This years Pastors Conference was a pure joy to attend! We had 18 different nations in attendance. Heard the word of God read in 8 different languages. Enjoyed excellent preaching from Jared Mellinger, Josh Blount, Jeff Purswell, Rick Gamache and H.B.Charles. And sang, fellowshipped, prayed and ate together for three delightful days. For those travelling in for the conference, it was worth every mile of the trip!!!

Here then is just a sampling of how those travelling in from overseas found it… Soli Deo Gloria!

Michael Granger, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 

“I was surprised to find myself in the midst of an international movement centered on the person and work of Christ.  Shocked at the Lord’s kindness to allow me to be a part of such a thing.”

 David and Jadwy Del Castillo, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, 

“This Conference was so good! We especially loved the preaching! Also the international dinner was a blessing for us, because it allowed us to see and hear about the goodness of God through out the world! We loved to see the example of Mexico and how much they are growing and developing everything in Spanish, even the ordination exam which will help us for the future. Thank you so much for serving us so well! We can’t wait to see you guys next year 🙂”

 Patrick Chavez, Sydney, Australia, 

“Attending the 2019 Pastor's Conference was a wonderful gift of grace. The exuberant corporate singing, solid teaching & rich biblical fellowship experienced as a team and with others within our family of churches was a taste of heaven.”

 Riley Spring, Parramatta, Australia, 

“For me, I found Jeff Purswell’s and Josh Blount’s messages incredibly clarifying, prescient, and prophetic. I am often captivated and interested by Christian cultural analysis and plans to see the Kingdom expand over the earth but can get ahead of myself with excitement about the plans and lose sight of the reality that the Word and the gospel is both the foundation AND the method! I feel as though these messages reoriented my course and saved me from a lot of potential wasted energy and time. I so look forward to hearing sermons from men I trust, love, and respect!”

 Songhwan & Miran Kang, Seoul, South Korea, 

"Attending the conference this year, my wife and I experienced the greatest grace and encouragement for the year. Through the lectures, we were able to look back to the time when I sought for my own glory, and I prayed once again to become a servant only serving the Lord for His glory. The worship, fellowship, and the grace from His Word that we experienced through the conference raised our weakened hearts."

 Wilbroad & Zicky Chanda, Zambia, 

“My wife and I were encouraged through all the sessions of the 2019 SGC Pastors Conference in Orlando. One of our major highlights was the panel discussion on team (plural) leadership. The panelists brought out some important truths from their pastoral experience. My (Wilbroad) take from the session was that I need to be deliberate in leading, caring for and humbly serving all the members of the pastoral team. Thank you so much.”

Jeff & Jeannie Jo, Cavite, Philippines, 

“This year's SGC pastor's conference brought our hearts to the wonder of God's greatness over our lives, our union as husband and wife, and the ministry He has entrusted upon our care. As we reflect in every sermon that we've heard in this conference, we were humbled to realize of our dependence on God in every detail of our lives and to rely alone on His grace and faithfulness. Thanks SGC, we will be forever grateful.”

Dyonah Thomas, Monrovia, Liberia, 

“The schedule was perfect as it created more time for connecting and personal ministry as the Lord leads. I was personally prophectically served with specific life and ministry direction.”

Joel Bain, Jamaica, 

“This year's conference was exfoliating: I felt like God was removing ministry dead skin and I left refreshed and re-energized and with a renewed focus on our God, who knows exactly what he's doing.”

Richard Lacey, Worcester, UK, 

"What an amazing few days: an encouraging, refreshing, joy-filled Christ-exalting, gospel-saturated time that revived my heart and sent me back to my church excited to serve them."

Nathan Smith, Bristol, UK, 

"Great to be back among the family! Loved the rich feast from God's Word we were served; loved singing praises to our gracious God together; loved laughing with, and enjoying the company of good friends and gospel brothers from all over the world.  Heart full. God is good!”

Greg Cruse, Yatton, UK,

"Have come back with a full heart amazed by God and eager to serve."

Simon Dowland, Bristol, UK,  

"It was a joy from start to finish. Wonderful Spirit filled, Christ glorifying biblical preaching complemented by loving relationships and God exalting sung worship.  Soli Deo Gloria!"

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An update from Doug Hayes, Pastor in Covenant Fellowship, PA, and Executive Director of Covenant Mercies…

As we gathered last month in Orlando for the Sovereign Grace Pastors Conference, a very special and even historic event occurred that probably flew under the radar for most, but deserves to be celebrated on this blog.  

Wilbroad Chanda, pastor of Christ Community Church in Ndola, Zambia, sat for his oral ordination exam (he had passed his written exams with flying colors earlier this year) and scored a 92%.  At our RAE meeting later in the week, the Northeast Region (which stewarded his ordination process) was blessed to affirm Wilbroad’s ordination and lay hands on him as the first African pastor ordained by Sovereign Grace Churches. 

As an effective church planter himself – and as pastor well-equipped to train other pastors and church planters – we are praying that Wilbroad’s ordination is the first step toward the development of a region of Sovereign Grace churches in Zambia and southern Africa.  Please pray with us toward that end, to the praise of God’s glorious grace! 

An update from Bob Kauflin, Director of Sovereign Grace Music,

For the past number of years, Fabiano Medeiros (SG church planter in São Paulo), has been faithfully working with a team of skilled translators and editors to produce Sovereign Grace songs in Portuguese. We’ve finally been able to record 15 of our most well-known songs for an album, “Minha Vida É Cristo” (All I Have is Christ), due to be released in January/February 2020.

