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By HEITH MITCHELL Executive Director of Missions It is BMA of Texas Annual Meeting time! I look forward to seeing so many of you and reporting on all that God is doing in Texas Missions. Your missionaries saw 30 saved this month. Your missionaries are faithful, and God is building His churches. We get to celebrate the 125th birthday of the BMA of Texas, Texas Missions, and the WMA at the meeting. God has been so good to us! I hope you can join us in the important business and the celebration. If you are new to the BMA, join me at 3:30p.m. Monday in room 2410 for a breakout session called BMA 101. It will be an orientation and a connection to resources. I look forward to seeing you there.
A WORD FROM YOUR MISSIONARIES
The Lord is growing Redemption Hill, both in number and maturation. We are celebrating at least one baptism this Sunday with a man who came a few weeks ago. He professed faith in Jesus and a desire to follow Him in baptism. He is in a struggling marriage, but because of his recent conversion, he has decided to fight for that marriage rather than walking away. There is a long road ahead, but we are hopeful for God's continuing and sustaining grace to transform them. Prayer Needs: Please pray for wisdom regarding some significant leadership decisions.
We are celebrating with one of our members, Allen Hong, who welcomed a healthy baby boy, John, this month! We have been helping them with meals, prayers and support. Their joy has been contagious, reminding us all of the peace of being a believer and belonging to a group of believers. Prayer Needs: Thank you, BMA churches, for your continued prayers, encouragement and support. We are grateful to be part of this family of churches, and enjoying the beauty of new life, both for our member family's new baby and our new life in Jesus Christ!
God is continuing to build up our church members in Christ. Last month, an older couple who led a weekly Bible study in their apartment complex also met with a Hindu couple, an agnostic man and a man interested in learning more about God in one week! Their joy at sharing with our church was priceless. We also had a church member who started cautiously to speak Jesus' name, now boldly sharing Jesus with others, praying for opportunities to share, and discipling her daughter-in-law to speak Jesus' name in conversations. Our church member shared a photo of two young ladies who her daughter-in-law had just led to Jesus. What a transformation! She was once hesitant to share but is now boldly leading others to Jesus. God is faithful to His people and to His mission to seek and save the lost. We are overwhelmed with the privilege of joining Him. Prayer Needs: Please pray for wisdom as we work to reach our neighbors and empower our people to reach their neighbors. We are also transitioning an evening Bible study to a house church, so please pray for the Lord to direct steps and keep the enemy from distracting people from God's mission for us to be the body of Christ.
Howdy from west Texas! We are praising God for another wonderful month here in west Texas and Oasis. We continue to grow and welcome new visitors almost every week. We had a chance to serve the middle school staff in Sundown and continue to make progress toward starting a new work there. But greatest of all, we are celebrating the answered prayer of the salvation of the husband of one of our members we have lifted in prayer for four years! It is a beautiful story of a faithful wife living out her faith and loving her husband well and actually leading him to Christ after bringing him to church a few weeks ago. God is so good! Prayer Needs: Please pray for leadership development, new connections and work in Sundown, and new connections and work at SPC.
Greetings, churches of the BMA of Texas. I would like to share that Iglesia Nueva Vida en Cristo of Tyler was able to have a worship service without the pastor being there on Oct. 12. I had inventory at work that weekend, and John was unable to bring a message in my absence that day. Diego, our 22-year-old son, was gladly willing to direct the service and have our members participate with scriptures and testimonies that day in my absence. I managed to get there at the end of service and saw that we had visitors, so I jumped in and made an invitation. Other than that, the service was held without me being there. Before that day, I was worried, but after seeing the response from Diego and the rest of the church to have service, I was greatly encouraged. Diego has been helping with our audio visuals, but will now be helping us direct service at least on first Sundays when we have the Lord's Supper. Thank you for supporting our ministry with prayers, various resources, training and offerings. May God bless all your ministries as well. Prayer Needs: Please continue to pray for leaders within our church, no matter how young they may be!
This month has been very difficult, but the most beautiful thing is that we have seen God in every moment. Despite what we are going through, God has been good. We have been attending Garland Baptist Church for a month now, and it has been a blessing. We want to continue there. The pastor has welcomed us with so much love. We continue to pray for the immigration situation, for my son's girlfriend who is still detained, and for my wife who had her checkup this month and has some health problems. We know that we have on our side the One who can do all things, Jesus. Prayer Needs: Please pray for my family, my son’s girlfriend (Nachiel), our immigration status, our economy and prayer groups.
