Last week I had the privilege of traveling with about twenty members of Lancaster Baptist Church to the country of El Salvador. Through a series of events the Lord has opened unique doors for the purpose of missions and church planting there.

In recent months, two fine young couples from Lancaster Baptist Church—the Charters family and the Weaver family—have moved to Central America. The Charters are already in San Salvador and the Weavers are finishing language school in Costa Rica, planning to arrive in El Salvador soon.

We left from LAX at 3:00 am last Thursday and arrived later that morning in El Salvador. After freshening up, we went to the city of Cojutepeque, which is a neighboring city of San Salvador. It is in this city that a school has been donated for the purpose of establishing a church and Christian school. We had approximately three hundred people in the service, with a good number of people saved, after Dr. Ezekiel Salazar and I preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Brother Weaver was introduced as the pastor who will be arriving in a few months to establish the new church. Many good contacts were made in Cojutepeque.

The next morning, Dr. Salazar, Brother Dan Garlick, and I spent several hours training approximately forty Baptist pastors who have remained faithful through many trials in that country. Some of these pastors’ lives were threatened during the civil war in the 1980s. Through it all, they remained faithful and while most of the Baptist missionaries had left the country, they continued preaching the Gospel faithfully.

After spending the morning in training, we then drove to the northern city of Metapan. Several folks from our church, as well as a few from El Salvadoran churches, had spent time soulwinning and advertising the meeting a few days prior. We gathered in a house nearby the downtown gymnasium in Metapan and had a light meal and a season of prayer with our team. At 6:00 we walked to the gymnasium and God blessed in a wonderful way!

Over four hundred people gathered in this meeting. Joining us were the governor of the state of Santa Ana and the mayor of the city of Metapan. They are thrilled with what we are doing and were happy to welcome the students from West Coast Baptist College and the members from Lancaster Baptist Church. Through the door-to-door soulwinning and the preaching of the evening service, we saw more than forty people saved.

Last Sunday morning Brother Charters conducted the first service of the Fundamental Baptist Church of Metapan. Ninety-two people attended the inaugural service and eleven precious souls accepted Christ as Saviour. West Coast Baptist College student Edwin Aguirre stayed for the Sunday services and helped with translating and soulwinning. We are excited that our church and college family can support these two missionaries and we anticipate sending several more missionaries in the year ahead. Please pray for the new church in Metapan that God will bless greatly!

A few weeks ago our church family began praying for a dear member, Mrs. Diana Graham. Diana came to our church with her family in 1997. Their then teenage son, Clark Graham, later graduated from our high school and college and now serves as a missionary with Brother Rick Martin in the Philippines. Brother Graham and his wife Rachel have been a blessing as some of the first young missionaries sent from our church.

Mrs. Graham was diagnosed with cancer and after chemotherapy treatments, had a few good days of conversation with her husband and family at home. In the Lord’s timing, however, He called Diana home last Friday. The funeral service for Mrs. Diana Graham will be this Wednesday at 11:00 am. Her husband, Curtis, has also been a faithful member of our church and their daughter Elizabeth is a member of our staff.

Diana Graham was a servant in so many ways. After her son, Clark, had made a missionary trip to the Philippines, Diana began to take an interest in the work there. Clark is an expert viola player and had helped start an orchestra at the IloIlo Baptist Church. Mrs. Graham took it upon herself to purchase and send dozens of instruments to the Philippines for this tremendous orchestra. In addition, she volunteered several days a week, helping sort choir music before and after each service. Her service to the Lord was often behind the scenes but never unnoticed by God.

Times like these are difficult in many ways. It is difficult to understand God’s timing, and it is difficult to say “goodbye” to someone who has been a faithful friend and co-laborer. From a heavenly perspective, we know that there is joy in Heaven and we are thankful that Diana is no longer in pain and is now with her Saviour. I also am confident that she does not regret living a life of service for the Lord. Her legacy lives on as we see her children and grandchildren serving the Lord here in Lancaster and on the other side of the world in the Philippines. May we each be challenged today to live for Christ in this needy hour!

On January 1st, Oprah Winfrey began promoting a year-long course entitled, “The New Age Christ.” Her text for the course is a book entitled A Course in Miracles. Below are a few quotations taken from this book:

“There is no sin.”
“A slain Christ has no meaning.”
“The journey to the cross should be the last useless journey.”
“Do not make the pathetic error of clinging to the old rugged cross.”
“The name of Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol. It is a symbol that is safely used as a replacement for the many names of all the gods to which you pray.”

It is no surprise that many Hollywood figures are going full-bore into new age psychology and teaching . And it is no surprise that many of them believe in reincarnation and other such eastern philosophy.

The fact is that if “there is no sin,” then there is the removal of the eternal absolutes of the Word of God and a removal of the accountability factor that is so clearly found in His Word.

If “there is no sin,” then we need no Saviour. If there is no Saviour, then we have no purpose for living our lives!

I am so thankful that Jesus Christ shed his blood and rose again so that we might have redemption for our sins. In these last days of false teaching, along with the promotion of new age philosophy, may we each be ready to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.