Angel Primary School ~ by Vicky Bentley

Today Love Covered Angel Primary school. Fifty four students received love packs filled with mosquito nets, blankets, school supplies, and a uniform. Wes shared the final message and extended an invitation for anyone who was not sure where they would go when they die the chance to receive Jesus. This old man sat in the same shade as the children but was off to the side…..I could not help but think of my own grandfather, Claude, who is 92 years old and does not know the Lord. God in His love and mercy continually stretches forth His hand to forgive and receive the lost. Would you please pray that Claude will accept Jesus? Wes and I have shared with him many times but he says he will, “take his chances.” Last week he had a series of strokes or seizures and we feel he is not long for this world. How I long to know he will be in heaven with my grandmother….may God’s love cover more children in Sudan and also span the ocean to reach our family, friends, and neighbors in the USA.

Weekly Devotional

Back to the Bible 

1 Peter 4:14-16

^14If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. ^15But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. ^16Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.

It’s unfortunate that whenever we have the chance to share our faith with a friend, a co-worker or even a family member, the risk of making things awkward between us is usually enough to make us reconsider. The thought of sharing our faith with a stranger as they leave work is even more frightening. It would be embarrassing and humiliating.

I was recently in South Sudan, Africa, spending the month of October teaching the SPLA chaplains at our Far Reaching Ministries base. As I taught through the Book of Romans, I could see the resolute focus on the face of each man desiring to share the Word of God with their own people, not to mention the Muslims of Northern Sudan.

These men are not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and they are ready to lay their lives down, to be martyred, for the Gospel’s sake.

It made me reconsider my walk with the Lord. I can say as an American, I have never had the threat of being martyred for my faith. But there may come that time where we will have to stand and be imprisoned or even die for our faith.  If it’s embarrassing to tell an unsaved friend or someone we work with about Jesus Christ, can we stand when the time may come that we will be persecuted or arrested for our faith?

A number of years ago, I spent Friday and Saturday nights on the streets of West Hollywood, California, with a group of Christians sharing our faith to anyone who would listen.  After many weeks of doing this, militant gay groups would threaten us with bodily harm and the West Hollywood police would threaten us with arrest. If this was happening in the late eighties, things are getting worse twenty years later!

Are we ready to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, to let our light shine before men?  Are we ready to suffer as a Christian, or will we stand ashamed?  I pray that God gives us a resoluteness to be a witness for the Gospel today!

Devotion

^{Luke 9:57}

Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.”

                                                      "Are You Coming?"

After years of ministry, I have heard many people proclaim, “Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.”  But when the journey gets difficult, it is then a different story.  I have spoken to hundreds, who proclaim they want to be a missionary in Africa, but time passes and we never hear from them again.  When life gets difficult will you continue to follow Jesus wherever He goes?

Wes Bentley has an analogy he uses when speaking to men at conferences, and that is of a soldier lying in a fox hole with his rifle between his legs, shaking with fear. While the enemy approaches, he’s unable to perform his duty!  His commander yells at him and says, “Are you coming,” and he lays in his fox hole unresponsive.

As believers, we all experience the difficulties life has to throw at us.  But the real question is are we going to continue following Jesus wherever He goes, or are we going to remain in the fox hole…”Are you coming?

I think of all the trials Paul experienced:  stripes above measure, in prisons, in death often, stoned three times, shipped wrecked, a night and a day in the sea, robbers, and perils among false brethren. … “Are you coming?”  

And again, hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed… “Are you coming?

As Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, “Father, if it is Your will, remove this cup from Me; never the less not My will, but Yours, be done”…”Are you coming?”

Jesus is saying “Follow Me” are we able to make that journey to the end? “Are you coming?”

EMT Update

Please keep praying for the Extreme Missions Training (EMT) Students. This week they will each begin teaching one of the Rabuna Fi groups. Today Christina taught from 2 Samuel 2:1-11. She did an awesome job and I was blessed to watch the women hang on her words. They truly are starting to crave the Word of God! After study we called for the Rabuna Fi leaders to come and pray over each sister with a need. I captured pictures of the EMT gals praying alongside these leaders. You could hear five different languages beseeching the throne of grace for help and it was like music to my ears! God is doing a marvelous work in this obscure little village. One day these women will be a mighty army for His name….please don’t forget to pray for us!

 

~Agape, Vicky

African Grasshopper

This is just one of many crazy looking creatures you would see here in Africa.  Look at all those beautiful colors!