…pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ… Colossians 4:3

We’d like to share with you a bit of what God has been doing this month. He truly is incredible.

I’d like to share a few photos with you as well.

At first we spent hours every morning and evening preparing the bags of food.

Here you can see that we now just give them bags and place food in the bags as they come through.

One of the best results so far from this effort is an online group I started to hold an evangelistic Bible study. I give out my number to my neighbors, and ask them to message me if they would like to participate in the group. God has provided a group of nearly 100 people, most of whom are unsaved!

We purposefully left the front yard open here to free up space for ministry. People here do not understand leaving part of their property unfenced. At times it was unused, and we wondered if we made the right decision. The Lord has used this open area now dozens of times for the Gospel to go forth.

This is the Lords doing and it is marvelous in our eyes!

Thank you for your prayers and support. Without which, this would not be possible!

We just returned from an amazing tribal trip. We were able to visit 6 different native communities during a five-day stint. However exciting that may seem to tourists and nature-lovers (which it surely would be), our purpose was much greater. We went to help with real physical needs: Medical problems, tooth decay, vision issues, and more. This is not easy: Six professionals from the US gave up a week or more of work, bought their own tickets, spent days traveling, and risked illness to come. Why would we do this? It was not for the joy of being bitten by thousands of bugs, or sleeping on the ground. It was not for the thrill of nearly capsizing the boat and losing all our stuff (that’s another story). It was not for wildlife spotting and photographic opportunities that were presented (although those were great). We did all of those to physically and graphically portray the love of Jesus, because He is worthy. Our family is in Peru to go make disciples, and we are so grateful for friends who help in that endeavor.

We started off by piling us and all of our stuff into our van. This was more difficult than it sounds. Daryn had to stand in the back to keep the mountain from avalanching onto everyone else.

We quickly got started on our boat trip…but the trip was not quick.

We spent the entire first day on the boat, and stopped in a little village where we had a service in the evening and then a clinic in the morning.

We thoroughly enjoyed the panoramic view from the high village setting,

although the climb was not so easy.

Sometimes we had clinics at night too.

I enjoyed helping people with glasses so they could read God´s Word!

We all enjoyed the wild-life.

God was very kind to hold off the rain until our last night of camping!

Carrying heavy luggage up and down steep muddy river banks is harder in a downpour.

Most importantly, we were able to give the gospel to nearly 300 people.

The fact that Segundo and Magnita speak the language is such a huge blessing.

There were several professions of faith during the week!

Rom. 10:14-15   How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Thank you for your prayers and support! God is at work!

I am, by nature, a very thrifty person. Once my friends were ribbing me about my being cheap, and a family member piped up in my defense “He’s not cheap, he’s ergonomic”. While he may have been looking for a different word (economical?) I did appreciate his attempt.

A few years ago a friend gave me a book that really challenged my thinking. It is a small book by Randy Alcorn with the title “The Treasure Principle”. Here are his six main points:

#1 God owns everything; I’m His money manager. We are the managers of the assets God has entrusted–not given–to us.

#2 My heart always goes where I put God’s money. Watch what happens when you reallocate your money from temporal things to eternal things.

#3 Heaven—the New Earth, not the present one—is my home. We are citizens of “a better country–a heavenly one”. (Heb. 11:16)

#4 I should live today not for the dot, but for the line. (From the dot–our present life on earth–extends a line that goes on forever, which is eternity in Heaven.).

#5 Giving is the only antidote to materialism. Giving is a joyful surrender to a greater person and a greater agenda. It dethrones me and exalts Him.

#6 God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving. God gives us more money than we need so we can give—generously.

As I mentioned, giving generously does not always come naturally, but God has been changing me.

Matt. 6:19-21 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Would you watch a one minute video by clicking here or on the photo below?

If you would like to give, you can do so here.

Grace and peace

We are very excited about our next block class, because our good friend, pastor Juan Carlos Fernandez is coming to teach hermeneutics!

Juan Carlos Fernández was born in Puerto Rico in a Catholic home. During his university studies, he heard the Gospel of Christ for the first time and Made a profession of faith in 1981. He graduated with a degree in business in 1984, and in the same year married Carmen, his high-school sweetheart. They moved to Greenville, SC for Grad school. He later finished a master’s degree in Pastoral studies and returned to Puerto Rico where he served in three different ministries: pastor, school administrator, and helping to found Calvary Baptist College: An English speaking Christian University which reaches young people from the Caribbean and some African countries.

He returned to Greenville in the summer of 2000 and accepted the pastorate of Tabernacle Baptist Church. He is currently writing his doctoral dissertation on church administration and hopes to defend his thesis in the spring of 2020. Pastor Fernandez has been in ministry for 32 years. He and his wife have one son and three grandchildren who live in Georgia.

Please join us for this upcoming course, if possible! During the course, we also plan to have revival meetings every night.

If you cannot come, please pray with us for God to use it mightily in Peru and in Latin America.

Or “The Danger of Distance”

Yes, that word above is “myth” not meth. That would be really strange.

What I want to talk about has nothing to do with crystal meth, or at least, very little.

But I do want to ask you if you have believed a myth regarding crystals… specifically LED crystals. 

You see, about 50 years ago there was a big push in Christian circles to outlaw movie theaters. My school banned them, many other christian institutions outlawed them, and many churches decried them regularly.

Eventually, however, a lot of Christians were watching the same movies, or even worse, in their own homes. In one sense, we could consider this home entertainment even more dangerous because a Christian leader would watch or even own movies that he would be ashamed to be seen viewing publicly. I still remember as a child visiting the home of a pastor whom I greatly respected and seeing on his shelf some movies that I had not been allowed to watch. My poor little self was quite surprised! Perhaps you too feel you have the right or liberty to watch things that your church or other Christians don’t approve of. Maybe there is even some sort of argument to be made there. 

However, when something inappropriate pops up on your screen or newsfeed, is your first reaction to look around to see who is watching? Do you note if your door is closed or if there is anyone behind you? Do you arrange viewing angles to make sure that your co-workers can’t see your LED screen? If so, you might have fallen into the Crystal myth. 

You and I, as believers, would probably never go to a night-club, yet we allow ourselves to watch movies and shows with brief scenes from those places. We would probably never consider going to certain concerts, or visit certain beaches, but we allow those same things right into our minds through our screens. We would never let a friend or co-worker personally share the sordid details from his weekend party, but we absorb the same things with our viewing habits. 

Do verses such as apply differently or not apply at all when viewed through a screen?

Job 31:1 I made a covenant with mine eyes;

why then should I think upon a maid?

1 Cor. 6:18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

Heb. 13:4 Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

1 Thes. 4:3-5 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

Please understand, I am not claiming to be perfect, so I post this as much for myself as for anyone else. My plea is simply that would not view things through a screen that we would be ashamed to see in person, and thus fall into the crystal myth. 

I have found many helpful resources on this site https://www.covenanteyes.com/e-books/ 

I even use their software on all of my devices! 

So what’s stopping you? 

PS. They are not paying me for this. I just sincerely do hope it helps someone. 

Perhaps you would say “No, I’m not really into making disciples.”

Maybe you don’t feel prepared.

Maybe you have never been discipled.

Maybe you feel that is just for pastors and missionaries.

However, Jesus commanded us all to make disciples.

A couple of years ago I found a book that I think is worth sharing.

It is called “Growing Up” by Robby Gallaty.

However I don’t recommend that you read it, but that you live it.

Here are some cliff notes from the book:

“Growing up” Book Highlights

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