Years ago at the outset of Empowering Action I read the following quote by the late theologian Warren Wiersbe that I have returned to again and again throughout the subsequent 11 years of EA’s ministry:

“The Lord is planning to work through us in the lives of people and places we know nothing about today; but if we walk in His will, we shall share in the blessing.”

December has been filled with blessings for Carey and I:

• A wonderful reunion-like atmosphere at the EA Christmas Party;
• An historic and emotional retreat in the Dominican Republic with the Cuban pastors and their wives who serve as regional connectors and minister sacrificially amid the most difficult of circumstances;
• Our staff Christmas party in Santo Domingo which included our traditional time of prayer and thanksgiving for the Lord’s grace in allowing us to serve His Church for another year;
• Returning to learn how many of you had already partnered with us financially in our year-end campaign;
• Finally, being contacted last night by a generous EA supporter offering to match all donations up to our $100,000 goal.

Reflecting on the above blessings, I was drawn to the Psalmist’s exhortation to trust God exclusively, worship him explicitly, and thank Him abundantly.

“I love the Lord, because He hears my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live…Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.” (Psalm 116:1-2, 7)

It may surprise you that Jesus said more about money than anyone else in the Bible and more about money than any other subject.

Why?

Jesus recognized that an individual’s attitude towards money is a manifestation of the spiritual condition of their heart. In fact, in Luke 19:1-10 Jesus judged the authenticity of Zacchaeus’ repentance and salvation upon his eagerness to part with his money for the glory of God and the betterment of others. The evidence of Zacchaeus’ transformation was his attitude toward money.

In the video below, Pastor Widmy describes the encouraging developments of our Savings Group program within Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which equips churches to impact their communities through biblical principles and practices regarding work and finances.

Your year-end financial support enables such efforts in 2024 to serve Christ’s Church, whom we celebrate, this Christmas season.

The life of the local church relies upon the Word of God (Matthew 4:4). To that end, equipping church leaders for greater biblical fidelity is foundational to our ministry, as a leader ignorant of God’s truth is ill-equipped for spiritual combat and faithful shepherding.

As our 11^th year of ministry comes to a close, we thought you would enjoy this update from Raydel on the exponential growth and impact of our K2:42 Church Network Development ministry, which was made possible by God’s grace through your financial giving.

Your year-end financial support enables such efforts in 2024 to serve Christ’s Church, whom we celebrate this Christmas season.

This year has been quite the rollercoaster ride for me personally. Amid researching, writing, and defending my dissertation, and searching, securing, and transitioning to new housing, I often felt both anxious and expectant: Anxious about needing the Lord to graciously show Himself strong on my behalf. And expectant as to how He would do so.

I guess you could say that I felt “anpectant.” I felt like the father of the mute boy in the gospel of Mark who said to Jesus, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).

As we move into the year-end giving season, I find myself anpectant again. Anxious, as perhaps not since the early years of EA, has so much depended on year-end donations in determining the breadth of ministry for the coming year. And expectant, as while the Lord can provide by any means and at any time, traditionally, He has used year-end contributions to propel EA into another year of ministry.

And so I find myself anticipating the Lord to provide EA a firm foundation to move into year 12 of ministry so that we might declare His praises for His provision through faithful ministry partners such as yourself.

Therefore, we pray to the Lord, in the words of David,

“Set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord.” (Ps. 40:2-3)

Thank you again for another year of your earnest interest, prayerful support, and financial partnership. As you are able and feel led to contribute toward our bold goal of raising $100,000 in the coming weeks, we thank you in advance.

Throughout Scripture, the people of God are depicted as strangers and aliens.*

These terms carry the idea of a person not simply passing through but a foreigner who has settled down, however briefly, among the local population.

Such is the accurate image of the Christ-follower today amid our crooked and perverse generation, which does not honor God or give thanks to Him but instead has exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator (Rom. 1:21-25).

As we celebrate today what Abraham Lincoln described as “a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens,” let us make the following passage from Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus our prayer:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. 

In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. 

In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. 

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. 

