|
Founder Est. 1973 Director
Rev. Fred Potter P.O. Box 692 Bristol, TN 37621-0692 Rev. Mike Nixon
Tel. (423) 354-0342 or (423) 878-5800 e-mail cbmission@juno.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
This song is about how Fred Potter got saved, written by Danny Minton. |
|||
|
|
It is our privilege to welcome you to the Charity Baptist Mission web page. We hope this will be a testament of what the Lord is doing in America and throughout the world. In 1973 the Lord laid upon my heart to start Charity Baptist Mission Inc., here in Bristol, Tennessee. We started it because we were opening a children’s home in Mexico. From there the Lord continued to bless and increased the areas to other countries by which we could share the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour. It has been truly a blessing to see how the Lord has used missionaries to reach the lost and see them saved. We believe in the Authorized King James 1611 version of the Word of God. It has stood the test of time and we believe this is the only true Bible. To God be the Glory!
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
updated 6-5-23 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Missions Updates
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends in Christ, June 2023
Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are all doing
well and we appreciate the prayers of the saints for our family and for the
work.
I generally do not make a prayer request the entire focus of an update letter.
Brother Ralph used to tell about a church business meeting where one of the
deacons was explaining how every possible option had been tried, but they still
could not find a solution for some big need in the church. The deacon finished
by saying ‘All we can do now is pray!’ Another of the deacons at the meeting
said ‘Has it really come to that?!’
Well, for us, it has come to that and so I am asking all of the saints who care about our family and our work to pray with us.
Seven years ago, when Johnny was seven and Blue was just three, a homeless mother asked us to take her two children who had been living on the street with her. Her mother was a faithful member of our Turkish church and she knew the kind of people we are. This woman said she wanted her kids to have a better life than she could offer – a good education, a stable home life, and a loving faith-based upbringing. She was going to Germany to look for work and said she would leave them with us until they were 18 years old.
Even though there was no time to go through the normal channels which would give us at least some legal footing, we prayed about it and got peace to take them into our home. These years have been wonderful with them. They instantly became as much of the family as any of the rest of us. Johnny was the same age as our biological son, Creed, and they became, and still are, inseparable. Both Johnny and Blue got saved in our Children’s Home church and were baptized. In school, they both have excellent grades, many friends and the praise of their teachers. They are warm and loving children…our children...who see Dara as Mommy and me as Daddy.
Recently, the mother came back from Germany. She wanted to see the kids and spend some time with them. We have been taking them for visits on the weekends when they were out of school.
In the time she has been here, she secretly got passports for the two kids. She told them she wants to take them for a visit to Germany during the summer vacation…only a few weeks or maybe a month. When we found out, I talked to her and she assures me they will be back. I have no legal right to stop her. I have a sickening feeling that she intends to leave with them and not come back.
I know God gave them to us and, therefore, they can’t be taken unless He allows. Thank the Lord, they are already saved!! I can’t imagine how much worse this would be without that assurance.
Twenty years ago, when Brother Ralph said we should start a children’s home, he told us that these children are not ours...God was only allowing us to raise them for Him. Brother Ralph said we should expect some heartache. But, to be honest, we are not at all prepared for this.
I just found out today the mother is planning to leave with them in three days. By the time you see this, if the Lord hasn’t already stepped in, they will be gone. Please help us pray that they will indeed return. If they don’t, I cannot imagine the hole that will be left in our hearts, Creed’s heart, their hearts.
We appreciate all of your prayers.
In Christ,
Dave, Dara, Sandy and the Kids
A printable PDF of
this letter is available here.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
January – February 2023
“And he brought him to Jesus…” John 1:42
Dear Pastors, Churches and Saints,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The first two months of this year have been good ones. We have been able, in
spite of the time of year, to hold services in all of our villages. They are not
large crowds, but the people are faithful. There has been a good spirit and
testimonies about God's faithfulness (Lamentations 3:23), and care
(1 Peter 5:7) in the meetings.
Also, during this time some have passed away. Dobrin was saved within the last year and went home to be with the Lord. We started meeting at his house because of his wife Zaharina. She told us that if we were to meet in her home she believed her husband would come. Well she was right, and we were happy that he came. I believe God was already working on his heart. You could tell he was touched by the testimonies, singing and preaching. I'm thankful God worked and drew him to himself and dealt with him. We believe what the Lord said in John 12:32 "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me". We will miss Dobrin, but we enjoyed worshipping the Lord with him, and we look forward to being with him again one day. With promises like 1 Thes.4:13-18 we can comfort one another. We still meet in his home. Now we are praying for their 22-year-old son Dennis to come to the Lord.
Also, a man named Marine that lived in our village passed away. I had given him a gospel of John to read, but I don't know if he was saved. I enjoyed talking to him, he also was a beekeeper like myself. Whenever I meet someone like Marine I feel compelled to do as Andrew did. “He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus…” John 1:41,42
Please also keep my brother Kevin's health in your prayers. A printable PDF of this letter is available here.
Because of Calvary,
Matthew Welch and family
---------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Churches and Praying Friends, April 2023
"If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried." (Leviticus 7:12)
Greetings in the name of our heavenly father and of his son, Jesus Christ. The Lord has been good to us, here in Bulgaria. We have just finished our annual feeding. This year the Lord provided funds for us to distribute over seventy-six tons of flour and over seventy-five hundred liters of oil. Each year this is possible through the many gifts that you all send. Giving an offering of flour and oil is as old as the Bible itself: it was one of the offerings God commanded the people to give in the Old Testament. When you gave to feed the poor saints in Bulgaria, you were actually giving unto the Lord! He told us so in Matthew 25, For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat...Then shall the righteous answer him saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee?... And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
This feeding is something we do once a year in obedience to the apostles' desire for gospel preachers to remember the poor. Throughout the year, though, we preach Jesus, the bread of life, in the Turkish speaking villages all over eastern Bulgaria. This is that meat which endureth unto everlasting life. We thank the Lord for the national pastors which he has raised up to do this work. One of them, pastor Alish, is turning eighty years old. He still preaches in four villages a week.
Recently, the Lord has provided us a way to publish the Turkish Bible. In the modern age of technology, it is no longer necessary to distribute literature in person; this can be done via the internet. Our goal has always been to put a Bible into the hands of each believer. Although we're still not ready to print Bibles, we have found some believers in Turkey who can put the Bible on the internet, both in text form and audio! Not only will our believers in Bulgaria, who are for the most part illiterate, be able to listen to the Bible, but any of the eighty million Turkish speakers in the world. This is a big project, and will cost several thousand dollars. Thankfully, the Lord has already provided the funds for the New Testament, and that part of the project is nearing completion. The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. (Psalm 68:11)
Thank you all again for your continued prayers and financial support in this great work.
In Christ,
Zachary LeFevre
---------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Praying Friends and Family, January - March 2023
Greetings in the lovely name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope this letter finds you all well in the Lord, enjoying His presence, His Book and His blessings. The year 2023 began with the usual tax preparation. Daunting as it is, this year’s tax prep had the added blessing of documenting all the channels through which funds were sent to Ukraine for those suffering from this war. It was humbling to see the generosity of our supporters who gave to provide: Bibles, literature, food, clothing, medical supplies, surgeries, and various needs for our military friends fighting in the war with Russia.
Ukraine Update: The past three winter months have been a time of just surviving day by day, dealing with shortages, power outages, curfews, sirens, and shelling. Our church in Ukraine is still standing strong. The church’s services continue each week, and they do what they can to minister to those affected by the war. There has been renewed planning to transport aid to those in the city of Micholaev. Please pray for their safety. In addition, please continue to pray for the eight men connected to our church who are fighting in the war. Two of them are located in Bakhmut, where it is reported that life expectancy is about four hours in the hottest part.
People Projects: As witnesses for Christ, our mission is to sow and water, while God gives the increase (1 Cor. 3:6-8). Sometimes it is our privilege to pick ripe fruit where others have labored before us and give a glowing report of a soul saved. Then there are other times where we sow the seed and tend to the sapling wondering if it will ever bear fruit. This could take years until the glorious moment arrives when they bow their hearts in faith calling on the name of the Lord for salvation! What a relief! After salvation, however, there is yet another time of travail on the part of the soul winner…to see Christ formed in them (Gal. 4:19). This could also take years and requires from us an equal investment of time, prayers, energy, and nerves(!).
I have three “people projects” to report on that the Lord has graciously allowed us to tend to over the years. First, we have a young lady in our church named Vladyslava who has been a faithful part of our ministry since 2017. Her mother, Oksana, led her to Christ and is still faithfully serving in our church in Ukraine. With her husband fighting in the war, Oksana has recently taken on herself the ministry of intercessory prayer. Vladyslava had a terrible time getting to safety when the war broke out. She was in Kiev when a rocket hit a building next to her dormitory. After a long, hard journey she ended up in Alberta, Canada. We kept in contact with her and learned that she needed help. Thank God, we were able to sponsor her into the USA and she is now living with us while we finish our furlough. Please pray for her as she seeks God’s perfect will for her life and as she grows “till Christ be formed” in her.
Another “people project” is a young man named Sergei. He was our neighbor in Rozdilna, Ukraine. He was the best friend of my two sons, Benjamin and Samuel. It was a blast watching their antics during boyhood!
It was even greater to watch him get saved and become zealous for the Lord. When the war with Russia began, Sergei was working in Poland where he led a young woman to Christ and married her. Then an opportunity came open for him to relocate to Canada. He contacted us asking where there was a good Bible believing church and we gave him Missionary Gabe Cochran’s contact info. What a blessing it was when Brother Cochran sent me a picture of them after their meeting at the airport. It is a great comfort knowing that he is in a church with a pastor like Brother Cochran where they can continue to grow “till Christ be formed” in them.
The third “people project” is none other than my own half-brother, Micah (Nathan) Rue. I wrote about him and his salvation experience in our January-February 2021 prayer letter. After Nathan’s salvation, we were put in contact with another missionary in Peru named Marko Lyndsey who helped him in many ways. I looked into Nathan’s legal problems and began a conversation with the embassy in Peru. Over the past year, I watched Nathan grow in the Lord. He finally agreed to come home and surrendered to the truth that the Lord was in charge and would give him grace to deal with whatever prison sentence was waiting for him. Brother David Drake, upon hearing of Nathan’s situation, donated the money needed for the plane ticket home. Nathan was immediately taken into custody upon his arrival and was extradited to NJ after about two weeks. At his hearing the judge dropped all the charges after seeing that Nathan had over 50 successful missions! I had worked on helping him get home for over five years and the day finally came! Nathan was dependent on me, but I needed help. I prayed and decided to call Pastor Mike Veach in Staten Island who was close enough to get to him. He and his church rallied around Nathan and helped him in so many ways. Today, Nathan is in the VA hospital in NY, where he is enrolled in several programs. They have already determined that he is going to get 100% disability and they are helping him with his bouquet of alphabet issues (PTSD, etc…). He plans to stay close to the church there in Staten Island after he finishes his treatment. Please pray for Nathan, that Christ will continue to be formed in him (Gal. 4:19).
If you take a step back and look at these three souls for whom our Lord Jesus Christ died it will amaze you of the Lord’s power, grace, omniscience, and omnipresence, working in and through His body, the church, to get His children where He wants them to be for His glory! Glory be to God! Be patient with your own “people projects.”
Rue Crew Review: The Lord has been very gracious and faithful to us during our time on the road during the winter months. Our travels were mainly in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee with a trip to New York added in. Naomi, Joseph, Samuel, and I enjoyed birthdays stateside with family. My son, Samuel, is now engaged to Susanna Napier, with the date set for July 1, 2023. Our son, Benjamin and his wife Faith celebrated their first wedding anniversary. Another special, quiet celebration for me is February 18th, the day that Jesus Christ changed my life forever! It is hard to believe that I met Him 34 years ago, when Jesus passed by my way!
Please continue to pray for us as we finish updating our supporting churches and take a few meetings by special invitation. Please pray for God’s direction and guidance as to when and where to return to Ukraine. In the meantime, we are busy and trying to get the medical attention needed to continue to heal and be strengthened for our next round. May the Lord richly bless you in every way.
That Ukraine May Know Him,
Christopher Rue
Phil. 3:10 (a print ready
version is available here)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Pastors, Churches, and Friends, January - February 2023
We had two groups visit a Hispanic country this year, and we just returned from a trip to the island. Things are progressively getting worse there. I believe there are several factors behind this. The economic situation in the world is getting worse, and inflation is escalating all over the world. Russia being this country's strongest ally is now putting all their resources in Ukraine, (this is my opinion) but it has caused the local people who were already in financial straits to see even more difficult situations.
There is almost no fuel on the island, causing power outages. With the exception of a big city, the rest of the island has power for about six hours a day. Turkish freight liners or huge power producing ships are in the bay sending power to the island for a trade-off of nickel that is mined there. Medical conditions also are bad. Doctors will not operate on patients unless the patient can obtain antibiotics from an outside source like America. Food availability is worse. People stand for three to four hours to buy chicken at an outrageous price.
On the spiritual front things are a lot better. We had services that were simply saturated with the power of God. People were weeping before we even preached, we were just trying to open up the services. There was a sweet presence of His blessed Holy Spirit helping and ministering to the needs of His people. This caused me to think of a precious verse in Job 23:10 “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” God will certainly take care of his people! Don’t mean to preach here, but with all the things that are going on in the world, God knows where we are at!
We are trying to get a load of Bibles there. Since 2001, the year when we began to work there, we have always taken money to buy Bibles. Now the Ecumenical Movement has the priority of buying all of the Bibles that are available. We are working on a plan to send a container load of Bibles to the island. This is something that we have never attempted to do, but we are going to try. Help pray for this endeavor, and I will keep you informed about this project as we go along.
Joyfully Yours, Dale Caeble 1 Samuel 12:24 (A printable PDF of this letter is available here)
-------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends in Christ, March 2023
Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;” Song of Solomon 2:11-12. Well, I haven’t heard any turtles yet, but, Praise God, spring has finally come to Romania! The sun is shining. The mud is drying up in the villages. The trees are budding out and everything is turning from gray to green. As the Lord renews His creation, our spirits are renewed, as well.
I thank the Lord for seeing us through another winter and for allowing us to help so many others this year. From the coats, socks and food we were able to distribute in the poorest of villages; to the food, clothing, diapers, and many other basic necessities we delivered to be distributed to war-affected churches in Ukraine; to the tents, sleeping bags, winter wear and rations we delivered to the Ukrainian military, God helped so many survive the long winter.
We were able to include Gospel tracts in each pair of socks…in each pair of gloves…in each sleeping bag we sent to those fighting on the front lines. In our villages, we were blessed to hold meetings and tell folks about a loving God who cares for them and sent His only begotten Son to save them. A special thank you goes out to all of you who helped to make this possible.
Our children are growing so fast! Some are working. Some are in school. Our youngest just turned 10 in February. Well, that was true until a couple of days ago.
A young woman called and told Dara that she was living on the street with three little kids and that she had no way to feed or take care of them. The woman said she had heard how we take in poor children and raise them. She begged Dara to take her children. Dara told all of us and I said we should pray before Dara talked to her again. Before we could get back with the woman, our 20-year-old daughter, Sevgi, said she would like to take these three kids. Sevgi lives here on the Children’s Home property with her husband, Clay.
Sevgi and Clay had talked and they wanted to have the little ones move in with them. So after meeting again with the mother, we brought home three children: a 3-year-old girl, a 4 ½-year-old boy and a 5 ½-year-old girl. A good scrubbing, haircuts and clean clothes revealed three precious children who, thank the Lord, seem to be adjusting beautifully. We have told the Lord all along that when He wants to send new children into our family, we are willing. I am thankful that Sevgi, who we got when she was only a few days old, is now helping us in this blessed calling.
Sandy and our oldest son, Grayson, just got back from a short trip to the States. Sandy wanted to visit some churches, reconnect with some old friends and see her best friend of 66 years whose health was failing. Thank the Lord, they had a good trip and Sandy was able to spend some precious time with her friend before she went home to be with the Lord. Sandy said several folks asked her if and when we would be getting more children. We are so glad God has now answered that question! She also said many people asked if we were safe considering the many recent earthquakes in this part of the world. Again, thank the Lord, they have not been close enough to affect us. Thank you for your concern and prayers.
Please continue to pray for us. We greatly appreciate the love and support that you have faithfully shown us over the years. May God bless you all.
In Christ, Dave, Dara, Sandy and the Kids (A printable PDF of this letter is available here)
------------------------------------------------------
March 2023
“The LORD hath done great things for us; Whereof we are glad.” Psalm 126:3 We had a great time during the Christmas season as it’s been quite a few years since the whole family has been together. It was a very special time for all of us for which we are grateful. We are actively pursuing school opportunities for Kylie and are excited to say that she’ll be going to Cleveland Community College in Shelby, North Carolina to fulfill her desire to work in the field of medical sonography. She is waiting to take six hours of driving school which is required for her to get a North Carolina driver’s license. Our desire is that she’ll be able to do this as soon as possible.
This brings me to my first prayer request. Please pray for Kylie. In June of this year, after she graduates high school, she’ll be going with Evangelist Chris Hewett and a group of around 30 people on a mission trip to Papua New Guinea. She is excited about this opportunity and we are thankful for her being able to do this. We also glorify the Lord by being able to say, He has already provided through His people the funding to go. God is so good!
I would also like you to pray for one of our national pastors, Brother Mitko Stefanov. It is our desire to get him here by July and spend a couple months in the states to raise additional support. He is a very important part of our work in Bulgaria and needs more support to help with the work he does in the villages. He is also translating the Bulgarian Bible to one more comparable to our King James Bible. He will be coming with his wife Monica, and their three daughters Anna, Ruth and Eliza. Mitko and Monica will be going on February 28th for an interview to determine if they can come. Before you read this letter, we’ll already know the outcome. I’m writing this by faith that they will be coming. Please pray about having them come and visit your church while they are here, and that the Lord would provide the means to get them to the United States.
We have been actively going around to churches since we’ve been home, but have stayed fairly close to areas where we have children. The Lord has blessed in these meetings primarily in North Carolina. We had the privilege of preaching a revival in Cramerton, North Carolina. We will however in March begin to venture out a little farther with meetings in Maryland, Florida and Alabama with a few in North Carolina and Tennessee as well. We look forward to these opportunities and ask for your prayers as we travel.
In closing, please remember the work in Bulgaria. The missionaries and national pastors are currently busy with our yearly flour and oil distribution. Please pray that God gives them strength during this very busy time. Also, please continue to pray for the people of Ukraine and the refugees that are still in Bulgaria. Please pray for us as we have opportunities to minister in the coming months that we’d be sensitive to God’s leading us. We are so thankful for each of you and appreciate so much your continued prayers and support.