Steve Cook traveled to Brazil to work with producer/musician Elivelton Horst, and we used Brazilian instrumentalists and vocalists.

Albums that feature translated Sovereign Grace Music songs now include Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, German, and Ukranian. We’ll be posting lyric videos of the songs on YouTube and are looking forward to another Portuguese project in 2021!

An update from Joselo Mercado, Lead Pastor of Iglesia Gracia Soberana in Gaithersburg;

On Thursday, November 7, my son Joey and I arrived in Queretaro, Mexico, to be part of Lifeway Equipa, a conference designed to equip the church with Gospel centered teaching.

The main theme was Discipleship, and I had the opportunity to teach the main session on Discipleship and Marriage. I was able to point to the glorious image that marriage is of the Gospel and how the husband is called to wash their wives with the word.

Over 2,500 people were able to receive Gospel centered teaching. I also was able to be part of a panel discussion on biblical counceling where I think God allowed us to encourage the churches to equip all members to be able to participate in the task of helping each other with Gospel truths.

I want to spend some time giving glory to God for the life of my son Joey. It brings me so much joy to have him with me on the trip. I receive multiple emails from people that they were very encouraged by his life and godliness. How our love, care, and relationship for each other reflected the Gospel not only in my preaching but also on how we live our lives. All glory to God!

We finished our trip spending two days with the SGC Silao. They are such a wonderful gospel centered church. We came away so encouraged by the great job the pastoral team is doing to build this church in the gospel and SGC values.

Tony Cuellar, a close friend of mine and a member of an SGC in NJ, came with me on the trip. He grew up in Silao as his father planted a church in that area in the 1980s. It was so amazing to see the faithfulness of God as members of Tony's church were now part of SGC Silao. It is such a joy to partner with godly people all over the world to proclaim the truths of the glorious gospel!

Psalm 121.1-2 says, ‘I lift my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.'

Those verses so wonderfully represent the cry of the Emerging Nations team. We serve the Lord of the harvest, who holds the whole world in His hands, and oh how we need Him in our endeavours.

With another full month ahead then, here’s how you can be praying for us…

1. Please pray for the many pastors and wives who will be gathering from around the world for the Sovereign Grace Pastors Conference in Orlando, November 5th - 7th. Please pray for their travel, and once there, that the conference would provide for them a wonderful time of refreshing and encouragement. Please pray that God would give us many opportunities to care for one another and strengthen our global relationships, and that we’d be increasingly united and strengthened in the wonderful gospel mission we share.

2. Please pray for Joselo Mercado, Lead Pastor of Iglesia Gracia Soberana in Gaithersburg, as he and his son Joey head to Quertaro Mexico in early November, for a Lifeway sponsored conference on discipleship.  They are expecting over 2,500 people. Joselo will be preaching alongside Miguel Nuñez, and a few other very well respected pastors in Latin America. Joselo will preach on marriage, discipleship and evangelism.  After that, Josleo will visit a fellow SGC church in Silao, Mexico where he will teach a marriage conference, as well as preach in their Sunday service. Pray for much fruit at the conference and for Pastor Manolo Quintal of Silao to be encouraged by his visit.  

3. Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Brazil as they look to launch our very first Sovereign Grace Music album in Portuguese this month. Please pray for Steve Cook as he looks to finalise the project and for all those involved in distribution. Would this album be a great blessing to all those in Brazil and beyond.

4. Please pray for myself (Dave Taylor), Andrew Leung (my Executive Assistant) and his Dad, John Leung, as we head to South Korea & Hong Kong at the end of November. The trip to South Korea will be a time of serving Songhwan, Lead Pastor of Lord’s Grace Church in Seoul, his Church, and a growing number of Church Planters that he’s seeking to build into. Our trip to Hong Kong is then a ‘Church Planting Exploratory Trip’ as we look and dream together, asking the Lord for wisdom and direction for the future, and building relationally with a number of Hong Kong Pastors.

… May the One who made the heavens and the earth provide all that we need. What a wonderful King He is!

An update from Allen Dicharry, a Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Midland, TX, USA;

“One of the biggest barriers to the spread of the gospel in Nepal is that Christian men leave the country to work abroad because they cannot find sustainable work locally,” said a prominent church-planting pastor in Nepal. This reality leaves the Christian home fatherless and, sometimes, a young church pastorless. Ultimately it hinders or at least slows the spread of the gospel to the unreached people groups of Nepal. 

In the same way that unreached people groups have little to no access to the gospel, the pastors living among or nearby them have little to no access to pastoral resources or training. The need for sustainable work and pastoral training is clearer than ever.

Over the last few years of building a relationship with a Nepali pastor, we have continually asked the question “How can we serve?” He has requested that we teach the 7 Shared Values of Sovereign Grace Churches to small groups of pastors who belong to his network of 175 churches. Like us, he has a shared conviction that churches should partner together for gospel advancement.  That partnership is made more effective if we also help local believers develop sustainable income so they do not have to leave. Through Biblical teaching and practical skills training, our hope is that more men can stay in the country, lead their families, pastor churches, and effectively reach the unreached around them. 

