It was our Lord who said, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4).
I seriously doubt that most believers relate their service to God as work. Why is that? Because work requires effort and energy. The farmer goes to town, buys the best seed, puts it in the barn and goes and sits down in the rocking chair. Then when his neighbors are bringing in the harvest, he sits idle and cannot understand why he has no harvest.
We are living in perilous times, folks. I am 71, and I have never seen sin running so rampant. It’s enough to break your heart, to see just how cruel people can be one to another. Yet we are to be a light in a dark land. The church stands as a witness to the love of an all-powerful God. Every time you leave your home and head to church, you are being a witness for Jesus. Sadly, there are many today who cry, “Do away with the church; its outdated!” But, friends, I promise you the day is coming when those same people will change their minds.
Is it ever too late? I had an eye-opening experience while serving as your missionary in Highland from what a sweet lady in her 80s told me after I had shared Christ with her. I will never forget how the big tears began to run down her face and she looked me in the eyes and said, “Bro. Paul, no one has ever told me that before.” Why did this happen? Because the churches of our association sent me to share the good news.
A person cannot bow before Jesus and remain the same. I know that there are people in our state who have never heard the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things” (Rom. 10:13-15).
Seldom a week goes by that I do not hear of a conversion, or a life being touched by your missionaries. And it’s all because you care. The old song says, “Little is much when God is in it.”
My second question — is there anything we can do? The answer is, yes, there is! May we continue to let the light of the gospel shine by sending men out to help us fulfill the Great Commission! Not everyone is called to go, but all are called to send.
From Our Missionaries
Misión Creciendo en Cristo (Growing in Christ), North Little Rock: Juan Carlos Posadas writes, “We thank God for the life of Lucio de Jesus, a young man who was hit by a vehicle and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital. The doctors recommended disconnecting him since they did not give him hope of life.
The church was praying for him, and he miraculously recovered. He was released from the hospital this week, and his sisters took him to North Carolina to care for him. When we visited him in the hospital, we shared the gospel with his sister, Marta, and with him. We did not know if he heard the gospel, we will follow up with him this week, but Marta did make a profession of faith as we shared in previous reports.
“This weekend, we enjoyed the visit of Johnmichael and Angela Poulin. A group of couples had lunch with them on Saturday. That same day, John Michael shared the Word with the church at 7 p.m. and then in our Sunday service. God used him a lot. At the end of the message, four brothers and two sisters made the commitment to disciple where they were, knowing they are not perfect, and that God will be with them always. We thank God for the ministry He has placed in the hands of Johnmichael, for Angela (his ideal help) and their children. We pray that God will use them greatly.”
Ebenezer, West Little Rock: Ruben Isturiz writes, “We had an inspiring service last Sunday going over the question ‘What is church?’ New people are coming and we thought it was good to review the meaning of church and the importance of identifying yourself and being part of a crazy church. We continue to pray for the Venezuelan family to make their decision for Christ and to join our group to be baptized this summer.
Thank God they are more stable and their children are attending school. Pray that God will give them the opportunity to rent a house and be able to develop as a family in this country. They live with their nephew, and the opportunity to live on their own is opening up. Pray for this transition.
“This week, I had a training in the Baseball Chapel ministry. We have a new platform where we can send our reports and have the series of Bible studies we give to the players. Pray that this year we will have new Hispanic players to minister to and present the gospel to this year.
“I ask for your prayers for the workshop ‘Evangelism, Discipleship and Gospel Movement.’ We have not been able to start because we have had too many activities and have not found a convenient day for everyone. It is very important for Ebenezer that we start with this workshop as it gives a vision and tools to share your faith with others and how to establish bridges of friendship with the community in which we live. May God be glorified with the work we do at Ebenezer.”
Faith Chapel, Flippin: Johnny Shew writes, “What a beautiful day we had Sunday! Our number was down, but we still had a great time of worship. We were in Acts 27, Paul’s journey to Rome. We learned that if we are His, and we serve Him, we can believe Him, and no matter what storms we go through in this life, He is with us and will get us through them.
Sometimes He uses the storms to get us to exactly where He wants us to be, and sometimes the storm isn’t even about us, we have to go through it to reach someone else. I hope Paul was able to reach those other 273 people on that ship after telling them what God told him would happen and then seeing it happen. After seeing the way he went through the storm, trusting God no matter what, even when the others had lost all hope. But it doesn’t say that any of them believed. I just hope at least some of them did. I can’t imagine they didn’t.
