December - 2009

 

Dear loved ones at MBC,
 
   We celebrated our 8th year anniversary on Dec. 6 and we praise God for bringing an attendance of 300 though short of what we have prayed for. We know that God has a purpose for everything and it was a great joy seeing lost souls turn to the living God. Help us pray that we can disciple these souls so they will also grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 

   Malasiqui Bible Church is sending four of our elders to the Bible School at Golden State School of Theology (GSST) where Bro. Marcelo had his formal bible schooling. We thank God so much for calling these leaders of our church to be trained and be equipped so that someday they in turn will pioneer churches in different towns and cities in Pangasinan, which is the vision of Pangasinan Bible Mission. This is a local mission put up by Malasiqui Bible Church that will be responsible in equipping and sending them as local missionary pastors who will be assigned to pioneer churches in Pangasinan. We urge you to please help us pray for the success of this local mission for the evangelization of the lost souls in Pangasinan.
   We thank you so much for your spiritual as well as financial help. We know that these had been a very great help to us in reaching souls and discipling them.                In His love, Pastor Jaime and Carmela
 

Dear Milan Bible Church,
     Let me start by wishing a merry Christmas and God’s rich blessings to each and every one of you. It’s Christmas again and we want to remember what God did for us many many years ago. Thank you God for loving us so much that you gave us Jesus. Thank you Jesus for loving us so much that you came into this world and dies for us. Let us focus on Him. May the Lord be your joy, peace and comfort now and throughout the new year.  As your missionary here in Iasi, Romania, I want to express my deepest appreciation for your past and present prayers and support.
     This past fall and winter has been a very busy time for both schools. At the school in Iasi we have 31 registered students but the number varies for each class. This fall we had classes on Salvation, Church History, Orthodoxy and Evangelism/Discipleship – all of them extremely interesting. We are so thankful for the teachers God provide, people very dedicated and well prepared. The exciting thing is to see the interest of our students and also have others come to audit certain classes. At the other school, we have 18 students altogether in three different groups; classes were on How to Study the Bible; OT; Doctrines; Preaching; Personal Christian Life; Missions, Evangelism & Discipleship; Counseling; and discipleship classes such as Experiencing God, The Disciple’s Cross, and Jesus on Leadership. Please pray for these schools, for the teachers and the students.
      We go to many churches on Sundays, most of them village churches where some of our students come from like Ten Sticks, Ursari, Kogalniceanu, but also a few city churches: Holy Trinity Baptist Church, Bethany Baptist Church, First Bretheren Church of Iasi. The last Sunday of the month is always dedicated to the Way of Joy – a church for the poor in a neighborhood of Iasi. Occasionally we go to other churches where the brother I translate for is invited to preach.
     Our ladies’ Bible study group continues to flourish. I am so thankful to God for these ladies who are very committed to growing in the Lord and long to do His will. After finishing a study on the Sermon on the Mount we started another one named Witnessing Through Your Relationship – a study based on Jesus’ parable of the soils which provides us a method of witnessing. We all feel we need to know this because witnessing is one of our Lord’s commandments but most often then not people don’t do it either because they don’t know what to say or they don’t know why they should say something. Please pray for us to be bold and committed to the end. There are so many people around us who don’t know the Lord and we feel responsible for them, to say nothing about our loved ones who do not know Him and our hearts breaks for them.
     Rody Maynard – an American missionary – and I have started on promoting women’s missions groups. In order to do that we go to different churches, again most of them village churches, presenting the need for this kind of groups and then actually having the meetings. We provide a magazine also. The first issue was in May and then we continued with an October and November issue. A couple of women from America came and helped present how these groups function in their churches, they gave their testimonies and shared some of their projects. The magazine is called Focus – Women on Mission. Attached is November issue in English for you to have an idea of what is looks like. Each time we focus on a local pastor or missionary whom most of them know or heard of. Please pray for the women to get involved in missions’ activities or praying for missionaries and missions.
       Thank you again for all your prayers. They are much needed and cherished. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your love.
With love, in Christ,   Marcela