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Want an ARM multimedia presentation in your
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encourage, and promote evangelism in your church. |
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a group within it-- please inquire by reply or call 573-729-6355. We
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| -- Rod |
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ARM Prison Outreach International
Branch Ministry Reports
November
2009 Update
This is a
baptism in the Philippines using
one
of ARM's portable baptistries.
Below is a report from our
Philippines team
and information on our
mission baptistries.
About
ARM's Branch
Report
NOTE: To
unsubscribe from Branch Reports, just reply with "no branch" in the body
of the email.
These summaries
from the leaders of ARM's foreign branch ministries are intended to
encourage the reader and stimulate prayer. Note the "Quick Link" menu to
the left; it will aid in navigating DIRECTLY to the article you choose.
Feel free to be a selective reader; should you have interest in only one
or two of these reports, you can easily select those reports from the
"Quick Link" menu. If you want a printable "plain text" version, just
reply and tell us! Also, you can find archives of ARM's worldwide branch
ministries at
Back to top
ARM's Rapha
House
Homes for
Girls in SE Asia
IMPORTANT NOTE: With the wonderful growth
of the work at Rapha, we will once again be including updates in this
foreign report! However, be advised that due to the sensitive nature
of our work, there will be no photos of the girls or details that could
compromise security. Thanks for understanding.
Sometime back, Stephanie Freed
was privileged to participate in a graduation ceremony for some of our
Rapha girls. These girls had finished their time at our safe
house and were moving into our half way house which is operated through
the Rapha House Freedom Foundation. In this second phase of our ministry,
the girls continue their education and vocational training while learning
independent living skills. These opportunities minimize the
possibility that the girls will be trafficked again, and lessen the
dependency on potentially harmful families. Here is what Stephanie
said about this special experience:
As we opened the graduation ceremony, I addressed the girls on your
behalf. My words to them were simple and heart felt. “I am so
proud of you,” I said. “When I look at you, I see beautiful young
women. I see smart and talented young women. I see young women
who will change Cambodia and the world.”
Before Kerry Decker passed out graduation certificates, a few Rapha girls
spoke on behalf of all. “There was a time when we were hopeless,”
Nepa said. “Our lives were miserable and people said bad things
about us. But now we have hope for our lives… Thank you all
the supporters who give us hope.”
Thank you for partnering with us to bring hope and healing through Christ
to the Rapha girls.
---------------------
We also encourage all of you to write to Stephanie Freed
(sfreed@arm.org) -- USA Director
of Rapha House, or Kerry Decker (raphahouse@pacbell.net) Dir. of
the Rapha House Freedom Foundation, and request their email and/or
postal updates. You may also go to www.freedomforgirls.org
Gifts for Rapha may be sent
to:
ARM-Rapha, 3127 Hwy
K
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ARM's Baptistries Around the
Globe
Over the years, ARM has donated
hundreds of baptistries to mission fields around the world. Just in
the last few issues of this report, you've seen such units used in Mexico,
Cuba, the Philippines, and Cambodia.
This issue begins
with a picture of one of our baptistries being used by our team of
jail workers in the Philippines.
Just this year ARM has sent
eleven baptistries to mission fields in Haiti, India, Cuba, Myanamar,
Australia, and the Philippines -- just to name a few.
At the current time, we need
sponsors for these baptistries. At $795 per unit, we have
invested $8,745 into this program these last 10 months so that those
coming to Christ overseas can be immersed in obedience to the
Gospel.
If you, your Sunday School
class, or your church could sponsor even one of these, that would be
terrific. If you can only make a gift toward this baptistry fund,
that would be greatly appreciated as well. Thanks for your prayers
and support.
Gifts for Baptistries
may be sent to:
ARM Baptistries, 3127 Hwy
K
Back to top
ARM's Branch Ministry in the
Philippines
Report from Ernesto
Alocelja
|
I. Baptisms
1. 12 souls
baptized at Bacungan, Magsaysay
2. 1 young adult
immersed at Mabini Extension
3. 2 young people
immersed at Lion city Church
II. Confession of faith
in Christ, awaiting baptism: one inmate at PRC, Mati, Digos
City
III. On September 4-6; the team and
some volunteers joined with the Ambassadors team in conducting
3 days leadership seminar at Pigcawayan Church, North
Cotabato.
IV. On September 8, the Church of
Christ @ Lion City of Digos led by Ernesto Alocelja conducted
a thanks-giving service for Mr. and Mrs. Larry Estremos for
their silver wedding anniversary.
V. On September 19, the PRC
was re-open for ARM Jail Ministry.
VI. On September 20, Ernesto Alocelja
celebrated his 57th birthday as Church members prepared the
program and the foods.
VII. On September 21, the team, the young
people and the Church leaders of Lion City Church of Christ
attended seminar for improving speech, hosting, and
emceeing. It was a re-echo seminar of people’s
management association of the Philippines.
