A Missionary Report

By Eprex Balucay

Being a missionary in certain parts of Eastern Europe is a challenge - even to a family native to the land itself. A couple gladly took up the challenge and gave their report to us. They informed CABC of the religious demographics of Serbia and Slovakia and included the reality of Gospel sharing in these two countries.

Serbia is predominantly Orthodox with mysticism, occultism and witchcraft being openly practiced. Their first planned move is to the northern part of Serbia where exist most of Baptist Churches. Some months later, they will move down to the central and south Serbia, where there are just a few tiny Churches present.

They introduced their two main methods of evangelism: Street Literature Evangelism and Media Ministry. Street Evangelism would involve the distribution of Christian literature (books, booklets, flyers), including Bibles that are approved by the Orthodox Church with the Orthodox shape of cross on them - not the Catholic cross. Orthodox Church for the centuries is resisting to recognize the Pope as Christ’s successor. Distributions are to be done by way of pop up stalls in the sidewalks of the Serbian cities. The aim of this method is to spark interest in the passers-by and strike up a conversation of the gospel. The additional ministry to the Street Literature Evangelism is going to be video/animation ministry. These up to 5 min. long video- clips will evangelize people through their website and on YouTube.

The main goal of the mission to Serbia is to plant churches and to build up people in Christ, whereby they requested our prayer partnership in following areas: firstly, that the family will have good health to be effective in serving Christ and that their son will be able to adjust and be a blessing to the Serbian and Slovak people. Finally, Serbian translations of literature are desperately needed and that the people in the country will be open to the Gospel.

The missionary couple is already involved in the work of Christian Logos Radio in the country of Slovakia. This includes pre-recording sermons and devotionals. The radio ministry has been successfully re-established in September of 2018-- after two years long hiatus due to lack of funding-- and needs capable people to join in the cause. Eastern European country of Slovakia is predominantly Roman-Catholic, but with a much high percentage of Protestants then Serbia.

Church planting is a warfare unseen in the present world, where the enemies are the forces of evil themselves and the battlefield is within hearts. Just as they requested for our prayers and support, so do the other missionaries fulfilling the Great Commission and fighting the same battles as them. May we be diligent in our prayers and support for the missionaries situated around the world to the glory of God our Father.

 *Names have been omitted for confidentiality purposes

A Call to Fast and Pray

By Pastor Elbern Latorilla

Christ Almighty Baptist Church's first major event of the year was the fasting and prayer conference that took place on January 4, 2020. In response to the call to fast and pray, 105 members and adherents came to spend time in prayer for two hours. What a blessed morning that was!

The conference followed the ACTS pattern in prayer. We began the day with a hymn of worship followed by a time of prayers of Adoration in which we acknowledged a specific character or attribute of God and then, praised Him for being so. Prayers were offered so spontaneously that two or three and even more would pray at the same time. It was a beautiful moment. We then took the time to confess our sins and shortcomings individually and quietly. It was sobering but oh, so needed. I believe God heard our cry for mercy and forgave us.

Pastor Solomon then gave a message on the Biblical rationale of fasting. It was eye-opening for many of us as we often realize that we overlook this exercise to our spiritual detriment. Hopefully, that challenge would become a reminder for us to practice fasting from time to time for our benefit.

Shortly after, we offered our ‘thanks’. This time, everyone was given an opportunity to say "thank you" to the Lord for something specific that was considered a highlight of the year 2019.  Folks just stood up one after another like popcorn popping - rejoicing and thankful for God's goodness and faithfulness to their lives during the year that had just passed. 

Finally, we spent a good hour in ‘Supplication’ as we prayed by twos and threes - petitioning God to grant specific desires for ourselves, families, church and country. Most of the supplications, however, were focused on all the missionaries we have sent and supported. One could hear the buzzing sounds of voices being raised to God who alone can grant what is being asked of Him. After that, for a good 5 minutes before the conference ended, the whole congregation prayed together in Korean-style. We prayed aloud, together, most in English and some in their own dialect. Speaking in tongues in a Baptist Church? You bet!

As we ended the morning with an appropriate hymn, I could not but utter quietly my

"thank you, Lord" for what He has done that morning. I went home rejuvenated in my heart and spirit for what God did that day.

Redefining the Christian Impact in the First Nations History: A Testimony of an Evangelism Experience in Serpent River

By Jorel Gatuz

My very first exposure to missions was running a Bible day camp for children in Serpent River First Nation, which is a small community of Indigenous people in northern Ontario. As excited as we all were to execute everything that we have been planning months before, we knew that, after just a couple of days into our camp, we needed to make some major changes to it.