God bless you all,
(A printable PDF version of this letter is available here)Brother Keith Blalock and Family. blalockstobulgaria@gmail.com - www.facebook.com/Blalocks2bulgaria
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Praying Pastors, Brothers and Sisters, Ukrainian Crisis Letter January - February of 2023
Our October/November trip to
both Ukraine and Poland was fruitful with opportunities to Witness to those
displaced inside of Ukraine as well as to Refugees in Poland. Often we see
ourselves sowing the Gospel seed in hearts that have never heard before, other
times we are watering the Seed which some other Brother or Sister has already
sown in someone’s heart but Oh the times we are blessed to reap and see the Lord
do for us what Boaz did for Ruth- “And let fall also some of the handfuls of
purpose.” Ruth 2:16 It is humbling and encouraging to see God “Give the
increase” as a Soul accepts Christ! As we worked with two Ukrainian Churches in
Northern Poland, we made visits with Refugees (Sowing the Seed). The Testimony
of 64-year-old Nadya (Hope in English) was proof this trip was under His
direction as she called out for Forgiveness of sins through Christ’s
substitutionary death on the cross. As she wept in prayer, she testified, “No
one ever explained the gospel to me so clearly and explained my need for God’s
forgiveness.” Three weeks later when we returned to that Church in Poland, she
told Oksana, “If you had not come to see me, I would have never known that I was
going to heaven!” The Lord also opened the door to do two Seminars on Evangelism
and do some instructional street work with both of these Churches as they
invited both Ukrainians and Polish souls to a large Evangelization Meeting. Pray
that both of these Churches will continue to reach out to Both Ukrainian and
Polish souls!
***Ukraine’s forces are in heavy heated battles on their Eastern Front with
heavy casualties on both sides. Many of the larger cities are bombarded by
missiles and drones (with bombs) a few times every week. Sometimes they send
missiles into towns that have not been bombed before knowing that they are not
as well protected by the Antimissile defense systems.
* PLEASE PRAY Because on the Anniversary of the February 24th Invasion, many are
predicting an even stronger invasion again possibly on three fronts. Please pray
the Lord would use these Terrible events for “the furtherance of the gospel”
Phillipians 1:12-18 and the Salvation of Souls!
Praising the Lord for all of you who have sacrificed to supply for the great
Spiritual and Physical needs.
1) Praise the Lord between our Ministry and Brother Mark Priem, we have been
able to print and distribute over 1,600,000 tracts (both Testimonial and Chick
tracts), booklets and Scripture portions in 10 months.
2) Your financial gifts have supplied many Brethren with fuel to transport
Christian Aid and Evangelize as well as to Evacuate many Ukrainians from harms
way. PRAY for Eugene, Michael, Slavick, Roma and Victor.
3) A Ukrainian Army Chaplain requested us to print tracts for distributing
specifically for the Soldiers. A Supporting Church funded the Printing of 50,000
Chick Tracts - “Holy Joe” and “Holy Night” in both Ukrainian and Russian.
Many Brethren could do even more, but need more fuel and our literature/printing
fund is basically drained dry.
If the Lord puts it on your heart to Help UKRAINE
Please Make the check out to: Charity Baptist Mission, P.O. Box 692, Bristol, TN 37621-0692
Write in the memo: Mahers-Help for Ukraine
*Pastor Slavick Needs Prayer Support as he carries the heavy load of keeping
Lakeside Baptist Church encouraged and also evangelizing the Lost:
1) Finishing up their Yearly Calendar distribution of 8,500 Evangelistic
Calendars and tracts in over twelve villages.
2) Distributing Christian Aid to Refugee and low-income families while
presenting the Gospel.
WE ARE Now Setting up our 2023 Furlough Calendar to Update our Supporting
Churches. Please Call me (513) 969-4229!
{We would love to Encourage your Church and/or Participate in your Missions
Conference!}
For the Souls of Ukraine,
www.facebook.com/richard.maher.710
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher (A
printable PDF version of this letter is available here)
=====> We thank each of you and
your Churches for your faithful prayers, support and genuine concern for our
family, Oksana’s family and especially for the souls of Ukraine during this
terribly devastating time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Jacob Reed Family
Serving with Charity Baptist Missions to Eastern Europe since 2012
Support address: Charity Baptist Missions P.O. Box 692 Bristol, TN. 37621
E-mail: jakereedfamily1994@yahoo.com
“And there they preached the gospel.” Acts 14:7
February 1, 2023
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I pray this letter finds you in His nurturing grace. We thank the Lord for all He has done in the year 2022 and for the New Year and the blessings that God shall bring.
“Tis the season to be jolly!”, but not for all. A month ago, my two children got off from school and I told them that we were going to the Turkish meetings today. They weren’t very happy and both made excuses about homework and playing video games, but an hour and twenty minutes later we were driving into a very poor and cold village. As we approached the house where we worship weekly, children on both sides of the car started running and knocking on the sides of the car and were very happy to see us. A little boy came into the courtyard and had no shoes or socks. My son Uriah look over at me and said that his feet must be cold. A few moments later, my sister-in-law took off her socks and clothed the little boy’s feet. I reminded my children that whatever you get this CHRISTmas remember you need to be thankful for God has been so good to us. I was trying to be a good father and instruct my children of their responsibilities, but then my Heavenly Father began to speak to me of our duty to help these little lambs and never overlook their needs, but especially their need to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
Matthew 18:2,5-6 “And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, [5] And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. [6] But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
I am so blessed to tell you that we were able to give out 450 Christmas packets to children in five villages. It was one of the best Christmas’ these children have ever had. They got candy, toys, coloring books with crayons, plus socks and winter hats. They were so happy. We were also able to return to the village with the little boy who had been without socks and shoes and gather all the children of two villages and over the period of a week we have been able to give around 360 pairs of nice shoes and around 800 pairs of socks. It was a wonderful way to finish 2022 and even a better way to start 2023. Thank you to Brookside Baptist Church and all who have been such a blessing with all of this. Please continue to pray for us and that He will help us to continue to clothe these little ones physically and spiritually. May God richly bless you!
From Constanta, Romania, Jacob Reed & family (A printable PDF version is available here)
“Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified, even as it is with you.” 2 Thessalonians 3:1
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Reed Family
Serving with Charity Baptist Missions to Eastern Europe since 1992
Support address: Charity Baptist Missions P.O. Box 692 Bristol, TN. 37621
E-mail: dadreed15@yahoo.com or momareed15@yahoo.com
“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” Gal. 6:2
Dear Pastors, Churches and Friends, February 1, 2023
First, of all, I would like to say how thankful we are for the year 2022. It was the best year of our 30-year ministry and I can’t help but feel the urgency in the air as we see the world changing quickly. In some ways things seem to be slipping away, but in other ways we see solid foundations being established and know the Lord is still at work. As much as I desire the Lord to return, I feel we still have some work to do before His coming, so our faces are set like a flint to establish and provide what is given to us to complete.
We are thankful for God’s faithfulness in supplying the needs we have so earnestly requested in the last two years to put feeding center rooms in our prayer houses. We now have five locations where we have new buildings and rooms where we meet and feed. We are laboring to feed every day in these locations. The extent of these needs has become somewhat overwhelming, but every month God does another miracle and provides as the world looks on in amazement. Our desire is to proclaim the charity of God in a day that our Lord prophesied in the book of Matthew, chapter 24, that many false prophets would arise and deceive many and that iniquity would abound and the love of many would wax cold, but we endure as the gospel is preached unto the whole world and then the end will come. What a privilege and testimony it is to give, when everyone else is growing cold and clinching to everything but God and His ever-faithful love and promise to never leave us or forsake us, even unto the end of the world!
We mostly feed one meal per day in the village locations, but in Calarasi we can feed up to twice in one day. We not only feed the children, but we also feed the widows and poor adults that come to the morning prayer meetings. We now require around 1,150 loaves of bread every month, the children come mainly for the food, but I’m thankful to say that the adults aren’t coming only to be fed earthly bread because they have found a more enriching source of life and strength through the church meetings provided in these churches.
The prayer houses are going strong. We now have a strong nucleus of faithful men and women who are coming to sing and pray every time we are blessed to come together. It is always an encouragement to see everyone as they come in the door, but we are always thankful for the faithfulness of our Lord, as He is the most welcomed guest and always meets the needs of the seekers. It is wonderful to watch as some may not know how to reach out to the Lord for their need, but the faithful ones know how to encourage the weaker vessels through testimony and then show them as they begin to cry out to the Lord on their behalf. What encouragement and love they find. It is written on their faces as they have never felt such depth of truth from their other experiences from their religious leaders and organizations. This is something you only dream about in your early days as a missionary, so we are so thankful for your faithfulness and we strongly covet your prayers while understanding from the Bible we are to watch, pray and occupy till His return. Thank you for all you do, and we covet your prayers for wisdom as we move forward, boldly in 2023.
From Calarasi, Romania, Nathan Reed and Family (A printable PDF version is available here)
"Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified, even as it is with you.” 2 Thessalonians 3:1
--------------------------------------------------------
January 2023 LeFevre Family Prayer Letter
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the
fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom
he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;” Hebrews
1:1-2
To the Strangers and Pilgrims scattered here, there, and everywhere,
I can’t think of a better start to anything than with “God.” He’s enough, and
more than enough. The heavens of the heavens of the heavens can’t contain Him.
His wisdom is infinite, His power unfathomable, His promise immutable, His love
unending. Whatever adjective you use, He excels it. He’s the fullness of Him
that filleth all in all. The patriarch Moses heard His call, saw His raw power
displayed, hung on His every word on Mount Sinai, and when it was all said and
done, still asked for more. He’s God, and I’m His. Bless His name!
If awareness of the nature of God alone wasn’t enough to inspire your heart, our
text indicates that the one true all-sufficient, all-powerful God is interested
in a close personal relationship with you. He’s been an active participant in
this human drama from the beginning, conversing with Adam in the garden. Adam’s
sin separated him from God’s intimate fellowship, and so began the period of the
prophets, God communicating with man through an intermediary. On the one
occasion God spoke to the people directly, they couldn’t endure it.
Nevertheless, God, by human instrumentation, called. Some came, and some cussed
him, but He still had compassion.
God, not content to endure the widening gulf between Him and His creation, at
the last, took upon Himself the nature of man, and humbling himself, veiled His
eternal power and glory in flesh. Once again God conversed face to face with
man. Once again He called, “Come unto me.” Some came, some cussed Him, yet we
all crucified Him; still, He conquered. Now, once again through human
instrumentation – by preachers, pastors, evangelists, missionaries, teachers,
Christians – He calls, “Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever
will, let him take the water of life freely.” What a God! I bless the day,
almost thirty-five years ago, I heeded His invitation, and in simple faith, came
to Jesus. He took me in. I’ve been His every day since.
Happy New Year to every last one of you. I hope y’all are doing well. God’s been
good to us here in Shumen. winter has come, or rather, shows up sporadically.
Most days this month have been in the fifties, and mild. Still, it’s winter, and
that means our seasonal workers are home from the fields. Church attendance in
all of Ahmed’s and my villages is up.
In Byala Reka, we’ve had to switch houses. The man of the house, Mustafa, died.
His wife loves us to pieces and would give us the run of the place, but her
daughter, returned from Germany on the death of her dad, does not. Praise the
Lord, though, on the same day we were told we couldn’t have meetings there
anymore, another woman opened her house to us. It’s much smaller in every way
imaginable; the ceiling’s only six feet high in places. It’s poorer, as these
folks have next to nothing. Yet the crowd’s still coming, and better than that,
the Lord’s showing up. Last Thursday the whole place was in tears come praying
time. That’s worth it. I asked Ahmed what we ought to do about the daughter that
kicked us out of the other place. He said, “We’ll give her a bag of flour and a
bottle of oil and tell her, ‘Jesus loves you, and we do, too.’”
Our poorest folks are in Varbitsa. There they hardly have wood to heat their own
houses, let alone enough to spare for the room we meet in. Thursday mornings we
dress extra warm in multiple layers, knowing the small fire barely keeps it
above freezing. Yet, every meeting, regardless of the weather outside or the
temperature inside, the crowd comes on. They fill up what few chairs there are
and then grab whatever’s left to sit on. When the buckets and wood stumps are
all occupied, they grab an extra blanket and sit on the floor. We sing through
the gypsy hymnbook as long and loud as we can, warming hearts and generating
heat. What we lack in insulation, the Lord makes up for in inspiration. I’ve
never been to a meeting there yet where folks didn’t leave happier for
attending.
In Lovets we’ve seen the biggest increase of all. For a year or two now, we’ve
endeavored to faithfully minister regardless of who came. There was a long span
of time where it was just us and a widow or two. Then when Covid struck again
last summer, no one attended for weeks, after which those who survived reemerged
to tell how God had delivered again. For the last month, though, it’s been
standing room only, with both rooms of the little house full. At first, we
chuckled and dismissed the surge as those only interested in flour and oil. Yet,
it became evident that a number of them were unaware we were distributing
anything. They came to see why everyone else was coming. One elderly woman, at
the conclusion of last week’s service, said, “You preached my life. I lived
everything you said.” Keep praying; God’s still working.
The good Lord willing, and with His help and your prayers, we are planning a
furlough come fall. It is early, and it seems odd, out of place even to be
mentioning it now, but as so many of our supporting churches plan their
calendars well in advance, I thought it best to give early notice to anyone
interested in us visiting. If God permits, we’d like to visit those of you up
north first. Even if you don’t support us, we’d be happy to come in and declare
the glad tidings of good things the Lord’s doing here. As of right now, our
plans are to return later in the fall, nearer Thanksgiving. However, if anyone
has a meeting you’d like us to attend earlier in the season, let us know, and
we’ll see what we can work out. All of our contact information is always in the
footer of our prayer letters. Our plans are to return near the end of 2023 and
stay through mid-2024. Again, this is all very early and all subject to the will
of God and change. “Whatever seems best to the Lord” is always our motto.
Because of a living Savior,
The William LeFevre Family (A printable PDF version is available here) www.facebook.com/bulgarianlefevres
-----------------------------------------------------
The Leach Family Missionaries in Bulgaria
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he
trusteth in thee.” Isaiah 26:3
Dear Brethren, January 2023
James tells us, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” Paul tells us
to think on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report,
virtuous, and praise-worthy. The above verse in Isaiah directs our minds to stay
on God. The promises and admonitions we find in scripture are key to managing
our Christian walk, and I can attest to these managing my OCD. Since arriving
back in Bulgaria, OCD has not miraculously left me, nor did I expect it to, but
I’m learning to manage it. Or, rather, when I focus on the things of God rather
than my own things, God manages it. This is my thorn: the thing that keeps me
humbly in prayer. I appreciate everyone continuing to pray for me, and for
sending words of encouragement. I have no strength in myself to overcome, but
when I walk in the strength of God, He gets work done and He alone gets the
glory.
The work in Bulgaria continues and we’re thankful for faithful missionaries,
national Pastors, and church members. Pastor Ismail is struggling with some
major dental problems and I know he would appreciate your prayers. A few months
back he talked to me about his aging knees and how it was getting more difficult
for him to go visiting in town, walking to the hospital or even house-to-house.
So we were able to find a threewheeled scooter for him and he’s so thankful.
He’s able to get out daily and do the work of a Pastor, and that’s a blessing to
both him and the church folks. If he knew I was writing this he would tell me to
send greetings from him and the church in Novi Pazar, so I will send you
greetings now on his behalf. The church in Novi Pazar is growing and is a church
full of love and faith.
The work on the Coat Closet expansion is slow, but happening. This winter we
purchased nearly 900 coats and even more socks. I do not know how many of those
were actually distributed since we’ve had a fairly warm winter, but whatever is
not given out will be ready and waiting for next year. One of the national
Pastors needed a coat and we looked through the stock at the Closet and couldn’t
find his size. Everything we had was either smaller or larger. We sent a few
possible options along with many others in bags for the kids at one of his
churches, but he didn’t find one that fit. He didn’t tell us this, however. So
last week when we were in Shumen we ran into him and his daughter told us they
were going to look for a cheap coat for him. I knew it was no coincidence we ran
into him, so we took him to a few stores to look for a coat. When we found just
the right one, he cried and praised God in the middle of the store. And so did
we. He was thankful for a warm coat, and we were thankful we got to be part of
helping him with that need.
In my last letter I mentioned Carrie’s car. When we returned to Bulgaria we
fixed a few things on the car and then gave it to a national Pastor. Thankfully
it wasn’t as damaged as we expected, and repairs were minimal. And now it’s
being used by a Pastor. We’re praying about a big van for Coat Closet and church
work, and we would appreciate all who would pray with us about this need. Thank
you all for your faithful prayers for us, Pastor Ismail, the Coat Closet, the
churches, and the many ministries going on here in Bulgaria and Romania.
Because He First Loved Me,
(A printable PDF version
is available here)
Larry Leach, Jr.
P.S. Somehow in our packing and preparing to return to the field last fall,
there was a miscommunication and our fall prayer letter didn’t end up being sent
out. We apologize to all those who usually receive our letters via mail. We’ve
included the lost letter in with this one. Thank you for understanding.
- Support Address: Charity Baptist Mission: P.O. Box 692, Bristol, TN 37621-
- Field Address: 9900 Novi Pazar, P.K. 42, BULGARIA. larcarleach@gmail.com -
------------------------------------------------------
Dear Brethren,
August 28, 2022
My last prayer letter, and especially my last email update, came from a very
discouraged missionary. I had a lot of questions, a ton of concerns, very little
direction, an excess of bills, and lower monthly support. And all of that on top
of the daily battle that is OCD, which severely affects my routines. I recall
back in May standing before a precious congregation in rural Michigan and
saying, “If God doesn’t do something, I’m done. I can’t continue on the field
like this.” From the back pew a man called out, “We will pray you through it!”
Shortly afterward I received a call from a deacon in Southeast Tennessee telling
me that the church wanted to know how they could help, and that no matter how
long this valley lasted they were with me because, as he put it, “We don’t
believe in kicking our soldiers when they’re down.”
One individual after another - one pastor after another - one church after
another encouragement came slowly, but surely, through God’s people. My medical
bills, which had drained my reserves, were taken care of by generous gifts. A
Pastor called and asked me to come so his church could be a blessing to us.
Another Pastor called and asked me to come, simply with the intention of praying
over me. Weekends spent in Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina… moments
around a preacher’s table or at a restaurant with a pastor and his family… God’s
people listened. They didn’t offer endless advice; they listened. One dear lady
held my wife’s hand across the table and cried with her. These small moments
wrought a big work in our hearts.
God, as He is faithful to do, worked on our hearts. Some time in July it
occurred to me that I probably would not find any answers medically/supplementally/nutritionally,
and that I will likely battle OCD for the remainder of my life. I don’t have to
tell you how discouraging this thought was, but a day or so afterward a sister
at a supporting church just this side of the North Carolina line shook my hand
and said, “I hope this isn’t out of line, but I feel the need to tell you that a
broken vessel lets the light out better than a whole one.” So I came to America
seeking, with questions about how to be victorious over OCD, but instead came
away with the answer that this thorn in the flesh, though it will remain, will
be the very thing that will help me minister.
