Father’s Day is just over a week away and we are preparing for it now. This is our big service this month. We have made special invitations for this. We are encouraging those who regularly attend to invite others to this special service. We will have a special gift for every father who attends. Tomorrow we will start passing out invitations in the community. Sunday we will push it in the service. Please pray with us that God blessed our efforts.
Preparing for the Mission Field: Serving
We started a new blog series last week about preparing for the mission field. I think a very important preparation for the field is serving in your own local church. How can someone surrender to be a missionary, to take his family across the world to reach and serve others when he is not doing so in his own church? That just does not make sense! I am very thankful for my home church and Pastor. Pastor Lawrence gave me opportunity after opportunity to serve in our church. I served with children in junior church, helped in special teen events, helped work with the nursery ministry, the bus ministry, special days, senior saints ministry, revivals, conferences, website ministry, missions team, outreach ministry, teaching Sunday School, and many other aspects of ministry like cleaning, unclogging toilets, laying pine straw, pressure washing sidewalks, and the like. I certainly did not know it at the time, but God was using these different ministries to prepare me. So how do you get prepared for the mission field? Get busy serving in your church! There is always something to do in the church! I have been in over 300 churches through the deputation process and there was not one church that didn’t have an open area of service in ministry! Get involved. If you are involved, get more involved!
Maybe you don’t want to be a missionary, you still need a ministry in your local church. This goes beyond preparing for the mission field, it should be what we all do as Christians. You are a member of the body of Christ and you have a function in the ministry (1 Corinthians 12:12-31). Every member has a function just like every member of the body has a function. The only part of the body that doesn’t have a function is excess fat that sits on the body doing nothing but weighing the body down. No one wants to be “the excess fat” in the body of Christ! Don’t just sit there in the pew, serve in your church!
This by no means makes you prepared for the mission field, but it is a necessary step for sure! The man who is not serving in his church will not magically change on the plane ride over to the mission field. You are only more tomorrow what you are today. So step one to preparing for the mission field is get busy serving in your own church! The next steps in preparing for the mission field are much more concentrated. This is a very necessary foundation!
June 2018 Missions Letter
Click Here for a printable version of this month’s prayer letter.
A Month Of Firsts
May was a month of firsts for us. One of the highlights was when we had our first baptism! It was a cold morning but Mariano was so excited to be following the Lord in baptism! We had record attendance that Sunday morning! We also had our first men’s meeting. This was a great time and even though the event started out with rain, we still had men attend! We also spent our first night in the house that we just rented. God blessed in each service and in each day and we are thankful for His blessings!
June looks to be a big month for us as well. We will be hanging up banners across the city and starting discipleship with a few families that have been attending the church! We will also have a special Father’s Day service. Thank you for your faithful prayers and support!
Serving Together,
Patrick, Leslie, Lily, Piper, Ivy, and Isla Henry
- Pray for our special Father’s Day service.
- Pray for our discipleship program.
- Pray for those attending Faith Baptist Church that they will catch on to the vision and purpose of our church!
Preparing for the Mission Field: An Introduction
“I’m leaving the field.” In my short time on deputation and on the mission field I have heard this sort of statement foo often. I have heard it from missionaries on the field and missionaries on deputation who haven’t even left for the field yet. I must preface this by saying some leave as God closes doors and leads that way. I believe that. I know one man who teared up as he told me about how circumstances were leading he and his family to leave the mission field. He did not want to do it and I am convinced he still would rather be on the field than back in the States. His circumstances left him no option. Missionaries leave the field for different reasons and many of them are justified in doing so. Unfortunately this sort of situation is not the norm and there are also many who leave the field for other reasons. “Its not what I thought it would be.”, “This language is so much harder than I anticipated, I just can’t do it.”, “The culture is so cold and we are not accepted.” I think a big reason for missionaries leaving the field is that they were not prepared. They had a dream, and that dream was beautiful. They had wonderful intentions. They wanted to reach others for Jesus. But when they started deputation or when they arrived to the field they found out it was not at all what they had dreamed, hoped, or especially prepared for.
This is the start of a new blog series about preparing for the mission field. Someone who is following God’s leading to the mission field must start preparing. There are many things a man must prepare for as a missionary. “A failure to prepare is only preparing to fail.” Excuse the trite saying, but is is true. A prepared missionary and missionary family has a far greater opportunity of a long term career as a missionary. I want to make clear that I am a new missionary. We completed our deputation in 2 years and 1 week (God did amazing things in those 2 years and answered our prayer to complete deputation that quickly). We have been on the field for just over two years. Our first church plant (and only church plant thus far) is very young and fragile. I do not claim to be an amazing 5 term veteran. I am very new, but I do believe I have been prepared for this. That is not something I am bragging about but something I really thank God for.
Preparing for the mission field includes family preparation, preparation for deputation (raising the needed funds), setting up, learning a language, starting a church, and seeing growth in that church through outreach and discipleship, and training young men (something I am focusing on at this time). Again I am not an expert but I do believe God has prepared me for this ministry, and that includes intentional preparation. I also am in need of more instruction. I am very, very far from ever being at a place where I am not needing more instruction and growth. Maybe you are considering missions, perhaps someone you love is considering missions. Missionaries need preparation.
More to come in the next weeks, check back soon.
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