October 30, 2006
Some of the most exciting news that we receive from other parts of the world is news we can’t share for security reasons.
For example, one man taught English at a university in the world’s largest communist nation. During a three year period, he baptized 193 of his students by teaching WEI lessons in his apartment on weekends. Yet, we could not share this exciting news for fear of putting his work in jeopardy.
Recently, we received an e-mail from a brother in the Middle East. He is teaching sixty-five men in a preacher training school. These students are teaching and baptizing their friends and are planning to take the gospel to other Middle Eastern countries.
Tomorrow, he plans to travel to a nearby country where twenty-five people are waiting to be taught. Next week, he plans to fly to yet another country where a man will introduce him to others and help lay the groundwork for planting the Lord’s church in that country.
He says, “We don’t have the freedom to own church property, or buy Bibles, or share our faith openly. If we are found teaching a Muslim the Bible, we can be arrested and punished severely before being deported. If men in the community catch you before the police do, it can be more severe, even death. We are very careful, but not to the point of neglecting an opportunity to share and teach. Boldness is the order of the day and the prayer of our hearts.”
In view of the dangers faced by Christians in other countries, let us praise God for our freedoms during this Thanksgiving and Christmas season.
We feel especially blessed to be working with you in world evangelism. Thank you for your loving support. Through you, God has introduced people to Christ in 189 nations.
This is the last Update of 2006. Help us begin 2007 in the black. May God bless you and your family with a Happy Holiday Season. We are praying that additional churches and individuals will put us in their budgets in 2007
We love you. —Dick & Maudine
