S.O.S. Ministries Missions News (March 24th, 2012)

Dear Friends of S.O.S. Ministries,

I am reminded recently of the charge Jesus gave His followers: "be fishers of men". The purpose of fishing is to catch a fish; the purpose of evangelism is to catch a soul. If this is true, then why as one man put it, instead of becoming "fishers of men" have we become "observers of the fish tank"? It is much safer and not as much work, to observe and examine what mankind is doing and believing, rather than to engage and evangelize mankind with the Gospel of truth. King Agrippa understood very well Paul's intentions of evangelizing; it was not to take note and observe the way King Agrippa was living or what he was believing; but rather it was to "persuade me to be a Christian". (Acts 26:28) The Lord continues to pour that Spirit into those who labor for the Gospel with S.O.S. Ministries. Here's how...

UPDATE on DOMESTIC IMPACT Our ministry to international students and Muslims is continuing to grow by the grace of God. And sometimes it seems like the two ministries are becoming one in the same. Last weekend, two Muslim international students visited one of our supporting churches as part of a college school project about Christianity. They attended the whole church service and spent thirty minutes interviewing the pastor with all kinds of questions for their assignment. At one point, it was clear that they were done with the interview for the project, yet they continued asking questions as the pastor preached and explained Christ to them. It's interesting that God would use a secular class on religion as an opportunity for these two young men to hear the gospel! Later, they went to lunch with the pastor and his family. Afterward, one of the Muslims said that he enjoyed his time and that he "learned a lot". Because of the love they were shown, this will probably not be the last time they attend church. This is what it means to show hospitality and to engage the nations with the gospel. It means befriending, inviting, and caring for the foreigner and the stranger as the Lord has commanded us. Leviticus 19:34 "The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself". Meanwhile in the Muslim ministry, our women just had the first in a series of discussions with women at the mosque about the life of the prophet Moses. The women on both sides are extremely excited about this opportunity. And the ministry in Orlando will continue today (Saturday, 3/24) as we continue our dialogue with students and teachers from an Islamic school. This ministry is reminiscent of Paul's time in Athens in Acts 17, when he reasoned in the synagogue and in the marketplace day by day. Pray that God will continue to open doors in our ministry to the international students, and that He would also show us favor in the Muslim community as we reason with them and implore them to be reconciled to God.

UPDATE on AFRICAN IMPACT - Nigeria

Just to show how hard African living can be - Shino (a new convert being trained by S.O.S. to be an elder), who lost his wife a month after he was saved also lost his mother. On March 2nd, his mother was not responding or breathing, and with no medical personnel in the family, she was presumed dead. While in the process of burying her, someone cried out, "She is breathing, she is alive!" Apparently, she had a stroke, and since there are no 911 calls, no ambulance, and no breathing her family declared her dead. How hard is life in Nigeria, this family almost accidently buried their mother alive! Unfortunately, several days later, the stroke took her life and she was buried. How difficult it must be for a newborn believer in Christ to have to bury his wife and mom in only six months!

Gathering Sunday for worship in Akankan continues to be powerful. Praise the Lord that representatives from four neighboring villages are now coming to put themselves under the authority of God's Word. There is a small remnant still fighting the good fight. All those baptized are still coming and walking in the Lord. However, the stumbling blocks continue as well. Not just Islam, but the worship of the gods of Africa (Animism) is still luring people away from truth and faith in Christ. At the village's water source, we observed two broken pots used for sacrificing to the gods, calling on them to purify the water. They are doing this because we still have not found a company that has a strong enough drill bit to break through the bed-rock and give them fresh drinking water. The funds are there, but not the proper equipment. In spite of this, those who are truly in Christ are pressing on. When we preached on the Water of Life that Christ offers, the believers overwhelmingly cried out that they needed Christ more than they needed drinking water.

Praying for a water well in Akankan When asked how we can pray for members of this new church plant, here were two replies: Owolabi asked for prayer that he would be able to preach God's Word, and that the Lord would make him stand in Him for the rest of his life. Amoke asked for prayer that the children would come to faith and that God would give her strength.

