Rod after reading your report I had to stop
and pray for you and your ministry around the world. You know my heart
is in all aspects of world evangelism and that includes all that Jesus would
have us to do to the least of these. God bless you and all your
team I look forward to the day that I can meet Joe as well. Love--
HP NM
We fellow Christians warriors appreciate
laborers in the field working for the kingdom like you wonderful
Christian soldiers....Your labor is not in vain in the Lord.. BB
TN
The first Gospel Presentation and Singing Fellowship was conducted
at Sarangani Provincial Jail on January 3, 2007 pm with 77 inmates
attending. A well-organized Provincial Jail in the entire Mindanao with a
very beautiful concrete Chapel donated by Smith's Foundation for Religious
activities, worship and Fellowship.
The ARM Team immersed one young people in ARM collapsible
Baptistry, 6:30 in the evening of January 7, 2007. After evening worship at
Aplaya Church.
After 11 years of detention for multiple murder in Maa City
Jail, Pastor Jojie Sabenorio -- who become preacher/coordinator of Bible
Study inside the jail -- was released from Jail and on January 10 visited
the ARM Team and offer Thanksgiving.
The team received a very encouraging support from
Mascarig Church of Christ, ANITAPAN, Mabini Comval Province. A small new
congregation established through the pioneering work of Bro. Melecio
Esperanza, active jail volunteer. It was a small amount
from peso box but challenging to us because of their concern for
Jail Ministry.
On January 12, The team were in Island Garden City of
Samal City Jail conducted Late Christmas for the Inmates. The Team Chairman
and wife attended Bible Sharing with the executives of Digos City on
January 14, at Mabini Ext. Digos during the 4th Anniversary of "The Jesus
Frague Children's Ministry." And have the opportunity to talk to them
the Purpose and Aim of ARM JAIL MINISTRIES through out the
World.
Six male Inmates accepted Christ at Panabo City Jail on
January 23 and ready for Baptism next Schedule. Bro. Jojie Sabenorio deliver a
great Message with a touching testimony at the Church of Christ in Aplaya
on January 28. After morning service the Team Baptized Benjie Bedia
brother of Ulyses Bedia in Collapsible Baptistry at Lapu-Lapu assisted by the
Church of Christ at Aplaya.
On January 29, 2007, the Team were in Tagum City Jail
conducting Bible Fellowship, Gift distribution as Late Chirstmas for the
Inmates and at the same time award Certificate of Recognition to Jail Senior
Inspector Peter D. Bonggat Sr., City Jail Warden.
On January 30, 2007 The Team Chairman signed the memorandum
of understanding (3 copies) for the opening of Jail Ministry in Maa
Jail for the year 2007.
Because of Him, Bro.
Ernesto O. Alocelja Phil. 4:13,19
Dear brethren in Christ,
I am so grateful to the Lord, as He called me
to be His son, to obey and to serve Him daily. It is so
great to have a purpose in life! His purposes in our lives
are so wonderful indeed! I rejoice as I have seen how the
Lord brings more sinners to His feet. Lives are being
changed completely on a daily basis!
With great joy in my heart, I share with you that we have a
total of 30,932 students in our Bible Correspondence School.
Most of them live in Spanish speaking countries, but some live in
Brazil,
Sweden, Germany, Italy, South
Korea, The Philippines,
Morocco, and
other. Each month, we register an average of 2,730 new
students.
- Also,
we have students in 50 jails, totaling 3,694 inmates who are studying the
Bible. Out of those inmates, 68 were set free in the year
2006.
-
We are
sharing God’s Word with six high schools, 8 universities, and we have two
hours of Bible Study broadcasting on a weekly basis. The
name of the radio station is Radio Chapultepec. This
radio station reaches 40 million people.
-
During
2006 God helped our ministry found 7 new churches. Two of
them are located in Cuba,
two in the State of Tlaxcala, and one in
each of the following Mexican States: Guerrero, Colima,
and Hidalgo. Besides, we
started 9 new mission fields.
-
On an
average, we are sending via Post Office, 4,815 courses a month.
This means a cost in postal stamps of between $2,857.14 and $3,819.00
dollars.
-
During
the year 2006, we handed out 58,500 tracts. We sent out
1,684 Biblias, 3,200 New Testaments, and 695 audio cassettes with God’s
teachings.
This is a short review of our activities for the year
2006. However, we did a lot more that would be too much to
share here. We visited different areas and parts of
Mexico to train church
leaders. We wrote other much needed Bible lessons,
encouragement letters, emails, and so on.
