts in reaching the souls that are “white unto the harvest” in India. There is a great need for Bibles ($3.50 each) and song books ($1.00 each) to strengthen those who are being evangelized, please pray and support this need. We are grateful to every one of you and are upholding you all in our fervent prayers. God Bless. > Elijah Woodroy: [email protected]

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Working with the China Team from Myanmar Joey Barrier In October I met with the “China Team” as they reported on the last year’s activities. The team consists of 8 men who live in northern Myanmar, working closely with Jay Ahti and his wife Nancy who currently live in southern Myanmar. Jay Ahti directs, organizes, and leads the campaign efforts that are reaching into the Kachin state of Myanmar, the Yunnan Province of China, Tibet, Northern Laos, and hopefully very soon, into northern Vietnam. These campaigns are carried out by Jay Ahti with eight Christian men from northern Myanmar. Three of these have dual citizenship and

have been granted permission to freely preach and teach in China. They reported that over the last 5 years, they, along with those whom they have taught, have baptized 1260 people in China! Several of these men have stepped down as “pastors” of denominational groups to become evangelists, teaching the “truth of the Bible” that they have learned in our training sessions. As they go, they distribute literature that has been translated by Jay Ahti and his wife Nancy. One of the latest books that has been translated and distributed is the Apologetics Press book “How do you know God is Real” by Kyle Butt. They are very excited about this book,

as they are going into highly atheist areas. Along with these teaching materials and books, we are flooding the areas with Bibles. We also have been able to access new areas using the internet. Jay Ahti has already held several training sessions at the border of Myanmar and China with students from Yunnan Province that he met via the internet! Please pray for the work in China as it is still very dangerous and very difficult. Many have sacrificed everything to reach this massive population. Please keep them in your prayers!!! > Joey Barrier <[email protected]

The Lord’s Work in Kangayam Here’s how we at “World Evangelism” can help with your Prison Ministr y:

Brother and sister James L. Stofel attended the opening ceremony for a children’s home which they have helped to establish in Chennai, India. More than 500 were present for the happy occasion. Continued from page 52 It’s always an encouragement and motivation to see and know her working to keep the ball moving. The zeal that we have seen in brother J C Choate is still shining through her, of course with the full cooperation and support of all who are involved with the World Evangelism Team, the sponsoring elders, the

churches, and the individual supporters. We do sincerely thank, from the bottom of our hearts, all the churches and individuals that extend moral and financial support for this cause. May God bless and continue to bless. Please pray for us. > S. Rajanayagam: [email protected]

Our printing work is a tool to help get the Gospel out. We have two rules: Never go into debt on printing, and print enough to sell enough to pay the printer, then sell at a discount or give away what remains. Our inventory includes 25 basic study books that are offered for evangelism, prison ministry, and as follow-up materials for Bible courses at the rate of $1.50 per copy. Call us if we can help you with your outreach: 662-283-1192

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Jungle Churches in Malaysia: Encouraging Churches & Mourning Losses Jeremy Barrier Amidst the noise of crickets, toads, and the such, I woke up at 5 am to the sound of a variety of birds, animals, and insects that were not completely familiar to my ears! I was deep in the jungles of Malaysia, one of the richest, most biodiverse islands on planet earth. Churches of Christ experienced an explosion of growth here in the Kampong areas (i.e., jungle villages) beginning back in 2006, so this past week, we traveled to visit some of the new churches here in Sabal Kruin, Nyelitak, Sabal Tapang, and Sabal Aping. Gijs Bardoel, one of my students at Heritage Christian University, and I were traveling with Thomas Koh—the local preacher in Kuching who was instrumental in starting these churches—, as well as three coworkers from Singapore who were leading this effort: Matthew Tan, Richard Phang, and Gary Liew. My experiences here have always impressed me, both the churches that continue here and also the co-

workers who continue their efforts. This coming December we anticipate a “Bible Camp” taking place here, and are excited that the village churches are all going to unite to carry it out. While this work was extremely exciting and enriching, we were also reminded that the growth they experience is hard-earned. As we say “two steps forward, one step back”. Thomas Koh, who initially baptized 26 people at one time here, had to travel 6 hours every Sunday for over three years to help sustain the 200+ baptisms as they formed into new churches. As Thomas was traveling back and forth to help these churches, one of the men of the church in Kuching was ‘holding down the fort’ there, so to speak. His name was Poh Khee Yiong. We were sad to learn that just days prior to our arrival to the island of Borneo, Poh passed away on Sunday, October 14, 2018, after a two-year battle with lymphoma. While we were celebrating the growth of these new churches,

