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, anybody who's been following the podcast or what's been going on in Sovereign Grace over the last several years knows that God has increasingly given us just a wonderful opportunity to partner with the nations and there have been many fruitful partnerships that have been developing, growing, being solidified, and you have some updates for us about some of the things God is doing through our partnerships globally.

Mark Prater:

I do. In fact, I had to sort of keep this list short. I had to shorten this list because there's just a number of exciting things that God continues to do through our small family of churches throughout the world as he does in other denominations. But we're grateful that he's doing 'em in Sovereign Grace and we get to participate in the advancement of the gospel, the equipping of pastors, the planting of churches throughout the world so that more people will come to know Christ so that the nations will be discipled and Christ would receive more glory. So let me just run through a number of these real quick. We have an official new partner church in Italy, they have their website up, which is all in Italian. So I'm going to try to pronounce the name of this church.

Benjamin Kreps:

This is going to be fun.

Mark Prater:

Alright, so I apologize to Ed and Rocco if they're listening to this or any listener or reader of this podcast who speaks Italian. I must apologize, but here I go: Chiesa Grazia Sovrana in Torino, Italy is our new church being planted by Ed O'Mara and Rocco Dahlia. If you go on our Sovereign Grace website and you go on the churches page and you scroll down to Italy, you can click on a link to their website. It's all in Italian, but there is usually a translation option in your search that you can hit and it'll translate into English. It's just wonderful to see though, a new partner church there in Italy.

Also, Jacobis Aldana, who is the senior pastor of Iglesia Biblica Soberana in Santa Marta, Columbia, has officially completed the ordination process. He will be set in place and ordained in a service next month in October. And when he signs the Emerging Nations partnership agreement, we will have our first partner church in Columbia. They're in Santa Marta, Columbia.

In terms of training pastors, young men to be future pastors, let me just give you three exciting four exciting updates. First of all, Mexico has started a pastor's college. They just welcomed three new students that are beginning classes now, all from three different states in Mexico, which prepares the nation of Mexico to continue to reach out with the gospel throughout their country.

Jeffrey Jo is starting another Philippines Pastors Institute on September 21st that has 14 students in it. Now, they don't meet throughout the week. They meet on Saturdays for a complete day. I think they do that monthly or something like that, I could have the schedule wrong. But the whole purpose is to invest into men who are either serving in churches or will plant churches. And with this class in particular, they're looking to invest in the Mindanao region of the Philippines.

Trinity Fellowship Pastors College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia will graduate their second PC class comprised of nine men on September 15th. So that's just wonderful to see the fruit from that particular pastor's college. And here in the States, I think it was last week, the US Pastors College kicked off, and we have nine men from two different nations, the United States and from Australia. Again, those men will be deployed into the states and into Australia for the purpose of pastoral ministry and advancing the gospel. So those are just some equipping categories in terms of just mission.

A couple of other updates. Pat Tedeschii, who is a pastor at Greentree Church in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, will be leading a short term missions trip to London, England with a group of folks and they'll be working with Oasis International Church, a church that Greentree has partnered with for well over 18 years. And the purpose of that short-term mission trip is to reach out to that area of London with the gospel. And there's many Muslims that live in that area. So there'll be a Muslim outreach in particular. So pray for that particular short-term mission trip, again, September 13th through the 23rd.

And I just got a wonderful video from Jeffrey Jo in Manila, Philippines of a one year celebration video of a new church plant that he planted a year ago in Dasmariñias City, Cross of Christ Salvation Gospel Ministries was sent from his church, and that church will shortly, I'm sure, become a candidate church in Sovereign Grace. And to see how the church has grown in a year, just from the pictures I saw was truly amazing. God is blessing that church plant in that part of Manila. Dasmariñias City is in the metro area of the Philippines.

So just some mission updates. A lot is going on. I can share more. But first of all, let all of this humble us that God would use our small family of churches to advance the gospel. We're not worthy of that and he could do it without us, but he's choosing to use us. So may it humble us, may all that we do bring God glory and may all that we do be in dependence upon God and his wisdom and his power as we continue to reach the nations with the good news of Jesus Christ.

Benjamin Kreps:

Amen. It is humbling and it is gratifying to see not just simply that we're partnering with pastors and other nations, but there's this cross-pollination going on that's just the fruit of our relational way that we pursue ministry together. We have Australian men in the States at the PC. We've got us guys planting a church in Italy with help from Rocco and so forth. So it is wonderful and gratifying to see God using our little denomination in wonderful ways.

So those are all very encouraging updates, but being in partnership also includes taking on burdens and embracing hard things that our brothers and sisters are going through around the globe. And Ukraine is an example of that. And you want to give us an update about what's going on in Ukraine?