I came with many questions, but am either getting the answers I didn’t ask for…
or getting answers to questions I never asked.
Which brings me to the next part - God is leading us to expand the Coat Closet
in Avren to a year-round clothing distribution. That thought never entered my
mind, and wasn’t part of the questions I was seeking answers for, but Carrie and
I both are excited about this expansion. The need is there, and we already know
distributors. I already know Pastor Ismail will be excited to help the kids in
his impoverished neighborhood. It will be a lot of work to get up and running,
but churches are already asking how they can help. As of right now we plan to
return to Bulgaria September 14th, and we will have a lot of work to do right
away. First to take our house back from potential mildew and rat squatters. I
will also have to tend to our vehicle situation, since my wife’s car was hit
while in its parking space outside of our front gate. But it will also be time
to reach out to coat distributors for our yearly coats and socks distribution. I
hope to begin the closet expansion after the Coats for Kids distribution. Pray
with us.
One more random story and I’ll try to close: A few weeks ago when in prayer I
told the Lord I’d sure like to have my teeth cleaned. I know that sounds like
such a small thing, but I don’t like going to the dentist in Bulgaria. OCD and
Bulgarian dentists don’t mix well. Also, American dentists are expensive and
usually booked up for months out. But I told the Lord I’d really like to have my
teeth cleaned. Carrie called several places and not only were no appointments
available any time before November, it would cost nearly $400 (because as a new
patient it would also require x-rays and exam). Let’s back up just a bit…
Cherith called us from Michigan with severe tooth pain a couple months ago. We
went and got her and took her to her dentist here in Bristol, TN and she
underwent an urgent root canal. After the root canal there was a scratchy piece
on a tooth behind it, but she said she wanted to wait and see if it smoothed
out. Now fast forward to that day I talked to the Lord about my teeth. Cherith
asked to go back to the dentist to have him look at that scratchy spot. We went
in the office and they scheduled her for the next day. I decided to ask if they
had any openings for cleanings. The receptionist said they had two cancellations
for the following day and they could get me in. Carrie, too. I took those two
appointments. Just then a dear old friend came out from the back. She’s a dental
hygienist we met years ago. Come to find out, we were scheduled to see her. She
texted Carrie later and said she spoke to the dentist and the cleaning and
x-rays would be free, and that we only needed to pay for the exam. So we got our
teeth examined and cleaned and talked about the Lord the whole time during our
appointments. Afterward we got a call from the pastor of our dear friend,
inviting me to speak at their church. We went and enjoyed time with them, and
the church chose to begin supporting us and also one of our fellow missionaries.
Every morning I wake up and thank God for not only removing this dental burden
from my shoulders, but also using something so trivial to me to connect us with
a precious church in Virginia. God’s ways are amazing to watch.
We’re at the hardest part of furlough: the goodbyes stage. Saying goodbye is
such a common thing for a missionary, but we never get used to it. It seems it
gets harder and harder every time, especially with grandchildren in the picture
now. But God knows, and He will provide grace. Goodbye Grace. We try not to
dwell there, instead trying to focus on the great times we’ve had here. The
powerful church meetings. The echoes of the Prayer Room. Spending a little time
with all of our children. Watching our grandbabies crawl. Laughing with friends
- and sometimes belly laughing. Speaking English. Eating steak. Watching
baseball. Experiencing heart healing in the church. Being reminded time and time
again we are not alone in this war.
We need your continued prayers. As the man yelled
out in Michigan, keep praying us through it all. The only way anything is going
to get done is by prayer, I firmly believe it. Thank you all… for everything.
Because He First Loved Me,
(A printable PDF version
is available here)
Missionary Larry Leach, Jr.
- Support Address: Charity Baptist Mission: P.O. Box 692, Bristol, TN 37621 -
- Field Address: 9900 Novi Pazar, P.K. 42, BULGARIA. larcarleach@gmail.com -
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nathan and Jacob Reed distributed hundreds of shoes and socks
to
the poor and needy in Lespezi & Văleni, Romania - January 2023
https://www.facebook.com/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Pastors, Churches, and Fellow Saints, November – December 2022
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Romans 8:35
We have been very busy the last few months. We have mixed and poured concrete at our church building in Avren, Bulgaria. We also worked on leveling the yard. We would like to put a new roof on one of the other buildings on the property and finish two other rooms.
We hold our weekly English services for the American missionaries in Avren. This is the place that Bro. Ralph purchased years ago and we are grateful to be able to meet together and worship there. We are thankful for everyone that helped us accomplish this work.
Soon we will be distributing flour and oil to the church members and others that are destitute. These annual provisions are received with great joy and appreciation. We have witnessed the Lord bless His people, through you all, with these provisions. The flour and oil distribution has continued for many years and it's been a privilege to have a part in this ministry.
In December it was needful for me to return to America for a short visit that I might help my immediate family with some personal battles. Of course, we understand that we can do nothing of ourselves. Our confidence is in the Lord that He will deliver our loved ones from their troubles. We have conveyed to them what was said by Corrie Ten Boom, "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still." Please, remember our family in your prayers.
We haven't had guests for Christmas in three years because of COVID restrictions. But this year James, John, and Charity came to our village home in Dabravino and celebrated with us. It was a blessed holiday season and we praise God for our time together.
May the Lord bless each and every one of you throughout the upcoming year. Thank you, once again, for your faithful support and prayers. We love you!
Because of Calvary, Matthew and Jane Welch (A PDF print ready version of this letter with a family picture is available here)
----------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends in Christ, December 2022
Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As we come to the end of another year, I want to thank the Lord for letting us continue to serve Him. He has been more than faithful. This year has not been without its trials but we have seen the Lord do great things in spite of the storms…maybe even because of the storms.
I was talking to the kids in church last Sunday about the foundation on which we build our lives. I said that if we build our lives on the foundation of Jesus Christ, we may face storms but our foundation cannot be shaken. I told them that the storms we have been through in these 30 years on the field, rather than discourage us or cause us to doubt, have revealed to us the worth of our foundation.
One of the first Turkish meetings Brother Ralph started after we moved to Romania was in the home of a dear, Godly woman named Cadrie. She has been faithful over the years to open her home to anyone who wanted to come to the meetings. Many have come to Christ through the prayers and faithfulness of this precious lady who has always been willing to share her faith, her testimony, her love and her home to anyone who would come.
Over the last few years, the landlord where she was staying became more and more opposed to the church. She would argue about all the coming and going and the noise of the singing and praying. The crowd fell considerably due to her constant harassment. Praise the Lord, we were able to find a larger, nicer home in a better part of town for Cadrie to move into. Since the word got out, every week has seen more and more people coming. Some new folks…some folks we haven’t seen in years. Yesterday a little widow woman who cares for her handicapped daughter and grandchildren showed up after no one had seen her for years. There was much crying and rejoicing as she rejoined the fold. God is so good! Sister Cadrie feels like she is in Heaven! I thank the Lord for blessing her faithfulness.
I want to thank everyone who has been so gracious to give extra so that we may have a bountiful Christmas with our kids and those to whom we minister. I know it is not always easy. We truly appreciate it. This afternoon, Dara, Sandy, the kids and I are putting together packets of food to take out to the poorest families in and around our churches here in town. I am glad our kids get a blessing from sharing what the Lord has given them.
A little while back, our 13-year-old son, Creed, started asking from time to time if he could walk by himself to the neighborhood store about a quarter mile from our house. He said he just likes to go for walks. We said, “Sure, be careful”. When he would come back, I’d ask if he got anything from the store. He’d say, “No, Sir”. We found out recently he has been using his own money to buy things at the store for a homeless man and his son who shelter beside the store. Can you imagine what a blessing that is for us?
I am putting together another shipment of food, clothes, Gospel tracts and other necessities that I plan to take into Ukraine in the coming days. The Ukrainian pastor who distributes these to his churches in the war torn areas says these things continue to be desperately needed. Thank you to those who have sent funds to make this possible.
Thanks to Larry and Carrie Leach’s “Coats for Kids” ministry, we were able to fit 35 children with very nice coats and socks. These are children whose families live beside the municipal garbage dump in a nearby town. They are, as the saying goes, ‘poor as Job’s turkey’. (I’m not sure where the saying comes from…I can’t find one mention of a turkey in the entire King James Bible, much less in the Book of Job) Anyway, we have been able to hold church meetings and minister to these families for some years now. Putting coats on those precious kids has become a highlight of our Christmas season each year.
One last testimony before I close…. We have two boys in the Children’s Home, Billy and Gabriel, who are “special needs” kids. I say kids, but they are now 20 and 19 years old. They are both precious, sweet boys who, even though they have always been way behind mentally, have always been just part of the family like everyone else. Brother Ralph used to say that, even though they maybe would never understand all there is to know about salvation, he believed they were “safe” in God’s love like any other little child. We were so blessed a few weeks ago as we were sitting around talking about how thankful we are for our kids that are saved, when Billy chimed in “I know I am saved! I know Jesus saved me!” I believe he is. Billy and Gabriel have never missed a church service in their lives. They sing the hymns the best they can. They sit quietly and listen to the preaching. You never know what God is doing.
I am so thankful for what the Lord has let us be a part of all of these years. We are blessed much more than I have words to express. This holiday season, I pray you can truly see how blessed we all are by our Saviour, the Lamb of God, Emmanuel, Christ the Lord! Our best wishes, sincere prayers and heartfelt thanks go out to you all.
In Christ, Dave, Dara, Sandy and the Kids (A two page printable PDF version is available here)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
August - September, 2022
Dear Pastors, Friends, and Churches,
It is good to be serving the Lord! God has been good to me by allowing me in His grace to begin well by being saved at the age of 20! As the years have gone by, now my only desire is that I want to finish well. Paul left the admonition in Colossians 4:17 “And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.” I want to fulfill the ministry that God has put me in!
Also, I want to thank each one of you for all the prayers, cards, and phone calls concerning my wife, Debbie. She has finished her radiation treatments and is doing well. She had some side effects from the treatment, but all in all she did really well. Please continue to pray for her as she will be taking a daily pill for the next five years to help her treat this type of cancer.
In October I made a trip to a Hispanic country. The people there are facing some serious issues, with no gas, diesel and blackouts, etc. I also want to share a story with you of a pastor there whose name is Isaiah. I have always been impressed with his ministry, demeanor and music in his work. He labors for the Lord in a very poor community. The sewage runs by his work and the place where he lives has a dirty creek. He gave me a thumb drive before I left that described his needs for the increase of believers at his work. Currently, they are meeting outside under a carport with a tin roof that is adjacent to his home which is located on a "converted hog lot". He and his family have been living there for the last eight years! The pictures on the thumb drive broke my heart.
Please understand, my purpose of writing is not to ask for help, but to thank all of you who have given faithfully to the needs of supporting these Cuban nationals all these years as they preach and reach their people!
The Caeble Family, A printable PDF of this letter with pictures is available here.
1 Samuel 12:24
----------------------------------------------------------
Dear Churches and Praying Friends, November 2022
"Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ,
and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place."
(II Corinthians 2:14)Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus. We thank the Lord for his continual blessing upon the work here. Most of our village churches are full. Recently, in our little village we had a young woman come for the first time. On my way into church that day I overheard another lady telling her how to be saved. That day at the meeting she gave her testimony. Like everyone else in our village she had heard the gospel before, but never acted upon it. Several weeks ago she began to suffer from anxiety and panic attacks. A friend gave her some medicine which turned out to do more harm than good. She ended up in the hospital, with her life in danger. After her recovery she went back home and lived in seclusion from her family for a week. Finally, she cried out to God that she couldn’t go on like that. Later she got out her phone and searched for a Christian hymn in her language. She listened to a hymn about Jesus and gave her heart to him. That morning at church she wanted to make it official that she was a Christian.
For several years now we've been using a Turkish new testament that was translated by Ralph Cheatwood. Brother Cheatwood worked for 30 years to translate the King James Bible into modern Turkish. This translation has borne fruit all over Bulgaria and Romania. For the last year or so we have been praying that we could record the Bible and make it accessible on the internet. Many of our believers here are illiterate, so being able to listen to the Bible would be a great blessing. This has been our prayer and heart's desire. Recently, on a trip in Turkey I was able to meet an American brother there who had received one of our new testaments years ago and loved it. He is now in the process of having it professionally recorded. They have already posted the book of John! Unbeknownst to us, this whole time we've been praying, the Lord has been getting the job done!
Again, we thank you all for your continued prayer and support. (a PDF of this letter is available here)
In Christ, Zachary LeFevre
Sent from: Prayer Baptist Church, 855 Edwin Westland, MI 48185
Support & Mailing Address: Charity Baptist Mission, P.O. Box 692 Bristol, TN 37621
--------------------------------------------------------------
November 2022
This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:21-23It always gives me great peace in knowing that our God is faithful. We have certainly seen in the past year the unwavering faithfulness of God. We have seen God continue to work in the ministry here through all of 2022 and for that we are thankful, and this was with many things added due to the war in Ukraine. Hopefully, these next few paragraphs will sum up the past year.
It would be exceedingly difficult to mention anything about this year without including the many opportunities that arose from the conflict which began in February. This has been mentioned in more detail in previous prayer letters, but it still amazes me how God moved in the hearts of his people since the war began. We were able to give over $50,000 of aid to Ukrainian refugees. This is far more than we ever imagined doing. Through your generosity we were able to give food, clothing, household goods, diapers, and other items for babies and families. Most importantly Bibles, tracts, booklets, and other gospel literature were distributed to thousands of people. God is faithful.
We also did our yearly Flour and oil distribution with 70 tons of flour and 7,500 liters of oil, which helped hundreds of families during the winter months. Please make it a matter of prayer as this will be done again this winter. With the possibility of higher prices due to the war in Ukraine, this will in turn affect the price of grain throughout all of Eastern Europe.
God has continued to work in the villages within our churches. We were able to see 23 souls baptized recently who professed their faith in the Savior. This reminds us that God is still interested in the souls of men. Please remember to pray for our national pastors as they faithfully minister to the flock that God has given them.
God is continuing to bless our family. As I write this, we are preparing for a nine-month furlough and will be leaving on December 11th and staying until September 2023. We are excited to see family and visit many of our supporting churches. I have contacted many churches already, as we prepare to come in and will be contacting more after our arrival and we get settled in.
This is an exciting time for us as our daughter Mckenzie, David and the children will be furloughing also. It has been four years since I have seen them, and it will be wonderful to see them and be in meetings with them as well.
Please pray that our travel will go smoothly, and that God will use this furlough for his will in our lives. We are hoping to see many of you and are excited to see what God will do.
I do have one big prayer concern. Over the years I have developed a problem with my knee. Currently my left knee has no cartilage, and I need a knee replacement. We will be looking into this upon our arrival. Please keep this in mind as this will affect our schedule after we get clarity on what will be required to get my knee functioning properly.
In closing, thank you all for your continued prayer and support. We could not be on the field without your faithfulness in prayer and giving.
It is comforting to know that there are people calling your name in prayer and care enough to invest their time and money into your life.
Thank you so much and God bless, A printable PDF of this letter is available here.
Brother Keith Blalock and Family. www.facebook.com/Blalocks2bulgaria
----------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Praying Friends and Family, August – October 2022
Greetings! I pray this letter finds you well in the Lord looking forward to His soon return. This is my third attempt at writing this overdue prayer letter. The first two turned out to be small theses. There is so much that could be said about our ministry, our church family in Ukraine, the situation with the war with Russia, our family, etc… Please accept this letter as a brief overview of what could be said.
Ministry Update in Ukraine: We stay in communication with our people in Ukraine and stay abreast of the situation there. The US Embassy in Ukraine has issued a “No Travel” advisory to Americans. The only way to travel into the country is by car or train since the airports are all closed. Our church people still advise us to not return to Ukraine right now given the precariousness of the situation. While they are hopeful that full-scale war will not come to our region it is still unpredictable and could change very quickly. We are taking their advice and waiting till Spring to reassess the situation for a possible return date to Ukraine. This winter looks like it is going to be a hard one with curfews, electricity shut offs four plus hours each day, and air-raid sirens daily.
We are overjoyed and thankful to hear that our church in Ukraine continues to rally around the word of God at the feet of Jesus Christ. They continue to assemble, pray, witness, and serve the Lord by reaching out to the lost in the community with the Gospel using Humanitarian Aid to open the door.
Since our church is registered as a religious non-profit organization, we have the legal authority to receive Humanitarian Aid that was donated by the UN. By hand, our men moved 26 tons of food from Odessa to our church in Rozdilna, where they distributed it locally to those suffering from the war.
This opened a huge door of opportunity to get the Gospel into the hands of the Ukrainian people. It almost, however, turned into a riot after word got out that our church was distributing food. A line began to form at 6:00 a.m. and was three blocks long by 10:00 a.m. Our people handled the crowd heroically. If you have ever tried to manage a mob of desperate people you would understand! Since distributing help to the poor and refugees they have reported that several people have prayed to receive Christ as their Savior.
One man, named Misha, fled the heavily shelled city of Mykolaiv and came to our church to donate his time helping people. He quietly helped our men and heard the Gospel explained. He received Christ as his Savior and has continued to serve alongside our church in the trenches of front-line missions. We are overjoyed to receive the latest stats on the video presentation of the Gospel that we were able to help Pastor Bevins Welder put together with Pastor Joel Logan.
So far, over 30 million people have viewed at least some portion of it. Of the 30 million, 11 million of them watched the Gospel presentation all the way through and went on to log onto the website! What a blessing it is to think that we had a small part in explaining the Gospel to 11 million souls in the Russian language!
Ministry Update in the USA: The past three months have been busy with meetings. We spent a lot of miles on the road, over 12,000 of them, driving to meetings in CO, KY, MN, OH, NJ, CT, NY, IN, and TX. We’ve seen God’s hand of provision and protection the entire way! During this time, we have seen souls walk the isle for salvation, altars full, and young people surrender to full-time service. The Lord has given us the opportunity to preach on the street with a couple churches and opened the door to give an interview about Ukraine over the radio with Brother Grissom in Hastings, MN. Pastor Vince Massa in CT has a few men and women from Ukraine and Russia in his congregation. They gathered a small group, and I had the blessing of preaching to them in Russian, with several of them hearing the Gospel explained for the first time.
We’ve also had our share of setbacks and obstacles. Our vehicle has broken down six times with the same problem, leaving us stranded during, on the way to, and traveling home from meetings! Please pray that the dealership service department will honor the warranty. In addition, my laptop that I have used for fourteen years died on me and I’m still trying to retrieve all the years of files. Then we entered the ranks of those who have experienced being targets of credit card fraud twice in two weeks.