the following Saturday after his death, we were also mourning with his widow Linda and their children: Gregory, Benjamin, and Valerie. On an island that daily experiences temperatures above 90 degrees, in this time of year there is a massive rain fall that comes every afternoon and cools down the island into the 80’s and makes it quite pleasant. This is the cooler, rainy season. As we finished up our time here, visiting with churches and hopefully offering some encouragement to them to face another day and another year, I was mindful on my last afternoon here as I watched the rains coming in, that even during the hardest moments of life, God does not forget us. He does not fail to send a refreshing rain to offer relief. I hope that we, as the people of God, can offer this hope to those around us. > Jeremy Barrier, the son of Wayne and Janet Barrier, helps with short-term teaching trips to Asia.

Persecution in Myanmar Philip VanBiak Lian Yes, persecution of believers in Christ is severe but none of the Lord’s church is persecuted physically. This persecution is happening in Rakhine state and by the Buddhists. One preacher of Evangelical church that I know was beaten badly and was put in hospital but discharged yesterday. Buddhist communities do not want Christianity to come in. That’s why they attack. This has been happening since a long time ago. We pray and watch. > Philip: [email protected]

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The Gospel in South Korea Malcolm Parsley

YONGSAN CHURCH NEWS Well, the Yongsan congregation is now down to just one U.S. Military family, and they will be leaving in the near future. However, we are beginning to pick up some Americans that are here to teach English and are employed by Korean companies. We are praying, looking for, and hoping that even more will come. One of the good things that has come out of this scarcity of men is that some of them who in the past were shy about helping in the services are now volunteering, and their volunteering has encouraged even more. In this way it has been a blessing that would not have occurred because we have tried to get these others to help all along, but fear of making a mistake has ruled until now. KC University 60th Anniversary Jun Seo Kee brought a sermon titled “Between Hope and Hope”. It was a fine lesson. Other uplifting talks were brought by local dignitaries and a senator. I have attended nearly every one of these, and they all try to bring something to encourage the students. This is naturally good for them for they change every four years unless they go on the graduate school and then it is six. It is hard to believe the school is 60 years old. I came during its second year so no graduations had occurred at that time, but I have seen a lot of students come and graduate. May our Father bless them all that they will all be a blessing to the Father and His school. The picture above is of brother Shane Fisher, brother Jun Hun Bae and myself in my office during the time brother Bae confessed Christ and requested baptism. Shane had been teaching him and had the honor of baptizing him. We felt we needed to take a picture for him and all to enjoy. Brother Bae is

a fine young man and exceptionally sincere about wanting to follow the Bible. He is a freshman at K.C.U. His parents came for his baptism. He said the family has always had family devotionals every evening, yet they do not attend any worship services. They are very friendly. I talked to them and several others. Also I warmly invited them back, but so far they have been out of town each Sunday since then. Please be praying with us that we might be able also to bring them to Christ. North korea? Stateside brethren continuously ask about what I feel about the North Korea situation. From here it appears what little change that has occurred has been of little importance, for no major decisions have been made. The North wants a piece-meal process so Kim can get a lot out of the deal and still be able, along the way, to back out and yet have gained a lot of what he wants. A signed peace treaty would be real progress. Please keep praying. I do believe the Father has His hands in this and progress has been made. The general direction has moved toward what we all want in the end. The Lord’s time-table is just a little bit slower than mine, but I am not complaining. He always knows best! I just want to go North and take His word to the millions of lost and suffering who will love the Father and His Son when they are introduced to Them. Please keep praying. Sermons on the Web Someone the other day was surprised to learn that all of my Kangnam sermons are on our WEB site (http://the church.kr/audio_sermons) The congregation wants to keep their English and their children’s English maintained. They have requested the sermons be interpreted so that they will get both the English and the Korean. > Malcolm Parsley: [email protected]

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McKees’ Indonesia Report Colin McKee