Mark Prater:

I do. I've mentioned this before in a previous podcast and maybe our listeners are familiar with the Ark church in Dnipro Ukraine led by Michael Ostanin. And we continue to send him funds for the relief efforts, the war relief efforts that he's doing there in Dnipro. As long as we have money designated for that, we will continue to do it. He just sent several of us an update last week, and this update came the day after Russia's largest missile attack on Ukraine since the war started. As Michael says in his email, that one day 127 missiles and 109 drones hit different parts of Ukraine. Some of those were power plants. And so he was saying in Nebra, they were in a blackout for 16 hours. But he writes this, he says, "we continue to minister to hundreds of refugees giving them food and preaching the gospel because Russian troops are occupying more and more territories. Hundreds of people are evacuating to our city every day and asking us for help." And on this particular day, he knew after that missile attack that more would be coming and that's been the case. And then Michael just ends it with this. He says, "the scale of grief and suffering of people overwhelms us, and the faithful Lord cares for our souls with his grace and mercy and does not allow us to despair." And then he just thanks us for our support and for our prayers. And I just thought, oh, my life is not like that. My ministry world is not like that. Here is a man ministering in difficult circumstances, kind of hard to imagine what he's facing day in and day out. And yet he remains faithful. He remains faithful. The members of his church remained faithful. He mentions in this email that they've sent people from his church to be chaplains at the front lines. They'll send them in, they'll care for soldiers, they'll make it back. It's that kind of faithfulness. It's that kind of risky faith. It's that kind of sacrifice that marks what he's doing. And he's remaining right there at his post. Of course he's grieved as he says, but he is strong in knowing what God has called him to do.

So I just wanted to mention that because if you have some heart to give to the relief effort there in Ukraine, you can make a contribution designated for Ukraine to our Europe Development Fund, and we will make sure that that gets to Michael Ostanin. As long as we have funds, we will send them along to a man and a church that are doing good gospel work in difficult circumstances. So thanks for praying for them.

Well, one other thing as we end this global update, just got to thank God for Dave Taylor, our Director of Global Missions. Also want to thank God for our area leaders like Rich Richardson who's doing such a great job in Mexico and Latin America, Ed O'Mara in Europe, who I mentioned before, Bart Lipscomb in Africa, Greg Dirnberger in the Asia-Pacific region. And Dave leads those men and he leads Sovereign Grace globally so well for us. So just thanking God for Dave and each of those area leaders and just ask the listeners that you would pray for each of those men; may God continue to give them grace to do, to really respond, to all that God is bringing our way for the glory of God.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yes. Amen. I trust that many of us checking out the podcast, we'll be praying for Michael and the brothers and sisters in Ukraine. I think something that we are wise to make sure that we don't miss in this partnership with Ukraine is that they have much to teach us about suffering and faithfulness. And so we thank God for you, Michael, and for the brothers and sisters there. We thank God for you, Dave, and your hard work on our behalf globally.

And so thank you, Mark, for the update. Thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week. Lord willing. Bye for now.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Ben Kreps:

Hey everyone, and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where are aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace churches with our Executive Director. Mark, it's been a while since you've given an update about things that are happening globally in Sovereign Grace. You have a couple of updates for us. The first one is an update from our friends in Ethiopia.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, it's a wonderful update. As many listeners or readers of this podcast know, Michael Granger planted a church there about two and a half years ago, actually right when the pandemic started. Trinity Fellowship, the church, actually grew during the pandemic. And once we got on the other side of some of the restrictions being lifted, the church really began to grow. And when he planted Trinity Fellowship, he also, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, he also started a pastor's college that Josh Pannell leads as the Dean of that pastor's college. And so over the last year, they had 10 students who completed the pastor's college program, and graduated. They're now pursuing, many of those men, are now pursuing master's degrees in theological education. I believe there were 10 or 11 graduates from the pastor's college.

We have been interacting with Michael over the last couple of weeks. There are now three of them that are interns at Trinity Fellowship in Addis Ababa. And part of their internship is they're now beginning the ordination process. And he's hoping maybe by the end of this year that those men will be ordained as Sovereign Grace elders. So three Ethiopian men who graduated from that pastor's college and will be ordained elders in Sovereign Grace. It is just a wonderful thing and a wonderful update to hear in many ways, and I think Michael's long-term vision is at some point, maybe with one of those men, maybe not, but he would love to turn the senior pastorate role over to an Ethiopian, because it's a church obviously in Ethiopia.

So I share all of that because it is the fruit of just the hard work of Michael Granger and Josh Pannell. They had a big vision and they implemented that vision and it's good to see the fruit of that. Secondly, it's the fruit of partnership. There were partners in Sovereign Grace that either gave or traveled there. We had many Sovereign Grace pastors who taught at that pastor's college at Trinity Fellowship. And now there are Sovereign Grace pastors that are gonna participate in the ordination process by testing these men regarding their theological knowledge and readiness to be ordained as an elders.

