January 12, 2012
Dear Folks!
As the New Year began we received continuous updates on
actions of the Lord's Church from many nations. The news
is always uplifting. The news is always challenging us
to lift up our eyes and look BEYOND the petty concerns
of the immediate and "see" the worldwide obligation. The
Church is never to become isolationist and focused only
upon "self" ("Well we have to take care of ourselves.").
Such an inward focus will doom the Church. Brother
Winkler had a number of succinct comments regarding the
attitude of congregations that withdraw their vision
from the mission fields.
"A church must send or
end".
"When a church ceases to do mission work it
becomes a mission field"
"A church that is not a missionary church will soon
become a missing church"!
Each day I awaken to reading briefs and getting up to
speed on various actions throughout the world. Some of
these actions are astonishing while others are
frightful. BUT the greatest excitement comes when I am
updated on the Lord's Church at work in locations where
we have shipped containers and pallets of commodities
that are distributed either through the Lord's Church or
in the name of the Lord and His Church. The reports are
many and there is just not enough time for me to go
through and pull them all together. In the
attached report I have pulled some of the updates
together from Somalia, Ecuador, Nigeria, Mexico, Haiti,
Ukraine, and Zambia. To be sure there are many, many
more. I have reams of reports from India that I am
trying to put together for you.
As you read the
attached report I want you to remember the universal
scope of the Lord's Church and the great opportunities
that lie within our grasp. Will we seize the
opportunities to obey the Lords great commission to take
the gospel into "all" the world? What are we doing to
make sure the doctrine of Christ is made available to be
understood and obeyed so that His Church be established
in distant places?
Read and rejoice in the great good that is happening
because our brethren are seizing the opportunities to
serve the Lord! Please pass this along to others in your
congregation and other individuals that you know whose
hearts are willing to lift their vision above the local
and view the possibilities of the distant! Let us do
what we can to encourage and support our brethren in
foreign lands who are holding fast to the Truth and
following the New Testament pattern!
To those who join us in the fellowship that makes the
reports of the attachment possible - THANK YOU!
John |
