September 2010 Foreign Mission News Report

(for emailed version, which has better quality and some pictures, email foreignmission@comcast.net)


Dear monthly readers! God’s Peace!

According to the Lord’s abundant grace and mercy, He has seen fit that we are now moving into the fall of the year! Summer plans were laid, summer events have taken place. Some of the events we had planned in each of our lives perhaps did not happen. We lay out our plans, but God decides what actually gets done.

It will be this way even as we go forward into this new season. Let’s be prayerful that we will always be subject to the Lord’s plans for our lives, since He knows what is best for each of His own.

God gives each person special gifts and talents, and it ought to be our desire to use these gifts to His Glory! Let’s be together in a spirit of prayer that each of us will have a keen ear for the voice of the Good Shepherd. Let us not run ahead of God’s Will, but willingly be subject and obedient unto it, and use the gifts He gives to His glory! Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Please pray that your Foreign Mission would always wait on the Lord to decide which paths to embark upon, and that we would follow the Good Shepherd, the Shepherd of our Souls, the Lord Jesus Christ! We truly desire your prayers and participation as together we go about the work in His Kingdom.


The Foreign Mission Monthly News and Prayer Requests


• Please pray for Pastors Bob Maki and Dennis Hilman as they leave for Ghana, Africa on October 12th. Pray that the Lord would give them the wisdom and the words to preach, and that God would allow His Word to go forth in that country, not only while these missionaries are there, but after they leave. Pray for the preparation of the hearts of the people so they would be receptive to the Word.

• Leona Matson is now in South Africa, where she will be for 3 months. She went there with the help of the Foreign Mission (special earmarked donations) upon request from the SA congregations. They desired that she would come to organize and teach Sunday school children and teachers, which is an area that needed much attention. Please keep her in your prayers. Here are recent notes from Leona. They show how she is spending some of her time during the week: * Leona Matson is currently teaching grade four in South Africa, but next week will be teaching grades 10, 11 and 12. (ALSO)

* Hi from South Africa. I'm currently staying with members of the Ikageng congregation and helping out in the public schools. Tomorrow I'll lead an assembly for the 900+ students at the local primary school. I'll probably talk about Daniel in the Lions Den and how we can always trust God.

The Foreign Mission is thankful for these wonderful opportunities and thanks Leona for answering the call to go!


• Dennis Hilman will be going to Latvia on September 22nd and will be staying until October 4th. It has been some time since Dennis has been to Latvia, where many opportunities to share the Gospel exist. We will be sharing a report from this trip with you in October, Lord willing.


• Pastor K and his wife Ruth from India arrived home on August 31st. They were the last of our guests to arrive home in their own country. Please pray that these pastors will now have renewed vigor and energy to continue the faithful work that they do in their countries, much of the time under very difficult circumstances. These pastors and their associate pastors’ minister tens of thousands of people on weekly basis.


• Final preparations, budgets, and information are being assembled for the Foreign Mission Board meeting to be help in NH on October 8th and 9th. At this meeting the board will set the directives, trip plans, and other details for the next 12 months of Foreign Mission Work. As suggested in the opening statement of this monthly report, we will prayerfully rely on guidance from Almighty God. After October 12th, Please check the green latest news blog on the website www.themissionsite.com to see which trips are scheduled. You can also email: foreignmission@comcast.net for trip information.

• Many new sponsors for children at the ALC Home in India have come forth over the summer. These children make wonderful subjects of support from Sunday schools, which many are already doing.

• A special Thank You to the many Christians who have supplied financial support for water wells in India for the very poor Christians. 10 wells have been funded with 8 of these already completed. Lord willing, inspection and feedback on these wells will be made available to you after our planned trip there in Jan/Feb of 2011. Note: projects such as this are NOT funded out of regular Foreign Mission funds or donations. These projects are funded only by specially earmarked donations sent in by people so moved by hearing of poor Christians without water that they decided to act upon their hearts feelings.


DID YOU KNOW?


• That thousands of languages still do not have the Word of God due to lack of translation available? Many of these languages have no written script at all, so it is a huge task to get the Word of God to them. Thankfully many are working on this problem. Pray that the work would continue to go forth!



• That many people are still unreached by the preaching of the Gospel? Here are some statistics to think about. (understand that these numbers are very hard to be exacting, so you may find another list with different numbers)

The point is that there is a lot of preaching and reaching out still to be done.



865 million unreached Muslims or Islamic followers in 3330 cultural sub-groupings

550 million unreached Hindus in 1660 cultural sub-groups

150 million unreached Chinese in 830 groups

275 million unreached Buddhists in 900 groups

2550 unreached tribal groups (which are mainly animistic) with a total population of 140 million

17 million unreached Jews scattered across 134 countries



• That Your Foreign Mission is always open to your input? To get a dialog started just email foreignmission@comcast.net

Special Projects for this Month
Donations can be specially earmarked for these special causes.



Note: Projects listed in this section are funded only by earmarked special donations. Money does not come from Foreign Mission general funds for these projects.


• The church building project continues as funds allow in Juan Ponce, Guatemala. Construction is about 75% complete.

• A motor bike is still needed for The Philippines for church expansion into the Igpit area.


• Due to flooding, repairs are needed on several churches in India.


• A special earmarked fund for Bible supply is growing. As this fund grows it enables your FMB to supply God’s Holy Word to people that do not have the blessing of owning a Bible. Email foreignmission@comcast.net for more info on this or anything else!



May God Bless your Month!
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Regular Support Options and Programs

Here are various ways that you can help in the mission field!

• Foreign Mission General Fund. (any amount welcomed!)

• 12 Month Pledge Program ($10 per mo. and up)

• Indigenous Pastor support ($30 per month per pastor) Names and pictures given.

• Full time Missionary support ($200 per quarter) Dennis Hilman

• Orphan and children support ($30 per month.) in ALC Home in India Pictures and videos supplied.

• Bible and other book purchases ($30 min.)

• Bicycles for pastors ($80 ea. picture given)

• Memorial Funds

• Endowment Funds

• Mission Hospital in India



Email: for more info if desired at foreignmission@comcast.net
Website: www.themissionsite.com