And then it's the fruit of generosity. We've had a number of people give very generously to the Africa Development Fund. And without that financial support, we couldn't have established a pastor's college. It couldn't have been housed in the building that is very much a part of the pastor's college and made the pastor's college work. And now to see the fruit of that investment by seeing men who are going to be ordained and maybe do ministry, many of them are looking at campus ministry, in Addis Ababa and they're also looking at guys to potentially plant churches. So just a wonder of update in Ethiopia where you can just see God blessing the labors of pastors; Michael Granger and Josh Pannell in this case. And God blessing and multiplying the fruit of generosity in Ethiopia.

Ben Kreps:

Yeah, that's beautiful. I know many of us have been watching from the outset, as all of this developed and to see what God has done through their efforts is remarkable. And at the conference, hearing an update from Michael with just an obvious zeal to see the gospel advance in Ethiopia. So we're grateful that we all get to be a part of that in at least a small way as we watch God work. Alright. Let's move to a different part of the world, into a very difficult area of the world; war torn Ukraine. What's going on there?

Mark Prater:

Listeners to this podcast, the readers of this podcast, have heard me give an update regarding Ukraine before, but if you're a new listener to this podcast, we have a relationship with the Arche Church in Hamburg, Germany, which also has a pastor's college that Jeff Purswell has traveled to for probably 20 years now, and Todd. In fact, I was just on the phone with Josh Blount yesterday, and Josh is on his way to Hamburg right now to teach Hermeneutics at the German Pastor's College next week.

So again, those are expressions of partnership. One of those students that went through the German Pastor's College, Michael Othen, was sent from Hamburg, Germany to plant a church in Dnipro, Ukraine, the Arche Church Dnipro, Ukraine. And at that time, we didn't know the significance of that church plant and the way the Lord is now using that church to just care for the needs of refugees who have lost their homes. They've lost loved ones, they've really lost everything. And most of them are fleeing from the east trying to get to the west. They make their way through Dnipro. That church is a Red Cross designated center. So many people are sent there where they can get food and clothing and medical supplies and a hot shower. It's just amazing, the work that he is doing.

Just a couple of quick stories. On Christmas Day for their Christmas service, they have between seven and 800 people at their Christmas service, which is amazing because before the war, it was probably a church of about 150 to 200. So it's really increased because of the refugees that are there, partly because it's a warm building to go to. But as they're there, they're hearing the gospel. Some of them, for the very first time, literally, had not heard the gospel of Jesus Christ before and many of them are being saved. Michael is baptizing them. Just a number of specific stories I could tell. One man who grew up as a Jewish man but because of the way this church has reached out to him and cared for him, and as he heard the gospel, he's now become a Christian, as I understand. There's just one quick story. The other story is that they decided a couple days after Christmas to take a six hour trip to a more war ravaged city. Kherson, I believe is is the name of it. And to do an outreach there. And they had about 200 kids, along with adults that were there for this outreach.

And they brought at least a couple hundred bags of groceries, just food that people needed. And then they brought toys for the kids for Christmas. And the kids, he said, well, first were a little bit reluctant just because of what they've been through. They don't know who to trust. But as they got to relate to them and know them and just give them gifts, and then they shared the gospel. They told the Christmas story that leads to the telling of the gospel, obviously. And the pictures that he sent. It just brings tears to your eyes to see these young children being affected by war. And yet, just for a few minutes, just for a moment, if you can say it that way, there's a glimpse of normalcy and there's light and darkness, and there's peace when there's been a lot of upheaval.

So I really commend Michael and his church for taking that trip. Because it's a dangerous trip, but they just have a heart to reach people with the gospel. So that's a bit of an update from Ukraine. I mentioned maybe in a previous podcast, and our pastors would know this, we've been sending about $4,500 a week to Michael. We can get it to him that way. And we're attempting to raise about $235,000 for all of 2023. So we've got a commitment, we'll just keep sending that money at the same rate that we have been. And we're in the midst of raising that money now, I think we've raised about $50,000. So, if you hear this podcast or read it and you're interested in giving, you can go to the Sovereign Grace website, go to the give page, and give to the Europe Development Fund and just leave a note that it's earmarked for Ukraine and it's going to a good cause. It's going to not only meeting the needs, the practical needs that people have in Ukraine but meeting those needs is opening hearts to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's amazing to see the work, to hear about the work that Michael and his church are doing.

Ben Kreps:

Yeah. We are grateful for the example that Michael and his church is setting, setting for us and their faithfulness in crisis and their faithfulness in word and deed that is bearing fruit through the proclamation of the gospel. So it's a great opportunity for us to help play a small role in what's going on over there. So, Michael, we're praying for you if you're watching or reading this. And thank you everyone for watching or reading. Thank you, Mark, for the update. We'll see you here, Lord willing, next week. Bye for now.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone. And welcome to the Mark Prater podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director. Mark, I noticed a few weeks ago that there is a new Sovereign Grace Churches missions website now online for us to explore. Can you tell us a little bit about the website and the thinking behind creating this website?