Amazing Testimony in Makoko, the water village - S.O.S. has been praying and considering where the Lord would call us next to bring His Good News to the surrounding countries of Nigeria, specifically Benin and Ghana. Discussing ministry with Noah In those two countries they do not speak the main languages of Nigeria, but in French and their own dialect. Knowing this would be a concern, we were praying.Noah, the first known convert in Makoko, is being discipled by Gbenga. As I spoke with him and asked him to pray with S.O.S. regarding going into Ghana and Benin, he responded by saying, "I am from Ghana, I speak their language!" Come to find out, he migrated to Nigeria in search of a "better life", only to find a worse one in Makoko. But what he did find, rather what found him, was Jesus Christ! Please pray with us as he is being discipled in the ways of the Lord that if the Lord would will, He would send Noah back to his people to preach and plant churches in the Muslim dominated countries of Benin and Ghana.

Remarkable Salvation in Otere - After three years of preaching, without a single known covert, the Lord chose to open the eyes of eight Muslims and draw them to Himself. The day the team went into the village we split the men and women with children. Five of us directed our attention to the men, where we spent the next three hours "reasoning with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that Christ had to suffer and rise again." (Acts 17:2-3) There were a num The chief of Otere ber of distractions with the primary one coming from a father and son, who were bent on the greatest need Nigeria had was money, not Christ... imagine that, a 'prosperity gospel' Muslim! But even with their outbursts, at the end of the preaching, eight men got on their knees andcalled out to Jesus, "have mercy on us sinners through your blood". They made this confession in front of other Muslims, including the chief. This is extraordinary. So be encouraged that our great God continues to save people out of the religion that has brought us Christians so much suffering. Immediately, the new believers vowed to come to a new believer's class that Gbenga and Dapo (S.O.S.'s indigenous leaders) will be teaching. Our dear friend, the chief, still has not confessed Christ.Please continue to pray for him and for our new brothers in Christ!

UPDATE on ORPHANAGE MINISTRY - While I was in Jos, Nigeria, the other 16 members of the team were ministering in the orphanage. The report the team shared with me of the impact they had on these precious kids was not the hugs, or gifts, ortears cried saying good-bye. Rather, it was the glorious news that three of the older ones came to faith in Christ as a result of teaching the Bible. Remember, just because they are children of martyrs, the persecutor is not the only one in need of salvation! These orphans, who are of age, need to come to receive and believe in Christ and walk in His ways. Yes, we pray and wish they all could be adopted into a loving home,but praise God, He is adopting some into His family! They truly can call on Him as "Abba Father". Pray for their growth, comfort, and for-bearing with one another in such close living quarters.