I am so glad to report that we've had our first salvation! Mrs. Betty Gillory lives in Port Arthur. I met her when our eldest daughter, Zoe, and I went out to share the gospel a few weeks ago. Mrs. Betty started sharing about some serious health issues she's struggling with and the possibility of surgery. I took the opportunity to share the gospel, and she placed her faith in Jesus right there on the playground sidewalk. Please pray for her growth as a new believer and for her family to hear and respond in faith. On another front, we've been working on a garage/work shed that is on our property, transforming it into a meeting space for Bible studies. In the last few weeks, the insulation has been done, a new door installed and sheetrock delivered. We hope to have it finished and ready to meet in by the end of the month. Thank you to the churches of the BMA of Texas who have faithfully given so that we can prepare this space to meet in. May the Lord bless you! Prayer Needs: Pray for more soft soil to hear and respond to the gospel. Pray for health for our family as we've been dealing with viruses on and off. Pray for endurance in the work.
One of the projects that Ciro González and I had was to organize a man-to-man camp for the Kyle, Seguin and San Antonio areas. Thank God we're going to have it in Seguin on Nov. 7. Prayer Needs: Please pray for the integration of the Kyle, Seguin and San Antonio areas.
Despite our tight agenda with work, we have had great progress in the Bible studies at the Conroe cell group. For the time being, we have covered four foundational topics: God's nature (Trinity) + Human's nature (physical + spiritual); Revelation + Illumination; Sin (origin and consequences); Salvation (justification + sanctification + glorification). Most of the attendees have shared that they had never received this "systematic" teaching. I praise the Lord they have not fallen asleep; in fact, they show a genuine interest. Prayer Needs: Please pray for wisdom in developing stronger synergy in each cell group and between the cell groups.
We hosted our Second Annual Women's Conference and had almost 40 women participate, 17 of whom were from outside of our church. The theme was “Content in Christ”. My wife, Jacklyn, headed it up along with a team of volunteers. I taught on contentment from Philippians 4, and one of our women led the ladies in worship. We created a 30-day contentment journal for each person. The event was a thorough success, and I'm so very proud of my wife for this fruitful experience. Prayer Needs: God is giving me and others at our church greater courage in initiating conversations with strangers to offer assistance or prayer or to invite them to church, give away a Bible or talk about Jesus. Please pray that this continues all the more so that we stay on mission.  Second annual Women's Conference at Grace Church Jarrell Mission
This month we are going to do our Feast of Praise, where we eat a lot of good food and sing praises. Please pray that we connect with many new families. Prayer Needs: Please pray for our Feast of Praise. By HEITH MITCHELL Executive Director of Missions It is the season for all 25 of the local BMA associations to have their annual meetings. I look forward to seeing so many of you at these meetings. The overlap means that it isn't possible to be at all of them every year. I want to encourage you to attend your local association. I want to encourage the many churches outside of a local fellowship to try one out near you. I want to challenge each of us with the truth that churches fellowshipping together is so important for health. It is good to learn from each other and sharpen one another. Exposure to our differences between churches makes us better. In times of hardship these relationships are so valuable. Maybe your local association is not currently the best fellowship. I want to challenge that in Christ it can be amazing and impactful. Get involved and help change the course. We have seen that the associations that engage missions together, serve and encourage each other and practice regular loving fellowship are healthy and add to the health of each local church. I hope to see you on the association trail.
A WORD FROM YOUR MISSIONARIES
Redemption Hill is healthy by God's grace. The Lord is growing us every year both in the quality and quantity of disciples of Jesus. We installed more new members this month than ever before, and some of those are already leadership quality folks. My wife Sydney and I are hosting our group leaders once a month at the house for in-depth discipleship in hopes that our groups become healthier, more Jesus centered, more neighborly focused and evangelistic and eventually a new church plant comes from this. Thank you for your prayers and support. Prayer Needs: Please pray that my family and I continue to pursue Jesus together amidst a busy ministry season.
Praise God! Anchor Austin mission here in Georgetown is growing in a healthy way, teaching God's Word, discipling committed individuals, developing leaders and building environments to meet more people and evangelize. Prayer Needs: Pray that God would bless with more new families to be a part of this mission that God is leading at Anchor Austin. God is doing amazing things here at Anchor Austin. We are excited to see new milestones reached and healthy challenges in our leadership as we look forward to serving God in a mighty way in Georgetown and the surrounding areas.
