Serving in the Prison Ministry (Web Site)

January & February 26, 2008 Ministry Update

When You are Ready for a Change

Larry Walters was just tired of sitting in his backyard, watching the 
same old folks in the same old neighborhood do the same old thing. He 
was ready for a change. So he decided to do something different. He went 
out and bought 45 six-foot helium balloons and attached them to his lawn 
chair, which was tethered to a car to keep it from taking off. Then, he 
donned a parachute, packed a bottle of soda pop, a CB radio, and a BB 
gun to shoot out balloons so he could come down. He thought he'd get a 
great view of his neighborhood. He got a little more than that. When his 
friends cut his lawn chair loose, he shot a thousand feet into the air 
in a minute. Before long, Larry and his flying lawn chair were 16,000 
feet over the Los Angeles area. That's like three miles up, man! A TWA 
pilot radioed the tower and said, "We've spotted a man in a lawn chair 
at 16,000 feet." I can't even guess what the tower must have said back 
to the pilot. Meanwhile, Larry is yelling into his CB radio, "Mayday! 
Mayday!" He eventually managed to shoot out enough balloons to come 
down, where he landed in some wires and caused a power outage in Long 
Beach, California. He got down OK, he got some TV

appearances, and an FAA fine. Not bad for an ordinary guy in a lawn chair.

Here was a man who was tired of same old, same old and willing to take a 
risk to go where he'd never been able to go before. In a way, that's 
what I'm asking you to consider today, because like many people, you may 
be ready for a change. Because life is lonely the way it is now; because 
life seems pretty meaningless. The question, "Why am I here?" still 
doesn't have a satisfactory answer after all these years. You're ready 
for a change.

The problem with most of us today is we say we want change but we are 
not willing to pay the price for change. We do not find real change in 
Politicians or a political party or even a Church, but only finding God 
and doing His will. This is what we need in our lives today more than ever.

Those that the Lord has given us a command to reach inside jails and 
prisons need this REAL CHANGE. This last two months the Lord allowed us 
to see well over 180 asking God for the REAL CHANGE IN THEIR LIVE! We 
were able to send out over 400 Bibles and Bible studies plus many pieces 
of Christian material. Our financial and prayer supporters help make 
this happen. Thank God for His FAITHFULNESS and your

faithfulness to God's work that allows us to do this ministry.

HUGE PRAYER REQUEST

Beginning March1, 2008 Voice of Victory will be doubling it’s mail out 
of Bibles and Bible studies plus various Christian materials. We need 
your continued help as we work together with another Prison Ministry and 
several Baptist Churches in reaching out to more inmates with the Gospel 
of Christ. Nearly everyone of us has had to tighten our belts during 
these uncertain times. We are asking God to bring more labors together 
to reach more souls for Christ. I have enclosed several enrollment 
forms, would you consider giving out these Gideon 300

enrollment forms out to your family and friends? We can do more with 
more of God’s people getting involved.

Russ and Susan Kessler

Psalms 37:24

Serving in Bangladesh.

Dear Friends,

Thank you for praying for me as I traveled to northern Bangladesh for a special pastors conference.  There?s a saying in Bangladesh, ?What time does the 9 o?clock train leave??  It means that nothing leaves on time.  True to form, when we got to the bus station our night coach did not leave at 9 p.m. as it was supposed to.  Six men, chanting as they worked, were loading huge heavy baskets on to the top of the bus.  As we waited, hucksters came on the bus selling drinks, treats, fruit, necklaces and sea shells.  There were even men collecting donations for their religion.  They promised blessing on all who gave.

At 9:30 we finally started off.  The two lane highway to the capitol city of Dhaka and beyond was full of trucks and buses.  The trip was harrowing as we played leap frog with them almost all the way to our destination.  It seemed the goal was to pass as many buses and trucks as possible until you got there.  Our driver took risks that I thought we would never get out of and I sat gripping the seat in front of me.  My national brother, however, was fast asleep as we plowed on.

We made it to our destination at 5 a.m.  Although I had gotten little sleep on the bus, I was able to rest that day.  It also was the Bengali New Year and everyone was celebrating.

The next day classes began.  The Lord gave me good classes with the pastors.  It was great to challenge them from the Word of God and see their enthusiasm to do deeper studies.  There was much good interaction and many questions.  At the end they were asking me to return.

I was treated like royalty with meals in many homes.  The best meal was an eel curry dinner  at the house where I stayed.  I hadn?t had eel since I was at our jungle station, Hebron.  It was great!

When it was time to leave, can you guess what happened?  The 9 p.m. bus again didn?t leave at 9 o?clock.  In fact, when we did leave, we only got as far as the gas station and were told we had to change buses.  We finally boarded and got our luggage transferred and took off.  I noticed that the driver was having trouble shifting gears.  At the next passenger pickup some men got on the bus and opened the engine compartment and began to work on the engine.  We sat and waited.  

