The Holmes Family: May/June '06

It’s here!!! The container for which we asked donations last May, over which we requested prayer while packing in December, and of which we expected an entrance around March 1st finally arrived at our home on the 11th of June. Miraculously, our shipment was cleared through customs in less than two weeks, and seemingly everything we packed has been accounted for. Needless to say, we have been very busily and thankfully unloading, moving, and situating all of our household goods and many needed items for the new church. Speaking of the church, we have averaged over eighty

people every Sunday morning, and our other services have not gone below forty in attendance. Sabrina has been teaching the children’s Sunday school class since the grand opening, and we already have a children’s church preacher from within the membership. Our Bible Institute started new classes in the middle of June, after our previous two courses saw over twenty-five registered students.

Psalms 133:1 & 3 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
…as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing…

I wanted to wax spiritual as I announce another important and especially biblical arrival to Nigeria—Mountain Dew! Yes, the highly-caffeinated and disturbingly green Pepsi product that helped me make it through college has made its way to West Africa. Though we don’t have the “dew that descended upon the mountain” in Abuja yet, it has been sighted in Lagos and is being heavily advertised throughout the country. American things are rare and much appreciated here, and enjoying a favorite (whether it be soda or Hershey’s chocolate syrup that we packed on our container) is like a mini-vacation for us missionaries.

At the end of June, we received our last visit from Sabrina’s father, as he is completing his contract with Exxon-Mobil in Nigeria. Bro. Brian was able to stay three days and was very excited to see the progress in both our home and the church building. His departure from Nigeria was filled with mixed emotions: of course he will enjoy arriving in the U.S. again to be with his wife and daughter (Ashley), but what he has witnessed and accomplished in West Africa has been very eye-opening and, at the same time, fulfilling. My father-in-law’s next assignment is in Russia for six months; at the end of this year he may be through with world traveling for a few years!

Sabrina has been working very hard to keep me well-fed and also arrange our home with some touches of America. God has given me a wonderful wife who is also a great mother and teacher of our children. Victoria (six months) is an exceptionally quiet and content baby, but she enjoys competing with noise and during the church services tries to out-preach Daddy! Joseph (2 ½ years) can sing many of our church songs, confidently counts to twelve, and is learning with enthusiasm his ABC’s. “My boy” prays every night, and while he does, Mom and Dad are reminded of and grateful for all of you who are supporting our ministry and remembering us in prayer.

[Victoria on Sabrina's lap trying to eat an apple from Joseph's hand]

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

May/June '06

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