JANUARY NEWSLETTERS

NATHAN AND CARRIE RADFORD  | January 2011

December 1, 2010

Dear praying friends,
Another month has come and passed, and we thank the Lord for the opportunities He gives us to serve Him, and also for His faithfulness and provisions. What a blessing it is to be able to serve the Lord, and may we ever be mindful of and available for the opportunities that we have to serve. This update will share ministries as well as family news.
It is hard to believe that we are now at the end of 2010 and in the Christmas season. We trust that each of you had a great Thanksgiving holiday with your friends and families. May we never forget the reason for the season, the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. One of my favorite verses concerning Christmastime is Matthew 1:21, which states “And she shall bring forth a son,  and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” We wish each of you a great Christmas with your friends and families.
In family news, we thank the Lord for the good development of Carrie’s pregnancy. She is due in February, and we ask you to please continue to pray for her and the development of our child. Please pray that all continues to go well without any complications, and that the baby would be born healthy. We are trusting the Lord for all of this, and thank you so much for your prayers. Also, please continue to pray for us as a whole family, and also for McKenna, who is growing and developing so quickly. We are so proud of her. I have attached a recent family photo of us to this prayer letter.
I have been busy lately, making a missions dvd of our ministry, contacting churches, doing correspondence, and attending a missions conference in Michigan. We thank the Lord for the conference, our mission board of directors, and also for the hospitality and love that we felt when we attended. A big thank you to Pastor Adkins and New Hope Baptist Church, as well as all who worked hard to prepare meals, work with the children, and serve in other ways. We greatly appreciated it.
Lord willing, we will be receiving our current missions dvd soon, so if you would like one, please let us know and we will send you one free of charge. Also, if your church would be interested in having us come, we can be contacted at the following phone number: 814-688-4703 or by email at: naterad@yahoo.com We would love to speak with you and we appreciate your interest in missions across the world.
Please also keep the ministries in Kenya in your prayers in our absence, the Rafiki ministry, annex prison, and hospital ministry. We would appreciate your prayers for each work and ministry, and we miss the people there. Please continue to pray for these works as they continue while we are home on furlough. In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, the Bible says “Pray without ceasing.” What a challenge this is, as so many times in our busy schedules we find it hard to find a time to pray and talk with the Lord. Charles Spurgeon said “Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom.  If you may have everything by asking in His Name, and nothing without asking, I beg you to see how absolutely vital prayer is.” What a great statement and challenge for us to pray.

We wish each of you a great holiday season and we appreciate each of you for your interest in missions. Each one of you who prays for us, comes to visit the ministries, or sacrificially supports the ministries, are a great blessing to us.  Thank you for being mindful of missions across the world in Kenya, and may God bless each of you, as we could not do the work without you.                                                                                                                                 In Kenya,

Nathan and Carrie Radford  |  315 College Street  |  Youngsville, PA 16371                          For ministry donations:                                                                                                               Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM | P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280

HAROLD AND MARIE BRATCHER  |  January 2011

Rua Francisco Jose Furtado 2, São Francisco, Manaus, Amazonas, 69079-200
Brazil, South America.  011-55-92-36112331; harold_bratcher@yahoo.com
January 10, 2011
Dear Brothers of the Blessed and Sisters of the Savior:

Once again we greet you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ from the land of eternal summer.  By God’s grace we are able to once again greet you.  The city of Manaus and the whole state of the Amazonas are hot but wet!  We are now in the rainy season and almost every day it pours!  This MS month began December 5th and ends today, January 10th.  During this period, I preached 6 sermons and heard 4.  Sunday morning, the 26th of December, we were at the Comunhão Baptist Church, Dr. Asa Mark Bratcher, pastor, to celebrate our 56th Wedding anniversary, along with 20 other couples.
Since Sunday night the 26th of December, Marie has been suffering, weak with the flu, and then pneumonia. I of course, have been sad and lonely but amazed by God’s faithfulness with friends, or more friends than we realized we had.  That night, Bro. Raimundo Braz, that drives us to church in his taxicab, after the evening service when I preached, took us to 28th of August hospital.  There, Marie was admitted to the emergency room.  She received emergency care, but was released at 4:30am, Monday. Asa Mark took her home, bought her medication, and an inhalation machine.  She has not been alone since.  On Thursday, we took her, (Asa Mark, Francisco Chagas, and I) to the Prontocord Hospital, where she was given a check up by one doctor, and I by another.  Both doctors prescribed many exams, which we did there, at a cost of over $1,000.  Marie temporarily improved but then started to get worse.  So we took her to the 28th of August Hospital where she was admitted as a patient and is still there.  Asa Mark took me this afternoon to visit her, and she seemed a bit improved, but still a long way from total recovery. At this time, there is no word on when she will be released.  I hope by Thursday, but still believe in Romans 8:28.
Once again, we ask you to pray for Harold and Marie Bratcher.  We thank each of you who sent us Christmas cards and are praying for us. Marie’s sickness has caused us to get behind in our letter writing, but Asa Mark is constantly sending you updates by e-mail.
“Now concerning the collection”, we encourage you, readers of the MS to not forget the regular funds, the car fund, and last but not least, the Harold Bratcher funds.  We thank all of you who have contributed to the regular fund and to our designated funds.  Continue to do so.  I’m so thankful that due to the generosity of the pastors and churches here in Manaus, we are not suffering financially, for which we Praise the Lord!