As we waited I had a phone call on my cell phone.  It was my daughter Tami calling from Ohio to wish me a ?Happy  Birthday.?  When I told her where I was and what was happening, she laughed heartily with me.  She grew up here and clearly understood the situation.  But just to hear her voice in a strange place at 10 p.m. was a joy.  I guess that?s why we named her Tami Joy.   

Eventually the engine cover went back on, and we began again.  However, nothing had changed.  We ended up coming all the way to Chittagong with the driver having trouble putting the bus into second gear.  The grinding was very evident.  Again it was a leap frogging trip, but we made it back in one piece at 5 a.m.   I was glad to arrive home.  

Thank you so much for praying for me as traveled for this ministry.  Your prayers were greatly appreciated and God blessed abundantly.

In His service,

George and Shirley Weber



 

Serving in Singapore.

Merry Christmas!  I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying your holiday season. We love and miss all of you. Here is our latest newsletter. Write back when you have a chance.

Margie (for the rest of the clan)

Greetings from cool and rainy Singapore. There has been more rain than normal, and temperatures are in the low 80’s so we are enjoying our winter season. It feels a little more like Christmas time than our normal hot and steamy. Our schedule is as busy as back home in December as well. Everyone is getting ready for our Christmas outreach programs for the youth and VBS for the children next week. The cantata comes on Christmas Day with “tea” time afterwards. The British influence is still here.

Our church, Asian Baptist Community Church, celebrated its eighth anniversary on October 28. We had a good attendance for the service. Two of our deacons who attended the first service in 1999 gave good testimonies of how God has blessed through the church.



Asian Baptist Bible School finished another term, and Steve was thankful that all the students passed. Three men are enrolled for Masters level courses that start next June. There is  growing interest from around the region. One lady, Mei Mei, came to visit and inquire about taking classes next year. She has been a missionary in Macau with Child Evangelism Fellowship for the past seven years. There is further interest from India, Burma, Cambodia, and Vietnam. We are still raising funds to help some of these students. If you would like to help, just designate a gift for ABBS-foreign students.

Our General Director, Dr. Sproul, and Pastor Ball came to visit also. Dr. Sproul has found a replacement when he finally retires and was introducing Pastor Ball to all the IBM missionaries in Singapore and India. Their visit was enjoyable. We are thankful for their dedication to the furtherance of the gospel at home and abroad.



Our church mission trip to India went well. We went to visit our missionary, Dr. Johnson George. He is an Indian national who received his PhD from Bob Jones on the same day as Steve. Johnson has planted seven village churches and teaches the pastors one day a week. He also teaches in a Bible school near Mumbai. For eight days our group of nine traveled north of Mumbai to many villages preaching the gospel and encouraging Christians. Steve preached on five different occasions and taught the pastors for a full day. Margie also taught the ladies in the villages twice. Steve preached and taught the 100 or so students at the Bible College, too.

    

There is some exciting news from the church. We had been praying for an unsaved colleague of a church member. Hock Ling had visited several times, but then went to another church for awhile. On Sunday, he came and talked with Steve for over two hours. He was very confused by other churches, and his question was, “Why do good people go to Hell?” Steve showed him from God’s Word that he had a choice to make. Hock Ling decided to trust Christ as his Savior from sin. Please pray that he will grow in his Christian life.

On the other hand, several people that we mentioned in our last prayer letter made a salvation decision so that they could receive money. Dahlan was a former Muslim who came to us for help. We tried to help him financially and spiritually, but when he felt that he couldn’t get any more money, he disappeared.

The kids survived the week without parents and are enjoying their school holidays while waiting to see what is in their presents under the tree. We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas as well. You all are especially in our thoughts this time of year. Thank you for all the gifts and prayers. They mean so much to us and make our ministry here in Asia possible. May the Lord be with you in the New Year!

Sincerely in Christ,

Steve, Margie, James, Leah, and John Reynolds  

Serving in Malawi.

         The construction of our Bvumbwe Bible College building began on Monday morning, April 16th.   This building will have two (2) large classrooms on each side with a school office separating these two classrooms.   We will adequately be able to teach 75 men and 75 women in these classrooms.   This complex will also have an outside kitchen on the east side of the main building with four (4) toilets in the back.   And because of security reasons, we will have a 6 ft. wall around the property.   We have been praying about this need for two years, and now our Lord has marvelously answered our prayers.   We wanted to thank our dear Christian friends for praying with us about this request.   We thank our God for Dr. Danny Whetstone, who has helped us in obtaining the funds for this project.   We also thank Pastor Danny Ellis and his church family at Fellowship Baptist Church in Greeneville, TN for helping us with most of the financial needs for this project.   And we are grateful to many of our supporting churches and Christian friends, who have also helped us with this project.   Your help, whether small or large, is greatly appreciated.

