News for the DCI Fellowship
May 2004From Les and Pilar
Greetings from Colston Bassett, England this Friday afternoon, where it is just about to rain. These are just a few lines to keep you up to date with some of the good things that the Lord is doing over here. We want you to feel part of us, in fact we really wish you were in the next street, then we would put the kettle on and tell you personally what is happening. Anyway, we will have a go . .
Let God arise,
let His enemies be scattered(Psalm 69.1)Last week the DCI Trust sent £3,020 to India into the safe hands of a Pastor and his wife, who have been very faithful with us in administering a DCI Bank for the Poor. £1,000 will go into the Bank capital for interest-free loans, and £2,000 goes into evangelism, mission, Bibles and supporting 325 native missionaries who work amongst the unreached peoples. Did you know that in India a missionary family needs just £40 a month to live on, that's all. A Bible costs £1.50, a gospel campaign which always leaves a new church behind costs just £160.This morning we had this news from our colleague, who by the way, is coming to see us in July." I have just returned from being the speaker for a group of 600 native missionaries not supported by anyone. Each one has planted 5 to 7 churches and they have baptised more than 30,000 souls last year. They have asked me to train them, so we have decided to do a 10 weeks training College. I need your prayers for the same. The Lord is bringing great harvest in India through many indigenous mission organizations."
We have also helped our friend George and three men from war-torn north Uganda to go over the border to war-weary Sudan to preach the gospel and investigate a Bank for the Poor application, at a cost of £250, and sent a further £250 yesterday to help them show the Jesus film to thousands of war refugees at Whitsuntide, at the end of two special days of music, worship, hospitality and preaching the gospel which George is arranging.£142 has gone to Brazil to help translate Pastor Eric Maddison's new book into Portuguese which will then be available free on our website, and in French and Spanish as well after the summer. Pastor Eric has blessed us with thousands of books to give away free to the developing world pastors and believers. We have also sent £100 to UCB Radio/Word for Today to help their appeal to expand. Mass communicators like UCB and the TV/radio channels have got the ear of the world these days, we wish we could do as well as they do. Nevertheless in our small way . .
The Lord gave the word:
great was the company of those that published it.
(Psalm 69.11)Last weekend the DCI web pages passed the 4,000,000 visits mark, an average of 8,000 hits a day were recorded in May. The free downloads of the word that the Lord gave us a few years ago and the news pages we publish is massive, so much so that we are getting bills for extra capacity from the Internet host company ! People are saying thank you from every corner of the earth, in particular one brave pastor in Mauritania, one the most closed, hostile places in the world, is just overwhelmed with what he has found.
God sets the solitary in families . .
(Psalm 69.6)DCI is an extraordinary collection of people, but it really is one lady from here, one man from there and so on, both locally and worldwide. Only when everyone and their time, prayer, gifts and skills are put together by the genius of the Holy Spirit does it all work, but don't ask us how please ! All we can say is that people who would otherwise feel very lonely in their call to the lost, the last and the least of the world find a home in this family. Please, feel free to bring your like-minded friends to pray with us, to e-mail us, or to work with us. They are very welcome, especially if they feel a bit solitary in their church if they have one, maybe because they have a call from Jesus to the wider world and can't find a way forward.
Your God has commanded your strength,
strengthen O God, that which you have done for us.(Psalm 68.28)At home Elizabeth is in the middle of her GCSE exams and revision, and is working very hard. Amazingly her school leaving prom dinner and dance is next week ! Where did 15 years go ? Sixth form comes next, then maybe Youth for Christ, or Manchester's Eden Project or, or, or . . In the meantime she is the leading organiser of a Christian youth concert for this rural part of our county next winter, learning by doing which is always the best way.Like Abram and Sarai of old, we don't have a successor, or do we ?Tomorrow we are visiting three families in their 60's, 70's and 80's in Slough who encourage us, and in the evening and later on we go to Horley to see Graham and his wife Ursula. Graham is our webmaster, the man who fixes the Internet pages when I break them ! On Sunday evening our niece Deborah flies in from Barcelona for a few days, she is on her way to work with children in Brazil for a month, joining our former student Carmen who is a missionary there. The weekend after we are at Life Spring Church, Ollerton for a missions Sunday, and the Sunday after at Riverside in Southwell.We plan to visit Rudolf and Heidy in Switzerland on June 1-3rd, thanks to Easy Jet's fares. Rudolf is the translator of our pages in German, he is a 77 year old retired pastor who spends three days a week on dialysis, and who thought his ministry had come to an end! At the end of June we have five days in Valencia, Spain visiting Pilar's parents and a church planting missionary from Ecuador.
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits,
even the God of our salvation.
(Psalm 68.19)For our health, strength and all the things that come from the hand of God to make life, living and the giving of time, gifts and money possible we give thanks to the Lord, and to you for all that you mean to us, for being His invisible hand of grace to us. We will let you know what happens next.God bless, keep and prosper you every step of the way, write, anytime, or we will come to see you. You are never far from our thoughts and prayers.Les and Pilar><>