Ways to Celebrate EA’s 10th Anniversary

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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

Theology Matters

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).

Update from Cuba in aftermath of Hurricane Ian

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.”

Prayer for those impacted by Hurricane Ian

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.

Sinclair Ferguson provides guidance regarding how to pray during such natural disasters,

 The most important prayer is that whatever the providences of God may be, He will use them to turn people to Christ. It is wholly appropriate that we should pray that God would turn back natural disasters, but beyond that, our concern is for God’s glory. If that means people are going to be awakened to think about eternal things when they have been consumed with the things of this world, then we pray that God will use them in such a manner.

 We believe that God will use these things to make people think about what really matters and what really lasts. In fact, it is often at such times that you will hear people say in response to what they have lost that it has made them treasure the things that are really important.

 Please join us in praying fervently but trusting wholly in the character and providence of God. 

Hurricane Fiona Update

As we observe the following pictures, we get a sense of the damage and suffering caused by Hurricane Fiona for more than 8,000 families living on the east coastline of the Dominican Republic.

As in many other occasions, situations like this offer an opportunity for individuals to consider their lives and what is their personal relationship with their Creator and the Person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as they face the fragility of their earthy existence.

We thank the Lord that in the mist of these recent events we have seen the generosity of the people of the Dominican Republic in helping out as well we observed the rapid emergency response from our government authorities. This has been essential in preserving human life and material possessions and securing and restoring vital infrastructure.

We praise our Lord for the rapid response and care from our brethren from various local church bodies looking to serve and love their neighbors.

Our pastor network has reported that more that 2,000 homes in their area have been severely damaged, and the families have lost all their basic possessions. Also, reports show that all agriculture in the batey communities and plantain farms have been lost. We, as the EA family, are looking to coordinate with these churches to provide support to cover basic needs such as: roof repairs, temporary food provision, and health and hygiene necessities for the coming 3 months as families recover and go through the rehabilitation phase after a natural disaster such as this. Of course, we continue to offer our four foundational programs whose content serves in the immediate response and prepares Christ’s Church for such challenges in the future.

We cherish and request your continued prayer and financial support, which has enabled us to serve and glorify Christ in such a time as this (Esther 4:14).

Unity in the Gospel

Paul writes to the church in Philippi,

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. (Philippians 1:5)

James Montgomery Boice asserts that we do not know much about this church, but it would seem that there was little to bind them together by worldly standards. However, it was the fellowship of the gospel that unified them.

Boice states,

This must always be the bond between Christians. If you unite with other Christians on the basis of affluence, you will exclude the poor. If you unite along social issues, you will exclude those outside your own level of society, be it high or low. If you unite intellectually, you will exclude either the simple or the intelligent.  However, you do it, the witness of the church will suffer.  How thankful we must be that God did not establish the fellowship of his children along these lines.  Our fellowship is in the gospel of God.

This is a timely reminder as the toxic, divisive ideology of the world has crept into Christ’s church, professing to offer unity that is counter to Scripture.

Our fellowship is in the gospel.

The gospel that Paul so clearly defined for us,

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you–unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:1-4)

Octavius and Audrey

I was reading this past week through the book of Colossians where Paul described the Preeminence of Christ (Col 1:15-23), in response to a heresy threatening the church by denying the deity of Christ.

In the forefront of my mind were two things: the seemingly increasingly chaotic world around us, and the impending, emotional departure of our oldest child Audrey for college.

In studying the passage I ran across this quote from 19th century theologian Octavius Winslow, which I found extremely encouraging:

Living in a world of imperfection and change, we must expect nothing perfect, nothing stable, in what we are, in what we do, or in what we enjoy. But amid the dissolving views of the world that “passes away,” let us take firm hold of the unchangeableness of God. The wheels may revolve, but the axle on which they turn is immoveable. Such is our covenant God. Events may vary, providences may change, friends may die, feelings may fluctuate, but God in Christ will know “no variableness, neither the shadow of a turning.”