Mark Prater:

Love to, I'm excited about this website, it's sgcmissions.org. And if you go to that link, you'll find basically three banners on the homepage: Church Planting, Emerging Nations and Missionaries, and there's a theology that lies behind each of those and a philosophy of mission and ministry captured in the brief descriptions that you'll see on that homepage. So for Church Planting, it's the work of establishing new congregations, that's what we want to do in church planting, we want to establish new congregations in an area where we want to reach the lost with the gospel, like many other church planting organizations and denominations are doing. And then Emerging Nations is described this way: the work of partnering in new places as we have opportunities to partner with churches not only in the states, but obviously throughout the world. And then under Missionaries: the work of reaching new cultures. And behind that one is a theology of missions and the way that we think about it in Sovereign Grace and the way that we've defined missionary, we've mentioned this in a previous podcast, we believe in missionaries ,as we define them, there's a strong ecclesiology component to that, which means missionaries are sent from local churches to areas or unreached areas potentially where they are either going to establish a church or are connected to a church and continue to receive care and support from the sending church, and care for the church as well. So you hear the ecclesiology in all of that. And so I think Eric Turbedsky and Dave Taylor did a really good job of capturing how we think about missions in Sovereign Grace and how that gets expressed. So there's a theology and a philosophy behind the website that I thought those men captured very, very well.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, I'm on the website right now. It looks great. Very simple to navigate under those three categories. What do you hope to accomplish through this website?

Mark Prater:

We hope to really serve pastors; we hope to serve the members of our churches and maybe even those outside of Sovereign Grace in this way: we want to stir all of us for the mission of the gospel and reaching the lost with the gospel. So for someone interested in church planting, you click on the Church Planting banner and there's a church planting pathway that's laid out so a guy that may be interested in planting a church can just begin to express interest by submitting a form for that pathway. We also mention there a couple of initiatives within our church planting department: The Antioch Project, which is helping elderships who haven't planted churches before to plant churches, and then Small Towns Initiative, which is an initiative by the Church Planting Group to help us plant churches in small towns, whether that's here in the states or throughout the world.

And then if you click on the Emerging Nations banner, you'll find a Partnership Pathway. So a church that's not a part of Sovereign Grace can learn "how do I become a part?" And each of those steps is clearly laid out and there's an action that a pastor can take if his church is interested in being in Sovereign Grace. There's also a new one that I'm very excited about, there's a description of short-term mission trips. And you click on that and basically you can either find a trip or submit a trip. And the purpose of all of that is to try to gather in one place, all of the short-term mission trips that are being done in Sovereign Grace churches so that if a member in one church wants to join another church's mission trip, they can potentially do that.

So I'm really excited about that and think it's a way to, again, stir interest in the mission of the gospel. And then for Missionaries, the work of reaching new cultures, there's a step there for someone who really wants to give their life to being a missionary whether that's in a reached area or unreached area, and there's a form to fill out that will engage you with the Emerging Nations team. So I wanted to do this podcast, and have been waiting to do a podcast on this, because I think it will really serve the pastors and members of Sovereign Grace churches in particular, as well as anyone outside of Sovereign Grace, because we give clear steps on what you can do if you want to be involved in gospel mission.

Benjamin Kreps:

That's excellent. And it is very clear and simple to navigate with action steps and all of that. So a good work here on the website especially for us at Living Hope, when it comes to the short-term missions trips, it hasn't always been easy to know what's going on in Sovereign Grace and where people can partner up. So I think this is going to serve our churches big time, as well as the rest of the categories on here. So thank you to everyone who developed the website, Eric and Dave. Thank you Mark, for the update. Thank you all for watching. We'll see you here, Lord willing, next week. Bye for now.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone. And welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director. Mark, I think one of the most encouraging things in Sovereign Grace Churches are the opportunities that are expanding in Latin America. And in fact, you traveled to Colombia just last week to explore some of those opportunities. Tell us about that.

Mark Prater:

I did. I traveled with my friend Joselo Mercado that most of our listeners know. I also brought a couple of members from two different Sovereign Grace churches: Bob Wright from Covenant Fellowship Church and Victor Ko from Risen Hope Church in Prospect Park, Pennsylvania. And we traveled to Barranquilla, where we flew into, and met with a pastoral team and a church in that city who has some interest in potentially joining Sovereign Grace. We had a wonderful meeting with the pastoral team and then met with the church on Friday and just had a wonderful time with them. They've actually doubled in size during the pandemic, which is a story I'm hearing over and over again. Not only here in the states, but obviously in Colombia and it's just a wonderful gospel centered church. And so that was just a joy to be with them.

