Greetings from Ireland!
God has been so good to us – far too good if you ask me! But we have all of
you to thank as well, because the Lord has honoured your faithful prayers for us
and our ministry here – Thank You most gratefully! Recently, I have
been allowed to preach in two Missions Trips to Wales and Scotland! It was a
great to see God working in local New Testament Bible-believing churches there,
and it was an encouragement to several of the men from Blarney and Mallow who
came with me – they were so excited, and blessed with the fellowship,
preaching, and emphasis on reaching souls in our corner of Europe!
Eight
Baptized. At the beginning of September, God gave us a beautiful Sunday
afternoon in which to baptize eight new believers in a nearby river. They
had such a great testimony to the crowd of about 20 other people who were
gathered along the shore fishing and watching! We sang, I preached, and the
eight each were bold as lions in their testimony of what Jesus’ death, burial,
and resurrection did for them! Check out the photos on our church web site www.biblebc.com!
One woman, Eileen stood and said, “I may be embarrassed, but I want
everyone to know that I am NOT ashamed of Jesus!”
Possible
Building? Well, after nine years here in Ireland,
and after looking everywhere for possible property, or an existing
building for our church in Blarney, we have found something that is exceptional.
No, it is not a brand new proper church building that has been just handed to us
for free (ok, so I am dreaming just a little here), but it is a fantastic
possibility! What we need is for you to pray that God grants us wisdom, and
possibly a miraculous amount of finances to purchase this building that is right
in the middle of our home village, Ballincollig! The Christians here have been
saving for over four years, and are excited at the chance to trust God
for our own building instead of renting! It may or may not be God’s will yet,
so PRAY with us about this!
A New Name in Heaven! Melissa
was constantly invited out to church by Eileen who herself just got saved three
months ago, and finally started coming. Well, the word of God did a wonderful
work in her heart, and she got saved! I just wish that other “christians”
would not have found out, and invited her to their “christian discos” of all
things! She is very confused now and wandering from church to church. We will
stay on her, but ask that you pray for her to grow strong in God’s word!
New folks in Mallow.
Several new folks have been visiting church in Mallow, and have started coming
out to Bible Study on Tuesday evenings as well! There’s Charlie,
Pat, another Pat, and Carrie, who are all so close to getting
saved, and we need you to pray that we give them all the help they need to
surrender to Jesus Christ, and live for Him!
Religion’s Failure.
Just to give you a glimpse of what it is like to endeavour to win souls here in Ireland,
I want to explain the failure of this world’s religions, in relation to
dealing with sin, and salvation. Whether a person is Roman Catholic, Protestant,
Hindu, Muslim, or trusts in any other system of belief, all fail in comparison
to the Person of Jesus Christ. Here in Ireland,
people know ABOUT Jesus, and really are convinced that “their church”
is right about what should be believed, but they neither personally know Jesus,
and quite simply do not love Him. God’s first and great commandment is for
everyone to love Him, the Lord Jehovah, with all their heart, soul, mind, and
strength. But how can people love Someone they do not know? The Irish
were only taught from infancy to fear and run from a god of the clergy, and hide
amongst statues, beads, prayers, sacraments, best efforts, pictures,
pilgrimages, and the list goes on and on. I can safely say, most of the
world’s 800 million Catholics do not know that Jesus is the ONLY bridge that
God built back to Himself. Our main effort in Ireland
is spent trying to open people’s eyes to the reality of the Jesus of the Bible
as opposed to religion (Acts 26:18), and the truth of the need for repentance
towards God, and simple child-like faith in our Lord Jesus Christ for
forgiveness (Acts 20:20,21). Do you have that forgiveness yourself? Jesus paid a
high price to make it free for all, including YOU – don’t neglect accepting
it! Tomorrow may be too late!
Prayer
Requests
-
Some
Answers to prayer first – Melissa got saved! God has kept
His promise to bring forth fruit when we are faithful!
-
One
of our ladies, Marlene has been diagnosed with bone cancer and is
dying. Pray for a miraculous remission for God’s glory!
-
Pray
for miracles in the following lives: Sandra needs to get saved, and
so does Paul H. One of our men, Bill D.’s wife needs real
encouragement; the Mayer family needs to get saved; Charlie, Pat, another
Pat, and Carrie all need to get saved; and, we need many new
families in the churches here!
-
Pray
for us to be able to buy if not the property we are currently looking at,
then at least something soon!
-
Pray
also God would raise up godly leaders in our churches here! We need helpers
here as well – full time helpers, along side us and these folks! Will you
come?
Thank
you for praying for us – we love you and thank God for you!