Missionary Scrapbook
From Our President: November 2016
In a recent missions conference a young lady said, “I believe the Lord is leading me into something, and I think it is missions. I am afraid!” I attempted to assure her that this fear was coming from somewhere other than the Lord. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) A couple of days later she openly confessed that the Lord had indeed called her to missions work, and that she had surrendered to His calling.
It would be impossible for me to answer for everyone else, but I can speak for myself and I readily confess that there have been times when I made a step of faith with a bit of anxiety. Was this uneasiness created by the world, the devil, or my flesh? I cannot conclusively say, but probably from my own flesh. I can conclude that it did not originate with the Lord.
What does the Lord give us? Power to face whatever is in our path. Timothy undoubtedly had seen his share of persecution and perhaps had endured a measure of it himself. Paul is writing to him, and there is no question that he had known more than a normal share of persecution against him and his ministry. So now he encourages Timothy to lean on the Lord for power to overcome.
The Lord also gives us the spirit of love. The ability to put God and others before ourselves. This certainly is not natural for the flesh. Under most circumstances we will opt to satisfy our own fleshly desires before thinking of anyone else. However, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts has changed us. Through Him we are capable of loving the unlovely. Through Him we are enabled to love those who are against what we are doing in the service of the Lord.
Then Paul reminds Timothy that the Lord has also given him the spirit of a sound mind. His mind must be disciplined. He must focus on the power of God and not on his fear of the power of the persecutors. Any reasonable person is concerned about the hardships of life, but we cannot afford to be paralyzed by them. We must bring our thoughts into the captivity of Christ while pressing forward with what we know He wants us to accomplish.
Draw near to God where fears dissipate and power, love, and a sound mind originate. I pray that the Lord will give you a blessed and fruitful month in His service. We must continue to press forward until we are called up to meet our Lord in the air.
In His Service,
Danny A. Whetstone
Prayer & Dates: November 2016
November Prayer/Praises and Special Dates
Click the link above to download a PDF of prayer requests and praises as well as the birthdays and anniversaries for November. Note: You will need to login to SecureCloud in order to view this document. Once you have logged in, click on Files, Shared, then Headquarter Happenings, then scroll to the month you would like to view. This step protects people with WWNTBM in restricted access fields.
From the Memo Board: November 2016
Dates to Know
November 4 – Revised pay date for those who normally receive funds on the 5th.
November 11 – All US Banks will be closed.
November 21 – Please contact us by this date if you will need funds in your account before Thanksgiving.
November 24-25 – The Office will be closed in celebration of Thanksgiving.
December 2 – Revised pay date for those who normally receive funds on the 29th.
December 9 – Revised pay date for those who normally receive funds on the 10th.
December 9 – All prayer letters should be submitted to our staff in order for your recipients to get them before Christmas.
December 16 – Please contact us by this date if you will need funds in your account before Christmas or the end of the year.
December 21-28 – The Office will be closed in celebration of Christmas.
January 1 – November financial reports will be due.
January 9 – Missionaries will receive their emailed statements of December Support Received.
January 11 – All missionaries will receive their final December support on this day, regardless of the day they normally receive support.
January 16 – December financial reports will be due, along with any remaining receipts or financial paperwork for 2016.
New Associate Missionaries
Seth and Kaitlin Folkers have been accepted with World Wide as our newest associate missionaries. They will be going to Cameroon next spring for a year long internship as part of his education through Baptist Theological Seminary. They would eventually like to serve full-time in an African country. The Folkers are sent out of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Box Elder, SD, with Pastor Ken Schultz. Pray for this young couple as they raise support and make preparations to move to Cameroon.
Christmas Prayer Letter Services
If the Office processes your prayer letters, please be sure to send your letter by December 9th for your recipients to receive it by Christmas. Letters received after December 14th will not be processed until January 2nd. Year-end procedures may cause slower letter processing times in January. Please plan the timing of your letters accordingly. Thank you!
Featured Article: Witnesses!
“Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. . . . But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Isaiah 43:10, Acts 1:8)
How beautifully the Holy Spirit weaves His themes in and out of Scripture, causing them to emerge in different centuries of the sacred story, each time according to His wise purpose.
The wording of Isaiah’s verse is so close to that of Acts 1:8 that there can be little question about their being close spiritual cousins. The exact details are different but the living thrust of both passages is a divine mission for every true believer in God.
We are to be His witnesses. For the people listening to the prophet, the message was to boldly display the solid case for His eternal Being. They were to show off the perfect trail of prophecy. Since forming the nation, Jehovah had sent Israel a continuous stream of fulfilled prophecies, spanning everything from international politics to personal blessings. The evidence was irrefutable.
In comparison, the argument for any idol of any nation of the world was ludicrous. Various times throughout the book, Isaiah pokes fun at the whole idea of manmade images and the utter absurdity of them being able to foretell anything.
Centuries later Doctor Luke recorded the precise last words of Christ before His ascension. Surely he knew that anyone familiar with Isaiah’s writings would quickly make the connection. The charge was pretty much the same, only here in the New Testament the grace of Jesus and the goal of worldwide evangelism were more clearly seen.
All of the redeemed were now officially called to join the witness stand. The followers of Jesus were to share the overwhelming testimony of His life and identity as Savior of the world.
However, the courtroom was not a specific building or place. It was much larger than that. It was the entire earth! Christians were to scatter to every corner of the globe to witness of the greatest truth mankind could ever know.
As back in Isaiah’s time, these godly people had a thick dossier of proofs. Miracle after miracle, fulfillment after fulfillment, many visual confirmations of His resurrection . . . all stacked up to certify Him as the One and only Messiah.
Perhaps the astonishing question for all of us should be: Why does God even stoop to give us this honor? I really don’t think we could understand the full answer.
We have no inherent right to be such royal ambassadors. We are mere clay, completely unworthy of having the divine image imprinted on our souls or being selected to represent the invisible Lord before a lost world.
But in His amazing grace, the King has chosen us to tell each generation that He was, and is, and always will be. We are living monuments of His love, and are expected to share with any soul who will listen, that He is God.
Dear Father, very often I have been silent about You, both in actions and speech. For many around me, I may be the closest one in Your family they will ever meet. Please help me hold the banner high and boldly show them that You are the true God, and that You came to die for their redemption. Amen.