This October, a team of 10 men and women from 3 Sovereign Grace churches travelled to the rural parts of Nepal. Pastors Billy Raies (Midland, TX), Allen Dicharry (Midland, TX) Aaron Mayfield (Round Rock, TX), and Dr. Leroy Kim (Frisco, TX) taught the 7 shared values to about 130 pastors and leaders. In the Makwanpur region, the team helped local believers with a work project at a local government building, which opened avenues for sharing the gospel. In the Everest region, another team answered a request to teach local Christian cooks how to prepare American-style meals. These cooks operate small food establishments along popular trekking routes.  Providing familiar food for Western travellers will prosper their businesses and enable more believers to stay in the county. 

During a testimony time after the teaching, a common theme from the Nepali church leaders was their desire to “apply it” and “pass it on.” One elderly pastor said, “I may be the oldest one here, but I am just a child when it comes to these things - I have learned so much and still have so much to learn. I thank God for bringing these brothers all the way out here to serve us.” That kind of humility was common to see among these leaders. 

God is moving among Nepali people. Much spiritual and practical development is necessary to see the church strengthened. We are thankful for our Nepali connection and are deeply grateful to be able to play a part.

Preaching with Passion Workshop in Puerto Rico

An update from Jared Mellinger, Senior Pastor of Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, PA, USA;

On October 18-19, Joselo Mercado and I traveled to Puerto Rico for a workshop on preaching with passion. The workshop was sponsored by Sovereign Grace Churches and Reformados, a ministry devoted to rescuing the purity of the gospel in pulpits throughout Puerto Rico. Iglesia la Travesia, a PCA church in San Juan led by Ronnie Garcia, hosted the event and provided generous hospitality. There were around 130 people in attendance, most of whom were pastors and leaders.

In planning the event, Joselo’s desire was to encourage pastors to not only preach messages that are theologically sound and expositionally faithful, but also to be filled with the Spirit and to communicate God’s truth with appropriate liveliness, zeal, and joy. The gospel rightly understood will set a preacher’s heart on fire, giving those who hear a sense of God’s presence and power.

Joselo taught on the priority of preaching, and I taught sessions on the role of the Holy Spirit in preaching and the role of emotions in preaching. Joselo led several panels further applying the content of the messages. The time with local leaders was a great encouragement: new friendships were made, joy abounded, stories of churches being planted in Puerto Rico were shared, and all the brothers were built up through the gift of fellowship.

Preaching Workshop in Monterrey, México

A report from Carlos Contreras, Senior Pastor of Gracia Soberana de Ciudad Juarez and Regional Leader for Mexico…

Every year we host 2 Preaching workshops in México. One in the church in Guadalajara and the other in our church in Juarez. However, we are trying to expand the reach and availability of these workshops in partnership with the Charles Simeon Trust. Because of this, Manolo Quintal, Sr. pastor of the newly adopted Sovereign Grace church in the city of Silao, Guanajuato and myself, participated as instructors in the new workshop in the city of Monterrey, Mexico. We were also joined by Kristian Tucker, pastor of Gracia Soberana Durango and Carlos Martinez from our sister church in the city of Torreon who served as Small Group leaders.

This new initiative attracted 70 pastors mostly from the Monterrey region, and we were amazed by the eagerness to learn of mostly young and humble pastors. We were very encouraged and will be returning next year to continue with further workshops. 

These workshops have proven to be a very useful tool to make connections with like-minded leaders as well as to follow-up with leaders that have sought us out for training. Through this partnership we have been able to bring Gospel-centered Biblical theology and expository preaching to many throughout Mexico. We also are planning with CST to possibly opening up another workshop in Mexico City by late 2020 or in 2021. This will allow us to cover the majority of the country and reach and serve our friends and more interested pastors. 

A report from Carlos Contreras, Senior Pastor of Gracia Soberana de Ciudad Juarez and Regional Leader for Mexico…

By many reports this has been the best conference experience we have had in the last 6 years that we have undertaken the effort to encourage and equip the pastors, leaders and the wives of our family of churches in Latin America, as well as many of those that are looking to Sovereign Grace as a friend in ministry.

This year we changed the date for the conference in an attempt to make it more accessible financially, but we ended up with fewer attendees probably because we went from a vacation month to a non-holiday date.

However, most of the 230 registered attendees were leaders that had attended before. This made the conference feel much more like a family gathering with much joy, fellowship and freedom to receive and enjoy God’s grace. And our faithful God, in His kindness, did in fact pour out much grace and blessed our desire to encourage, equip and provide a refreshing experience for many pastors.

The highlights of the main sessions were the two classic messages that CJ brought on Cultivating Joy and Gospel Centered Pastors. Teachings that have defined Sovereign Grace for decades were freshly laid as foundation stones for the growing SG Mexican churches. It was a joy to see folks approach CJ with great gratitude after hearing him. One leader from Colombia was so impacted by the message on joy that he asked permission to send out the translated message to all his contacts in South America.

Another highlight was the message and workshop by Bob Kauflin on dealing Biblically with Spiritual Depression. His humility in opening up about his own past struggles with this issue touched many lives and resulted in a heartfelt time of ministry with much tears and encouragement for many.

I had the privilege of opening the Conference with a message on 1Peter 2 and we also invited Kike Torres, a young pastor who leads a large church in the city of Queretaro to speak on Biblical Fellowship. We also enjoyed powerful messages on the Humility of Christ from Jon Payne from Austin, on the Need to be people full of faith and the Spirit by Hellman Avila from El Paso, and on a culture of Grace by Joselo Mercado to close the Conference.

In all we are extremely grateful that God again poured out His Spirit among us as we gathered to receive from His goodness and are very excited to do it again next year!

