A New Way To Give

Making the most of what you have is always important. It’s part of being a good steward of the resources God has allowed us to manage.

To help our supporters increase the good that is accomplished by their gifts, Harvesters International Ministries has established the Harvesters Impact Fund. This giving option was created to provide supporters an easy way to take advantage of the tax benefits of donating appreciated stocks, mutual funds, real estate, and even business interest. Trust funds and annuities can be arranged as well. Using these assets as charitable gifts to Harvesters results in avoiding the capital gains that occur if they are sold by the owner. You receive the charitable tax deduction of the full value of the asset, without the tax liability of a capital gain. This strategy results in a greater investment in effective ministry.

Good management yields good results. Utilizing the Harvesters Impact Fund results in more churches being planted, more clean water being available, more orphans being cared for, along with all the other impacts of Harvesters’ work in Africa and Asia. Supporters who use the Harvesters Impact Fund still have the ability to direct where and how their gifts are used by our ministry partners.

Harvesters has chosen the National Christian Foundation to host the Harvesters Impact Fund. Their extensive experience, reliability, and solid reputation make them a great part of our team. We know that God will use their work to expand our efforts to touch lives.

If you would like to learn more or are interested in donating an asset to further the work of Harvesters, please contact Doug Radford at 252-230-9742 or via email at doug@harvesters.net. We look forward to sharing with you about this great stewardship giving tool!

Sion Assembly Church

Our passion is to win souls for our Lord from our pagan country, India. India has 1.3 billion people. Approximately 80% are Hindus, 15% are Muslims, and only 4% are Christians. There are 33 million gods and goddesses in India. We are working hard to win souls by conducting mass evangelism through Gospel Crusades. Many are giving their lives to Christ through these Crusades, joining our churches, and growing in the Lord. At the same time, we are encountering a lot of persecution from the government and also from the people in the villages and cities who are Hindu fanatics. We desperately need your prayers and support to conduct these mass Gospel Crusades.

 

Also, please continue to pray for our training of pastors. So far, we have been able to train 220 students from two Telugu states – Andhra Pradesh and Telangana State. This year, we are training 75 students, which will graduate in August. Some will be starting new ministries in unreached areas. Please continue to pray for all of our pastors and students has they take Jesus to the unreached. Pray for their protection and for provision while they are sharing their faith and the Gospel.

China Sees

Thank you for praying for our fellow believers in China who are experiencing increased hostility from their government. We have remained in regular communication with our ministry partners in China, conducting Biblical counseling and providing advice through technology called WeChat, which is like twitter in US.

Our “city” group planned to plant a church in 2018, but the tightened government control made them unable to find a meeting place. This March, they officially launched it. It is their first church plant, in the midst of heightened persecution from government! A core group from the “mother” church launched a new location in another part of the city, which has population of 30 million! This has been two years in prayer and planning, and we are super excited to see the Lord moving!! In addition, this is a testimony of God’s faithfulness and their unwavering faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Four of the men we trained are leading this plant. So please pray for them to continue to trust the Lord and lead the newly planted church according to what the Lord taught and showed in the Bible. Praise the Lord for their moving ahead given the current environment toward Christianity in China.

Please also pray for the “mother” church to continue to grow in faith, in laborers and workers, and in numbers of believers. They have already asked us to train more men for them.

Oddly, to our thinking, the “countryside” portion of our work is attracting more government attention. They are laying low and have broken into small cells to fly under the radar. So please pray that they will remain faithful to the Lord while they are scattered.

We are hoping to be able to make a trip over the summer, but the situation still does not allow us to do so. The Chinese government has encouraged local people to report any “suspected” foreigners for 5000-10,000 RMB (Chinese yuan). This can be very troublesome for us, especially for Mr. Jones and, as a result, for the local believers.

We are praying, exploring the feasibility, and seeking confirmation for other ways to serve Chinese believers. Please pray with us as we seek the Lord’s guidance in this area. As always, we appreciate your continued support and prayers.

The Kind Of Medication You Can’t Write A Script For

By Guest Contributor, Dr. Mark Paschall

This image has haunted me since our return from a remote village in a forgotten region of Kenya. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and this picture makes that especially true.

