Mission Partner Highlight | The Gideons International

During his early teens, Anthony Payton chased after drugs in hopes of filling a void left in his heart. He would get paid for the drugs he was trafficking and then use the money to support his own addiction, a habit that landed him in jail.

He began attending a bible study led by a Gideon, who would often visit the jail. Anthony developed a relationship with the Gideon, and he would listen to the message of God's word week after week. During one of his visits, the Gideon pulled out a New Testament and shared a series of passages with Anthony. There in that jailhouse, Anthony prayed to receive Jesus Christ. Today, he serves as a pastor leading others to wholeheartedly reach people for the Lord.

Apostles provides financial support to the Gideons who use 100% of the funds to purchase and ship scriptures all over the world. All overhead/administrative costs are paid by the Gideons themselves.  Our church also has a Gideoncard display in the upstairs lobby. There you can donate bibles in memory of a loved one, in honor of someone you want to remember, or to simply say "Thank you" or "I'm praying for you" to someone. 

You can get much more information about how the Lord is using the Gideons: gideons.org

Out Of Idleness: Post-Sabbatical Note from Rev Eric Bolash

Out Of Idleness
Post-Sabbatical Note from Rev Eric Bolash

I’m back! It wasn’t easy setting the alarm for that first Monday morning, but I came in to a “decorated” office as my welcome back from sabbatical. 

I realize it’s been an exceptionally eventful summer for our church. That’s putting it mildly. Although I haven’t been here, I know it’s been difficult. As I return, I am ready and want to be available to walk further with everyone through this time. Call or email if you’d like to get together. I’m eager to listen. 

My time away was restful. The Bolash family had great adventures in Iceland, London and Scotland. A few highlights:

● We met some spirited Icelandic teenagers in a store called Reykjavik Records
● We saw Shakespeare’s A Comedy Of Errors at The Globe
● We tried Haggis in Scotland--which I do not recommend
● We saw Nessie at Loch Ness--I can show you the photo
● Robin and I stayed in an 11th-century Scottish castle
● Robin and I spent several peaceful days in a quiet Scottish fishing village by the sea

Otherwise, as much as I could during the last two months, I have woken up in the mornings, made coffee, had breakfast and then gone out to a quiet spot to read Scripture, pray, walk, read poetry and write poetry. The Lord brought refreshment through the time.

The above title, “Out Of Idleness,” is a phrase from Herman Melville’s novel, Moby Dick. In the novel, Captain Ahab roars his command at the sailors to “split your lungs with blood and thunder” as they pursue the white whale. Meanwhile, in contrast, the harpoonist sits nearby, completely still, quietly waiting. From the book: “To ensure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpoonists of the world must start to their feet out of idleness and not out of toil.” Author and pastor Eugene Peterson points out that the harpoonist appears unproductive. But this is only so that when the right moment comes, he is rested and ready for his unique task. 

So, being away allowed some time for idleness. That was a big theme. All of us as Christians need idleness. We need sabbath. Jesus said sabbath was created for us, as a gift to us. In it, we learn that God is always at work. Sometimes he invites us into his work. Sometimes he rests us so that we are again ready for work.

Below you’ll find a sampling from the poems I penned during the time away. I learned that writing decent poetry is harder than it looks. Some of mine was pretty terrible! But the use of words to communicate spiritual truth is an important part of pastoring, so it was a valuable component of my time away. 

Out of Idleness ~ Poems From Sabbatical

I am looking forward to seeing everyone again in worship and joining with you in God’s work in and through this church body.

In Christ,
Eric

Greetings From Gikomero! ~ Church Building Update

The progress on the church construction is moving forward partially due to the $12,000 gift from the Apostles Rwanda Fund.  The government several months ago told the parish that they needed to complete the construction by the end of July or risk the old building (still out of building conformance) being also closed.  The government has witnessed the progress and is not planning to take any such action now that the new building is moving forward so well.  Praise!  Much of the work is done by members of the congregation - the money is mainly for materials and some special sub contractors.

Words below from Marcel Sebahire at the Shyogwe Diocese and good friend of Apostles:

Greetings from Gikomero, your sister church.

We are very excited to share with you about the construction progress that we have done so far.

1. We have finished elevating the walls: The walls are now elevated and well finished;

2. We are done with plastering: The inside walls are all plastered;

3. We have put/installed all doors and windows;

4. We have installed the electrical wires: The rest is to connect the lambs and connect the church electricity system to the public grid;

5. We have finished digging the toilet pits: We are seeing how to construct the toilet building;

6. We have done outside finishing activities for all doors and windows

WHAT IS BEING DONE RIGHT NOW?

1. We are laying stones for pavement with cement

2. We are building the front (altar) and we will continue with tiling.

3. We are putting metal tubes in the two up-sides of the church building where the glasses will be installed.

Guatemala Team ~ June 21, 2019

Receiving a Partnership Certificate for the Church of Apostles from Potter’s House.