An update from Mike Seaver, Lead Pastor of Risen Hope Church in Summerville, SC, USA;

Since we planted our church in 2011, we have wanted to paint a picture of God’s heart for the nations for our congregation.  We desired to send gifted, called, and qualified missionaries to serve in the 10/40 Window.  We prayed, “Lord, let us send our best!”

A couple of years into our church plant, our first missionary, yes, one of our best, went to Southeast Asia to serve a mission agency’s office to prepare and assist missionaries all over their country.  Within a couple of years, God stirred a young family who were beloved leaders to go serve in that same country.  

It has been an honor to send financial support, prayers, and “Marco Polo’s” their way, but over the last year, we’ve been stirred to send ourselves.  My wife, Kristin, felt like the Lord was calling the Seaver family to go with our 5 daughters to spend time loving on and refreshing our missionaries.

We asked God to provide a way for us to go and God kindly exceeded our expectations!  After spending nine days with both the family and our single friend, we have a better understanding of what their daily life looks like, and how to pray for them in both their joys and challenges. Our friends who moved there with four small children told us how they were growing weary on the mission field prior to our arrival.  Language study is hard.  A new culture is hard.  Parenting is hard.  On the final day of our trip, they shared with us, “We were weary, but now we are refreshed…thank you for coming!”  The Lord kindly brought refreshment through hours of conversations, children’s laughter, lots of meals, singing, and prayer together.

What an honor to love on and encourage those going to hard places.  May the Lord allow us to “send our best” to the 10/40 window that the nations may be glad in Jesus!  

God bless, Mike Seaver

Jesus said in Matt 28:28 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The Sovereign Grace Emerging Nations team strives to follow this command through the establishment of healthy gospel centred churches throughout the world. And what joy and privilege to know that Jesus, the One with all authority in heaven and on earth, is with us as we embark on this task. There is then no more effective means than to humbly ask our glorious Saviour and Shepherd to sustain and empower us in this task as the team embarks on the various initiatives around the world in the month of October. We invite you to pray along with us!

1. Please pray for a team of 10 gathered from the three SG churches in Texas who will be going to Nepal to conduct two pastors conference in remote areas of Nepal. The team will be split into two sub-teams, one headed by Billy Raies (Senior Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Midlands Texas) and Leroy Kim (Grace Church Frisco Texas), and the other to be headed by Allen Dicharry (Executive Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Midlands Texas) and Aaron Mayfield (Redemption Hill - Round Rock Texas). They are expecting between 80-100 pastors who will be travelling down the mountains to attend these conferences. Please pray for protection whilst travelling, the unreached people groups the local pastors are reaching out to, for Billy, Leroy, Allen and Aaron to teach and preach with clarity and passion, and for the others in the team not formally teaching to share their lives with the pastors so they can see the seven shared values lived out. Pray that the team’s love, witness and outreach would leave a lasting impact on the pastors and all they come in contact with.

2. Please pray for Joselo Mercado, Lead Pastor of Iglesia Gracia Soberana in Gaithersburg, as he heads to both Quito, Ecuador and Bogota, Columbia to speak at the conventions of CLC, as well as different churches in both countries whilst he is there. CLC is a christian literature distribution in South America and the biggest partner of Lifeway Publishing in the region. They have invited Joselo to talk about his book on marriage. Please pray that the gospel will be clearly presented and that people can see how the Gospel is a need for the believer everyday life.

3. Please pray for Joselo (as above) and Jared Mellinger, Senior Pastor of Covenant Fellowship Church in Pennsylvania as they head to Puerto Rico to speak at a Sovereign Grace sponsored workshop about preaching with passion. The influence of reform doctrine has developed deep preaching, but often lacking in passion. The workshop hopes to encourage preachers to continue pursuing deep preaching, but to allow the depth of the knowledge of the Gospel to affect their hearts as they preach. They are expecting over 125 pastors and leaders.

4. Please pray for Joselo (as above) as he and his son Joey heads to Quertaro Mexico early November for a Lifeway sponsored conference on discipleship.  They are expecting over 2,500 people. Joselo will be preaching along side Miguel Nuñez, and a few other very well respected pastors in Latin America. Joselo will preach on marriage, discipleship and evangelism.  After that, Josleo will visit a fellow SGC church in Silao Mexico where he will teach a marriage conference, as well as preach in their Sunday service. Pray for much fruit at the conference and for Pastor Manolo Quintal of Silao to be encouraged by his visit.  

An update from Joselo Mercado, Lead Pastor of Iglesia Gracia Soberana in Gaithersburg;

On September 8 I arrived in Medellin, Colombia to participate in the Muestra a Cristo (Show Christ) Conference. On its second year this conference is becoming one the the largest in the hispanic world. At the University of Medellin Theater, over 1,500 attendees spent 3 days listening to teaching from Bryan Chapel, Miguel Nuñez, Juan Sanchez and myself on the book of Daniel. I was assigned to preach from Daniel 4 and Daniel 7 and I believe the Spirit helped me to show christ in these passages to reflect the theme of the conference.

The conference is organized by TGC and Poiema a Spanish christian publisher. It was clear that the presence of God was among us. Some of the greatest moments came during worship as many times we were singing SGC songs. It was very powerful to listen to songs that we have cherished for so many years in English, being loudly sung in Spanish.

The conference also gave the opportunity to connect with some pastors that I’m relating to in Colombia and have interest in SGC. God has given me favor in Colombia and there are opportunities to serve. In the next year I already have 4 trips planned to this beautiful country.

