PAGE FIVE
Home -  Page One - Page Two - Page Three - Page Four - Page Five - Page Six

A MESSAGE FROM OUR PRESIDENT

          Lent is the designated time of the year for contemplative reflection. It is the perfect time to examine our lives and our ministry and to seek to be more like Him. One of the most obvious activities of His life was prayer. Prayer is hard work and I must confess that I find it much easier to be doing something ”good” for God than to get serious about praying for the saints.

            The value of prayer has been made very real to me as I join a group who pray with, and for, Sam and Debbie Propsom and their son John in Labrador. We talk by phone about once a month and the impact of our conversation and prayer is heartwarming. Those who do this will testify to the blessing they receive.

            A multitude of opportunities for focused prayer exist and we are most fortunate to have Pray Every Day  by Bishop Bob Iobst as part of the offering in ONWARD. Many churches also publish this in their monthly newsletters and if your congregation is not doing this, I would encourage you to suggest it.

            Our Mission Awareness Dinner, scheduled for February 15^th, was postponed due to weather and is now planned for March 14^th. Pray that the testimonies of those who went on mission trips last year will inspire others to seek a similar blessing.

            Pray for our churches in Estonia, Latvia, Albania, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Congo and the whole European Province. These are not the only ones needing prayer, but just some that I have had a personal encounter with recently.

            Pray for our Provincial leaders and pastors that the Spirit of Truth and holy boldness will become a part of their lives. Pray for all sending agencies, such as: Campus Crusade for Christ, Intervarsity, Overseas Mission Fellowship, Youth With A Mission, Compassionate Hearts International, Alas de Socorro (Wings of Mercy) to name just a few that your Mission Society supports. Pray for the upcoming BWM meeting in March when the new Executive Director will be named.   

Serving Christ with you,    Jack Geis

THE LOT IS STILL ALIVE

An unusual letter from Br. Steadman Bent, retired in Nicaragua, show us that the Lot can still be used in the 21^st century.

Greetings in the precious name of Jesus, Head and Master of the Church.

            Rev. Palmerston Budier and Rev. Merlin Forbes are still the same two pastors serving here in Bluefields.  At the Colegio Moravo the Primary School has reached one thousand students and the Secondary School has gone over six hundred. Rev. Allan Budier is the Director for the Secondary and Miss Verna Williams for the Primary. 

In a month’s time Tamar and I will be moving to live in Puerto Cabezas for the next three years as I was elected at the Synod as Superintendent.  After twelve rounds of voting there was no election of the brother Gonzalo Paiz and Steadman Bent. The Bishops decided to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit by means of the use of the lot. Three papers were placed in a basket, two on which our names were written and a blank paper.  Should the blank paper be chosen from the basket, it would mean that there would be no election of members to the Provincial Board and in a year’s time there would be an extraordinary Synod to elect the Superintendent and the other four members. The Senior Bishop John Wilson, after a season of prayer, took from the basket the paper bearing my name, and so this is the way I was chosen by the Lord to lead the church into the next three years. I covet your prayers for strength and wisdom for the task ahead of me, and for the full Provincial Board.

LABRADOR from SAM PROPSOM

          As an experiment, we have brought in two volunteer youth workers from the Danish Moravian Mission Board and they are doing wonderful work. They are encouraging the teachers in the public school system, working with the youth, trying to recruit future leaders and train them, and doing whatever they feel the Lord is leading them to do. Our hope is to recruit youth workers for each of the three coastal communities in the coming years. Too aggressive? I think not. The Danish Mission is already recruiting several more youth to come to Labrador next fall for a six-month term. We have people in the States looking into recruiting volunteers also. The expenses would be the travel to and from Labrador, housing, lodging, and limited travel within Labrador. For six volunteers, this could amount to a program budget of $30,000 to $40,000 per year unless we need to find a way to pay them a nominal amount for their service. Why is this important? 80% of the people on the coast are under 25 years of age! Almost all consider themselves Moravians, but most are basically unchurched. Without this approach, or a similar one, Debbie and I will have limited success in our work with adults because so few youth are currently being reached. At best the future church will be weak and in the difficult position of trying to evangelize people who think they’re already OK with God because of a nominal church membership through infant baptism. The return? We’ll be raising up disciples of Jesus Christ and future church members and leaders. We’ll be recruiting and training local youth leaders fitting the great vision of following God’s plan of leadership development of the indigenous church. Can we afford not to try something aggressive now? We are looking into every possibility of funding this needed ministry. This is only one of our many similarly enthusiastic projects.  Some who have heard about our dreams have scoffed. I realize it is kind of out there,” but the God I serve is the God of impossibilities. (This is a small part of Br. Sam’s monthly letter at http://www.moravianmission.org/labradornews.htm)