And then we traveled to Santa Marta. It's about a two-hour drive and spent time with Iglesia Biblica Soberana Gracia led by Jacobis Aldana. And that is actually a candidate church in Sovereign Grace because Jacobis who is the lead pastor is in our ordination process and hopes to complete his ordination exams in the spring of 2022. And Joselo and I taught a men's meeting on biblical manhood on Saturday. And then obviously we met with the church on Sunday; before the service I taught on our seven shared values. And then Joselo preached a wonderful sermon on suffering on that particular Sunday. And they were actually celebrating their six year anniversary as a church. And that is a church that has also grown during the pandemic. But the striking thing about that church is they are clearly imbibing our values and they get gospel centrality. Part of the way you see that is how the gospel outworks in their lives.

You see joy and Thanksgiving, and generosity and encouragement. And it's just a church that understands gospel centrality. So should they be formally a part of Sovereign Grace? They're just going to strengthen us. Let me just say one other thing. It is it is a joy to watch Joselo Mercado work in Latin America. He is a gift to our family of churches, and the way that he leads and preaches and cares for pastors and wives and members of churches. He really is very effective in what he does in that context. And I just thank God for him and the way he is serving Sovereign Grace.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah. I mean, he's really a rock star down there, right?

Mark Prater:

He is. I just carry his bags.

Benjamin Kreps:

So thankful for Joselo. So you met with some pastors that are moving towards actual partnership officially in Sovereign Grace, but you also met with another man from Venezuela who actually overcame great obstacles and travel barriers to come and meet with you.

Mark Prater:

He did. Eduardo is his name, he's a pastor in Venezuela. I'm not going to give the name of the city, just partly for his own security and protection, but he traveled from Venezuela by bus. I don't know how many buses he was on, but I asked him, okay, just for the one way trip, how many hours were you on a bus? And he said 24 hours.

Benjamin Kreps:

Unbelievable.

Mark Prater:

And that was just very humbling. He traveled that far first to Barranquilla and then over to Santa Marta, just to spend time with Joselo and me. And he leads a church in Venezuela that has formerly requested adoption into Sovereign Grace. And just getting to know this man was in itself worth the trip. He's one of the more godly men I've ever met. And yet one of the most joyful men.

And you have to understand how amazing that is because of the context he's in, in Venezuela. As most people know, the economy is bad. There's also a fuel shortage of all places in Venezuela and Eduardo was telling me he's had to find different ways to lead and care for his church because he's in a city where people were traveling from different parts of the city to attend the Sunday service and with the fuel shortage, they're not able to get to the Sunday service. It's just too far to walk. So he's had to take the approach of establishing cell groups throughout the city, and then try to get to them to preach and to pastor and to care for them. So that's just one of the obstacles that this pastor is facing. And yet he is one of the most joyful men I've met. And if you're listening to this or reading a transcript, pray for Eduardo and his church in Venezuela.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah. Well, what a wonderful opportunity to partner with men like that, and the guys that you met with over the past week. It's also wonderful to remember that even though we are in different parts of the globe, we all share the same gospel that God is working in and through to transform his people. And we get to watch and participate in all of that. So thank you Joselo and Mark for your work last week in Colombia and meeting with the Venezuelan man, pastor. And thank you all for watching. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone. Welcome to the Mark Prater podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director. Mark, the last podcast we recorded, you were in Mexico at a conference for pastors. You've since come home, but you're still buzzing from your experience there. What happened in that conference?

Mark Prater:

I am still buzzing. The conference is still affecting me. That is the Fieles conference that is led by Carlos Contreras, senior pastor of Iglesia Gracia Soberana in Juarez, Mexico. That church had 100 volunteers, by the way; church members in that Sovereign Grace Church serving during this conference that was attended by over 300 pastors and their wives. And it was a Sovereign Grace conference. If you ever go to it, it's a Sovereign Grace conference in the Mexican culture, in the Latin American culture, all in Spanish, obviously. And it wasa joy to sing with them. Of course, I'm making up the words in Spanish as I go. But, yeah, I'm singing with them with great joy.

There were a number of highlights from the conference for me. One of them I mentioned last week is Carlos and myself, along with Joselo Mercado and Rich Richardson, we led an interest lunch for pastors who are interested in knowing more about potentially partnering with Sovereign Grace. And I brought home with me a list of 36 names. Carlos gave this list to me so that I could be praying for these men. About 10 of these names are wives. So there were about 25 pastors at this lunch that we had on Thursday afternoon. And it was just wonderful. Got to share a little bit about Sovereign Grace. And then we opened up to a Q & A. A pastor and his wife were there planting a church in Mexico City and just wondering about partnering with Sovereign Grace. There were men there who have existing churches who were asking questions about how to partner with Sovereign Grace, churches in Juarez and in other parts of Mexico.

And it was just humbling to interact with them. Many of them didn't really ask questions, but made comments about how Sovereign Grace had already served them—how Carlos, in particular, and Abelardo and Hellman, other men working in Mexico, had served them. And we're just reaffirming some of the values that I was sharing earlier. So it was a lunch that was very, very exciting and inspiring. And potentially as some of those pastors or churches may either plant or partner with Sovereign Grace, Mexico continues to grow. So that was just one of the highlights of the trip for me.