Please be in prayer for us as we prayerfully consider making a quick trip into Ukraine before the hard winter hits. Thank you for all that you do for the Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him in Ukraine. Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air! That Ukraine May Know Him,
Christopher Rue Phil. 3:10 (a print ready version is available here)
------------------------------------------------
Dear Pastors, Churches, and Fellow Saints, July/August 2022
Thine, O Lord is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. 1 Chronicles 29:11
In July we had the blessed privilege of hosting the Maher family in our home. They have been serving on the mission field for about 30 years and are fluent in Russian. We took them to hotels, governmental bases, and to two refugee centers (in Varna and Shumen). They were received everywhere with open arms. They had so much liberty to share the gospel at each location. It was like we were having church everywhere we went! We even had the opportunity to sing "Amazing Grace" in Russian on several occasions. It was such a blessing!
Bibles, tracts, and donations were received with utmost gratitude. Thank you for your faithful prayers and support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian refugees!
Our daughter, Charity, and grandson, Carrick, had the special blessing of attending a Christian youth camp this summer in Michigan. We are thankful for all that Victory Baptist Church in Hartland, MI did to make this possible. The teenage years are a real crossroads in young people's lives and we are grateful for all the prayers, preaching, and preparation that went into this youth camp.
In the month of August, we had a baptism at a nearby river and 23 people were baptized.
Our grandson, Christian, also followed the Lord in baptism during this special service. It was a blessing to witness that take place.
A man named, Bayram, was also among those that got baptized. He was very weak and sick from cancer but he desired to get baptized. It was a very touching sight to all who attended as we sang a hymn while he entered the river on the arms of some of our men. His wife stood on the shore watching, wiping away her tears. Not many days after, he went home to be with the Lord. What a testimony!
In the village of Yunak we have started meeting in the home of Dobrin and his wife, Zaharina. They look forward to the weekly meeting and have been an encouragement to this little village church. Sometimes there are just a few believers that attend but the best part is knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ is in our midst.
Once again, thank you for your faithful prayers and support for our ministry here in Bulgaria, and also for your prayers and contributions for Ukraine and the Ukrainian refugees.
All Because of Calvary,
(A PDF print ready version with pictures is available here)
Matthew and Jane Welch
----------------------------------------------------------
October 1, 2022
“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not
in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:57-58
Dear Pastors, Churches and Friends,
It is an honor to come to you with the reports of the work here in Romania. God
has been blessing greatly and time would fail me to report all the Lord is
doing. First, I’m glad to report that my dad was able to have his value
replacement surgery and is recovering well. Thank you for the prayers.
We thank God for the moving of his Spirit in the meetings. Many new people are
now attending the places where we have built prayer houses and feeding centers.
We are so thankful to all who have helped us build them. Many adults are coming
now because there is room. They are receiving help from the hymns, testimonies
and preaching of the Bible. The Lord moves with much power as they sing the
Turkish Hymns. Many times, people will break forth into prayer and will fall on
their knees and as the older believers catch their burdens they will also start
to pray and before
I know it, we are all down praying and worshiping the Lord all around the room.
Praise God for the privilege to pray with boldness in one spirit and know that
God hears us. You feel so clean after you pray like that. The people leave
refreshed and know they have met with God. It is such a blessing to see the
little children and babies singing with the believers. They encourage me that we
are not laboring in vain. The work of the Lord is forever and if we will provide
a place for them to come, in their time of need they will come, and that’s when
God is able to show them his love and power.
We’re so thankful that the price of gas has gone down to around $7.00 a gallon.
Every little bit helps as we go to the meetings. The good news is that our
dollar has climbed against the Euro. Now is the time to buy a car for the work.
We have Jacob a car now and I need to purchase one for the other team. Our cars
are now reaching 200,000 miles. Please know I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t a real
need and perfect time.
We now have a new young man in our church who has come into the faith. It is
such a miracle because he is Romanian and wants to help us reach the Turks. That
doesn’t happen much. I was able to marry him and his wife last summer and he has
shown himself faithful. He has his driver’s license and can really help us. They
have helped greatly in the care of the children in our meetings and feeding
centers. I want to bring them full time with us but need your help to do this.
We can help them for around $700 dollars a month. His name is Ionut and his
wife, who was raised in our church since she was a young child’s name, is Luci.
From Calarasi, Romania,
Nathan Reed and family
(A print ready version of this letter is available here)
-------------------------------------------------------
“But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.” Psalm 115:3
To the Strangers and Pilgrims
scattered abroad, (October 2022 Newsletter)
Howdy from Bulgaria, where the country’s a mess politically, the people are in
darkness spiritually, but God’s working miraculously. Does that sound like
anywhere else you know? Sounds like the whole world to me. Bro. John (the
Apostle, not the preacher you had in mind) said, “The whole world lieth in
wickedness.” And instead of repenting, they’re just rewriting the definition of
what’s wicked. In fact, the entire saga of mankind has been a giant attempt at
rewriting their own story, blaming the Lord for everything, excusing the devil
as a misunderstood victim of circumstances, and portraying themselves as
determined overcomers, surmounting impossible odds to surpass the need for an
omnipotent God.
You don’t think so? Nothing is new under the sun. Remember when Nimrod presided
over the first United Nations down in Babel? They drew up a charter of
self-determination, resolving that the Almighty was outmoded and unneeded. They
instituted a one-world economy centered upon production. Finally, they passed a
binding resolution, committing themselves to build a sure defense from future
judgment and a means to ascend into the heavens. The good Lord rolled His eyes
at their presumption, spoke a word that confounded their words, and derailed
their plans, for the time being.
Human history is littered with attempts at supplanting facts forever settled in
Heaven with the fictions of fallen man. In our day, it seems like they’ve
doubled down on their own fantasy, to the point they think they can recreate the
Garden of Eden, this time without the interference of God. (Ever hear of the
Green New Deal?) They’re redoubling their efforts at ushering in the Kingdom,
minus the King. And the only Christianity they’ll tolerate is one curiously
lacking the resurrected Christ. What a mess, indeed!
Nevertheless, while the heathen rage, the kings of the earth set themselves, and
the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, He just laughs and goes
about His business. Our God is unaffected, unmoved, and unconcerned over His
opposition; they can’t do anything to stop Him. They tried once. They assumed
they’d put a permanent end to His interference in their affairs. They soon
learned their affairs were manipulated to serve His purpose. How can you do
anything at all against the One who can do anything at all? In the end, He’ll
reconcile all things to Himself, by Himself, and take all the deserved glory for
Himself. And praise be to His worthy and blessed name, I’ll be there to see it
for myself!
What’s God doing now, you ask? Let me tell you. We had a meeting in late August
in Dabravino. It was the biggest meeting we’ve had in a few years. It was
attended by Heaven and a couple hundred Turks and Bulgarians. There was singing,
testifying, preaching, and praising the Lord. At some point we adjourned from
the meeting house to the riverside, where twenty-three souls, who had confessed
their faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ, were baptized.
The first man into the river was called Bayram, from Brestak, where Bro. Mitko
is the faithful pastor. He had opened his house for the believers to meet in
many years ago. At some point he opened his heart for the Lord to reside in,
though he was timid and perhaps weak in his faith. Not long ago he was diagnosed
with cancer. And though the doctors operated, there wasn’t much they could do.
It seems he resolved that before he departed this world he’d confess Christ
publicly. He was assisted into our meeting and laid upon a makeshift bed, but he
entered and exited the river in his own strength. Not long after his baptism,
Bro. Mitko took him to see a doctor in Pleven, about four hours away. The doctor
confirmed he didn’t have much time left, and there was nothing he personally
could do. On the trip home from Pleven, however, the great Physician healed him
permanently. He slipped off the shackles of this decaying form and entered into
life in the presence of Jesus.
An older man from a village close by attended the meeting out of curiosity. He
listened intently to the preaching, drank in every testimony, and there at the
riverside, he presented himself a candidate for baptism. Young Alish asked him,
“Are you a believer?” He said, “I wasn’t when I came, but who can deny this? I
believe Jesus.” He got immersed in Christ, and then we dipped him in water. Bro.
Keith Blalock and I visited the meeting in his village several weeks later, and
there he was. Not only was he in attendance, but he was translating everything
being said for a Polish man who came.
Bro. Demir had several converts from his villages willingly and joyfully
acknowledge their faith in Jesus. Ahmed and I were privileged to baptize the
brother and sister from Varbitsa who have opened their house to the church.
Young Alish said there were seven from his villages, saved during the last year
or so, who were baptized.
Speaking personally, as good as all that was, and it was better than good, it
was exceeded only when my little boy, Christian Asher, came to be baptized. I
say little boy, but he’s bigger than his momma now. I’ve never pushed my boys to
do anything, but I sure have prayed, asking God, that in His good time, they’ll
take His hand in theirs and follow Him whithersoever He would. And He would, and
did, lead Christian to declare publicly, to Turks, Bulgarians, and Americans
alike, that Jesus Christ was his savior. My heart was full to bursting while
raising my hand to Heaven, saying, “I baptize you, my brother…” What a God,
who’d give His blood to wash a father and son, and make them brothers in the
same spiritual family! Carrick Austin, his older brother, says he’s waiting to
be baptized when we return to America. He’s a little like Naaman: He thinks the
rivers of his own country are better than these here.
Pray for us. We’ve got needs and wants we only mention to God. Pray for the work
here. Pray for the workers. God sure is good. “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and
all that is within me, bless his holy name.”
Because of a living Savior,
A print ready version of this letter is available here)
The William LeFevre Family
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bulgarian feeding 2022
The following letter was written by missionary William LeFevre in Bulgaria concerning the upcoming flour and oil distribution. Please send contributions to Charity Baptist Mission P.O. 692 Bristol, TN 37621
“For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.” Psalm 107:9
To the Strangers and Pilgrims scattered abroad,
Howdy from Bulgaria. I hope this letter finds every one of you rejoicing in the Lord, mindful of His benefits, resting secure in His promises, and comforted by His faithfulness. It sure is good to know, that in a world falling apart, and people falling to pieces, that God’s word stands just as sure as it ever has been: perfect, powerful, and a present help for any and everything that comes our way. And there’s a whole lot coming our way. Wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, and Jesus said that was just the beginning. Merciful heavens, if that’s just the beginning, I pity the people that’ll see the bulk of it.
You know, one of the most encouraging things in scripture, is how peaceful the Lord remains in our panic. When the whole thing blows up, and no one can recognize what was for what is, the Lord is still on His throne, and it’s still business as usual in Heaven. As bad as it gets down here, it’s still as good as it gets in the presence of Jesus.
Lots of folks are asking how we’ll fare through the winter, what with the continuing and escalating war, the rising cost of everything, and the lessening supply. Some have even asked, given all that, if we’re going ahead with distributing flour and oil again. Don’t let the nightly news distract you from the good news. How are our believers going to make it this winter? The same way they’ve made it through every winter preceding this one, the same way you and I make it, with the help of God. And just as Heaven hasn’t shut down, we’ll keep on doing what we’ve always done, trusting Him to supply what we lack.
As of right now, the dollar is up – the highest it has been in years, near 2 to 1, on par with the British pound and Euro; the price of flour is up, but not outrageous, at 1.10 leva/kilo; and oil is around 5 leva per liter bottle. To put that in terms you’ll understand, to provide a single family with 100 lbs. of flour and 5 liters of oil it will cost about $40. It normally takes around $70,000 to feed who we can, starting with our own, and helping all we can with what we have.
That’s a big number, to us; to God it’s just a number. It could be seven or seven million; it’s all the same to Him. Believing that with all our hearts, why ask little if He would just as easily give much? After all, it’s the same faith required to obtain the least amount as the greatest. Help us ask big. Gracious me, what a God! I’m looking forward to seeing Him surprise us again. Bless His name. Oh, and while you’re asking big, ask quick as well; if He’ll do one, He’ll be just as pleased to do the other. God bless every last one of you. Love y’all.
Because of a living Savior,
The William LeFevre Family (a printable PDF version of this letter with pictures is available here)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends in Christ, September 2022
Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. First of all, I want to thank God for how good He has been to us here. The 3rd of September marked 30 years since Dara and I arrived in Bulgaria to work with her parents, Ralph and Sandy Cheatwood. We arrived eager and willing to serve the Lord, having no idea what that would mean. The Lord allowed us to grow and learn and be a part of a wonderful ministry where we have seen thousands saved and churches planted all over Eastern Bulgaria and Romania.
More than 20 years ago, the Lord let us build Casa Julia Children’s Home in Romania… not only to run, but to be the parents of a wonderful group of children. Praise God, almost all of the children we have had the privilege to raise have been saved. Last week we had a baptism service for two of our own children, our son-in-law and the girlfriend of one of our boys. The Lord gave us beautiful weather and we had a wonderful service and then baptized them in the Black Sea.
The war in nearby Ukraine continues. Even though this tragedy has been replaced in the news, and probably in many people’s minds, with more exciting stories; there are so many still displaced and suffering from the continued fighting…homes destroyed; loved ones lost, injured or killed; jobs lost; lack of food, electricity and basic supplies. Regardless of how you feel about the war, there are many thousands of lost people who need to know that there is a loving heavenly Father who wants to help and heal them. A Father who loves them so much He spared not His own Son to save them.
In the last month I was blessed to be able to make two trips across the border to take supplies into Ukraine. We have been working with a Ukrainian pastor, Brother Alex, who is travelling to the war torn areas to take these supplies to the families and Ukrainian soldiers who are suffering the most. He is also preaching as he goes from town to town to distribute food, clothing and other much needed supplies. Brother Alex is declaring and showing the love of Christ as He shares the Gospel.
Together with another missionary brother here in Romania, we were able to buy Brother Alex a van to distribute these supplies. On my last trip, I took clothes and socks because, Brother Alex said that many of the soldiers in the hospitals do not have even a change of clothes when they are brought in bloody and injured.
I thank the Lord for opening the doors and protecting me as I travelled inside Ukraine. If you have never crossed the border in one of these Eastern European countries, you can’t imagine how tense it can be and how many things can go wrong, especially carrying a ton of valuable supplies. So many times the Lord opened doors and cleared the way for me. Several times I had to cross through military checkpoints, show my documents and have the contents of my vehicle searched. One of these times, I was able to witness to the soldier who was inspecting my vehicle. I gave him and his fellow soldiers some camouflage winter hats, some Gospel tracts, and pointed them to the church I was going to in the nearby town. They were thankful and seemed to appreciate that others were praying for them and their country. They are fighting a war of flesh and blood, but are unaware of the battle for men’s souls that is raging all around them. I thank the Lord for protecting His soldiers as we endeavor to fight the good fight.
School is back in session. One of our girls started high school and we have three in middle school (one homeschooling with Dara) and our youngest in 3rd grade. Our two “special needs” boys got into a very nice vocational high school.
Thank you all for your continued prayers and your support. If the Lord lays it on your heart to help the folks in Ukraine, I will be sure it gets into the hands of those who truly need it.
In Christ,
Dave, Dara, Sandy and the Kids (a printable PDF version of this letter is available here)
----------------------------------------------------------
August 2022
"After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and
two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.
Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are
few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth
labourers into his harvest… Luke 10:1,2
And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes
which see the things that ye see: For I tell you, that many prophets and kings
have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to
hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them."
(Luke 10:23,24)
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has called us by
his grace into this ministry.
In the passage above we see how the Lord had sent these seventy before him to
every city and village that he himself would go. Later, they returned with good
news of all the things they had seen. The Lord told them not to rejoice as much
in the miracles that they had witnessed, but rather to rejoice that their names
were written in heaven. In the end, though, he did tell them what a blessing it
was to have seen the things with their eyes that they had seen. Today we see the
Lord working in a similar fashion. He does not go himself to every city and
village in the world, but rather, sends his missionaries out to preach his
gospel. Those who hear the message of the missionaries and receive them, also
receive the Lord; his spirit enters into their hearts to dwell. The preaching is
done by men, but the power to save is only from God. As missionaries, we confess
that we are but small vessels to be used of the Lord; our greatest joy is not in
our works, but that our names are written in heaven. However, it is a tremendous
blessing to be able to see and hear the things that we do.
Recently, one lady testified that they had been without electricity for six
years. Their home was old, and run down. She, her husband, and their daughter
got saved. One evening they were reading the Bible by candle light when they
came across the verse "...and they shall call his name Emmanuel," her daughter
asked, "What does that name mean?" The mother said, "I don't know. I've never
heard of it." Then they kept reading, and the verse said, "which being
interpreted is, God with us." She told her daughter, "Look, God is with us." I'm
glad that the poorest of the poor, the people that sit in darkness can read a
Bible and know that God is with them. Thank you to all who have helped us print
Bibles.
One of the pastors told the story of how several of their churches were started.
Over ten years ago there was a village rather far away that had sent a man to
find Brother Ralph Cheatwood and ask him to come start a church in their
village. He went, along with two national pastors, and two churches were started
in that village. Those two national pastors continued to drive there every week
for the meetings.
One day Brother Ralph called the pastors to come look at a map. He told them not
to take the highway to that village, but to take the back roads. That would mean
a longer drive on winding roads in bad condition. When the pastors asked why,
Brother Ralph said that because there were villages along the way that one day
would want a church. Although it was more difficult, and it meant more wear and
tear on the vehicles, they agreed to take those back roads every week. Six
months later they went to church out there, and there was a visitor. The man was
older, and walked with a cane. It had taken him six hours that morning to walk
the two miles from his village to the village where the church was. He had
walked it to ask those preachers if they would come to his village to preach.
Within a year there were six other villages that had opened up along those back
roads. The national pastor said, "From now on, I'm going to do whatever Ralph
Cheatwood says, because he is God's man." Thank you to all who have helped us
buy vehicles for these pastors.
This summer we've already had about a dozen people baptized, and there's several
more who want to be baptized. We continue to produce new testaments and
hymnbooks. Several people have returned from Western Europe to Bulgaria on their
summer vacations. They told us how that during the Covid lockdowns, when no one
was allowed to go out in public, they were able to sing hymns and read the Bible
in their homes with their neighbors. Now they need more Bibles and hymnbooks for
those neighbors.
Thank you to all who pray for this work.
In Christ,
Zachary LeFevre
Sent from: Prayer Baptist Church, 855 Edwin Westland, MI 48185
(a print
ready version of this letter is available here)
Support & Mailing Address: Charity Baptist Mission, P.O. Box 692 Bristol, TN
37621
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May – July 2022
Dear Praying Friends and Family,
I pray this letter finds you well in the Lord looking forward to His soon
return. This is my third attempt at writing this overdue prayer letter. The
first two turned out to be small theses and were too long. Lord willing, I will
find a way to put all my thoughts on what is going on in Ukraine from a Bible
believer’s perspective and post it on our website.
After much prayer and consideration about the Lord’s will we have decided that
He wants us to stay the course and finish what we came here to do in the USA and
prepare for our return to Ukraine. We have supporting churches spread out in
Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and New York that we have not yet
updated. We have not seen them in anywhere from ten to seventeen years. When we
are finished with this part of our ministry we will take another look at the
situation and hopefully return to Ukraine to a people prepared of the Lord ready
to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ! If, however, the war is still going on we
will look into ministering to Ukrainian refugees in one of the bordering
countries until it is safe to return with my family.