Certain songs and activities that we had prepared were heavily focused on topics that only children who grew up in the church would be familiar with. Unsurprisingly, bringing that over to those who may have never heard of God or Jesus would not resonate with them in a way that we had hoped. Given that we were the foreigners and visitors of their community, God had really used that to humble us and adjust the way we continued on with the camp. Instead of coming in with a mindset wherein we were the ones teaching and they were the ones to listen, He reminded us that, as much as there is to learn about us, we had just as much to learn about who they are, their culture and beliefs. 

Storytelling is a major part of the Native culture, so God gave our team many opportunities to be able to speak with and learn from the elders of the community and have them share their stories with us. We also got to spend time with some of the youth after camp, which had allowed us to know them more personally. Overall, I would say that the first year of experience in Serpent River First Nation was more of a learning experience for all of us in the team. We quickly realized that if we wanted to share the gospel with others, a genuine and trusting friendship has to be built up first as the foundation. Without this, spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ becomes more of an agenda than of something relational. This is not to say that we came to Serpent River with an agenda in mind but, considering the dark history of colonialism and the Indigenous peoples of Canada, we were required to reevaluate how we had planned to share the story of Jesus to the children in the reserve.

It was only through God's grace that 2019 was marked the 10th year anniversary of willing volunteers who spend two weeks of their summer in Serpent River. That is 10 years of building relationships with those who were oppressed by "Christians" during the colonization of Europeans. Everyone (including myself) who has volunteered from 2009 up until this year has only ever been His hands and feet. I have looked forward to going to Serpent River every single summer since then as I hold the place and the people especially close to my heart. I pray that God continues His great work in Serpent River as more volunteers return and new ones come. All glory, praise and adoration go to Him and Him alone.

Free from the Bondage of Addiction, Completely Free from the Bondage of Sin

By Cassie Lopez

On Sunday, January 19th, 2020, I had the privilege of listening to what God has been doing in the lives of two women who are a part of the Teen Challenge Canada program. 

Addiction is difficult. It takes more than just a help group and rehabilitation centres to refrain from addictions. These people needed Jesus Christ. This is exactly what Teen Challenge Canada does. The testimonies of these women were stories of addiction to drugs, alcohol and ultimately sin, which is the root of it all. They were lost in the depths of sadness, and the feeling of being unwanted in this world. By the grace of God, He saved them through the revealing of His Son Jesus Christ who died on the cross for them. God broke them from the bonds of addiction and now they continue to pursue God and get help through this program.

Teen Challenge Canada is a blessing. It was heart moving and deeply encouraging to see what God does through the broken and the weak. The Teen Challenge team continues to share the gospel with those who are lost all around Canada while helping them with their rehabilitation as they recenter the issues of their addiction to the bigger issue of the heart, the need for redemption through Christ.

To God be the glory forever and forever. Amen. 

True Praise

By Pastor Elbern Latorilla

A Bible school student, while doing a minor carpentry work in their dorm, hit her finger with the hammer. With obvious pain, she showed the spot where she was hit to one of her roommates who blurted out, "Praise the Lord!" I guess that was not the kind of response the hurt student was trying to elicit from her fellow student. 

"Praise the Lord" has become a common expression among believers who often times use it glibly. To some, it is a kind of catchy slogan with no meaning to it at all. Others simply trivialize the phrase and see it as nothing more than the letters "PTL". However, the Bible reveals that praising the Lord is the expression of a believer's gratitude to God who is good and who has been gracious and merciful to him in abundant ways. The psalmist David exclaimed, "I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth." (Psalm 34:1). David gives us a beautiful example of what it means to truly praise the LORD.

Surely God wants us to praise Him. He deserves it. We are challenged by the writer of Hebrews to "continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips that give thanks to His name." (Hebrews 13:15). Does this mean simply saying, "praise the Lord" or there is more to the phrase than meets the eye? 

The Bible shows two aspect of praise. One is to honor God for His attributes. Psalm 104:1 states, "Bless the LORD, O my soul! O Lord, my God, You are very great, You are clothed with honor and majesty!" The other aspect of praise is to remember God's acts and works and then give thanks for them. Psalm 107:8 encourages us, "Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men!" 

True praise therefore involves declaring God's character (who He is) from a heart of love and exclaiming God's deeds (what He does) in behalf of His people from a heart that is thankful. This is the kind of praise that will be an acceptable sacrifice to the LORD.