Yours in the Service of the Savior, Harold Bratcher.

SHERIDAN AND ANITA STANTON  | January 2011

Mailing Address: Sheridan and Anita Stanton | Apartado Postal 140 | Huanuco, Perú | S A

Vonage phone: 859-514-0929

sestantonperu@hotmail.com – Sheridan

arstantonperu@hotmail.com – Anita

January 10, 2011

Dear friends and family,

Update on our health – ANITA continues to be more stable on her feet with each passing day since her last operation.  The swelling continues to be less and less each week.  This means she is also getting faster on her feet, but for the time being, I can still out run her!  ME – I’ve had NO more mini-strokes and the medications I take have my arrhythmia under control.  The doctors are still experimenting with the right dosage for my blood pressure; it was too low last week.  We thank all of you for your prayers on our behalf.  God has always been and continues to be so very gracious to HIS servants here in Peru.

Joshua – Our son, Joshua, is a pilot holding the rank of Captain in the USAF.  Today, Monday, 10th of January he heads to Afghanistan for a four month tour of duty.  Like most military personnel, he has served “all over”, Columbia, Iraq and several bases in the States.  Josh is a wonderful husband, and father of two precious little girls; he is a man of high intelligence and integrity that loves and serves his country with honor.  Anita and I are naturally very proud of him and we ask you all to please remember him and his family, in your prayers.  The constant uncertainty of military life is uniquely stressful on all military families; they need our prayers.

Calvary Mission – Among the many ministry projects that Anita and I are involved in, church planting is always a priority.  A very special blessing and joy come from helping a new work grow in maturity and grow toward independence as an organized church.  Calvary Baptist Mission is our latest endeavor in this area of ministry.  We never get tired of teaching the basic truths of God’s Word and the application of those truths to everyday living.  A young couple trusted in Christ as their Savior last night and I begin discipleship classes with them this week.  Several are awaiting their baptism and another young couple will be married this week.  God is adding many hard-working young families to this work; there is a bright future.

We are still waiting to buy a piece of property for this mission; we have the funds, just waiting for the owner to get her papers in order.  After the land purchase, we plan to build and hopefully within a few more years be able to organize this mission-church into an independent church, and then we hope to begin another one. This is our life, what we know God has called us to do, what we genuinely love doing, and what we plan to continue doing until God shows us otherwise.  We love and thank all of you for your prayers and support that allows us to follow our calling from God.

Other ministries – With the funds we receive each month, Anita and I help fourteen other National Baptist Peruvian Missionaries on a monthly basis.  This monthly help is for their personal expenses and we help out on a prioritized, case by case basis with their ministry expenses.  We would like to be able to help on a monthly basis three more Peruvian missionaries with the works the Lord has called them into.  God is working in Peru in a truly awesome way, and we thank HIM for the privilege of being a small part of HIS work.

Many of you have asked about our next furlough; looks like it will be next year, 2012.  We hope to be there in the Spring through the fall.  I could write more, but this letter is getting too long.  Thank you again for your prayers and your support.  Until next month.

In HIM by HIS grace,

Sheridan and Anita Stanton

BOBBY AND CHARLENE WACASER  | January 2011

Manoel Valdomiro de Macedo, 2281
81170-150 Curitiba, PR  Brasil
Ph: (813) 436-9980
E-mail: robertmw@brturbo.com.br
Dear Friends,