Ch im a l a , Ta n z an ia, A frica

Ellen and I celebrated 55 years of marriage this year, and 50 years of involvement in missions in S.E. Asia. Our latest trip to Indonesia took us first to Tanzania in Africa. Dalraida church of Christ, our over-seeing congregation, asked us to go along with John Kackleman II and Adam and Andrew Gifford to survey the work at the Chimala Mission near Mbeya. Dalraida will be taking the oversight of that mission and wanted a first hand evaluation of the work. Chimala is quite remote; a onehour flight from Dar Es Salaam to Mbeya, then a two-hour drive from Mbeya to Chimala. The church has a complex there consisting of about 500 acres with a hospital, elementary, middle, and high schools and a preaching training school. There is also a piece of property of 200+ acres up on the mountains that is accessible by a treacherous, unpaved, and very bumpy road with hairpin curves and deep ravines. I don’t see how it can be traveled in the rainy season. Some of the missionaries in the early years of the work lived there. The terrain of that area is rugged and since it was the dry season the landscape looked somewhat bleak. On our Sunday morning at Chimala, I preached at a small congregation about 10 miles from the compound. Bill and Cyndi Stinson took us with them for worship there. They have worked with the Chimala mission for 20 years, supported by the New York Avenue church in Arlington Texas, where Bill was once an elder. There were 16 locals present. They were very friendly and the audience was attentive and receptive. We visited a second congregation in the afternoon where Bill did the preaching.

Gage and Kelly Coldwater who were visiting there will return in December with their two children for 6 months to start an agricultural program that should enable the preacher students to be selfsupporting as well as providing income for other facets of the work. Howell and Mary Ferguson also went with us to Chimala as he will be the new stateside coordinator for the mission. They will make two trips per year there and the rest of the year will be raising and securing funds for the work. We were able to spend some time with Richard and Carol Rogers who are resident missionaries there and Cheryl Bode who has been the hospital administrator for the last six years. Almost all the buildings in that area are made from mud brick which are fire dried in their front yards. Most now have tin roofs, whereas 25 years ago the norm was a thatched roof, which a few still retain. The church buildings in the villages have cement benches without backs for pews. We enjoyed our few days at Chimala and the opportunity to meet the workers and the brethren and see the Lord’s work in another part of the world. His church is truly universal.

Nias, North Sumatra, Indonesia

We held our usual Intensive Bible Course for village preachers and teachers in Gunung Sitoli. The class was on the gospel of John, but as is always the case, we had a lot of questions covering a wide variety of topics. Some were engendered from the text, but others dealt with questions from personal study and interactions with acquaintances. For example : “How did Christ in the spirit preach to those of Noah’s generation since he was not known as Christ before his generation?” I explained that Christ

is eternal and he acted both in O.T. times as well as N.T. times. Although the name Christ was not applied to him in the O.T., He, as one of the three was interacting in various ways. John 1 and Colossians 1 show that He was the instrument of creation in the presence of the Father. 1 Peter 3:19,20 show that in the Spirit he inspired Noah to preach to the generation before the flood. Noah moved by the Spirit of Christ, was the tool of God to warn those rebels of his time to repent. They did not do so, and are said to be “in prison” at the time of Peter’s epistle. They were not in prison (Hadean world) when Noah through Christ preached to them, but when Peter wrote they were dead and in confinement until judgment day (1 Peter 4:6). “It seems non Christians pray and receive blessings. How can this be?” Ans: Our universe operates on what we call “laws of nature” that govern everything around us. A non-Christian may follow sound principles of sowing and cultivating and reap a good crop the same as a Christian. He may apply sound principles in business and become wealthy. A non-Christian may receive certain blessings because he follows the principles of truth and honesty and right living, but the true spiritual blessings of salvation, forgiveness and fellowship with God are limited to His obedient children. Three men who were not members of the church came to follow the course and were baptized on the third day of the seminar.

Medan, North Sumatra

The Sunday worship service at Selayang was crowded with many young couples, children, pre-teens, teens and older families. After worship the teens Continued on page 58

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McKees’ Indonesia Report Colin McKee

Continued from page 57 did a program of spiritual songs which they had been practicing. They all had matching outfits with the church insignia. We had nightly Bible classes and experienced a number of transportation problems getting to and from the building. The becak (motorcycle with side car) didn’t want to run properly so we had some delays. Then the light gave out temporarily one night on the way back to the hotel, but after a few minutes decided to live again. Brother Ndruru is doing a great job of ministering to and serving the church there.

ing for the truth while taking correspondence courses from several denominations until he somehow found a web site of the church and began taking a course from our brethren. He immediately recognized that what he was studying was what he had been looking for! Through them he finally made contact with brother Jacob and obeyed the Gospel. The Depok congregation now meets in his home. There are still true seekers who want the truth and who are willing to commit themselves to it when they learn it.

