Prayer Letter Update for January - March 2013

January/February/March 2013

  Dear Fellow Laborers,

 

  I hope this letter finds each of you well and abounding in the grace and work of the Lord Jesus. Thank you so very much for holding us up before the Father and interceding on our behalf. We depend upon you.   

  The past three months have been very busy. Our Lord blessed us with meetings in Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Florida, Kentucky, and Mississippi. Since our last letter to you, we have been joined by three more churches in our effort to reach the Mongols with the Gospel! We praise the Lord for this increase. Also, the Lord enabled me to finish my certification in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. We trust the Lord to use this certification to open doors that will give us more opportunity to spread the Gospel.

   We do have some rather serious matters for you to add to the prayer list. Speaking recently with a missionary in Mongolia I was made aware of some recent political changes that make our plans to go to Mongolia under a student visa null and void. We are asking you to help us in seeking the Lord’s direction in this matter of a visa. Also, please be praying for our upcoming meetings in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. These meetings will take us through the month of May. Please pray that God would give us more co-laborers through these meetings.

Thank you so much for your faithfulness. May the Lord bless you. Farewell.

Your fellow laborers,

                                Zachary, Amanda, and Adalyn

July and August 2012 Update

   May you all be abounding in the grace and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you so much for your faithful prayers and support as we seek to reach the people and place of God’s calling. We are very glad and thankful to have you as our fellow laborers for the souls of the Mongols.

  Our summer was a very busy one. We were blessed with visiting and ministering in some very outstanding churches of our Lord and Savior. The churches we were allowed to spend time with spanned from Billings, MT in the west  to Montgomery, AL in the east. At every church we were refreshed by the interest and concern for the Mongols and our ministry by both pastors and people. Thank you everyone for your encouragement and interest.

  We have a rather full schedule coming up. We are planning to be in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia from now till the beginning of December. We praise God for opening up these churches and allowing us to present our people and burden to them. We have more good news; we are currently at 37% of our monthly support!

  Thank you again for praying. You have no greater resource for the aid of missionaries, the Redemption of the Nations, and the Glory of Christ than prayer. We look forward to our next meeting, and to hearing good things about you. Farewell.

Your fellow laborers,

                         Zachary, Amanda, and Adalyn

The Clan Grows

The Lord has blessed us with the healthy and safe arrival of our first born child, Adalyn Elise. She was born at Sunrise on Sunday Morning. We are thankful to the Savior for the health of both Amanda and Adalyn.

Echo from the Past

Recently I have been reading about the life of a Scotsman who was a missionary to the people of Mongolia in the latter half of the 19th century. James Gilmour left a great contribution to missions and missionaries, specially those bound for Mongolia, in his personal letters, diaries, and reports. I find in him common sentiments regarding the call to Mongolia. I share with you an excerpt of his work that has wrought great impact in my heart; if read these words will prove, I have little doubt, to be an encouragement and help to you.

"I have been thinking lately over some of the inducements we have to live for Christ, and to confess Him and preach Him before men, not conferring with flesh and blood. Why should we be trammelled by the opinions and customs of men? Why should we care what men say of us? Salvation and damnation are realities, Christ is a reality, Eternity is a reality, and we shall soon be there in reality. and time shall soon be finished; and from our stand in eternity we shall look back on what we did in time, and what shall we think of it? Shall we be able to understand why we were afraid to speak to this man or this woman about salvation? Shall we be able to understand how we were ashamed to do what we knew to be a Christian duty before one whom we knew to be a mocker at religion? Our cowardice shall seem small to us then. Let us now measure our actions by the standards of that scene, let us now look upon things of time in the light of eternity, and we shall see them better as they are, and live more as we shall wish then we had done. It is not too late. We can secure yet what remains of our life...It may be we cannot be great, let us be good...Let us live lives as in the presence of Christ, anxious for His approval, and glad to take the condemnation of the world, and of Christ's professed servants even, if we get the commendation of ... our faithful Master. The "Well done!" is to the faithful servant, to the faithful, not the great. Let us watch and pray that we may be faithful. It is a little hard to be this, and to care little for man."

