February 2017 Prayer Letter – Not a Christian Country!
“This is not a Christian country!” Those were the words an experienced English pastor told me last week while eating lunch with him and another church-planter. So many people have this idea of “the old country” filled with churches and preachers like Spurgeon and Wesley.
Following the suffering of the second world war, many British people became very disillusioned with “the notion of God” and left “the church” altogether. Now roughly less than 5% attend any kind of church, and most are not only ignorant of the gospel they are biased against the gospel.
To make this reality more tangible, let me tell you about a young man I met recently. He grew up in a home knowing only secularism, evolution, and worldliness. Becoming disillusioned with life, he started searching for more. His search led him to religious television programming. Then he met some Christian from our church who gave him a tract. He got in contact with me and attended some Bible studies.
He and I started going through the Bible, and, when I showed him that the Bible teaches that God created the world, he nearly fell out of his chair! He could not believe that he had never heard this alternative view of the universe’s origin. What a joy to go on and share the gospel with Him! Please pray for young man to believe on Christ and for millions of others across Europe brought up with nothing but the emptiness of secularism and sin.
This month, at Downham Baptist, we reflected on God’s blessings over the last year and discussed plans for 2017. We praise God for professions of faith, baptisms, many visitors, growth in attendance, and many individuals growing in their faith and ministry through our church. Please pray for this new year for more people to believe on Christ and be discipled, and for us to do more to reach out with the gospel.
In December, a further $7500 was donated to the building fund for Northwest Baptist Church. We only lack of $23,751.61 to reach our goal of $75,000. Please pray for wisdom as we continue to search for the right building.
Thank you so much for how you all faithfully pray for us and support us. We could not do what we are doing without you. Please know that you are making a great difference in the ministry here.
Thank you Travis and Teri, for being such an outstanding example of Christians and missionaries. You and your family are a breath of fresh air in this sin-stifled nation. I appreciate your vision and commitment to reaching my people, and your patience, humility and good humour. You’re both very spiritually wise, trustworthy and totally focused on reaching and teaching souls for Christ. I’m humbled and blessed to work alongside you in the ministry. I have learnt so much from your walk with the Lord. Thank you for loving us so much and for all the encouragement and gratitude shown to the workers. May God continue to mightily bless His work at DBC.
Thank you very much for your kind words. We are very grateful for God’s grace at work in our lives and for his bringing you all to our church at just the right time. Thank you for your faithful service and encouragement.