Bekasi, West Java

The island of Sulawesi was hit by a large earthquake and tsunami while we were in Medan about 1500 miles away. Over 2000 bodies were recovered and about 5000 are missing since the village, Balaroa, where they lived was swallowed up by the liquefied earth caused by the quake. Another village had 400 acres of houses and business wiped away. One woman was dragged 10 miles by the tsunami but managed to hang on to a roof and made it safely through. Another lady was submerged in mud up to her chin for 3 days but was finally rescued. Some reports said the structural damage was worse in Sulawesi that in the province of Aceh a few years ago where about 250,000 perished. Thankfully none of our brethren were affected.

We again stayed at the Connor House orphanage where the church also meets for services. They have five children and one adult as residents now. We conducted a Saturday Bible seminar which was well attended and I preached at Sunday services the next day. Daniel and Naomi Setiabudi continue to do an outstanding job of taking care of the residents of the home. One young girl, Queen, age four, is having health problems that are puzzling to the doctors. Please remember her in your prayers.

Jakarta, Block M

On Saturday we had a Bible class and fellowship at brother Jacob’s house in the Sunter area. They asked that I teach a lesson on the Christian family. We had a lot of discussion after class and then a fine meal of soto ayam (chicken soup). On Sunday we had a joint worship of the Block M congregation and the Sunter, Depok, and Tanah Abang congregations and a fellowship meal after services. The building was jam packed and worship was uplifting. I met brother Tarigan who had for years been search-

Earthquake and Tsunami

Rad io

Our short wave radio program still draws a lot of attention. From June to October we had visits from 25 countries, with 66 downloads of programs in PDF format. During September we had 39 hits from Indonesia, the largest for any period so far. There were 193 visits to the site during July-October.

Ellen’s Notes

As Colin said, we began our trip by visiting Tanzania, Africa. This was our first trip to that vast continent. We have read several books about various works of our brethren in Africa over the years and were thrilled to have the opportunity to visit Tanzania. The country is renowned for its wildlife and beautiful scenery. There are game reserves on the Serengeti Plain and Ngorongoro Crater, with an abundance of local fauna. Africa’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, is in the north and its largest lake, Lake Victoria, extends into northern Tanzania. Lake Tanganyika, the world’s largest fresh water lake, and one of the deepest in the world, forms part of the western border. It was the dry season and most of the trees were bare, although some retained their leaves, and there were many large trees with beautiful purple blooms. They say that during the rainy season, the scenery is breathtaking. As always, we are happy to return to Indonesia and visit with the Christians there and when we are in Bekasi I especially enjoy staying in the Connor House with Naomi, Daniel, and the little ones. While we were still in Bekasi we received word that our son, Marcus, had been diagnosed with thymic carcinoma and we were, of course, heart-broken. We trust that through the Lord and His providential care through doctors, nurses, and other means he will be able to overcome this. We are so grateful for all the outpouring of love and care from so many. I don’t know how people can survive the heart-break and tragedies of this world without our Lord God. We appreciate the love and support of all of you. > Colin &Ellen: [email protected]; 205-590-1376

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Spiritual and Humanitarian Work in the Philippines Allon Brumley

We work very hard with the children here. As they say, “The children are the future.” A lot of our kids have learned the names of the New Testament books already and now we are teaching them Psalm 23. Nicol Barro is barely 5 years old, and she has learned the books of the New Testament. The kids are such a blessing to work with and they are so sweet. In my last report I told about a girl, Susanna, who was very poor and had clothes with holes. We had her and her sister, Susan, over. Ritchel (my wife) had for three days been taking some of the clothes that were too big and cutting them down and styling them to fit the two girls. We also bought both the girls a pair of pants. They, of course, were very happy and so were we because we were able to help. By the way, Ritchel does all the sewing by hand. Our new Livelihood Program starts up next month. It actually is a real good program for all involved and it does not take a lot of money, which is a good thing for us right now. What we are going to do is teach the people how to do 4’x 4’ plots or gardening, beds that are raised and filled with soil, which they do have available and can get fairly easily. This is what we had to do on our property because all we have is sand – no dirt. We will teach them how to maintain the soil, rotate the crops, how to do companion planting, and of course we will teach them how to make compost. We will also teach them how to plan out their planting so all their crop does not come in all at once. Remember, most do not have a refrigerator. Most of the people in this area, again, are very poor and very uneducated. What most people do is plant something in