We have launched the New Baptist Church of Curitiba. The initial team is made up of three couples, one single young man and our thirteen year old son, Brennen. Around the end of last month, Charlene and our ladies prepared small gift wrapped packages of homemade cookies and walked from door to door in the neighborhood distributing them and announcing the beginning of the new church.
The men, including Brennen and I, went to a local sports complex and engaged the local “fellers” in some friendly games of soccer and croquet. The game of croquet is virtually unknown here so it served as an attention getter and drew a small crowd in a hurry. We stopped playing long enough to make the acquaintance of the spectators and took the opportunity to announce the upcoming launch of the new church. We will be holding our first public meeting on the property where we will begin construction soon. In the meantime we will be meeting beneath a couple of portable beach gazebos sitting on plastic stools. We don´t want too much comfort at this stage because we want our own team and the new converts to think in terms of larger facilities for more people to come hear the gospel and become followers of Christ and part of his church.
I spent last week, together with our brother Carlos Chaves from Manaus, running around the city looking for the best prices on building materials. We have compared various types of construction methods and have found that a metal building will be our best option. With the experience that Carlos brings to the table, we were able to locate most of our material in scrap yards well under the price of new metal, yet still in excellent shape for construction. We have enough funds on hand to erect our structure and enclose it, so we´ll begin with that. We will have to be patient, work, save and teach our new converts to give in order to do the finish work as we come to it. If you also would like to have a part in helping us complete this project we would be very grateful. We are so excited to be beginning this new church and are expecting the Lord to do great things through it.
In Christ´s love,

Bobby, Charlene and Brennen Wacaser

AJ AND BARBARA HENSLEY  | January 2011

Dear friends and family,

Happy New Year to all! Hope this letter finds everyone well and looking forward to an AWESOME new year. From what I hear a lot of you are suffering from freezing weather with snow. This may be a good time to leave your cold place and come on down to the heat of the tropics.A mission trip at this time of the year would get you out of that cold weather and put you into a warm climate where you can suffer for the Lord. Here we are suffering from the heat. But God is giving us some respite as almost every afternoon we get lots of rain. Today we will have to take everything out of the Church because yesterday it came a “chicken drowner” (probably about 5 inches of rain in about 5 hours) and it entered the Church. So we will have to do some extensive cleaning. As we sat on the front porch yesterday our street looked like a river. As we look at the changes in the weather–maybe God is telling us something.
The new work is going very well. We have had several services with over 100 people. The Lord is really blessing. We had a special Christmas program with and for the children and it was a success. Many visitors came and now we have the opportunity to visit them and take the gospel to their homes. Also our New Year service was attended by over 40 families that are members and several visitors. We praised the Lord and sang the new year in and then eat to our hearts content.
We are looking at many projects here on the Church property and also on the Vocational property. We are just waiting for the visitors to come and help us. What are your plans for vacation this upcoming year? Could you come on down and help us?
As usual our vehicles are undergoing weekly trips to the mechanic. Our roads are one big hole after the other and this does bad things to the vehicles. Our bigger expense right now is the insurance for these vehicles. We will have 4 to 6 months of payments to pay for the insurance. It is not like there in the States, you cannot make payments over the year. Here you have to either pay in one payment or they give you 4 or 6 months to pay. We have thought about letting it drop but here because we transport church people we have to have insurance. So between the holes in the roads and the insurance it is almost cost prohibitive to have a vehicle. I now understand why most Brasilians ride a bike or walk.
Barbara and I would like to thank each and every one of you who have brought or sent clothes to us here in Brasil. We do several things with the clothes, here is the process, we call each of the members to the house and open the boxes and say “clothe your family”. Then when everyone has been clothed we are having a sale of the clothes for the neighborhood. In November we sold enough clothes to buy a new stove for the kitchen at the church. And this month we had another sale and we have enough money to pay half of the price for a new refrigerator. It is such a blessing to first see the church members leaving the house with sacks of clothes knowing that they would not have been able to have bought these clothes but they are receiving them for free. It is such a joy to see someone else using clothing that did not fit you anymore knowing that they are being put to good use. Come down and see if you can recognize something that you have left here in Brasil or have sent by someone else. Again thanks for your generosity.
I have been preparing for a series of classes with the men at Church. In these classes I am going to be teaching service, getting the men ready to serve. Our men have begun to meet monthly and the group is growing wonderfully. Yesterday´s group had 14 men present. In the classes that I will be teaching I am including a wide range of subjects and the men are becoming excited about the class. Included will be evangelism, discipleship and deacon training. Please pray for us as we prepare for and start these classes.
Construction right now is at a standstill because we are out of money to do construction. But we are using the time in another area. We are having more time to make visits and other training of the church members.
The house Church is going very well. We average 20-25 on Tuesday nights. We also have a children’s club there on the last Saturday of the month. This is good as you reach the parents through the children. From this neighborhood I have been working with 3 boys At the Vocational School. They are showing much progress. The other young man that is doing his training at the key shop is coming along real well. The owner who is training him says that he is a good student.
It seems like every month we have not accomplished nothing but when we begin to write it down we see that God is accomplishing many things through us. Continue to pray for us here in Brasil as we pray for you there in the States.
And Barbara ands I would like to say again how grateful we are that people like you send people like us to tell the world about Jesus. Come down and see what your help is doing here in Brasil. The beans are on the stove and the table is set.
In His service,
Aj and Barbara

