Advance the Gospel

What Do I Do Next?

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Questions That I Am Asked: “I want to be a missionary what do I do next?”

“I want to be a missionary, what do I do next?”  I have been asked this question from time to time.  The answer to this question is totally dependent upon this person’s age, spiritual maturity, training, and experience.  Usually, the first thing someone wants to do when they surrender to the foreign mission field is to figure out what country they will one day go to.  I will tell you that the country you are going to go to at this point is of little importance.  Here are some things that you should do when considering foreign missions.

  • Get involved in your local church.  You may already serve in your church, if so start trying to do more.  Look for jobs to do.  Try to anticipate what your pastor and church leadership needs.  Arrive to church early and stay late.  Volunteer to substitute as a teacher for Sunday School classes.  Ask to become a teacher or an assistant teacher of a class.  Get involved in the ministry!
  • Spend time with your pastor.  Let him know what you believe God is working in your heart to do.  Ask him for counsel.  Meet with him before services to pray.  Serve him.  Learn from him how he does ministry.  Go with him to make visits, funerals, and weddings.  Learn from him how to do the ministry!
  • Get actively involved with the missionaries your church supports.  Most of the missionaries your church supports have email addresses, contact them and let them know what God is doing in your heart.  Communicate with them on a regular basis.  Pray for them.
  • Go on missions trips.  There are few things that will light the fire in a man who is interested in missions like going to see a field where God is working.  Don’t just go to the mission field, but go to visit a missionary on the field.  We have Vision Tours lined up for 2015 around the world where God is using missionaries.
  • Pray and learn about every country around the world.  There are 195 countries around the world.  All of them need the Gospel of Jesus.  You can buy the book “Operation World”.  It will educate you on the need of each country.  A call to any country starts with a burden.
  • Read books.  There are great missionary biographies to read, there are also wonderful books on missions to read.  “The Master’s Plan of Evangelism”, “The Challenge of Missions”, “Mentoring for Missions”, are the names of just a few.  There are also great blogs.  WorldEvangelism.net is a great example of a blog centered around missions.  It is constantly updated and you can learn great things.

These are all good things that anyone can do who is interested in becoming a missionary.  Missionaries should have training and experience.  I pray that God use you at your home church and one day on the foreign mission field.  If there is anything I can to do to assist you, please let me know.  May God bless you as you continue to follow him.

Why Argentina?

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A common question I am asked is “Why Argentina?”  What a great question!  There are almost 200 countries in the world (196 to be exact).  Out of all the countries in the world, why Argentina?  This is the question I will attempt to answer for this post.  This question is not directly addressing why the foreign mission field.  That is for another post (I might add, another post I have already published.  Click Here for that post).

Jesus tells us to “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations…” Matthew 28:19.  Argentina certainly qualifies as part of the “all nations”.  This may be quite obvious to some but it is good to remember.  The Great Commission Jesus gave is a global commission.  It is to all nations!

God never spoke audibly to me.  I never heard “Go to Argentina.”  I have a friend that explains it best. He will tell you that it all starts with an interest.  An interest becomes a burden.  That burden, when explored and considered may then become a “call”.  I think he is right.  For me, I had 3-4 countries that I had (and have) an interest in.  I had been praying for some of those countries each week for years.  Argentina was actually not my first “choice”.  The interest for one country became a burden that drove my wife and I to take a “survey trip”.  We went to two countries, one of them being Argentina.  I can tell you that the majority of my time was to be spent in another country, but the plane we were supposed to take never took off, causing us to miss a connecting flight, causing us to spend almost all of our time in Argentina.  This is not at all what we planned.  It seems God may have stopped my plans to take us on another route.

Seeing the incredible amount of need and the astonishing lack of laborers took me back.  I remember being in the back of a car after seeing some of the things God has done and driving past places with millions of people with little or no Gospel preaching churches.  It laid heavy on me.  I couldn’t get passed it.

I knew that Argentina is where we were going.  I was about to speak Leslie about it but didn’t need to. She saw what I saw.  She knew Argentina was where will plant churches and train men.  We were both excited about it (we both still are!).

This is how we came to surrender as church-planting missionaries to Argentina.

What is the Best Book You’ve Ever Read?

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I am continuing a series on different questions I am asked on deputation.  Every so often I am asked, “Outside of the Bible, what is the best book you’ve ever read?” or “What book would you recommend that I read?  I have read many wonderful and helpful books.  Some our motivating, some instructional, some stirring, and some even life changing.  There is one book (outside of the Bible) that I recommend above any of the rest I have read.  It stands out.  Here is a little information about it.

The Master Plan of Evangelism

By:  Robert Coleman

Subject:  World Evangelsim, Discipleship
Intended Audience:  Would Definitely Recommend for any believer in Jesus!

If there was one book that I could get you to read (outside of the Bible), it would be “The Master Plan of Evangelism” by Robert Coleman.  This is my favorite book!  I can remember the first time I read it.  Our home church was completing our Mission Conference (where God had spoken to me greatly) and I was just about to leave for our family vacation.  We went to Fort Walton, FL.  Just before I left, a friend of mine was telling me about this book.  As I recall, he didn’t give me much detail (which I appreciate), but just encouraged me to read it.  After a great Mission Conference, I was ready to read anything that would make me want to be more like Jesus!  The whole week on vacation I read this book.  I would stay in and read many times while my family went out to do different things (on a side note, despite my neglect at times, we did have a great vacation together).

This book simply highlights the different aspects of Jesus’ plan to win the world to Himself.  It could be called, “The Master’s Plan of Evangelism”.  When we come up with a plan to reach people, it may be a good plan or it may not be.  But when Jesus has a plan to win the world to Himself, it is the BEST plan that we can follow!  Coleman makes very clear the unique plan that Jesus put forth.

This book has 13 chapters, the first of which is somewhat of an overview of the “Master’s Plan”.  The next 12 chapters highlight different aspects of the Master’s Plan.  It is a relatively short book (my paperback copy is 208 pages, which includes a study section for review).

The book is available in paperback and also on Kindle.  Hit this link to purchase the book.  I assure you it is well worth your money.

April 2015 Missions Letter

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Marching Forward in March.

I am amazed at how God is blessing more and more each month! We have partnered with four churches this month and several more that told us they would be taking us on for financial support in the near future, bringing us closer to leaving for the mission field. We were in 14 scheduled meetings in March sharing what God is doing in our hearts. We pray for each meeting, that God would be magnified, people would be encouraged and challenged, and that God would increase our support. We are working hard and believing God for the fruit of our labor. Here are some highlights of this month…

Our calendar is almost completely full for the year.

We are seeing God work in a young man we met on deputation. He feels God is calling him to world evangelism as a missionary.  Pray for him.

Safety as we travel day in and day out.

Serving Together,

Patrick, Leslie, Lily, Piper, and Ivy Henry

In La Plata, Argentina…

Last July, the building of Lighthouse Baptist Church was destroyed in a fire. The church has seen hard days since but have stayed faithful.  They have met outside on the concrete pad in which the church was built They have now started the second phase of reconstructing the church building. The believers there have rallied and are seeing God bless. There is a great opportunity to help this church.  They have raised funds and could use help.  If you would like to help this church, please contact me.  Please pray that this church will continue to be faithful and continue to see God move as they rebuild what was destroyed! God is at work in Argentina!