We finished a great month with directing and serving at the Our Generation Student Leadership Camp being one of the highlights. It was an exciting week where we were able to challenge students to be willing to give their lives to take the Gospel to the world. One of our goals was to show these students the world from Atlanta, GA, so throughout the camp, we visited a Greek Orthodox Church, Mormon Temple, Buddhist Temple, 2 Hindu Temples, and a Muslim Mosque. We also had an outreach activity during the week in an apartment complex that was filled with refugees from many different nations around the world. (Find out more information at www.ogcamp.info). It was both convicting and heart breaking to learn about and speak to those who believe so strongly in these false religions.
Also, the most exciting news of the week, we had 2 saved! Praise the Lord! Natasha had the privilege of leading one of the ladies to the Lord after giving her testimony in one of the workshops!
June in Review
* June was our sixth month on full-time deputation.
* We were able to be in 10 churches total.
* We were able to work in a 5 day missions camp, The Our Generation Student Leadership Camp, June 15 – 19 (www.ogcamp.info).
* We added 4 new supporters this month!
* We are currently at 39.25% of our support…just shy of 40%!
* We traveled 4,172 miles within 4 states: NC, FL, GA, & WI.
Recent Praise: We were able to safely complete another month of traveling on deputation. We try to never take that for granted!
Prayer Request: At the end of this month, we we will be downsizing and moving out of our house that we have been living in for two years. Pray that everything will go smoothly as we move into a basement apartment.
Thank you for being a part of our team, Project China, with your prayer and financial support!
“Missionary training is as much about character as it is about content.”
“No matter where you go or what you do as a missionary you will need training in order to survive and to serve well.”
“Specific training should be sought to meet specific ministry goals.”
“Seek equipping/training that will shape you in three major areas: character, skills, and knowledge. The classroom is a good place to start but it won’t cover everything.” It is highly suggested that you get a mentor or a spiritual and professional advisor in the area of life that you wish to work. You should also be very closely associated with your pastor.
“Character dimensions include personal life with God, spiritual disciplines, self discipline, emotional and spiritual maturity, moral purity, personal and family wholeness, servant attitude, teachable, adaptable, compassionate, spiritual gifting. Skill/competency dimensions include relational abilities, evangelism and discipleship, church planting and development, language and culture learning, communication aptitudes, leadership‑followership facility, practical talents, professional/vocational expertise. Knowledge dimensions include Biblical and theological truth, culture, communication and language, leadership‑followership development, ministry and missions, global partnership, human personality and health, professional/occupational issues.”
There are no shortcuts to mission work. You must prepare yourself and the more you wish to do the more you should prepare yourself. “Missions work is tough. But those who are well prepared will stick it out and see God at work. Heaven will be full of worshipers of the Lamb who are there because someone crossed geographical, linguistic, and cultural barriers to present the powerful, supernatural message of the living Lord Jesus Christ.”
Another article stated the following: “The New Testament prescription for leadership, as laid out in I Timothy 3 and Titus 1, list 22 characteristics of Biblical leaders. All but one of these characteristics‑ the ability to teach‑‑deal with character qualities, not ministry skills.”
I just arrived back home after leading Victory Baptist Church from Ruffin, NC to Arequipa and back. I had a great time with Pastor Scott Hefner and his people. On Monday I drove up to meet them in Charlotte, NC and from there flew to Miami and then to Lima. Tuesday we had a great time visiting the Efata Deaf Ministry and missionaries Joe and Lisa Kotvas. The Lord is truly blessing their ministry in Lima. From there we went to Arequipa were our ministry of the Peru Baptist College is based.
Our group had the opportunity to see the Bible College and many of the churches in Arequipa. I appreciate their work through the week also. In total we passed out about 10,000 tracts and invitations.
On July 6th, Amy and I both will be leading another group to Peru. We are looking forward to spending time with Pastor Derik Lawrence and the folks from Victory Baptist Church in Loganville, Ga. Please pray all goes well. If everything works out well, we will be aiding in starting a new church close to one of the largest universities in the city. I am excited about this opportunity.
I want to invite you to be a part of of one of our Peru Mission Trips in October or next year. I will be leading a group along with my pastor, Austin Gardner to Peru from October 5th to 12th. I have around 15 slots open if you are interested in being part of the team. You can also be part of one of my trips next summer. Just call or email if you are interested.