“The block for our foundation was laid this week, and we have water on the hill. We will be adding fill and starting the plumbing this week. Praise God (whose I am, and whom I serve) for completing each little part of this project. I believe Him, that it will be just as He wills; and I trust Him completely to build this building and to build His church here in Flippin.
“Thank you for your prayers and your support. It means so much to us!”
The Table, Springdale: Clinton Morris writes, “It was a busy week for all the right reasons. I helped out Clement, our local flower shop owner, get through the Valentine’s Day rush on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, I was able to get to many meetings with a few of our church folk and work on some further arrangements with our local coffee shop (such as getting a storage unit on site for the church).
“Thursday was my normal meeting with Drew Whitton to discuss some very exciting future plans for the community. We are working on some upcoming leadership transfers for positions within the church and starting up a project that will help us minister to the local homeless community. We have some considerations to start a video game-based ministry to reach preteens/teens with the gospel.
“On Sunday, we saw many of our people come back to the service, and also saw some guests. We, as a church, are headed to the ‘Jesus Revolution’ movie this Friday. One of our church members paid for all the tickets.
“The fellowship and unity in the church are strengthening. Continue to pray for the church, the unity and the future pastor and his family. We know Satan will do everything he can to shut down God’s work. Let’s see this race to the finish line and beyond.”
Faith Journey, Benton: Bryan Clay writes, “We had a great night of fellowship and trivia at Faith Journey this week. We have come to learn that our folks love a good game of Bible trivia and, if you throw in a good meal, you have yourself a fun time of fellowshipping and getting to know those who have been attending faithfully at the mission.
We use this time to help each other become more involved in the learning of Scripture and make it a fun, interactive way that we all can participate in and grow in the Word.
“Keep praying over our mission as we begin to follow where God is planting us in the community. The days ahead are full of promise with what God has planned for Faith Journey and we are in awe of what He has already shown us so far in the mission. Lives are changing and our mission families are growing closer with every meeting. Praise God for bringing these people together. We look forward with anticipation as He continues to add others to Faith Journey.”
Misión Gracia Soberana (Sovereign Grace), NWA: Roberto Marcelletti writes, “It has been an eventful week for the Marcelletti family. It began on Monday when I had to take Patty to the emergency room and she was diagnosed with Bronchitis and prescribed to rest all week. Despite these difficulties, brothers and sisters were visiting my wife and praying for her.
“We continue to pray for the husband of our sister, Maria Fernandez. He left the hospital, but the news is not good regarding his health. His diagnosis is not the best and the doctors did not give him much hope, so we have dedicated ourselves to giving him emotional, spiritual and even economic support. This situation, although painful, has united us as a church waiting on the will of God for him.
“We also started another discipleship group on Sunday with those who want to be baptized. The group initially is eight people, and we are begging God to maintain the fervor for wanting to fulfill this biblical ordinance. We are joyful for them. We continue to pray for a meeting place in Rogers.”
Epic Life, Pea Ridge: Jake McCandless writes, (2/5) “Last night we had our February Collective Worship Gathering at our house. We had five first-time visitors. I’m starting to love waking up on a Monday morning and our house looking like there had been a party. In the last two gatherings, though we start at 5 p.m.,
it’s been past 10 p.m. before everyone leaves. Both worship and fellowship linger. Though we’re enjoying the gathering in our home, we’re excited about the possibility of having a place to call our own. We’ve locked in on a possible location but are having to petition the city’s planning commission for a zoning change.”
(2/20) “This was an exciting week for Epic Life. It has been tough connecting with people these past couple of winter months, but Thursday we walked into softball tryouts and were amazed that the very families we had been ‘circling in prayer’ were there and asked about Epic Life — they asked us!
“This week we’ve also made an offer on a house for the Mission. Yes, a house! As I’ve shared, we have struggled to find a meeting place. While in the area looking for a meeting place, Bro. Paul suggested, due to the price of commercial property in the area, that we look at a home. We found one that was on a main road, had an open floor plan, had plenty of parking and had land for the future. This week an offer was made. It is contingent on receiving a conditional permit from the city’s planning commission. Pray with us as neighbors receive letters today and for the upcoming planning commission meeting on March 7.”
