Archive for October, 2008
Dear Pastor & Praying Friends,
We had a full calendar of Wednesday night meetings this month. The Lord has really blessed, and we are continuing to see churches get behind our ministry and take us on for support.
Deputation Stats:
Miles Driven: 1,156.6
Meetings: 7
Support: 20%
We started off the month with a meeting at Old Suwannee Baptist Church in Buford, GA. On the 8th, we dropped into Philadelphia Baptist Church in Alpharetta, GA. Then, we were able to be a part of a mission’s conference on the 14th at Whitfield Baptist Church with Pastor Wayne Cofield, and finally, we ended the month on the 22nd with a great meeting at Bible Baptist Church in Brunswick, GA with Pastor Mike Landrum. It was a blessing to have the opportunity to preach and share our DVD presentation at each of the churches.
As we travel around for the next year and a half, I would like to see God work and do great and mighty things. I ask that you will join us in prayer by lifting up the following prayer requests:
Pray that souls would be saved as we travel around the United States preaching in churches and that God would touch men’s hearts and allow us to band together to take the Gospel to the world.
Pray that God would touch the hearts of men in China. Ones that we can raise up, train, and send to plant other churches with a heart to not only reach the 1.3 billion people in China, but the 6.5 billion around the world.
Thank you for all of your prayers and support.
In Christ,
Mark
P.S. – If you would like to receive our prayer letter in PDF format via email, please send your email address to mark@projectchina.org
October 31 2008 | General | No Comments »
I think that many of you have no idea what all the young people at our church do so I thought that I would share with you what one of their days are like.
I guess you know that our church only has three people on staff. Mark Coffey, Trent Cornwell, and I receive a salary from the church. Everyone else works as volunteers which means no money. Philip Bassham for example will put in about 60 hours a week and gets no salary at all. He just lives trusting God to supply his need and has done so for about 3 years now.
The students all have other jobs. They take 16 hours of class minimum each week. The classes begin at 8 am. They then have home work and ministries that they do. Usually somewhere between 3 and 5 pm they then go to work at a job such as delivering pizza.
That means that they usually put in something like 12 to 16 hour days and all because they love the Lord and the ministry. They are training for the day that they can be in the ministry. Some will pastor and others will be missionaries but all want to be in the Lord’s service.
I thought that if you knew this that you would maybe pray especially for them and maybe let them know that you are behind them.
The married students have wives that work and the men study and then have jobs. That really cuts into family time so you can see that they are sacrificing as they prepare themselves for whatever God has in mind for them.
I think that often you might think differently if they were studying for a secular job and be impressed but these men and women have decided to put their own personal lives aside and seek to be used of God.
Also I want you to know that the staff, meaning Mark Coffey and Trent Cornwell along with Philip Bassham, have all sacrificed to be where they are and doing what they are doing. They actually earned more before coming to our church than they do now.
I thank God for these students and for the staff that He has given our church. God bless you guys. Keep up the good work.
October 31 2008 | General | 3 Comments »
As I read the following article I thought of several things:
1. You do not want to forget to set your clocks for the fall back this Saturday evening–it just might be good for your heart as you will read below!
2. You want to be sure and get to Sunday School and Adult Bible Fellowship which is our small groups ministry in many ways. You will have had an extra hour’s sleep and so can make it–but coming together with good friends, inviting new friends, and studying the Bible will definitely be good for your heart and not just for the Monday falling but for a lifetime.
3. I really think that the Sunday School Class and Adult Bible Fellowship are really good for you as you learn the truths of God’s Word. Don’t miss and don’t be late. Some get quite lazy about one of the most important hours of the week. Come and bring someone with you.
Turning Clocks Back May Be Good For Heart
POSTED BY: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Turning your clock back on Sunday may be good for your heart. Swedish researchers looked at 20 years of records and discovered that the number of heart attacks dipped on the Monday after clocks were set back an hour, possibly because people got an extra hour of sleep.
But moving clocks forward in the spring appeared to have the opposite effect. There were more heart attacks during the week after the start of daylight saving time, particularly on the first three days of the week.
“Sleep — through a variety of mechanisms — affects our cardiovascular health,” said Dr. Lori Mosca, director of preventive cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, who was not involved in the research. The findings show that “sleep not only impacts how we feel, but it may also affect whether we develop heart disease or not.”
The study was described in a letter published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine by Dr. Imre Janszky of the Karolinska Institute and Dr. Rickard Ljung of Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare.
Janszky said he came up with the idea for the study after last spring’s time change, when he was having problems adjusting.