In the meantime, we continue to encourage our people in Ukraine and send money
to men in four separate areas where they can help those whose lives have been
turned upside down by this war. I received a report from one brother that he has
led over twenty people to Christ using the aid we sent him as a way to open a
conversation. We also just received a report from my assistant in Rozdilna,
Brother Alexei, that our church contacted the local authorities to receive a
list of registered refugees from eastern regions hit the hardest. They made
contact with 200 households and ministered to them. They also organized a church
service where around one hundred refugees came and heard Brother Alexei preach
the Gospel to them and give them food and clothing that was purchased by the
funds sent from you, our supporters. My hope and prayer has been that the Lord
would use this awful situation to prepare people to receive the word of God from
western missionaries. The anti-west propaganda that has been pumped into Ukraine
from Russia for the past twenty years made it very difficult to even have a
conversation with them. The Lord has very graciously answered our prayers and,
for the first time in my lifetime, our ministry in Ukraine received a positive
write-up in the local newspaper in Rozdilna about how we are helping people and
preaching the word of God to them! You would have had to have lived in Rozdilna
for the past thirty years to understand what a miracle this is!
Words cannot describe how thankful we are that our church and people are still
standing against all the trials and temptations that are in Ukraine right now.
They continue to hold regular church services and reach out to the surrounding
areas with personal witnessing, literature, and humanitarian aid (See 3 John
1:4).
We would like to include a short update on our family. My son, Samuel, has
decided to relocate to Boise, ID for work and attend the Bible Institute there
while he transitions to life in the USA. I drove him out there and helped get
him set up. It is so hard to let go, especially when they are so far away. My
consolation is that I’ve watched Samuel over the past few months really get his
own relationship with Jesus Christ and prayerfully make decisions about what God
wants him to do, not what he preferred to do (See again 3 John 1:4). My daughter
is still willing to return to Ukraine with us but is open to whatever the Lord
wants her to do in the meantime. She is also praying about finishing her Bible
degree but must first work and save her money to relocate. She has become almost
irreplaceable to me in the ministry as a secretary and accountant. I can’t
describe my thoughts and feelings about losing her. She really adds a lot to our
ministry. Please pray for the Lord’s will to be done in her life as we face some
difficult decisions ahead.
Bible believing churches and people continue to express their desire to
financially help those affected by the war. We still have channels open to help
people inside Ukraine. If you would like to help please send a check to our
mission board with the words “Rue/Ukraine relief” on the memo line. My number is
(513) 376-1011 if you have any questions. Thank you for all that you do for the
Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him in Ukraine. Until our next prayer
letter or our meeting in the air!
That Ukraine May Know Him, (a print ready version with pictures is available here)
Christopher Rue https://www.facebook.com/people/Rue-Family-Missionaries-to-Ukraine/100068352738533/
Phil. 3:10 http://ruemissions.com/may-july-2022/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
May/June 2022
Dear Friends, Family, Pastors, and Churches,
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Ephesians 3:20,21
The Lord continues to abundantly bless the ministry among the Ukrainian refugees who have fled to Bulgaria. We have so many opportunities to help, to witness, and to show compassion to these people who are hurting so deeply. They have had open hearts and minds as we witness to them in English, Bulgarian, and Russian. We have been able to give out Bibles and tracts in every location we have gone and they have been received with interest and gratitude. Whether we are at a border crossing, a governmental base, a hotel, or a refugee center we have experienced great liberty to evangelize. We are sowing seeds and one day there will be a harvest.
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Isaiah 55:11
We have been able to send thousands of dollars’ worth of humanitarian aid into Ukraine. This aid has gone to military hospitals and to the front-lines. We put tracts in the socks for soldiers; scripture cards in emergency blankets; and New Testaments in medic bags and packages to soldiers. This has all been made possible by the generous contributions of churches, families, and friends. We appreciate your concern, prayers, and support for the ministry to the Ukrainian refugees and Ukraine.
It is encouraging to see the Lord working not only among the Ukrainians but also among the Turkish gypsies. It is refreshing to be able to go to meetings again in spite of the shadow of COVID. We are thankful we are able to fellowship, sing, and preach as we did before.
Recently, we were able to purchase a vehicle for one of our national pastor's named Demir, as well as a van for ourselves which will be very useful in our work here. Even though the price of fuel is almost eight dollars a gallon the Lord has met every need, every time.
Last of all, please continue to pray for my brother Kevin, who is still battling esophageal cancer.
Because of Calvary,
Matthew and Jane Welch A printable version of this letter with pictures is available here.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
August 2022
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee,but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Micah 6:8
As I read this
verse of scripture my mind naturally focused on three words: justly, mercy and
humbly. The question is raised: what is good and what does the Lord require? I
think in our hearts we all want to please God. Over the past few months we had
many opportunities to take to heart those three words as we saw God’s hand
working in us while ministering to those in need around us.
The word justly means honestly, fairly and with integrity. We have surely been
given many chances to deal justly with people over the past few months.
Thousands of lives have been turned upside down because of the unfairness and
lack of integrity of the wicked regime in Russia. Millions of people have been
put out of their homes and thousands of lives have been lost. With opportunities
to do justly, we have been able to show mercy and meet the needs of many
refugees here in Bulgaria. Through the generosity of so many we have been given
many doors of ministry that we never even imagined were possible. From putting
fifteen pallets of food and aid on a truck for delivery directly into Ukraine,
to taking our own van ourselves, filled full of supplies, and taking it to
missionary Mark Priem at the Ukrainian border, or sending one thousand dollars
to Brother John O’Brien for military armored vests for frontline troops. We also
helped individual families, such as Julia and her two sisters Christina and
Yasmina, who fled to Bulgaria without their mother who had to remain in Ukraine.
I believe it has been very pleasing to God for us with your help to show mercy
to these in need. An opportunity was made available to help fund a Ukrainian
Social Center in the town of Shumen. This has given us an avenue to see the
gospel to get into the hands of hundreds if not thousands. Also, with the visit
of the Maher family, were able to see the gospel preached at several locations
where some of the refugees are being housed. It was wonderful to see the
foundation of mercy shown, along with gospel tracts giving them an open door for
the preaching of the gospel in their language. God is good!
Please continue to pray for the war in Ukraine and its people. There are still
thousands of refugees here in Bulgaria and many needs associated with them. We
have been fortunate to be able to help so many people since the beginning of the
war and will do as much as we can until the funds run out.
Our regular Turkish meetings are going well. God is continuing to work in
hearts, and we are grateful for God’s hand in their lives. Covid is still a
constant hindrance, but we are learning to navigate the landscape of ministry
with this virus constantly around us. Please pray for our national pastors and
their families.
We had visitors from the states; Zack and Haylie visited for a week and we
crammed a month of sights into that week. It was sad to see them go, but it was
such a blessing to have them with us. My brother will be coming near the end of
August. After he spends a week in Romania with his church he will come with a
young man from his church and stay for a week here. I am looking forward to this
time of ministering together. I thank God for my brother, his love for our
Savior, and his desire to share the gospel all over the world.
In closing I would like to remind you that we will be returning for furlough in
December. I will contact as many as possible about visiting while we are in. If
you would like us to come by, you can also contact me through email at
blalockstobulgaria@gmail.com.
We will be available from December 2022 through September 2023. We are looking forward to seeing you all.
A printable version of this letter, with pictures, is available here.
Brother Keith Blalock and family. www.facebook.com/Blalocks2bulgaria
-------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Church Family, Spring 2022 Newsletter
In March I made a trip to a Hispanic country and had some trouble going in, but once I was on the other side it was without incident. I had a great time, although I was sick and had to take it easy. I was alone, so it was up to me to do the preaching; and the Lord allowed me to preach several times. Sunday morning’s service was in a church in town, and I will never forget that day. There were about 250 people attending, and I knew the Lord was working. I was expecting people to come forward, but was not expecting what actually happened. I even sensed the Lord was calling someone to preach, though that was not my emphasis in the message. After the service, four young men in their twenties came up to the preacher who is one of my team. Two of the young men were weeping, and all four of them surrendered to preach! A young lady was also weeping and said she wanted to surrender to whatever the Lord wanted her to do in her life. Wow! What can you say? The Lord moved in a great way!
I am also writing with much sadness to tell you some bad news. My wife Debbie has breast cancer. She has been having some pain for several months, so she had a mammogram and an ultrasound. There was an area of concern, so they did a biopsy and confirmed that it was stage one breast cancer. They also did an MRI to get more information. The doctor was very optimistic since it is in an early stage and has not spread. She will be having a small lumpectomy on June 1st, followed up with radiation for about four weeks. We are thankful that it is in the early stages. We covet your prayers at this time.
(Most of you have already seen much of this sent in prior emails, but I wanted to send it again prior to the surgery date.)
The Caeble Family, (A printable PDF of this letter is available here)
1 Samuel 12:24
------------------------------------------------------
Dear Churches and Praying Friends, May 2022
"Now therefore,
our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name." (I Chron. 29:13)
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I thank my God that
he put me into the ministry. It is truly a blessing to be able to witness
firsthand what the Lord is doing for the people over here. He is reaching down
to the dust and lifting up the poor.
This spring we were able again to deliver the flour and oil to our church
families here. Before the prices began to go up, we were able to get everything
ordered. Shortly after our order, the price of oil almost doubled, and was
impossible to buy more than a little at a time. The Lord allowed us to buy
enough for over 1,500 families, and 78 tons of flour. All of the poor people
here received it gladly, and send their thanks to God on your behalf.
Around 100,000 refugees from Ukraine came to Bulgaria; about half of them
traveled through to other countries and half of them stayed here. The Lord has
allowed us to minister to them. We've distributed food, water, clothing,
medicines and other necessities. Our prayer was that we would also be able to
reach them with the gospel. The Lord provided us with gospel tracts and Bibles
both in the Ukrainian and Russian languages, and something even better than that
- a preacher. Last month a Ukrainian preacher came to Bulgaria to minister to
the refugees here, and we were able to direct him to the ones that we had
already been ministering to. He was able to preach the gospel to them in their
own language. Many of the refugees are reading the Bible now for the first time
in their lives. Many of them have told us that now they are believing. Many of
them are amazed at the love that you all have shown them through us. To God be
the glory. It may be that in the ages to come heaven will be inhabited by
Ukrainians who fled to Bulgaria for refuge, but ended up fleeing to God's city
of refuge at Calvary.
Please pray for us as we continue to preach the gospel here in Bulgaria. The
pastors are doing well, and so are their churches. We praise the Lord that he
has provided the funds to purchase vehicles for two of the pastors recently.
In Christ,
Zachary LeFevre
-----------------------------------------------------------------
MAY 2022 - UKRAINIAN CRISIS UPDATE => www.facebook.com/richard.maher.710
Dear Praying
Brothers and Sisters,
Over 14,000,000 people have been forced from their homes; of these 5,900,000
Refugees have fled the country! Videos/pictures show devastation and utter
destruction/leveling of homes, towns and cities, BUT Oh the heartfelt despair
and pain of their broken hearts. “...by sorrow of the heart the spirit is
broken.” Proverbs 15:13b Praising God -He promised, “The LORD is nigh unto them
that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” Psalm
34:18
Recap of God’s Work throughout Paul Gray’s and my travels to: Romania, Bulgaria and Poland - Evangelizing Refugees!!!
Thank You! Your
Sacrificial Gifts and Prayers resulted in a fruitful Month showing God’s perfect
timing!
1) The Lord even Blessed our trip with a $250 cheaper Humanitarian fare which
included three free bags each to carry extra supplies and tracts. The March 14th
departure allowed for our Chick tracts to arrive that morning.
2) We agreed with a printer in Romania, who printed 45,000 thousand copies of
our four most applicable Testimonial Tracts and 5,000 booklets called, “Why is
God Silent?” - Which explains God’s use of such situations to draw us to true
faith in Christ for Salvation. (The Printer first said two weeks, but after the
Lord changed his heart, he said 3-4 days!)
3) While they printed our tracts, we worked three days in Bucharest, Romania
with a Church to witness to the Refugees at the train station and to also offer
them a place to stay with meals until they get settled or transit on to other
countries.
4) Missionary Friends in Bulgaria also printed our Testimonial tracts including
a special QR Code and our Ukrainian Pastor’s Phone #. For three days we helped
visit Refugee centers distributing food and care packages with tracts and
humanitarian aid.
5) Two Printers in Odessa actually started printing again in mid-March, but had
a limited supply of paper. Missionary Mark Priem’s printer found more paper to
keep their presses running. AND the best part is the ONLY Print Orders they have
are from Missionary Mark Priem and from us. In total they have printed 400,000
brochures, including 152,000 Chick Tracts and 25,000 booklets in the last 50
days. These were sent all over for distribution inside Ukraine. On our last day
I contacted Missionary Joe West in Poland. He is now printing tracts and
booklets for our Summer trip.
6) Our Original plan was to drive Brother Paul Gray’s van, but we gave it to
Brother Michael, (A Ukrainian Evangelist friend) who really needed a van for
Delivering Aid into the war torn areas and then for Evacuating Refugees to
safety. Our Pastor Slavick brought my car out so we could take our 70,000 tracts
and Booklets to Poland and travel this summer.
7) Boxes of these tracts and booklets were sent out to Missionaries in Ireland,
Croatia, Portugal, Moldova, Romania, Italy, Czech Republic and three places in
Poland. The last service in Warsaw, Pastor Alexander (who was saved through
street ministry) offered to contact all the Russian Speaking and Polish Churches
which work with refugees to send them tracts. A box of tracts was also sent into
Kharkiv inside the Christian Aid shipped by the Polish Church with which we
worked.
8) We Passed out Gospel tracts in Romania, Bulgaria and Poland. We helped
coordinate and supply tracts to three street preachers who came from North
Dakota to Evangelize w/tracts at the bus and train stations in both Krakow and
Warsaw.
• Other Brothers from the USA are planning to come in June to distribute tracts
in both Krakow and Warsaw, Poland.
9) Pray for the Many Christians who are now scattered abroad (Acts 8:4) across
Europe that God would use them to testify of His Great Salvation. One such
Sister, Marina realized that back in Ukraine she would only be busy gardening,
but now transplanted to a refugee complex in Romania, she has witnessed to 30
families and already one lady got saved!!!
10) Your Monetary Donations have been a God Send to: 1) Print Gospel Literature
(above). 2) Purchase Christian Aid to Bless and Supply for the needs of many
Ukrainian Refugees. 3) We continue sending money to faithful Pastors and
Evangelists in Ukraine who: I) Evacuate Refugees. II) 200+ Tons of Aid
transported and distributed to local Churches who then show God’s Love in action
while Evangelizing those souls suffering and seeking hope to deal with despair,
terror and incomprehensible loss. BLESSING: Many Churches began actively
Evangelizing and also Housing those displaced inside Ukraine. In the town of
Konotop they’re actually starting a new Church! Please PRAY for the Safety of
Eugene, Michael, Slavick, Roma, and Others as they Transport Aid in and Evacuate
Refugees on their return trips: (When we speak, they retell how hard it is to
find Diesel Fuel. If it is found, it costs $7.50 - $9/gallon ~ $250-$300/van
trip.)
11) Pray for the European Ukrainian/Russian Churches that they would Evangelize
and for Many new Churches Needed!
12) Praise the Lord! Oksana’s Parents are now in the USA staying with us, but
will visit their relatives and friends this summer so our whole family can work
with Refugees in Europe. {A large shopping mall just one mile from their house
was destroyed in a recent missile attack.} … Slavick’s family (Oksana’s brother)
is Purchasing and Transporting Food and other Aid to Odessa and serving Refugees
in Romania. Our son David is going there in June/July to help Slavick build a
few necessary buildings, since he plans to hold three camps in July for
Ukrainian Refugee Children. Elisabeth finished her first year of College. She’ll
visit refugee friends in Europe, work with us and be a leader at the July camps
in Romania.
Great GAINS: Many brothers tell of Souls turning to Christ for salvation! But,
WAR also causes Great LOSS of lives: 20 yr-old Nazar from our Church was
recently killed along with his uncle and ~ 250 other soldiers during an
Artillery attack. Shelling/bombing continues in Nikolaev and Odessa as Russia’s
forces would like to take all of Ukraine’s Ports.
Tentative Summer Plans for Europe: PRAY {Wisdom and Open Doors} 1) Working in
Poland with New Church Plants.
2) Evangelizing with European Missionaries -Counseling and Presenting the Gospel
to Refugees in Europe.
3) Ministering to Ukrainians in Refugee Camps in Bulgaria, Romania and Poland.
=>Thank you to each of you for your faithful prayers, support and concern for
Oksana’s relatives and especially for the millions of Ukrainian souls seeking
peace in this chaos. PRAY they’ll truly find it in Christ-“he is our Peace”
Ephesians 2:14.
For the souls of Ukraine, Follow our Posts on ==>
www.facebook.com/richard.maher.710
Richard, Oksana,
Elisabeth and David Maher - - - Questions call me: (513) 969-4229 or
mahers4jesus@gmail.com
SENDING MONEY TO HELP - Make the check-out/send to: Charity Baptist Mission, PO
Box 692
Bristol, TN 37621-0692 *Please write in the memo: Richard Maher-Help for Ukraine
[Sending Money allows us to: (1) Supply money for Christians to fuel vehicles:
for evacuating people and delivering aid or to purchase food or medicine for
those suffering in Ukraine. (2) Print and/or purchase Evangelistic literature
for distribution to the many Refugees fleeing to European Countries.]
(click here to view a printable PDF of this letter)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Praying Friends
and Family, March – April 2022
The Thought of Heaven: The past two months have been an emotional rollercoaster.
One moment we are glad, encouraged, and hopeful; the next we are full of
heaviness and sorrow. Taking a step back and looking at what God has done, and
is doing, in Ukraine helps us to continue constant in the Lord. I often breathe
a prayer of thanksgiving to God that our church and its members are still
standing fast. Many of the women and small children have left. They are now
refugees in Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, Moldova, and Slovakia. We stay
in contact with them and do what we can to encourage them to serve the Lord with
what talents they have where the Lord has put them. Others stayed in Ukraine
with their families to help. Several of the men from our church have enlisted to
defend Ukraine from Russia. They are still holding Sunday morning church
services, praying, witnessing, and helping those in need. I realize that several
missionaries have had to watch as their churches were scattered, and, as one
brother said, “they have said they are never returning to Ukraine.” I’m so
thankful that we’ve not been required of the Lord to swallow that bitter pill.
The Lord has encouraged us with the statistics that have filtered in over the
past month regarding the video presentation I had the privilege to give for use
on Pastor Joel Logan’s website targeting Russian and Ukrainian speaking people
with the Gospel. Somehow they have the ability to know how many people have
watched the videos all the way through and how many people have watched them for
30 seconds or more. So far, over 8.5 million people have watched the videos all
the way through, with over 16 million people watching it for 30 seconds or more.
