PRAY AND PRAISE in this issue…

• HAROLD BRATCHER –  PRAISE GOD for his [and his wife, Marie’s] 55 years of faithful missionary service to our Lord in Brazil. PRAY that God will continue to prosper the churches they have planted and cultivated in Brazil. PLEASE NOTE: his new permanent Stateside address: 1950 Falling Leaves Lane, Lexington, KY 40509.
• MIKE AND BEV CREIGLOW – PRAISE GOD for the reports of ‘seeing the Grace of God’ in their river churches and preaching points and in Cruzeiro do Sul. PRAY AND GIVE to help them with their home church building project needs.
• JOHN AND ALTA HATCHER – PRAISE GOD for His church plants which are growing and increasing. PRAY for their co-workers’ needs. PRAY for them as their closest child is moving 3000 miles away.
• PAUL AND WANDA HATCHER – PRAY fervently for their family’s needs: Wanda’s mother is coming to live with them – and they have just suffered the bereavement of Mrs. McGary’s son and Wanda’s brother, Ross McGary.
• JOHN AND JUDY HATCHER – PRAISE GOD for the friends they continue to make and cultivate – and PRAY that God will save many more through their ministry of the Grace of Neighboring.
• A.J. AND BARBARA HENSLEY – PRAISE GOD for the many outreach works and ministries they are conducting. PRAY for the supply of all their needs, and for the many physical afflictions of their people – especially for Gloria.
• NATHAN AND CARRIE RADFORD – PRAISE GOD for providing their needs for a vehicle and housing. PRAY that God will protect, encourage, and strengthen them as they travel and report on their ministry.
• SHERIDAN AND ANITA STANTON – PRAISE GOD for their ministry and work which continues on – and for the missionaries who have gone before them also. PRAY that God will supply the needs they have for finishing works they have begun.
• ROGER AND JULIE TATE – PRAISE GOD for the provisions He has made for them since being Stateside. PRAY that God will hear and answer the prayer he concludes his letter with.
• BOBBY AND CHARLENE WACASER – PRAISE GOD for giving them fruit and responses from their various outreach ministries. PRAY for them and for their children as Jesse and now Brennen pursue their educations here in the States.

2013-14 THANKSGIVING OFFERING UPDATE: $17,036.91

We have begun giving to our 2013-14 THANKSGIVING OFFERING with last month’s offerings. Those offerings listed in this month’s Mission Sheets are just the ‘firstfruits’ and initial offerings we have received to date. We are asking God to multiply this amount several times before it is completed. NOTE: the Thanksgiving Offering is always open any time for your contributions. Just designate your offering: ‘Thanksgiving Offering’ and it will be applied and included. We must receive a very generous Thanksgiving Offering to give our missionaries the services and benefits we have committed to give them “as the Lord provides”. The Lord provides through our sharing of the Grace He has given us.

Click here to make a one-time donation.
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PLEASE PRAY FOR GLENN ARCHER
We encourage you to pray with us on behalf of a very dear friend, Pastor Glenn Archer. He is suffering from Pulmonary Fibrosis and his health and strength is growing progressively weaker. His disease is irreversible and incurable. Glenn served as a Director of Baptist Faith Missions for 34 years (1978-2012) and as our Treasurer for 11 years (1991-2002). He has also planted and pastored churches in Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. His physical condition has so weakened that he is on oxygen-assist 24/7 on maximum output most of the time. He struggles for every breath. Every movement and activity exhausts him. But, he continues to be an encourager to all of his brothers and sisters in Christ. Please ask our Lord to give him daily strength according to his needs – and Grace to strengthen his heart of faith in Christ. You may correspond with him at: 502 Nuckols OBCC Road, Calhoun KY 42327 / glennarcher0[at]gmail.com. He may not have strength to respond, but he will appreciate hearing from you. Please ask the Lord also to strengthen and encourage Judy, his loving wife and faithful caregiver.