Please pray for God to give much fruit out of this conference and that the church in Colombia will more and more turn to the true Gospel.

An update from Kyle Huber, Lead Pastor of Greentree Church in New Jersey USA;

Kyle spent two weeks in Belarus working with leaders of a dozen churches to bring encouragement, and training in discipleship and biblical leadership. Prominent themes included “A Biblical Understanding of Weakness and Strength”, “Unity in Mission”, and “Leading in the Home”. The desire these church leaders had for instruction was an encouraging sign for continuing fruitfulness.

A significant issue discussed with leaders throughout the trip was how to best disciple and train future church leaders. The lack of young leaders is a critical problem for the Belarusian Church. This is true for a variety of reasons:

            -  Culturally, leadership has been left for those who are older

            -  The hardship of life for church planters and pastors has made pastoral ministry unappealing for the younger generation.

            -  Economic pressures have made residential studies unattractive for young people, and virtually impossible for those with families.

In the coming year, SEE Global (an organisation based in Belarus started by Greentree Church, with the object of developing healthy churches in Belarus) will continue to explore ways of strengthening discipleship and leadership training in churches through two primary initiatives:

            (1)  A two year program for training students who will gather monthly. The goal is to strengthen present and potential church leaders in subjects essential to church leadership and mission.

            (2)  Visiting teachers spending 5-6 days with an individual church, involving teaching and discussions with church members each night, and seminars and preaching on the weekend. Ample time will also be set aside for individual meeting time with pastors.

Our prayer is that as churches are strengthened and their influence is felt in communities, the restrictions the government has historically placed on public church activity will soften, and ultimately, that many more in Belarus will come to experience our Glorious Risen Saviour through the work of healthy local churches.

Sovereign Grace is a family of churches who partner together to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ by planting and strengthening churches throughout the world for the glory of God. As we advance the gospel together, we see its reconciling power as sinners are reconciled first to God, and then to one-another. Reconciling us from different races, backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, the dividing wall of hostility is broken down, and people from different races are made one in Christ (Eph 2.14-16).

In headline, that’s what the work of Emerging Nations is all about and so here’s how you can be praying for us in the month ahead…

1. Please pray for Pastor Riley Spring and the Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta Planting Team. They were sent out from Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney on 1st September and will be launching public services on Sunday 15th September. Please pray for courage, faith and power from on High so that they can do all that God has called them to do with joy. Please also pray that many would be added to this Church in the days and weeks to come, and that they would together passionately proclaim the glories of the gospel in all that they do.

2. Please pray for Joselo Mercado, Lead Pastor of Iglesia Gracia Soberana in Gaithersburg, as he heads to Medellin, Colombia, 5-9th September, to participate in the Muestra a Cristo (Show Christ) Conference. They are expecting over 1500 people to attend from all over Latin America. Joselo is one of the main speakers with Miguel Nunez, Bryan Chapel and Juan Sanchez. He is also teaching some breakout sessions on 'preaching with passion' to over 400 delegates. Please pray that he preaches with passion and clarity himself, and continues the good work of building relationally with a number of churches in Colombia who are interested in becoming a part of Sovereign Grace Churches.

3. Please pray for Carlos Contreras, Senior Pastor of Gracia Soberana de Ciudad Juarez and Regional Leader for Mexico, as he leads a Preaching Workshop for over 70 pastors in Monterrey, Mexico. Monterrey is the third largest city in Mexico and the closest to the border with the USA. Carlos has been considering for many years the possibility of planting a church there and so please pray that this opportunity would provide him with the chance to establish new relationships with folk there, in the hope of seeing if God will open a way for them to plant into that huge city.

4. Please pray for Kyle Huber, Senior Pastor of Greentree Church, New Jersey as he heads to Belarus, 19th Sept - 1st October, to serve alongside Rob Chisholm from Grace City Church, Philadelphia to teach Biblical Theology at the SEE Global’s Leadership Academy. They will be spending extensive time with several churches there, including weekends on training leaders, preaching and bringing encouragement in gospel faithfulness. Their goal in it all is to help churches become healthier by bringing a clearer understanding of biblical leadership, the Church, and gospel ministry.

… May God truly establish the work of our hands. Soli Deo Gloria!

June-August in North America means summertime, which means mission trips! Here are some highlights from those trips…

KidsGames in Italy: June 22-30, 2019

This summer, a team of 21 people from MidAtlantic Sovereign Grace Churches went to Chiavari, Italy, to partner with Verita di Grazia Church and Grazia e Verita Church, to reach children aged 7-12 through sports, games, crafts and gospel-centered teaching and devotions. Kidsgames has grown each of the last 5 years and now serves over 200 kids.

One team member said of the trip, “Our hearts are so full of thanksgiving for the ways God moved. This year we had more opportunities for clear gospel presentation than we could have imagined. Throughout the week, with the children, we were able to continually point to the grace of Jesus and what a relationship with Him means. Additionally, this year we had far more interaction with the parents of the town. Several offered to pay for the camp or for food (etc.) and when we replied that the entire camp was a free gift of grace because the gift of forgiveness is totally free for us, they were deeply affected. I had 5 parents tell me at the final day’s picnic that they were astounded and had never seen anything like this from Christians!”