Moving Forward

As I write this our hearts are overflowing with joy unspeakable. Since last Wednesday we have been surrounded by the Word of God and the people of God along the deputation trail. We are just coming from a missions conference in Alabama, where the pastor's daughter has been praying for a missionary to go to Mongolia. She prayed faithfully from 2008 through 2009, and it was during the fall of 2009 God confirmed in my heart that I was to be a missionary to Mongolia. Praise the Lord for allowing us the privilege of serving Him in a foreign land, and to be a direct answer of prayer for a dear little girl in Alabama!

This conference was a help and blessing In every respect. Great preaching on missions and surrendering to God's will, meaningful and encouraging fellowship with God's saints, and some incredible down-home cooking.

We have since come to be in a missions conference in South Carolina. Tonight was our first night in the conference, and already God has provided in ways we would never have imagined. I was on the phone with the pastor and he was giving me the address of our hosts this week. I told him that I would need their phone number so that I could call them when I was close to arrival, because I did not have a GPS. Well, we made contact with our hostess and made it safely to where we are staying, and in the process of showing us the accommodations, she produces for us a brand new Garmin GPS. Needless to say, we were, and still are, overwhelmed at the giving and kindness of God's people.

I personally am thankful for the deputation process. Realizing that we are just brand new and understanding that the excitement is still very high, I look forward to the next few months with anticipation. We are going to see God work in ways that strengthens both our reliance on Him and our resolve to serve Him.

Confirmation and encouragement have been ours thus far, and holding on to the Omnipotent hand of our Heavenly Father we move forward, confident in His perfect will.

In Country

Praise the Lord for a safe arrival and a good first week here in Ulaanbaatar. Since our arrival we have spent time in the church plants of two baptist missionaries, toured the capital city and learned where the markets and shops are located, visited a Buddhist temple which was turned into a "museum", and visited a Kazakh couple in a neighboring town.
We are learning that it can take many hours to accomplish just a few tasks, or even run just one errand. One day we set out to purchase plane tickets, convert our money to local currencey, and buy a cell phone. Although we spent a good part of the morning on these endeavors, the only one that was accomplished was purchasing the cell phone.
Mongolia is not what one expects when thinking of an Asian country. It really is more like Russia than China. The people, food, culture, and language possess more of a Central Asian feel than that of the Far East.
We are thankful for all we have learned while visiting the country thus far, and looking forward to future ministry here.

Mongolia?

   In the fall of 2006 I enrolled at Ambassador Baptist College in Lattimore, NC. My intention at that time was to graduate with a one year Certificate in Bible degree and then go on to earn an undergraduate in biology and followed by four more years of medical studies eventually becoming a Doctor of Osteopathy. As hardened as was my resolve to keep my course and become a doctor, the Lord broke my heart for the mission field in the Spring Semester of that year of Bible school.
   At the same time God called me into the ministry I was presented with the concept of unreached people groups, especially those inhabiting the island nation of Madagascar. Having now this call and burden to reach the uttermost parts of the earth with the Gospel, I enrolled for the upcoming year - this time with a Bachelor of Biblical Studies in Missions. Throughout my time at Ambassador Baptist College I planed to go to Madagascar as a missionary, unless God led me otherwise.
   During the fall semester of my senior year I was confronted with the unreached people groups of Central Asia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia in particular. I started studying maps and ethnographic reports of these two nations, and in my research I was drawn to the city of Oglii, in the far western section of Mongolia. To this city I felt God was leading me to go, in order that the Gospel would be available and presented to the many ethnic groups of that place, who are without a clear Gospel message.  Having confirmation in answers to specific prayers, and gathering from the calm inward assurance that the Spirit of God gave, I immediately changed course and began working toward Mongolia.
   That was almost a year and a half ago. At the present the Lord has brought me a wonderful wife, Amanda, and allowed us to join BIMI as our missions agency. Looking with great anticipation to our survey trip, which begins on the 24th of August and lasts until the 16th of September, our excitement grows daily as our goals come into sharper focus.
   The Lord recently gave us incredible confirmation concerning the place of His leading. Speaking with a missionary about our plans to serve in Olgii, I was told that there was a lady doing a work there among the Kazakh women who had died of cancer some time ago. Since then there have been many prayers offered to God that someone would return to Oglii, bearing the Gospel and the love of Christ to those for whom Christ died.
   Mongolia? It seems too incredible to believe. Indeed, that is the beauty of it, for there is no possible way that this call and confirmation are the works of men's hands. We are delightfully following the leading of our gracious and glorious Heavenly Father, wondering what great adventure lies ahead in serving Him.