It tells a story of hardship in this mother’s eyes as she brought her child to our clinic looking for answers to the developmental and behavioral issues in her son. He was not acting like other children his age and at times did not seem capable of understanding and complying with directions or instructions. Hoping that perhaps some medication or nutritional supplement could remedy the problem, she had travelled a long distance to attend one of our medical clinics.

We were able to quickly diagnose Down syndrome and also determine that, at least for now, there were no other serious neurological or cardiac issues that often accompany this condition. While we certainly had no medication to offer that would change his situation, we were at least able to explain his condition to her and offer her realistic expectations for his future.
The obvious concern that can be seen in her face in this photo affirmed she had understood the challenges she was facing. The tremendous resources available in the U.S. for children with this genetic chromosome disorder would never be available to her, and she now understood that this was a lifelong condition that would impact her entire family for decades. At the same time, we were able to give her the information she needed to understand the implications of his condition.

When I was at the University of Michigan, the slogan for the Medical School was “Knowledge is Power,” While this may ring hollow in many desperate situations, I believe there is some truth in this case. We were able to empower this strong, determined, and concerned mother. We were also able to offer a commodity little seen in these remote areas of Africa. That commodity is hope. We were able to pray with her and remind her that she is not alone in her struggle. God is aware of her challenges, and there is now a group of Americans who will remember to pray for her regularly. Hope is something that I could never write a script for. It’s a remedy only God can provide.

As medical personnel, we often feel we have been successful only when our treatment has offered a cure or when we have fixed something or alleviated physical suffering. The most important thing we can do on these mission trips, however, is point people to the Great Physician through our holistic approach of caring for their entire beings: physical, emotional, and spiritual. This is what Jesus did and we have the tremendous opportunity to do likewise in His name on these medical mission trips.

Whatever your passion is, whatever skills and abilities God blessed you with to share with the world, I’d encourage you to use those gifts on a short-term mission trip. You will leave changed.

 

**Since 2011, Dr. Paschall has traveled to Kenya each year with his church, Kensington Community Church in Detroit, Michigan. We are grateful for his faithful service to the Pokot people and Pokot Outreach Ministries.

 

Union of Baptist Churches

We are privileged to introduce you to a man who has been greatly impacted by the ministry of UBC. His story, which he shares below, is one of redemption, hope, and full reliance upon Jesus Christ.

I am called by the name of Hagumishuti Eilya. I was born in Rutshuru territory in Nyanzale village in the Democratic Republic of Congo on June 23, 1975. I am the third born of my family. My father was married to four other women, and my mother was the second wife. She was very jealous of the other wives and children. She used to train us to grow into conflicts with the other children of my father and consider them as enemies. At age 11, my two older sisters and I were trained by our grandmother in witchcraft. She wanted us to poison our brother and become the leaders of our family.

In an effort to try to control my father, my mother introduced him to drugs. She supplied him with drugs to keep him in our home so that she would have access to all of his income. She did not want the other wives to have anything.

At age 14, I was in secondary school with my brother, Nelson, the son of the first wife of my father. I used to run races with him at school. By the end the school year, he began to win all of our races. My mother was totally jealous of that. Nelson and I would tend the family goats in the afternoon. One day, my mother and grandmother gave me a banana that had been poisoned and told me to give it to Nelson. I gave him that banana, and I ate one without poison. After tending the goats, we each went back to our homes.

About an hour later, someone came running to our home to say that Nelson was about to die because of complications in his belly. My father, mother, and grandmother ran to check on him and instructed all of us children to stay at home. After a few minutes, I decided that I needed to join them. Nelson was my friend, and I knew that I should not have given him the banana. I had to try to remedy this problem. When I arrived, I was met with many people weeping. I told my father and the neighbors present what I had done. They gave Nelson traditional medicines that caused him to vomit the poison. Fortunately, he survived.

My mother and grandmother were immediately captured and beaten by the villagers. They both died two days later. I, too, was beaten, but my stepmother intervened. She was a Christian and knew how I had been impacted by my mother’s teachings. She wanted me to live with her and attend Sunday School and church. I went, but was insulted by all the other children because of what happened. No one would be my friend. I learned about Jesus and was mentored by Pastor Ushindi. At 16, I was baptized. There were still very few people that would accept me. I began to fall away from my faith.

