March, 2023
Dearly Beloved in Christ Jesus,
We greatly rejoice in our salvation by grace through faith in Christ Jesus alone and His redemptive work on the cross of Calvary, together with his bodily resurrection from the dead to justify all who believe on His Name. As we serve our Lord in Guatemala with many wonderful prayer and financial partners like you, we glory in the cross of our Savior where He gave himself willingly a sacrifice to save sinners like us. As we proclaim the wonderful gospel of Christ to others, we keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus our Savior and with joy serve Him and repeat the words of the Apostle Paul in Galatians 6:14, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world”. May the grace of God continually operate in us all for His glory, and remember that we must work now, for the night is coming!
GRACE AND FAITH PRESBYTERY OF THE GUATEMALA BP CHURCH
Pray for the young Presbytery of Guatemala and for the meeting that will be held April 15th. We have had to change the dates for the meeting due to some health issues of the members; pray for their recovery. Each chairman is working with their committees to give good reports at Presbytery. The committees are the Judicial, Spiritual Life, Evangelism, and a committee to review the church session books.
People are praying for the Mazatenango BP Church and Pastor Virgilio and his wife, who has diabetes. The Lord provided a small used pickup truck so he can help support his and her medical needs. The pickup is still in the port of Tampa, Florida waiting to be shipped; it was held up due to a paperwork problem. We are still in need of $1,240 for the shipping. If you would like to help, please send in your gift to the IBPFM and mark it “PICKUP GUATEMALA”.
MONTSERRAT AND LOS ANGELES CHURCHES
We praise the Lord that both churches have adjusted to their change in service schedule. When we finished the Los Angeles VBS back in December, we started Bible school every Sunday morning from 9:30-12:00 pm. The Lord helped use the whole morning just for Sunday School, using the VBS methods with children’s songs, catechism, bible lessons and a time for a little hand-work. As many as 18 children and seven adults have come to the Sunday School. The Sunday worship service is now at 5:00 pm. The change in the Montserrat Church is different, with the worship service at 10:45 am and Sunday School at 12:00 pm. It has worked well and we now have more adults and young people in Sunday School; Praise the Lord! Pray for two scheduled marriages coming up in April, that all will be done to the glory of God. Please pray for the new Baptism and Profession of Faith classes that will start in April. Pray for Family-Night held every second Friday of the month from 6:00-11:00pm. The brethren really enjoy the social time with many different games and food including some spiritual time. Please pray for these two churches that the Lord will nurture them through His Word and make them strong defenders of His truth.
THE TRINITARIAN BIBLE SOCIETY
Pray for the new Spanish Bible of the Trinitarian Bible Society of London, that Lord willing will be published in April and will be a blessing to many believers in Latin America. It uses the Hebrew Masoretic Text for the Old Testament and the Textus Receptus for the New Testament, so it should be another good and faithful accurate Bible translation into Spanish.
We have a booklet that every conservative and fundamentalist Christian should read; it’s about Dr. Kurt Aland and Professor Bruce Metzger of Princeton Seminary, and others, who brought about the Critical Text that is used in Bibles printed by the United Bible Society. Dr. Aland has so much influence that he changed the Greek Nestle text to Greek Nestle-Aland text. This eclectic text that Aland uses from the weak and inaccurate texts does not have one word from the historic Textus Receptus. This is why so many thousands of words and verses are removed from the modern translations.
FREE SCRIPTUAL CALENDARS TO EVANGELIZE
Due to budget cuts this year, the Trinitarian Bible Society of London/Grand Rapids, Michigan was unable to pay for the printing of our 5,000 “Golden Thoughts” scriptural calendars. In the beginning we thought we would go ahead and print them ourselves and charge the churches and others who would distribute the calendars. Then in early January we received notice that TBS would be able to give a partial donation, and so we decided to give them all for free and by faith wait for other donations to cover the cost. We also receive from TBS 1,000 colorful “Words of Life” calendars to distribute for free as well. The calendars were expected by many of the brethren who have grown accustomed to receive them yearly. We thank God that most have already been distributed to the unsaved, going house to house and in the streets. The picture at the right is a group preparing to distribute. Pray that souls will be touched and born again by the verses on these calendars. Anyone who would like to help with the costs of this project, please send in your gift to the IBPFM and mark it “GUATEMALA CALENDARS”.
CIEF-GUATEMALA (Confederation of Evangelical Fundamentalist Churches)
We praise the Lord that CIEF-Guatemala is continually defending the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ against all unbelief. We are looking forward to a Bible conference to be held near the Pacific Coast during Easter next month.
Brother Hector, the deacon of the CIEF Church in Chimaltenango, who was shot almost three years ago while waiting in a Barber shop, has a great financial need that he cannot fulfill. He has had many operations and is still not able to work, but is getting closer to that day the Lord will allow him to work again. He lives in a part of town where they don’t have running water. Recently, the water company planned to install city water in the area. To get hooked up however, he needs to pay the equivalent of US$400.00, and then pay his monthly bill. If you would like to help with this need, please send in your gift to the IBPFM and mark it “GUATEMALA RUNNING WATER”
OLD PATHS HISTORIC FAITH BIBLE INSTITUTE
Institute classes started in January. Then on February 13-18 we had an intensive Greek course taught by our fellow-missionary and friend from Chile, Rev. Paul Durand. We highly appreciated the Durand family’s visit and Brother Paul’s preaching in our churches. They continued to Mexico to visit our friends and churches that we have worked with for so many years. The picture on the front of our letter is Rev. Durand teaching.
Brethren, we look forward to seeing some of you at the ICCC World Congress in Collingswood N.J., June 21-28, 2023 for some sweet fellowship.
Yours missionaries for Christ,
Hal, Stephen, Juanita, Samuel and Joshua