Happy greetings as we begin another year of school and ministry!
Each of us, from the day that we were reconciled to God, received “automatic enrollment” in His ministry of reconciliation—the joyous work of sharing the Good News with others. This is what our partnership is about . . . this is what our life is about. And every year, we’re automatically re-enrolled! It’s exciting!
Your faithful support is already generating a buzz of activity around the world in this fall season full of newness . . .
East Asia
As I write, Manny III is teaching with Dr. Tom Bulick, visiting multiple districts where children are being mentored and discipled at church sites. Each group of up to 40 children come together after school to be tutored by teachers on the day’s lessons and in how to succeed at their homework.
After “study hall,” they have dinner together—typically cooked by the pastor. (Yes, one of the main requirements for a pastor in this region is to be able to cook for large crowds!)
Then there’s after-dinner Bible teaching, Scripture memorization, and learning about the Christian life. Every week, children and adults are receiving the Lord! Parents are thrilled that their kids are improving in their schooling (and it has nothing to with karma, predestination, social status, or religious classes of someone else’s choosing).
Manny III and Tom Bulick are also training pastors. These pastors, most of whom have never been to seminary, are planting churches. The hunger and desperate need of these pastors spurs us on to prepare a year’s worth of training sessions. With your strong support in prayer and giving, we have the joy of equipping pastors to establish their congregations in the Scriptures, and in wholesome doctrine.
Central Asia
Not far away from the East Asia ministry is a new field, where a similar program is underway. We have 150 church plants there, the “eldest” of which is barely six months old. Training is happening in earnest!
But the crying need of this field is for us to enact our “evangelism through education” program for children as soon as possible. The believers of that country know they would see unprecedented interest in Christianity—and explosive growth—simply by launching a school program for the children.
We have seen it in culture after culture: If people in the villages see you as merely a proselytizer, selling outsiders’ ideas or religions, they may well run you out of town—or worse. But if you come to meet a deeply felt need—help them dig a water well or bolster the education of their failing children—they are ready to die for you!
It is our privilege to meet the extreme needs of lost people in sad and oppressive situations and to help them escape their hopelessness and misery, by providing good education and life and heart-changing programs.
→ How does it happen? By God’s grace—but also on the strength of your participation. You make all the difference. You are the reason we can leverage so many advances in ministry. It is God in us who will do it—but He wants us involved. He can make manna fall from heaven if He so chooses. But He loves having sweet partners who are willing to share their lunch with the crowds!
I wish I had been that boy, sent with his mom’s love and blessing—and a little packed lunch—to hear the Man from Galilee. Don’t you wish you could have been the one saying to Jesus, “That’s all I’ve got, but you’re welcome to it!” Saying the same would define our life—and our eternity!
But in fact, this is exactly the opportunity before us, time and time again, as the Lord presents us with a chance, month after month, to share personally in the drama of redemption!
Ukraine
Temperatures are forecasted to start dropping significantly in the next couple weeks in Ukraine. People are already bracing for the brutal cold.
None of us could provide sufficient support to the people of Ukraine for the duration of the hostilities, but we are able to pray intentionally in faith and to share whatever resources we can. Diesel and other fuels are running low as the ongoing war devours more and more supplies, as well as precious human lives.
Tension is unending. In desperation, the government is seizing potential soldiers left and right. Anyone walking in the streets can be approached and taken immediately to an army base for training and deployment to a military front.
Our friend and partner in Ukraine, President Ruslan of the nation’s main biblical seminary, was moments away from being drafted in this way. He was actually stopped by “recruiters” when suddenly, a group of younger men appeared nearby—and the headhunters quickly shifted their focus to these likelier candidates.
Ruslan said it was one of the rare moments when he didn’t mind being treated as “old”! Miraculously, he simply walked home from this encounter with government agents.
Not all are so fortunate. As I shared with you recently, the dean of faculty at the same seminary was drafted and sent to the front. When his superiors discovered he was a trained Bible and theology professor, they made him a field officer—and transformed his ministry. He is still serving his fellow recruits in the military today.