Guatemala Team 
Having returned yesterday to Guatemala City from our work in Chiquimula, our morning began with a short drive to Potters House. The ministry, now 33 years old, is a beacon of Light in its neighborhood, adjacent to the city dump. Meeting the staff and seeing the well-established programs and the medical clinic encouraged me to pray and believe God will accomplish the same at the Potters House satellite in Chiquimula.

After our tour, the team had the privilege of walking the neighborhood. We were welcomed into the homes of some of the Potter’s House families, where joyful, tearful reunions of Guatemalans with team members who had worked with the families on prior trips occurred! Before leaving each home, we gathered around and prayed together for them.

We finished our time in Guatemala by traveling to Antigua Friday afternoon. We enjoyed leisure time in this beautiful city.  Active, smoking volcanoes sit on the very near horizon. We leave Guatemala early Saturday morning (alarms set for 3 AM!) with renewed love and gratitude for our Lord’s heart for our brothers and sisters in this beautiful country.  We will look forward to our return next year. Our hope and prayer is that others from Apostles will join us. It’s a privilege, not to be missed. Adios!

Christo vive,
Susanne Berger

Guatemala Team ~ June 20, 2019

A view from the future site of the Potter’s House Expansion Field Office in Chiquimula, Guatemala. 

Team One 
“Team Avery” had an awesome final day at Casa de Jeronimo. We did final touch-up work on the hygiene unit and installed the high efficiency stove. Better than that, we had the opportunity to dedicate the unit to Rosa, Leonardo, Francisco, Esperanza, and all the other precious family members in the name of Jesus Christ. We prayed together and said tearful goodbyes thanking God for each other and for our time together.

It’s remarkable how quickly time can pass, especially when you are working, joking, and enjoying life together with some very special friends you met just a few days before. The bonds we share in Christ have such an amazing way of instantly cutting through differences in culture, ethnicity, economic status, and language. We are all equal at the foot of the Cross of Christ, and this week was an incredible demonstration of this.

Thanks so much to Avery, Patrick, Ethan, and the Potter’s House staff of Josue’, Annbella, Monica, Jose’, Carlos, and all who made our time in Chiquimula so special. You are all treasures in the eyes of God, and I am so grateful to have had the privilege to spend the week with you. To God by the glory, great things He hath done!

~John Rustin

Team Two
This morning, our last day in Chiquimula, our team arrived at the Escalante’s home, feeling more and more like family.  We spent the morning installing a stove, which comprises one quarter of the new integrated hygiene unit and touching up the painting we did on the unit the past 2 days.  

There was less work than the prior 3 days here, as we only had a couple of hours in the morning before making the trek back to Guatemala City.  As we finished our work, we were able to spend some time with Amelida and her father, Marcel, who has been working alongside us all week. We ended our time together, praying for each other and enjoying the sweet fellowship that has developed between our team and these fellow believers so many miles from Raleigh and in such a different culture and situation, with the confidence we have in our Lord that we will have the opportunity to rejoice together for eternity as the Lord makes all things new.  (Rev. 21:5).  

~Bruce Berger 

Guatemala Team ~ June 19, 2019

Medical Team
Today we went to another neighborhood, outside of Chiquimula a bit, and put on a clinic there. A highlight was working with several earnest Guatemalan medical students who worked up patients and presented them to Farr. There is much to say, but a prominent theme was how much loss people have suffered. Multiple patients had lost children, including a woman whose one year old daughter died of a febrile illness last year, and a woman whose daughter was sent to jail three months ago. The people are carrying so much suffering in their bodies. A highlight was meeting a 74 year old man who has worked in the field since he was twelve years old and listening to him testify about how God has provided for him and his children all of his life, even as they have been incredibly poor by any standard. He spoke directly to the medical students about committing their ways to the Lord, and seeing that he will give them the life they long for. Amazing. We spoke about how we might have been attending to angels unawares. Finally, we saw painfully how little access people have to the healthcare they need. For example, the last patient was a 25 year old woman—the one whose daughter died last year—and she had a problem with uterine bleeding. She needs a careful gynecological evaluation, but to get that will cost her maybe a month’s income (~$200). So it won’t happen unless God works a miracle. We are praying for that and hoping to bring Stacy Boulton with us next time!

~ Farr Curlin

Team One

Today during our time at the work site, we painted the hygiene station in the baking heat. While we were painting the station, we were able to experience the effects of God’s work in our lives and how it is expressed through others. We were able to pray with the family, lead by Avery, for God’s will to be done in their lives as well as ours. The will of God was shown through the gratefulness of the Jeronimo family and the work we have put in to the hygiene station by being the hands and feet of God. We are very grateful for the work we are able to do in our short time here and to experience the love of God and how he shows us how much he provides for us and our brothers and sisters in Christ when we are in need.

~ Ethan Morales


Team Two
Today was the final day of all-day-long construction in Chiquimula.  We had a sweet time of fellowship with Amelida’s family and continued encouraging them that the Lord is good and He will continue to provide all they need.  If you are getting our updates, please pray for our friends here, that they would receive rain. We also pray for Amelida’s husband Hugo, who is not a believer.