“I was on the bus, quite sleepy, and I thought of this,” said Janszky, who has done other research on sleep and health.
They took advantage of Sweden’s comprehensive registry of heart attacks to see if the disruptions to sleep and the body’s internal clock caused by a time change had any effect on heart attacks from 1987 to 2006. They compared the number of heart attacks on each of the seven days after the time shift with the corresponding day two weeks earlier and two weeks later.
Overall, in the week after “spring forward,” there was a 5 percent increase in heart attacks, with a 6 percent bump on Monday and Wednesday and a 10 percent increase on Tuesday. In the week after “fall back,” the number of heart attacks was about the same, except on Monday, which had a 5 percent decrease.
“The finding that the possibility of additional sleep seems to be protective on the first workday after the autumn shift is intriguing,” the authors wrote.
Doctors have long known that Monday in general is the worst day for heart attacks, and they usually blame the stress of a new work week and increased activity. The Swedish researchers said their findings suggest that the minor loss of sleep that occurs at the end of ordinary weekends – with people going to bed later on Sunday and getting up early on Monday – might also be a contributing factor.
Last year, a study by American researchers found there were more pedestrian deaths during the evening rush hour in November than October as drivers and pedestrians adjust to the earlier darkness. They said the risk for pedestrians drops in the spring when clocks are set back and daylight comes earlier.
Daylight saving time in the United States ends this year at 2 a.m. Sunday. All states except Arizona and Hawaii will make the switch. Sweden and the rest of Europe turned back their clocks last weekend. More than 1.5 billion people worldwide live in countries that use daylight saving time, the researchers said.
Sweden has a moderate rate of heart attacks and is at a high latitude, but Janszky said he would expect roughly the same results elsewhere.
Sleep can affect the heart through changes in blood pressure, inflammation, blood clotting, blood sugar, cholesterol and blood vessels, Mosca said. She suggested that anxiety from changes in routine may also be a factor, in addition to loss of sleep.
Dr. Ronald Chervin, director of the University of Michigan’s Sleep Disorders Center, said this is a “sleep-deprived society,” and he advises taking advantage of Sunday’s time change and getting an extra hour of sleep.
In the spring, he suggests gradually adjusting to the one-hour loss by going to bed and getting up 15 minutes earlier for a few days before the time change.
“We spend a third of our lives sleeping and people forget how much effect it has on overall health,” he said.
October 30 2008 | General | No Comments »
This Thursday night we will continue our Question and Answer time. So far it has been me asking you the questions but I want you to know that if you have questions you can write them on a piece of paper, send them in an email, or just tell one of the staff and on Thursday night I will be ready also to answer your questions.
Obviously I do not mean this to be a trip up and trick Austin session but rather a chance for you to ask those questions that you have always wanted to ask. You will be able to do so without embarrassment because you will not have to give your name. Just put your question on a piece of paper and get it to an usher or someone in the sound booth and at the right time I will be answering questions.
Also we will continue on the same vein that we have been and there are a couple of questions still on as homework for this Thursday.
Give 3 passages that show God’s attitude towards sin.
When did Jesus become God–verses?
Others that we will address this week are:
Does God know what I am thinking?
Should a Christian judge?
Where are the 10 commandments found in the Bible?
What does the Bible say about dinosaurs?
and more to come!
See you Thursday night at 7:15! Don’t be late!
October 29 2008 | General | No Comments »
Today is our daughter Joy’s birthday. I am so proud of her and love her so much. I can not explain what it means to have 4 children that love God and are serving Him faithfully today. Joy has grown up quite a bit since this picture and as you will see a little farther down is now a wife and mother. If you have ever visited Peru you know what a servant she is.
Joy, we love you very much and wish you the happiest of days!
I think she might kill me but she is and always will be my beautiful little girl. Here she is in the doorway of our house in Peru many years ago. She always has that cute smile. I think she has always been a daddy’s girl too except for a few weeks or months when she was really small.
Today our little girl is all grown up and a mother all on her own. She makes comments on her face book page about being proud to be a parent, helping Benjamin with his homework, etc. I am so very proud of her. I think that the greatest accomplishments that Betty and I have seen God do through us was to allow us to be parents, have kids that still can tolerate us, and are serving God.
Open some presents today and pretend that Dad and Mom can be with you. We love you very much and miss you more than you will ever know. I hope you have a most wonderful day and I hope you know that though we can’t be there we wish we could. I hope that soon you will be able to come and visit us here.
Happy Birthday, sweet girl. We love you more than you will ever know.