Benjamin Kreps:

Excellent. That's wonderful. You were sharing with me a couple of stories before we started recording the podcast. Why don't you share those stories now, a couple of reports back from the field that you got to hear about.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, so many encouraging, faith building interactions at this conference. We could probably do an hour podcast if I told you all the stories. But let me just tell you two quick ones. One is a conversation I had both with Andres Contreras and Roberto Estupinian—we know him as Choby. Choby is now the senior pastor of the Sovereign Grace Church in Guadalajara. Andres Contreras, who is Carlos' son, is there with him. And they were just talking about how that church is just beginning to grow. Even during the pandemic this church has grown. And Andres was telling me when they first arrived there, there were not many younger families, and in recent months people are coming with younger children, younger folks coming, who are obviously younger in their marriage and in the parenting process, and they are excited about being at this church. And what's interesting, the timing of the growth of the church along with Choby very carefully building gospel-centered theological foundations. So one of the things that he was telling me about: Choby is teaching a class every Wednesday evening. And he's just taken one section of the Statement of Faith and teaching a section per week. Just a wonderful way to build theological foundations in a growing church. So that was just very, very exciting, given the fact that you know, you're just rejoicing about what God is doing, but Guadalajara is a very strategic city in Mexico.

And then the other story has to do with a man, I believe his first name is Rafael. He lives in the most Southern state in Mexico, as I understand it, Chiapas, which borders right up against Guatemala. And he just has a heart to reach those in his state with the gospel. He somehow got connected with Abelardo Muñoz in Juarez. And he was sharing with Abelardo, "I want to see people in my state come to Christ. And if they come to Christ, maybe even someday we plant a church, and what do I do?" So Abelardo got him the Spanish version of the Bridge course that's been created by Jim Donohue, a pastor I serve with at Covenant Fellowship. And Abelardo said, “Rafael, I'll take this. I'll find some unbelievers and take them through it.” So the first time he did it, he gathered about 10 people and they went through the Bridge course together. Many of them were born again. And he's now scheduled a second Bridge course. Obviously some of those people are inviting friends and there's like 70 people that are now registered to take this next Bridge course. And so I got to interact with Rafael. Abelardo translated for me. And this man's excitement to see the lost reached with the gospel in this most Southern state of Mexico, it was infectious. It built my faith. And so be praying for Rafael. Maybe there's some sort of revival that happens in Chiapas, Mexico. Maybe he’s supposed to plant a church someday. But pray for his efforts in using this Bridge course as it begins to start here in the next week. So just a couple of stories that really stirred my faith I wanted you to hear.

Benjamin Kreps:

That's great. I think it's safe to say most of us never tire of hearing about how God is at work in Mexico and how God is using Carlos and the other guys there to serve men there in the advance of the gospel. So thanks, Mark, for the update. Thank you all for watching or reading and we'll see here next week, lord willing. Bye for now.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone. And welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director. Mark, you were just telling me about a Zoom call that you got off just a minute ago with the Africa Development Fund committee. Can you tell us about that committee and what is the Africa Development Fund committee?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I'd love to tell you about it. I just concluded that Zoom meeting or actually dropped out of it. They were still meeting. The Africa Development Fund committee is a committee that is tasked to manage and disperse funds from the Africa Development Fund. We created the Africa Development Fund that's been approved by our Executive Committee for donors to give money to, to help us expand and to serve our churches in Africa. And it is a very exciting time for the fund to be established given all that's happening in Africa right now.

So let me tell you who's on the committee. First of all, Dave Taylor from Sydney, Australia is leading the committee in many ways, Michael Granger from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Josh Pannell is joining him in these meetings (although Michael is the committee member), and Dyonah Thomas in Monrovia Liberia; those three men are voting members. And then Tommy Hill, our Director of Finance and Operations is a non-voting member. He's there to keep us out of trouble and to make sure that we do things right financially.

So this is the first meeting of that committee, where I drew these men together. And we just talked about the fund itself. The fund has fund categories so that the people giving to this fund, or the churches giving to this fund, or the regions giving to this fund have an idea of how the money will be spent in general categories. So those categories are established and support pastors colleges in Africa. Another category is that of church planting. Another category is starting primary and secondary schools, which in some regions of Africa is very important to have a gospel presence in the community. And that can lead to church planting. We have one called, a fund category for resource development. There are over 1500 languages spoken in Africa. And so we're trying to find, you know, good resources that we can translate into some of the most spoken languages to serve pastors and churches on that continent. And then there's a sort of an operational category that that the fund needs to have some admin help and operational support. So those are the categories which are really very, very exciting and very timely given the fact that we have a pastors college in Ndola Zambia; we have one in Monrovia, Liberia, and Michael Granger is getting ready to launch the Ethiopia pastors college in September in Ethiopia.