The presentation in Russian is as clear and thorough as we could make it to lead
someone to Christ! The Lord has done exceeding abundantly above all I could ever
ask! They have received many testimonies of people who have prayed to receive
Jesus Christ as their Savior. The thought of what the Lord has done, and is
doing, with this has made the thought of heaven much sweeter!
Ukraine Relief: We have been simply amazed at the outpouring of generosity of
Bible Believing churches in the USA for Ukraine. So far, we have been able to
get over $40,000 in aid to people inside Ukraine who need it, some desperately.
These funds have been channeled to those in need through vetted, Bible-believing
men who have proven themselves faithful over the years. Our relief program had
small beginnings. I simply worked with our men and instructed them to help those
closest to them, because the Lord said, “Love thy neighbor…” I told them to
start with the poorest in the church and then enable those who didn’t need help
to help their neighbors and family members both saved and lost. Every form of
aid was to be given out with the message of the Gospel in spoken and printed
form along with a message from American churches, “This help is from Bible
believing churches in America who love them and are praying for them.”
These funds have provided various things such as food, clothing, medicines,
surgeries, bandages, body armor, and transportation for women and children to
safety. From my end here in the US there has been a constant challenge of
working with the banking system and dealing with bureaucracy to get these funds
inside Ukraine. On their end in Ukraine there has been the challenge of
receiving these funds, rationing, curfews, and limited cash in the banks. They
have to drive over two hours just to make a withdraw from the bank going through
multiple military checkpoints and buying supplies trying to make it back home
before curfew begins. Think about that and thank God the next time you make an
easy cash withdraw from a nearby ATM.
At the present time I have to rely on trusted individuals to move money.
However, we are currently working on trying to get everything set up to move
money through our local church’s bank account. Our church has already been able
to help several national pastors who do not have any documented proof of their
status as ministers to receive aid for their churches from various humanitarian
organizations. I’m so glad I spent all those hours with a lawyer years ago
setting this up for our church to be a blessing to others. At the time it seemed
very tedious, but what a blessing it has been over the years to many
missionaries and ministries in Ukraine.
The first stage of our ministry yielded over ten people receiving Jesus Christ
as their Savior! These were the family members and neighbors of our church
members who were dealt with personally, one on one. We have prayed for some of
them for over ten years to be saved!
We were contacted by several national pastors and evangelists whose families and
ministries needed help. We sent several thousand dollars to men who needed to
get their families to safety while they did personal work along the western
border of Ukraine. We sent funds to men from our church serving in the military
who needed supplies. One brother from our church, Kolya, who is an officer, was
able to lead one of his subordinates to Christ. He was so excited to do so. He
wrote me and said, “Pastor, God has me here for a reason. Thank you for teaching
me sound doctrine!” We’ve also helped another brother, Slava, who is
manufacturing homemade, steel reinforced vests for civilians and transporting
them to safety.
We prayed and discussed ways to help those in desperate need in other areas. Our
region has been bombed several times and there was an attempt to take control of
our town by pro-Russian separatists from Trans-Nistria. Several vans of weapons
and terrorists drove into our town and opened fire on the military enlistment
center. The attackers were neutralized and the weapons were confiscated. There
has been relative peace in our town ever since. However, there is a build-up of
several thousand pro-Russians close to our town in Trans-Nistria, whose border
is just twenty miles from my house. Men from our church are stationed there on
the border to protect our town. Please pray for their safety. While we are
enjoying relative peace in our town we have received requests from refugees for
help from the city Mykolaiv. This has given Brother Alexei a burden to help them
there with supplies and providing transportation to those trying to escape the
rockets that have increased lately. It looks like Mykolaiv could be the next
Mariupol. So, Alexei pledged to sell his car and use the money towards a
passenger van to transport supplies and people to safety. Other men from our
church who are serving in the army gave money as well. One young man gave
$1,000. With these funds and the funds from US churches, we are looking and
praying for the Lord to direct us to the right vehicle to use for His glory.
On The Road Again: While preparing for taxes for 2021 we calculated our miles
travelled to meetings. The total came to be very close to 25,000 miles! Twice we
were almost hit head on by drunk drivers! When I think about the miles we’ve
travelled in our lives just to preach in both Ukraine and the USA I’m reminded
of the statistics of accidents and fatalities. It is truly the gracious hand of
God that has kept us safe.
We hit the road again late February and spent the past two months updating
supporting churches and presenting our ministry in new ones in Texas, Colorado,
Missouri, Ohio, Iowa, and Kentucky. The meetings have been a blessing and we’re
very thankful that we have fruit in some churches along the way in the form of
rededicated lives to Christ, a renewed burden for missions, and we even had a
young woman named Molly walk the aisle to get saved in Brother Schaffer’s church
in Iowa. We are also very thankful for the new churches that have taken us on
for support and for the funds raised for our ministry including the Ukrainian
relief fund.
Rue Crew Review: Our last prayer letter was so long that we could not give a
personal update. The big news in January was that our son, Benjamin, was finally
married to his fiancé, Faith, and they are now blissfully living in their long
awaited “La-La Land of Love!” We are very thankful that they were married
according to the word of God and are growing at the Anchor Baptist Church in
Dayton, Ohio. We have been working at improving our family’s health during
furlough. Each member of our family has some kind of health issue of whatever
degree with Naomi and I being the worse for wear. I will spare you the details
but please be in prayer about some tests on my heart coming up. Also, please
pray for Naomi who has been dealing with thyroid issues for years now. Our other
issues are slowly improving. We feel much better and stronger, getting ready for
our next term of service in Ukraine….one more round!
We still have several open channels to help people inside Ukraine. Not only are
people being helped but it provides a great witness and open door to sow the
seed of the Gospel. If you would like to help please send a check to our mission
board with the words “Rue/Ukraine” on the memo line. My number is (513) 376-1011
if you have any questions.
Thank you for all that you do for the Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him
in Ukraine. Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!
That Ukraine May Know Him,
(click here to view a printable PDF of this letter with pictures)
Christopher Rue Phil. 3:10
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends in Christ, May 2022
Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord we are all safe and healthy here in Romania. It is hard to believe that a couple of hours away in Ukraine, lives and homes are being destroyed by war. Shortly after the war began, American missionary Casey Kline and his family fled the bombing that had begun in their town in Eastern Ukraine. After three days in the van with their six kids, they arrived here at the Children’s Home, literally shell-shocked and exhausted from their treacherous escape.
They stayed and recovered with us for about 10 days during which Casey and I found ways to transfer money to Ukrainian national pastors to help the families who were not able to flee. Since then, we have hosted other missionaries and Ukrainian families who have been working tirelessly to get Bibles, Gospel literature, food, water, medical supplies, etc. to the families who have been stranded in the areas where fighting has taken place. Many of these families have been without electricity for weeks and these necessities have been increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to obtain.
While missionary brothers Richard Maher and Paul Gray stayed with us, we had 50,000 Gospel tracts printed in both the Ukrainian and Russian languages. They drove a part of these into Bulgaria to help the efforts of the missionaries working there. Another part, these men took to distribute to preachers and pastors along the many Romanian and Polish border crossings into Ukraine.
We have learned from these missionaries to Ukraine that one of the biggest obstacles they face is having someone, a Ukrainian, who can cross the border into Ukraine and take literature and aid directly into the areas where it is needed. Alex Kamnev is a Ukrainian pastor who escaped the bombing in Mikolayiv. He and his family are staying with another American missionary family near us. He has been making trips into the heart of the war torn areas to take supplies to his churches and families who have not been able to get out. We were able to help him fill a van with medical supplies and he left yesterday on the perilous journey back across the border.
We are grateful to have someone who is willing and able to get supplies, money, and Gospel literature directly into the hands of those who so desperately need it. Please pray for this pastor and the many others who are literally risking their lives to try and help their people. If you are able to supply funds to help in these efforts, I will ensure they get to these brave men who love their brothers and sisters more than their own selves.
As soon as the weather warms up a bit more, we are going to have a baptism service at the Black Sea for the new believers, including some of our Home kids. Thank the Lord for that!
We appreciate all the prayers and support. We love you.
In Christ, Dave & Dara Turner, Sandy and the Kids
--------------------------------------------------------------
March - April 2022
Dear Pastors, Churches, Friends, and Family,
Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine
hand to do it. Proverbs 3:27
As of March 26, 2022, close to 120,000 Ukrainian citizens have poured over the
borders of Bulgaria. About 55,000 have remained in the country. These refugees
are in "our own backyard" which puts on us a burden to help them in their dire
need.
Many of these refugees have left Ukraine in a hurry; exiting with only a
backpack- leaving behind their families and homes. They have no idea when (if
ever) they will be able to return. We missionaries, in Bulgaria, find ourselves
in a place of unique opportunity to help these refugees during such a critical
time.
Because of contributions from churches, family, and friends, we have been able
to minister to these people who are being housed in: Apartments, Homes, Hotels,
Vacant Buildings and Refugee centers.
We have purchased clothing, food, medication, and many other supplies throughout
the month of March. We have personally delivered these supplies to refugees
residing at these different locations. They have expressed their gratitude over
and over again. We tell them that the churches and believers in America want to
help them and are praying for them. That's when they start to cry. And we cry
with them.
We are thankful to at last have gospel tracts in the Russian language. We were
able to pass out hundreds of these at a huge "Peaceful Protest" in Varna, and at
several refugee centers. We also slip a tract or scripture card in with supplies
we give away. That gets interesting and creative. Some of the pictures included
will give you an idea. Please pray for those who receive these "love notes" from
the Lord. May He touch their hearts and may they understand that there is a God
in Heaven that loves them.
We recently have had the opportunity to purchase humanitarian aid for hospitals
and soldiers in Ukraine. The truck made it safely to its destination and from
there the supplies were loaded into vans, and trucks, and taken to the areas
that are in dire need.
Soon we will sponsor another truck into Ukraine that will be loaded with food
and medical supplies. We are blessed to have this opportunity to help in this
way. You, our faithful supporters, have made this possible. Thank you. From the
bottom of our hearts, we thank you. The Ukrainian refugees, with tears in their
eyes, thank you, too. Written from Bulgaria by Jane Welch.
A printable version of this prayer
letter (with pictures) can be viewed by clicking here.
All because of Calvary,
Matthew and Jane Welch
------------------------------------------------------
For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Esther 4:14
March 2022
In this verse of scripture there is a question asked; who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? That question has been on my mind a lot in the past month. With the beginning of the war in Ukraine opportunities in Bulgaria for ministry have certainly increased; but truthfully, we have had the ministry of reconciliation since the day we were born again. “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;” 2 Corinthians 5:18
Thankfully, there has been a tremendous increase in activity due to many of the Covid restrictions being lifted each month. We have also seen an increase in attendance of our meetings which has been a huge blessing. Recently in the village of Dabravino, we had a meeting with over 100 believers attending along with several of our national pastors and missionaries. This was the first time we have been able to do so since the pandemic started. We met with boundless joy and testimonies of God’s goodness. It was truly a blessing.
The Lord is still moving and working on hearts in our meetings. Recently, at the end of the meeting in the village of Ruse, a young lady asked that everyone pray that she would have faith, and believe in the gospel, of course everyone prayed for her. Two weeks later she came before everyone in the meeting and confessed that Jesus was her Lord and Savior. Praise the Lord! He still saves.
We are also thankful for God blessing Nasuf with a new car. As you know, pastor Nasuf had an accident and needed a new car. I am glad to say through the love and generosity of God’s people we were able to get him an Opel Mireva. They are happy with it and very thankful for God’s blessings.
I am sure many of you have seen the situation with refugees in Bulgaria. God has opened a great door for us to show the love of God to those around us. I know that most of us did not anticipate the presence of a modern-day Hitler, but the actions of Vladimir Putin have us all seeing the depravity and wickedness of man. The war has been devastating for the people of Ukraine, but it also has opened the door for God’s people to show the Love of their Savior. This door opened for us when our daughter, Kylie, befriended a young Ukrainian girl on social media. Her family is working tirelessly to help the refugees in Bulgaria and help those still in Ukraine. Through meeting her we began to volunteer and donate goods at a Refugee center in Varna. We contacted many of our friends and supporters, and it has been amazing to see the outpouring of love and support for those who are in such need. From that time, many avenues have opened for us to help and to share the gospel. We also started to work through a center in the city of Dobrich. We donated food, clothing, kitchen supplies, household goods, medicines, and we were able to help an expectant mother with many necessary things she had left behind.
We have also helped with a center in the village of Smyadavo, where William Lefevre and Ahmed have two meetings every week. A building that was to be used in the future for the elderly was converted into a place to house about 20 families.
We also took donations to two hotels with around 100 people being helped in each hotel. This led us to the resort area of Golden Sands where many refugees are being sent. There we found one hotel with 900 rooms, which is housing 1,800 refugees and over 1,000 of those are children. Each passing week opens more opportunities. We ask for your prayers as the Lord guides us.
Tomorrow we’re loading a truck which will go to Ukraine. We are using a store like Sam’s Club called Metro to send large quantities of supplies into Ukraine. Over $10,000 worth of goods are being loaded and will include; rice, beans, flour, sugar, water, pasta, ramen noodles, canned corn, peas and green beans, water, boxed milk, diapers, and toilet paper. There will also be insulated blankets provided by fellow missionaries and scripture cards with a QR code for people to access gospel preaching. We look forward to these blessings.
In the city of Shumen, where we live, a Social Center for Ukrainian refugees was opened this week. Tracy and Hannah Lefevre were very involved in helping get this center established, and we were able to help provide some of their needs. The center will be a place where people come and interact with their fellow countrymen and find the help that they need in this difficult time. We have several other opportunities that are presenting themselves. Please pray for God’s guidance in these situations.
This is also the time of year for our annual Flour and Oil distribution. Each year we give to the needs of the Church. It’s a joy to try to fulfill scripture “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” Galatians 6:10 About 75,000 Kilos of flour and 7,500 liters of oil will be distributed to our church members. This comes at a time when there is great need due to the skyrocketing cost because of the ongoing war and its effects on Eastern Europe’s economy. It’s a great honor to serve the Lord in this time and make a difference. “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference.” Jude 21-22
God has also blessed us with being able to purchase Russian and Ukrainian gospel tracts. We had 15,000 tracts printed and received 4,000 chick tracts from a fellow missionary. We were able to contact this man through Brother Richard Maher and Brother Paul Gray, missionaries to Ukraine, who spent a few days with us before going to Poland. We gave out hundreds of these at a protest march in Varna, and we are including them in the hygiene packs that we are putting together to give to the refugees. Thank God for His word!
Currently our needs are few. We ask for you to pray that God gives us strength and wisdom and that He guides us to exactly what He would have us do each day. I do ask that you pray for us as we will be preparing to return to the states for a nine-month furlough. We were planning on coming back in the spring of 2023, but due to the timing of our Visas it would be more practical for us to return at the end of this year. With that in mind, anyone who would like for us to visit your church between December 2022 and September 2023, you can email me at blalockstobulgaria@gmail.com or contact me through Facebook messenger at KeithTracy Blalock. We look forward to this time with our family and churches. Please pray for us as we prepare, that it will be a fruitful furlough. I will close this letter by saying that God is so good to us, and I thank him for his blessings. We cannot thank you enough for all you have done. I could never have envisioned some of the things we are involved in now. It’s only possible through your love and giving. God’s people are truly the best. Attached is a printable version of this prayer letter with some photos of what the Lord has been doing here.
God bless you all, Brother Keith Blalock www.facebook.com/Blalocks2bulgaria
----------------------------------------------------------
Prayer Letter March 2022
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, ... who is the faithful witness, and the first
begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth … to him be glory
and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” Revelation 1:1-6
Our praying friends and family in the Lord,
I believe, as perhaps many of you do, that there is significance in the ordering
of the books of the Bible. We know all scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and by the Holy Ghost is both applicable and profitable for whatever your need
whenever it may arise. Yet it seems also apparent that the latter books hold a
special relevance for these latter times. And if you believe, like I do (and I
certainly don’t see why you shouldn’t, as the Apostles declared it), that we are
in the last days, we might look again to those latter letters and find
sustenance to strengthen us for the coming calamities.
With that in mind, let’s cast our eyes to the first line of the last book of the
Bible. There the Holy Ghost, by the pen of John, states emphatically the
priority of almighty God and the prerequisite for all who profess Christ: the
revelation of His Son. What’s the need of the hour? To see Jesus Christ. What
does God want above everything else in this day? That His Son should be revealed
to the world. Moreover, if the Christ hasn’t been revealed to you, what follows
in the book of Revelation will remain a mystery, as it is the revealing of Jesus
that brings all things into perspective. And really, what else would one want to
see? What else can compare? Cousin Pierce LeFever said there were only two
places he wanted to visit in life: Paris, France and Pea Ridge, Tennessee; and
after seeing Pea Ridge, he no longer cared to see Paris. So, too, with Jesus;
once you’ve gotten a good look at Him, who cares to look at anything else?
“Mansions will glisten on the streets of glory… but Jesus will outshine them
all.”
Can I add one more thought to this? I’m going to anyway, it’s my prayer letter,
and I don’t write that many of them; I reckon I’ll write what I want. Do you
know where the Christ was revealed to John? Where did John first see Jesus in
the book of Revelation? From where did he hear Jesus’ voice speaking? In the
midst of the seven golden candlesticks. What are the seven candlesticks, you
ask? Let the Lord Jesus himself give you the answer: “The seven candlesticks
which thou sawest are the seven churches.” In these last days, where will you
see Jesus? Where will you hear Jesus speaking? In church.
So much as happened since I last wrote, I don’t know where to begin. (“Why don’t
you start writing more?” asks Hannah. Wives: can’t live with them, can’t worry
about whose they’ll be in the resurrection.) Quite a few of these things are
updated about regularly on our Facebook page, but if you’re like me and
indulging social media less and less and feeling better and better about doing
so, I’ll recap them here.
We were finally able to replace our vehicle. After almost a year of waiting,
litigating, consternating, and aggravating all the wrong people with all the
right information, we threw up our hands in desperation, and God filled them
with enough to buy a used 2012 Mercedes Vito van. It has low miles and high
expectations of being everything we need it to be. It accommodates all of us,
with room to spare. But most importantly, it gets us where we need to be to
minister to those anticipating help.
I praise the good name of the Lord Jesus for all of you who loved us and gave.
And I thank God for guiding us in the right direction at just the right time to
find this van available.