At 19, I decided to join a rebellion group in our village. During the war against the government army, I was captured and put in prison. I was there for one year and four months before I escaped, fleeing to the town of Goma. I met a woman and got married, but I continued living in a very sinful way.

In September 2017, I met Pastor Kazaviyo while I was working. He started telling me about the news of Jesus Christ. I told him that I know all that. He asked me if I had received Christ in my life. I said yes and that I have been baptized since I was 16 years old. He asked me why I hadn’t continued to serve God in church. That really made me stop and think. When he saw that, he continued to question me. I told him all about my life story and the devastating things that I had experienced. He comforted me and gave me a new hope in Jesus Christ. He invited me to his church, where I began to learn more about Jesus and grow in my faith.

I am now an evangelist and share the hope of Jesus with others. The Lord has blessed me with a wife and five children. The Lord has cared for me, even when I had done so many terrible things. I am grateful for the ministry of UBC that helped me find God and His purpose for my life.

Kerith Ministry – Rwanda

We are grateful for your continued support of our ministry. Because of your faithful giving, we were able to construct two additional classroom buildings last year, which allows us to provide life-changing education for more children. I would like to tell you about two of our students and the impact that education is making in their lives. It would not be possible without your prayers and assistance. Please continue to keep our ministry in your prayers.

Mary Among

Before joining Kerith, Mary was subjected to child labor. She would chase away birds in people’s rice gardens to be able to get a meal. Mary could not go to school because her parents could not afford to pay school fees and not even raise scholastic materials for her. Mary was sleeping on a mat with her four sisters and brothers, with nothing to cover themselves. Their parents were simply too poor to meet their basic needs. Mary led a miserable life and daily admired her friends that went to school.

Mary joined Kerith in 2009. Since then, she has been able to pursue her education with no delays and is currently in high school. In addition, she no longer uses a mat, but sleeps on a mattress with bed sheets and a covering, has access to clean water and medical care, and has made new friends that have made her more outgoing. She has grown spiritually and helps to lead other children at Kerith in the evening devotions. She is confident sharing the word of God!

Mary wants to become a surgeon and is working so hard to continue her studies. Your contributions help us provide the education that Mary needs in order to succeed. Please join us in praying for Mary and her future. We know that she will become a wonderful surgeon some day!

Barbra Kisakye

Barbra Kisakye is another one of the kids at Kerith home. She was born to a woman who used to attend our church. Her mum was so sickly. Little did we know that she was suffering from HIV/AIDS. Her mum came to Pallisa town after being chased from her home by her husband who accused her of infidelity, saying that was how she contracted the disease. Barbra’s father then married a woman who did not want Barbra living in the home and sent her away to live with her sickly, helpless mum. Barbra was not stable in school since her mother could not afford all the school requirements and school fees due to her condition.

Barbra and her mother faithfully attended our church. The Sunday School teachers took notice of Barbra’s vulnerability. Through our church, she was able to get her primary education. Sadly, Barbra lost her mum a week before her final exams in her primary education. She was left an orphan. Because of the way women are treated in our culture, we knew how difficult life was going to be for her. By this time, our congregation was very attached to this precious girl. It was determined that she would come to live in the children’s home. Without our intervention, she would have ended up living on the streets with no hope of a future.

Since she came to Kerith, Barbra has been able to continue with her studies and make friends with the other children. She has also grown in her spiritual life. She is in the music ministry at church and also helps with young children in their Sunday School classes.

By the grace of God, Barbra is turning 14 years of age and attending a secondary school in senior two (equivalent of 10th grade in the US). She is a very smart girl, loves her books, and puts much emphasis on her science subjects. Barbra is working so hard toward becoming a nurse.

Seira Community Ministry – Rwanda

The Lord has faithfully been growing the churches that are part of our ministry. Our first church in Kigali now has two services every Sunday with over 600 people hearing the word of God.

The members of the church in Rukumberi met for the first time under a cover of tarps hobbled together to give protection from the sun. Last summer, church members began working together to make all of the bricks for a church building. They now have a beautiful, safe place to meet protected from the elements. The church is also surrounded with gardens that are used to help provide for the community.

In Jarama, we have a church and water project that provides clean water to those living nearby. The people are so grateful to have clean water and because the church helped to bring in the well, they have started coming to the church to hear the word of God. The church has grown from 150 members to 300 this year.

