Going into All the World

with the Lord in 1994

"For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God, and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, 'If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?' So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good." I Peter 4:17-19. ". . . And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age." Matt. 28:20. NIV.

After 9 1/2 years, I gave my ladies' Bible class at Heritage Place to Zelma Odle, retired ACU English professor, who lives there. I felt it time to sell my car, and without it, I needed to give the class up. I knew that I was leaving it in good hands. Last year I told you about Shifan Man, from TIANJIN, CHINA, a graduate Bible student and our weekly Bible studies. In April his dear wife, Ying, and daughter, Shuyi, arrived. Now Ying has joined the study. She also has been baptized into Jesus! I continue teaching WBS students, some of whom have been baptized, and write occasionally for POWER FOR TODAY. I have finished Bro. Otis Gatewood's Commentary on Revelation, THE REVELATION . . . GOD GAVE, which is being translated into Russian. It is well written to teach and encourage new converts concerning God's will. I continue to audit Bible courses.

UNDER THE HAIR DRYER: Irene Johnson Gatewood: Her autobiography and Women's Work in Missions, by one who is well qualified on the subject. Burton Coffman's The Ten Commandments Yesterday and Today, and Tales of Coffman, each page showing how God used Burton and Sissy to His glory. F. LaGard Smith: Sodom's Second Coming: What You Need to Know About the Deadly Homosexual Assault, An outstanding treatment of a societal problem that needs understanding. The Pattons, by cousin George's grandson, Robert H. Patton, much of which is about the general. Max Lucado's He Still Moves Stones, another moving writing of Max's. "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Mk 16:15, KJV. (Bro. Marshall Keeble told me how he used this passage on an occasion in Mississippi years ago. He was helping put up a tent for a gospel meeting. A passerby (white) stopped and asked Bro. K. what he was doing. When told, the stranger said: There's no need to preach to niggers. You are just creatures; you have no souls. And this verse was Bro. K.'s response, to which he added: "Bruder Mark put us in theah and when I gets to heaven, I'm gonna thank him!" I can imagine that Bro. Mark has already been told!)

It has been a joy to read of the many fine reports of the continuing restoration of the church Jesus built in A.D. 33. More Christians are going to spiritually hungry people to share the good news of Jesus. Some go for two weeks, or months or years. Many take food, clothing, medicine, and Bibles. DONETSK, UKRAINE: 1545 baptisms resulted from 10 days of concentrated Bible studies in 11 locations with 208 American and some Ukrainian brethren feeding the spiritually hungry people from 8:00 a.m. to sometimes midnight with break times for physical food, with over 2400 eager students in an average of 410 classes a day. This work produced 7 new congregations. 26 American teachers and preachers stayed for follow-up work. Marion Bush of Univ. Church in Abilene has returned to spend about 3 months in follow-up. Plans are being made for a preaching school and a translation center for preparing Russian literature. Roma, a 13 year old Christian, helped stamp the literature, said a lady asked him for a Bible. (She had borrowed a Bible and was attempting to copy the entire Bible by hand!) He gave her one. The Lord had truly blessed their efforts, and they realized it.

BIISK AND GORNO ALTAISK, RUSSIA: 35 teachers lived in primitive conditions, without complaint, for two weeks, in a place that had not heard the gospel for 70 years. 90 precious souls were baptized into Christ. The church in BARNAUL sent 3 full time workers to work with the new Christians in BIISK. One of the American workers decided to stay at GORNO to help them grow. MOSCOW, RUSSIA: A group of adults and college students from N. Atlanta helped Glen Owen of the Herald of Truth in a campaign in which 18 souls were saved. Glen was invited to visit a federal prison in SARTOV, the first religious leader outside the Russian Orthodox faith allowed behind the walls. It was on 'family day,' and he had an audience of 1,000. He promised each of the 2,000 prisoners a Bible and Bible course, which have been sent. SARTOV is 500 miles S.E. of Moscow. A retired Professor of management from Georgia Tech, Dr. Bob Green, spoke to Russia's future business leaders, and Joe Stork lectured at Moscow State U. for 250 math teachers, while the students roamed the halls setting up Bible studies with students. Bob Hare says: "Increasing numbers of invitations are coming to American missionaries in Russia and Ukraine to teach courses on the Bible history in the public schools.

