Dear Pastors, Leaders and Church Families!
Greetings from our church to all of you! I hope you all are well by the grace of God. My wife, mom, dad and I are all well by the grace of God. We remain engaged in serving and praying to God day and night. I thank God that the people of our church are growing day by day in the Word of the Lord and in prayer. They are facing every kind of persecution with stability and determination. I am currently teaching from the book of Genesis during our Friday Bible study at my church. We recently finished Romans during Sunday fellowship, so I am now teaching from 1 Corinthians on Sundays. Throughout the week, in each village I go to for home church or Bible study, I repeat what I taught during that week’s Friday Bible study and also what I preached on Sunday.
The wife of the man who tore the Bibles and threw them into the river was baptized.
Thank God that He is helping the people of our church grow in His knowledge. Several months ago,, I shared about a man who became a believer and was baptized after tearing the Bibles and throwing them into the river. This time his wife accepted the Lord and was baptized. It had not rained much here for about 2 years and there were not any floods. But I thank God and you all for yours prayers–there was some rain here, which caused a flood. I was able to baptize her in the flood water!
This woman’s husband is a farmer. A few years ago, when we went to his village and distributed Bibles, he collected all of the Bibles and threw them into the river. But later, when we shared the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and came in prayer, he accepted Jesus. When we went to his house and started having fellowship there, the people of his village began to hate him and distanced themselves from his family, calling him a Muslim. The people of his village stopped talking to him. He used to work in the fields of the village people, but now the people of the village have sent him out of their fields also. Yet this brother’s family did not lose faith. He continued to encourage his wife to believe in Jesus and she too believed and was baptized this month. Thank God that now the whole family comes to Friday Bible study and is learning God’s Word.
Praise points:
1. Thank God another believer in our church was baptized this month.
2. Thanks be to the Lord for the rain, so the farmers could plant rice.
3. Thanks be to God for providing all of our needs.
4. Thank God for giving me good health despite the heat. He did not let me get any major disease.
5. Thank the Lord for strengthening the believers in faith and giving them the strength to face persecution.
6. Thank God that Pi* started attending church again after her family stopped her from coming last month.
Prayer Requests:
- Please pray for the family of my friend a former Bible college student, H*, who went to be with the Lord last week. About 2 months ago, my wife and I went to meet him at his house. That same day, he found out that he had end-stage cancer.
- Another brother (above) lives near our village. He has mouth cancer. His name is R*. He believes in God and has been baptized. Right now his condition is very critical. A few days ago he needed blood, so I and another friend of mine donated blood.
- Please pray for those who are having difficulty in sending monthly support.
- Please pray that God will increase our church in the knowledge and faith of His Word.
- Please pray for our country. May God give goodwill and love to the people here. May God give peace so that people will quit fighting and spreading hatred in the name of spreading religion.
- Please pray for R* who has been disabled for about 21 years and also for A* who has been mentally ill for almost 24 years. May God heal them both.
- Please pray for the believer of our church whose name is Pu*. Her husband locked her in the house so that she cannot come to church. May God release her soon.
- Please pray for it not so be so hot here. Because of the heat, my wife, my family and I got prickly heat. There are also frequent times of no electricity, due to which we are not able to sleep well at night. Also, because of the crowd, it is very hot in the church. May God give us quick relief from the heat.
Thank you for your prayers, support and Christian love and for sharing in the gospel.
God bless you and your family very much.
Pastor & Mrs. 11*
*Names and faces have been changed or omitted for security reasons.