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Children’s Music Camp, Nassau, Bahamas: July 13-21, 2019

This summer a team of musicians, educators and children’s volunteers from the Mid-Atlantic Region, in partnership with Crossway Church Lancaster, went to partner with Kingdom Life Church to run a gospel outreach music camp for approximately 130 kids aged 5-12. 

Doug Plank, a Pastor in Crossway Church Lancaster, said this of how the camp went, “Fantastic! This year’s camp had so many opportunities to proclaim salvation in Jesus to the children, and the team (24 people) came with energy, joy and gospel-focus. We also featured ukuleles for the first time at camp, and the children loved them.”

Casa de Esperanza Orphanage in Caranavi, Bolivia: June 24-July 8, 2019

This summer a team from Kingsway Community Church, VA, and Grace Covenant Church, Jacksonville, FL, went to Casa de Esperanza (House of Hope) Orphanage, Bolivia (near La Paz) to serve the children and staff there.

Anna Rogers, a long-standing member of Kingsway and team leader for this trip said “We are so thrilled to be a part of this endeavour to support the precious children at the orphanage. We continue to see God’s hand move and provide for special needs these kids have. He has built a long-term relationship between us that fosters faith, hope and love.”

Children’s Camp and Adult Seminars in South Korea: June 3-11, 2019

This summer a team from Clarksburg, Knoxville & Orange County went over to Seoul, South Korea, to partner with Lord’s Grace Church led by Songhwan Kang, and serve at their annual camp for children and adults. 

The trip went really well! You can read more about it in a previous blog post (click here). 

Rancho 3M Christian Orphanage & School In Guadalupe, Mexico: May – July, 2019

This summer, three different teams headed to Mexico to serve at the Rancho 3M Christian Orphanage & School: Sovereign Grace Church in Aurora & Grace Community Church in Westminster (May 26-June 1), Sovereign Grace Southeast Churches including Lakeview Christian Center in New Orleans & Grace Church in Orlando (June 8-14), and Crossway & Risen Hope Churches from North Carolina (July 22-29).

Sovereign Grace Churches have been sending teams to Rancho 3M for many years with two main goals: to minister to orphans and staff, and to do any labour the 18-acre facility needs to have done. 

Pete Schefferstein from Lakeview Christian Centre said, “This year we rebuilt a large Pavilion at the Ranch that gets used a lot for the kids to play under during the hot summer days. We also went out into the community and gave our invitations to an Alpha style dinner and Gospel presentation from one of our Pastors who speaks Spanish. It was awesome as almost 200 showed up and many responded that night!”

… How kind of the Lord. It is all His doing and so may it always be marvellous in our eyes.

A report put together by Emmanuel Iluzada, a Pastor in Cross Of Christ Salvation Gospel Ministries (CCSGM) Kawit, Cavite, one of our wonderful partner churches in the Philippines...

"It is a deep scuba dive into the vast ocean, where there are both terror and beauty, an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies”. That’s how one of the speakers described and proclaimed Christ at the recently concluded “Glorious Christ 2019 Worship God Conference" in Louisville, Kentucky. A conference that we were thrilled to attend.

We knew about the conference through the invitation of Pastor Dave Taylor. We’ve known him for the past two years through our Senior Pastor, Jeffrey Jo. Dave informed us about the Worship God Conference and so we prayed about it, prepared our documents, and the LORD made it possible for us to go in His perfect timing and provision.

My wife and I had a lot of first time experiences because of the conference. It was our first time in the US, first time to drive in a foreign land and first time to attend a major Sovereign Grace Conference. We were welcomed by Brittany Kauflin, whom we met for the first time in Sydney last year. We were invited to be part of the recording of SG’s latest album and we became part of the singing audience. We were so thrilled because we have often watched SG Music online and so to now become part of it! How cool is that!

The conference itself was set in a way that the general sessions were designed to teach the gloriousness of Christ: His supremacy, sacrifice, and diverse excellencies. The breakout sessions were then more technical in nature and made up of specific topics like songwriting, singing, instrument playing and sound engineering to name a few. We acquired a lot of learning in the technical sessions, which was then balanced or re-focussed onto Christ when we went back into the general sessions.

I particularly appreciated the songwriting sessions led by Steve and Vikki Cook. I had a deeper admiration of studying the structure, tone, and messages of different gospel songs. I developed a deeper passion to not just appreciate the current songs I know, but to also write gospel songs in our own language (Filipino). I was also greatly encouraged by Jordan Kauflin’s advice to write songs in our own tongue since this is the direction of the Word to us - That one day, every tongue will sing praises to the King of kings!

We made many new friends at the conference who each had an amazing story to tell. We met Ron, who blessed us with a recording workstation when he learned about my story of recording locally written songs for the congregation. We met JP and Abbi, a fellow Filipino couple from San Francisco, who were regular participants of the conference and part of the Shiloh Church Choir, who sang so heavenly during the conference. We made a lot of friends who encouraged us and who have now become partners with us for the gospel. We brought home a wealth of learning and unforgettable experiences!

We especially want to thank Bekah Scrufari, Joel Amunrud, Paul Medler and Dave Taylor. Thank you for your abundant generosity! Thank you also to Bob Kauflin and his entire family for the unsung labors that you have exerted for this conference.

Truly, in our moments of weakness, we can cringe in despair or we can look at the unfailing beauty of Christ, which makes the things of the world grow strangely dim. Beholding the glorious Christ is what our eyes should constantly exercise. That’s our hope. All the glory and thanksgiving be unto Jesus alone!

