|
|
| -Rapha News |
| -Thailand Report |
| -Mexico Report |
| -ARM FAST FACT |
| -Readers Write! |
| -Russia Report |
| -Philippines Report |
| -Contact Info |
|
|
|
|
|
For more information, check out our web sites:
|
|
|
|
|
| As Development Director, I'm visiting a lot of churches in the Midwest! We have a video/PowerPoint presentation that will inform, encourage, and promote evangelism in your church. |
| If you would like an ARM presentation for your whole church-- or a group within it-- please inquire by reply or call 573-729-6355. We are now scheduling late 2007 and 2008. Thanks again for all your prayers, support, and encouragement! |
| -- Rod |
|
|
|
|
| To contact our Joplin office about receiving supplies and resources, please email info@arm.org, call 1-800-CALL-ARM, or write to PO Box 1490, Joplin, MO 64802. |
|
|
|
|
| To contact ARM about aiding in the funding of supplies and resources, please email rodfar@arm.org, call 1-573-729-6355, or write to Rt. 5 Box 159, Salem, MO 65560. |
|
|
Branch Ministry Reports from Around the Globe
August 2007 Update
In His Service,
Rod Farthing, National Development Director
American Rehabilitation Ministries' Rapha House has 64 girls in its care: 54 girls at the center and 10 girls at the Half way Home for reintegration.
Activities in this past 30 days include the work of Stephanie Freed and the team from the United States. They helped in staff development -- such as counseling for children, self defense for security guards and the girls, a Bible study about the cross for all staff and girls, and leadership training. It was a big help for their spiritual growth.
The new building is about 80% complete; it should be finished by September. Here is a new picture showing the 15-month old building and the new one:
Family agriculture is one important concept to teach the girls because most of them are from the rural area. This month we train and let them practice on rice planting and how to take care of it; fish raising and how to take care of it, vegetable planting and how to take care of it. The agriculture man had much experience on this field to teach the girls and their parents related to agriculture. The building of the oven for steaming the mushroom was finished; we hope that the mushroom we produce well. We will update this project in the next report.
Daughters of Ruth Home: We now have 26 girls living at the house but can accommodate only 22 girls so some girls have to sleep in the same bed. Let us pray for our new house. One of our girls goes for training in a sewing factory from Monday to Friday and she goes to school on Saturday. In this month, one woman who was of the ex-prisoners comes to live with us for 4 weeks as she was looking for a job. Now she is working in a factory. There is also a prisoner's wife with a three-year old daughter who came to stay with us for four weeks. We helped her find a job in a department store. Now she can earn her living normally. We went to visit one woman ex-prisoner who is a foreigner. She is going to be expelled out of the country. Her husband is a European, so she cried and was very upset that she was going to leave her husband. We pray for her and ask God to protect her wherever she leaves and that she is safe.
Our main problem now is that we used to have the service to worship God every night but we sang the songs loudly and this disturbed our neighbors so much that they came to ask us to please sing the songs more softly. Now we have the service to worship God only on Friday and Saturday night only and we have to keep our voice low. For other nights, we pray quietly. (This is the reason why we would like to have our own house in which to worship God).
New Congregation: The place where we worship God seems too small. We are praying for a new and bigger place.
Report From Alfredo José Aparicio
My dear friends in the Lord Jesus Christ,
I am so happy to help in the Work of our Lord Almighty. His Field and Work is so great and It has so many different areas of ministry. We are reaching people with a Master and Doctorate degree, but also people who can hardly read or write. Also, the Gospel we share is impacting children and elderly up to 90 years old.
Even though our ministry is mostly done through the mail or postal system, we have counseling sessions with Christians as well as non-believers. Our person-to-person ministry has impacted many Christian leaders also. During July we had counseling sessions with 43 different Christian leaders and their churches, as they needed help in the areas of worshipping, doctrine, membership struggles, how to teach the Bible, how to preach, stewardship, evangelism, weddings, and so on.
We had 54 baptisms, 72 people got their diplomas because they graduated from our Basic Lessons, and 28 people graduated from our Advanced Courses. Even, my eyes bring up tears due to so much work, but my strength recovers to see the great results in the Lord's Work. I am satisfied to see that 22 of our students were released from prison; 62 other were released on parole. This was so due to their good conduct now that they are studying the Bible. In 17 of these jails we continue helping people with alcohol, drugs, and other social problems, as they need to regain their social status once more. Families are impressed with the work we are accomplishing inside jails, as they see their relatives changed for good. God has blessed us with changed lives, for His honor and glory.
This month, 2,712 people registered in our Basic Course. We have around 100 new students every day, who come from all the different countries around the world where Spanish is spoken. This is why our workload is getting bigger and bigger. We need more resources to continue operating. We need to print more of our literature, we need Bibles, and we need more hands to help in the office. The Bibles we need are the pocket size ones, as we have to send them via postal service. I am requesting God and you to help us in this regard. Perhaps you could afford to pray and pay for Bibles. Very recently, one day I was walking near a dumpster and to my surprise I found a sealed box full of brand new Testaments. I went ahead and sent the to our Bible students in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Malabo (Equatorial Guinea), Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela, Uruguay, and used some here in Mexico as well. Before we send a Bible, we make sure that person does not have one.
We have eight huge jails in Mexico City. Also, there is an Army Jail. In the one called Reclusorio Oriente we have 272 Bible students, but all the inmates are a total of 10,400 people.
Let me share with you a letter from one of our Bible Correspondence Students.
