Journal: June 2, 2011

June 2, 2011

Dear Friends,

I trust you had a blessed Memorial Day weekend. We were blessed with yard time, a nice Sunday worship service—afternoon and evening, great fellowship, and we even got to go to the yard on Memorial Day. I continue to preach each evening (that we have yard) through the book of Galatians. I am fortunate to have Pastor MacArthur’s commentary on Galatians to aid me.

One of the men in our group asked me for help concerning the personality of the Holy Spirit because he is being swayed by the heresy that the Spirit is just a force and not a person. So I have been preparing a detailed paper on this for him and anyone else here who might be interested. I am grateful for the textbooks (theologies, Greek text and lexicons, commentaries) I have for my use. Pray I would properly defend the Truth.

We continue to get printed sermons by John MacArthur and we are very grateful. Thanks to RB, I have his complete set of commentaries. For June, our fellowship is offering classes in 1 Timothy, Revelation, James, beginning and advanced Greek, with preaching on Matthew, Galatians, and various topical messages. Myself and several other men will be doing the teaching/preaching. Please pray we would be faithful in presenting the Word of God. WE also formed a Saturday afternoon prayer group/time where we pray for you, our families, our authorities, the lost, missions, VOM martyrs and families, looking forward in faith to God’s gracious and merciful answers. All of you who pray, write, bless us with books and packages and visits, are a great encouragement to us and you have a big part in the ministry here. May the Lord richly bless you.

Our fellowship here has tried to follow the practice of Acts 2:42: “They were continually devoting themselves to the Apostle’s teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” We are committed to the preaching of the Word, regular gathering for fellowship, communion once a month, and regular prayer in meetings, and using prayer lists to remind us of all the requests. There is a growing (but small) list of those who want to get baptized. When this list gets larger we will asks the administration to allow us to use the horse trough for baptisms.

Journal: May 25, 2011

May 25, 2011

Dear Friends,

It has been a month since I last wrote but lots has happened. There was an escape from this prison which we learned from the TV news. I’m sure you heard about it too. They locked us down for about a day. Our group continues to meet and the Lord is blessing it. In addition to holding services several times a week, we are teaching classes in James, 1 Timothy, Greek, and I just started (May 9) preaching through the book of Galatians every evening that we are let out. I’m going verse-by-verse and the men seem to appreciate it. My goal is that they are fed and the Lord is glorified. We manage to hold communion once a month using crackers and Kool-Aid. There are several who want to get baptized so we will apply to get use of the horse trough for the baptisms.

I’m getting more students to tutor in GED. Many of them are Hispanic men who want to learn English. So, I’m learning some Spanish in the process. I’m still working on my book on suffering and God’s will in devotion form. Friends are translating it in Spanish and German. I do appreciate my Puritan books some of you have sent me. They are so rich and full of insight. The Lord is keeping me in excellent health—no aches or pains and all. I know the Lord has me in here to grow and to serve, so by His grace I shall do so. Two days ago I had a great visit from K and C. I was treated to some great food and fellowship. Thank you for the visit! Since I got some negative comment on one of my blogs, I am going to use initials to protect my friends. Today I was able to go to the prison store and busy some ice cream (Rocky Road), cold sodas, chips—you know, the basic food groups. :-) What I really miss is Chinese food. Haven’t had any for 6 years. Please keep praying for the ministry here. God bless.

Journal: April 24, 2011

April 24, 2011

Today is Resurrection Sunday. We were blessed to get outside because we were locked up on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. It was a good day of fellowship. I was able to teach Greek at 9am and 1 Timothy at 10:30am. Then at 1pm the Lord allowed me to preach at our outdoor Easter service. My sermon was on the appearance of Christ after He rose from the dead, and their application to us. WE had chicken for dinner and I got a shower after 3 ½ days! That evening we met for prayer and we all prayed for our families. I really miss my kids.