Nyirabazungu Peresi

Meet one of our church members in Jarama. Her name is Nyirabazungu Peresi. She has lived with HIV for many years. She had no hope to live after she received the news of her diagnosis.

In 2013, when we went to Jarama to start a new church, we met Nyirabazungu when she attended a seminar where we shared the Gospel. The pastor told the people that the impact of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. She was very touched by that word, but did not accept Christ that day.

The next day, I was there with other members of our ministry. As I left, she stopped my car on the road and started to ask me how she could have eternal life. She told me that she was dying. I asked who told her she was dying and that no one can know the time they will die. She answered with two things – I am living with HIV because my husband frequented prostitutes. When he died, I began prostituting so that others would have the disease too. I do not have peace in doing that. Also, I am drinking too much, and sitting with people that are no good.

We prayed together, and now she is a Christian. She helps in our Sunday School classes and is also the secretary at the church. We praise God that she has turned from her wickedness and is living her life for the Lord.

Nyiramivumbi Pascasie

On the last Saturday of the month, we go to visit with those who are in the hospital. We give them clothes, food, soaps, and other items depending on what we are able to get every month. We also spend time praying with them.

Nyiramivumbi was very seriously ill, without someone to help care for her. People from our church continued to visit her in the hospital for months, praying with her and sharing about Jesus. God answered our prayers; and finally, Nyiramivumbi was well enough to go home. She began attending our church services and accepted Christ as her Savior last year. She is 83 years old and is very proud of being a member of the church that cared for her while she was ill. We continue to help her as different needs arise, and she is faithful in praying for others.

Pokot Outreach Ministries – South Sudan

The focus of our ministry over the past year has been evangelism, church planting, the training and equipping of leaders, and education. Evangelism was done in our five hubs and was significantly boosted by the Jesus Film machines. Over 15,000 people were reached and almost 500 came to the Lord! Four churches and several preaching centers were established and 77 people were baptized. We have had exciting moments with training of our leaders.

Among those who were impacted by our ministry is a woman named Lokeno, who came to the Lord as a result of our evangelist and mission hub leader to Mogos, Eliya Lokuru. Lokeno, who is due to be baptized this month, was formerly an ardent believer of African Traditional religion, which is a belief in animism. Preoccupied by a fear of spirits and malevolent gods, they seek the comfort, protection, and priesthood of witch doctors. They believe that every sickness, catastrophe and calamity has a direct connection to the spirit world. Therefore, charms and superstition give physical assurance of the control of the spiritual world. Lokeno had beads, bracelets, pieces of skin ropes and other things worn on the wrist, waist, neck, and some put in the house as an expression of her belief in the occult. She followed witchcraft and occult teachings, but after hearing the good news, it dawned on her that there is a loving God who loves and cares for her, who is appeased not by traditional sacrifices and superstition, but by a pure heart surrendered to Him.

After hearing the good news of Jesus Christ, and of the love of a good and gracious God, Lokeno stripped herself of all connections to her former way of life, giving up her belief in animism, burning her bracelets and charms, and completely surrendering her life to the Lord! She is so excited about her new found faith, and her testimony is leading others to church. She always testifies to others about the goodness of Jesus and is leading others to Christ. We praise God for her!

The other evident impact that our ministry is causing is to children. With the excitement of showing the Jesus Film, along with joyful singing and child-friendly games, our ministry is attracting many children, both in the villages and urban centers. At our main hub in Kapoeta, we have over 200 children attending our weekly activities. These children are from various family backgrounds. Some have both parents, while others are partial orphans and a few are total orphans. Some are living in the home of friends and others are street kids. We had previously taken 13 street kids and sponsored them to go to local schools. A few were later taken to a boarding school by a church organization that has similar interest in children. There are three who are now staying in the homes of believers in Kapoeta. One is a Toposa girl called Napem, who was drawn from street life by the love of Christ through our ministry. Her former life was the business of collecting used water and soft drink bottles, which were sold very cheaply to retailers to wash in order to repackage their liquid products such as cooking oil, petrol, or liquid soap. This hard street life orients boys to abuse drugs and use vulgar language. Most become desperate and alcoholic. Girls usually follow the same route, but also became commercial sex workers at some point. We are happy that the trajectory of Napem’s life was affected positively the day she joined our community. We sent her to school for a year, but she found it hard to continue since she is in her early teens and still in grade 1. She lives in the home of a church member. We are still exploring how to help her learn a trade or skill that can help her be self-reliant. She is part of our community and joins all activities with the teenagers at our church. I baptized her in December. She asked me to give her a new name on baptism day, and I called her Ruth. We hope that she will live to tell the goodness of God. I can’t tell of the joy in our hearts whenever I see her, and the many other lives, affected positively.

