Dear brothers and sisters,
Greetings to you in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It has been six months since I have returned to my local church after completing my seminary study in India. It is a great joy for me to have this privilege to serve God among my people. This is the desire God has placed in my heart. When I first decided to go to seminary in 2015, I prayed that I would be able to return to this place and serve Christ. Here I am. When I reflect on the goodness and faithfulness of God in my life, my heart sings with praises as Psalmist,
“Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! I will praise the Lord while I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.”
Psalms 146:1-2
This road has not always been easy. There have been difficulties and struggles, but the Lord has always been faithful to lift me up from worries to comfort. These words of Jesus always remain true,
“I am with you always, even to the end of the age”
Matthew 28:20
I praise God for preparing and equipping me to serve His people in this land of Nepal, and I am thankful to the Lord for His grace in allowing me to complete my seminary study. He truly used those days and years to build my understanding of His Word and taught me how to practice them in my life. The best thing I could say about my three years in seminary, is that I had opportunity to grow under sound teaching through the discipleship of godly men. Now that I’m back in Nepal, I am passing the things that I have been taught to others. In His grace, God has given me the privilege to teach the interns, along with some other men from different churches. Recently, we finished looking at church planting. Now, we are going to look at expository preaching from a New Testament narrative.
On September 30th October 2nd I had opportunity to minister to the HeartCry missionaries with Bro. Silas, as we held a HeartCry conference on the topic of
“Church Planting and Development.”
This was our outline for this training:
- Sufficiency of the Scriptures
- Understanding Biblical Church Planting
- True Gospel
- Evangelize
- Establish
- Equip
- Developing Biblical Leadership
We walked through the book of Acts in order to get an understanding of the model of church planting seen in the Apostle Paul. There was a worksheet that was given to each participant, which led to some great discussion sessions. Then we applied this teaching to our current situations and churches. We discussed the weaknesses, challenges, and important steps that need to be taken in order to see the church advance through the gospel in Nepal. I hope this type of discussion challenges us to be faithful in what we do, and how we do it.
I also praise God for His blessings in my life. It is my pleasure to announce my engagement to Asmita on the 18thof September. She is a member of the local church where Greg S. is serving. She loves the Lord and has a desire to serve Him. Currently, she is serving as a Sunday school teacher at the church, ministering the gospel to small children. I praise God for bringing her into my life. Our wedding has been set for November 21, 2018. May the Lord help us to seek and serve Him together in days to come.
Thank you for your support. I thank HeartCry for this opportunity to partner together for the advancing of the gospel in Nepal. Please do pray for me to stay faithful to the Lord as I serve Him among these people. I request that you would pray for my wedding- that it would be God-honoring and a opportunity to share the gospel to our unbelieving parents and relatives. Pray for our marriage, that the Lord would not only help us prepare for it, but that we would continue to grow in Him.
Thank you all for continuous prayers,
Doug
