The past three days of our Missions Conference at Lancaster Baptist have been incredible! We’ve been reminded that involvement in missions is not only an opportunity—it is a necessity. Missions is as much a part of the Bible as John 3:16! We must be faithful to do our part and give generously—of our resources and of ourselves—to preach the Gospel to the entire world.

In Philippians 4, the Apostle Paul thanked his supporting church at Philippi for their investment in his missionary labor. He pointed out that giving is a form of communicating (verse 14). Notice these three biblical principles God commends in giving. (more…)

This coming Sunday launches our Missions Conference at Lancaster Baptist Church. We’re looking forward to welcoming many missionaries, and we anticipate God’s blessing as we give through His grace this coming year. What a privilege God gives us to allow us to have a part in His harvest!

The group of men who will be speaking for our conference represents a goldmine of experience and knowledge in missions:

• Dr. Don Sisk
  WCBC Missions Department Director
• Dr. Daniel Kim
  Pastor of Bible Baptist Church, Seoul, Korea
• Dr. Rick Martin
  Veteran Missionary to the Philippines
• Dr. Tom Lancaster
  Missionary to the Military in Germany

These are men who have served the Lord for many years. They have seen God prove Himself faithful through blessings and hardships, triumphs and trials. I’m looking forward to learning from them, and I’m eagerly anticipating how the Holy Spirit will work through them in our church.

Both the morning and evening Sunday services as well as Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evening services will be broadcasted via livestream at http://lancasterbaptist.org/live.asp. (Sunday morning @ 11:00 PT, Sunday evening @ 5:00 PT, Mon-Wed evening @ 7:00 PT.)

Last week Terrie and I had the privilege of ministering to our missionaries and pastors in Ireland.  It was a great joy for us to join Dr. Paul Kingsbury and his wife Dianne as we preached in the churches pastored by Missionary Jerome Pittman and Missionary David O’Gorman.  The Lord also gave us the privilege of meeting with a good number of other missionaries and pastors including our own graduates, Justin and Grace Hayes.

Besides preaching in the churches in Dublin, we were also able to conduct leadership training for pastors, missionaries, and national leaders during the trip.

Perhaps the highlight of this trip was the Sunday morning service at Pastor Pittman’s church.  We have had the privilege of supporting Brother Pittman’s church financially, and Brother Pittman’s son Joel is a student at West Coast Baptist College.  We have several other students represented at West Coast from the cities of Cork and Dublin, Ireland.

As the Sunday morning service began, you could feel the anticipation building.  Many hours of work and prayer had gone into the meeting.  The building was packed with visitors.  As I preached, I sensed a unique anointing from the Lord for that particular service.  As I gave the invitation, a good number of people raised their hands indicating they wanted to be saved.  Realizing the importance of the hour, I took another few minutes to explain salvation to them.  During the invitation, thirteen adults responded to be saved.

Perhaps the greatest joy during this invitation was to see the mother of one of our West Coast students accept Christ as her Saviour.  Rita Mitchell is the mother of Ashleigh Mitchell, who is a student here at West Coast.  It was only after the service that I had found out that Ashleigh and her roommates had gotten up at 3:00 am to pray for that service.  I have no doubt that we were laboring together for the Lord as I preached and they prayed.  What a blessing it was to talk to Rita’s husband later in the afternoon and to hear him rejoice about his wife’s salvation.  He had prayed for her for over ten years!

In between meetings, we had the opportunity to visit a few sites in Ireland with the Kingsburys.  Paul and Dianne Kingsbury are two of the choice servants of God in America.  Dr. Kingsbury founded the Reformers Unanimous Ministry that is now ministering to over forty thousand people struggling with addictions across America each Friday evening.  We greatly enjoyed our time with them and it was exciting to see the success of the RU ministry there in Ireland.

Another highlight of the trip was the opportunity to see Justin and Grace Hayes serving the Lord Jesus Christ.  Justin and Grace are graduates of West Coast, and they had visitors present in the service who accepted Christ as their Saviour that morning.  Another West Coast graduate, Brother John Anderson, flew over from England to spend some time with us.  It was a joy to see him and to hear of the good start he is having in London.

Please pray for all the missionaries in Ireland and in the United Kingdom.  These men and women are doing a faithful work for the Lord in countries where the response is not always as quick as some might expect.  Nevertheless, they are praying and trusting God for revival.

On June 21, the Philippine Islands became severely overwhelmed with the flooding brought by Typhoon Frank. As a result of this storm, hundreds of people have been declared dead and hundreds are still missing.  The Island of Panay was at the center of Typhoon Frank’s destruction.

Dr. Rick Martin, a long-time friend of our ministry, has what I believe to be the premier missions work of the 21 century located in the heart of Iloilo, Panay Island.  As you can imagine, this storm has been disastrous for their ministry.  Brother Martin has stated that this is the worst storm they have seen in 30 years of ministering on the Island of Panay.

Over 500 graduates of the Iloilo Baptist College serve as pastors across the Island of Panay. Many of these pastors have seen their own homes and churches destroyed, as well as deaths from within their own congregations.

Each month, Brother Rick Martin sends me a list of students from his college who are praying and fasting for me and the ministry here in Lancaster.  More than ever, they now need our prayers and support. Please join me in praying for these dear co-laborers in the Philippines.

Please pray especially for Rick Martin and his family.  Pray that God will bless them with good health, as well as give them grace to continue ministering and rebuilding in Iloilo during this difficult time.

To read more about the current status of the relief efforts in the Philippines, please visit www.rickmartinministries.com.

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!