Hello Saints! Hallelujah! Our God is so faithful & good! He answers prayer! At 2:46pm today (Sun, Dec-7), literally 14 minutes before we were about to intercede together in Berkeley, the missionaries communicated to us that they had found Pastor James & the team! They are all safely back at the home church base. For those who were not with us today & did not hear what we shared, Pastor James missed his flight to come home on Thursday because of a border closure due to increased shooting & warfare activity in the region. He had gone up into the mountainous areas to search for orphans when the outside missionaries lost communication with him & his team. Yesterday (Saturday), the border opened up again & the outside missionaries went to look for PJ & the team until they were found today. We are all very relieved & thankful after a long three days of uncertainty & urgency in prayer & fasting. Thank you for faithfully praying & fasting for Pastor James even when these details were unknown to you. As we learn more information in the coming days, we will pass this on to the church as well. We would still like to ask our entire church to continue praying & fasting until PJ is safely back home in California with his family & our community. Also, to continue to pray for the missionaries, church plants, orphaned children, & nations (and citizens) where all of this warfare is taking place. Before PJ left, he exhorted us with the Word that God was calling him to this mission with: For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21). Today we read the encouragement & exhortation of the Apostle Paul to the church in Philippi while he was imprisoned for the Gospel, and oh how many glimpses we see of these past few days & what we all hope the outcome of this whole testimony is & will be... I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my DELIVERANCE, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. - Philippians 1:12-30 (ESV) In Christ, - pMike & the Pastoral Staff - us5.campaign-archive1/?u=f65e6391958d88bdcf1a24784&id=6b4612dfd1
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 05:51:26 +0000
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