As a little postscript to this, the insurance company issued their final verdict
via letter a little over a week ago. They concluded that ultimately I was at
fault for a thief sneaking onto the gated property, breaking into the back hatch
of our locked vehicle, climbing into the driver’s seat, prying open the steering
column and hot wiring the car, fleeing the scene in said stolen car, hitting the
gate in the process, finally crashing into a concrete pylon totaling the
vehicle, leaving the scene, and returning on foot to the exact same village in
which we live. Does it seem like this issue makes me a little testy? Listen, I
don’t have anything against the thief; I pray he gets saved. I don’t even
begrudge the loss of that vehicle. It was never ours to begin with. God gave it
to us, and He didn’t need my permission to do whatever seemed best to Him. But,
merciful heavens, Bulgarian bureaucracy can knock the shout out of any man. “But
he giveth more grace,” and at the end of the ordeal, like Job, we’re better off
than when we started. Bless the Lord.
A month ago now, we were able to hold our first big meeting of the year. Our
churches were so sick of this pandemic and its restrictions, and so eager to
meet again, that we went ahead and invited “whosoever will.” Praise God the
“whosoever wills” outnumbered the “I don’t think we shoulds,” and the Great I Am
came to the great In Need; the gospel was preached, the hungry fed, and all who
came empty went home full.
Brother Keith Blalock preached the second of two meetings. He talked a little
about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and mentioned everyone’s fear of Putin
dropping the bomb. Brother Keith said, “I ain’t worrying about the bomb. If he
drops the bomb, I hope he drops it on me first. I’ll be vaporized here and awake
in heaven.” All the Turks took comfort and courage from that message. Most of
them have grown up in and around Islam and were taught that no one can really
know their soul’s final destination. When Brother Keith said with full assurance
that he’d wake up in heaven, it finally dawned on a number of them that they,
too, could have confidence in the work Jesus had done in their souls.
Speaking of the Russian invasion, for all who have asked, we are safe in
Bulgaria, far from the fighting taking place in Ukraine. Only the Lord knows
what tomorrow holds, and He has grace sufficient for what is and is to come.
However, no one is expecting anything like what occurred there to happen here.
Nevertheless, Bulgaria, like every other European country, is taking
precautions.
Those of you keeping up with Hannah on Facebook, or our LeFevre page there, know
the work she and our other missionary friends are doing with the Ukrainian
refugees. To make a long story short, at the start of this war, Brother
Blalock’s daughter, Kylie, had befriended a young Ukrainian girl newly arrived
in Bulgaria. Learning from Yulia what efforts were being made to help the
refugees in Varna, several of our missionary wives, with Brother Keith driving,
went to see what they could do to be of service. After that day of volunteering,
seeing the need firsthand, word began to spread, saints in America began to
give, and the opportunities for outreach began to grow.
Skipping ahead, this last weekend, along with two missionaries from Ukraine,
Brother Richard Maher and Brother Paul Gray, our folks went again, this time
armed with gospel literature, to the center. After a morning’s profitable
venture into some of the areas open specifically for refugee housing, our group
made their way to the Ukrainian anti-war demonstration. There they distributed
to small and great the gospel of the good Lord Jesus. Not a single Ukrainian
refused a tract. More often than not, they would come back, asking for more for
friends or family.
Every day, more and more Ukrainians are crossing the border into Bulgaria. Every
day presents new challenges to meet their needs and new opportunities to give
out the gospel. Pray for us that whatever the need, as much as we’re able, we’d
be able to help. Pray especially for those whom God allows our paths to cross,
that they would have open ears and tender hearts to receive the message able to
quell the war raging in their souls.
Last, but certainly not least, and much to a hungry people’s hearty rejoicing,
we’ve begun to give out flour and oil. Last Tuesday we began early in the
village of Goren Chiflik and wound our way around several villages in that neck
of the woods, distributing to the poor saints what God had provided for their
sustenance. We were met everywhere with smiling faces and empty wheelbarrows and
horse carts. The price of sunflower oil has nearly tripled in the last couple of
weeks, so receiving a five-liter bottle really was like receiving liquid gold to
most of our people. We go this week to our farthest villages, in the Balkan
Mountains, to see their needs met. Pray for us as we go. Pray for them as they
receive. Pray in all things that the Lord is glorified.
Because of a living Savior, The William LeFevre Family
---------------------------------------------------------------------
January – February 2022
Dear Praying Friends and Family,
I already had this prayer letter written in my head two weeks ago…or so I
thought. I can hardly remember what I intended to write now. So much has
happened and things are changing daily regarding the war in Ukraine. While I was
not surprised that Putin would invade and take Donetsk and Luhansk, I was
completely taken back by the scale of this invasion.
From the moment that we understood the magnitude of Russia’s invasion we devoted
ourselves to helping our friends and loved ones in Ukraine get to safety. Our
first concerns were for the safety of the Kline family who were in Kherson, and
for a young lady from our church named Vladislava in Kiev. We were relieved to
hear that the Klines made it out safely. Vladislava, however, was left all alone
in the university dorm building with no one to help her after a rocket hit the
building right next to hers. She had no money nor her traveling passport needed
to leave the country. Thankfully, she met up with the Taraniuks who took her
with them to Ivano-Frankovsk, where they endured some air raids. We were able to
send her money to get to the Romanian border. We were also very concerned for
the welfare of Darina and her two children in Odessa who were there alone while
her husband was working on a commercial ship. She spent several nights in the
bomb shelter before gathering the courage to flee to Romania by herself with her
small children. We were also very thankful to hear, little by little, of other
missionaries who were making it to safety.
Many women and children from our church loaded up what they could and were
escorted to the border by their sons and husbands. They sought safety before any
heavy fighting came and they are now scattered in Romania, Poland, Hungary,
Germany, and Moldova. Several of our men have volunteered and others were
conscripted to fight. Some are serving right on the front at this very moment.
Quite a few people from our church stayed in Rozdilna. Brother Alexei, the
pastor of our church, along with his wife Vika made that difficult decision. She
is expecting their second child and they also have a handicapped son, Vanya. Our
deacon and his wife, Andrei and Ella Bondarchuk, also decided to stay with their
two precious children. I asked them if they needed help getting their families
to the border as refugees. They decided to stay and care for the church and
defend their city in case of an invasion. Both families are looking after the
church’s elderly and shut-ins, along with some of the mothers with small
children who stayed.
Though our people are scattered they are communicating using an app called Viber.
That app was used in the past for things that caused our church much trouble and
heartache. I’m so glad that it is being used of the Lord for prayer requests,
fellowship, Scripture, and valuable information needed for survival. It is quite
evident that they have matured in the Lord. What a blessing it has been to me to
read their posts (see 3 John 1:4). Several came to realization that they did not
truly value their church as they should have during peacetime. To my surprise
they met for church services last Sunday in spite of the danger! Brother Alexei
told me that the sirens of an air-raid began to sound as they prayed! The men
present determined to pray, one by one, till they were done. Alexei said that it
was quite a sight to see. No one flinched. They kept on praying in spite of the
sirens!
As we learned of the conditions along the border to the west, Brother Kline and
I began to discuss the possibility of me making a special trip with my son,
Samuel, to help. However, after a few days, the world-wide media coverage has
prompted quite a humanitarian response. Though the conditions are hard inside
Ukraine’s border, once the refugees make it through, there is plenty of
humanitarian aid to help. The real need is for tracts and reaching people with
the Gospel. I’m told that local churches on both sides of the border are
responding with literature. The apartments and hotels are booked up and there is
little room at the border for us to set up a food line or the like. After
praying about the situation and hearing the reports of what really could be
accomplished by my physical presence at the border, I decided that more can be
done by coordinating aid to get to people inside Ukraine where there is a
greater need. I may make a trip later after the hype is over. We have opened
channels by which we can get money to people in need using their bank cards. I
am also working on getting both Russian and Ukrainian literature for use on both
sides of the border. The men in our church are stocking up on supplies and
storing them in our house, which is also being used as a shelter for some when
the air raid sirens sound their warnings. Brother Alexei, his brother Vitya, and
Andrei are busy buying supplies and taking them to the others in the church so
that there is less risk to the elderly.
We recently opened a second place to help in Dnepropetrovsk, where Oleg, my
translator, relocated to take care of his elderly parents. We have opened the
channel for him to receive money. He has been a friend of mine for many years.
He is one of the best translators I know in all of Ukraine and he has translated
enough material to gain himself a PhD in my opinion. I contacted him about the
possibility of him stepping up and becoming a missionary to the area while there
is such a great need. He agreed! He is currently working to help people with
basic food and medicine, while giving them the Gospel.
We are so thankful to hear that our people who stayed are witnessing and have
even led at least five souls to Christ over the past few days! One sister, who
has tried to lead a soul to Christ for years, finally got two!
The Lord opened a great door to reach Ukrainians with the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Pastor Joel Logan raised the funds to push an advertisement campaign
over four social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TicTok, and another).
When the dear people in Ukraine log onto these websites an ad pops up taking
them to a website that Pastor Logan and his men have started. There are two
presentations of the gospel there: one in Ukrainian and the other in Russian.
Pastor Bevans Welder approached me about filming this gospel presentation in
Russian using the equipment and men in his church. We worked until midnight.
After twenty-two takes we got it down to twelve minutes. They said that it has
already been viewed by almost a million souls by the fourth day! They raised
money to air the ad for ten days! My heart is overjoyed with the thought of
souls being saved as a result of these videos!
We have received many phone calls from dear saints expressing their desire to
help in some way. Now that we have at least two channels open to help people
inside Ukraine we can receive donations to that end. If you would like to help
please send a check to our mission board with the words “Rue/Ukraine” on the
memo line. There is a lot of hype right now, but after it blows over the hard
work and desperate needs will begin. I would like to be ready. My number is
(513) 376-1011 if you have any questions. Thank you for all that you do for the
Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him in Ukraine. Until our next prayer
letter or our meeting in the air!
That Ukraine May Know Him,
Christopher Rue
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; Phil 3:10
Email: ruemissions@yahoo.com www.ruemissions.com
-----------------------------------------------------------
UKRAINIAN CRISIS LETTER - MARCH 2022
Dear Praying Pastors, Brothers
and Sisters,
- After 30 years in Missions (29 in Ukraine), I never expected such a tragic
situation would ever develop between Ukraine and Russia. This is worse than
tragic, but I cannot express it with words.
I have prayed and cried with
trusted brothers laboring in Ukraine to provide aid and minister to both saved
and lost souls. (Gal. 6:10) I’m so glad that we are still able to send money
through Western Union to the nationals who are ministering!
From the videos and pictures which Christians have sent me, it is utterly
devastating to see the destruction and how inaccurate the death tolls have been.
We thank each of you and your Churches for your faithful prayers, support and genuine concern for our family, Oksana’s family and especially for the souls of Ukraine during this terribly devastating time.
• I do appreciate each of you
and your particular concerns (questions), which I will attempt to answer now.
• I returned on February 19th and the war broke out on February 24th.
• Praise the Lord Oksana’s Parents and brother’s family are safe in Romania and
helping others there.
• Oksana still has many relatives still in Ukraine.
• Many of the Pastors with whom I’ve worked are still in Ukraine serving their
Churches and towns. Western regions are not being attacked as much as the
Northern, Eastern and the larger cities. Artillery attacks in Mariupol, (where I
labored in March and October of 2021) have left the city without power, water
and heat.
• Some asked: Should we gather goods to send to Ukraine? – It takes too long, or
if done quickly -It’s not cost effective.
• OR SEND MONEY TO HELP! Most efficient and effective at meeting needs!
• Sending Money allows us to: (1) Supply money for Christians to fuel vehicles:
for evacuating people or delivering aid or to purchase food or medicine for
those suffering in Ukraine. (2) Print or purchase Evangelistic literature for
distribution to the many refugees fleeing to European Countries.
I returned safely from my six week trip of evangelistic visits on February 19th
(*see below), but (1) now I and my partner Paul Gray are going back March 10th ~
April (11th) to Evangelize those Ukrainians waiting in lines at the borders and
those refugees who have fled to Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, etc.
2) Pray with us and for us as we look for, print and distribute literature and
aid to help them find Christ.
3) Pray that we can supply the Brethren with good evangelistic literature and
set up distribution points!
4) Please keep these Missionaries in your prayers as they serve Ukrainians
during this Crisis: Mark Priem, Chris and Sam Rue, Dan Bardwell, KC Kline, Henry
Benach, Ron Jackson, Jonathan Skean, John O’Brien, and Ukrainian brethren.
- GIVING TO HELP UKRAINE -
Make the check out to: Charity Baptist Mission PO Box 692 Bristol, TN 37621-0692
Write in the memo: Richard Maher-Help for Ukraine
* The Lord blessed the six weeks of visits by saving five souls and by clearly
opening up the plan of salvation to many very “religious” Western Ukrainians.
Many brothers had one-on-one training as we made visits. Also, eight Churches
requested me to teach two or three hour seminars on practical evangelism.
For the souls of Ukraine,
Richard, Oksana, Elisabeth and David Maher Follow us on - www.facebook.com/richard.maher.710
---------------------------------------------------------
Dear Churches and Praying
Friends, February 2022
"We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;" (I Thess. 1:2)
Truly, the Lord has been good to us in Bulgaria. Since our return we have been able to meet with the national pastors and hear their reports of the Lord's blessings in the different villages. There is still some sickness going around here, but for the most part, it has passed. The people are glad to be back in church again.
I would like to thank the Lord
for providing us with a ministry vehicle. It took some time to get it, as the
dealerships here don't have any new cars for sale. An order has to be made, then
it takes between three to six months of waiting before it arrives. We were able
to find a one-year-old Dacia Lodgy that only had about nine thousand miles on
it. It is a seven passenger minivan that gets about 50 miles per gallon.
The needs in Bulgaria are great. There are people here that are suffering, in
need of the salvation that only the Lord can give. Last month we witnessed a
desperate situation. One of our long-time church members asked us to pray for
her daughter. Several times the girl had complained about her husband's cruelty
and violence, until it finally reached the breaking point. She left her husband
and two children for someone she had met on the internet. The man had sent her
money for a bus ticket to come to him, but when she arrived at his house she
found it to be worse than her previous situation. She was kept like a prisoner
in that house, not even allowed to speak to her family on the telephone. The
last message they received from her was to not call her anymore. The family was
heartbroken and seemingly hopeless. So, we called on heaven. Within a week, the
girl was home with her parents! Please remember her in your prayers, along with
her children.
Last week at the church here in our village we had a good meeting. There was a
good spirit in the church, and some new people have started coming recently.
Right as I finished preaching, before the final prayer, a young man walked in
the door with tears in his eyes and a big, two-liter bottle of beer in his hand.
He came right to the front and set the beer down before us and said, "Save me
from this!" The church got a burden to pray for him. He went home that day and
poured out his beer. This week he was back in church, with the rest of his
family. His mother testified about how good it was to see her son get right with
God. Please remember him in your prayers, along with his children.
Brethren, we give thanks to God always for you all. Please keep us in your
prayers.
In Christ,
Zachary LeFevre
-------------------------------------------------------------------
“I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.” Psalm 77:11
February 2022
Year after year, month to month, week to week, and day by day, it is safe for us
to say that we can look back and see the works and wonders of the Lord. There is
no greater blessing than to see God’s work done from the sanctuary.
I would like to begin this letter by saying thank you for your continued prayers
and support. We are also very thankful for every card and Christmas gift. God
gave us a great Christmas and a blessed new year, and we look forward to this
year to come. Our family has truly seen the hand of God in our lives, and for
that we are certainly thankful. I would like to share some of these blessings
with you.
The last few months have been challenging, but God has been with us. I was
diagnosed with skin cancer on the top of my head and had it removed. I was
facing radiation treatments and decided to have a pet scan which came back
completely clear, so I decided to forego the radiation and we trust the Lord
with the outcome.
We also were able to have 12,000 tracts printed about the pandemic from English
to Bulgarian. Pastor James Melton wrote the tract and gave us permission to have
it translated and printed. The focus of the tract is not Covid-19, but it is
used to point people to the fact that the sickness or disease in man is the
Spiritual disease of sin and the only cure is through the gospel of Jesus
Christ. We look forward to using them in the ministry here.
Another blessing for us came unexpectedly. Tracy and I had talked about having a
van to use for the work here. I would like to say it was something we had
earnestly prayed about for months, but truthfully it was just a desire of our
hearts that our Savior was fully aware of and faithful to provide. How God did
this was amazing, somehow - someway we met a young lady from Shumen, Bulgaria
who had moved to Murphy, North Carolina. We were able to meet with her and her
husband while we were back in the states. To make a long story short, God put it
on this precious couples' heart to buy us a van.
We had also requested help with vehicles for the work here, and we have seen
God’s hand in this. We still have needs for a couple of our national pastors and
trust the Lord to provide.
We also need you to remember to pray about the yearly flour and oil
distribution. God had been faithful to provide for this. We ask that all will go
smoothly with the current aggravations due to Covid-19. We believe this will be
a tremendous blessing here for our churches, because the economy here has been
affected just as it has everywhere else. Everything is more expensive, and it
really makes life more difficult for the poor.
In closing, God bless you all, and thank you so much for your continued support
and most of all for your prayers.
In His name, Brother Keith Blalock
-------------------------------------------------------------
January 15, 2022
“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.” Matthew 25:35,36
Dear Brethren in the Lord, Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I pray this letter finds you in His nurturing grace this blessed Christmas season, where we celebrate the birth of our precious and Holy Savior.
As a child I had always loved and cherished this time with family and friends. Setting up the Christmas tree, wrapping presents, and singing hymns. As an adult I see that many, many children do not have these same fond memories. Christmas is a foreign concept to some, or simply a holiday for the wealthy. And then some like the Muslims do not celebrate it as it is associated with Christ. But there are people that desperately need to be loved! They’re lonely, they’re not cared for and they have no answers. They’re desperate.
Two weeks before Christmas we were in one of our weekly prayer meetings in the village of Valeni. This village must be the poorest place we come to every week. Children running around with no shoes on in the cold mud. A little boy came into our meeting completely naked apart from a t-shirt several sizes too small. My wife was with me as well as my daughter who happened to have on two pairs of sweatpants and socks and my wife, with the help of her aunt and grandmother quickly dressed the child with a pair of each. Someone also took off their sweater and helped clothe the naked child which reminded me of the verse I placed at the heading of our letter. Ralph Cheetwood would always say, “The righteous do righteousness because they are righteous”.
I want to thank God by His infinite power and love, that a few weeks later we were able to distribute over 350 Christmas packets this year. They had socks, hats, gloves, candy, toys, and fruit with coloring books and markers in all. They were so happy. This is probably the only thing they will get for Christmas. I am still amazed at the power and generosity of our Almighty God, how he in His magnificent strength can hold back the pandemic restrictions for a week, so we can take these gifts to the poor. My prayer is that He continues to hide us under his mighty wings as we try to persevere for the Gospel. May God richly bless you in the upcoming year.
From Romania,
Jacob Reed and Family
-----------------------------------------------------------
January 24, 2022
“I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken,
nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is
blessed. Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.” Psalm 37:25-27
Dear Pastors, Churches and Friends,
Greetings from Romania and what a joy to tell you of the workings of our God
through 2021.
