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Good morning Royal
Family of God!
It’s very good to see my Royal Family again, and today I want to
update you on our “extended” Royal Family in India and Nigeria,
those who hear the Word of God and keep it.
We have been working with Pastor Adams in India and Pastor
Kingsley in Nigeria over the last 4 weeks, and when you discover
someone that embraces the grace doctrines of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and someone who denies the games of religion and
denominations, then they become closer to you. Close like an
intimate part of the body of Christ, your personal royal family
that God has assigned you to. God has opened doors over the past
few years, and given to us extended members of the Royal Family to
participate in the sharing of the Gospel with.
First, I want to start today by thanking Pastor McLaughlin for his
support of my spiritual gift and his support of missionary
activity. Over the last few years we have followed the open doors
of the Lord and accomplished wonderful things by His grace. And it
has been my privilege to work together with Pastor McLaughlin and
help spread his doctrinal teachings to a lost and dying world.
Second, I want to thank all members of Grace Bible Church, both
near and far. MANY of you have been so active in this evangelism
ministry, through intense prayer and giving, and without you we
could not do the things the Lord has allowed us to do. We will see
the magnificent impact of your commitment when we get to heaven.
And third, I want to thank Blair Buselli and Debbie Parenteau,
for leaving the comforts of home and accepting financial pressures
in order to come with me on this trip. It takes sacrifice to
venture out on a missionary trip, and I appreciate their help on
this one. They were both great and they each filled in a gap that
was needed, in their own way that God has given them.
But the greatest thank you of all is to our God and Savior, Jesus
Christ.
It is strictly our
privilege to serve Him and participate in HIS plan. It has nothing
to do with us, He doesn’t need any of us. But He has graciously
granted us the privilege to be part of His winning strategy, part
of His strategic and tactical victory in the Angelic Conflict.
Thanks to Him for the opportunity to fight a small tiny battle on
behalf of His Name. To HIM be the glory and honor forever and
ever.
The
theme for this trip in 2008 was QUALITY NOT QUANTITY, for both
India and Nigeria.
We initially expected greater numbers to attend our events, but
what appeared to be disappointment turned out for good as God
revealed to us those people in these countries who were serious
about learning the deeper truths of the Word of God.
We first flew to India on February 4th, and arrived at 1:00am on
the 6th. The problem was that Pastor Adams thought it was 1:00am
on the 7th. So there we were outside the Chennai airport with 12
bags and 3 people, in darkness, surrounded by 500 Indian people
waiting at the airport. But pastor Adams was not one of those 500
people. We tried to call his cell phone, it said it was out of
service. So after waiting a couple hours, we took a taxi at 3:00
am to a nearby hotel and shacked up for the night. That was just
the start of our adventure, because after contacting pastor Adams
the next day, we found out he could not understand English very
well. He could write it and read it by email, but he could not
understand most of what I was saying. So that was a challenge too.
But we managed and went on with a 7 hour drive to the small town
of Kanigiri.
This was near pastor Adam’s village, and it was in Kanigiri that
our events were planned.
We had a pastors’ conference scheduled for 3 days and we had about
100 pastors show up. Many did not make it due to transportation
problems coming from other towns, and I believe they also were not
very hungry for the truth. But the pastors we had there were
positive toward doctrine and we taught on Positional Truth and
provided them with a lengthy translation of the entire doctrine.
In fact pastor Adams printed 1200 copies of this doctrine in the
Telugu language, and continues to share these with pastors in
other villages today.
We also held outdoor crusades scheduled for 3 nights in a row. We
preached the gospel of grace to Christians, Hindus and Muslims
alike. We had about 1000 people the first night, the second night
was a rain out, and rain kept the numbers to 2000 attendees the
third night . We expected more people and better weather, but it
wasn’t meant to be the huge event Pastor Adams expected.
We also visited Pastor Adam’s home and church in his village.
His church is 12 ft. by 12 ft., with cement walls and a straw
thatched roof. His 40 members squeeze in and sit Indian style
(guess that’s where the term came from) when they worship.
The highlight of our trip was teaching Bible doctrine in the bible
college; Grace Bible College, which pastor Adams has been running
for the last year and a half.
There we found 40 eager to learn students enrolled this year, to
become prepared before they go out to many Hindu villages and
towns to evangelize and help start new churches. They meet from
4:00pm-10:00pm every day, and 3 hours of that time is bible
teaching. So this is intense training, although we never stop
learning, and is hopefully enough for them to accurately
understand the gospel and eternal security, and go forward in
God’s plan for their lives.
It was very enjoyable to teach these 40 students. I can see their
faces today, looking intently as the Word of God was being taught.
We had 4 days with them and taught for 2-3 hours a day. We started
with Positional Truth, but because they had the complete notes to
study on their own, we switched to the doctrine of Water Baptism.
