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:

Welcome to the Mark Prater podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace churches with our Executive Director. Mark, I'm busy working on an article that I was asked to write for an upcoming edition of the Sovereign Grace Journal on partnership lessons from Philippians in partnership. It's an edifying exercise to study Philippians through that filter and to see so many of the virtues of healthy, biblical partnership reflected in Sovereign Grace. And you actually have an update for us on this podcast about our partnership with Dyonah in West Africa.

Mark Prater:

I do. First of all, thanks for writing that article, Ben. I'm looking forward to reading it. We were talking before we recorded. I thought that's going to be a good article to read. So, a reminder to everybody who listens to this podcast or reads, check out the Sovereign Grace Journal. But the story I want to tell that really, I think, illustrates partnership among a global family of churches, which we are slowly becoming, a global family of churches has to do with Dyonah Thomas, who's the Senior Pastor of Grace Life Church in Monrovia Liberia. He also leads a pastors college there; a dear friend that we've known for over a decade and a key leader for us in West Africa. He's helping us to build Sovereign Grace Churches in West Africa.

I feel freedom to share this story because Dave Taylor just sent out his Sovereign Grace Missions monthly update and mentioned this as a prayer request in that update. So I feel the freedom to share it publicly. Dyonah Thomas, just a few weeks ago, was diagnosed with what appears to be colon cancer. It appears they've also caught it very early. That's the good news. So, those that are listening to this podcast or are readers of this podcast, please pray for Dyonah; pray that God would heal him, pray that God would direct his steps to the right medical treatment that he needs, pray for his wife May, and for their children, that God would comfort them during this time. And it's important to pray for him, not just for his own healing.

He's an important leader for us. There's actually the very first Sovereign Grace Church's West Africa Pastors and Wives Conference scheduled in the middle of August in Monrovia, Liberia that will draw pastors and their wives from Ghana, from Guinea, from Sierra Leone, from the West Africa region that Dyonah is going to be leading. So, he just has real vision and real faith and real heart for it. This diagnosis hasn't deterred him in any way. He just wants to get it treated. So please, please pray for Dyonah and for his wife, May, if you would.

Ben Kreps:

Yeah, we'll be praying. And certainly one of the lessons on partnership with Philippians is that partnership is nurtured in prayer. That is a vital part of partnership, but also practical care for one another is important in our partnership. And you actually have a story of how that's functioning not just in West Africa, but here in the States. Tell us about that.

Mark Prater:

I do. I want to tell this story because as you mentioned, I think it highlights how partnership works relationally, even across different continents in Sovereign Grace and how we are becoming and really enjoying being a global family of churches. So, members of my church at Covenant Fellowship; Alfred and Virginia Essandoh, a married couple in our church along with their daughter Sophia, had expressed interest in a ministry in Ghana recently. So, I thought, let me connect Dyonah with Alfred in Virginia.

So just a few weeks ago I set up a Zoom meeting between Dyonah and Alfred and we talked through a number of things in West Africa, including this ministry in Ghana and Dyonah said, actually, Ghana is my second home. He has a lot of friends there, travels there. As the conversation progressed, learned that we're actually thinking about planting a church in Ghana, probably in Accra sometime, maybe in the next five years because Dyonah knows a pastor there, he's known for over a decade, who just has a heart to plant a Sovereign Grace church. So we just had a wonderful conversation, not knowing at the time the role that Alfred and Virginia would play in helping Dyonah.

So when I heard of Dyonah's diagnosis, I just reached out to Alfred and said, Hey, would you and Virginia be praying for Dyonah? He has this diagnosis. And Alfred got back to me and said, I know from growing up in Ghana and going to university in Ghana, I have friends who are physicians, who are either in Ghana or travel to Ghana and I'd like to try to connect my friends, my physician friends, with Dyonah. So, long story short, that's exactly what has happened. Alfred's interacted with Dyonah, he's interacted with his physician friend who does who does colonoscopies, who sort of lives in the world of the specialty that Dyonah needs. And even though he practices here in the States, he'll be back in Ghana, his home, sometime in the next few weeks. And, hopefully, Dyonah can travel to Ghana and they can meet and he can begin treatment and care. So, no one knew at the time when I set a Zoom meeting about totally something else, that the Lord would use these relationships and events hopefully to be a means of grace, a means of common grace to help and maybe bring the right treatment for Dyonah.

And by the way, why is he going to Ghana? His physicians in Liberia told him, we just don't have the advanced technology that other nations around us have. So go to Nigeria or go to Ghana. And, by God's grace and through his good sovereignty with my friend Alfred, there are new people that can help treat him in Ghana. So it's a wonderful story of partnership that I wanted to tell because I want the members of our churches to hear this. As we become more of a global family of churches, involvement in our global mission is going to be vital and important. I really want to encourage everyone to be involved in whatever way they can because that's only going to strengthen the partnership we share and that we're trying to live out as modeled in the book of Philippians.

Ben Kreps:

Yeah. Well, we're rooting for you, Dyonah. We'll be praying for you. What a sweet providence that God orchestrated in all of this to help care for Dyonah. Gordon Fee in his commentary in Philippians says in biblical partnership, it's not just two that are partnered, but it's a three-way bond. It is between us and West Africa and Christ, that our partnership is rooted. So, that's a beautiful story of how God is using that partnership to care for others globally. So thank you for the update, Mark. Thank you all for watching or reading. We'll see you here, Lord willing, next week. 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.