November, 2005

Dear Precious Friends in the Ministry! It’s Christmas time!

At the darkest time of the year, an event occurs on our calendar that reminds us not of shopping, or even of giving and receiving, but of love, GRACE, forgiveness, purity, home, heaven, and of God coming in the flesh! What a time Christmas is! If only the whole world knew who Jesus really is, and what His birth was for! Well, that’s why Christians are here – to make sure Jesus is lifted up higher than all the money, all the gifts, all the food, and all the stress of Christmas-time – because without HIM, it is back to being the darkest time of the year! My family and I pray God greatly blesses your homes, and your hearts, and that He mightily uses your efforts for His glory throughout all the new year!

 

A New Name Written Down in Glory. Dina has been coming to church off and on for the past year since her husband (Tony), and daughter (Gina) have gotten saved. She struggled long and hard against the simplicity of the Gospel, and had even recently decided that she was not going back to the catholic church. But she still was not surrendered to Jesus Christ. She had come to know the truth from the Bible, but had not believed the truth. She had gained lots of head knowledge, but then, just a few weeks ago, she finally realized her heart was still empty, and her soul still lost. That’s when she came up to me after one Sunday morning, and asked that I talk with her about getting born again. Just 45 minutes later, she bowed her head, and sweetly trusted that Name above all other names for the forgiveness of all her sins! Hallelujah! There is just one more person in her family that still needs to get saved – John. He is 20 years old, and thankfully is searching – pray he starts coming out to church, and will respond to the same old Gospel that still changes lives!

 

Encouraging time in Wisconsin! I was so blessed to be invited to be a part of a Wings Bearing Precious Seed meeting in Wisconsin in October! The theme was on Encouragement, and the preaching and fellowship amongst these men of God and their families sure helped this missionary stay encouraged for the Lord! It is amazing just how much we need to encourage each other, and how easy it is to be a blessing! I am indebted to the faithfulness of all of you staying in the battle for souls and for the preaching of the truth!

 

Serious About More Help Needed! We have been experiencing some rough waters lately here and need you to pray for someone to respond to God’s call to come over here to Ballincollig and Mallow and “help us” help them (Acts 16:9)! There are nearly 100 people here that I am ministering to, and training in the Bible, and our labours would be much more effective if there were more like-minded servants willing to labour together as a team for souls and church planting.

 

Irish Bible Project! An exciting project we have been working on in the background is the reprinting of a portion of the Bible in the Irish language. We have already printed and put out Gospel tracts in the Irish language, but want to publish a booklet with the Gospel of Luke, Acts, and Revelation in it. It would be in both Irish, and in English, and would have a Bible Study lesson in Irish and English at the beginning that would teach the reader: 1) How to read the Bible; 2) How to be Born Again and live for Jesus Christ; and 3) What’s ahead for this world. There is a lot yet to do, so I am asking for you to pray with us that this would bear much fruit in a land that believes only Rome cared about the Irish.

 

Prayer Requests

·                              Upcoming Events to pray for! I have been preparing for a fairly big gospel presentation in Cork City called Biblical Perspectives, but have decided that I need more time and materials to make it work, so please pray for me, and the folks here as we put on this presentation of the Gospel that will prayerfully happen in the new year; Pray also for our many evangelistic Christmas events, and our regular soul-winning programme – we just need God’s blessing and enablement!

·                              There are dozens of people we are continually working on to get saved. Please pray specifically for a new woman named Mags to get saved, for Finbarr, Sandra, Sean, Nora, Michael, Ken who is seriously ill, and many others to believe the Gospel – please pray that our efforts bear much fruit in these lives here! Pray also for the folks who have recently gotten saved and started getting discipled, that they may grow and become very strong in their faith in the Lord Jesus!

·                              Finally, keep praying that we can buy property here in Ireland! More than ever we need to find property and build for the many ministries that we have going.

 

 

We do so Love you, and Thank God for you all! 
Bro. Craig Ledbetter and Family

 

As always, up-to-date information on what’s happening here in our work in Ireland is available at:  www.biblebc.com