The latest edition of Brandon Carroll’s Newsletter about the work he is doing in Peru is available online now.
Amazon Ministries Newsletter Spring, 2010
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Discover New Hope Fellowship
A Church Serving Northwest Arkansas
B.A.S.E. 301
If you have completed B.A.S.E. 101 and 201, then you are ready to advance to the next step. B.A.S.E. 301 will be offered March 7 at the RAC, 3:30-5:30 PM. This class is taught by Josh Jenkins. Please sign up at the information table on Sunday morning or online.
B.A.S.E. 101
Sunday, March 14, we will offer B.A.S.E. 101 at the RAC from 3:30 PM-5:30 PM. This class is designed to tell you everything about our church, our beliefs and our priorities. Each participant receives a binder that serves as a church handbook. Completion of this class is required for church membership. Please sign up at the information table on Sunday morning or online.
This Sunday, March 7th, is our “Missions Sunday.” For years now we have celebrated “Mission Month” in March. During that month we celebrated the mission work of our church and received an offering that helped serve that work around the world. As you have realized, mission work has become an every Sunday thing here at New Hope. We send groups in the summer to Guatemala, Peru, and Montana. In the winter we send a large group to Mexico. Our youth travel on mission trips each summer. Our Women of Hope work in Northwest Arkansas feeding the homeless and helping the hopeless. We participate in the largest mission organization in the world through the SBC Cooperative Program. We have Summer Mission Wrap-Up Sunday in August to review our work. Soon we will open a Day Center for the Homeless. Our year is now filled with mission opportunities locally, nationally, and globally. All of that, coupled with our tremendous need in giving toward “Our Planting Place” building fund, led us to the decision to go to “Mission Week” in March instead of the usual “Mission Month.” We ask that you use this week to pray for missions and give to missions. Our envelopes have a designated place for you to indicate your mission offering. One hundred percent of what we receive in our mission offering goes directly to missions. Give this Sunday!
Soon you will be seeing a renewed emphasis and programming in the area of prayer. We must continue to seek the wisdom of God as we move forward as a church making disciples. I hope you are praying daily for your Pastor, your Staff, and your Church. Also I would like to ask each of you to pray for our Pastor’s Advisory Council, Pastor’s Advisory Board, Day Center for the Homeless committee, and our 15th Anniversary committee. As I look at what lies ahead in days to come I must remember, “God is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.” (Eph. 3:20) Pray!
Have you ever been completely consumed by something? Do you find yourself so focused on one thing, or one person, that nothing distracts you? In Exodus, God comes to Moses telling him to lead the Israelites out of slavery. The Bible says that God appeared to Moses in a burning bush. The Bible says, “The bush was burning, but it was not consumed.”
This reminds me of Hebrews 12:29: “For our God is a consuming fire.”
God himself is consuming. As Moses knelt before the burning tree, it was not consumed, but he was. Moses finds himself completely consumed by God. At that moment, nothing else mattered to Moses. The sheep he’d tended only moments before were now alone. The work he was doing now left incomplete. The fullness of Moses attention was on God; he was completely consumed.
If our God is a consuming fire, then He should consume our whole lives. Every part, every hidden corner or secret habit, should be completely exposed to the glow of His fire. Are you inviting God into every area of your life, or are you relegating Him to only certain parts? Our God wants a real and honest relationship that transcends all our earthly boundaries. He wants to be Lord of every part of our lives, and to live in true and honest relationship with His children.
This past week we were in the Tamyshiacu Village. We had 13 Bible students from five different villages that we taught Bible stories and applications. These students will take the stories back to their villages and teach them exactly how we taught them. We hope to teach 150 stories over the next two years to this group. We believe this is the best strategy to see a discipleship movement take place among the thousands of villages in the Amazon. Out of this discipleship movement churches will be planted by the Peruvian nationals and not us.
We also had the group watch a video called EE-TAOW that was produced by New Tribes Mission with the Mouk Tribe in Papa New-Guinea. Once they saw the video of the Mouk Tribe learning the stories and then teaching the stories themselves to other tribes the group became eager to implement this method in their villages.
Join our team by becoming a prayer partner. Visit our web site at www.newhopeamazon.com and click on connect.
The work in Haugan continues to prioritize prayer and building relationships. A couple of weeks ago we went to eat pizza in one of the local establishments. The Snow Mobile Club was meeting there, so we were able to meet several local couples. They were very gracious and friendly. One of the couples brought their son over to meet us. The father had helped us with the water system when we hooked up the trailer at the church. As the father introduced Alan to his son, he said, “This is our Pastor.” (This was such a surprise… he didn’t say “the” Pastor, but “our” Pastor!) We still pray and hope to see them in services soon. Join us in praying for this family.
Preparing for Popcorn Outreach! In the next two weeks our small band of believers in Haugan will deliver a liter of cola and a single pack of microwave popcorn with an invitation to FREE MOVIE nights at the church every Saturday in March to 100+ homes. Please pray that hearts will be softened toward the church and interest stirred, in order that many folks may enter the building for the first time.
The Women’s Newsletter for March, 2010 is now online.
The work of ministry here is just as unique as the region itself! Do you remember the two young boys and grandmother that were saved and baptized this summer? Well, the two sisters came with the boys for the holidays to stay with their grandmother who is a faithful member of our church. We had such a great visit with them and with Alana here, they all hit it off really well. The 14 year old girl who raised her hand to receive Christ at the Christmas party is part of this family. Before they left to return to California to finish the school year, she asked to be baptized. Then her older sister shared that she had been saved in Youth for Christ, but never baptized and would like to follow through on that. We baptized both girls before their return to California. That was an exciting and joyful day!
In the last two weeks, we have been invited into two different homes in the area for dinner… this is major! And one gentleman who does a lot of handy work in the community, has only come to church one time since we arrived, randomly came to our trailer 2 times in two weeks just to visit. This was an astounding blessing!
God is good and we are trusting Him for every detail every day!
God is blessing our work in the Amazon River area. Recently members of my team, David and Deysi, visited the river village of Puerto Alegre along the Mazan River. I’d like to share with you some comments from the villagers.
Reyna: To learn and teach my children and that God would give us more understanding.
Doroty: To keep going ahead and announce to others that don’t know about God.
Jhen: It motivates me to want to learn more about God and tell others.
Antonio: I thank God for choosing our church to teach the stories that we didn’t know.
Please pray as we continue to spread the Gospel.
We have launched our new web site! We’re excited about the resources we now have available online and we hope you will take a look around. Check it out, www.newhopeamazon.com.
New Hope Fellowship will move toward opening a Day Center for the Homeless in Springdale. We will have an informational meeting on Monday night February 15 at 6:30 PM at the RAC for all who have a passion for this ministry or simply want more information about the proposed Day Center.
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