In the sacred name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for
your great support to this ministry. It is God’s
ministry. The changed lives are the other side of this
report. One day we will see the harvest when we get to the
presence of the Lord in Heaven. The Lord will repay you
because of your great efforts in your partnership with Him.
You are, indeed, saving your treasure in Heaven. God
owns this mission field! He will reward you at the right
time! For now, I am so thankful to you and I encourage you
to continue investing in Heaven, with us.
Even though we are impacting the Hispanic world with God’s Word,
there is a lot that needs to be done.
Mexico alone
is a huge country. From the 104 million peopel
Mexico has, only 7.2% really know
the Bible. Even, some people who claim to be evangelical do
not own a Bible. Besides, this country needs urgent help
concerning counseling, social assistance, and
evangelism.
Your brother in Christ
Jesus,
Alfredo José
Aparicio
1. IMMERSIONS.On Friday 12.01.2007 I had
the possibility to speak in front of a group of Moslems (Kurds and Turks),
discussing the 138-th verse of the 2nd chapter of the Quran. This verse
depicts the so called "sibhgat": "Such is the sibhgat of the God. Nothing is
better, than this sibhgat. And only to it we worship." Some scholars translate
this word as "the religion". But most part of the scientists say, that
"sibhgat" means "baptism", "immersion". E.g. academician Krachkowskiy (first
scientific translator of the Quran into Russian) writes, this word "is the
only mentioning of baptism in the Quran". The same opinion is of prof.
Porokhova (the author of the modern translation of the Quran into Russian; her
work was approved by Egyptian, Syrian, Emirates, and Russia Moslem
theologists, including the Ruling Board of the Moslems of Adygeya and
Krasnodar Territory). The understanding of the "sibhgat", as the "baptism", is
also confirmed by Dr. A.V. Polosin in his book "The Gospel by the eyes of a
Moslem" (the book is approved by the Moslem leaders of Russia; it was financed
by the famous Chechen family of Jabrailovs), who based his opinion on the book
of the Egyptian theologist prof. Daud - "Mohammed in the Bible". Thus,
we were discussing the "sibhgat" - "immersion", and that day the son of the
Kurdish Moslem mullah A. Tem-Ogly decided to be immersed. And he received the
immersion into the Name of Jesus Christ, indeed!
2. PRISONS. In January I had 7 visits to the
arrested persons in Krasnodar Territory prisons. I had also the meeting with
the advocate, who was working with the case of bro Krasnobryzhev (immersed by
me in 2005, and then put to the prison psychiatric asylum, as a "religious
maniac"). The 3-d Supreme Court ruling was received in this case: now they
decided to continue to keep Krasnobryzhew there. But the analysis of the
ruling showed, that the decision was invalid (because the side of
Krasnobryzhev was not represented with the necessary advocate). We continue to
pray to liberate our bro. In January we sent 400 envelopes with the
Gospel of Mark to our correspondents in prisons. This month I also
awarded with a special honourary diploma an aged Evangelical Christian D.A.
Maximyuk, who had been imprisoned and deportated for his faith during Soviet
era. All my visits were supported by two brethren of our chaplaincy, who
served the Lord with their private cars.
3. TURKS. On 17.01.07 two Turks - Meskhetians from
Abinsk (70 km S-W from Krasnodar) visited me to receive the New Testaments
(Incils) in Turkish. On 25.01.07 A.V. Nasyrov (his Islamic name is Shamil Haji
Hazrat), who is the leader of the Moslem community of Novorossiysk (the Black
Sea coast port, 150 km S-W from Krasnodar), came to me to discuss the
possibility of some mutual Spiritual and cultural projects. He said, the
Turkish consul in Novorossiysk was interested in such a possibility to
cooperate with ARM.
4. MISSION TRIPS. On 08 - 13.01.2007 I (in a
company of two else brethren of our chaplaincy) visited the village Kabardinka
(170 km S-W from Krasnodar, Black Sea coast), where we participated in the
seminar on the situation with ethnic and religious minorities in Krasnodar
Territory. There were the representatives of the Kurds, Kurmanches, Ezids,
Armenians, Turks, Khemshils, Tatars, etc. Three non-icon-worshipping Christian
groups were also present. I was the chairman of the Religious Freedoms section
during that seminar.