GIVING GOD THANKS FOR A GENEROUS BEQUEST

Baptist Faith Missions was blessed recently with a very generous gift in the form of a bequest. Ernest and Helen Palmer were members of a long-time supporting church in Lexington KY and have known, loved, and befriended the missionaries associated with BFM for over 50 years. During their lifetimes, they invested some of their funds in Certificates of Deposit (CD) and designated Baptist Faith Missions as the beneficiary of those CDs. Those same funds were available to them while they lived if needed to provide for their own needs. Mr. Palmer went to be with the Lord a few years ago, and then Mrs. Palmer was called Home to Heaven this year.

When their estate was executed, those CDs were presented to BFM. After we fulfilled some specific requests which accompanied the bequest (for our missionaries), we are using the remainder of this gift to provide other needs to benefit our missionaries. [1] We have reimbursed our missionaries for the $10,872.74 we had to assess on their monthly deposits over 2013. During three months of 2013, when our monthly General Fund offerings were not sufficient to meet their monthly support disbursements from the General Fund, we had to reduce their monthly deposits proportionately among them to cover those deficits. We kept careful records of how much was reduced from each missionary’s deposits for each of those months – and those reductions were reimbursed to them out of this gift. [2] We have covered that same deficit in this month of December for their monthly deposits. Our General Fund offerings for this month lacked $12,359.92 to meet the threshold for what we must receive in order to give our missionaries the full amounts of the monthly support commitments we make to them. So, rather than additionally deduct and reduce their monthly deposits again this month – we supplied that deficit from this same gift.

Not only do our missionaries deeply appreciate this gift, but GOD LOVES THESE CHEERFUL GIVERS ALSO! [2 Corinthians 9.7]. And, SO DO MULTITUDES OF ‘ETERNAL FRIENDS’ WHO WILL BE IN HEAVEN THROUGH THE GOSPEL MINISTRIES CONDUCTED THROUGH THE USE OF THESE OFFERINGS! Please read Luke 16.9. When you give to missions and the ministry of the Gospel, God uses your offerings to bring the lost to faith in Jesus Christ. And, when you go Home to Heaven, those who were saved through your giving will welcome you into our Everlasting Home!

THIS IS SOMETHING YOU CAN DO, TOO! WILL YOU?

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! “TEXAS GIVING FRIENDS”!

We want to give a tribute to some of the very best and most gracious “Giving Friends” BFM has ever had. We won’t use their real names because they have never wanted to be known or recognized by their names. But, years ago, I asked them if we could call them “Texas Giving Friends”, and they said we could. So, for years, they have been listed in our Mission Sheets Contribution Record as “Texas Giving Friends”. They began giving personal offerings to BFM over 50 years ago and have continued that ministry of generosity over all these years.

Generous offerings. Sacrificial offerings. And not just to BFM, but they have also given equally generously to a number of other Gospel missions ministries, especially in Mexico. And the fruits of the churches and ministries to which they have contributed are still growing, still producing, and still bearing fruit for eternal life and the Glory of Christ.

Over the course of 2013, it became necessary for both of these dear ‘Giving Friends’ to receive long-term elder-care in private nursing and assisted-living facilities. [Our Brother ‘Texas Giving Friend’ was called Home to Heaven in October]. At that time, much to their own regret, it became necessary to suspend their giving to BFM. But, their son wrote me at that time with these words and prayer: “This was a very difficult decision for the family to make, so we will be praying and expecting that God will raise up someone new; not just to fill the void they leave, but will multiply their giving in an unusual and abundant way in Jesus’ Name.” 

God has kept very careful records and has tracked everywhere their offerings have gone, and the souls that have been saved, and the works that have been done through their investments in the Kingdom of God. “Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.” [Philippians 4.17] God knows – and only God knows – the numbers of those who have heard the Gospel through the ministries financed by their offerings…and have come to faith in Christ…and are in Heaven – or will be in Heaven – because they gave. In Luke 16.9, our Lord made this promise and gave us this assurance: “And I say unto you, ‘Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness [our giving]; that when ye fail [die from here, and go Home to Heaven], they may receive you into everlasting habitations.’ ”

IS GOD CALLING YOU TO COME AND TAKE THEIR PLACE AND STAND IN THIS GAP BY GIVING TO THE BFM GENERAL FUND? WILL YOU ANSWER ‘YES!’?