Pokot Outreach Ministry – South Sudan

Greetings in the name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are all doing fine in the Lord. We thank God for the continued partnership in prayer and material support. We praise God for richly supplying for our needs in every way as we serve him here in South Sudan. It has been an exciting year, and we have seen God do great things. We have and still are continuing to connect to many villages and many people hoping to build bridges from our hearts to theirs over which Christ may walk into their lives. We are anticipating yet another exciting year and we are hoping to make a greater impact in the scope of our ministry. We are hoping to do more village to village campaigns, conduct our first pastor’s and evangelist’s conference, and help our mission leaders have a more clear and succinct plan on building their teams and developing those they lead. Our immediate needs therefore focus on things that help us achieve our next phase of goals.

We are hoping to have the first pastor’s and evangelist’s conference in late January or early February. We have been bringing our key leaders to be part of the Pastor’s Conference in Kenya. But for the coming year, we are bringing none because we felt that it is time for our ministry to discuss things that are more specific and unique to our situation. We also want to cast the net wider to include mission leaders’ disciples into the program. The conference is expected to bring about 20 to 30 pastors, leaders, and evangelists from two major tribes that we are reaching – the Diding’a and Toposa. It shall be a vision casting conference where we hope to have our missional leaders, along with their teams, draw a grand plan of the next 10 years for their mission hubs with mid-term, short-term, and immediate plans clearly spelled out. We shall also be introducing The Timothy Initiative training where leaders are expected to train about six or more “Timothys” in one year.

To make this conference possible, our ministry shall provide transportation, accommodations, and facilitate the materials for the conference and training. We hope to have one or two guest facilitators/speakers. Our budget for this is $1,500.

We are planning to have more village evangelistic campaigns. The team from the main hub shall be backing up the efforts of our missional leaders in reaching their specific areas. In most of these remote places, there are no houses to accommodate a team of six to ten people at a time. We therefore hope to purchase tents and some sleeping bags to support our remote outreaches. We need at least 10 for a start, with a total cost of $1,000.

To accommodate our missional leaders during trainings and conferences, we would like to add additional rooms to the veranda of the house at our main mission hub. We are expecting to have regular training sessions that shall bring our missional leaders to our main hub at the same time. We therefore wish to have reliable rooms for our missional leaders to provide accommodation to them during our meetings/training. This will cost approximately $6,000 to $6,500.

We also have additional needs that we are earnestly praying God to meet. One of the pressing ones is the need for clean water in Nanyia village. This is home to our legendary woman of faith, Martha Lokwale. On numerous occasions, Martha walked 21 kilometers to speak with me about the people in her village and the need for the Gospel. Two years ago, we met and prayed about starting a church in her village. Recently, 25 people were baptized there! She constantly reminds me of the suffering of her people. We humbly ask that you pray with us that this need will be met. Drilling a borehole is about $14,000.


Omega Ministry

We are thankful for the dedication and courage of our Pakistani partner, Omega Ministry, who continues to share the Gospel amidst threats of violence. Recently they held a seminar for pastors and church members to specifically encourage them. Over 250 people attended this special session.

Please pray for them as they hold three crusades in different cities in late November and early December. These meetings are intended to both encourage believers and reach those who have not accepted Christ.

Ongoing needs for the Pakistani pastors include monthly support and motorcycles. Having transportation is of vital importance for pastors to be able to effectively reach more people. They typically minister in multiple areas and moving from place to place can be challenging. Currently, it costs $2,200 to provide a motorcycle to a Pakistani pastor. Beyond transportation, monthly support is also important so that pastors can focus on teaching and preaching. Most serve in very poor areas and are unable to gather adequate support from local congregations. Depending on the situation $50 to $100 per month can make a great difference in the life of a pastor and their family.