UPDATE on MISSION to JOS, NIGERIA - Jos, Nigeria may be the most dangerous city for Christians on the face of the earth. The report coming out of Jos is that believers are so terrified that no one is bold enough to preach to Muslims. Consider: Muslims are absolutely torturing Christians, with no one to preach to them. The logical fallacy is, if this is what is happening to us now, then imagine if we were to preach to them? For the record, this is what the Lord called S.O.S. to do: to encourage the body of Christ to stand firm and proclaim freedom in Christ to Muslims. Distributing aid packets to our suffering brothers and sisters Tumultuous Times - Even S.O.S.'s landlord in Nigeria (remember, we are renting as we do not have funds for a facility yet) is terrified of Muslims as well. The day before the team arrived, he informed me that he was afraid of what Muslims would do to him if he let us stay there, and consequently we could not stay in the place we have already paid rent for. We tried to reason with him that we did not have enough time to make other arrangements, but he was adamant that we could not stay at our rented apartments. Many, many in Nigeria are living in this kind of fear. The irony is true - Muslims are putting terror into the hearts of people. But consider - when they die without Christ they will stand before God Almighty and be terrified themselves! For "it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Heb. 10:31) This should cause us to have pity on them and pray they believe and come to faith in Christ! The wreckage of the car Our Ministry in Jos - to encourage the suffering saints and to preach to Muslims (regardless of those who fear man). In what has become an all too familiar storyline, just a few days before we arrived, there was yet another attack. Trying to escape the tyranny of the Muslims, 300 of our brothers and sisters were gathered to worship in the early morning hours on February 26th. The service was quickly interrupted by a car traveling at high speed. The bomb inside the car detonated just 50 feet away from the people. The scene was more graphic than what pictures can describe. There we stood in the rubble yet again. As the tears relentless flowed from my eyes, I understood why Jesus wept over Lazarus' death, I understood why Christ wept over Jerusalem missing their day of visitation (Luke 19:41,44). At the bomb blast site, I actually stumbled into the crater in the ground that was created by the car explosion. As I gazed around, comforting those still shaken by the devastation, I looked down and picked up a bulletin from that morning service, half burnt and barely recognizable. The sermon title was: The Word Gives Life. Yes it is true, as the text to be taught from was John 5:24-26, that indeed in Christ we have crossed over from "death to life". However, at that moment I was distressed by the great paradox: The Word does bring life, but that day the Word brought death! Many Christians do not want to reflect on or consider that The Word Brings Death, it brings hardship, suffering, and persecution. The teaching of Jesus in John 15 could not be clearer, "if the world hates you, remember it hated me first...if they persecute me they will persecute you." (vs. 18,20) That message was never preached that day, so perhaps the next time I am given the opportunity it will be good to preach that message, in honor of the many that perished for their faith. In the middle of the rubble where the car that was detonated lie mangled and disintegrated, we prayed, "Loving Father, help us to stand firm; they can bomb our churches, they can rape our women, they can burn our homes, they can torture us in prison...but the Gospel message of Christ will prevail, Your Kingdom will advance, and nothing, nothing 'will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord'"! Amen.

UPDATE on BIGGEST NEED IN NIGERIA MISSION - Is for Gbenga, S.O.S.'s indigenous leader, to be full time relinquishing his tent-making job. It will take $450 a month for this to happen. Please pray the Lord would provide this. As one person put it, that is about the cost of a car payment in the USA. UPDATE on SECOND BIGGEST NEED IN NIGERIA - Is for S.O.S. to be self-sufficient and self-contained. In other words, to have a facility (identical to the "La Esperanza" structures many of you know and appreciate in Latin America), so we do not have to be concerned with landlords who fear man more than God. Cost for this will be around $95,000. Please pray the Lord will provide.

Grace to you, Mike Schadt Founder S.O.S. Ministries

Upcoming Events Orlando Muslim Gathering - Saturday, March 24th College Luncheon for International Students - Tuesday, March 27th Latin America Mission Trip - March 30th (Purpose: Disciple indigenous leadership team; ladies conference in two countries; skilled men to help with the facilities; evangelize the lost) Tampa Muslim Gathering - Tuesday, April 17th College Luncheon for International Students - Tuesday, April 24th Nigeria Mission Trip - May 20th (Disciple indigenous leadership team; disciple new believers; evangelize the lost) Summer Missions Teams to Latin America - July 6 - 13; July 10 - 20; July 20 - Aug 1 If you are interested, please inquire... even if you desire to spend the whole month of July serving the Lord with S.O.S.

Ministry Info...

Website:

www.sosHope.org

Email:

info@sosHope.org

Address:

S.O.S. Ministries

P.O. Box 16712

Clearwater, FL 33766

Phone:

727-726-7717

New Addition to the Blogroll

HBC members Matthew and Rebecca Litchfield have recently gone on staff with Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) and have a ministry blog where they post updates and praise reports from their ministry. We encourage you to check out their site, bookmark it, and remember to keep the Litchfields in prayer as they minister to Christian students on the college campus.

Update from Missionary Ashley Van Dyke

Hola a todos. My name is Ashley, and I am 24 years old. I grew up in Rindge, NH in an amazing Christian family. There are 6 kids in my family but the extended family is growing… more nieces and nephews!

When I was 13 years old I felt God speaking to me about Missions. This is now something I have been involved with for about ten years. I love meeting new people, learning languages and cultures, and telling others about Jesus and what He did for us.