Our annual Church Retreat is always one of the highlights of the year for our Church and without doubt, this year was no exception. In fact, the whole weekend was totally life-changing for our Church!

This year we had the privilege of having Mark Prater (Executive Director of Sovereign Grace Churches) as our keynote speaker. He was also joined by 12 folk from the Covenant Fellowship Church, PA, Prophecy Team and together, God used them in mighty ways to serve our Church.

The timing was wonderful, being just a month before we waved off the Church Planting team of Sovereign Grace Church of Parramatta. But it was the content that impacted us so much.

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The theme for the weekend was ‘Delighting in the Spirit’, a theme that was at least ‘experientially new’ for so many folk in attendance. Whilst everyone in our Church has had the conviction that the gifts of the spirit are for today, so many have never really seen them operate in terms of gifts like prophecy, words of wisdom & knowledge, healing and the like. For some time then there has been a hunger in our Church, but being new to it all there’s also been many understandable questions like how do they work? And when? What is appropriate? And what does all this actually look like?

After a weekend of teaching, discussion and practice, all those questions were answered and many, many lives were changed. It has lit a fire in our Church that has been truly life-changing for us, with so many folk now eagerly pursuing gifts of the Spirit and finding themselves even more amazed with Jesus and hungry for Him than they were before. 

A BIG thank you then to Mark Prater, Bill & Ramona Doyle, Martin Keeney, Jocelyn Whitpan, Everett & Laurie Petit, Doug Gardner, Rick Orlando, Jeannie, Lia & Dan Welch. God has done a wonderful work through each of you and so thank you so much for making the trip!!

If you’re keen to see more and would like to see some highlights of our Retreat then please check out the video below.

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An update from Gabriel Reyes-Ordeix, former member at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville and pastoral apprentice at Gracia Soberana Juarez…

Spain is a country with a vast Roman Catholic tradition, a growing non religious population, and a deep need for Christ-centered churches. Unlike most of Europe, Spain was mostly unaffected by the Reformation, as the inquisition lasted until the mid-nineteenth century—longer than in any other country in the old continent. Currently, Protestants are less than 1% of the population, and healthy, gospel-preaching churches are scarce.

In 2013 my wife Ivana and I moved to Louisville, Kentucky from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to attend Southern Seminary. A couple of years later, God placed a burden in our hearts for the city of Madrid, Spain, and we started praying about the possibility of partnering with SGC to plant a church there; we had been attending Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville since 2014 and were impacted by the loving community and the strong accountability among the SGC family of churches.

Last July, after almost five years at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, in view of our call to Spain, we transitioned along with our two daughters to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico to serve at Iglesia Gracia Soberana de Juárez (Sovereign Grace Church of Juarez) as a pastoral apprentice for a year. During this year I will be serving the church in many capacities with the purpose of developing in preaching, teaching and discipling.

If God allows and the counsel of our leaders is in favor, we plan to relocate to Madrid, Spain in the Summer / Fall of 2020. Upon arrival, our desire is to dive into the culture, plug into one of the existing protestant churches, and become part of the city as we make friendships and build relationships with purpose. By God's grace, he has already provided a job for me, as I will be able to continue with my job as a graphic designer remotely. Bi-vocational ministry is essential to the long term vision we have to make disciples and make Jesus’ name known through church planting. Our hope is that God may bless our efforts and allow us to start meeting in our home towards the end of our first year there.

Please pray that God may continue to confirm His plans for us and bless our efforts abundantly. 

We’re certain our God has not forgotten about Spaniards. Our deepest desire is that in the many years to come, God will call us to faithfully preach and witness to the city of Madrid about the great salvation and redemption we have in God through Christ, so that many Spaniards may join us with the great multitude in crying out: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” (Rev. 7:10).

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One of the questions that I often get asked, is “So where is this all going? This whole Emerging Nations thing, where is it all going?” And for mine, it’s a really good question! I mean if we’re going to be a truly global family of Churches, rather than a group of US Churches with international friends, then what exactly is this going to look like 5, 10, 20 years from now? Where is this all going in the long-term?

Well, during the last 18 months I’ve had a lot of time to think about this as the Director of Emerging Nations, and from all that I can see, albeit that there’s still a lot of things to work through and figure out, I believe that we’re headed somewhere like this...

1. If we’re going to be a truly global family of churches then I don’t think our polity will look like “all roads leading to the USA”. With so many different nations, cultures and languages that would be an impossible task. But instead I believe it will look like each country (or in some cases groups of countries) replicating what already exists in the USA, with each country having their own council of elders, leadership teams, regional assemblies of elders and so forth. Noted, when a country is young the council of elders and regional assemblies may be exactly the same thing, simply limited by the number of churches they have, but in time, multiple regions in all countries and contexts may well be possible. What started then in the USA, is replicated in other countries.

2. In addition, I believe countries may well look different to each other in terms of the intricacies of their Book of Church Order and their corresponding partnership agreements. Not all cultures are the same, not all cultures speak English, and not all cultures are even Western in their thinking. As we head into varying cultures and third world countries in particular I am more and more convinced that our BCO’s will look different, not by deliberate design, but simply because of the realities of differing cultures.

3. There’s a danger in this however that we could begin to lose our “togetherness”, something we hold so dear in Sovereign Grace, and so that’s where the ‘Council of Nations’ comes in. An elected council from the nations who will work for the peace, prosperity and health of our global family of churches. If we’re going to be a truly global family of churches, then we’re going to need to be in genuine gospel partnership with each other and accountable to one-another globally. I believe then some type of council and leadership, interconnecting us all, will be needed to make this a reality. Something like the ‘Council of Nations’.