5. MEDITATION. During the seminar I confirmed once
more for myself, that, working with the Moslems, one must use the Quran, as
the testimony about Christ. Any discussion on different traditions is
counter-productive. But the discussions on Christ to be mentioned and
gloryfied (gloryfied, indeed!) in the Quran are very fruitful spiritually. And
superpowerful here is the mutual faith in the Doomsday, and in Jesus to be the
only Judge on the Day of Judgement!
6. DIVINE ACTION. During the named seminar I
and one else bro of our chaplaincy lived (as all the other 30 participants) in
a standard hotel room for two persons. But on the 2nd day I noticed, that we
had some door inside our room and an additional key in our key cluster. I
opened the door - it was rather a spacy room, where I could have our Religious
Freedoms section sessious, when it was necessary to be separate from the other
sections. Well, on Friday 12.01.07. Hassan Gurji-ogly (the Islamic sheikh of
the Kurdish tribe of Kurmanches) asked me to let him organize the Friday
Praying meeting for Moslems in our "Chamber of Secrets" because the
authorities hysterically tried to prohibit for those believers to have their
service in the hotel. Sure, I let them do this - and was invited to be a guest
(alongside with two other brethren of ours) at the Moslem Friday Prayer
meeting. It was the first time in my experience. Hassan led the meeting as the
imam; there were 9 Moslems (5 Kurmanches, 2 Ahiska Turks, 1 Khemshil, 1
Tatarian) at the meeting. Imam Hassan said a very interesting and fiery homily
about Jesus to come on the Doomsday to kill the satan with Spiritual sword. We
believe in this too, indeed! In the evening of that day I spoke about
"sibhgat" (watch "Immersions"), and the Kurdish man, who heard both the homily
about the Lord's Day and my homily about the immersion, came to be immersed.
The coincidence of some quite incredible chances was - for sure - the Divine
Action!
7. STUDENT WING. Our students took part in the
preparatory activity to organize a big all-Russia Christian students
conference in Saint-Petersburg. My daughter Nike was the coordinator of the
Krasnodar group of the students to go there.
8. PUBLIC RELATIONS. Some brethren of our
chaplaincy took part in the big meeting (about 1000 participants) in front of
the Krasnoar Territory governor residence on 21.01.2007. It was against the
attempts of the governor to confiscate land and houses in the Krasnodar city
center. E.g., the house of one of our chaplaincy contacts K.Yudin was
confiscated, when he was put by force in the psychiatric prison (one more
"religious maniac"); and this aged man, trying to return his property, died on
29.12.2006 from heart attack. The authorities continue the attempts to
confiscate and to demolish the praying house of the Evangelical Christian
Missionary Union (ECMU) of Russia. They also continued the pressure on our
private house, etc. Among the numerous slogans at that meeting one slogan was
painted by our chaplaincy contact Markevich (immersed by me in 2004): "Ye,
which oppress the poor, which crush the needy. The Lord God hath sworn by his
holyness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away
with hooks, and your posterity with fish-hooks." (Amos, 4:1-2).
9. REPRESSIONS. Two participants of the seminar,
depicted in "Mission Trips", declared, they were the victims of the attempt to
be poisoned. The ECMU informed us, that their youth pastor was arrested with
the false accusations. During the night from 12 to 13.01.2007 the house of
Hassan Gurji-ogly (where that time two pregnant women and 4 non-adult children
were) in the mountains of the Apsheronsk district was twicely shot with the
counter-infantry grenade-launcher. On 15.01.2001 Hassan's 19-year old son
Osman and his non-adult cousin Suleiman disappeared. We are praying now for
them to be alive. During the week from 14 to 21.01.2007 4 armed attacks took
place against the inhabitants of the house, where the flat of our bro
Novozhilov (the free-lance "Radio Liberty" correspondent in Krasnodar) was
situated, and of the neighbour house. Among this attacks was the attack on the
student-girl, who studied foreign languages with the help of Novozhilov. Under
the threat of a pistol she was robbed and lost her mobile phone, money,
documents. Novozhilov thinks, these crimes were the attempts to isolate him
from his contacts. I visited him on 21.01.2007 to watch over the
situation.
10. SUPPORT. We received the December support through Max
Goins system OK. We also received the parcels with the support from pastor G.
Leiser (Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany) and from our chaplaincy Moscow branch (my
sister Nathaly Koff). We received also the very kind e-mails from Joe Garman
and Rod Farthing, and the letters from prof. T.W. Hunt (USA) and Cezary
Zimniewsky (Poznan, Poland).
In Jesus our hope! Sincerely, DOM ARM
chaplain, Nicholas E. Alyoshin