I just wanted to pass along a brief word of thanks and encouragement. First, we are so grateful to the Lord for the tremendous outpouring of support for our end-of-year campaign, where we far surpassed our expectations, exceeding 100% of our goal for a total of $179,326.

Now on to the encouragement…Robert Morgan writes in his book The Jordan River Rules,

The Almighty has a unique plan for each of us that involves leaving a legacy with an echo chamber that will reverberate until Christ returns. Don’t underestimate how the next stage of your life will influence generations yet unborn.

I have noted the impact George Muller’s life has had on me personally and the ministry of EA over the past ten years. However, Muller’s influence is only part of an ongoing legacy of reverberating ministry. 

The service to Christ’s Church that God has graciously allowed us, as an EA family, to have over the past ten years is a continuation of devoted Christ-followers inspiring others to service (Heb. 10:24). 

Morgan explains that Martin Luther’s impact through the Reformation in 1517 inspired Philipp Spener’s efforts in the Lutheran revival in 1670, which profoundly influenced an eager young man named August Francke, who in 1695 established an orphanage for poor children to receive schooling in Halle, Germany. A hundred years later, in 1826, a German university student named George Müller enrolled at Halle University and resided in Francke’s orphanage. He was so profoundly moved by the work he saw that seven years later, in 1833, Muller established a similar ministry for homeless children in Bristol, England. And, as we all know, the story of Müller’s life inspired countless Christians throughout history, including the team that founded EA in 2012. 

Scripture promises that God will not forget our service for His glory (Heb. 6:10). In fact, our work here on earth for Christ goes with us to heaven (Rev. 14:13). But our service to Christ also leaves a legacy that will outlive us on earth, continuing a ripple effect of ministry inspiration (Ps. 112:1-2). 

One final word of encouragement as 2022 comes to a close and we approach the end of our 10th Anniversary Matching Campaign.

Raydel passed along this update last week:

To continue sharing what is happening here, I am attaching a photo from today in the community of Alta Gracia. God continues to work, and although we are on “vacation,” it is difficult to say no to a group of young people who want to use their own vacation to learn from the Word.

I told him this could be the caption to the photos:

Psalm 119:20 – “My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times.”

The theologian Albert Barnes provided the following powerful description of the psalmist:

The desire to know more of the commands of God acted continually on him, exhausting his strength, and overcoming him. He so longed for God that, in our language, “it wore upon him” – as any ungratified desire does. It was not the possession of the knowledge of God that exhausted him; it was the intenseness of his desire that he might know more of God.

The world desperately needs evangelical leaders who are hungry to personally comprehend and effectively communicate the life-changing truths of Scripture.

Thank you for your partnership in this endeavor.

Happy New Year!

We have reached the final week of our year-end matching campaign. Your financial partnership with Empowering Action supports church leaders such as Pastor Kelvin Rosario in Hato Mayor, Dominican Republic, whom I met earlier this month as his church hosted a regional meeting of Abundant Life Program leaders.

In the picture above, the pastor explained his vision of planting several churches in his region with the desire to implement the Abundant Life Program at each new church.

Hearing his strategic vision for his community reminded me of the Apostle Paul exhorting Titus to “Set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city.” (Titus 1:5). Paul recognized that ministry vitality and longevity are tied to structure and oversight, tasking Titus to establish governance within the churches of Crete.

History indicates that Titus faithfully stewarded that trust, spreading the gospel into the neighboring islands, eventually dying at the age of ninety-four; however, not before the Lord used him significantly in service to Christ’s Church.

Thanks for your continued prayer and financial support in 2023 as we partner to equip church leaders to faithfully steward their biblical trust in service to Christ’s Church.

We’re pleased to have Carlos and Raydel with us in Washington, D.C., for the EA Christmas and 10th Anniversary party this Sunday. (There’s still time to RSVP if you’d like to join us).

As we were catching up this morning, they both indicated that serving Christ’s church was a life-long calling, not simply a vocation.  

We’re blessed to have an entire team with a deep concern for Christ’s Church like that of the Apostle Paul (2 Cor. 11:28), who labored and prayed that the churches would:

• Be firmly rooted in Jesus Christ, not wavering from the faith (Eph. 1:16-17).
• Experience all of the benefits of being a child of God: the wisdom, knowledge, and power available through the Spirit within them (Eph. 3:16-17).
• Live up to their calling as Christians, producing good works so that Jesus would be honored (Col. 1:10).

Just a reminder, here are ways you can join us in celebrating EA’s 10th Anniversary:

1. SUPPORTING OUR YEAR-END MATCHING CAMPAIGN

 A generous EA supporter is sponsoring a special Year-end General Fund Matching Campaign (up to a total amount of $80,000) until Dec 31st.

Click HERE to give.

2. SUBMITTING A SHORT VIDEO

We are creating a celebration video which will be a great encouragement to all who have been a part of the Lord’s journey for EA over the past decade.

Click HERE to record your video.

3. ATTENDING OUR CHRISTMAS AND ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Please join us on Sunday, December 11th for dinner, a time of worship and highlights from 10 years of ministry.

RSVP HERE for the party.

A surprising fact and a great opportunity on Giving Tuesday:

Fact – Evangelicals Favor Secular Charities

A 2022 survey revealed that while 84% of evangelicals stated that they preferred to support Christian organizations to non-Christian ones, only 46% of evangelical donors indicated a faith-based organization as their preferred charity. Furthermore, only 5% of evangelical donors donated exclusively to ministries, such as Empowering Action, engaged solely in Christian work of preaching, teaching, or missions.