A special curriculum has been written by Sunset School of Preaching in Lubbock, and is being translated, printed and distributed by Eastern European Mission (EEM). This material has been prepared so that it can be taught by Russian school teachers." Last year Svetlana, of BIROBIDZHAN, RUSSIA, traveled 4 days by train to BARNAUL where she could learn to teach "The History of Christianity." She also learned the Good News and became a Christian. Nat Cooper, Sunset School of Preaching Instructor, provided the funds for advertising a Bible course in her home town newspaper. The response was so overwhelming she asked for teachers to come. 13 Americans and 9 Russians went to help. As of Mar. 15, 76 had been added to the Church.

CANNIBAL KILLER DAHMER BAPTIZED: headline from MADISON, WIS., in the Abilene Reporter-News. "Jeffrey L. Dahmer was baptized in a prison whirlpool after telling a minister he wanted his sins to be washed away. Dahmer, 33, confessed to the dismemberment killings of 17 young men and boys and is serving 16 consecutive life terms. Mr. Roy Ratcliff, minister of the Madison Church of Christ, said Wed. he was asked to baptize D. by a woman who sent religious material to the serial killer after seeing him on a TV interview." "Dahmer was baptized by immersion in the whirlpool, he said. He met Dahmer April 20, who told him he wanted his "sins washed away." [Acts 22:16] 'Dahmer was able to convince me this was not just a gag,' Ratcliff said. 'I was convinced that he wanted God in his life.'"

NAIROBI, AFRICA: Jim Reppart reports that the Rainbow congregation had purchased space in a shopping area for the Rainbow Educational Wing. One of the ten bars in the area was in this space and would not move after purchase. After 3 years, 2 lawyers, a lot of fees, the bar people left, not because of court orders but because they preached to the patrons! One of the bar maids and a bar patron were baptized and 3 families from the bar are now worshipping with the congregation. Jim said: "What a mess they left behind. Dirt so deep it had to be shoveled out. Grease so thick it had to be scraped off with machetes! Plumbing broken and leaking. Toilets shattered, windows smashed, roof leaking." Who was going to help? He started cleaning one Sat. morning and all of a sudden street people, men and boys, half of whom were high on alcohol, glue or drugs, wanted to help. So Jim got shovels, ladders, wheelbarrows, buckets, brushes and soap and put them to work. The drunkest man decided to man the fire hose to wash down the walls. "He covered the territory all right and soaked everybody within fifteen feet of him!" After the work, they were given a good meal and some of the old furniture from the bar. "The whole community was watching. They saw love without discrimination. They saw people become useful. They saw a dirty place become clean. The police called us twice and wanted to know if we really did give them the furniture. Two weeks later we baptized our first car washer! He attends faithfully and has painted most of the new area."

There is sad news out of NIGERIA, W. AFRICA: Darnell Foltz (70), a WBS teacher from Hoxie, KS, was on his 15th annual WBS follow-up trip to Cross River State where he was shot and killed by armed robbers, Jan. 27. He had already baptized 50 on this trip. Most of the robbers were killed in a gun fight with authorities. It is estimated that over 1,500 have been immersed and 20 to 30 churches have been started through his efforts. Some of the converts have attended the Bible College and are now preaching and doing WBS follow-up.

MADRID, SPAIN: Juan A. Monroy: In Dec. the Church will have their 30th anniversary of 5 day lectureships. He has again had campaigns in TIJUANA, MEXICO and in 7 cities in CUBA. Results: In T. 25 baptisms and many restorations; in Cuba, 20 baptisms. He took $1,500 in medicines and $1,500 in food to Cuba and had an interview with a member of the Cuban Congress. He has been very faithful through the years to preach in Spanish speaking countries.

ROSTOV, RUSSIA: Before Prentice Meador started his lecture to the university faculty, a professor asked him to tell them why he believes in God. (He was the first who believes in God to speak to them.) Prentice changed his subject and spoke 2 hours on God. One of the professors said that it seems the Russians are turning to God, but from U.S. news reports, it seems the U.S. is turning away from Him. How perceptive! and how sad!

MEMPHIS, TN: W. B. West, (87), died Mar. 9. This notice reminded me of his visit with us in FRANKFURT, GER. He had come from a visit with the theologian, Karl Barth, in Switzerland. B. had written about the church Jesus built in Jerusalem in A.D. 30. Bro. W. asked him how he came to do this. His answer was simple: "I started studying my Bible!" If only theologians would study their Bibles instead of each other about the Bible! There is a difference!

