Truth Baptist Church was thrilled to host
Evangelist Jim Belisle, a field service coordinator in our mission board
on his 4th visit to Nigeria, for our 7th Great Commission Meeting in November.
An open house for Providence Baptist College & Seminary and area pastors
was held on Thursday morning; Bro. Belisle preached at the church on Thursday
and Friday evenings, and a seminar introducing a new Teaching All Nations
curriculum was given on Friday. Saturday evening brought about our 3rd building
fund banquet, and, on our church's Thanksgiving Sunday, our members made their
commitments for what they will give to missions and our building fund in the
coming year. We praise the Lord for decisions made during the services, a great
Saturday of soul-winning at a newer church plant, and the resolve that our
members have to continue the cause of
missions.
In
December, we had some eventful Saturdays as I preached the 4th anniversary service of a
church plant on the 6th; the first graduation [pictured above] for an institute at a church we
started five years ago had twelve receiving their certificates on the 13th, and
the next week I conducted a wedding [pictured left] for a dear church member and friend of
ours [Sabrina's outfit pictured below]. During the week of New Year's Day, our family was able to spend the week
at a hotel in Abuja, a family tradition that is highly anticipated by our kids.
Our
ultimate goal as missionaries, second only to pleasing God, is to see the cause
of church planting continue whether we are in Nigeria or not. The key to that
is commonly taught as generational growth. Truth Baptist Church was started in
2006 as an example church (1st generation) for those who would be trained in
our institute, seminary, and correspondence college. The graduates of these
schools, sent out from ours and other local churches to start a church, become
the 2nd generation and have the potential to multiply the work of the 1st
generation ministry by leading those they train to start more churches (3rd
generation). In the last seven months, we have witnessed six 3rd
generation being started, adding to the four 3rd generation works that began in
2013. The institute graduation mentioned in the previous paragraph is actually
a 2nd generation ministry training school, and their graduates [pictured below as a gift calendar] have already
started two churches. With this application of biblical church multiplication,
we are confident and hopeful of seeing 4th generation
works in the near future!
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