General Baptist International Ministries
October 2017
Capsule “Christ tasted death for every man.” Hebrews 2:9 LAUNCH Give The LAUNCH Give (Day of Poverty + VBS) offering has reached $46,000 for the roofing and new cottage projects at Faith Home. This is a new record for this offering. Thank you to all who participated.
New Sponsorship Sunday for February 2018 GBIM is planning its first Sponsorship Sunday for February 2018. We are asking churches to set up a sponsorship table at their church during the month of February. Information packets will be mailed later this year. Please look for a packet marked GBIM Sponsorship Sunday.
International Church Report GBIM has compiled most of the information from our international partners for 2017. General Baptists have 444 churches outside the United States. Number of churches by rank are Philippines, India, Mexico, Honduras, Jamaica, and Marianas. Our churches report 12,411 members, 1020 conversions and 874 baptisms. Most of our national partners have active Women’s, Men’s and Youth organizations. The Philippines National Women’s Organization will be celebrating their 50th anniversary in 2018. Saipan Community Church is our largest international congregation as well as one of our oldest missions.
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New Ministry Building Dedication (Calvary Grace Association India) It gives us an immense pleasure to report you that we have successfully completed the ministry building construction at Chinnakodur (CKD) village and dedicated it for the glory of God. When we first thought about this building it felt like it would be impossible, but God has proved once again that nothing is impossible with Him. Finally, after three years of fundraising and taking an $8500 loan from GBIF, God has allowed us to finish this building construction. It is so amazing to see how God opened the doors to fulfill His plan for General Baptist Ministries in India.
On the day of dedication, we had the honor of having a famous celebrity to attend the dedication service. His name is Raja, a Telugu movie actor who gave his life to Jesus few years ago, quit the movie industry, and started his own ministry. A huge uninvited crowd came to see the actor, so we took advantage of it and preached the gospel.
There is so much need of God’s work to be done in this country, especially preaching the Gospel. Certainly, this facility will help us to do many things which will not be possible otherwise. We plan to use this facility not only as a church but as a home to many General Baptist outreach programs such as the Good Shepherd’s Children’s Home, Bible training center, and Lydia Sewing Center. Not only that but it will be a base of ministry that people will be able to know and come to for help. In the midst of oppositions, persecutions and anti- Christian government, God made one of our dreams and visions come true, that is to have General Baptist Ministry facility in India, a facility that holds and runs various ministries and projects to reach out to the unreached people of India.
We praise the Lord almighty for the call and vision He gave us for this country and thank every one of you for sowing your seed through your prayers and financial support to this ministry. We now would like to extend our invitation to all of you to pray and plan a mission trip to India to see what the Lord is doing here through General Baptists and enjoy this new facility.
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General Baptist International Ministries
October 2017
Pastor Miguel to Work With Church Development (Honduras) by Dr. Rodney Walls
I have some exciting news for those that love the church and love the ministry in Honduras. If you have been to Honduras, you probably have met Pastor Miguel. Miguel is a long-term employee of the mission. He and his wife have served as house parents for years. Miguel has always had a heart for our churches and has served as president of the pastors’ association. He is a powerful preacher and a gifted teacher.
A key component to making disciples for Christ will be the training of men and women to be pastors and leaders in our existing churches and in the new church starts. Without development of potential pastors within our existing works, the potential for growth is extremely curbed and the mission becomes dependent on people outside GB ranks. Though there are many good people that can and hopefully will join our ranks, growing leaders from within is paramount to the mission.
We need more pastors. Without more pastors, we cannot start new works. Yes, we are blessed to have a good group of pastors, but to see new works and to reach more of Honduras, we need more God called and equipped pastors. I am getting to the exciting news.
Beginning in August, Miguel will be splitting time between FH and Church Planting. He will be training and working with prospective leaders in our churches, preparing them to better serve alongside their pastor and/or preparing them to be pastors in the future. This is exciting news!
For several years, Miguel has in his own time been working with some churches and leadership groups. In fact, Ezequiel the new pastor at Emanuel church came out of Miguel's classes. We believe Ezequiel is the first of many. We are putting together an effort to intentionally train young men and women to be servants in the church. On top of that, Miguel will also be teaching classes to our pastors, better equipping them to be instruments in God's hands. I told you this was exciting news.