In March of 2011, I went down to start a new ministry with the young girls in Zacapa, Guatemala. I have been meeting with them on a regular basis and doing bible study. Since March, I have been spending one-on-one time with each of these girls. Other things I am involved in: regular home visits, help with the music ministry, teaching Sunday school classes in Piedras Azules and Juan Ponce and being available for whatever else is needed.

I came home in December for the Holidays to reevaluate and see where God wanted me. He is leading me back to Zacapa, Guatemala with these youth girls. I am heading back Febuary 1^st to continue with Astrid, Sinitia, Cindy, Brenda, Barbara, Shadya, Ana, Clara, Paola, Joselyn and maybe some more!

Prayer Requests:
• Wisdom to know how to lead the Youth Girls
• Protection
• Knowing when and where to help out with so many needs
• For the youth girls and their own personal relationship with God
• That I continue to grow and seek God in everything that I do

News from Pastor Francis Ngugi (Kenya)

Greetings in the precious name of our Lord Jesus.

I trust all is well with you my be4loved in the lord. Here in Kenya all is well except that our army is in a war with a neighboring Somali in an effort to flush out Al Shabab militants who have been kidnapping Kenyans & tourists. Everybody is in high alert because their sympathizers are retaliating by suicide bombs inside Kenya. But my family is fine as well as the church ministry. I have sent you the most recent pictures of our church. I have continued preaching my heart out, on Sundays doing an exposition on the Sermon on the mount. On the last three sermon series I have preached from Mathew 6:22-24. The first sermon I preached on THE GOOD AND THE EVIL HEART. The activities of the body are directed according to the light which is received through the eye: When the eye is sound and functioning properly & perceiving objects as they really are, the whole body is illumined: But if the eye be blind, or it's vision faulty, then we perceive objects confusedly & without distinction: As a result we stumble as if in the dark & cannot perform our task or journey properly: we are liable to run into danger. In describing the eye as the lamp of the body, Christ used a most apt symbol, since the eye has no light within itself: He used the eye to symbolize the spiritual understanding of the heart: If the heart be well illumined by Gospel truth and the Holy Spirit, it will be inclined to goodness: It will then direct man's life to godly actions: Then the whole of man's conduct & behavior will be pure & undefiled before God. But if the heart is not well illumined, its tendencies are evil & it remains hard, envious, covetous and full of vices of darkness: The whole of man's conduct will be heathenish & ungodly. What a man believes in his heart is what largely determines how he lives . On the second sermon series I preached on HOW SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS LEADS TO DISORDERLY LIFE. Jesus used the word "Single Eye" as a symbol of an understanding & illumined heart: it was the most suitable word pathologically, for a good or sound vision is a Single one: To see double or to look at different objects or different parts of an object with each eye is proof that our vision organs are defective, & a sign of approaching blindness. At Regeneration, the heart is renewed & the eyes of the soul has their vision rectified: The eye of faith is opened: The understanding of the heart is divinely enlightened: God becomes the heart's all-absorbing object & His glory becomes the chief concern of the regenerated believer. In consequence, the whole of life comes under Godly influences: The conscience become well informed: The affections are warmed up towards God, and the will is moved to act in the right direction. This enlightened understanding & divinely instructed conscience are now able to distinguish between things that differ, good & evil, & things heavenly and earthly. This miracle of Grace must happen if the man has judge rightly the the things that matters most to God and to himself: Without that, his vitiated mind produces nothing but disorderly life.His brutish lusts and evil desires eventually plunge his life into destruction. The third sermon in this series was MAN'S INABILITY TO SERVE TWO MASTERS. Christ had earlier diffrencitated between the Two Treasures...earthly & heavenly & between Two Eyes or understandings...single or evil. Now He opposes the Two Masters - stting God over against material riches which is symbolised by mammon or money. Christ's audience were the Jews who entwertained vague notions of happiness & whose minds were engrossed with dreams of carnal prosperity.

