Advance the Gospel

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!

Which Bible College Should I Choose?

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Questions that I am asked:  Bible College?

In continuing the series, “Questions that I am asked”, I wanted to address the question about Bible College.  We have seen it a few times in our deputation travels.  A young man is excited about God, gets a glimpse of the need around the world for the Gospel of Jesus, and surrenders to go.  This is such a beautiful thing to see.  I love to talk to guys like this.  They are excited, nervous, unsure what to do next, they just love Jesus and want to give themselves so that people around the world can know and love Him too!  I was actually talking with one man about this very thing this week.  This time last year, he was on the verge of deciding to give himself to God fully in world evangelism.  He surrendered a few months later and now is contemplating Bible Colleges.

First off, let me say that I believe there are MANY Bible colleges out there to choose from.  So as I continue this post, I am not highlighting one to diminish another.  That being said, I have a strong bias in this subject.  Again, I do not think that there is only one place for men to go to train for the mission field.  This is my answer to this question I am asked from time to time.

I am a young man who has surrendered to go to the mission field, where should I go to college to prepare/train?

I am a HUGE proponent of the Our Generation Training Center. It is in Alpharetta, GA (near Atlanta). I am a part of the OGTC. Here are some things to consider about Bible College as a missionary…

  • How many of their current students are missions majors? This is important because it will show where the emphasis is.
  • What makes “this” specific bible college different from “that” bible college? Compare them!
  • How much does it cost? Tuition, books, room and board (if applicable).
  • As a missions major, why should I go to this school? Are there teachers who will invest in me that have experience on the mission field?

The OGTC (Our Generation Training Center) is very different. We do one thing, missions! We are led by missionaries. You will be taught by men who are on the field and who have been on the field. These men are proven, successful church-planting missionaries. Brother Austin Gardner is our leader and President. He is not just a president of OGTC, he will become your friend and mentor!  You will spend a lot of time with Brother Gardner. Brother Gardner was a missionary in Peru for around 20 years. Many, many men were trained and sent out, many churches were started. There are now Peruvians in Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Burkina Faso (Africa), Morocco, and the U.S. (as well as other places).  These missionaries all came out of Bro. Gardner’s ministry. He is a proven missionary and he will give himself to you.  All of our teachers are missionaries or pastoral staff.  These men don’t just teach a class, they become friends with you.  The relationships will far outlast the class.

The cost is really affordable.  Monthly tuition is just $250 per month, and books/materials for classes is about $100-$200 per semester.  Housing for single students living in the OGTC provided apartments cost approximately $250 – $300 per month. These prices are based on the current apartment rent and monthly utilities. The price includes all utilities with the exception of telephone expenses. Our training center is a 3 year program.

What makes us different is that you will not only get academic knowledge from the Bible, but you will get ministry experience…

  • Preach and/or teach 100 times.
  • Disciple three people into faithful Christian maturity.
  • Baptize five people (men only.)
  • Perform the Lord’s Supper service (men only.)
  • Prepare 100 sermon or lesson outlines.

As a student at our training center, you will also spend 6 months of the 3 years on the mission field training under a veteran missionary who is training men and planting churches.. This is time on the mission field with an experienced, veteran missionary who is proven. You will learn missions ON the mission field!

Again, in choosing a Bible College, there are many options.  After seeing with my own eyes the difference that the Our Generation Training Center offers, I gladly give my recommendation to anyone considering the mission field to go to the OGTC.

If you are going to be an accountant, engineer, or mechanic, the training center is probably not for you.  If you are going to be a missionary, come to the Our Generation Training Center.  If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask me.

For More Information: Our Generation Training Center , Online Application

Deputation?

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Questions I am Asked:  Deputation?

I am asked a lot about deputation.  Is it hard?  Do your kids like it?  Are people disrespectful to you?  Are you tired of it?  These are just a few of the different questions we are regularly asked about deputation.  Here are my thoughts.