Benjamin Kreps:

That is exciting and what a fine collection of men are on that committee. It's wonderful to hear about how God is equipping us and equipping us globally to have more of an impact for the sake of the gospel. So what kinds of things came out of that first Zoom call? What kind of ideas are you guys talking about when it comes to using this money?

Mark Prater:

We kicked around a number of really good ideas and financial needs, present. I left the meeting before decisions were made because I want the committee to function as we designed it to function. So I'll be hearing about their decision, hopefully maybe later today or tomorrow, from Dave Taylor.

So one of the first needs we talked about is money needed to establish the Ethiopia pastors college. Again, the first class will happen in September. They have at least 11 students and possibly a few more that are going to be full-time students for one year, obviously in Addis, right there. And it's connected to Trinity Fellowship, the church that Michael Granger has planted and led, so the same model that we're using here in the United States. And they've got some really good theologians lined up as well, and some Sovereign Grace pastors to come in and teach over that year. It's really very, very exciting. One of the developments that's happened is that they've been able to, through the work of Josh Pannell, build a relationship, and formalize a relationship with Union School of Theology, which is in Wales. And the students who graduate from the Ethiopian pastors college will be able to take some of those credits and earn a certificate of completion of a degree. It's not a full degree, but a certificate from an accredited school. And then the other option, they can also pursue a masters in theology through Union and take some of the credits from the PC and apply it. They’ll have to do more class and coursework and write a paper, but that's an exciting development that's happening in Ethiopia.

And then we talked about needs in Liberia. What Dyonah has done, is he established a pastors college years ago. Currently I think there's a little over 50 men in this current PC class, but he has needed to build a building. And I think that's going to be the same need in Addis Ababa. And before Wilbroad's passing, he did the same thing in Ndola, Zambia to build a building so that you don't have to run around and rent facilities for a full year PC class. And so that building has been built in Monrovia and Dyonah needs some financial help to make some improvements on that building. He's also starting a primary school with the intent of reaching the lost with the gospel. Just another idea that we kicked around.

And then we spent a little bit of time just dreaming-- what it would be like in maybe the near future to have an Africa pastors and wives conference. And to hold that somewhere on the continent would just be really thrilling and exciting, to see pastors and their wives travel throughout the continent of Africa to a strategic city where they could be cared for and taught some of the teaching happening from indigenous African pastors. So those are just some of the things we talked about in terms of immediate need and dreaming about that future.

Benjamin Kreps:

Excellent. It is encouraging to hear about God's favor on the men laboring in Africa. And it's wonderful to consider how so many of us in our regions have given for instance, to the work in Liberia and elsewhere, and to see the fruit of that giving is wonderful to hear. So thank you.

Mark Prater:

lf I can mention one other thing before we go: anybody listening to this that would like to give to the Africa Development Fund, you could just make a donation to Sovereign Grace Churches and note Africa Development Fund. One of our churches could do that or if a region wants to do that. That would be a way to invest into what God is doing through Sovereign Grace in Africa.

Benjamin Kreps:

Excellent. Well, thank you Mark for the update. Thank you everyone for watching, and we'll see you here soon. Lord willing, bye for now.

Transcript:

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone, this is Ben Kreps. Welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where we aim to connect our global family of churches to our Executive Director. You may notice if you watched the last episode, we are still in California because we want to talk about one more thing while Mark is there. Hey Mark, we're a growing global family of churches, and across the world there are pastors who are contacting us and asking about exploring and joining Sovereign Grace, and we're sending men from the Emerging Nations Team all over the world. Who decides who goes where to interact with these pastors and to serve them?

Mark Prater:

Yeah, it's a great question. First of all, let me ask you guys a question. I think both of you along with Dave Taylor were in Liberia about a year ago. Tell us how that trip went.

Benjamin Kreps:

Eric, how do you think it went?

Eric Turbedsky:

Oh, man. I mean, it was my first time in Africa, first time in West Africa, first time in Liberia and I had been in a bunch of countries recently and Liberia was by far the most advanced in training and deploying pastors and planting churches. It was compelling and brought me to tears. I don't know how many times, just driving in the car hearing stories of how guys, particularly Dyona, as he leads a group of churches (and then you might say he is our primary contact). Hearing him and his wife's story and how they've laid down their lives made me want to move to Liberia. Or at least leave you there in Liberia.

Benjamin Kreps:

You guys tried to leave me there. Dave Taylor was looking for an apartment for me.

Eric Turbedsky:

Yeah. Somehow Dave Taylor, you and I went and Dave and I had an ulterior motive. We were hoping to make you be the apostle to Liberia.

Mark Prater:

Ben, how did you get that title, apostle to Liberia, by the way?

Benjamin Kreps:

Well, I gave it to myself.

Mark Prater:

You gave it to yourself. Okay. That's always the best way.

Benjamin Kreps:

I was christened that by Dave Taylor.

Eric Turbedsky:

You've been in contact with Dyona more recently. What is the 15 second highlight? What's going on?