VIII.
Services Conducted
1. Thanksgiving service for Mrs. Galilia,
son-in-law 7th birthday
2. Funeral service for the bereaved family
of Evangeline Anib
3. Prayer service for Beverly Bedia at
Brokenshire Hospital
4. Special birthday celebration for
Christine Miego, 13th birthday
5. Funeral service for the bereaved family of
Antonio Solis
6. Thanksgiving service for Romeo
Ebale
IX. Speaking
Management
1. Speaker at Ulas
Family day
2. Speaker at
Pigcawayan Church special Sunday
X. Donations
Received
1. 4 anti-biotic capsules from Ulysis
Bedia
2. 47 capsules for hypertensions from
Heimie Cobrado
3. 2 capsules for anti-osteoporosis
XI. Donation Given
1. 100 pcs. Bread
to PRC inmates
2. 15 sliced
laundry soap to PRC inmates
3. 10 capsules for
the heart to David Domingo
XII. Certificate of Recognition
given to Ernesto Alocelja from Ulas Church of
Christ |
Jaymark M. Alocelja --ARM Phil. Information Sec.
Approved by: Ernesto O. Alocelja
ARM Chaplain
|
Back to top
News from
Mexico
From ARM's Alfredo Jose
Aparicio
Please help us pray for our Youth
Conference that we will have November 13 to 16 in Amajac, State of
Hidalgo. We are fasting and praying for 40 days, that God works in our
youth. Mexican youth needs a lot of God's Word.
The Lord, Who commanded us to preach His
Gospel, be with you, blessing your lives abundantly, and giving you a
great health. I am happy to let you know that
September is the month in which most Latin American countries celebrate
their Independence. What a great Joy and Independence to hear that during
this month 68 of our Bible Correspondence Students turned their lives to
Jesus Christ.
Besides, I rejoice to hear that 114 of our
Bible Courses students graduated from our courses. We have taught them the
most basic and fundamental things concerning God and the Bible. But also,
we have trained them to be Church leaders. They went through the
Bible three times, and have learned how to live the Christian life and
know all related to the Gospel. Let me share with you a letter from
one of those students.
“Dear Director of the Bible Correspondence
School, I am writing to let you know that the courses you sent me for
three years have changed my life. Your Christian Literature has worked
many good things in my life. My family and neighbors are changed people
thanks to your lessons too. There is a saying that goes like this, “we do
not know what we have until it is gone.” This is a reality here where I
live. We are suffering a lot because of the Socialist and Communist
government ruling my country. We were free, but now we have lost freedom.
We have to work long hours, have a very low salary, and are controlled by
the government. What keeps me going and encourages me are the teachings
you have shared with me, my family and friends. We have great
expectations, no matter what happens. Every time I get an envelope from
you, I open it with great joy. I share its content with my family
and friends. At times 90 of us gather to go through your Christian
literature received. We spend hours studying your materials. Your four
Stewardship lessons impacted us so much that we are now contributing to
the work of our Lord. Also, we are using our time wisely, to help
others learn about God. We pray for you and your ministry and ask of your
prayers on our behalf. Please pray for our difficult situation since
we have a bad government, which is oppressing us. Many times our
mail gets to us already opened. There is a lot I want to say, but it is
not convenient! Please pray a lot for us!” Antonio Nieto (Torrealba,
Barinas, Venezuela ).
I have many prayer requests, but the most
urgent are the following:
Crime has increased in Cuernavaca. You are
robbed on the bus, on the street, in your car, and so on. Most groceries
stores sell drugs. Bad people fire their weapons at any time and
with no reason. Teaching the Bible, recently, we were able to rescue from
drugs and crime three adolescents, 13, 14 and 16 years old. The Police do
not care about protecting or helping people any longer. At the Church
facilities in Cuernavaca, we had our water meter stolen. Also, one
of our neighbors had it stolen. But, the local authorities do not do
anything, as robbers are have more power that our
authorities.
Your servant and co-worker in
Christ,
Alfredo José Aparicio
Back to top
ARM's Branch Ministry in Russia
Report From Dr. Nicholas E. Alyoshin
This is my report for Sept. 2009.
IMMERSIONS. An official from the Adyg Republic President
Administration asked us to immerse him and specially for this sacrament we
visited the Adyg capital - Maikop (150 km ESE from Krasnodar). Immersing
the man, I suddenly understood, that now the DOM ARM had the immersed
brethren in Krasnodar Territory (including Sochi), Adyg Republic,
Abkhazia, Georgia itself, Adjaria, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova,
Ukraine and Crimea. It means, we have our brethren all around the Black
Sea, or around Pontus Euxinus, as it was called by the antique Greeks. To
us, indeed, was given a prophecy: "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to
the strangers scattered throughout Pontus. Grace unto you and peace be
multiplied." (1 Pt.1:1-2).