What is deputation?  In one word, work.  Deputation is the process in which missionaries raise support by traveling from church to church to share their burden for mission field God has called them to.

How do you get meetings at all of these churches?  I call churches.  I spend the day calling churches requesting an opportunity to come by and present what God is doing in our hearts and what we believe He (God) is going to do in Argentina.  Our goal is to present our burden in as many churches as will allow us an opportunity.

What is your goal for deputation?  Truthfully, the ultimate goal is to raise the needed funds to go to the mission field so that we may be equipped to plant churches, proclaim Jesus, and train men.  We also desire to be an encouragement to the pastors and people of the church as well.  Another goal is to challenge believers to surrender and head to the mission field.  Through this year, we have seen a few who have done so.  I can say that it is more exciting to see men surrender to God’s plan of reaching the world than being taken on for support.

Do you like deputation?  Deputation is the process that gets us to the mission field.  I believe, as in every other area of life, how we feel about deputation is a choice.  We choose to love it.  We choose to make it fun.  We choose to enjoy the time we have traveling.  We choose to do what we can make this time in our lives fun for each other and for our children.  It is still work, it is still hours in the car, it is still a process, but we choose to make it fun.  We do not choose to think of deputation as a necessary evil, or a “broke system”.  It works and we make it fun.

How do your children like deputation?  Our children are of the age where our attitude on things has a huge impact on our children’s attitudes.  That being said, we do the best we can to make everything fun.  There are times where they get tired, where they miss home, but overall they like it.  They have friends all over the place that they would have never met otherwise.  They enjoy meeting people and making new friends.

We are one year in to deputation.  Our goal is to leave between March and June of 2016 (this is totally dependent on how God continues to raise our support.  We hope that this next year of deputation will be incredibly productive.

Why the Foreign Mission Field?

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“Questions I am asked”  This is the title of a new series of blog posts I will be addressing from time to time.  We meet all sorts of people who ask us various questions.  Some questions come up more than others but all of them are interesting.  I will address one of the more common questions I am asked.

Why the Foreign Mission Field?

What a great question!  Doesn’t the United States need more churches?  Yes, the United States certainly needs more churches.  We need an “awakening” in our generation!  There is a great need here.  So why the foreign mission field when there is a need here in the States?

Here are a few of the things that compelled us to the foreign mission field…

  • The Great Commission is a Global Commission!  Jesus did not say “Go into your own country, to your own people and tell about Jesus, baptize, and teach whatsoever things I have commanded you…”  No.  Jesus made clear, “Go ye therefore, and teach ALL NATIONS…” (Matthew 28:19).  Jesus’ commission to take the Gospel was global, to all nations.
    • This commission is also given to us in reference to people.  In other words, God does not call us to lakes, mountains, or grass.  Jesus commissioned us to take the Gospel to the people of the word!
  • According to “www.census.gov”, there are currently around 320,000,000 people that live INSIDE the United States of America.  According to “www.census.gov”, there are currently over 7 billion people living in the world.
    • That means that the population of the United States makes up less than 5% of the world’s population.
    • To put it another way, 95% of the people living today live OUTSIDE the United States!

So what does all this mean?  Statistically speaking, if God sends us to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus to people, there is a 95% chance that I will be doing so outside of the United States.  I know that statistics alone are not what determine God’s path for our lives, but these things should weigh heavy on us and should at least be considered.

To make the foreign field even more compelling, we should consider where Bible College and Seminary graduates are serving.  I have heard raw statistics on this, but cannot back them up so I will not use them.  What I will make clear is that most of our (the U.S.) Bible College and Seminary graduates stay inside the United States to minister.  With 95% of the world’s population outside the United States, one would think that the majority of our preachers and teachers would be going to the foreign mission field.  Sadly, this is not true.

To sum it up, why we are going to the foreign mission field is because Jesus’ commission is a global commission, the harvest is unfathomably large and the laborers are staggeringly low.

Will you consider the foreign mission field as your place of service?