The apostle Paul spent much time in the city of Antioch, which played a significant role in the book of Acts and the earliest development of Christianity (Acts 11:25-26; 12:25-13:3; 14:28). Similarly, Andy and Diana Manfredi spent many years in Santo Domingo during the formative years of Empowering Action. As the note below indicates, they have recently returned for an extended time this summer to visit with family and reengage with EA’s in-country team. Please keep this time in your prayers that they would be both encouraged and an encouragement after having personally invested much in Empowering Action over the years.

EA Family,

 As Paul was torn away from the Thessalonian church (1 Thes. 2:17), we have felt “torn away” from a people and ministry we love the past few years as, in God’s sovereignty, we’ve been limited to annual trips to the Dominican Republic. I resonate with Paul’s eagerness to be reunited with the church (1 Thes. 2:18-20) and am grateful to share that Diana and our kids can spend four weeks in July and August in-country. As Timothy brought a good report back to Paul of the Thessalonians’ faith and love (1 Thes. 3:6), I am thrilled to witness up close reports I regularly hear from afar as a board member—that God’s ever-abundant grace in and through EA staff, volunteers, and church partners continues to bear fruit for the upbuilding of the church of Jesus Christ in Latin America and the spread of the gospel.

Your prayers for our trip are highly valued — particularly that our presence would in some small way encourage the work of faith and labor of love our staff engages in every day, that Christ would be glorified, that we would be Spirit-led as we discuss and pray through ongoing ministry opportunities, and that upon our return we would be faithful in bringing back a good report of God’s working in and through EA to so many friends and faithful supporters of this ministry.

Sincerely,

Andy Manfredi

A report came across my desk this week containing the following ominous warnings for nonprofit leaders:

“Nonprofits are bracing for a tough fundraising year as the first six months of 2023 demonstrate that donors are holding back their contributions…

2022 was one of the worst years in philanthropy history. Giving dropped 10.5 percent after inflation…

Perhaps most alarming is that giving by individuals, who typically provide the bulk of all donations, fell by 13.4 percent after inflation.”

My thoughts went immediately to the following quotes:

“Depend on it. God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply. He is too wise a God to frustrate His purposes for lack of funds.” – Hudson Taylor

“God has many ways of moving the hearts of men all over the world to help us. While I am praying, He speaks to one and another on this continent and on that, to send us help.” – George Muller

And to the scene at the Red Sea in Exodus 14, where God deliberately led the Israelites into peril so that He might gain glory through Pharaoh and his army (Ex. 14:4).

Theologian C.H. MacKintosh commented regarding this passage, “The sea was before them, Pharaoh’s hosts behind them, and the mountains around them. And all this, be it observed, permitted and ordered of God.”

Where the secular nonprofit world sees ominous economic circumstances, EA leadership sees divinely orchestrated opportunities for the heightened glory of God.

Perhaps the Lord is calling you to help glorify His name by making this summer EA’s best fundraising season amid the worst of economic situations!

Regardless of His timing or provision, we will echo the words of David in Psalm 40:

I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.

He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog,

and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.

The late R.C. Sproul (2015) wisely noted, “The cultural revolution of the 1960s was similar to the French Revolution in that its goal was to bring radical change to the forms, structures, values, and ethics of the status quo.”

Today we find ourselves amid another revolution breeding chaos and confusion within society and, remarkably, within the Church. Mohler (2018) cautioned that such a movement demands nothing less than wholesale societal upheaval:

“This revolution requires a total redefinition of morality, cultural authority, personal identity, and more. The revolution requires a new vocabulary and a radically revised dictionary. Ultimately, the moral revolutionaries seek to redefine reality itself. And this revolution has no stopping point.”

Like the sons of Issachar of old (1 Chron. 12:32), discerning Christians recognize how the prevailing culture today has redefined the term love as wanting for others what they want for themselves, often irrespective of how harmful it may be.

Conversely, believers, anchored in a biblical worldview, acknowledge loving God as the greatest commandment and the context in which the exhortation to love others must occur (Matt. 22:36-40).

Therefore, biblically loving others means wanting what God wants for them, based on what He has revealed in Scripture.

So, amid this previously post-Christian, now anti-Christian, age, let us hold firmly to sound doctrine (2 Tim. 4:3) and love others biblically as the revolution rages on (Rom 1:18-32).