They supposed that their expectations of worldly aggrandizement & spiritual happiness were quite consistent. Christ informs them of their delusion & mistake: He asserted that he who has his heart partly on God & partly on self, who desires to grasp of both worlds, deceives his own soul: Such a one is in danger of losing both. Our minds and heart must be supremely fixed upon God: A man's affections cannot be equally divided: Man has no capacity to love the things of this world and love God at the same time with equal effort: If he dare do so, he will certainly fail to love one and love the other more: A man can only serve two masters UNEQUALLY whereby he occasionally do an act of service to one master, while he habitually serves the other whom he love most.

The influence which earthly riches exert upon men's minds, hearts and affections is a danger that Christ would not like us to ignore: In seeking happiness in earthly riches, men are moved to devote their time & energies to acquire them in detriment to the welfare of their souls. These and more were the highlights of the three sermon series. I sincerely thank you for your continued prayers, support, love and encouragement as I preach the glorious Gospel of Christ. My prayers are with you all the time.

With much love. Pastor Francis Ngugi, Nairobi/Kenya

Short-Term Mission to Nigeria

Dear Church,
I am passing along the updates from Matt Pegram, direct from Nigeria. I'll continue to do so as they come in. Let us bear down in fervent prayer, holding up our brothers and God's mission to these villages. All for His Name. Jen Frye

And in the words of Matt:

"Thursday Update:

Today we began with a lot of driving. Along our route for our second visit to Makoko Mike got quite ill in the car requiring us to turn around and drive him back to the SOS flat. We were about 1 hour into our 1.5 hour journey. The driving is a major part of the mission unfortunately. It is not just the distance but also the traffic and horrible conditions of the roads. There are absolutely no traffic laws enforced. Beyond Thunder dome without the spikes and guns comes to mind. Since we do not have 4 people packed into the back seat of the falling apart SOS Jeep Cherokee I'm able to use this trip to two thumb an update. 100 degrees, no A/C, no emissions inspections, dusty, the air quality is pretty bad. New appreciation for needed SOS vehicle. Gbenga and Paul do our driving. Praise God for locals. Horns are used for their intended purposes here since the highway is ~4.5 lanes (unmarked) all they while they dodge dirt bikes, street vendors and pedestrians often carrying children. Chaos. There is a dead body (adult male) not far from the highway turnaround (by the Muslim training camp) on the side of the road near the SOS flat. Just another reminder of the pressing need for the Gospel.
Arriving in Makoko for our Mike-less visit. At least the canoe will be more stable this time.
Canoe much more stable without Schadt. Spoke to Noah (head of school) about water situation. Flood a month ago destroyed their container, its scaffolding and pump (well itself ok). Also flooded their built up, 20x30' "school yard." Gave $1000 for new water container, new scaffolding and pump + much needed paper for students. On to Mosque......without Mike. Gbanga asks "do you just want to see the outside?" Tempted to say yes.

Mosque anticlimactic. No opportunity to preach. Little time spent. Advised by Gbenga to get out before 4:00 prayer. Both due to Muslim danger and due to getting stuck on Legos Island for the night if we don't get going. Guess I can at least say I'm less intimidated to visit a Mosque in the US. Heading to flat to check on Mike. Will take few hours to get there. Please Pray for Mike. Can't imagine Otere and Akakan without him. Mike has given me the privilege of preaching the Sunday morning worship service in Akakan.


FRIDAY's UPDATE:

Mike was not 100% this morning but well enough to join us in Otere today. Paul want to the doctor today and could not join us. (Nigerian, SOS Paul, not Clearwater Paul). Jacob woke up with a bit of a stomach bug. Ironic since I'm the only one that cleaned my plate of lagoon fish stew in one of our house visits in Lagos. With the city portion of our mission complete, onto the bush.

Otere was amazing. They have erected a shelter with a tin roof on the land they have given to SOS (at least 2 acres). Remember this is a Muslim village! I can't say we packed the 30x20 structure but there were a good 60 people in there and on the outskirts. Included were the chief and village elders. I taught from Luke 15 (through Gbenga interpreting into yoroba), the father and two sons and Mike followed up with further exhortation and Gbenga closed. We met with the chief and elders before hand. Very much like sitting in a North American tepee only without the pipes. The service ended with hallelujah and praise the Lord chants in English. Just after we got there Jacob had a dizzy spell, pray for the health of the team. Many details but this is all my two thumbs can handle for today. Orphanage tomorrow.

