Sunday 29 January 2017

prayerletterJan2017



                                                January 21, 2017
Dear Praying Friends,

Blessings to you, in the Lord Jesus’ Name.  During the final quarter of 2016, Ruth and I were heartened to continue in the Gospel ministry in India.  Thank you for your faithfulness in prayer to our Heavenly Father on our behalf, as always.

It was my privilege once more to teach about a dozen seminars in our home in India to several men who pastor or otherwise do the Gospel ministry of our Lord Jesus.  Topics included “The Minor Prophets”; “Life of Christ”; “Decision-Making”; “Canon of the NT”;  “Ecclesiastes, Christian Philosophy, The Eternal State”;  “The Reformation”;  “The Modern Denominations”; “Destructive Modern Biblical Criticism”;  and “Combatting False Theology”.

The Lord Jesus blessed us with quite a number of other opportunities which we were glad to join.  Some of these were in teaching special groups and in conducting prayer and Bible study sessions.  We joined a new church planting effort on several Sundays too, where I was asked to speak and answer questions.

We traveled to Pune once again to teach students involved in Gospel ministry in slum areas.  There I taught 8 hours on I Corinthians, and 9 hours on the History of Christianity (esp. the Reformation).  Ruth continued her ministry of teaching Bible chapels to the children in a local school near our home, as well as to rev up her work on Christian curriculum development for the Indian context.

Please Pray:
·         For our health and strength as we’d now travel much more than before.  Ruth has been having a few small problems with her heel, her back and her ear.  By God’s grace only can we do anything. 
·         That our schedules would be packed with moments in which to influence people everywhere with the true, glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus.  This overseas trip would extend from January 24th til March 21st, Lord willing, and would take us to Singapore, India and Philippines.
·         For all our loved ones, especially our parents in South Florida, while we are overseas.




Chit-chat:         
  •  In December Ruth and I had the double privilege of visiting an assembly in Kansas which has supported us as missionaries for fully 30 years, as well as to see our daughter Elizabeth and her precious family, who moved out there a few months ago. Elizabeth’s fine husband Benjamin is now serving the Lord as a pastor in his home state of Kansas.    
  • It was very nice to enjoy our first Christmas in the USA since 2004 this time around.  But we missed our Singaporean friends a lot, with whom we’ve spent nearly every Christmas for 17 years running.                      
  • We had to wait until a very late date to book our flights back to Asia, but Ruth was able to buy them at only half the normal price.  How?  The Lord’s love and mercy, of course!                 
  •  Ruth has had a few small health issues, but is “patched up” and ready to fly off to Asia with me on this coming Tuesday, January 24th.  The only thing left is to throw a few things into our suitcases before we head to the airport for the next two months of ministry overseas.              
  •  In the coming year, we’re planning to pursue Gospel ministry in the same countries we’ve been working in during the past few years, but in different proportions. Lord willing, we won’t get overly tired out.


 “Serving with the International Gospel Missions” 

990 Calkins Road,  Rochester, NY  14623      

 Phone:  585-334-9048