March 2023 Prayer Letter

Dear Friends,
We thank the Lord for a good start to this new year. It is a privilege to look forward at the beginning of the year to what the Lord has planned. That does not mean we know all that will take place, but we are confident that He has a plan in which we can take part.

Recent Travel
Unlike the last letter, we have not been burning up the roads recently. This is typically our slower time of the year.

That being said, we have had one significant trip in recent weeks where we put a couple thousand miles under our tires. We were in a new church in Mississippi on our way to Texas for a missions conference. The conference was a great encouragement. The church we were in is in a growing phase and saw a doubling of their faith promise commitment this year! This is a church that is already involved in missions, yet the people saw where they could be more involved in getting the Gospel to the world.

I also participated in a deaf men’s retreat in January. Though I had a brief speaking opportunity, I truly enjoyed being there as a participant learning from the other speakers. And in the last week I participated in a deaf event in Georgia and preached in a deaf church in South Carolina.

SMART
SMART is a ministry that our mission board has in training missionaries in practical matters. In the last couple of months we held two of these classes. The class in January was Basic Electrical Matters which gives a missionary enough information to keep themselves safe when working with wiring and to know how to intelligently talk with an electrician on the field. This was the first time we taught this module. It was well received.

In February, the SMART ministry conducted a Cross-Cultural Adjustments class at a local church missions conference. Six missionaries and four church members attended the class. This class is to help missionaries (particularly new ones) know how living in another culture may prove challenging and how they can make the adjustments needed to thrive in full-time life and ministry on the field. For church members, this is a great class to help them understand how to more effectively pray for missionaries.

These classes are not just for our BIO missionaries. The purpose of SMART is “to build durable missionaries who can keep on going.” If you are interested in attending a SMART class, or if you are a pastor who would like one of these classes taught at your next mission conference, you can contact Bro. Terry Childers who heads up our SMART ministry at smart@biomissions.org.

Nigeria
My next big trip on the horizon is back to Nigeria to take part in the ordination of two pastors to the Deaf. One is Deaf himself and the other is hearing and has become a dear friend since we first met over a decade ago.

There is a man in our church in Tennessee who is interested in taking a trip to see how the Lord would have him be more involved in missions. I don’t know if the Nigeria trip is the right trip for him to take, but pray for us as we work to seek the Lord’s will and prepare for the trip. We should be in Nigeria from April 20 until May 2.

Thank you once again for your prayers for and support of our ministry.