References:

Sproul, R. C. (2015). Foreword. In P. Jones, The other worldview: Exposing Christianity’s greatest threat. Kirkdale Press.

Mohler, A. (2018, August 2). Torn between two cultures? Revoice, LGBT identity, and Biblical Christianity. Albert Mohler. https://albertmohler.com/2018/08/02/torn-two-cultures-revoice-lgbt-identity-biblical-christianity

A.W. Tozer stated, “What we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

The doctrine of God’s providence teaches that Christians are never the victim of blind forces; instead, everything that happens to a believer is divinely planned for one’s spiritual and eternal good (Rom. 8:28).

Accordingly, Puritans described providence as “a soft pillow for anxious heads.”

Savings Group Director Pastor Widmy Mervilus describes below God’s gracious providence on his most recent trip to Haiti:

When leaving Haitian customs for the training site, our motorcycle had a flat tire; thankfully, we were quite close to a tire shop. It was resolved quickly, and we resumed our journey. However, about 20 kilometers later, the motorcycle got a flat tire again. At that point, we were already running late to get to the site, so we decided to look for a place to leave the motorcycle and hire another motorcycle taxi to take us to our destination.

 Occasionally, situations happen to us in life that we ​​will never be able to understand until God shows us His hand working in our favor. Brethren, 10 kilometers later, we encountered a terrible accident where two trucks and a jeep collided. At that moment, we recognized that the hand of our God was working to free us from death itself.

 We were late but arrived safely and experienced two days of wonderful fellowship and instruction. All honor and glory be given to our good God.

As we enter what traditionally can be the annual summer support slump for ministries, your continued prayer and financial partnership is both coveted and valued.

Charles Spurgeon once praised the Apostle Paul’s zeal for ministry to the churches, stating, “We once had a Saxon king called Ethelred the Unready; here we have an apostle who might be called Paul the Ready.”

Epitomizing his eagerness, Paul said to Barnabas in Acts 15:36, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.”

One commentator described Paul as having the heart of both an obstetrician (for bringing people into the body of Christ) and a pediatrician (for growing people up in the body of Christ).

This is our heart for ministry at Empowering Action, equipping the Church to faithfully fulfill her role of salvation, sanctification, and service.

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord (salvation), so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith (sanctification), just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude (service). (Col. 2:6-7).

As Paul thanked the Philippian church for their financial support that amply supplied his ministry needs (Phil. 4:15-18), we thank you for your past and continued support of our “obstetric and pediatric ministry” to Christ’s Church.

Rest assured that each and every gift is valued, enabling us to “proclaim Christ, warning everybody and teaching everybody in all wisdom, that we may present everybody mature in Christ” (Col. 1:28-29).

Recently, I ran across Pastor MacArthur’s statement below reflecting on the development of Grace Church and the importance of anchoring the ministry doctrinally in the early years. 

“The first 10, 15 years of Grace Church, maybe even heading toward 20 years, we were really working hard to crystallize and clarify doctrine. That’s why the church has such an extensive doctrinal statement, which is also the doctrinal statement of the college and seminary. 

We worked as a staff at writing papers on all kinds of theological issues. We’d have a staff meeting and I’d assign guys to write papers on various theological things that we needed to hammer out and discuss, and we called them “position papers.” 

And we still develop those kinds of things. But that first generation was primarily committed to the development of the truth, to understanding the truth, to systematizing the truth, thoroughly, consistently with Scripture, not imposing it upon Scripture. Establishing the truth, discovering it, refining it, and establishing it.”

In the same manner, I think this first generation of EA over the past ten years has crystalized and clarified our mission, goals, strategies, and core values, all of which centered around two foundational aspirations to serve Christ’s Church and remain faithful to Scripture. 

Amid increasing cultural pressure to accommodate prevailing societal norms, evangelical institutions must establish stable and transparent convictional moorings anchored in God’s timeless and all-sufficient Word.

In culture today, the term love has been redefined as wanting for others what they want for themselves, often irrespective of how harmful it may be.

Conversely, believers recognize loving God as the greatest commandment and the context in which the exhortation to love others must occur (Matt. 22:36-40).

Therefore, loving others biblically means wanting what God wants for them, based on what He has revealed in Scripture.