The Our Generation Camp went great this year. We had a great group of young people who are interested in getting the gospel to the world. We also had two people saved and four people who got assurance of their salvation.
We are now gearing up for the Our Generation Summit at the end of the year. Mark you calendars now for December 31 – January 2. It is a great time to be challenged for world evangelism. It’s also a great winter retreat for the family.
Please be praying for the Peru Baptist College. We are still in great need of monthly support. We don’t have any room to complain even though times my get tough. I just want to thank God for all He has done. He has got us through every single month even with huge deficits starting out. If you are interested in helping please let me know or if you know someone who is interested in helping please let me know.
I want to thank all the people that have been praying for me and my family. Without prayer I don’t know how we would make it. Thank you also for the financial support. We are still in the process of raising support for ourselves so if you would be interested in being a partner in our ministry, we would be privileged.
Here to serve.
Mark, Amy, Emilee, and Luke Coffey and Tyler and Chase
“A mother at our mission station died after giving birth to a premature baby. We tried to improvise an incubator to keep the infant alive, but the only hot water bottle we had was beyond repair. So we asked the children to pray for the baby and for her sister. One of the girls responded. ‘Dear God, please send a hot water bottle today. Tomorrow will be too late because by then the baby will be dead. And dear Lord, send a doll for the sister so she won’t feel so lonely.’ That afternoon a large package arrived from England. The children watched eagerly as we opened it. Much to their surprise, under some clothing was a hot water bottle! Immediately the girl who had prayed so earnestly started to dig deeper, exclaiming, ‘If God sent that, I’m sure He also sent a doll!’ And she was right! The heavenly Father knew in advance of that child’s sincere requests, and 5 months earlier He had led a ladies’ group to include both of those specific articles.”
EVANGELISM is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. –D. T. Niles
If your Gospel isn’t touching others, it hasn’t touched you! –Curry R. Blake
We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God. — John Stott
The greatest hindrances to the evangelization of the world are those within the church. –John R. Mott
The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed. –Hudson Taylor
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. –Jim Elliot
People who don’t believe in missions have not read the New Testament. Right from the beginning Jesus said the field is the world. The early church took Him at His word and went East, West, North and South. – J. Howard Edington
The Holy Spirit can’t save saints or seats. If we don’t know any non-Christians, how can we introduce them to the Savior? –Paul Little
Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. — John Piper
Evangelization is a process of bringing the gospel to people where they are, not where you would like them to be. When the gospel reaches a people where they are, their response to the gospel is the church in a new place… –Vincent Donovan
The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become. – Henry Martyn
How you believe God perceives people will determine how you respond to them. –Jacquelyn K. Heasley
Life is too short and hell is too hot to just play church. –Larry Osborne
Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell; I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell. — C.T. Studd
It is possible to do evangelism without planting churches, but it is not possible to plant churches without doing evangelism. –unknown
God’s plan in these last days is revival in His worldwide church and through the revived church the reaping of a final great harvest of souls. –N. Grubb
The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. –C. S. Lewis
We talk of the Second Coming; half the world has never heard of the first. – Oswald J. Smith
We Christians are debtors to all men at all times in all places, but we are so smug to the lostness of men. We’ve been “living in Laodicea “, lax, loose, lustful, and lazy. Why is there this criminal indifference to the lostness of men? Our condemnation is that we know how to live better than we are living. –Leonard Ravenhill
Being an extrovert isn’t essential to EVANGELISM–obedience and love are. –Rebecca M. Pippert
It is now possible to live a “christian life” without doing the things that Jesus commanded us to do. We have hired people to go into all the world, to visit those in prison, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to care for widows and orphans. The average Christian doesn’t have to do it. –Cal Thomas
Missionary zeal does not grow out of intellectual beliefs, nor out of theological arguments, but out of love. – Roland Allen
Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth. –John Wesley
“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.” Spurgeon
Some that concern the life we need to live for the world that needs a witness:
“Live simply so that others can simply live.” unknown
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot
Trust and obey not think and decide.
Never doubt in the dark what God has revealed in the light.
Thanks to Guy Muse Missionary to Ecuador for the compilation of the above quotes on his blog.
· Why should anyone hear the gospel twice before everyone has heard it once. Oswald J. Smith
· “Father make me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me” Jim Elliot
· The church that does not evangelize will fossilize
· The mission of the church is missions!
