NEWS FROM HQ

Serving the Lord at Headquarters

Faucette
Two smaller mailings ready to go to the P.O.

Beloved fellow-laborers in the Lord:

“But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.” I John 1:7.

I am delighted to once again be able to greet you and to bring you up to date with what the Lord has been accomplishing in the past six months. First of all, though, I would like to thank you for your love and sweet fellowship in Christ our Saviour as we serve our Lord with our lives, and give our talents and our gifts to Him for His work. These all reflect our mutual passion for missions and for the lost souls who are still without Christ. I trust that you can see evidence of God working in your own lives on a day to day basis in your corner of His vineyard. May the Lord increase the number of those who will serve with us in the days, months and years to come. Let us look at our FAITH and the increased possibilities of its power in our daily lives.

The Power of Faith and Prayer

The Bible has much to say about FAITH. It is a theme that runs from Genesis to Revelation. When we first put our faith in Jesus Christ to save us from our sins and not to just know about Him, our faith is weak and small until we continue to learn more about God and His plan for us and the rest of mankind. We need to be in God’s Holy Word, the Bible, to grow in faith day by day. Many people talk about faith, but what they mean by faith may not be Biblical faith as God defines faith. In Hebrews chapter 11:1, often called the Faith Chapter, faith is defined as the following; “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Another verse reads in Habakkuk: “The just shall live by faith.” Again this verse is quoted in the New Testament in Galatians 3:11. “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. It is evident for, the just shall live by faith.” Our faith needs to continue to grow as we read and study God’s Word. I recently read in my devotional, Days of Praise, that we need to have not “static power in our faith that resides in our minds, but rather an empowerment that is expected to grow into a dynamic and demonstrable ‘divine nature’ in 2 Peter 1:4-9.” Faith is a gift from God; it can’t be earned by works. Ephesians 2:8, 9. The power of faith will be reflected in effective prayer in our lives as God hears and answers our prayers and we learn to pray for His will in ALL things. Surely this power in faith is needed as we pray for our missionaries, their needs, and their ministries to make Christ our Saviour known to those who are still living in darkness in the countries where they serve. I ask God routinely to open doors of opportunity to be His witness to people that I meet in business and those I meet in other places. He is opening doors for me as I pray and that this will become the habit of all of us as we realize we are increasingly living in a world which seems to be more evil every day. Think of the new dictates of our local and national governments to limit our freedom and liberties to live as Christians in America which is the Land of the Free and the Brave that God has given to us centuries ago.

What practical help will you give your missionaries this next year?

I hope that everyone will give serious thought to how you can help your missionaries and missions in general now and in the future. Recently, one lady contacted me asking for a directory of our missionaries because the ladies in the church wanted to send cards and notes to the missionaries. This is a very good way for individuals, classes, schools, missionary societies and churches to have a closer contact and relationship with missionaries. Some missionaries have Skype or Magic Jack, an affordable phone service using a USA phone number through their computers. We have had conversations with a few of our missionaries at a prayer meeting or a missionary meeting. How are you helping the children in your churches and Christian schools to have a keen interest in missions? Christians need personal contact with missionaries. The best way is to have missionaries coming to your church for more than a day or two and take pictures of them with a group in the church. Several churches used to have missionary conferences and the ladies made things for the missionaries to take back with them. They had planned meals for them with members of the church or some took them out to lunch or dinner for a nice treat. Sometimes time was planned for special sight-seeing. Perhaps you can have an on-going fund for your missionaries that you are supporting so that you can give them a new outfit. Missionaries need all kinds of things that need replacing after 2-4 years. You can take the missionaries on a shopping trip and let them pick out what they need.