Straight Ahead Ministries - September 2011 Update

This month I want to share an incredible story of redemption from one of our newest staff members, Jason Ludwig:

Like a lot of the kids we work with, I come from a home with a very abusive alcoholic and drug-addicted father. This went on until I was eight. Finally when I was eight, my mother had enough of all the beatings and cheating from my father and she kicked him out. Now my mother had to work three jobs to afford the mortgage and all the other bills that came with raising 4 kids. In the end it was too much for her. Our heat, electricity, and water all got shut off. I remember taking shared baths and flushing the toilets with water we had bought from the store with our food stamps. I also remember huddling up together with a ton of blankets to stay warm, doing our homework by candlelight. I was often picked on and teased because of my dirty clothes and the violent incidents my father was still creating in our town. This is where a lot of my issues with insecurities, abandonment and trust stemmed from.

It wasn’t long before I started fighting back. I got into a lot of fights in school and started drinking alcohol to make me feel better. This started in fifth grade. With my father not around I looked up to a lot of my friend’s older brothers who were stealing cars, packing guns and robbing people. I wanted the same respect and fear of people they had, so I started doing things to make a name for myself. I learned how to steal cars and things from the malls to make good money, and sold stuff to mafia guys from Revere, MA.

My drug addiction went from drinking, smoking marijuana and taking pills to eventually main lining cocaine. I went from stealing cars and DVDs to doing masked armed home invasions and robbing drug dealers. I served time in juvenile detention and that’s where I met Straight Ahead Ministries.

The Bible study leaders would come in with a guitar and play songs and talk about God. They also brought in a kid with a similar background as me and he was serving the Lord. I remember seeing the peace in his life as well as the other men that were coming in. I said a prayer and gave my life to the Lord back then. I recall having an actual encounter with the Lord and I remember how they used to take us to a local church on Sundays. It was awesome and I always said to myself that one day I would live like those Christians do. They had a peace about them that I always wanted!

After I was released though, I didn’t have any support back in my home community. I picked up where I had left off, and ended up serving a total of 6 years in and out of the adult prison system between age 17 and 25. But God had begun a real work in me, and I could never go completely back to the old me. Finally, in 2003 I completely surrendered my life to God.

I have been out since 2004, serving in my church as a leader in many different ministries. I met my wife Dené there and we married 6 years ago. We have 2 beautiful boys Jason 5 and Josiah 3. I was a master barber for six years, and now with Straight Ahead one of the things we want to open in our new building in Lynn is a barbershop to employ guys coming out of jail.

I’m so thankful for those two Bible study leaders who sacrificed their time to come in and love on me way back in detention. I’m so excited to give back to kids who are in the same place I was in!

By God’s grace, Jason has come full circle. He’s now back in lock-up but this time as a minister, not an inmate. God is in the business of transforming lives and He continues to do so, bringing new life to many of the troubled young people we serve.

Worcester Lighthouse Mission - Coat Drive

The Missions Committee of Heritage Bible Chapel is offering another opportunity for you to serve the community of Pleasant Street, Worcester!

We will have a work day on Saturday October 1st from 9am-12 noon at Pleasant Street Baptist to organize a move of the free clothes "closet". If you'd like to come and need a ride there, contact Jennifer Frye to make arrangements. It will be fun work, especially for those of you born organized :-). Come use your gifts.

Warm winter coats (etc) needed! To help keep Worcester warm (or anyone else in need) we are having a coat drive. There will be a Coat Give-Away to be held at PSBC on October 15th 10am-noon. Coats of all sizes, hats, gloves, scarves, and boots will be collected up until October 14th (collection bin in the connector). If you don't need it, pass it along! If you'd like to join in on sharing Christ the day of the coat drive, let me know or just come on down.

Pray for the to Lord bless these ministries to the materially poor in our communities. May His name be glorified, and His people restored.