New Global Partnerships & Emerging Nations Updates

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone, and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace Churches with our executive director. Mark, you have some encouraging updates for us about some things happening globally, including the adoption of a new full partner church in Sovereign Grace. Talk to us about that.

Mark Prater:

I do. I just want the guys to be aware, we're adding churches to our website. Churches are being added to Sovereign Grace in different parts of the world, and we do have a new Emerging Nations partner church that's a full partner church in Namibia, which is in southern Africa. Josh Kruger Jr. Is planting Sovereign Grace Church in Windhoek, Namibia. Windhoek is the capital city of Namibia. Josh is a native South African and his wife and family moved there several years ago to be missionaries, and as they did that work, he just had this growing desire to plant a Sovereign Grace Church in Windhoek. And so what he did is he came back to the States for a little over a year, year and a half, something like that. He got additional theological training, additional pastoral training, and he did that through taking some pastors college classes as well as getting training at our church in Richmond, Virginia, Kingsway Community Church, where his dad, Josh Kruger Sr. is a bivocational elder. That church is led by Matthew Williams.

And so that church has invested into him and has a lot invested into this church plant. It's another wonderful expression of partnership. He also then went through the ordination process and was formerly ordained as a Sovereign Grace elder and then returned late January, early February of this year to plant Sovereign Grace Church in Windhoek Namibia which we are very excited about. He is just in the early stages of that church plant. So please pray for Josh, if you would, that God would provide for them and draw people to the church. And if anyone is interested in joining that church plant, which is quite a distance to go to Namibia, please contact Josh. Or if you can't get ahold of him, contact Matthew Williams at Kingsway Community Church in Richmond, Virginia. And it wouldn't just be having a heart for maybe that region of Africa, what would really be helpful is if you spoke an additional language than English. Now English is spoken there, but if you spoke for example Afrikaans, that is a common language also spoken there, so just be praying for that.

We're very excited to add that church as a full partner church in Sovereign Grace which now gives us two churches in the southern region of Africa, one in Zambia obviously, and one now in Namibia.

We also added this week a new candidate church in India. That church is Church of Mount Zion, the city. I'm going to warn you, I'm going to mispronounce just in keeping with my reputation. Yeah, it's on brand. The city and state Bhubaneswar is the city and Odisha is the state. Bhubaneswar is the capital city, the largest city in the state of Odisha. That is in northwest India. And that's a church that we've been relating to for quite a long time through the relationship of Erik Rangel. And Erik is the Senior Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Yuma, Arizona, and also through Todd Peterson, who's an elder in El Paso at Ricky Alcantar's Church. Those two men have been traveling there. I think Erik has known the guys there longer, but they've been traveling together for the last few years. The elders of this church got to a place where they really wanted to now pursue adoption in Sovereign Grace, want to pursue partnership. So they are now in the adoption process and the next step for them is for one of those elders or maybe both of them to go through our ordination process and hopefully then be ordained at some point.

Another update is the Philippines, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this because Dave Taylor just sent out today his new monthly missions update for Sovereign Grace. He has a wonderful article about the Philippines, but just to highlight the fact that Bob Kauflin, Devon Kauflin and David Zimmer traveled there on behalf of Sovereign Grace Music and served alongside of Dave Taylor, Riley Spring and then our national leader there, Jeffrey Jo.

And it was just a wonderful time. Just to highlight three events. They had a sort of a mini pastor's conference for 200 people; pastors, their wives, leaders, all of those are from churches that are either pursuing adoption in Sovereign Grace or interested in pursuing adoption in Sovereign Grace. Then Bob and Devon and David did a training seminar for a thousand musicians and vocalists. Just to invest into worship teams there and that was wonderful. And then they had an evening where it was gathering around the gospel, a night of singing, of prayer and of scripture reading that was in Manila. 3,800 people attended that event. So it's wonderful to see the influence of Sovereign Grace Music and how that strengthens our partnership with Sovereign Grace churches. So please read Dave's article. There's a lot more to tell about.