Some of them asked questions the first day we were there regarding
the importance of water baptism, and so we taught Pastor
McLaughlin’s doctrine on baptism in full, clearly letting them
know that water baptism is NOT a requirement for salvation, and
that our salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone, by God’s
grace, not by any works or religious rituals. The doctrine was
well-received, and it was actually sad to leave them. We continue
to teach them on PalTalk on Friday morning at 8a.m. eastern, and
we are committed to getting more of Pastor Mclaughlin’s teachings
translated in Telugu for their personal studies.
Please keep Pastor Adams and the students of Grace Bible College
in prayer. They seem committed to learning the deeper truths of
God’s Word through the teaching of Bible doctrine.
And then it was on to Nigeria. Debbie
flew home to America after our 2 weeks in India, and Blair and I
continued on to Africa. This was our second visit to Pastor
Kingsley in Nigeria, and again it ended up being Quality not
Quantity.
It turns out the Pentecostal pastors in the area spread the word
that we were teaching heresy (in particular regarding eternal
security), so many pastors did not attend our pastors conference.
In fact, their influence managed to get Pastor Kingsley kicked out
of the building we were using for the conference just 3 days
before our arrival into Nigeria. Pastor Kingsley and his friend
pastor Akuse scrambled to find a place, and God provided another
building in the area for our use, at no cost. It was donated by
the pastor of that church. And ironically it was pastor Akuse who
helped with a lot of the event planning. He is the new president
of the Pentecostal fellowship in the town of Gboko. God works in
mysterious ways.
And we continue to pray for Pastor Akuse and his wife Joy who are
humbly coming to a greater understanding of God’s grace plan for
the Church Age.
And so in the poor town of Gboko, Nigeria, the highlight of the
trip was the Pastors conference. Last year we had close to 300
attend, this year only around 100. But the people there really
wanted to know Truth. I think we built a more solid core of
doctrinal pastors and evangelists this year.
We taught these men Bible doctrine for 4 hours a day for 4 days (2
hour sessions, morning and evening). The first 8 hours were on the
doctrine of Positional Truth, and after getting through only 12
pages of notes, we told them to go home and study the remaining 40
pages. They had a copy of it in written form.
We did this because the Holy Spirit led us to teach the full
doctrine of Salvation from pastor McLaughlin’s notes. At first
they were probably thinking “you’re going to teach us pastors
about salvation”?!
But at the end they were blown away by the biblical evidence of
salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, and all the false ways
of salvation promoted by
different denominations.
We also have pastor Kingsley copying the full notes for them on
the doctrine of Salvation, and they all will be receiving their
own copy this week.
We take for granted having the doctrine available to us, but the
internet speed is not good enough there to listen online, and most
of these pastors struggle to eat food each day. They don’t have
enough money to print copies of our written doctrines. And so one
of our focuses is to provide to those who really want to keep
learning, the written word of God. And pastor Kingsley is focused
on this objective, including printing copies of the Tree of Life
for distribution to pastors and church members.
We also conducted a 3 day crusade at the village of Adi, about 40
minutes from Gboko. We saw 2000-3000 people per night, and taught
on the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and salvation by faith
alone in Christ alone.
We also taught about 300 children in total and shared with them
salvation bracelets that Jackie Gonsalves from California made for
us. In total in Nigeria and India we distributed 800 salvation
bracelets which helped teach the children about our great
salvation through Christ. It was an excellent teaching tool and
our thanks go to Jackie and her friends for putting that all
together for us.
The kids loved the bracelets, they have no money for arts or
crafts out there, so this bracelet, even though made of twine and
plastic beads, was like gold to them.
And finally in Nigeria, it was wonderful to see the fruits of
pastor Kingsley’s commitment to doctrine. Only 15 months ago he
relocated to the small town of Gboko.
We helped him open a church, and now he has 40 members meeting in
his church building 3 times a week. He is a solid man of Bible
doctrine, and
though separated from his family, he has committed to teaching
doctrine in this poor town.
His church members are very committed, most not having jobs, and
therefore studying on their own during the day at the church.
Michael, his prep school leader, is doing a great job. And when we
get the video up on the website you can see these kids recite more
scripture than most adults know.
We need to help them with more study materials for the adults, as
they don’t have access to concordances, lexicons, or computers….
In addition to all this news, the word is expanding through the
radio broadcast in Nigeria. There were people at the pastors
conference, having heard Pastors teachings on radio. And pastor
Kingsley may create bible studies in other cities, like tape
groups, due to all the positive phones calls he gets each week
from Pastor McLaughlin’s messages.
Pastor Kingsley also now believes he has the gift of Evangelism.