We started a series of Bible studies in the Conroe cell group. The objective is to equip them with a healthy foundation in the faith to multiply the gospel. We began with nine, but last week we gathered 14. Prayer Needs: Please pray for my health as sometimes an old weakness in my cardiovascular system shows up.
This month, our prayer meeting was blessed with a lady from Ghana who joined us for the very first time. Her presence was a wonderful reminder of how God is drawing people from different places into fellowship with Him. We were encouraged by her openness and the joy of welcoming her into our group. Prayer Needs: Please pray for more people to join our prayer meeting.
God continues to bless our teams as they build rhythms of sharing Jesus. Our Sunday evening group is preparing to transition from a Bible study to official house church with many members already leading others to Christ. Our Sunday morning house church is continuing to grow deeper together and make great steps in reaching others with the gospel. This has been a good summer for ministry with our church having members serve overseas, build relationships and serve lower income communities through a VBS partnership with another church, discipling interns with a partner missions ministry and investing in refugees through area ministries. Prayer Needs: Please pray for our transition to house church, for our leadership development and for our members to continue sharing Jesus in relevant and life-giving ways.
We are still getting visitors and more potential growth. Our people are growing in the Lord and showing a hunger for His Word as we preach through the Book of Daniel. Prayer Needs: Please pray that some of these visitors come to know the Lord and are baptized. Another prayer is for our fall festival on Oct. 26. Pray that we get to connect with several new families and that it is a success.
Iglesia Nueva Vida en Cristo of Tyler is sharing the gospel by handing out tracts every week. We give out five tracts to each person every Sunday so that they can share the gospel with friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and people in the grocery stores. We always have more available in case they want to take more but we have a commitment of each to share at least five tracts per week. They then share their experiences the following Sunday. It is awesome to hear some say that they intentionally go places to give out their tracts and talk to people about Christ. We have been encouraging this and taking them to do so ourselves, but it excites us that they are doing so of their own initiative. I have also felt encouraged by the recommendations and prayers of some of our strong believers who have had pastoral and missionary ministries in the past. Suddenly, I feel that my preaching is becoming bolder, and I know it is because of those two factors. We are blessed to have these wonderful and experienced servants among us. Prayer Needs: Please pray for more people in our groups to obey the Lord and be baptized.
This past Sunday we had a special time as a church plant as we celebrated our first baptism. This was a special time for our family as well as it was our youngest son, Gabrial, who was baptized. We held the celebration at our house and he was baptized in our pool. We used the opportunity to invite some friends over and made the gospel clear through it all. After the baptism we celebrated with burgers and swimming. It was a wonderful time with family, our Bible study group and friends. Prayer Needs: Pray for us as we settle into our new neighborhood and area of Nederland. Ask the Lord to give us open doors with those we come in contact to build relationships. Pray for me (Kevin) as I have started my first year of teaching. It really is going well so far but there's a lot to learn.  Gaberial's baptism!
I have seen that the first thing that helps a Christian is to have a closer relationship with God. Sometimes we run out of ideas, projects and goals. But the more time we spend in prayer, the more the Lord clarifies our thoughts. Situations change for the better. Prayer Needs: Thank God! My knee is much better. I am losing weight. In September we will start a new group in the south of the city. Please pray for that group.
A couple came to us a few months ago. The husband had spent 25 years in prison and was released last October. A church member invited him to come. His wife has had a difficult past as well. They came and multiple church members were able to love them in practical ways. I met with the husband and while he has already been saved, he desires baptism. A few weeks ago, at a church service, the wife repented of her sins and placed her faith in Jesus to save her. We will be baptizing them both once he gets his ankle monitor removed or we are given permission to work around that obstacle. They both desire to go all in with us as church members. Prayer Needs: Please pray for our people to have compassion for the lost around us and the courage to engage in conversations about Jesus.
We are going through an unpleasant situation. One of our people was detained and is in the process of being deported to Honduras. We continue to pray for her and that she will soon be reunited with her son. Prayer Needs: Please pray for Jennifer and her family.
This month God has shown His power, as some of you know I have a monitoring device. Still, I feel blessed because God has not abandoned me. We want to continue doing what God entrusted to us. We are rising from a difficult situation. Still, we have seen the hand of God in everything. We want to continue to bring the message of Jesus to the community. Prayer Needs: Please pray for my situation, my family, my children and our finances. |
