The Holmes Family: January/February '16

The first two months of 2016 brought forth another important milestone for our ministry, as Providence Baptist College & Seminary celebrated its second commencement on the last Saturday of January with fourteen seminarians [pictured] receiving their degree, another nine students completing their diploma through Temple Baptist Institute, and the first-ever awarding of a certificate from Revivals Christian Correspondence College. We were honored to host the pastor of Independent Baptist Church Calabar, Bro. Nicholas Wayih [pictured], as our guest preacher for the special weekend, and I am looking forward to preaching their church’s 30th Anniversary service in June. Of the 24 graduates, most are already laborers and pastors in various locations, and we are trusting God to use all of them in ministry service and church planting in the near future. Please pray with our ministry as the next seminary semester will begin in May, and the institute has already resumed on Saturdays with 16 new students!

By the time we leave for our furlough in mid-August of this year, with God’s help, we will have conducted nine conferences in twelve months! Our first two regional Soul Winning & Leadership Conferences concluded in September of last year [pastors and wives of the Port Harcourt conference pictured], with the 8th Annual national meeting scheduled for the end of March this year. In the two churches where our family serves, we hosted missions conferences in November 2015, and we are planning Spirit Renewal Meetings (multi-day revival) for both congregations in July 2016. To top it off, we will conduct two youth camps this year for the first time ever; one will be held in Port Harcourt, and the 6th Annual SMITE (Student Missions Institute for Training in Evangelism) will be in Nyanya-Abuja in August. Immediately after those youth camps, we plan to be in the U.S. until mid-January 2017; please let me know if you would like for my family to visit your church during the five-month span.

I have posted details of each national and regional conference, updates on the youth camps, and information about our seminary and correspondence college on the pages of this website. Also, with our improved internet access at home, I’ve been able to post videos for the last three updates, as well as pictures for all of our prayer letters (since January 2003). Soon, I will add a traveling schedule for our furlough; my family would love to meet up with supporters and prayer partners if we pass through your area.

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

January/February '16

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