a little dirt that is on top of the rocks, and it grows, some, but doesn’t really produce. The roots do not get enough soil. Most do not even fertilize. The large commercial farmers do, but the small home gardeners do not. Once we get a few spots going, it will be a lot easier to not only teach the people but also convince them that small gardening can work. We also plan to even do a lot of container growing and help them get started with this too. As part of the teaching project, we started our first compost bin this month, a layer of brown, a layer of green and a layer of cow manure. By using wire, it gets good air circulation and all you have to do is slip it off the pile to “turn” it. I turn it every week. I built a new “seedling” table for the program. The ants ate some seeds that we planted directly in the ground, so starting the seeds from cups might help keep the ants at bay. We have tons, millions, billions, trillions, and more of ants and different types and species of them too. Mama is sending me a box of Borax. Thank you, Mama!!! Our adults are already getting very excited. The pictures are of a garden spot we picked out and have started cleaning out to plant a garden. PLANNED UPCOMING WORK/PROJECTS P Continue to work on and plan our “livelihood” program as funds allow us. P We mostly are concentrating on the new Tambo area to build the church there for the next few months. Please consider us in your budget and please continue to pray for us. We only have one month worth of funds left in our account, again, as of this typing. And again, some of you have been adding a little extra each month for us. AND THAT IS GREATLY APPRECIATED! Thank you very much! > Allon Brumley: [email protected]

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Parkers in the Pacific Wayne Parker

We are approaching the end of our reporting time here in the states. It has been quite an eventful journey. Thinking back on all of the wonderful loving Christian brothers and sisters we have had the privilege to worship with, sing with, laugh with, and fellowship with in the past few months, it’s truly humbling and encouraging to think that we have such an amazing support system keeping the work going and growing in Micronesia. As we return, we are bringing new tools, insights, and ideas with us and are excited to get back in the field and get back to work. As the end of the year approaches, it’s time to budget for the new year. As we have told many of you while we have been on the road, our goal has been to raise at least $1200 more in monthly support, and we still need at least $1000 more monthly in order to complete our upcoming goals in Micronesia. Please keep us in mind and prayerfully consider becoming a part of this great work if you’re not already, or increasing support if you are and it is feasible. We realize that there are many others out there in the mission field and that it can be quite a challenge for individuals and congregations to decide how to use their mission funds. In making plans for the next couple of years, we are limited by our current budget. We would like to make at least two more visits next year to work in Chuuk. It is vital that the Christians there receive leadership training, encouragement, and instruction. They face so many challenges and are always strengthened and encouraged by our visits. Also, we would like to visit Kosrae and follow-up on some of the work done there in years past by the Shanahans. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. I’m sorry we have fallen behind on our newsletters. We have been going non-stop in the States and have rarely had decent internet or so much as an hour of available time, and unfortunately, motion sickness has prevented us from working on it while on the move. As we return, back to the island, we will resume our monthly or bi-monthly newsletters. We should have one out in the next few weeks. Again, we cannot thank you enough for all of the love and support you have given > and continue to give our family. Wayne Parker: www.ParkersInThePacific.com

Pacific Islands Bible College Robert H. Martin

P R O D U C T I V E PA C I F I C I S L A N D S BIBLE COLLEGE CLASSES I N TA R AWA , K I R I B K AT I These were the most productive classes ever for me in Tarawa, Kiribati. We had more than 50 students to attend. I taught the class on Leadership in the Church and 1,2, &3 John. We had brethren to comed from 3 islands, representing 4 congregations. We had two brothers to receive their PIBC diploma; brother Tabera Tenieu and Teunaia Bonobati. Then we had a very encouraging and historical happening, the appointing of two elders and two deacons of the Eita congregation! The two elders ordained where Teeta Wiauea and Tabera Teunaia and the two deacons were Toaiti Teatu and Teunaia Bonobati. Now the Eita congregation has appointed a third elder, brother Bonobati. The appointing of elders and deacons at the Eita congregation in Tarawa, Kiribati comes as a result of many years of teaching, edifying, and training. These new elders will have much growing to do spiritually but this should strengthen the church also. I am humbled to work among these beloved brethren and give the Lord all the honor and glory. There are already other congregations that have appointed elders and we thank the Lord. We pray that many more congregations in the Pacific Islands that have faithful, older, and good men that desire the office of elders and deacons will appoint them. > Robert H. Martin: [email protected]