· This generation can only reach this generation!
· Only as the church fulfills her missionary obligation does she justify her existence.
· If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him! C T Studd
· As long as there are millions destitute of the Word of God and knowledge of Jesus Christ, it will be impossible for me to devote time and energy to those who have both. J L Ewen
· Why should so few hear the Gospel again and again when so many have never heard it once? Oswald J Smith
· Farther, still farther, into the night.
· Church of Christ, what wilt thou say When in the awful judgment day, They charge thee with their doom?
· A hundred thousand souls a day
Are passing one by one away
In Christless guilt and gloom
Without one ray of hope and light
With future dark as endless night
They’re passing to their doom
· Now let me burn out for God. Henry Martyn
· Stir me, Oh! stir me Lord–I care not how,
But stir my heart in passion for the world;
Stir me to give, to go, but most to pray,
Stir, till the blood red banner be unfurled
O’er lands that in heathen darkness lie,
O’er deserts where no cross is lifted high.
· Untold millions are still untold!
· If God wills the evangelization of the world, and you refuse to support missions, then you are opposed to the will of God! Oswald J. Smith
John Leonard Doper and David Nitschman are names you may not readily recognize.
John was a potter and David a carpenter. Ordinary occupations, extraordinary men.
They became slaves in order to have the opportunity to reach the slaves of the West Indies for their Lord.
Their life’s purpose was to follow the Lamb who had given His life for them and for all the souls of the world.
Their mission statement was “Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him.”
As the ship pulled away from the docks the men lifted a cry, “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering.”
This cry became the resonating heartbeat of the Moravian Missions movement.
These two men birthed a Missions movement, not through fancy talk, but by living the message.
Moravian missionaries leaving Europe to go to the Caribbean missions always took two things with them: A Bible and their own headstone. There isn’t any rock to speak of on those islands, and the missionaries knew that most of them wouldn’t come home.
“That the Lamb may recieve the reward of His suffering!”
Isaiah 53:10-11 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
These are some of the most shocking verses in the Bible to me! It pleased the Lord God of Heaven to bruise Jesus for us. God put Jesus to grief for us! He made His soul an offering for our sin!
The part of the verse that excites me is that He will be satisfied. No matter how much He has suffered. No matter how great the price that He has paid. He will be satisfied.
I know that world evangelism, souls getting saved, and the gospel being preached is very important to the Lord Jesus Christ or He would not have paid such a price. If it is important to Him how can it not be important to me?
That is why I give to missions! He gave His life. I only give a little money and a few years of my life. I want to love Him. I want to see Him satisfied. Don’t you?
I challenge you to get involved in praying for and supporting missionaries. I challenge you to get involved in the greatest work that exists on this planet. That is the work of taking the name of Jesus to the end of the world.
In his devotional book Quiet Talks with World Winners, S.D. Gordon recounted a story of a group of amateur climbers who planned to ascend Mount Blanc in the Swiss Alps. On the evening before the climb, the guides outlined the prerequisite for success. They said that due to the difficulty of the climb, one could reach the top by taking only the necessary equipment for climbing, leaving all unnecessary accessories behind.
A young Englishman didn’t listen and proceeded up the mountain with a blanket, a small case of wine, a camera, a set of notebooks, and a pocketful of snacks. On the way to the summit the other climbers began to notice various items left along the path-first the snacks and the wine, a short while later the notebooks and camera, and finally the blanket. The young man managed to reach the peak, but, just as the guides had predicted, he did so only after discarding all his unnecessary paraphernalia.
Gordon made this application to the Christian life: “Many of us, when we find we can’t make it to the top with our loads, let the top go, and pitch our tents in the plain, and settle down with our small plans and accessories. The plain seems to be quite full of tents.”
Fellow Christian, where is your tent pitched? Have you settled on the plain? Or, are you still following Christ in obedience to the Great Commission? What changes do you need to make to follow Christ in this area? The church is the bride of Christ. The church is of infinite value to Him because He paid an infinite price to redeem her. He willingly endured the pain and shame of the cross to redeem us. How much it must grieve Jesus when we don’t esteem the value of the church and the Great Commission. Let’s not insult our Lord by living as if our goals and plans are more important than His. Let’s follow His example by living sacrificially in order to carry out the work of disciple-making. Let’s recommit ourselves to the great task of making disciples by evangelizing, edifying, and equipping the people around us.
