The Holmes Family: March/April '08

May 12, 2008

Yesterday, Truth Baptist Church celebrated its 2nd Anniversary. We broke

our previous record of 217 with an attendance of 280 in the morning preaching service! Almost 90 came back in the evening to hear our guest speaker again. Earlier in the month we held a special Sunday School program with refreshments, and in a couple of weeks we will use a few promotions and start a series on marriage to try and further boost our Sunday night Bible Study crowds as part of our month-long commemoration.

The church set a different record before our anniversary by averaging over 165 in the morning services for March and April. Sabrina recently started having children’s choir practice on Sunday evenings, which has encouraged more families to come for the Bible study, raising our regular crowd to above 60. At our mid-week prayer meeting we continue to have about 75 in attendance (including our kids’ Bible study program).

After three years in Nigeria, we’ve found the easiest, least expensive, and most effective way to get visitors at our young church…Baby

Dedication! Just before Christmas, Truth Baptist Church held one such service for six babies including our son, Brian, and gladly welcomed about 20 guests. We had over 40 first-timers in March when I prayed over three of our church’s new children. Last month 17 new folks came out because of one family’s ceremony for their daughter; the father even provided refreshments for our whole church. Sabrina and I bring a gift to each of the families involved, so it has given us a unique opportunity to do something special for these new parents and to preach the gospel to many of their friends and relatives.

We have been busily preparing for both our first-ever Pastors’ School (Soul-Winning and Leadership Conference in July) and also next year’s opening of our Bible college. We are making ready 20 dormitory

rooms [1 pictured last year with 2 visitors from Florida, Ted Williams & Ben Senior], expanding our auditorium, drilling a well for water, installing restroom facilities, and adding many lights and fans. I’ve sent invitation letters to 63 independent Baptist national pastors, many others have heard by word of mouth, and we have received calls literally from all over the country with preachers expressing interest in our special meeting. We are truly excited about what this conference may do for the cause of the Great Commission.

Below is a letter from one of those visitors pictured, Ben Senior, deacon at First Baptist Church of South Brevard in Melbourne, Florida

Thanks again to you and your family for your hospitality while we were surveying the Aba and Abuja areas. I had an enjoyable time, and I was blessed to see the incredible work that you are doing with the building of the church and the Bible Institute.

It was such an eye-opening experience to travel out into the “bush” and see the work that Pastor Ron Gensaw and you are doing with villagers for the purpose to which God has clearly called you. There is more to compassion than to simply experience a feeling of compassion. In seeing your work being done, one can truly appreciate the words in the New Testament describing how Jesus "saw the multitude and was moved with compassion." The action of the word "moved" used in the New Testament to describe the compassion of Christ cannot be ignored in that we, like Christ, must be active in our compassion for others.

I look forward to when we report to our Church about our trip throughout Nigeria . I am excited to see how our Church might do more for the Nigeria Project.

Benjamin Senior

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

March/April '08

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