Our church is privileged to have some fantastic international ministry partners, including a church planting ministry in Asia called Logos Ministries. They are actively sharing Christ in villages and cities where there are few if any Christians and where there is growing resistance to the gospel from locals and governing authorities. Yet our friends are standing fast in their commitment to preaching Christ and making disciples and building strong churches.
In two weeks I’ll be returning there for my fourth time and I am excited to let you know that this time I’ll be joined by my wife Lesley, and Jay and SaraJane Strylowski. This year
we will be able to offer two tracks of teaching and training during our conference on November 1-4.
Ministry track for women
SaraJane will be doing some training with a small group of women there, wives of ministry leaders, to help them learn how to find God’s help and healing after experiencing trauma. Nish and Pinky, our partners there, expressed an interest in this material when they were here in January. If this material is helpful, we hope to bring it to a larger group of women in the future. SaraJane has this to say about the material she’ll be covering:
“Talking about abuse is hard. Really hard. Most abuse survivors try to forget about it and keep the trauma from intruding into their day-to-day lives.
“The church is uniquely equipped to help care for survivors of abuse, but it’s still hard to talk about it – even among people who accept you in Christ, and may have known you for years.
“I hope that we will be able to start some conversations – in the context of Christian discipleship – to encourage believers to share their stories, and to bring what’s been hidden in the darkness into the light of the gospel. These conversations, when handled with grace, understanding, and encouragement, can start to bring healing to the women attending the conference and the churches they serve.”
Pastors’ ministry track
I will be doing teaching and training with 20 pastors. Pastor Nish has communicated that while they find that they are able to lead people to faith in Christ, they would like tools for helping new believers grow as disciples. Over the next two years I’ll be working with them on this project, training pastors to disciple new believers through teaching them the Lord’s Prayer (how to pray), the Apostles Creed (what we believe), and the 10 Commandments (how to live).
How to receive trip updates
We are very aware of our need for God’s help as we seek to serve our brothers and sisters in Asia. We know that we have an enemy who is resisting every effort to advance the gospel. We hope you’ll pray for us as we prepare, travel, and minister.
If you’d like to receive emails describing how you can pray for us, what’s happening during the conference, and how you can be involved in supporting Logos financially, you can click here. I am happy to report that this year Jay will be sending the email updates during our trip.
I believe that one of the gifts the Spirit of God has given our church is the gift of teaching and this ministry trip is simply our effort to use that gift in a way that honors God and hopefully is a blessing to our friends. Thank you for your prayers!
Grace,
Mark, on behalf of Lesley, Jay, and SaraJane
P.S. If anyone would like to donate a used smartphone for one of the pastors, we can bring it with us. They need to be smartphones, lightly used and on the newer side in good condition, unlocked and with a charger.