Ledbetter’s Ireland Update
Dear Pastor, Church Families, and Friends,
Just a brief greeting before I get into a summary of endeavours the Lord has blessed us in. Let me first say THANK YOU to everyone of you who faithfully support us, and pray for us here! So many of you gave towards our property purchase, and faithfully give to spread the Gospel here! We are your debtors, and we pray God greatly blesses and honours your faith in His word and our efforts for souls here in Ireland! Since our last Prayer Letter, here is a partial list of some of the people who recently have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and started coming out to church: Colin, Carlo, Helen, Christina, and Liz! Praise God He is still in the soul-saving business!
Property Purchase Beyond Our Reach! Talk about disappointment! Thirty-eight churches along with some self-less individuals, from here in Ireland, as well as Australia, France, Scotland, and the United States gave sacrificially for our attempt to purchase some prime land that deserved a strong, Bible believing Baptist Church on it! But it just wasn’t to be! The bidding for the property started at about $320,000, and within 15 minutes (that’s all it took) it went up to $641,000 (for just 1 acre)! Our maximum bid was set at $380,000, and we had done everything we could to be able to make THAT bid. But there was absolutely no way we could have matched anything like those final numbers! It went totally beyond our limit. In those 15 brief minutes, we hardly had time to breathe as 17 other individuals rapidly bid on that property! But in spite of it all, so many good things have come out of this event:
· Our Church rallied together, organized itself, formed its membership, and signed into reality our Church Covenant, Doctrinal Statement, and Church Constitution the Sunday before the Auction in late July! The folks here knew they were forming something more than just a fellowship of believers, but a living, vibrant, unified body of committed believers to the cause of Irish and world evangelism!
· We have developed a good architectural design for a future church.
· We have 40 people faithfully attending our Church in Ballincollig, with more ready to be baptized, and become members in September!
· We elected three trustees who gladly stood for our purchase to the Bank. .
· All of this in just three weeks! Amen! The Lord sure is good!
Victory Youth Camp a Marvellous Success! Two major events highlight our year here in Ireland – our annual Men’s Retreat in the Spring, and our Victory Youth Camp in the late Summer! And what a highlight this year’s Camp was! With 60 kids attending (almost twice as many as last year), and 15 Camp Helpers/Counsellors, the Lord did a work in everybody’s life! Six young people got saved, at least one young man answered God’s call to preach (another is struggling with it, praise God), a young lady surrendered to the mission field, and dozens of the kids got their hearts back right with God! The preaching was great – the food was super – and the atmosphere was electric! Check out our church’s website (www.biblebc.com) for photos of this wonderful event and see how mightily your prayers were answered!
Prayer Requests
· Upcoming Events to pray for! This September we have a Baptism, Friend Day, and Kids Church where the young people handle everything for the evening service! In early October, another Missionary Family, the Durhams will be arriving to work along side with us here in the ministries – Hallelujah! They are an answer to a lot of prayers!
· There are dozens of people who we are working on to get saved – keep our efforts in prayer that we bear much fruit!
· Please continue to PRAY for us to be able to buy property here in Ireland, and that the Lord would direct us to the right piece of dirt! AMEN!
May God bless you all and use you mightily – We Love and Thank God for you!
Bro. Craig Ledbetter and Family