Please remember all the innocent people in Ukraine who are suffering. I just can’t imagine how the people must feel. May God put His hands of protection over them.
March Madness
What an exciting time for your State Missions Department. Beginning this week, we will officially have two new full-time men on the field. I just want to thank each of you for your support of this great ministry.
Bryan and Kelley Clay will be planting in southwest Saline County (between Benton and Hot Springs). They have chosen “Faith Journey” as the name for their mission. The Clays live in Benton and are being sent by their home church, Celebration Baptist Church in Haskell (a former mission project).
We are also happy to welcome Roberto and Patty Marcelletti as our newest Hispanic church planters. They will be working in the Springdale/Rogers area. Epic Church of Springdale will be the sending church, and they will be working closing with Pastor Jake McCandless in that location. Roberto is a former Texas state missionary and comes from Venezuela, where he and his wife Patty were dentists and church planters. They have yet to submit a name for their mission, but we will let you know as soon as possible.
FYI
Praise the Lord! The contract has been signed on our building in Fort Smith. To sell it in just a week and for a nice profit is a God thing. Pray as we will be closing in about 30 days.
Cave City
I had the privilege to present BMA Missions this past Sunday at Hillcrest Baptist Church. A special thanks to them for the invitation. After morning worship, we enjoyed a time of fellowship over a meal. I love sharing about missions and visiting our churches. I would love to come to share with your church. Feel free to contact me. God is good all the time.
From Our Missionaries
Misión Creciendo en Cristo (Growing in Christ), North Little Rock: Juan Carlos Posadas writes, “Some beneficiary families of the Community Service Program are responding to our invitation and are attending the Sunday service. We thank God and pray their hearts will be opened to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
“Sunday, as part of the celebration of World Mission Day 2022, we had the privilege of hearing the word of God through his servant, Cristian Martinez, whom we have adopted as our missionary in Romania. Cristian shared with us from I Tim. 3:14-16. It was a great blessing to hear a message so well structured and applied to the church. We had the opportunity to pray and give an offering for World Missions and the Hispanic National Missions. We also renewed our faith promises to continue supporting Cristian and Vanesa in Romania.
“In our congregation, we have proposed to teach, practice and commit ourselves to the missions and, thank God, the brothers are responding. We greatly appreciate your prayers for this mission in North Little Rock. God bless you all.”
Ebenezer, West Little Rock: Ruben Isturiz writes, “I am grateful every time I hear from our brothers who send us the following words: ‘We are praying for you.’ That reminds me that our work is spiritual and that we are not alone. Thank you very much for your support.
“This week my heart has been praying for Ukraine and for all our brothers in Christ in that nation. The reports of missionaries there give us encouragement that, even in the midst of such a difficult situation, their faith grows.
“At Ebenezer, we continue with the Berean Groups (cells). We have had some setbacks in some groups to continue meeting, either due to the pandemic or bad weather. Pray for the families with conflicts. We have some cases, and we wish a powerful intervention in each Ebenezer family.
“Keep praying for my health. I have already had several medical tests, monitoring my heart for a month, the one for sleep apnea, now I need the one for heart stress. At the moment, the cardiologist is reviewing the results. I am taking an aspirin daily and medicine for hypertension. Once again, a thousand thanks for your prayers. To God be the glory!”
Faith Chapel, Flippin: Johnny Shew writes, “We had a great week at Faith Chapel — the best number we have had in over a year since the second round of COVID hit. We pray that the Lord is bringing us through this.
“We had return visitors again Sunday morning, as well as one first-time visitor, and we had a great time of worship. We still have some who are out sick. I am praying we can all be healthy. Some that have not been coming say they will return next week since the pandemic numbers are improving. To us, this just means that if we will stay faithful to our calling, and let God work, He will take care of the rest, and that is what we are trying to do.
“We met new people this week. Some say they will come, some not. An interesting thing I have noticed when witnessing — so many times when I ask people if they are saved, their answer is ‘yea, I’m good’ but they don’t live like it, they don’t want to talk about it and they want to get away from you. That doesn’t sound ‘good’ to me, but it’s not up to me. So I just keep telling them the truth and trying to show forth the love of Jesus.
“Thank you for holding us up in your prayers. Please continue, God is hearing them and we thank Him for His answers.”
The Table, Springdale: Clinton Morris writes, “We had a beautiful week. I was able to attend a great training at the Multiplication Workshop with Larry Barker. I also brought Drew along for the training. For all of you who do not know, we are training Drew to be the future pastor of The Table. I love the work ethic and overall heart for God that this guy has.
“Sunday was something else. We had 27 people at the service, and we were missing 7 of our regulars. We will be bringing a few more tables next week to accommodate our growing mission.
“I had a 90-minute conversation with an unsaved person after the service who has been wanting to understand our faith. I am so thankful that God allowed me another opportunity to share the gospel. This is still an ongoing prayer request.
“Pray for the community that we are reaching and the work that God is doing in our midst.”