Global Harvest

PACIFIC BROADCAST PROJECT

The Pacific Broadcast Project is comprised of three different works, each of which has grown considerably in goals of serving the Lord and the people of the Pacific Island nations. First, the project includes a radio Bible ministry entitled Sonlight In The Pacific Radio which we began in 1995. These radio Bible programs are produced twice each week for distribution to radio stations and individuals in the Pacific Islands. Second, the Pacific Broadcast Project includes an FM Radio Station in the country of American Samoa which we began working to develop in June 2000. Licensed by the FCC in August, 2004, KULA-LP FM 95.1 operates 24 hours a day/7 days a week, with extensive programming in Bible, culture, education, and health. The third element of the Pacific Broadcast Project is the development and operation of an International Short-wave Radio Station. This high frequency international broadcast facility will primarily serve the millions of Micronesian, Melanesian, and Polynesian people living throughout thousands of scattered islands in the Pacific. FM Radio: Bringing God’s Word To Thousands on Tutuila Island and Beyond With the FM station broadcast fully underway in the country of American Samoa, we are now able to focus on a second phase of improvements for this great work that God has blessed us with. First, we are making additions to the daily broadcast. One of the most recognizable needs is for us to present regular programming in the various languages that are used in our nation, with Samoan being the greatest need. Other programming in Tongan, Korean, Philippine, and Chinese, will likewise be added to the broadcast. Although the number of people using languages other than English and Samoan may be small, they nonetheless are present in the country of American Samoa and therefore we believe it is a great opportunity to reach them with programming in their own language. Second, architectural plans have now been completed for the radio station facility here in American Samoa and construction can soon begin. The need for this facility is great and once completed it will be of immediate use in advancing the station’s daily work. Third, the sta-

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tion’s coverage area is being greatly expanded through the use of FM translators. An FM translator simply receives the primary signal of the radio station and then re-transmits it to hard to reach, distant areas. In addition to these improvements, the radio station will be installing a new tower for its primary antenna, plus increase its team of those providing excellent audio content for our daily broadcast. We want to bring the Gospel in truth to remote residents like Gideon Alamu in the Solomons. Short-wave radio facilities can accomplish this great task!

Short-wave Radio: The Way to Reach People in Every Nation of the Pacific!

Years ago, while I was working in the Solomon Islands, I had the privilege of studying with Gideon Alamu. Brother Gideon lives in a very remote area of the Western Province. One day after a long journey by canoe, we came upon this man and began studies. He was baptized and has remained faithful to God to this day! In Gideon’s native thatch home, he has a short-wave radio. Short-wave radio is far superior than other radio broadcasts because of its ability to reach long distances. Short-wave receivers are popular in the Pacific Island nations and readily available, allowing Pacific Islanders to listen to the broadcast in their own homes. As with any great “tool” used in teaching God’s Word, radio broadcasting is not intended to be an absolute replacement for Christians teaching God’s Word “face to face”. But even the apostles and Jesus recognized that in their absence their words through letters would teach, encourage, and equip others. Today, their words can do the same for millions of people in the Pacific through short-wave broadcasting. > Randy English: [email protected]

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Global Harvest

CAMPAIGN 2019 Kent O’Donnell

● Palmerston North is a city of 86,000+ souls, and with the whole Manawatu district it = 117,000+ souls. ● The church of Christ has existed in this city since 1976. It has undergone several periods of growth and decline. ● Currently, the congregation has 57 members, a strong family nucleus, a broad age range, a solid leadership, and strives to be faithful in teaching & practice. However, it is not content to simply preserve the status quo. ● The congregation desires to grow in faith and number, to have an eldership, and to be financially independent (i.e., able to fund it own operations and fully pay a preacher’s income without outside support). ● These goals take time to develop, and finding interested contacts in evangelism is a difficult and slow process in New Zealand. But with a significant workforce, in a concentrated effort, we can cover a wide area in a short amount of time, and find a lot of contacts quickly. ● We have found that two-week door-knocking campaigns are an effective means to achieve just that.

The Benefits of Campaign Works

● Many people are given a chance to hear the Gospel (Romans 10:14-15). In the 2017 effort more than 4000 households & individuals were provided that opportunity. ● Scores of souls have been won as a result of past campaigns, including several current members (cf. Galatians 6:9). ● The host congregation is built up and encouraged with the mutual blessings of serving and being served (Romans 1:12), not to mention the potential growth in numbers (1Corinthians 3:6-7). ● Campaigners gain a wealth of knowledge and skills from both their training & field work. This “wealth” goes home with them to use in their local evangelism and can be shared with the members of their own congregation. ● Participants also undergo significant personal development. There are few better ways to grow in faith, sharpen your spiritual sword, increase your usefulness in the cause of Christ, learn to humbly rely on His strength, and bask in the real joy and satisfaction of meaningful service, than dur-

ing a campaign. It is truly a life changing activity. ● Add to this the camaraderie and friendship that come from spending two weeks with other committed soul seekers “on the front line.” It takes the meaning of fellowship to a new level (Philippians 1:3-7; 2:25; Colossians 4:7-14). This is where YOU come in... Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38)

Will You Be a Work er in ou r Cam p aign Ef f ort s in 2019?