Benjamin Kreps:

I mean, I had phone call with him this morning. I'm taking another group of guys back in March actually, in a couple of months. We're headed back. This time, we're going to do a pastors training, equipping pastors with marriage and family. So Dyona's bringing back something like 50 to 80 guys who just graduated from his Grace College. So there could be 150 (pastors and a bunch of wives) where we're going to be able to invest in marriages, just teaching on things that are not taught on at all really, throughout Liberia. So we're getting excited about that opportunity.

Mark Prater:

That's great.

Benjamin Kreps:

It's quite something to be around Dyona and see what he's doing bi-vocationally (because he works another job) where he is teaching biblical theology, reformed theology, expositional preaching, in a context where it's almost all prosperity gospel. And these men, we're teaching them things about gospel-centered ministry that they've never heard. And just to watch them come alive to it is not to be missed in my view.

Mark Prater:

That's great. Thanks for going. Thanks for going back. I'll be praying for you.

Benjamin Kreps:

It's my joy. Pray for Dyona as well. We're taking him through the ordination process, and he's making progress in that. We're hoping at some point in the near future, the next few years maybe, to see Sovereign Grace Liberia.

Mark Prater:

That'd be so cool.

Benjamin Kreps:

So Eric and I went, and a number of other guys have traveled. Who does decide who's going to travel and be a part of Emerging Nations, Mark?

Mark Prater:

Well first of all, it's not me. I don't decide those things. There are a couple of ways that that plays out.

(Cross-talk)

Benjamin Kreps:

They'll let anybody go apparently… It doesn't appear that there's any leadership happening here because I was invited to go…

Mark Prater:

That works. It's just very organic. It just kind of happens, man.

Eric Turbedsky:

We're just texting you from Liberia. Hey Mark, by the way, I'm in Liberia.

Mark Prater:

That's how I learned. Um, no, it plays out a couple of ways. First, through the leadership of Dave Taylor, who's our Director of Emerging Nations. What Dave has really taken initiative to do is to form an Emerging Global Nations Team that I think has captured the right guys who can serve in different countries. But he's able to find those guys because they themselves are taking initiative towards Dave or someone that they may know (another pastor, for example, in another nation), and just begin to build a relationship with them. So for example, I was just in Annapolis, Maryland with Ed Omera. He's been building relationships with pastors in Italy. And because of his initiative, we're able to have a doorway open to us where at least two churches there are interested in forming a partnership with Sovereign Grace. So I would say it's our pastors initiative and it's the leadership of Dave Taylor.

Benjamin Kreps:

Wonderful. And Dave is doing a remarkable job.

Eric Turbedsky:

Can I ask you a question? Mark if there's somebody out there, one of the guys watching the podcast, and he's thinking, hey, I'd like to get involved, I'd like to figure out how I fit into this, what do they do?

Mark Prater:

There are a couple of things you can do. First of all, as you express your desire, is there a particular part of the world that you are burdened for or would love to serve? And when you reach out to Dave Taylor, which would be the next step, email Dave Taylor and tell him you want to serve anywhere, but you have a particular burden for particular part of the world. Let them know that too. And he'll begin to interact with you and figure out: Is there a way that you can be deployed in serving what we're doing globally?

Benjamin Kreps:

Excellent.

Eric Turbedsky:

Can I add too? I think one of the most encouraging things on my end (now I'm not traveling with Emerging Nations as much as I was in the past)… but a really cool innovation in Sovereign Grace churches has been the local church's ownership of the mission. So instead of being centrally funded and coordinated, you have a guy who calls Dave and says, I'm willing to serve. Where can I go? Most, if not all the guys that are traveling right now internationally, their local church is funding their travel and their expenses. And they're committing regular time. It's not just a one off, but they're saying, I'll put a couple of weeks a year into this and so many dollars out of our budget. That's been encouraging to watch local churches step up and say we're going to own this (and more than, you know, send us somewhere). We're actually going to fund this thing. We're going to get behind it. And that has been really encouraging.

Mark Prater:

I think that approach strengthens partnership overall. Because a lot of our partnership in Sovereign Grace is among pastors. And we're trying to figure out, how do we have our members enjoy aspects of our partnership more? I think that's one of them. Once a church hears that, for example, you, Ben are going to Liberia and they're funding some of that, they can't wait for you to get back and give a report. They're much more invested into--and tied into--our mission outside of the United in ways that we're advancing the gospel, so that even though they may never go to Liberia, they feel like they're a part.

Benjamin Kreps:

Excellent. That's so true. And to be able to stand in front of my church (as I did last year and I'll do again this year) and commend the church for supporting me to be able to go to Liberia brings a lot of joy to the folks in our church, that they know that they played a part in training pastors in Liberia. So amen to all that.

Mark Prater:

Thanks for going again, man.

Benjamin Kreps:

I'm looking forward to it. All right, well thanks for taking time to watch the podcast. Hope this was helpful to all of you. God bless you, and we'll see you next time.