MIKE AND BEV CREIGLOW  |  January 2011

Michael D. Creiglow  |  Caixa Postal 24  69980  |  Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre  Brazil
January 10, 2011
Dear Brethren,
Have you ever heard a preacher or politician say, “I will be brief.”? I’ll try, but don’t know how successful I will be.
Early December I visited the church at Assis Brasil. They just celebrated their 48th birthday. There was an overflow crowd. The pastor there is Eliésio, who you have heard me mention before. He is the one pastor in the region who is really committed to missions. Our churches have a very good and close relationship. Dad organized this church, by a nearby lake, under light of a kerosene lamp with just a handful of folks. That was 1962 and was there then, too.
Also in December I visited 2 of our chapels here in town. One was to Várzea, where Marinho, the paraplegic, is pastor. The other visit was to Cruzeirinho. That night when I stepped out of the car, I was met by a man who had been excluded years ago. He had punched his pregnant wife in the stomach, then beat her black and blue. After that he went to his in-laws and beat up on all of them, too. The police had to come and throw him in jail. Well I called for his exclusion and he still holds it against me. I don’t know why he was there, but he went into this tirade against me, which ended with, “You shameless old man, who is what is holding back the kingdom and the gospel.”   Then I had to get up and preach. A young mother was saved that night. So much for holding up the kingdom! The chapel there is doing fine though. They were celebrating 10 years that we started the work. By the way, that same weekend there were 8 more saved at First Baptist after my evening message. I’m just going to have to stop all this “hindering of the kingdom.”! Do pray though, because this guy has threatened to kill me more than once over the years.
We have been having overflow crowds in many services. Our afternoon services have been growing. You should have heard the singing in yesterday’s afternoon service. We had one more saved and another request for baptism, too. Over the past few weeks we have had almos 20 professions of faith. We had almost 70 first time visitors in one regular evening service.
Our Christmas program was presented 4 times and we had to put up a screen and projector out in the street for the overflow crowd to be able to attend. Our New Year’s Eve service was packed the same way. That night Pastor Dauro and I baptized 38 more new members. The church is really united and moving forward. Last year we went through some really hard trials. I was personally under attack much of 2010. It was not easy, but we kept moving toward our goals as a church, stayed focused on the Word and the Mission. We lost a tiny handful of very cranky (and talented!) members, but the Holy Spirit weeded them out. Now we are back to growing at a faster pace. Thank God with us, will you?
Believe it or not, it has now been 4 years since our last furlough. Bev and I are praying and planning to visit you later this year. Pastors and friends, please keep that in mind. There are many exciting things to share with you. Hope to see you soon.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.

In Christ, Mike Creiglow

JOHN AND JUDY HATCHER  |  January 2011

January 11, 2011
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
It doesn’t seem possible that we are getting used to writing 2011.  Some of you have been doing this for a lot longer than I.  We are so thankful for your faithfulness to support us.  Without your support we could not be here proclaiming the Good News.
During the holidays we were blessed by the visit of David and Dulce, Mateus and Natan, one of our four children and his family.  What a joy it is for us to have four children who are serving the Lord.  About the time you read this, the Lord willing, our 8th grandchild we be born.  We plan to be with Lydia and her husband, Adam, in Chicago during the month of February to help them with the birth of their 2nd child.
This past year has been one of many blessings in the work here in southern France.  God is at work all the time, but this year we have seen much evidence of what God is and has been doing.  It encourages us to keep on working at the job.  We now have a steady group of about 35 on Sundays.  A number of those who come are not saved, but show a good interest. Others, have publicly professed their faith and are growing.  People often stay for an hour or more after Sunday services and these are good informal times of witnessing and communicating the gospel.
We also began having special meetings for young people this past year.  These have been well attended.  The young folks seem anxious to bring their friends and those who come enjoy the meetings.
The children’s Bible study in the city of L’Union is going well .It has also opened doors  with adults in this town.  The weekly Bible study in this town is growing in participants.  We hope to one day see a church of the Lord Jesus Christ in this city.
The weekly Bible studies in the city of Mazere, about 45 miles from here, are also going well and is slowly enlarging in number.  One lady, in her early 70s, drives about one half of and hour to come.  It seems that perhaps she has truly trusted the Lord.  She was brought the first time by a sister who was visiting from a distant city.  We did not think that she would come back, and she didn’t for over a year.  But, God was at work, and now she doesn’t miss a week.
There are discouraging matters.  Though six years ago we were legally qualified to have long term residence status here,  we still are working toward this goal. This requires paper work and several visits to public offices yearly. But, this is nothing compared to persecution that others endure and have endured for the sake of the Gospel.  Many doors of opportunity are open and we rejoice in each of these.
Thanks again for your faithful support and prayers.  May God give us all much fruitfulness this year in His service.