         Our Lord has also been doing many wonderful things in my church meetings during these last two months.   A newly wed couple, two men, and a young girl have been recently saved at my meetings at Makalanga Fundamental Baptist Church.   In an Easter service at Chiwaya Fundamental Baptist Church, three (3) men and three (3) ladies were saved.   Because of the dedicated work of many of our National Pastors and their church families, thirty-three (33) additional people have been saved.   We have also been diligently training a few new pastors and some of their Christian men from Ndirande, Naveya, and Chipanje Fundamental Baptist Churches.

         One of our faithful Christian ladies, Mrs. Mapanga, died in April.   I conducted her funeral which was held at her house.   There were about 200 people attending her funeral.   I spoke to them from 2 Corinthians 5:1-8.   I told them that when a Christian dies;   I.   We know that they have a new spiritual body (vv. 1-4).   II.   We know that they have a ticket to heaven, who is the Holy Spirit (v. 5).   III.   We know that they are in heaven (vv. 6-8).   Many people asked the Lord to save them after they had heard the Gospel.   Most Malawian funerals are held at the house of the deceased and they begin at 2:00 P.M.   After a service at the house, we walked to the cemetery to have a graveside service.   Then we walked back to the house of the deceased to pray with the family.   The night before the funeral, there was singing and preaching all night long.  

         William and Hannah have almost successfully completed all of their school work for the 1st grade.   Melody has been doing an excellent job teaching them most of their school subjects.   I do help her by teaching them Bible in the mornings and by keeping all of the attendance and grade records for her.   We have taught other people’s children for six (6) years, and now it has been a great blessing to teach our own children.   We were married for 17 years before God gave us William.   Then Hannah came a year later.   We have family night on Fridays when we play many games together.   Melody often tells our friends, “I don’t know what we did with our time before we had children – we must have been bored.”   Well, William and Hannah have brought many phenomenal changes in our lives.

         We wanted to thank our supporting pastors and their church families for your many prayers for us, for our National Pastors and their church families, and for praying for our various ministries.   God has been answering your prayers in many glorious ways.   We also wanted to thank you all for your generous and sacrificial, financial support that you send to us every month.   We count it a privilege and an honor to be co-laborers with you all in the work of the Lord.

Please pray for these prayer requests listed below:  

1.   Pray for our one (1) week Ngabu Fundamental Baptist Bible College which will be  from Saturday, May 26th to Friday night, June 1st.   Five (5) of our National Pastors   will be teaching 50 Malawian pastors and 50 Christian men at this Bible college.

2.   Pray for Sarah and Christa, who will be coming to Malawi to help us by teaching our Malawian ladies and our Malawian children the Word of God.   Pray that many souls will be saved, pray that our people will grow in the Lord, and pray that our people will be encouraged to serve their precious Lord.

3.   Pray for our annual church conference which will be held from Friday morning, August 17th through Sunday afternoon, August 19th.   Dr. Dale Heffernan will be our main speaker.   His wife, Jody, will be teaching our ladies.   And his son, Ben, will also be preaching for us.   Dr. Dale Heffernan will be bringing his entire family.

4.   Please pray for Melody because she has pulled a muscle in her back.   She is doing much better now, but it is difficult to rest these kinds of back muscle injuries.   And the bumpy roads in Malawi do aggravate these back muscle injuries.

                                                          Your missionaries in Malawi, Africa,

                                                          Bill, Melody, William, & Hannah

Serving in Peru.

Dear Pastors and Praying Friends,

God is blessing tremendously on deputation. Thank God that we are at 46% of our support and still have more churches that have promised to take us on for support.

As usual, we have been traveling a lot and God has truly given fruit for our labor.

The Lord has been so good to us while visiting each church! I had the opportunity to preach at a mission’s conference in the month of October. As I stood up to preach I knew the Lord was telling me to preach out of Exodus chapter 3, but I did not want to. I was trying to tell God that that was not the right message to preach at this church. Finally I gave in and figured that God knew better than I did. At the end of the service the youth pastor’s son came forward and spoke with a counselor. It turned out that the young man was having doubts in his heart about his salvation. He was coming up with excuses, just like Moses, as to why he shouldn’t come forward and seek help. Thank God that the young man accepted Christ as his personal Savior that night! It is such an encouragement to know that God can still use us in spite of who we are. I thank him for all that he has done in our lives.

I wanted to take a little time to thank each of you for your prayers and support. God has been showing us the importance of each of you. I know that you all give sacrificially and are really living by faith just to provide for more missionaries to go to the foreign field. It is so humbling to me that you would honor my wife and me with your prayers and support. We want to be good stewards of God’s money and faithful to His calling.

Thank you so much for allowing us to represent you in the country of Peru. We are sincerely grateful for each and every one of you.

Gustavo is still doing well and the Lord is opening many doors for him. He just recently met a man that had visited the city of Arequipa and attended a Baptist Church while there. He mentioned to Gustavo that if he came to his town (Yarabamba) that he would give him a place to stay and a place to start a Bible study. God is so good to us. If we are only willing, He will open the doors and bring us great victory.

Please continue to pray for us while on the road. And once again, thank you for all that you do.

In Christ,

David and Katie Gardner

Missionaries to Peru