The Holmes Family: Dec '03 / Jan '04

This holiday season for us was unique in many ways to any other. Our baby boy Joseph turned three weeks old on Christmas day, and, of course, he received more gifts than his mother and father combined! This was the first time that I didn’t have to go back to school or clock in at work after a holiday break, yet Sabrina and I stayed busy with our ministry. I only had to cancel one church meeting due to our hospital stay in the first week of December. Our schedule was God-sent during the first six weeks after Joseph was born; we didn’t have any meetings that were more than three hours from Gulfport or Baton Rouge. On Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, we attended the home church of Sabrina’s family at Central Baptist in Baton Rouge. Then on January 7th, I had the honor of preaching at our sending church. The folks at Faith Baptist had yet to see our presentation, and it was the first glimpse of Joseph for most of our church family.

As I write this letter, we are attending our fourth missions conference in a row. January 14th started our first big trip with our baby. Sabrina had fully recovered from her surgery by that time. We began in north Louisiana; then we trekked to churches in central Arkansas, east Texas, Oklahoma City, and the Nashville area of Tennessee. Joseph travels well; he seems to go to sleep in his car seat as soon as I put the van in drive! [He's 9 months old in this pic]

I wanted to share one more story that I didn’t include in the previous letter about our adventures during the two days before Joseph was born. We first checked into a hospital in Louisiana before eventually going to Gulfport. While in the waiting room at Baton Rouge Women’s Hospital, I was trying to engross myself in work and not think too much about the possible complications that could have awaited Sabrina and Joseph. A man my age sat beside me, and, of course, God wouldn’t let me sit there silently. I found out that Tyree was in the same situation I was; his wife was in the hospital almost three weeks before her due date. I invited him to church and eventually had the privilege of leading him to a saving knowledge of Christ! It seemed to make the next couple of days go easier once I got my mind off myself and my problems and took some time to show someone the way to Heaven.

Who We Are

Mark Joseph Holmes was called to the ministry at the age of fifteen, five years after he was saved. He went to Hyles-Anderson College to receive his training and graduated summa cum laude in 2000 with a degree in Pastoral Theology. During Mark’s senior year, God placed on his heart the desire to reach the people of Nigeria, so he spent an extra year in preparation by taking missions courses. Mark served on the same bus route each college year, as captain for three years.

Sabrina Michelle (Hopkins) was saved at the age of eight and surrendered her life to God five years later. While at Hyles-Anderson College studying music education, she served in the Bible Club and deaf ministry and also traveled one summer with a tour group. After graduation with a Music Education degree, during the year before their wedding, Sabrina taught fourth grade at her home church’s Christian school—Central Baptist in Baton Rouge.

As newlyweds, Mark and Sabrina served at their sending church where Mark oversaw the bus ministry and helped in the youth department, Sunday schools, and junior churches. He was privileged to start a children's church and young adult class during his two years of service, and he also regularly preached at a prison ministry and taught for a local Bible institute. Sabrina taught private piano for two Christian schools; she played often in the church services and also taught the beginner Sunday school class. Mark and Sabrina started full-time deputation at the end of May, 2003. Mark Joseph, Junior was born on December 4th of the same year.

In June of 2005, the Holmes family began their first term as Fundamental Baptist Missions International missionaries in Nigeria. Soon, Truth Baptist Church along with Temple Baptist Institute was started, the church now averaging 220 on Sundays with 42 graduates from the ministry training school. Property with buildings was purchased, and Providence Baptist College & Seminary opened its doors in August 2009 and has now produced 30 graduates. 35 churches have been started by those who have been trained or ordained by their ministry, including one of the most recent, Grace & Glory Baptist Church in Abuja, in which the Holmes family is also involved. Mark and Sabrina have returned to the U.S. for the birth of: Victoria Noel 12/14/05
Brian Michael 8/20/07
Noah Preston 2/3/12

LaDonna Elizabeth 7/3/14
For nearly a decade, Truth Baptist Church has been the home of a national pastors' conference, an annual youth camp, a full curriculum DVD correspondence college, and the City of Refuge recently became their newest ministry.

Where We Are

The Niger River is Nigeria’s most remarkable physical feature, as well as the source of its name. Formerly a British colony, Nigeria gained its independence in 1960 and became an independent nation of three culturally distinctive regions and at least 250 different language groups—more than any other African country. Home of the world’s largest black population, it is estimated that almost one out of every six Africans resides in Nigeria.

Upon independence, Nigeria inherited a currency that was more valuable than the U.S. dollar at the time. Yet the country has consumed itself with the sell of oil and other natural resources and all but abandoned its agricultural sector, leading to Nigeria’s diminished currency value and heightened reliance upon imports and aide from other countries. Military coups, ethnic tensions, a thirty month “civil war” that claimed over a million lives, and economic corruption have been the driving forces behind Nigeria’s instability of the last forty years. In 1998 a democracy was established, ending fifteen years of military rule.

Baptists have enjoyed a presence in the country for over 150 years with the Southern Baptists growing their own national convention and an estimated Baptist population numbering more than 3.5 million people; the former President of Nigeria was a claimed Baptist. However, Muslim influences are growing greater, indigenous beliefs are still popular, and many existing Baptist churches have abandoned biblical doctrines. There is a great need to reach the rest of the more than 170 million people of Africa’s most populous and possibly most influential nation.

The Holmes Family

Dec '03 / Jan '04

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