TERNOPIL, UKRAINE: From a letter Irena wrote to the Stephan Bilaks in LAUSANNE, SWITZ.: "Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ! I am always thankful to God that we have come to know each other. Through you we found God who freed us from sin and called us to the Light and united us in His Church. . . . He who has grasped the meaning of the Gospel will abandon everything for the sake of Christ. 'It is frightening,' I thought!"

CHINA: Cliff Baird interviewed the father of Paul, a young Chinese preacher in the Lord's church in south China. The father stated he was immersed into Christ at the age of 16 in 1944. Almost immediately he began preaching in his hometown. He was arrested many times and beaten. After one arrest he was asked if he believed in Jesus. When he said 'yes,' they beat him. He was asked again if he believed in Jesus, and the beating continued. This went on for 10 days. At this point his health was so bad they released him. After his health returned, they arrested him again and the beating continued. He is now 65, a faithful Christian, and has raised his children to be Christians. Ce, a young Chinese woman, young in the faith, who helps Cliff when he is in China, received a call from her mother asking her not to get involved in the church work. She was afraid for Ce as she, her father and husband had suffered for political reasons. Ce's response was that she knows the situation and how her mother feels, "but because I believe in God, I must submit to him first of all." The mother's response, "Then I think there is nothing more to say between you and me," was very painful for Ce. In interviews with church members in various villages Cliff asked, "When and how did the true church come to your village?" The common answer was that the government church does not follow the Bible, so they left and restored the N.T. church. These experiences indicate to Cliff that there is a real restoration effort in China!

MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA, S.A.: Due to World Radio broadcasts, an entire denominational church put Christ on in baptism! HAITI: Joseph Albert reports that a former denominational preacher told him he had been listening to his World Radio broadcasts for a long time and asked that he come talk to his people about baptism, Lord's Supper, name of the church, etc., to let them know the truth. 75 people were baptized for the remission of their sins. Freda Field, with the Haitian Christian Foundation, tells me they are already working on a Center of Biblical Studies, a factory nearby to provide jobs, and a 10 bed surgical clinic, among other things to help the starving, suffering and illiterate people.

LONDON: David Kilmartin, Jewish rabinical student stopped from jogging to rest on a park bench. Seeing a girl reading the N.T., he said: "That's a book for Christians, isn't it?" She said, "No, it's a book for all mankind about a Messiah for all mankind." It was a N.T. in Eng. and Hebrew. She offered it to him. He promised to read it. He became convinced from his reading that Jesus is the Messiah; his parents sent him to relatives in U.S. He decided to visit the N.W. where he knew no one. In VANCOUVER, WASH., he read "Established in Jerusalem in A.D. 33" on a church building. He went in, met and studied with John Wyatt, and was baptized into Jesus! When he told his parents, they hung up the phone on him and declared him 'dead.' His new family of Christians have taken him in and helped him find work.

NASANJE, MALAWI, AFRICA: Oman Magaso is an unusual man. He had been educated in various religious schools, but became dissatisfied with their teachings. He happened onto a dog-eared copy of Church Growth magazine which excited him. He wrote Clayton Pepper, the editor, who wrote him of the restoration idea, encouraged him to join a Bible study group, the "Apollos Program," sending material to help. He devoured it and asked for more; set up 16 groups in widely-scattered villages, trained leaders, and soon he reported hundreds of baptisms. By Oct. '93 he had baptized 363, started 16 congregations. It took him 7 days to walk to MOZAMBIQUE, due to a call from a convert, much of the time without water, others joining him along the way, and conducted a campaign. A month later he returned to this village in M. and reported 1200 baptisms! When C. Pepper learned of this, he took 5 others with him to meet Oman, holding meetings all day in several villages, baptizing more than 100 and strengthening the young congregations Oman had started. May God bless Oman!

Please pray for the various ones mentioned in this report. As you can tell, they have gone through rejection of family, disappointments, droughts, etc., on one hand, but they all report the joy of God's opening doors and giving the increase! So go with God and do likewise! If, in a future year, I cannot send out these reports, it may be due to Macular Degeneration (loss of center vision). Please pray that I may for some time yet be able to use the computer to continue the work I can to further the kingdom and encourage others, as well as to complete my book. I look forward to hearing from you. Always remember God and Jesus love you and so do I. HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON AND MAY 1995 BE A HAPPY YEAR WITH THE LORD!!!