● All who are of good, sound Christian character, with a hard-working desire to win souls are needed. ● Age is not a barrier, but a realistic level of maturity and physical health is required. ● Evangelistic experience is certainly welcomed, but not necessary. Training is provided, and new workers will be paired with seasoned workers.

Accommodations/Catering/Transport

● The local brethren can provide accommodation in their homes at no cost to the campaign workers. Motels are available; however you will have to pay for this yourself. ● The local congregation will also provide breakfast and dinner and most lunches each working day, though campaigners are advised to have cash on hand if they wish to purchase their own meals, or if other situations mean they can’t eat at the church building. ● You will be responsible for your own travel costs to and from Palmerston North (e.g., airfare, train/bus tickets). [Special travel financial assistance may be considered on a case by case basis, but is not guaranteed.] ● During the campaign, vehicles will be provided to drop off workers to door-knocking areas and Bible studies. If you can bring your own vehicle it would be most appreciated and your fuel costs during the campaign will be reimbursed by the local congregation. ● Campaign vehicles cannot be counted on for possible days off or non-campaign activities - studies get the priority. You will be responsible for fuel or any other costs associated with non-campaign activities. More could be said, but participation in a campaign is better experienced than de> scribed. Come, see for yourself! Kent O’Donnell:[email protected]

Global Harvest

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‘WALK BY FAITH AND NOT BY SIGHT’ Continued from back cover

the top of my blouse and he asked me what happened? I said, “You put it there.” Boy, was he surprised, looking at one of his patients, 25 years later! During each of these surgeries the brethren of the Deer Park Church of Christ in Houston, with brother and sister General George, and brother and sister Frank Koctar, specially blanketed us with concern and love, taking those foreigners in as their own in Christ. In 2004 our family had another major shakeup. My only sister, Cynthia, lost her husband, Daniel, tragically. They were married for ten years and she had a son and a daughter, aged 10 and 4. Also in 2004 a huge tsunami hit the east coast of India and Sri Lanka. Help came pouring in from our American brethren, and the Colombo church was able to do much relief work in Negombo. As a result of this, my father baptized a family, and a congregation was formed. Every week after morning worship in Colombo, my father, another brother Nimal, Harold and I, would go to Negombo to conduct an evening worship service. Kalum Gamage, a devout Catholic, is our child in Christ. He was a co-worker with Harold in the rubber factory, but after much teaching he obeyed the Gospel and has become a pillar of strength to the church and to us personally. Harold and I, with Kalum joining us, continued with the worship service in Negombo. A congregation had been started in Wennappuwa in 1975. With the passing of the years and the deaths of earlier leaders and preachers, brother Nihal Perera was holding together the congregation. He joined us in Negombo for Sunday evening worship. Brother Nihal’s daughter, Julia,

was a God-fearing child and would not compromise her Christian principles. She even refused to marry unless the person she married was a Christian. A big dilemma. Then comes Prasanna: Ex-Navy and a pharmacist, but a Buddhist! He met Julia in the state pharmacy course, and seeing her character and behavior, he bravely came to meet her father to ask her hand in marriage. Brother Nihal was not going to see his beloved daughter married to a non-believer. Prasanna turned out to be a diligent student of the Bible, believed and was baptized, and finally got the hand of his bride! God was working! In 2015 brother Nihal was diagnosed with leukemia. Harold and I were very concerned as he was needed for the work, being highly respected in the community and in the Church. Harold learned of a UK-based Sri Lankan doctor, a pioneer in the treatment of blood cancer, operating from a private hospital. We needed to raise $30,000 funds for the treatment, of which our local congregation gave about $10,000. Brother Wayne and sister Betty came to the rescue, raising additional funds from American brethren. Every day Harold would visit brother Nihal, sit with him, study with him and share good humor. In the process our faith levels increased so much that the doctors and nurses and staff members of the hospital were surprised at our attitude of good cheer. Brother Nihal would talk to the staff, teach them what the Bible says and that this world is not our home, but that we are sojourners. We prayed without ceasing. When the months continued, our finances were dwindling. Then we saw, again, the mighty hand of God working. Harold was talking to an old school mate about