Vision I know that I hijacked the blog for purely personal, selfish, family reasons but this little girl is one of our missionaries and so maybe you too would like to wish her a Happy Birthday.
October 29 2008 | General | 4 Comments »
October 27, 2008
Dear Pastors and Praying Friends,
It seems that every new month brings with it a new set of opportunities and challenges. God is so faithful to bless us and strengthen us as we serve Him here in Northern Ireland.
One of the requests that we asked prayer for in our last letter was concerning a major ministry opportunity, which was the possibility of our working in another church as well as the one in which we are currently involved in Londonderry. As of Sunday, October 12, I have taken over the pastorate of Roe Valley Baptist Church in Limavady, which was started 7 years ago by Missionary Ronnie Smith with Macedonia World Baptist Missions. The church has some very good families in it, who have a desire to move forward, so we are excited about working with them to reach their community as well as praying for God to raise up a local man who can pastor this church.
We will continue establishing Northwest Baptist Church at the same time, so we will be extra busy with both churches. On Sunday, I will preach twice in Limavady, twice in Derry, and then teach a Bible class in Derry as well. The two churches are about 18 miles apart, which takes us about 30 minutes to drive.
On Sunday, September 14, we celebrated our one-year anniversary at Northwest Baptist Church since we officially started the church. It was encouraging to see so many of the folks who were with us a year ago still coming and serving as well as some new people in attendance.
Since July 2007, the church in Derry has knocked on or given invitations to over 20,000 homes. We are hoping to finish with all 33,000 homes in our the city by the end of the year, so please pray for us.
Please continue to pray for souls to be saved, young people to have a desire to serve God, our Harvest Party outreach on October 31, our missions conference the end of November, and wisdom and strength to serve the Lord.
Thank you so much. May God bless you for your support and prayers.
Yours for world evangelism,
Travis, Teri, Grant, and Darci Snode
October 28 2008 | General | No Comments »
by Paul Washer
And if they live without growth even in the context of a church without growth in
continued carnality, no fear. We blame it on the lack of personal discipleship and we
write it off as the doctrine of the carnal Christian.
The doctrine of the carnal Christian has destroyed more lives and sent more people to
hell.
Do Christians struggle with sin? Yes. Can a Christian fall into sin? Absolutely. Can a
Christian live in a continuous state of carnality all the days of his life not bearing fruit
and truly be Christian? Absolutely not or every promise in the Old Testament regarding
the New Testament covenant has failed and everything God said about discipline in
Hebrews is a lie.
A tree is known by its fruit.
October 28 2008 | General | 1 Comment »
The following pictures and the blog post come from our missionary Julio Soncco in reference to the Faith Baptist Church in Arequipa, Peru. I thought you would like to know and to be in special prayer for them.
We want to ask you to pray for Faith Baptist Church. Last night after the service part of the roof from the church fell, thank God nobody got hurt. At the moment, we can not use the building because of the condition it is in. Tonight, we had a meeting with the men and we all agreed that we are going to be looking for another place to have services in until the roof can be fixed.
Please pray that the Lord will provide the needs to get it fixed quickly and also that He will help us find a place quickly to use until then.
Julio Soncco
October 27 2008 | General | No Comments »
The Bible says the following in Psalm 83:16 as I read this morning.
Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD.
I questioned myself about our people and those that do not love God or even know Him in our community. Is God sending embarrassment into our world to cause people to seek Him. For years we have lived in prosperity. All has worked out and even when it didn’t work out one day we could get another job or another loan or just buy and sell a house but now!! Now things aren’t seeming to work out–could it be that God is sending embarrassment just to get you to call out to Him?
I worry about the number of people even in our church that seem to think that they have the world by the tail and yet their passion for the Lord is often so weak. I worry because we seem to think that our education, money, possessions etc make us invulnerable to attack. We can’t trust in riches, or education. We can’t live like we do not need God or He might just make us need Him more.
I am begging you to seek His face. I am begging you to make Him your priority and to learn why He has given you life. Let’s seek Him.
See you in a few minutes in church. Let’s come with our hearts open and desiring to see God work.
October 26 2008 | General | No Comments »
Much was my fault but we had a major conflict in weather reports. It is actually going to a high of 66 or 67 today and so the Fall Harvest is still on.
We will still be saying good bye to my parents and sister tomorrow evening but today we will have some fun together at their house.
Trent is getting torn from one end to the other with all the confusion and I accept total responsibility–I caused the confusion by my google page not having refreshed.
So see you this afternoon!
October 25 2008 | General | No Comments »
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