From Rwanda:
I am in Rwanda! We’ve experienced the hardest of times as thousands of churches were shut down. Our campus church was also closed down. Please pray for us.
Rev. Kim
From Ethiopia:
Dear Rev. Koshy,
Greetings in our Lord’s blessed name! How are you doing in God’s work with your entire beloved family? Praise the LORD that all the brethren are kept safe as we serve God. We hope that God’s good hand will preserve your dad and mum. We are praying for them.
God willing, we are going to have our Mission Church’s 18th Anniversary Thanksgiving and GBI 8th Graduation Service on 1st September 2024. Pray for God’s blessing and provision. Please convey my regards to your family and the church.
Rev. Ephrem
Our reply:
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in abundance!
With heartfelt gratitude, I reflect upon the Lord’s immeasurable blessings bestowed upon Gethsemane BPC, Ethiopia, for the past eighteen years. His steadfast protection and guidance have been our constant companions. We also praise the LORD for eight years of GBI ministry. May the Lord’s work spread across Ethiopia and even to other nations of Africa, through faithful men trained in GBI.
As you eagerly await the Thanksgiving Service on September 1st, we will join you in spirit to recall and rejoice in the Lord’s faithfulness. Our fervent prayer is for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit’s power to revitalise all our ministers of the Word and the members.
Please convey our heartiest greetings to all the brethren who gather for the Anniversary Thanksgiving Service.
Heartily in His service,
Prabhudas Koshy
For Gethsemane BPC, Singapore
Rev. Ephrem’s Reply:
Many thanks, Rev. Koshy. Praise the LORD for the uncountable blessings we have received through your ministries. I will convey your greetings and wishes to the congregation. Remain blessed in Christ!
From Pangasinan (the Philippines):
Dear Pastor Koshy,
The construction of the worship hall is almost done. The plastering of the walls and rooms is done. The workers are currently framing the windows and the doors, and God willing, they will be installed in the middle of the week. After this, they will work on paving the way from the street to the worship hall. The excavator will be available next week to dig the ground for the toilet’s septic tank. The excavator will also flatten the kitchen area.
Thank God for the support and love gifts from Gethsemane, Singapore, so that we can complete the building. We will move our household things from the Mission Station soon after the rainy season to the house we’ve built near the church because the Mission Station (the rented house) is scheduled to be demolished in January to give way for highway construction. I praise the Lord also for the unity of our Session to support our poor and needy brethren. We’ve prayed and desire to make our help to the needy long-lasting and tangible. Praise God for the wisdom to develop the project to aid some of our college-age teenagers. We’ve noticed in our midst promising and talented students, but their parents or guardians cannot financially support them to study in college. We even have some orphans who are left in the care of their relatives, who are unable to support their further studies. The Session is currently finalising the criteria for choosing the eligible students.
Another ongoing plan is to hold an evening service every Sunday in San Fernando, La Union. I talked to the family of Bro. Eddie and Sis. Luz regarding the matter. They are attending a Baptist church, though not regularly. They willingly offer their place to start the work. After the construction of the worship hall, we will visit them and find a suitable place there for a long-term ministry. God willing, we will start the work in October. We are earnestly praying that the Lord will send a man of His choosing to take care of this flock. While waiting, we can care for them under Gethsemane B-P Church, Pangasinan.
Donald dela Cruz
From Vizag (India):
Dear Pastor,
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ! Last week, we held the second Pastors’ Meeting in Araku Hills, a tribal area around 100 km from Vizag City. Thirty-five pastors serving in various churches joined this meeting. As the place is near the border of Odisha, some pastors from Odisha also joined the meeting. Some travelled around 80 km to join the meeting.
We only planned for a one-day meeting as it was difficult to arrange accommodation for all pastors attending this meeting. In the meeting we conducted in May, we offered sessions on “Justification” and “Sanctification”. In this latest event (Friday, August 16), the topics taught were “Total Depravity” and “Perseverance of the Saints”. These topics were taught by Bro Seraph McGregor (the morning session) and me (the afternoon session). Pr Bujji Babu and Bro Bhagavath helped translate the messages into Telugu. We also visited a church in the evening and conducted a prayer meeting. All the residential students from GBI, Kotapadu, also joined this meeting. We managed to arrange a hall and some rooms for our stay in a hotel in Araku. Thank God for providing a good place for our stay during the night.
The following day, we visited a Christian mission hospital in Odisha, Asha Kiran Hospital (which is 60km from the meeting venue), to see the land we have purchased with the help of Malayalam Fellowship in 2018. As the roads are in good condition, we could reach the hospital within one and a half hours. We had the opportunity to spend time with Dr Mathew, the director of Asha Kiran Hospital. He is currently doing four online subjects in the FEBC distance-learning programme. He also shared with us how he came to faith, and even to embrace the Reformed convictions. He is very grateful for the opportunity to study theology through online courses. He also shared the testimony of other missionary doctors who came to serve in tribal areas and to start the hospital. In earlier days, there were no churches in the whole area. But now, there are churches in many villages around the mission hospital. He shared with us the great need for training rural pastors, as many of them are men with little training in theology. After lunch, we visited the land we purchased here, and realised villagers regularly cross it to get to their homes as it has no proper fence or compound wall. We need to construct a fencing or compound wall around the land.
Though our return journey to Vizag was long (7 hours) due to heavy traffic, it was safe and uneventful. We are deeply grateful for the journey mercies we received, and for your continued support. The travel through Ghat roads (through the mountains) can be quite dangerous, and we are thankful the Lord has kept us safe.
Many pastors who joined the meeting asked us to conduct such theological training sessions at least once a month. For now, we are planning to conduct such sessions once every three months. If they come faithfully, we hope to increase the frequency of these meetings. God willing, we are planning to conduct the next training in November. If you could also come to preach in the next meeting, it will be a great encouragement for these pastors.
In Christ,
Sujith Samuel