The training will be localized not centralized. That will mean a lot of traveling for Miguel and myself. Miguel graduated with a bible degree in Theology in 2013. We also hope to plug into the great work that is going on in southern California and northern Mexico providing a unified effort among all our GB Hispanic ministries! Pray for Miguel! Pray for us as we move into new areas not yet traveled here. Support the effort by giving to Church Planting ministries Honduras. Only God knows what is in store for us, but we believe God has placed GB in Honduras for a mighty purpose. We believe that in the coming years, our current leadership vacuum will disappear and that there will be many new GB churches here reaching people with the Good News that Christ tasted death for us all! Exciting news … exciting times!
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GBIM Reports 86% of Income Used for Missionary and International Projects GBIM has a submitted budget of $1,922,61.00 for 2018. Income sources include Unified Giving ($273,426) with all other income coming from donations. Operating expenses of the ministry is $277.976.00 which means that $1,644,675 goes directly to missionary and field support. Our goal is to send $60,000 of Unified Giving moneys directly to the mission fields as undesignated giving (our hardest dollars to come by). There is so much more that could be done for each of our mission field if churches would support Unified Giving. We would like to encourage all of our churches to begin increase their Unified Giving during 2018. One of the things we would like to do is increase our direct support of key regional national workers. People like Pastor Miguel (see article to Left) and Dr. Sharon (both in Honduras), Eylin Rodriguez and Pedro Quezada (Mexico), MBI staff, Prakash Pamu (India) are all examples of key international workers involved in church expansion and development. International salaries are not great, but income must still be sourced to insure that these key workers continue to help educate workers so that the church can grow. In order for that to happen we must either find sponsors for these key workers or source Unified Giving income which would need to be reallocated from other places. The key to growth through investing in key international leaders is without question increase in Unified Giving. We hope you will pray about helping today.
What is a Missionary Share? Bottom line, a missionary share is an ongoing investment of $10 a month in the work of a missionary. Some pay it $10/ month, others $120/year. The funds are tracked based on the intended beneficiary but are also used to make up shortfalls in missionary budgets as well as support missionary salary, benefit packages, and support.. By IRS rules the money stays in control of GBIM but GBIM only uses these funds to support missionaries.
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General Baptist International Ministries
October 2017
News from Prakash Pamu (India)
New Roofs at Faith Home (Honduras)
These are the highlights of our ministry activities in Andhra Pradesh during August:
This is a result of our 2017 LAUNCH Give (VBS) “Raise the Roof ” offering. Thank you for a record offering approaching $46,000.00
1)
The LAUNCH Give offering is composed of the VBS offering and the new youth Day of Poverty program. Both of these programs are designed to launch GB children and youth into missions awareness and involvement. Special thanks to all the youth leaders and VBS directors who worked to involve your kids in GB Missions.
Dorcas sewing centers:
We are conducting Dorcas Sewing Centers (DCS) in the following villages; 1) Sankhavaram 2) Routhulapudi 3) Uppada Kothapalli 4) Navara 5) jaggayya Cheruvu 6) Kumarapuram 7) M. Thimmapuram 8) Bojjavari thota 9) Peddanapalli and 10) Kodavali. We have an average attendance of 15 – 20 students who are learning the sewing and tailoring trade. We’re testifying to them of the love of Christ by preaching the word of God and doing good deeds among them. We also have two new DSC’s opening this month!
2)
Gospel outreaches :
We conducted a gospel outreach to one village along with the Bible women, who ministered to the women of the community.
3) Grace Home for Poor women and Widows:
We have helped 35 poor women with some grocery items as well as some with cash.
4) Help to Sick people and sick pastors:
We assisted five people who were sick and helped them with money to buy medicines.
6)
Tribal ministry :
We had three areas of ministry in the tribal area. We visited with the pastors in one area and reached three villages and found a location for a new DSC we are going to start in coming days.
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General Baptist International Ministries
October 2017
North Mexico Association Conducts First Annual Convention North Mexico Association, consisting of churches in Baja California, Chiapas, and Toluca, Mexico conducted their first annual Convention on September 23, 2017. There were 10 churches participating with 150 in attendance. Eylin Rodriguez, the daughter of Rene Rodriguez, coordinates the ministry in North Mexico. The leaders of the Juarez area, Pedro and Elida Quezada, were also in attendance as were Mark Powell and Jim Pratt from the GBIM oďŹƒces. During the last year, North Mexico has been the fastest growing segment of General Baptist ministry
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