his need for further funds ($20,000) for the treatment. His friend casually told Harold give him the bank details of the patient. We thought he at least would come forward with about $1000. When we got the bank statement we could not believe our eyes: he had deposited the equivalent of almost $20,000! For a single local man?? God’s providence! Brother Nihal’s daughter, Julia, and her husband are both pharmacists. Julia is working for the state Medical Supply Division. The irony and providence was that she was in charge of so many cancer-related drugs and the government gave them to her, free of charge! Unbelievable. How marvelous is our God in bringing all the pieces of our church history and our families together so perfectly! My mother, Mahes, passed away on the 25th of October 2018. Bro. Nihal passed away on 19th November 2018. From the time he fell ill in late 2015 till the last Sunday of his life, he never missed a day of partaking of communion. On the 18th, even in a very weak condition, he was worried only of missing Sunday communion. Today when we look back, why did all these things happen in our lives? Another new chapter in Sri Lanka Church history was in the making: The next generation of members are ready to carry forward. Harold has now started Bible study with the 3rd generation of the Wennappuwa brethren: 4 boys, (cousins of Julia) late teens and early 20’s. All have already proved their worth by taking turns to be with brother Nihal in the hospital, giving him the chance to have one to one Bible lessons with them. Every day in the hospital was a Bible study till the end. And so the Lord’s work goes on, walking by faith! >

‘WALK BY FAITH AND NOT BY SIGHT’

It is a simple line that many have heard, but to us, members of the Lord’s body, it is a powerful statement of fact. I am Lilani Thomas, from Colombo, Sri Lanka. I still remember when my Papa brought me to the US in 1970 for heart surgery at the age of 6. It was a life-threatening surgery which was performed by Dr. Denton Cooley of St. Luke’s Hospital in the Houston Medical Center. Dr. Cooley responded to a plea from a desperate father to save his daughter’s life. Not only did he perform a successful surgery but he also waived his charges for what the newspapers called “the girl from the other side of the world”! Unbelievable. When I look back now, how did it all start? How did the church have its beginning in Colombo? How did I end up ( as I proudly say) as the “first daughter” of the Church of Christ in Sri Lanka? Brother J.C. and Betty Choate came to our island (In December 1967) in the hope of getting their Indian Visas. During almost a year that they spent here, the church was established. One of the first converts was my father, Reggie Gnanasundaram. In 1970 after my heart surgery my father decided to dedicate his life to teach the pure Gospel and he continued until his death in 2007. Brother. L D. Willis and brother Gordon Hogan held meetings here. Brother Frank Pierce moved to Colombo and worked to build up the church. Around 1978 brother J.C. requested funds to build a meeting place in Colombo. Brother Wayne Barrier was given the task of raising funds and the Pine hill Church of Christ in Florence, Alabama provided much of the needed help. Brother Wayne’s unwavering spiritual support and bringing many teachers to encourage us has never waned through the years. Sister Betty Choate, I count as my “other mother”. She has been a major role player in my life, from the time she helped to bring me to the US for heart surgery, being with me in the hospital room till today, to laugh and cry together for we have shared joy and suffering. We have all walked by faith and, now, when we look back, it is amazing to see how the hand of our Father in Heaven has guided our ways: The meeting place in Colombo was completed in 1981. Brother JC and all the brethren came every year like clockwork to encourage us. When the radio programs for India began airing on our “Giant of Asia” radio station in Ceylon, I cannot forget how brother J.C. would bring heavy loads of tapes to be aired. My father was the “bridge” between the station and brother J.C., submitting the tapes and keeping a check on the station’s often-incorrect financial records. The church grew throughout India as many rendered obedience to the Gospel. Looking back again, there was a major shakeup in 1983. We were affected by a terrible communal riot in which our home was destroyed and we barely saved our lives. My father refused to leave our Island for safer pastures. He kept on repeating to us, “What about the Church?” In 1984 my father suffered a heart attack from the shock of seeing his life savings destroyed. My sister and I accompanied him to Houston for heart bypass by Dr. Denton Cooley. Again, he operated FREE of charge! As soon as we came back home my father started looking for a husband for me. I was not going to be given in marriage to a non-Christian! Then came Harold Thomas. He had been searching for the true Gospel teaching. He had noticed the Church of Christ signboard and was thinking, “I must go and see what is being taught.” He studied for 2 years and he was convinced and believed and was baptized. In December of 1987 we were married! What providence! In 1995 my father had to undergo another bypass. Again in Houston, Dr. Denton Cooley operated free of charge! I think my family should be in the Guinness record books. WHY? World famous heart surgeon, Dr. Denton Cooley, performed surgery 3 times FREE OF CHARGE in one family! Before the surgery Dr. Cooley noticed the scar of a surgery from Continued on page 63