In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:3-14)

* Genesis 12:1; Acts 7:2-3; Luke 14:26,27,33, Lev 25:23, Hebrews 11:9,10,13 Genesis 23:4; 47:9; Lev 25:23; 1Chr 29:15, Ps 39:12; 119:19, 54

Charles Spurgeon once said,

“Satan always hates Christian fellowship; it is his policy to keep Christians apart. Anything which can divide saints from one another he delights in. He attaches far more importance to godly intercourse than we do. Since union is strength, he does his best to promote separation.”

Along those lines, we would love you to join us for Christian fellowship at our upcoming EA Christmas party on December 3rd, 4-7 pm in Sterling. And feel free to bring any friends interested in learning more about EA. Our in-country director, Carlos Pimentel, will be our special guest.

Click here to RSVP

Additionally, the EA team recently enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship via video conference with Pastor Robert Wauhop of Immanuel Bible Church of Valdosta, Georgia. Robert shared with our key leaders regarding his preparation for ministry and theological grounding at The Master’s Seminary, stressing the importance of emulating Ezra in devoting ourselves to the study, observance, and teaching of Scripture (Ezra 7:10). In addition to being a former youth ministry student of mine, Robert is also a fantastic example of someone whose love for and knowledge of Scripture epitomizes the following quote from 19th-century theologian Albert Barnes on Psalm 119:20,

“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 staff felt tremendously blessed by the experience, just as our annual Christmas gathering always proves to be a wonderfully encouraging experience for those who can attend.

Hope to see you there!

Mark your calendars for our upcoming Christmas Party on Sunday, December 3rd from 4-7pm in Sterling, Virginia, as we celebrate the season, praise the Lord for His gracious work over the past 11 years, and lift up 2024 to the Lord in prayer.

We will be joined by Carlos Pimentel (In-Country Director) from the Dominican Republic.

Please feel free to bring any friends who might be interested in learning more about Empowering Action.

Click here to RSVP.

By way of encouragement, I thought I’d pass along a few updates that Carlos relayed to me this week. When you support EA, this is the work you are enabling in serving Christ’s Church.

A historic meeting this week where plans were finalized for our team to travel to the neighboring island of Curacao to strengthen Dominican church leaders through our K2:42 Church Network Development program.

Regarding the recent tropical storm, our staff and their families are doing well and nothing wrong to report. We thank our Lord for His kindness and protection. Most of churches we work with are also doing well. The storm winds were low enough not to cause too much damage. We worry about the amount of rain and opportunity for flood in the rural and urban areas. So far the main destruction was made to the agriculture in the Southwest part of the country affecting the economy of a lot of poor farmers in that region.

There were about 514 families taken to schools and churches for spending the night for their protection, many lost many of their little things in the houses such as mattresses and beds. There are over 1.5 million residents without electricity and running water but this should be resolve within days.

Today we have a beautiful sunny day and everyone is returning to normal activities. Most people spent the last two days protecting themselves and their families.

We Praise God for His continue Care and Protection for the Dominican people.

Shalom,

Carlos Pimentel Sánchez
Country Director, Dominican Republic

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:1-2)

Today, perhaps more so than in recent history, we seem to have numerous high-profile individuals in evangelicalism “darkening counsel” by speaking “words without knowledge” in response to the prevailing cultural winds.

While we may be tempted to obfuscate to accommodate secular culture, Matthew Henry cautioned that ours is not to question God’s decrees and designs set forth in Scripture:

“We confound and perplex ourselves and one another when we dispute of the order of God’s decrees, and the designs, and reasons, and methods, of his operations of providence and grace. A humble faith and sincere obedience shall see further and better into the secret of the Lord than all the philosophy of the schools, and the searches of science.”

Concerning “words without knowledge,” theologian Albert Barnes cautioned,

“There is much of this kind of speaking in the world; much that is written, and much that fails from the lips in debate, in preaching, and in conversation, that explains nothing, and that even leaves the subject more perplexed than it was before. We see from this verse that God does not and cannot approve of such ‘words.’ If His friends speak, they should vindicate His government; they should at least express their conviction that He is right; they should aim to explain His doings, and to show to the world that they are reasonable. If they cannot do this, they should adore in silence.”

Friends, at this vital hour, seek out those who inspire confidence in the Almighty, explaining and vindicating His divine dealings.

Identify and avoid all others, regardless of their longevity or prominence.

And pray for EA in our efforts to hold fast to sound doctrine (2 Timothy 1:13-14).