So amid the chaos and instability of our lives, look to Christ who is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, before all things, and in whom all things hold together” and who will “reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”

We covet your continued prayers for our EA ministry family, as well as the Husted family during this time of transition and growth.

The Faithfulness of Patience

Patience is vital to faithful ministry. Ask Adoniram Judson or William Carey who both labored over six years before their faithful ministry was rewarded. Or the prophet Jeremiah who saw no visible fruit after decades of ministry.

McKitterick (2020) cautions below regarding how impatience can cause even the best-intentioned servant to become unfaithful in their pursuit of being fruitful, while in the words of Hudson Taylor, “Attempting great things for God!”

We live in a society that expects everything now! We don’t like to wait for anything. You could say we live in a society of impatience. While this sin is concerning to the Lord in every believer’s life, its danger becomes exponentially greater when shepherding the church. Impatience illustrates an attempt to usurp the workings of God by taking matters into one’s own hands. Impatience can lead to rash decisions, manipulative leadership, and discontentment. It can frustrate the church by either dragging them along, or worse, running so far ahead that they are left in the dust. Impatience is often friends with irritability, anger, self-will, and other ministry crippling sins.

The team at Empowering Action is keenly aware of this danger. It wasn’t until our 8th year of ministry that our Savings Groups program was finally launched, which could have understandably resulted in frustration from staff members with both passion and proficiency in financial ministry. And yet after three years now and a slow methodical rollout we are grateful to the Lord for his acquiescence to be serving: 500 individuals at 25 churches in Haiti, 275 participants at 8 Haitian churches within the Dominican Republic, and 120 persons at 6 Dominican churches.

Faithfulness may require that we, as William Carey said, plod, while others foolishly rush ahead.

References:

McKitterick, J. (2020, July 21). Are we there yet? The need for patience in pastoral ministry. The Expositor’s Seminary. https://expositors.org/are-we-there-yet-the-need-for-patience-in-pastoral-ministry/

Praying for Emily, others and ourselves

As partners in ministry with our team, you may ask, “How can I pray specifically for the church leaders and community members being served through our efforts?” Individuals like Emily who shared her testimony recently of coming to Christ through participation in the Abundant Life Program.

The apostle Paul provides a wonderful template in 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, as you pray for Emily, your friends and family, and your own spiritual growth.

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul prays for two “means”, worthy walk and joyful service, leading to the “end” of glorifying Christ, which is the chief aim of man.

 Behavior Consistent with our Identity in Christ

“that our God may make you worthy of his calling”

 God takes sinners, worthy only of death (Rom. 1:32), and makes them worthy of His kingdom by imputing Christ’s positional righteousness to them (2 Cor. 5:21). However, Paul prayed that, beyond that amazing gift of grace, the Thessalonians would also prove worthy in practical righteousness through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit.

Delight in Serving the Lord

“and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power”

Emphasizing the contrast between guilt-induced duty and the inner delight that should characterize a Christian’s service, the late J. B. Lightfoot translated the phrase “delight in well-doing” as believers serve the Lord with gladness (Psalm 100:2).

As we become more like Christ through a worthy walk and joyful service, we become more deserving to bear His name, and he is glorified.

May that be our prayer for own lives and the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the globe today.

Ministry in Haiti

Last week members of our team spent some time in Haiti’s central plateau, following up with a ministry partner facilitating our Church Savings Group program. The smiles on the faces of Pastor Marino, Esperanza, and Johnson remind me of the joy that the Lord periodically provides us through the faithfulness of other believers.

 

You can sense such an overflowing joy in the words of the Apostle Paul to the church in Thessalonica as he struggled to adequately express to God the thanks which filled his heart:

 

“For what thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God on your account.” (1 Thessalonians 3:9)

 

Legend has it that recognizing her husband Charles Haddon Spurgeon needed some encouragement during a tough stretch of ministry, Susannah Spurgeon posted a passage of Scripture on the ceiling directly above Charles’s side of the bed, so that every morning and evening the image was there to greet and encourage him.

 

Likewise, I pray this image is an encouragement to you today.