“God Within Us!”
I could fill pages of heartwarming accounts, relating everything we see God doing in all the fields to which He has called us . . . with the exciting drama of redemption unfolding in each setting!
God is in it—this is why we feel such enthusiasm. In fact, the original definition of this term was “possessed by God.” Some in times past have used the term enthusiasm to mean: “It has God in it.” We, too, as Christ’s ambassadors, have “God within us,” as we urge people to be reconciled to Him!
We see it also in our partners, the workers in the harvest fields. The fields are rich with God’s presence in the people who are giving their lives to the work of evangelism and church planting.
But the work is also our own. We must support those on the frontlines.
Of course, this being an election year . . . many are quite distracted from the Great Commission. It seems some Christians are convinced that we can bring about salvation by political effort. In many circles, political fundraising is shifting Christians’ giving priorities away from the Lord’s work. We see formidable efforts devoted to ensuring not people’s eternal salvation but rather the salvation of our way of life.
Certainly, the people of God can do their part to support candidates and causes according to their personal beliefs. But the moment we give to a political cause, we’re suddenly swamped with fundraising pleas; we’re pressed to enter every battle for every candidacy at every level of government, all across the nation! Their message: If you don’t give, all will be lost!
A dear friend whom I’ve known since I was 15 years old recently apologized to me for slackening in his support for our ministry. “This being an election year,” he said, “I am being hounded by all kinds of politicians.” “I know,” I replied. “They’re hounding me too.” It really is desperation when you’re hounding a missionary to give to your cause!
But we find a different perspective in the Bible. God has laid top priority on the quest for reconciliation, and the life of the redeemed. The only guaranteed investment is in “the kingdom of our God and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever” (Luke 9:27)!
I take comfort in the fact that I have donated toward the election as part of my civic duty. But: I am still seeking “first His Kingdom and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). And: There is a promise with this priority: “And all these things [which political agendas may promise for our comfort in life] will be added unto you.”
We’ll receive what we need as we seek God’s Kingdom and His righteousness. This is the promise of God, not a political party.
When Who’s Been Where?. . .
We thrill to the words of that classic hymn, “Amazing Grace”—we know it by heart: “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, than when we’d first begun.”
But do we also know this one? . . . “When people have been in hell ten million years tormented by their fate, they’ve no less days to suffer their fate than when they’d first begun.” This rewritten lyric is no less true than the familiar lyric we love.
Of all the characters we find in the New Testament, Jesus was the one who spoke the most about hell! But He also did something about it: He came to die—so that no one would need to go there . . . if only they receive Him!
Some consider hell to be such a harsh subject that they try not to talk about it; they don’t want to be “so negative.” But there’s urgency in this message for you and me: the church is NOT MERELY ONE of God’s agencies of salvation, it is the only agency of salvation!. Christ is the only Savior. We must determine where we stand in the ministry of reconciliation, because heaven and hell are on the line!
The apostle Paul understood the duty of the redeemed to be the watchmen of each generation. In ancient times, the watchman was to sound the alarm to warn of approaching danger—and if anyone was lost due to his negligence, their blood would be on his hands. In his farewell to his friends at Ephesus, Paul referred to the work of the watchman:
“I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men,” he declared. “For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God” (Acts 20:26,27). We, likewise, must not shrink from our God-given calling.
→ My fellow servant, my fellow redeemed partner: a new year of ministry calls us. The opportunity to declare the Gospel and the salvation it brings is upon us again. May we never tire of proclaiming it, as long as God gives us breath! Let it be with a clear conscience that we join Paul in saying, “I did not shrink from proclaiming the whole counsel of God!”
Please seize the opportunity, like that boy filled with faith, willing to entrust his lunch into the Master’s hands. That child saw his gift multiplied, for his own provision—and for all who ate that day! God’s resourcefulness will never fail you, nor those He is calling you to reach for the sake of Christ. Amen!
For the love of God,
Dr. Manny Fernandez
P.S.I hope to hear from you soon, with your best possible gift. God bless you for loving the lost!