I have no doubt then that there’s plenty of points and details to work through here. This is a very complex task that we’ll need to work through together. But in headline, this is where I believe God is taking us, and my prayer in it all is simply this, may it be for His glory alone.

The Lord is busy building His choir from every tribe, language and nation, and what a privilege we have to play our parts in that. What a privilege we have as a family of churches to be able to help handout the invitations both at home and abroad, all for His glorious grace!

Here then are some specifics of how you can be praying for things that are going on around the world in the next month…

1. Please pray for Riley Spring (Australian Church Planter) and the Sovereign Grace Church of Parramatta ‘Planting Team’ as they run a ‘Public Information Night’ at Tara Anglican School on Thursday 8th August, ahead of the launch of Sovereign Grace Church of Parramatta next month. Please pray that there may be some in the area who are interested in joining the church plant or hearing more about it and that they would come on the night!

2. Please pray for Joselo Mercado, Lead Pastor of Iglesia Gracia Soberana in Gaithersburg, as he heads to Puerto Rico to run a Homiletic Workshop there on Saturday 17th August, in partnership with the Simeon Trust.

3. Please pray for Songhwan Kang, Senior Pastor of Lord’s Grace Church in Seoul, South Korea, as he continues to train 14 Church Planters on a monthly basis. Please pray for wisdom for Songhwan in this process, both in the training of these dear brothers, and also in the potential adoption of some of these churches. This is the answer to many years of prayer for Songhwan and so please pray for grace to abound to this work.

4. Please pray for our three key leaders in the Philippines - Jeffrey Jo (Cavite), Nilo Ebo (Cebu) and Pete Valdez (Bohol) - as they continue to work through the Sovereign Grace ordination process. In the midst of already very full lives, please pray that God would give them much grace to complete their studies as they begin to prepare to take the ordination exams.

5. Please pray for our key leader in Nepal (name withheld for safety reasons). The scene in Nepal is making it increasingly more dangerous to openly share the Gospel and yet incredibly, and wonderfully, the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ is boldly going forward more than ever. My friend told me that they have baptised 99 people in the last 12 months. He was ecstatic and thrilled as he told me all about this. Please continue to pray for our dear brothers and sisters in Nepal. That God’s hand may be close to them in all that they do.

Let us pray with confidence my friends. It’s true… The Lord really does hold the whole world in His hands!

I first met Michael Granger about a year ago and I quickly discovered, to my joy, that all of the encouraging things that I had heard about him were so wonderfully true. Michael has a B.S. from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana and an M.Div. from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He is an ordained Sovereign Grace Pastor and as part of his theological training he attended the Sovereign Grace Pastors’ College. God willing Michael will be planting a Sovereign Grace Church in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2020, and so for your encouragement, here’s some of his story...

‘My initial exposure to Ethiopia was back in 2004 when, at the age of 19, I first ventured into the country. Effected by the impact of the HIV/Aids epidemic, I shortly thereafter co-established an NGO to work with street-children alongside some local partners. Over the course of many flights into Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, I also met and fell in love with my future bride, a local girl named Kenean. We were married in 2011 and have had four beautiful children - Moses, Eden, Elijah, and Jerusalem. Though Elijah passed away one week after his birth day in July of 2017 and is buried in Louisville, Kentucky.

In January of 2018, our family then relocated from the USA to the mountain on which Kenean grew up in the Southwest corner of Addis Ababa. Since then I have been a full-time student studying the culture and also the language of Amharic while Kenean has been home-schooling the kids.

As a family we have a deep affection for the Ethiopian people and for the future of the nation. The purpose of our mission then can be summed up in three categories: 1) Disciple-making that results in new Christ-centered churches being established; 2) Theological training for the next generation of Ethiopian leadership; 3) Business as missions.

God willing then, in the summer of 2020 we will be starting a new church in Ethiopia’s capital - Addis Ababa. While Ethiopia is arguably the 7th poorest country in the world and therefore often effectually overlooked, Addis Ababa is one of East Africa’s largest cities with population estimates ranging from 5 – 11 million. It is a mega center of international activity including over 110 embassies, the United Nation’s African headquarters, an European Union’s representative office, and also Africa’s largest international policy issuing entity - the African Union.  With Ethiopia’s history as the only country on the continent to have successfully fought off European colonization, it stands as the torch-bearer and example to many other nations in a post-colonial era. And, because it was never colonized, the racial tensions that exist in much of sub-Saharan Africa are virtually obsolete.  

For these and many other reasons, we see Ethiopia as perhaps one of the most strategic gospel advancing countries in all the world and pray, hope, and dream of a God-breathed revival that spills over into the failed and spiritually suppressed states of Somalia, Sudan, and Eritrea. 

So in 2020, years of affection, praying, and training will culminate in the endeavor to plant a missional gospel-centered church that trains up a local plurality of elders so as to equip the saints of Addis Ababa to reach their city, the unreached tribes in the countryside – and if God answer’s our prayers – the surrounding nations in East Africa. It is a futile vision if left to the ingenuity, training, and cunning of man. But, with confidence that we are in God’s will according to Matthew 28, we advance on our knees with the words of William Carey in mind, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”   

Please partner with the us on mission by praying for East Africa, that the Lamb who was slain would be glorified in all that we do!’