It is true that through common grace God demonstrates that, without renewing the heart, He can exercise such influence that even the unsaved are enabled to perform good deeds toward their fellow man. However, surprisingly 12 of evangelicals’ top 19 organizations were also found in non-evangelicals’ top 20 organizations. And in some instances, evangelicals might be shocked by those entities’ values and activities, which are incongruent with a biblical worldview.

Opportunity – Year-End Matching Campaign

On this Giving Tuesday, Empowering Action reiterates our commitment to giving the truth of the Gospel and the life-changing precepts of Scripture. Our current Year-end General Fund Matching Campaign allows you to commemorate our 10th anniversary and partner with a ministry that strives for biblical fidelity in both belief and behavior.

For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. – 1 Cor. 2:16

Source:

The favorite charity: Evangelical giving priorities. Infinity Concepts & Grey Matter Research & Consulting (2022).

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday designated as “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer,” let us find inspiration in the commentary of Charles Spurgeon below on Deuteronomy 8:3-6 regarding humanity’s propensity to forget God’s mercies:

We trace our joys in the sand, but we write our afflictions on marble.

 We forget the streams of mercy, never ceasing, which flow so continually parallel with our pathway.

 If we thus, ungratefully forget, it should cause us serious reflections when we see that God does not forget.

Here in this Book He brings to His people’s memories all the mercies they have received, because they were always present before His own mind.

 The child may forget the kindness of its mother, but the mother does not forget what she bore, and what she has sacrificed for her child.

 The friend may forget what he has received, but it is not likely that the benefactor will forget what he has bestowed.

 If God’s memory, therefore, records all that He has given me, let me be ashamed to let my memory suffer these things to slip.

 What God counts worthy of His Divine recollection let me record on the pages of my memory, and often let me peruse the record.

Let us give thanks to the LORD for His faithful love and His wonderful works for all humanity! (Psalm 107:31)

Above is one of the earliest pictures of Empowering Action. By God’s grace, next month marks the completion of our 10th year of ministry. Over the years, we have often found inspiration in the life of George Muller, an amazing man of God, who cared for 10,000 orphans in the 1800s. At the end of his life, when asked if when he first began the work he had any idea how it would grow, he responded,

“I only knew that God was in it and was leading His child into untried and untrodden paths. The assurance of His presence was my stay.”

Similarly, as we look back over the past decade, we recognize and celebrate God’s sustaining presence and provision as well as the privilege of serving Christ’s Church.

Please consider joining us in celebrating EA’s 10th Anniversary by participating in the following:

1. SUPPORTING OUR YEAR-END MATCHING CAMPAIGN

 A generous EA supporter is sponsoring a special Year-end General Fund Matching Campaign (up to a total amount of $80,000) until Dec 31st.

Click HERE to give.

2. SUBMITTING A SHORT VIDEO

We are creating a celebration video which will be a great encouragement to all who have been a part of the Lord’s journey for EA over the past decade.

Click HERE to record your video.

3. ATTENDING OUR CHRISTMAS AND ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Please join us on Sunday, December 11th for dinner, a time of worship and highlights from 10 years of ministry.

RSVP HERE for the party.

This year’s State of Theology survey revealed that 71% of U.S. adults and 65% of evangelicals agreed with the statement, “Everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God.”

Commenting on the finding, Ligonier Ministries explained:

• When God created the world, everything He made was good (Gen. 1:10, 21, 25, 31). Yet through Adam and Eve’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden, humankind became corrupted. The Bible teaches the concept of original sin, which means that since the Fall, every human being inherits a sin nature from the time of their conception (Ps. 51:5; Rom. 5:12). In other words, we are not sinners because we sin; rather, we sin because we are sinners.
• It is unsurprising that most U.S. adults believe that humans are born innocent, given the influence of humanistic philosophies and worldviews that teach self-determinism and a view of humankind as basically good.

Theologians contend that Genesis chapter 3 is arguably the most important chapter in the Bible, explaining,

“Those who do not understand the Fall cannot diagnose properly the human dilemma…It is impossible to understand man’s behavior if you do not understand that it is all a product of sin. And all sin in the world is a result of what happened in Genesis 3.”

Perhaps that is why it is so encouraging to listen to Dominican Pastor Roberto Araujo King of Iglesia Bíblica Bautista Mi Esperanza, after ten months of study in the Genesis Family Life Program, explain the vital importance a proper understanding of sin and theology play in the spiritual transformation of the mind (Romans 12:2).

I just wanted to pass along an encouraging photo and note from Raydel Riquelme below regarding ministry in Cuba amid unrest and rolling power outages throughout the country in the wake of recent hurricanes.

The simplicity and fervor communicated by the image reflects the words of Charles Spurgeon:

 The Devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the Church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them. Providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the Church. The need is biblical doctrine, so understood and felt that is sets men afire.

 What a privilege we have to be a part of biblical training that leads to individuals and churches equipped and aflame for Christ!

 The Lord promises in Isaiah 55:10-11,

 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it bear and sprout,
And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”

As we pray for those in the path of Hurricane Ian as it makes landfall in Florida today, we also ask that you remember those in Cuba amid the storm’s aftermath. We have five regional facilitators in Cuba overseeing our efforts there, including Pastor Yalexis in the province of Pinal del Rio, who reported that while he and his family are doing well, there is significant damage in his area as seen in the pictures below.