The Holmes Family: March/April '17

An enjoyable benefit to partnering with pastors in our ministry training schools or hosting multiple pastors annually in our conferences and camps is being invited to participate in ordinations and other special days for those on whom I’ve been privileged to have a small influence. Two such occasions took place on the third and fourth Sundays of March, as I had the honor of being on the council of two ordinations in Port Harcourt [pictured] and Kubwa-Abuja. It is thrilling to see pastor friends ordain their own preachers and to have any part in the training and sending of these men.

Our efforts to expand the reach of the Soul Winning and Leadership Conferences continued in March, when Missionary Evangelist Don Wattenbarger of Bibles Beyond Boundaries joined me to conduct a regional meeting hosted by Missionary David Maskey at Independent Baptist Church of Port Harcourt. Once Bro. Don and I returned to Abuja, he left the next day on a three-hour drive with several of our students to visit the Liberty Baptist Church of Gidan-Waya, which Bro. Wattenbarger’s home church helped to start. We then enjoyed having the guest evangelist preach in both Truth and Grace & Glory churches on Sunday.

The two churches I am overseeing continue to mature in unique ways. On Sunday evenings in April, I presented the Series One lessons of the Foundations of My Faith discipleship material at Truth Baptist Church. There was an average of over 90 adults and teenagers in attendance for each session [pictured is the last one], and 56 completed all four lessons. We are continuing the studies for another 16 weeks during our prayer meeting service on Thursday nights. Sabrina has started a Ladies Bible Study on Saturdays for Grace & Glory Baptist Church. She is planning through the lessons for this group to grow into an outreach and discipleship group.

One of the great heartaches of serving in a third world country is to witness the plight of widows, especially those who were once the wife of a pastor. Considering the immense challenges these women face once their husbands pass on, it is likewise extremely encouraging to see a widow survive and excel on her own while also rearing children. One such former pastor’s wife has succeeded in building a house for her and her two children, and I would like to help her establish a business to allow her to be more self-sufficient. $2000 would provide a borehole (mechanized well) that could supply clean water for her family and also be used for selling water to the entire village where she lives. Sabrina and I would greatly appreciate any help towards this!

[Family picture on Easter Sunday above and congregational singing following auditorium expansion at Truth Baptist Church below]

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 '17

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