In France for Christ,

John and Judy

ROGER AND JULIE TATE  |  January 2011

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I have been in the United States for just over a month now and have enjoyed time with family, friends and church family.  Many friends and loved ones have been around to lift me up and refresh my spirit.  Yes, things have changed since I’ve been gone but I think I’m coming to the conclusion that I am the one that has changed more than anything else.  I’m still feeling a bit like a fish out of water but, again, this has to be my own fault as those around me have done nothing but show me love and support.  But everything still seems strange in a way that is difficult to explain.

So, this month I begin in earnest to prepare for traveling and reporting to churches.  I have to prepare a DVD summarizing the work of the past three years and the future goals of the ministry.  I need to prepare and print prayer cards, put together my table display, and collect the equipment I will use in presenting the ministry (DVD player, projector, screen, etc).  On top of preparing messages and other teaching material, I will be spending a lot of time on the phone scheduling churches and arranging my itinerary for the next few months.  I also look forward to being at the BFM Spring Conference in Lexington in April, and at my own church’s mission conference in March.  God is good and I pray everything will begin to fall into place by the end of this month.

In a newsletter a couple of months ago (my last one written while still in Kenya) I listed some of the lessons I have learned over the past three years, promising to return to explain some of the items in more detail once I returned to the States.  Thus, the first I would like to discuss is:  I CAN’T buy property and build buildings for new churches.  This looks opposite to the way you’ve always thought a missionary should act, doesn’t it?  I agree, because it looks completely the opposite of what I thought before I ever went to Kenya.  But it’s true.  I CAN’T buy property and build buildings for any new churches.  Here are some of the major reasons why.  First, if I buy property and build a new building for a church, the local people will never learn to take the responsibility or the initiative of starting or maintaining their own ministries.  They will forever and for always look to me for these things.  You may object and say, “But Roger, these people are too poor to build their own building”.  I accept that objection and even agree with it.  However, if they really need a building in the first place (which, they don’t) and they have the proper initiative and have accepted the responsibility, they could erect a decent sized mud hut to meet in.  There is no reason for their meeting place to be 1,000 times more expensive than the houses they live in.  Second, if I buy property and build their buildings they will forever and for always think of the building and the ministry as foreign and western.  Therefore, they will think of it as a foreign and western initiative that should be supported with foreign and western funds; they will always think of it as belonging to the foreign missionary, and they will always think of the structure as part of a foreign religion.  Third, and this is probably the most important reason, if I buy property and build a building for a new church, it is something they cannot reproduce.  Why is this important?  Because it stunts evangelism, missions, the growth of the Kingdom of God, and the spread of His churches.  It stunts these things in many ways.  Most, if not all of the church’s resources would be tied up with their own building leaving nothing for outreach.  But more drastic than this is the fact that since it is something they could never reproduce on their own, they will never attempt to take the gospel to the next village and start a church elsewhere.  Their thinking will be, “we can’t build a church building there” or “we need the missionaries money to start a church building there” or “it would take us forever to build a building there”.  So what does this do?  It prevents from the very beginning the local people taking the gospel message to the next village and starting a church in that village on their own.  As with all people they will only do what they have been taught to do.  If I build them a building they will automatically think that is the only way they will be able to start a new church and so they will never attempt it.  If they can’t reproduce it, they will never do it.  And I should never start what they cannot reproduce.  Please don’t think I’m getting on my high horse here.  I’m just stating my observations over the past three years and how those observations (strained through the filter of Biblical instruction and guidance) will shape my future ministry.  So, how does that impact my future ministry?  It means that churches that are started will meet in homes of converts.  When those churches grow beyond the size of that house they will have to reproduce themselves by starting another New Testament church in the house of another convert.  And so on and so on until God reaches the entire country, if that is His will.  And may the Love of Christ cause the spreading of His churches throughout the whole country of Kenya!

Until next month, beloved.

May God’s peace and joy be with you.

For the glory of God in East Africa,

Roger & Julie Tate (and Emily, Amy, & Josiah)


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