Brother Jesse Garza’s visit:

It has been a great blessing to have our field director of Baptist World Mission, Jesse Garza, visit us for two weeks in Suriname. He plunged into the interior directly after arriving in Paramaribo, flying into the interior with Ethan Champlin for two days and then spent the rest of a week in Moengo with the Champlins. He arrived here last Tuesday, and left for Decatur, Alabama early this morning.

While in Paramaribo, Brother Garza preached three powerful messages to our people on Wednesday night, and twice on Sunday. Friday we had a very good time soul-winning with several young people praying to receive the Lord. He also gave his testimony to our leadership on Saturday night. His testimony spoke loudly to a number of our leaders, and it was a very profitable time. Sunday evening, we had all four churches meet for a combined service, which lasted 2 ½ hours. Then people enjoyed fellowshipping with each other following the service. Unfortunately after arriving home at 10 p.m., we had to leave for the airport at 3 A.M., so the night of sleep was rather short. Our people loved Brother Garza, and he received many invitations to return. It was great to have another voice preaching.

A Muslim recommending our church to go soulwinning!

My wife and I have been praying for our Muslim bus drivers for years. I have had two good conversations with H. but wanted another chance to talk with him. Yesterday I was one of two leaders who signed his check for driving the bus. I was careless and quickly signed like I was writing a prescription instead of my full signature which I had listed at the bank. They would not cash his check, and he came to ask me to go to the bank with him. I did, and the problem was solved.

Coming home, we discussed our departure in the future and its impact on his providing transportation. He recognized that our transportation is a big cost for the church. He also noted that most people were coming from a distance, and not nearby where they could walk to church. During our conversation, he told me that our church members really need to get out and go door to door in the neighborhood of the church, and invite them to church! This was the first time I had heard such advice from a Muslim, and I take it as a message from the Lord. It is my turn to preach Wednesday night, and I plan to preach exactly that message.

We have worked extensively in the neighborhood in the past, but not recently. We have been faithful soul-winning ourselves, but the church itself has not been as faithful as before. Some of older soul-winners are busy with their lives, and our young people have not been as active as when we were directing the programs previously. The national pastors have called a meeting of the young men, and we are praying that there will be a turn-around in terms of outreach.

I also had a very good opportunity to go back over both the plan of salvation and also the differences as well as the similarities between Muslim belief and true Christianity. He was quite open and asked some good questions. At the end he was a bit solemn and thinking. Please join us in prayer for their salvation. Of course, a true salvation decision would be costly in terms of family. But ultimately it is more costly not to accept the Lord when we look at things in light of eternity.

Prayer:

1. Health and strength for the work
2. Our spiritual growth
3. Safety driving
4. Soulwinning. We will be having a meeting with the four senior pastors and many young men on Saturday to encourage their involvement in outreach
5. Independence of the churches
6. Good news! The New Testament Commentaries are finished and are to be shipped to Bearing Precious Seed in Milford to join the Sranantongo Bibles. Then they are to come in a container. We are now down to one box of 30 Sranantongo Bibles as the last from 10,000 from our last printing.
7. Br. Garza is taking a hard drive and many DVDs to be mailed to Baptist Radio Network, where they will be made available through the internet. This will include the entire Bible, our 2100 fifteen minute radio broadcasts on Genesis through Revelation, and a variety of other sermons, Bible Institute lessons, etc. We hope that the DVDs will not only be available in audio format but also eventually in video format.