Recently in Hato Mayor another class of the Abundant Life Program graduated, representing 60 hours of biblical instruction and a desire to know personally and share faithfully God’s revealed will for humanity.

A.W. Tozer wrote,

“Our desire for moral self-preservation should dictate that we come over immediately onto God’s side and stay there, even if (as is likely) it may result in our being out of accord with man’s philosophies and man’s moral codes. 

We cannot win when we work against God, and we cannot lose when we work with him.”

This past week board member and licensed counselor Dennis Zulu traveled to Santo Domingo to serve as the keynote speaker at the Genesis Family Ministry Conference, where he equipped the lay counselor graduates on how to study and apply Scripture in the field of Christian counseling.

The Psalmist declares how God’s Word counsels the mind, stating,

Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes,
And I shall observe it to the end.
Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law
And keep it with all my heart. (Ps. 119:33-34)

All followers of Christ are to walk in the truths of Scripture (Ps. 86:11).

However, the Christian counselor, in particular, takes counsel from the counsel of God, recognizing that the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to do the work of God in the people of God, conforming them to the image of the Son of God.  

Please join me in praying for the Genesis program lay counselors Paul’s affirmation to the church in Thessalonica regarding the inspiration, authority, and power of Scripture,  

“For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.” (1 Thess. 2:13)

In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel followed a pattern of drifting from the Lord. Contemporary ministries such as Empowering Action can as well if they are not mindful.

Dr. Guy Saffold writes in his book, Strategic Planning for Christian Organizations:

A Christian institution is usually born when God convinces a key leader that a new venture could meet an important ministry need. With great faith and sacrifice, the new enterprise is launched and, perhaps after some initial struggles, enters a youthful period of growth and expanding ministry. As years pass, it matures, adds programs, and gains in reputation. As still more time passes, the now mature organization enters the prime of its life, a period of maximum ministry effectiveness. Eventually it begins to show its age…Eventually the institution dies or merges with another organization. Perhaps it senses the need to make a drastic attempt to survive through departure from the godly ideals that motivated its founding. In this latter case, even if it survives in name, it has effectively died as a consecrated Christian ministry.

As we enter a new decade of ministry, the leadership of EA commits to walk with the Lord regardless of the circumstances (Isaiah 43:1-2) and as long as He asks us to keep our hands to the EA plow (Luke 9:62).

FB Meyer reminds us of Christ’s sustaining power and presence on this journey, stating,

In all our lot, God is willing to be our partner and companion. He has called us into fellowship with his Son, and in his faithfulness He will see us through. The waters rise, the night is dark, the crossing is hard to find, and footing is insecure; but He is at hand, steadying the feet, and keeping the head above the floods.

In his book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, Phillip Keller vividly describes a delinquent neighbor whose indifferent management led to his neglected sheep:

In my memory I can still see one of the sheep ranches in our district that was operated by a tenant sheepman. He ought never to have been allowed to keep sheep. His stock were always thin, weak, and riddled with disease or parasites…He was not concerned about the condition of his sheep. His land was neglected. He gave little or no time to his flock, letting them pretty well forage for themselves as best they could, both summer and winter. They fell prey to dogs, cougars, and rustlers…Every winter there was a shortage of nourishing hay and wholesome grain to feed the hungry ewes. Shelter to safeguard and protect the suffering sheep from storms and blizzards was scanty and inadequate…In their thin, weak, and diseased condition these poor sheep were a pathetic sight… Had they been able to speak, I am sure they would have said, “Oh, to be set free from this awful owner!”

In contrast to the lush green fields Keller’s flock enjoyed, the unfaithful shepherd’s herd was forced to gnaw away at bare, impoverished pastures and drink from polluted streams, leaving them sickly, weakened, and vulnerable to prey.

This is the American evangelical Church at present: impoverished from years of theological neglect, having undiscerningly wandered into a toxic field of cultural ideology.

Church leadership has been entrusted with both examining themselves to ensure that their teaching and doctrine are pure (1 Timothy 4:16) and shepherding the flock through faithful oversight (1 Peter 5:1-2). Irrespective of increasing cultural pressure that seeks to push Christ’s Church to accommodate its biblical message and mission to prevailing societal norms, church elders must faithfully lead their flocks past toxic fields of unbiblical teaching both within the Church and the prevailing culture to the pasture of spiritual discernment found in faith study of God’s Word.