PraySendGo – Preparation for mailing

PraySendGo is a newer publication of the Independent Board. These Tri-fold Newsletters that we send out three times a year require hand preparation. Several of us tab the sides of the newsletter, which the USPS requires, taking a couple of days or intersperse it with applying the address labels to break up the repetitive movements that cause sore muscles if done too long at a time. Charlotte and I coordinate together printing the 285 pages of labels in zip-code order so when we place them on the newsletters, they are in the correct trays in the correct order. Sometimes we are interrupted to take care of other mission business and phone calls during the this time so it can take 4-5 days to have everything ready to take the 16 2’ USPS trays of mail to deliver to the USPS Processing and Distributing Center(aka P & D C) near the Philadelphia International Airport and I-95. We heard from one pastor that his copy was greatly torn when it arrived. By calling us, we were able to send him a new copy as he wanted so much to read about Mrs. Evelyn Cunningham’s Memorial. Please notify us if your mail does not come in good condition or if you did not receive a copy. We have an extra supply should you request one or another piece of mail which is damaged on arrival. Your new copy will come by first class mail in a few days.

Home Missions Outreach – my 2nd year of participation

On 9/11 again this year I took the opportunity to participate in the Home Missions Outreach to Flight 93 National Memorial Park. We left early in the morning in the Apollo Church van. There were just eight of us who participated this year including two teens and their mom. We traveled over several back roads and also on Route 30, which is an east-west highway through Pennsylvania, as we turned off that highway we followed the 3.5 mile road at Shanksville, PA that leads into the Park. It was raining lightly as we prepared our outreach tables and gifts of conservative tee-shirts, books and gospel tracts/booklets in the area known as First Amendment Rights area. We had many boxes of these items to give away (Nothing is allowed to be sold in the Park.) as the people passed along the path to the memorial ceremony area near the Wall of 40 names of crew and passengers of those who died in the plane crash. The site is also in the direct flight path of that plane as it went down.

Hundreds of people passed by our tables, so it was easy to welcome them to come and see what we had to offer them. We had good conversations with a number of them though the total number of people that came this year was far fewer than last year. Many came from different states including MI, OH, NY, NJ and places in PA. I met the Mayor of Watsontown, PA and his wife. I was delighted to tell them about my parents’ ministry at the First Presbyterian Church in their town during the years of 1929-38. I mentioned that my Dad was a 1929 graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and graduated with two degrees. For that reason he did not move to the newly formed Westminster Seminary in 1928 under the leadership of Dr J. Gresham Machen, who was also the first President of the IBPFM established in 1933. I told them that my Dad had to leave the USA Presbyterian denomination due to the modernism and the apostasy at that time. Also, he was one of the founding pastors and elders of the Bible Presbyterian Church.

A Gospel booklet called “The Ultimate Question” by John Blanchard was given out while they lasted, though we had other many other gospel tracts. We had tee-shirts and books left over for next year. Some even offered donations because they were so thankful for our ministry and wanted to participate in it. We told them that their gifts would be used to buy more items to give away next year. We also saw a number of military personnel who walked by our tables. They could not stop as they were in a group, but we thanked them for their service to our country as they passed us. We thoroughly enjoyed our time helping the many visitors looking for books of interest to them or to find the size or message on a tee-shirt that they wanted. Others just stopped by to learn about our ministry. Some had been there in other years too.

The speaker for the memorial service this year was Speaker Dennis Hastert (Speaker of the House of Representatives in Washington D.C. for 8 years). He was also a classmate of mine at Wheaton College though I never knew him. Hopefully, I plan to go again next year and I will go to one of the services as the new Museum and Learning Center, now under construction, will be dedicated on 9/11 next year. There should be a huge crowd for that dedication and opening. Maybe some of you will want to come to this special 15th year commemoration of that disastrous event in Shanksville PA.

Please feel free to contact us in the Home Office if you have any questions or you would like to be placed on our All Missionary Mailing List. Please invite friends and family to learn about our mission and ministries. We welcome new people to join us in this faithful and fruitful mission of the Lord’s work. We will be happy to send them our literature too.

Yours and His all because of Calvary’s Love,
Marilyn Faucette