Hope and Help International Update

We are sometimes asked why so few people are baptized in relation to the number of people who have trusted Christ as Savior. In answering this question we will include a letter we recently received from one of our partners who was planning a baptism for 37 new believers. Albert writes:

“We had a baptism service and it was very hard but our God and your prayers allowed us to overcome. Some people from the area came over and made a big problem. I was only able to baptize 5 new believers before they stopped us by force. So please continue to pray for us.”

Because salvation is free to us we tend to forget that it came at a great price - the life of Jesus Christ. And even for those who are involved in the spread of the Good News of salvation today, many times there is a price to be paid. As you give to and pray for these missionaries, you are partnering with men who are worthy to suffer shame for His name.

As a follow-up to Albert’s report about their baptism being forcefully stopped, we wanted to thank you for praying. In an email from Albert today he states:

“Yesterday we held another baptism and were able to baptize 15 more without any problem.”

On another issue, Albert shared that he has another 25 pastors praying and asking that we begin another 1st year Timothy Leadership Institute for them sometime in 2009. HHI held its first Timothy Leadership Institute with Albert as our coordinator in Karnataka and this past July we were privileged to see these students graduate having completed all three years of study.

Hays Community Church Update

We now have nine families coming to HCC that make up 33 total people. Of the eight families we have reached, seven did not have a church home prior to HCC. This past week we did another week long Kids’ Beach Club. It was very exciting because our old church, Eden Road Community Church, sent seven students and two adults down from Arlington to help with Beach Club. They did an outstanding job. We had 17 children participate. Four of those kids were from unchurched families, three of the four had never come to any event that HCC had put on and one of the four had never been to any church function ever. Last week he heard a Bible story for the first time. He now owns his own Bible, and he will be playing on Jacob’s soccer team. God is so good how he connects us with people.

We also wanted to tell you a story of a woman named Les. We met Les at an event we did last Christmas. She was unchurched. We found out in May that she needed a fence built for her backyard. We felt the Lord leading HCC to build this for her, and Les agreed to let us do this. Josh and three other men from our church built this fence for her. Josh was definitely the unskilled labor. She was so touched by this that she started coming to our church. A couple of weeks ago she committed her life to Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord! We are experiencing the kingdom of God coming to Kyle, Tx at HCC.

Prayer Requests:
Praise the Lord for Les’ salvation.
Praise the Lord that He has added more families since our last letter.
Praise the Lord for the friendships he has given our family.
Please pray for the unchurched families we connected with at Beach Club.
Please pray Psalm 91 for our church.
Pray for Kelly for this new school year.
Most importantly, pray that we would have sweet times with Jesus, that we would continue to stay connected as a couple, that we would invest in our children well, that we would continue to sow seed and that we would effectively disciple those God has entrusted to us.

Missionary Update- Robert and Mary Jo Foster

PRAYER REQUESTS:

• Please pray as I continue to adapt/translate Youth EE materials for Brazil. There are other projects, too, awaiting completion of this one. So, please pray for good time management.
• Pray for the filming of three short videos this month and next to be used in conjunction with our new Workshop.
• Please pray for important meetings/discussions here in Sao Paulo during the next 2 weeks.
• Please pray for good attendance at our remaining 2008 training clinics.

PRAISE:

• Praise the Lord for Kids’ EE training clinic held in Araçatuba, Sao Paulo, last month.
• Praise for a Kids’ EE workshop held this past weekend to equip hospital chaplains and volunteers who visit hospitalized children with terminal illnesses.

ANSWERED PRAYER (update on previous requests):

• The first unit of Youth EE has been translated/adapted for Brazil.
• EE Brazil’s new website is up and running.
• Material sales have been up…a positive sign in many respects!

Pregnancy Center Update

On July 18th , First Euless hosted our MCPC benefit concert “An Evening with Steven Curtis Chapman”. Steven and his family are strong advocates for women in unplanned pregnancy, adoption, and the unborn. He presented an inspiring evening of worship and we all enjoyed the outstanding talent God gave Steven to write and perform his music. We were able to highlight the pregnancy center ministry as we shared about our client Meagan, who came to the center as a frightened, confused 17 year old girl. She was facing a dilemma-- to have an abortion or give birth to her child. She met with our volunteer counselor, Linda Bussey. She talked with Meagan about her options and about how God had a special plan for her child. Meagan chose to sacrificially place her little boy, Tyler, into the loving care of Melissa and Jeff, now Tyler’s parents. She went on to graduate high school, and recently college. Jeff and Melissa have a great relationship with Meagan, and she visits with Tyler often. We were so happy that Meagan, Tyler, Jeff, and Melissa were willing to share their story-- a story of how God took a difficult situation and made something beautiful.





It was such a wonderful evening. When we received the news about our ministry offering, we were amazed that God had blessed us with almost EXACTLY what we had budgeted for the start-up costs for the new Irving office! We hope to finalize soon a contract for an office location that is strategically located where we should see many women who desperately need options other than abortion. We are so grateful for God’s provision through "The Miracle” and for the generous caring people who gave so that we can begin to reach the city of Irving. Please continue to pray for us as we move forward, and that many lives will be saved for now, and forever, through this ministry.

COUNTED WORTHY TO SUFFER SHAME FOR HIS NAME

In Acts 5 we read that after the Apostles were arrested they were beaten and commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and then they were let go. And we are told they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.

In the western world today it is hard to believe that such persecution still happens. However, we can assure you that it does happen throughout India as well as in many other countries of the world. We know firsthand of instances that have happened to pastors and church planters that we are working with. Some have been beaten, others tied up and doused with gasoline only to be saved by sympathetic villagers before the match was lit, others have had their churches burned to the ground.

Hope and Help International recently received statistical information from the national missionaries that we are sponsoring as well as information from all of the pastors and church planters that are being trained in the Timothy Leadership Institute. We were thrilled to see what they have accomplished with few resources. In the first six months of 2008 these men report visiting 494 villages, making 993 new contacts, seeing 998 people trust Christ as their personal Savior, and baptizing 258. This is even more amazing when we realize that all of this has been accomplished by 55 pastors and church planters.

We are sometimes asked why so few people are baptized in relation to the number of people who have trusted Christ as Savior. In answering this question we will include a letter we recently received from one of our partners who was planning a baptism for 37 new believers.

“We had a baptism service and it was very hard but our God and your prayers allowed us to overcome. Some people from the area came over and made a big problem. I was only able to baptize 5 new believers before they stopped us by force. So please continue to pray for us.”

Because salvation is free to us we tend to forget that it came at a great price - the life of Jesus Christ. And even for those who are involved in the spread of the Good News of salvation today, many times there is a price to be paid. As you give to and pray for these missionaries, you are partnering with men who are worthy to suffer shame for His name.