The Holmes Family: September/October '09

Truth Baptist Church completed its second missions conference in

October by exceeding all expectations as our members continue their giving to support Nigerian ministries outside of our own work. We welcomed a guest evangelist to preach the conference [Evangelist Yinka Fasinro's children pictured singing a special], and each night there was a presentation of a different ministry for which I wanted our church to catch a burden. With the increased vision, our people are now donating, above their regular tithes and offerings, about $175 per month. Among the ministries we are helping to support is a deaf camp, another Bible college, a printing ministry, a Nigerian missionary to Ghana, a church planting ministry, and four new churches. I am happy to proclaim that the cause and blessings of missions has not stopped on the mission field!

Our church has experienced new growth in the last two months, both numerically and in maturity. With no special promotion recently, there has been more than one Sunday that we have topped over 200 in attendance during the morning service. With the addition of our Bible college students, I am using them to start a new single men’s Sunday school class; we will also have one for women taught by two of our church ladies. Some new ideas have also prompted us to split our girls’ and boys’ classes, so that we now have 15 total Sunday school classes at Truth Baptist Church.

The August opening of our Bible college has caused some additions and adjustments to my personal

schedule and the program of our church. I now teach classes [pictured above] and preach chapel from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays, and our college faculty [pictured right] and staff meeting is on Thursdays before our church prayer meeting. This is in addition to my previous schedule of teaching Bible institute for two hours on Tuesday evenings, teaching in our mid-week service, participating in church-wide soul-winning, conducting choir practice on Saturdays, and leading music and preaching for the regular Sunday morning and evening church services. Our church has added the showing of a preaching DVD on Wednesdays, as well as a preachers’ meeting, Bible club outreach, or some other activity for the college students on Fridays.

Not long after the grand opening of our college, we welcomed Ms. Pat Hamburg to work with us here in Abuja. This single-lady missionary has been in Nigeria for eight years already, and it is a joy to have her helping us in the Bible institute, Sunday schools, ladies’ fellowship,

soul-winning ministries, and an upcoming new literacy class. Our church folks already love her, and it is great for Joseph, Victoria, and Brian to have a “grandmother” in the house. Please pray for her as she could surely use more financial support and that she will find good affordable housing close to our church.

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

September/October '09

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