We worked hard and today was really hot, but Jesus sustained us physically and kept us all healthy. I hope these pictures convey the fact that the relationships we have developed with this family are really precious, as well as the fact that the hygiene stations we have had the privilege to help build are really cool. (They have a sink, place to wash, a shower, and toilet.)  Tomorrow, we will assemble the stoves and finish touching up the final details.  We are all pretty exhausted, but very encouraged. 

The Potter’s House staff are so fabulous;  they love the Lord with all their hearts and love their neighbors fiercely.  It’s been such an encouragement and challenge for us to be here.  Their witness and the sacrifices they make daily make us want to be better neighbors when we get back to Raleigh.

~ Sarah Alexander

Guatemala Team ~ June 18, 2019

Medical Team
This morning Susanne and Farr saw 10 more patients. Again the predominant complaints are pain in the back, shoulders, knees, and feet, as well as trouble with digestion and stomach pain. We met a young woman who seemed to have a more serious form of peptic ulcer disease. She had lost 20+ pounds from loss of appetite, and she was the thinnest person we have seen in these two days. Please pray for her for healing. Farr treated her empirically for a type of infection that is common with peptic ulcer disease, but we of course do not have the means to confirm that that is what she has. that reminds me that yesterday we were able to get a telemedicine consult from Carrie Alspaugh for a skin condition. That was pretty cool. Thanks Carrie! We were confronted again by how much we depend, both as patients and as healers, on God‘s healing. It’s a miracle that our bodies heal at all, and we are praying for each of our patients that God will bring the healing that they need.

~ Farr Curlin

Team One
Hola from Guatemala! Day two with the family of Amelida in Chiquimula saw us mixing cement for the floor of the Hygiene Unit. I never saw myself as a concrete mixer but I was rocking it! (Sarah Alexander said I could write that). The Hygiene Unit is coming along beautifully, especially with the oversight of our two master masons, Ephraim and Senor Marcel. We finished early so were able to sit together with Amelida (mother), her sister, her eight month old daughter Jasmine, our team, our translators and the masons.  

We entered into a time of prayer beginning with our team reading scriptures that the Lord laid on our hearts. As Amelida followed in her Bible, I realized that she was treasuring every word of scripture. Please read Isaiah 40:11 and Psalm 1:1-3. She truly embodies these verses as she and her home, and tiny piece of property are “like a tree planted by streams of water that bears it’s fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.” She “gently leads her young.” What a joy it is to watch her. We truly enjoyed talking with her, except for the times the rooster in her house drowned out our voices with his crowing!  But, seriously, I have two short prayer requests from this family: Amelida would love for you to pray that her husband would begin to attend church. The grandfather, Senor Marcel, asks for rain because his crops are drying up.  

Later in the day, we went to a little section of town called “Los Engeneros.” Potter’s House makes inroads into a community by engaging in prayer walks. On these walks they visit individual families, pray with them, and give them a very full bag of groceries. We were on a team that visited four out of eight families scheduled for today. One of the families, that truly impressed us, was headed up by a grandfather and his wife who were married at age 16 and 13. They are now 81 and 78 years old! They clearly love the Lord, the Bible, and their family. They make their living by gathering recyclables in the Chiquimula dump. During the visits we prayed for three babies with coughs and gastrointestinal issues. Lack of access to water is a real problem for this community. All their wells are dry. One of the grandfathers in one family is a pastor. Farr asked him to pray for us and he laid his hands on each and every one of us. We were truly touched.

To God be the glory! 

~ Susan Dominguez

Team Two
Dona Rosa’s extended family had turned on her. Close relatives had been trying to steal the rights to her family’s property. As a single mother and grandmother, her situation was troubling. By the grace of God she was able to sell her property and move her family to another home further away. The situation shook her faith and, according to the workers at Potter’s House, was not sure if she could fully trust God. Thankfully, the staff at Potter’s House have been faithfully building a relationship with Dona Rosa, her son and daughters, and their spouses and children, all of whom live in her new home. Before we arrived they had installed the structure for a complete hygiene unit that provides clean water, a shower, a toilet, and a sink and stove for cooking. Our team worked with hired masons to plaster walls, and pour concrete floors for that unit. By the end of the week, we will paint the walls and install a working stove.

While the work has been good, building the relationship has been more important. The Potter’s House staff asked us to share the gospel with the family and I was able to share from our morning devotion, in which Jesus declares that he has come to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy to preach good news to the poor. Jesus’ preaching in his home town that day caused a furious reaction in which neighbors he had grown up with tried to throw him off a cliff. You could see the light dawning on Dona Rosa’s face as she realized that Jesus knew what it was like to have people who should have loved him, instead, reject him. She nodded as I explained that he is familiar with our sufferings and that he came to invite us into a family led by our Heavenly Father, who will never reject us. I led them in a simple prayer before we set to work again. I can’t say what took place in their hearts that day but the staff were very encouraged that this family has become more and more convinced of God’s love for them. Now, they have a very physical reminder, as they will be able to enjoy the benefits of a practical and vital hygiene unit.

Grateful for God’s immense love for the nations,

~ Patrick Dominguez