Missionaries are more than people sent from one place to another with a message. Missionaries serve as bridges between the people who sent then and the people to whom they are sent. Visiting supporting churches in the United States to experience mutual encouragement is just as much a part of our ministry as everything we do in Malawi (Rom 1:12).
As I’ve visited Edgewood Baptist, First Baptist Fredonia, High Point Baptist, Union Baptist (Hawesville), and First Baptist Henderson this month, I’ve experienced joy and encouragement, and I hope that I’ve been able to stir these churches up toward greater faithfulness to Christ’s commission. I’m really enjoying this part of my ministry, and I look forward to seeing many of you in the coming months.
(If you won’t be able to make it to a Gospel Life Sunday near you, I encourage you to watch my sermon at Henderson’s First Baptist Church on Facebook.)
Launching Day Camp Teams
In Malawi, Wilkes and Michael launched our 9 day camp teams. These teams use bikes and other supplies we provide to visit both existing churches and new areas with evangelistic youth programs.
These day camp teams will continue their work through the month of September while most children are on break from school. Our first reports from the field tell us that the teams have held 50 day camps across southern Malawi, exposing over 2,000 people to the gospel.
Church Planting in Mozambique
This month we received exciting reports that Joseph Wanderson, a graduate from the first class of Shepherds Academy, had planted a church in Mozambique. Joseph had moved to Mozambique to find work, and as he settled into a new life there, he took what he learned at Shepherds Academy and planted a church. In the next year, we will be sending mission staff to visit Joseph and the church to encourage and strengthen them.
Joseph represents one of our goals in action before we’ve even created a program to facilitate it — sending Malawians as missionaries to plant churches among unreached people groups in Mozambique. One of the joys we experience in ministry is simply to come alongside what God is already doing and join him there. God is already using our graduates to plant churches across the border, and we want to join him in this work more fully in the future.
Our Funding Goal for Furlough
God provides for everything we do through the faithful gifts of churches, families, and individuals. We do not receive anything through denominational programs. Gospel Life operates on the principle of faith in God’s direct provision through his people, and we have seen God continually provide for his work, never lacking anything we need.
In our last fiscal year, when not counting one-time special projects, Gospel Life’s expenses averaged $15,000 per month. Inflation, however, is pushing those expenses ever higher while at the same time we sense God leading Gospel Life not simply to maintain our current ministries, but to expand in order to do more for the advance of the gospel.
With these things in mind, our target this year is to increase monthly giving by $5,000. We simply ask that you prayerfully consider establishing a recurring gift (whether online or by mail), increasing your current giving level, or leading your church to become a monthly supporting church.
We know by both faith and experience that God will give us what we need when we need it, as long as we are acting as good stewards for his glory.
Please continue to pray for me as I visit the following churches in August and September:
- August 3 | Union Baptist Church, Marion, Kentucky (Wed at 7pm)
- August 7 | Hardin Baptist Church, Hardin, Kentucky
- August 14 | Mt. Tabor Baptist Church, Buffalo, Kentucky
- August 21 | First Baptist Church, Fulton, Kentucky
- August 28 | City Light Church, O'Fallon, Kentucky
- September 4 | Long Run Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky
- September 11 | First Baptist Church, Mitchell, Indiana
- September 18 | Burton Memorial Baptist Church, Bowling Green, Kentucky
- September 25 | Overland Church, Fort Collins, Colorado