"Dear people at the Bible Correspondence School, I am writing from a city called Bata in Equatorial Guinea. Most people living here are Roman Catholic, but I did not know there was a book that pointed us to God except when I knew about you. I am so grateful to you, as you are opening my eyes now and I understand God better. I know that God wants us to live in peace with Him and with our fellow men. My eyes are open now. Please do me a favor. We are not free to have a Bible in our hands, where I live. But, I wish to have some of them. I meet with my friends and I share with them that I am learning about God and the Bible. We go through your lessons together, but we lack Bibles. We spend hours talking about God. Also, please send me more lessons at one time so that I may advance faster in my studies. The local authorities and the Catholic Church have not opened your mail and packages sent to me as they think I am studying in a University due to the name of your Bible Correspondence School. They have no idea what I am studying. If they knew, all my mail would be kept by them. So, when you do send me the Bibles just write books on the package. I am so happy now, and I look forward to the day when I get the Bibles. Be assured that I will use them to teach It and to share with my friends..." Arsenio Nguema Oló.
Precious brethren, please help us pray for:
- 5000 pocket size Bibles
- We need a person to help us check and work on all issues related to our web page. This same person would be in charge of our Christian literature on the net. We need to pay a salary of $1,000.00 to this person.
- Wee need more office space, as we are very crowded right now.
- Our copier machines are very old and break down often. Even though the technicians have repaired them, the copies come out so dim and bad. We have to make around 450 copies every day.
- Also, one of our computers is giving us lots of problems. Its hard drive has been formatted many times, but without luck. This is an eight years old computer.
- Even though our office staff should work only eight hours a day, they are here up to ten. Please help us pray for the mother of Genoveva Alanís Pérez, as she has diabetes. Genoveva suffers from strong bone pain, but she is eager to do her work no matter what. The Lord's Work is so important and we need to do it speedily. Genoveva shows a great spiritual health.
I am so grateful to the Lord, as He has provided many partners in His ministry. We are more of a huge and extraordinary family, both in the US and in Mexico. This allows me to jump from my seat and say, "God is so good to all of us!"
Yours in Christ Jesus,
Alfredo José AparicioBack to top
American Bible Academy Update
May/June 2007 Summary
3,108 courses were sent to NEW ENROLLEES!
3,462 courses were sent to UPPER CLASSMEN!
6,570 total courses were sent to prisoners!
Rod, I am blessed to read about how the Lord is using ARM to reach brethren around the world passing on God's word. I am praying for your ministry and you. In these in times the enemy has taken on many forms to win souls. As a former inmate I personally have seen it. In His Service, TLO
You can see these courses for yourself at
Back to top
Rod, Thanks for the update, I showed the pictures of the girls from Rapha House to our high school students....they were so impressed as they had helped to contribute some $$ to this mission. KC, IL
Back to top
Report From Dr. Nicholas E. Alyoshin
On 08.07.2007 in Simferopol (Crimea, Ukrain) I found a non-profit, non-government organization, which, may be, would be able to become the basis to spread the ARM activity in Crimea.
3. MOSLEMS.On the 08.07.2007 I was invited to preach in the church of Sergei Golovin in Simferopol (Crimea, Ukrain) - "The Simferopol Christian Church". I spoke on Ps. 68:13 ("though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold"). After the homily and the service end many people (and among them the Crimea Tatars) came to me and said: "We have been preaching Christ to the Crimea Tatars for eight years with the help of your sermons!" It appeared, that they have some my homilies on the video-discs, produced by S. Golovin studio; and they use those discs during their preaching! And I has been told about this for the first time. Indeed, "Thou didst terrible things, which we looked not for.." (Is., 64:3). In Crimea I gave some books (including "Leon the Isaurian", "The Land of Adygs", the ARM-booklet, etc.) to the Crimean Tatars national library, named after Ismail-bey Gasparali. I received the special honorary letter of Thanks, signed by that library director A.R. Emirov.
On 13.07.07 and 24.07.07 I took part in two big meetings with the Ahiska Turks in Krasnodar (the high rank officers of the police, court, prosecutor office, etc. were also present). I spoke at both meetings and spread there a number of the New Testaments in Turkish among the Turks. During the meetings the figures were publicly declared: 34 000 Ahiska Turks had asked for the asylum in USA since 2003; 23 000 of them had received it; 12 000 of them were the settlers of the Krasnodar Territory; 4 000 of them were not citizens of Russia.
In Jesus our hope! Sincerely, N.E. Alyoshin--DOM ARM chaplain, prof., etc.
Report From Ernesto Alocelja
On July 8, 2007 Carlene Mae Mansueto was baptized and is now very active leader of freshmen class at Mindanao College and Seminary.
The team have a warm gospel Fellowship at General Santos City female dormitory and GSC Jail on July 18, 2007 and conducted a feeding program for them.
On July 21, 2007 the team conducted follow-up for Domingo Escobar Family, The Prahinog Family and the Guarin Family. They were very active volunteers and supportive of the team.
On July 22, the team conducted special day seminar on Church discipline at Tacul, Magsaysay Davao del Sur. During that time 2 young people accepted Christ.
At about 5:00pm the team conducted funeral service at Barayong, Magsaysay.
On July 24, the team conducted a lively Gospel Fellowship at Maa City Jail.
On July 28 we conducted one-on-one livelihood seminar at Carmen. At about 10:30 am we officiated at the wedding ceremony at El Fernando Resto bar in Carmen Cotabato.
On July 29, officiate a Committal service for Vergilio Calle at Bansalan Public Cemetery.
On July 31, the team were in Davao City Jail for regular services with the inmates.
Back to top
Rod Farthing, ARM National Development Director rodfar@arm.org
Rt. 5 Box 159, Salem, MO 65560 -- Home 573-729-6355
Check out our web sites:
www.arm.org
www.abarc.org
www.raphahouse.org