The Holmes Family: September/October '20

This letter is being written during a month-long solo trip to Nigeria for the purpose of getting all our resident permits renewed (a process that, in previous years under normal circumstances, I would have been able to complete from the U.S.) so that we may be able to fully return as a family during the second week of January. While here, I’m conducting two Soul-Winning & Leadership Conferences, preaching at both of our Abuja churches, and teaching a course in our Providence Baptist College & Seminary.

Our travels in the U.S. continued to be productive in these fall months. During a Midwest trip, I gave a chapel testimony at my alma mater and preached part of the midweek service at the home church of our mission board. Also in September, our family participated in two missions conferences in Colorado and Wyoming; Sabrina’s mom joined us for one and accompanied us for a three-night vacation in Yellowstone National Park [pictured above]. The remainder of my meetings were all in the Southeast. At our sending church on my last Sunday before this trip to Nigeria, Sabrina and I had the special privilege of hosting a family who were founding members of Grace & Glory Baptist in Abuja, and after the morning service, I baptized their son [pictured]!

Soon, we will have the opportunity to broadcast the Gospel on television in the southwest part of Nigeria. Through a partnership with Christian Media International, a half-hour-long weekly program is being produced and aired in Ibadan. We will have more news to share soon and would appreciate your prayers for this important project.

We would not be able to testify of forty-two churches being planted (by those who have been trained in our institute and seminary) without help from some individual churches and support through ministries like Omega. We are thankful for their vision concerning the Great Commission and for their trust in our family to help them carry out that mission. For more information on how you can partner with them to plant churches around the world, please call Pastor King of Wyldewood Baptist Church at 920-420-0035.

To request our new prayer cards, please contact me at holmesfaith@hotmail.com. We look forward to sending more good reports from the field soon.

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 '20

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