And then next week, Joselo Mercado is traveling to Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic where he will, I think it's April 11th through the 14th or something like that where he will lead a marriage retreat as well as a leader's retreat for Odessa church, a church that he is related to for about 20 years now. So just another way to invest into what is happening in the Caribbean, really in Latin America, which is very exciting.

And then one other thing I really want our pastors to make sure they read in Dave's update is Ed O'Mara's update for the Sovereign Grace Europe Pastor's retreat that happened in the middle of March gathering pastors and leaders from different parts of Europe again to build relationally. There were new men that weren't there last year who are interested in Sovereign Grace, which was encouraging, and that retreat just went very, very well. So read that update.

But I wanted to mention, Ben, you were there in Europe just after that retreat, actually in Warsaw, Poland. Kyle Huber who was at the Europe Pastor's Retreat, stayed in Europe, and you guys went to Warsaw and spent just a few days to invest into our brothers from Belarus. And I thought it would just be good for our pastors to hear what you walked away from with that time. What affected you, what did you learn?

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, thanks for asking. Real quick, if anybody that's checking out the podcast is on Instagram, give Sovereign Grace Churches a follow because there's all kinds of pictures to Illustrate the stories that you're sharing with us. It was so fun to see thousands gathered in the Philippines and singing together. And so that's a wonderful way to get updated.

So I went to Poland. I was invited by Kyle Huber to interact with some brothers there, especially one key couple from Belarus. Kyle for background, Kyle's been going to Belarus for 20 years and has been teaching in a school there. And so we were primarily relating to two of his former students who are marrie but that have fled Belarus. The story is long and it's sad, but Belarus, if you're not aware, is a very difficult country to live in and there's little freedom. And so they had to flee as a young couple. And so we had the honor of interacting with them, spending time with them, building relationally with them, which as you well know, that's what we do in Sovereign Grace. And then the one evening I was able to gather with a small group of young adults that are also from Belarus, also refugees from Belarus for a time of fellowship, studying God's word, getting to know each other. And so what a humbling thing, what an honor to gather with about a dozen, there's about 20 in this group, that could potentially be a church plant core group.

Mark Prater:

Wonderful.

Benjamin Kreps:

And to gather with them was an honor, was a joy. Thankfully there were some interpreters there because I don't speak Russian and there was a lot of Russian going on. So I left Poland deeply encouraged and full of faith about what God is doing in Warsaw and the potential of a church plant there because Warsaw, we learned while we were in Warsaw, we learned the country of Poland by many estimates, has only about 60,000 Christians, evangelical Christians in it. So it would be considered an unreached people group, .3%, of the population are professing evangelicals.

So there is fruitful ministry. The fields are white. And so it was a joy to start to get to know and grow friendship and relationship with the brothers in Poland that are there from Belarus. So it was a real privilege.

Mark Prater:

Thanks for doing that. You're right, Ben. The fields are ripe for harvest. And I want to emphasize that Sovereign Grace is only playing a small part. There's other denominations and organizations who are seeking to do what we're trying to do, which is to fulfill the great commission that our savior has given us. And we want to do all that. We want to play our small part and come alongside those other denominations and organizations to reach the lost with the gospel because a day is coming when he will return, and we want to reach as many people as we can with the good news of Jesus Christ, so that on that day we are all prepared for the judgment that will come and the gospel gives the good news that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus as Paul writes so well in Romans 8:1.

Benjamin Kreps:

Amen. And it is fascinating. It's joyful to travel, to be with people even though I didn't speak Russian, but as the one guy Philip was speaking through his interpreter who was his wife actually, and he was sharing about the affect of the gospel on his life, having been heartbroken, having to flee their home country, their home, and how God has ministered to him with the gospel. I just sat there and I was like, I don't know words you're saying except for your wife interpreting, but I know you. I know what's going on. And just the heartbeat that we share because of the gospel globally, that transcends culture, language. It's such a sweet thing to experience and so glad that we get to, many of us pastors, in some ways. If you have a chance and if asked, I would encourage the guys to consider participating in this kind of work. So thank you, Mark for the updates. Thank you for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.