The Holmes Family: March/April '26

Truth Baptist Church was away from its new auditorium for over six weeks while floors were being installed, but that did not keep our ministry from having many highlights over the last two months. A baby dedication for three families [staff family pictured], a youth conference, and a camp for our Friends of the Deaf Ministry were all held in March. By Easter Sunday in April, we were back in the new meeting place, just in time to host Missionary Evangelists Curtis Hall and Denton Bell for our 17th Annual Soul Winning & Leadership Conference [pastors with boxes of scriptures pictured below]. The month ended with the highest attended service of this year, a Police Appreciation Day that saw us welcome over 150 adult visitors. Special events in other churches included a regional Soul Winning & Leadership Conference in Calabar, a send-off service for Victoria at Grace & Glory Baptist Church (GGBC), and my first time preaching at Marantha Baptist of Lugbe, which is GGBC’s first church plant.

Providence Baptist College & Seminary wrapped up another successful semester. Please pray for the many students that will be traveling for internships in May; they will then return for a new semester in August. We are already making plans for our six Soul Winning & Leadership Conferences [Sabrina being honored at one] in 2027 and 2028 (held on the first two weekends of February, two weeks following Easter Sunday, and about ten days which include the last Sunday in October and the first Sunday of November) and we would love for any of our supporting pastors to take part; if you are interested, please let me know.

We are asked often about the hustle and bustle of our schedule, and there are times where it seems like I have never been busier. Yet I can confidently say that we are not stressed, humanly speaking, because of the men that God has placed with me to serve in ministry; our staff, deacons, faculty, and fellow missionaries are unparalleled in the help that they render to our work. Beyond Abuja, God has also blessed us with key men, none more so than Pastor Nicholas Wayih [pictured with Missionary Lang], who has taken it upon himself to be our “clearing agent” for every container of Scriptures that we have shipped for the last eight years, never asking for compensation. Recently, I learned that a new engine is needed for his vehicle that he often uses at his own expense to travel for clearance work at the port. Please pray that about $2000 can be raised so that this man of God can continue the service he renders to the church he pastors as well as to the dozens of churches who receive Bibles from us.

Missionary Curtis Hall of BEST Missions tells about his visit with us in his prayer letter:

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 '26

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