2021 was a strange year for our world and despite the confusion produced by the price of gasoline climbing to over six dollars a gallon, now we watch as many food items, along with construction materials double in price. Normally this should slow our ministry down, but as in 1 Kings 17, the widow’s barrel never stopped yielding flour nor did the cruse of oil fail from providing all the days of the famine. We have seen God provide for the ones that have opened their homes to God’s men and children. It is exhilarating to see God provide for his own, as the world shuffles around in panic.
Through our feeding centers God has made a way to reach the poor, who would have no other way to acquire the necessities to survive. We provide meals and food, clothing, children’s diapers and medications for cleanliness and healing. We do this graciously to provide an open door of help and as the Lord leads. We also share the gospel and invite them to church for service and prayer. We feed a lot of children as the parents are struggling to make ends meet with the increasing costs of electricity and heating. As things grow stricter, I believe many will be forced to come to these feeding centers for help and we will be able to share the gospel more clearly to those who have seen no need for Christ in earlier days.
We have been blessed by our mission board church to receive shipments of supplies for our feeding centers. Churches and individual families have been bringing supplies to Brookside Baptist Church in Bristol, TN. which has shipped them to us. Because of this we were able to afford to give the children in the villages a very blessed Christmas packet this year. We had winter socks, hats, gloves, scarfs, candy, fruit, toys, and coloring books with markers. They were so excited to receive these gifts. It always makes our year complete when you see the smiles on their little faces. They would receive absolutely nothing if God didn’t provide and send us to give it to them. It is a lot of work, but nothing to compare to the joy that floods your soul. This verse comes to mind from Acts 20:35 “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” We are now in the process of giving winter coats and heavy jogging suits to all our school age children in the villages. We were told we would be able to give socks and shoes soon, as Brookside has received over 1,000 pairs of new socks and around 400 pairs of new shoes. If you would like to help in this part of the ministry, please contact Pastor Mike Nixon at (423) 646-1352 for more information.
We are happy to let everyone who has helped us with the buildings know that we are in four of the six buildings. It has been a real battle at times, with the lock-downs and rise of prices it truly looked impossible to complete. By prayer and many sleepless nights, God would touch someone, and you came through at critical times. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It is so wonderful to see the people and children coming into a clean and warm place to find all they need spiritually and physically provided from the Lord. The most recent building is in a village where we have wanted to build in, for over 20 years. It has been impossible because of the strong Muslim opposition. Around the first of February we will have a dedication and ordination service for two of our national pastors. These faithful men have served their Lord for many years and have shown themselves faithful by keeping the testimony of God through many oppositions. Looking forward to coming together with all the brethren and missionaries from Bulgaria and laying hands on these men and blessing them and the church at the same time. Please pray for our protection and for the blessings of God to fall upon all of us who need a refreshing time of fellowship in the Lord.
With the ordination of these men, they will be receiving more commitments and I really need to get one of them a Van. It really helps to have a faithful vehicle for traveling as much as we do and truly helps to have one that can carry supplies and construction materials when necessary. We still have two large building projects to undertake in the spring and could use a van to help transport materials. It can save you a lot in transport fees. We will also be able to carry the food supplies to some villages and transport the evangelistic teams at the same time. Gas is very expensive and to make several trips is hard on the vehicle. Most of our villages are at least 3 to 4-hour round trip drives. I can’t explain how important it is to have a team to go into these almost all Muslim villages and sing, preach and pray with power. Many times in a van on the way home they have another meeting, as they sing all the way home, for the joy they have received from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the meetings that day. The children, who travel with us if we have a van, are the ones who get it started most of the time. To be driving in a van and hear their little voices singing to the Lord is almost more than you can take. So please, if you want help with this project just send the money to my name and address and designate it as Van for Romania. We would like to buy one as soon as possible and we will need around twelve to fifteen thousand dollars for a good used one.
From Romania,
Nathan, Teresa, and Nate
----------------------------------------------------------------------
“Wherein God, willing more
abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was
impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for
refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:” Hebrews 6:17-18
Our praying friends and family in the Lord, November
2021
Have you ever read stronger verses, verses brimming with assurance and comfort,
verses that engender hope and infuse love; verses that burst forth in song in
the face of the devil’s fury; verses that provide ointment and anointing, a balm
and blessings? Every inspired line, authored by God, penned by Paul overflow
with an all-persuasive peace, and testify both to the nature and nurturing care
of our great Redeemer.
As to His nature, He is God: eternal, immutable, unchangeable; the same
yesterday, today, forever; unaffected by time or the tides of men; tested,
tried, true; terrible and triumphant. As He is, so is His word: inerrant,
inviolate, and, in the person of the Lord Jesus, incarnate; full of glory,
grace, and truth; given by God to man that they might trust in Him.
As to His nurturing care, He is willing. Think about that just for a second, or
an hour, or lifetime. Of all that He is, of all that He has, of all that He can
do, it wouldn’t mean anything to you or me unless He was willing. But not only
is He willing, He is willing “more abundantly.” It is His all-consuming desire
that we rest securely, sweetly in the knowledge He cannot lie and His word
cannot fail; that though our vessel be tossed to and fro, the anchor holding us
will not move the slightest degree.
What a thought! The great I Am condescended to the woeful cannot and offered
eternal refuge. Though the world, flesh, and devil conspire daily to discourage
us, to disqualify us on the basis of our merit, our inability, the author of
eternal salvation reminds us, it is His promise – of which He has sworn, and
taken an oath to uphold – that secures our souls and succours our spirits. The
oath and covenant are both unnecessary, given He cannot lie, but for our sake,
that we might rest in Him without the slightest alarm or worry, He cheerfully
swears.
Are you happier after reading those verses? Goodness gracious, I am. It might be
a gloomy and gray November afternoon, but it’s eternal springtime wherever Jesus
is. What a good God!
Where am I? Oh, that’s right, Bulgaria. Things have been on the slow side here
for the last little bit. Bulgaria is still in pandemic mode, combating the
fourth wave of COVID. Everyone is sick of it (accidental pun intended). The
government introduced a controversial measure akin to COVID passports: green
certificates. Basically, if you want to shop in larger, non-grocery stores, you
have to show proof that you’re not a risk. Bulgarians immediately protested it,
but the alternative is complete shutdown again. Thank God for Heaven: no
sickness and never a shutdown. And there isn’t a single restriction in place, as
there isn’t any need for them; everyone’s free to worship God.
One unintended, or perhaps very much intended, consequence of the unrelenting
barrage of COVID coverage, (yes, we get it here, too) has been the subconscious
fear instilled in people. It has become the new boogeyman, so to speak: Its
specter haunts every potential gathering. Now a sniffle, a cough, or a cold
chill threaten to close down entire communities. Where once we took care, now we
take cover. For weeks on end, we’ve not been able to attend certain meetings due
to flu and rumors of flu. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not downplaying
this virus or its effects. What I am saying is we’ve become more health
conscious than heart conscious, safer but less spiritual; more afraid of
assembling than forsaking the assembly; more apt to trust science than search
scripture; more concerned with spreading the virus than spreading the gospel.
You’d think, being surrounded by this potentially life-threatening illness,
people would prioritize being ready to meet God, but they’re doing everything
they can to avoid Him, saints included.
In addition to fighting the flu’s influences, the entire work has been accosted
with car troubles. Y’all know about the ongoing struggles with my vehicle
situation. If you don’t, I’ll mention it in a minute, hang on. A few weeks back,
Bro. Mitko’s wife, Monika, was in a serious car wreck that totaled her vehicle.
Praise the Lord she escaped with only a mild concussion, as the driver’s side
roof was caved in completely. God spared her and her daughter Eliza, who was
with her. Just after that, Pastor Nasuf, while returning from service alone,
lost control of his vehicle and wound up upside down in a field. Thankfully, God
spared him, as well, and apart from soreness and bruising, he escaped without
injury. My brother Zach’s vehicle suddenly started having transmission trouble
last week. (I haven’t told him yet. We’ll see if he reads my prayer letters.)
Help us pray, please, and believe God to provide what’s needed.
As for our vehicle, I don’t have bad news; I have an opportunity to see God
work. We received a letter from our insurance company stating we defaulted on
our claim, not having turned in the required documents within the prescribed
time. Since the car was stolen in April, I have been to the main adjuster’s
office in Varna at least once every three weeks. Each visit they set another
task, another document to obtain, and each visit we did what was asked. It soon
became evident that what we were doing was the equivalent of “buying blinker
fluid.” It was busy work with the seeming intent to divert and stall us. When we
pushed back, we were given the number of our case worker at the head office, who
then sent us on another wild goose chase. So today, I took the letter to an
attorney to see if anything can be done. I told you before, and I think some of
you thought I was joking, that after the collapse of communism, all the car
thieves transitioned to car insurance.
Where do we stand on a vehicle? At present we don’t have one, but I’m not
complaining. God’s provided. Other missionaries have graciously allowed us to
use their vehicles, for which we are very thankful. For the last few months I
have been using Zach’s (see two paragraphs above). Now he’s due to return just
after Thanksgiving. When he comes back, the Lord will work something else out.
Today we rode the train to town to meet with the attorney. I thank God for the
train. Since we’ve been in this valley, they’ve started road work on just about
all the roads leading into Shumen, where we live. That means, for Ahmed to go to
his mountain meetings, he now has to drive right past our apartment to avoid
construction, and he picks me up on his way. God provides. We live in the center
of town, surrounded by stores containing anything and everything we need. God
provides. Whatever happens, God has, is, and will continue to meet every single
need as it arises. Bless His name.
We’d like to wish each and every one of you a Happy Thanksgiving. We love and
miss you, and thank God daily for you.
Because of a living Savior,
The William LeFevre Family
------------------------------------------------------------------
October 2021
Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,
Galatians 1:3
It is certainly our heart’s desire to see God’s grace and peace poured out on
each of you. We are without a doubt in a season of time where we are in definite
need for His grace and peace each day. We continue to see restrictions and
limitations placed on us because of the pandemic. They now require everyone to
have a green certificate in order to enter businesses, restaurants, and malls.
There is also a 15-person limit in our meetings. We will adapt to each of these
and ask that you pray for the villages where we go. Several meetings are on hold
because of Covid in the villages. This is something we are dealing with
constantly.
The Lord continues to bless us to which we are thankful. While we were back in
the states, to get Kylie, we met a young lady from Bulgaria. She is from the
town of Shumen and somehow made it to living in Murphy, North Carolina. It is
really a small world. We were able to meet with her and her husband while
enjoying a wonderful time of fellowship. They also discussed their burden for
Bulgaria and their own desires for ministering in the Murphy area. We are
thankful to God for allowing our paths to cross and are amazed at His
providential hand. Through our meeting them we have seen God’s hand in a couple
areas of our life. We were able to get a gospel tract dealing with the pandemic
translated, and we hope to get it formatted for distribution soon. Also, this
dear couple has committed to buying us a van for the work, and we should be
getting it sometime in November. God is so good. It was such a blessing for us
to hear her testimony of coming to the states and truly hearing the gospel for
the first time. It still amazes me to hear the testimonies of those who might
have had religion and a form of godliness but never knew the truth. Please pray
that the Lord would guide us in reaching her family who still live in the Shumen
area. It is on her heart for her family to hear the same pure saving gospel that
was able to change her life. Pray that God would grant us this blessing to share
the gospel with her family.
We really enjoyed our short trip to the states. It was great to be around family
and to see the arrival of our 14th grandchild, Presleigh Jane. We also enjoyed
spending time at our home church. We were grateful to be there and preach while
our pastor dealt with Covid-19. I am thankful that he has recovered and is
getting his strength back. We also spent time with my parents and are grateful
to have been able to do so.
We, like all of you, are looking forward to the holidays and are soon
approaching my wife’s favorite time of the year. Thanksgiving! We certainly have
much to be thankful for as we gather this November. We also want to wish
everyone a very Merry Christmas and thank you in advance for your prayers and
Christmas gifts. As we end this year and look into the next, I am so grateful
that each of you have been such a vital part of our lives and ministry.
In closing we do ask that you remember the people here during the harshness of
winter. Many have faced hardship and sickness this year. We ask that you pray
for the needs here as we approach the time of year for the yearly flour and oil
distribution. We trust God to provide this once again and ask that you pray
earnestly about this. God bless you all and a Happy New Year!
The Blalocks
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear praying friends,
November 2021
I am enclosing this with my latest prayer letter as a special request. This is
an urgent need in our work right now. We recently had three unfortunate
accidents involving vehicles of our national pastors and one of our
missionaries. Our fellow missionary had his car stolen and totaled. They are
waiting on the process of receiving insurance funds which could take a year or
so. Also, the wife of a national pastor had a tire blowout and rolled their car
several times. Thank God no one was seriously hurt. This week we had the third
incident with a national pastor having a wreck and ending up off the road upside
down. Thankfully, he also was unhurt.
With these accidents it has really put us in a bind concerning getting to the
villages. We are in desperate need of three cars. We are prayerfully asking our
supporters to give toward this important need. We would hope to be able to
purchase three used cars as soon as possible. Over here we can get three good
used cars for around $10,000. We will get them one at a time as the money comes
in, and just ask that you pray that God meets this need quickly.
God bless you and thank you for all you do,
Brother Keith Blalock
----------------------------------------------------------
Dear Praying Friends and
Family,
July – August 2021
I hope this letter finds you all well in the Lord and awaiting His soon return.
Update From Ukraine: In the past we’ve trusted the Lord and committed the
ministry into the hands of national preachers many times. There always is a bit
of trepidation and concern when we do. The peace that the Lord has given us this
time around is such a blessing. The ministry is thriving in spite of many
problems and changes. They’ve been involved in evangelism not only locally but
also making trips into new territory with the Gospel. Brother Alosha and several
members of the church set aside a week for reaching out to new towns with
literature and door to door visitation. Each day they visited a new town using
the time for personal work and literature distribution. Brother Casey Kline
graciously drove his van to transport the group each day. I received a report
that this year’s Bible Club went well with around 12 of the older kids
responding to the Gospel message that was thoroughly and personally explained.
Amen!
Building Project Update: We’ve been very encouraged by a couple love offerings
that got us closer to our goal needed to begin the building project. I asked my
assistant to look into prices to see if our estimation was still accurate. It
has been three years since we first started saving and we haven’t checked on
prices since then. Inflation over the past three years and price hikes due to
Covid have increased the starting price by 10k. Seeing that we are already in
the fall season, it looks like we will have to wait until spring to break
ground. There are still two things left to do that will help us prepare for
ground breaking. First, we need to have the city change our current power lines
to three-phase. We are going to need this for all the welding. Secondly, we can
begin searching for a large cement mixer. Our town does not have a concrete
company and ordering a truck from Odessa would be risky and expensive. In the
past, we’ve mixed concrete by hand, but this project will require a little more
than elbow grease.
Deputation/Furlough Update: I am writing this letter “on the road.” I’ve learned
to trust my wife’s driving allowing me to catch up on all the administrative
demands of the ministry. We are currently returning from over two months of
meetings in the North West. During those two plus months we’ve added over 12,000
miles on our van. Our meetings were in North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and
Washington. This part of our deputation/furlough has been exactly what we
needed. We preached, prayed, fellowshipped, and passed out tracts along the way.
I could spend several pages on anecdotes, but suffice it to say that we were
encouraged by the state of the Bible believing churches in this region of the
USA. The pastors of every church we visited were solid in the Lord and the Book!
We are still working on scheduling meetings. Please contact me if you would like
to schedule a specific date. My number is (513) 376-1011.
Thank you for all that you do for the Lord, giving us the privilege to serve Him
in Ukraine. Until our next prayer letter or our meeting in the air!
That Ukraine May Know Him,
Christopher Rue
Phil. 3:1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Pastors, Churches, and Friends, Summer 2021
Who would have dreamed that
this stuff would drag on this long? It causes one to think that the word
“pestilence” used many times in the Bible is a precursor of things to come…. a
“sign of the times”! I know Jesus used the term in Matthew 24 when speaking of
the end times. God always used weather, pestilences, and war to get man’s
attention in the Old Testament. One of the greatest verses used for revival is
II Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble
themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then
will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Interestingly enough, pestilence is used in the preceding verse as a means of
judgment. Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines a pestilence as a “contagious or
infectious disease that is epidemic and mortal.”
I know this, the whole world is
affected by it! I was planning to go to a Hispanic country in the Spring, but
the pandemic spiked there worse than before. I was cautioned not to travel by my
Hispanic contacts. Then, as many of you know, this country had an uprising among
the people which further complicated the matter of traveling there.
I just finished a round of
conferences in WV and we had great meetings. We were there with four National
Preachers, for three conferences. There were tears, there was rejoicing, and
there were challenges given, as these men updated and told about the works they
have in their respective areas. I will probably have to travel to Georgia to
help with some of the conferences in September. Unfortunately, we are
short-staffed because of the trouble getting men in from some of these nations
that are affected by the Covid pandemic.
I hope to travel to this
country in October. We are checking and waiting on word as to when we will be
able to travel. Pray for the brethren who are striving to preach the gospel in
the “regions beyond”.
Joyfully Yours,
Farren Caeble, 1 Samuel 12:24
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“And it came to pass, when
Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand,
Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it
under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on
the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until
the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the
edge of the sword.” Exodus 17:11-13
Our praying friends and family
in the Lord, August 2021
The above verses should be familiar to every child of God. It is the account of
the first direct action the children of Israel saw after crossing the Red Sea.
Their deliverance from the “Iron Furnace” of Egypt, and subsequent death of
Pharaoh and utter defeat of his armies, was a feat God entrusted to no one but
Himself; Moses being His mouthpiece. So, too, our deliverance was the sole work
of a selfless Savior. As Charles Gabriel wrote, “He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own; He bore the burden to Calv’ry, and suffered and died
alone.” Little wonder he followed that with, “How marvelous! How wonderful!” He
could have easily filled the refrain with as many worthy praises as he could
imagine, and we’d Amen every one as recipients of that love. Do you still marvel
at the love expended to ransom you from Hell? Do you still contemplate with
wonder the great machinations enacted by almighty God to woo you to Himself, and
win your soul forever in His safe keeping? Gracious me, if you don’t, sing his
song again!
However, the verses I’m considering aren’t about our deliverance from Egypt, but
from the Amalekites. The Lord dealt with the Egyptians Himself; He left the
Amalekites to Moses. In other words, while our salvation is secure, our success
is in jeopardy. Hold on a second, don’t get sideways. I’m not preaching
Schofield’s notes; hear me out. In spite of certain unbelievers’ perpetual wish
to return to Egypt, God made sure there was no Egypt to go back to. The Egypt
they held in fond remembrance no longer existed; it had been decimated. There
remained only one direction to go, forward, and at this juncture, the Amalekites
stood between them and God’s promise. You know the story from here: When Moses
held his hands up, the enemy fell back; when his hands dropped, they advanced.
In the end, Aaron and Hur, seeing Moses couldn’t do it alone, came to his aid
and stayed up his hands until