This is exciting for several reasons. We sent him out to Ghana in
January before our visit to Nigeria. There are two men there who
started a doctrinal children’s ministry in the Budubaram refugee
camp. Most of the children are orphans, their parents killed in
the war in Liberia.
And so Kingsley visited them for 5 days, taught Bible doctrine and
loved every minute of it. He feels called to preach the Word in
other countries and villages. He wants to go back to Budubaram
refugee camp in Ghana for over a month, to train a man named
Douglas to be a doctrinal pastor and to start a church there, for
the children’s ministry and for adults in the area. They have no
building to meet in. When they meet they meet under a tree, and
therefore in the harsh rainy season they have no place to meet.
There is extreme poverty there as they struggle to find one meal a
day. So we want to send him back to Ghana some day. There is so
much more I could say and would like to share, but the details
will have to remain with the Lord as we are short on time today.
But we are so excited at what God is doing. We even met a
doctrinal pastor, Pastor Chuks, in Nigeria who has been learning
doctrine under Colonel Thieme’s and Pastor McLaughlin’s ministry
for 7 years. He will be filling in for Kingsley while he is in
Ghana for the month. And also there is Pastor Selestian,
Kingsley’s assistant pastor in training. Some wonderful things are
happening in Nigeria.
So let’s set to our goals and objectives for these ministries in
India and Nigeria.
We feel we have found 2 honest men committed to doctrinal
teaching, and so we want to share with you the potential needs for
these ministries. If God leads you to help with these needs,
please specify in your giving..
In India, with Pastor Adams, we would like to help him put a new
roof on his church. His church is 12 ft. by 12 ft., with cement
walls and a straw thatched roof. His 40 members squeeze in and sit
Indian style when they worship. However in the rainy season water
comes through the roof and they have to stand for the church
service.
We also need some money for monthly printing of translation into
Telugu. We want to print the Tree of life each week, as well as
various Doctrines each month. This will probably cost us around
$200-$300/month.
Pastor Adams is also asking us to help make his bible college full
time. To have a full time residence where the students can live
and eat and not need to travel hours to the bible college. It
would cost around $1200 per month. I’m not sure if that’s what God
wants right now for them, but I’m letting you know their desires.
Right now it is a part time college in the evenings and the
students travel each day to attend. Currently it only costs us
around $200/month.
They also would like a vehicle of some kind to evangelize the
villages. Pastor Adams tells me there are 150 villages in the area
they would like to visit, but transportation is limited and
expensive. So I don’t know how, but I’m letting you know they need
a strong vehicle to drive down long muddy dirt roads to enter
these villages.
The desire in their hearts is there, but the ability and the
finances are not there.
So those are our needs and desires for India.
In Nigeria:
Pastor Kingsley’s church really needs a sound system. This will
cost around $1000. This is important not only for his church
members to hear over the loud generator in the church, but also to
reach out to the neighborhood community outside the church. People
will be able to come and listen outside whenever they want, and
Pastor Kingsley also plans on playing Pastor McLaughlin’s tapes
all day long outside the church. May God be with them! J But
seriously this is a good form of outreach, as they are allowed to
play these things in the public areas. Many people walking by will
listen and even join the church from hearing the Word of God.
Pastor Kingsley also had needed a car for his ministry to
evangelize villages in his area. And someone from our ministry has
just donated their car. So we have a good used car for them now
(this will save lots of money in taxis, etc…. we spent $1000 on
transportation in the two weeks we were there). But now we need to
ship the car to him, and for that we need $2000. We hope to ship
him the car within the next month, so if you’d like to give
towards that let us know. It will also cost around $500 for
Registration in Nigeria.
We also want to send Kingsley to Ghana for 4-6 weeks. The total
for this missionary trip including airfare, hotel and food is
about $2000. We want to send him as soon as possible, so the
people there don’t get influenced by the Pentecostal churches in
the area.
And Pastor Kingsley is confident about opening a church/children’s
center in Ghana before he leaves them. It will cost around $1200
for the year to rent a building . They don’t accept monthly rents,
but $1200 will cover the whole year for this church to begin in
Budubaram refugee camp.
Other things to pray about include Pastor Kingsley getting his
visa approved to come to the USA for our August Conference here at
GBC. We would love to get him here to meet pastor McLaughlin and
enjoy the doctrinal teaching face to face. And one day I do
envision pastor Kingsley becoming ordained by Pastor McLaughlin.
We also need people to donate some old Strong’s Concordances and
Greek Lexicons to help the pastors in Nigeria study on there own.
(we now often study on computer through various programs). They
will be kept in Kingsley’s church for his members to access during
the day. So if you mail those to GBC, we will forward them to his
church.
Again thank you all for your support of our ministry and I ask you
to keep Pastor Kingsley and Pastor Adams in prayer.
IN CHRIST’S MERITS,
Scott Grande
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