PRISONS. In September the DOM ARM ministers had 15 visits to the
prison, police detention cells, prison camps. Twicely our ministers were
not permitted to meet the prisoners: once in Khadyjensk prison camp and
once in a prison part of the Krasnodar Territory psychiatric asylum. We
spread about 200 items of clothes and a dozen of the Bibles, donated
by Krasnodar brethren, among the convicts.
MOSLEMS. The Kurmanch sheikh Hassan-haji Gurji-ogly organized on
20.09.2009 a big meeting in his house (Kabardinskaya village of the
Apsheronsk district of Krasnodar Territory). This meeting declared the
creation of the "Organization of the Deported Nations (of
Georgia)"- "ORDEN". The President of the ORDEN became sheikh Hassan.
He wanted to appoint me to be the "Chief Adviser" of the ORDEN, but I
accepted only the position of the "junior consultant", according to the
commandment: "the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister" (Mt., 20:28). The ORDEN has already included 5 communities (2 of
the Kurmanches, 2 of the Khemshils - the Armenian speaking ethnic
Moslems, and 1 of the Ahiska Turks) from different mountain villages of
Krasnodar Territory. We continued the campaign of the support for the
awarding of the Qirimtatar leader Mustafa Jemilev with the Nobel Peace
Award. In this connection I wrote a special letter to explain to the
Russian Leaders, that, if they wanted to show Russia to be a democratic
state, they had to support the nomination of Mustafa-aga. This letter
copies were sent to President Medvedev, prime-minister Putin, chief of
Medvedev's administration Naryshkin, Naryshkin's first deputy Surkov, and
Putin's representative in the Russian highest courts
Barshevskiy.
MISSION TRIPS. My dearly beloved
brother Nikolay Plutenko, who became the refugee on the religious basis
from Russia, lives now in the Town of Lynnwood, Washington state, USA. He
has there an activity of a true missionary of Christ. He has now a praying
group, including one Mongolian refugee, some refugees from Somalia, a
local Afro-American, and a refugee from Russia (who is the former
vice-mayor of Kemerovo - the biggest coal mines city in Siberia).
DIVINE ACTION. Our dearly beloved
bro Dr. Gerhard Leiser (Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany) has a special prayer
group for the public figures (politicians, Federal and land deputies). The
group includes the members of the Christian - Democratic Union party and
of the Free Democratic party (CDU and FDP). The group was praying
fervently, and the Lord has replied: the coalition of the CDU and FDP won
the German Federal elections on 27.09.2009! It was Divine Action, indeed!
Because it is said: "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much" (James, 5:16). We are happy to be a little part of the
wonderful global Christian praying net together with such a praying group,
as bro Gerhard one!
YOUTH MINISTRY. On 17 -
18.09.2009 our daughter Nike and her "NIKA" - youth ministry organized a
missionary conference in Krasnodar for the young missionaries, Russians
and Americans, to work with the students in Krasnodar Territory and in the
other regions of the North Caucasus.
PUBLIC RELATIONS. On 09.09.2009
it was ten years since my liberation from prison in 1999; on 23.09.2009 it
was my 55-th birthday. To commemorate both these events the Krasnodar
Territory organization of the "Right Case" party had on 24.09.2009 a
special reception in its' office. I was officially presented with a gift
edition of the Holy Bible. It seems improbable, but neither the Holy
Scripture, nor the Bible rhetoric; neither my being in prison on religious
basis, nor my actual chaplaincy do frighten the modern public and
political figures in Russia (at least, in the "Right Case"). Indeed, "all
things work together for good to them that love God" (Rom. 8:28).
SUPPORT. We received OK the August ARM
support through Max Goins "We-Go" system. Some brethren served to the DOM
ARM with their private cars. We received the letters, e-mails and phone
calls of support from Rod Farthing, Max Goins, N. Plutenko (USA); Dr. G.
Leiser, E.P. Alyoshin (Germany); A. Novosyolov (Switzerland); Refat-bey
Chubarov, Ali-bey Hamzin, E. Filipyeva (Crimea, Ukraine). The Swedish
Embassies in Kiev (Ukraine) and in Moscow (Russia) sent to us the e-mails,
expressing the interest in the discovery of the Swedish protestant
memorials, which had been found by our daughter Nike and her ministry in
Crimea.
In
Jesus our hope!
Dr. Nicholas E. Alyoshin
Back to top
David O'Grady is now representing ARM in the
great Northwest! Churches and individuals in that area of the USA
may contact David through the ARM office in Joplin -- 1-800- CALL ARM.
Contact
Info
Rod Farthing, ARM
National Development Director rodfar@arm.org
3127 Hwy K, Salem, MO 65560
573-729-6355
Check out our web
sites:
www.arm.org
www.abarc.org
www.raphahouse.org
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