An update from our key leader in Pakistan (identity concealed for safety reasons)...

Greetings in the name of our Saviour! 

Happy New Year! I hope that you are doing well and enjoying the blessings of God. We are so thankful to our Sovereign Grace brothers and sisters who made this Christmas outreach possible and successful. Without your support we wouldn’t have done it. God always uses His people to make a difference in the lives of people who are struggling and are not able to live a good life. And for us, you guys are that blessing. We are very thankful to God for our long term relationship with you. Our God has many special plans through our relationship. In the past years you have always been our support and a strong pillar, through COVID, harsh summers and cold winters, you have always been with us like one body of Christ. And as a return we always remember you in our prayers and always think about our extended family. May God bless you exceedingly and abundantly.

Regarding the Christmas outreach 2022, it was a very blessed time. We were able to reach families in the remote villages and brick factories because of your generosity. During the distributions we had the opportunity to talk to families and to know about how they feel. Everyone who received the Christmas gifts were so thankful to God and to you guys who generously put in effort to make the Christmas season a blessed one for all these unprivileged people. It was a very difficult time because the winter season caused the brick factories to shut down. Everyone received the Christmas gift with tears of joy in their eyes. They said that they had nothing to eat and could not share a meal with their families on Christmas Day, or even before that, but God listened to their prayers and gave them more than enough for the whole month. One of the widows said that our God is a good God and he knows our needs and He always fulfils His promise of providing. After receiving the warm blankets the orphaned children said that they had been praying for these types of blankets that they can now sleep under. 

Because of your generosity we were able to reach out to 230 families with food items, goats, blankets, and winter jackets. When we were distributing the jackets among the children they were so excited for new warm winter jackets, after receiving them they were not allowing anyone to touch their new gift and were not even sitting on the floor. Their joy and the way they were thanking God and praising Him gave us so much joy. Regarding goats, we chose the most neediest families so that they could have a small business to run and we also preferred families who could easily provide nutrition to the goats without spending much on them. We gave 21 goats to various families so that they could receive milk and they promised that they would share the babies with other brothers and sisters. 

So once again we are very thankful for all your support and generosity that you showed this Christmas. We still have a plan to go to the flood victims and show them that we have not forgotten about them. We plan to give them food items and medicines because they are struggling a lot. Because of the bad weather and dangerous fog we are not able to travel because the roads have been blocked. We are praying for them and I request you pray for them as well. In this kind of cold weather they do not have winter jackets or warm blankets and that is causing a lot of illnesses especially among children and women. 

God bless you.

Your brother in Christ.

I recently asked Andrew Leung, a Pastoral Candidate here in Sydney, to write a paper on our plans and goals for our prayer ministry in 2023, and under the banner of ‘Our convictions about prayer’, he wonderfully wrote the following...

         “God delights in His people coming to Him in prayer. Through Jesus, we have unfettered access to God, and the confidence that He hears our prayers and desires to answer them in accordance with His good and glorious will. Therefore, we are to continually grow in our humble dependence upon Him in prayer.”

What a wonderful reality and reminder this statement is, and so here are some ways we can be using that ‘unfettered access’ in the month ahead...

1. Please pray for Sergei, our key leader in Belarus, as he spends the next two months in the US, for immersion training into Sovereign Grace Churches. Visas and national realities have not made this trip possible until now, and so we’re so pleased that we can make this happen. Sergei will be attending the Pastors College course on Pneumatology, the Global Leaders Fellowship retreat, and will visit with a number of Sovereign Grace Churches. Please pray for Sergei, his wife, and for Kyle Huber and Greentree Church as they continue to care for, equip and come alongside Sergei for further work into Belarus, Poland & Russia.

2. Please pray for Josh Kruger Jr and his family, as they relocate to the US later this month, for a one year Pastoral Residency in Kingsway Community Church in Richmond, with a view to planting our first Sovereign Grace Church in Namibia, in early 2024. Over the year Josh will be attending seven classes at the US Pastor’s College, serve alongside Kingsway elders in a variety of contexts to learn how biblical convictions shape pastoral ministry, and develop a prospectus for church planting in Windhoek, Namibia. Unlike Josh, his wife Lieze and his two sons, Joshua and Matthew, have never lived in the US and so please be praying for them as they adjust to their new house, new school, new city and new church.

3. Please pray for Marty Machowski (Pastor in Covenant Fellowship Church, Glenn Mills, US) as he heads to Seoul, South Korea, January 11th-17th to serve Songhwan Kang and Lord’s Grace Church. He will be teaching on the Deaconate, giving a parenting message, a marriage message, preaching twice on the Sunday, and spending time with the Pastors and Interns of Lord’s Grace Church to encourage and care for them. It will be a full trip for Marty as he seeks to serve our dear brothers and sisters well, so please be praying for him.

4. Please pray for Greg Dirnberger, as he leads the US National Church Planting Assessment, January 20-21 in Irvine, CA. Please pray for the assessment team (Greg and Laurie Dirnberger, John and Nancy Loftness, and Christopher and Stephanie Warren) as they consider each of the candidate’s references, resumes, and then observe them preach, cast vision, evangelize, and communicate to them God’s developmental process in their lives. The purpose of this National Assessment is to serve local elderships, and regional church planting committees by offering potential candidates discernment in their process of determining God’s call on them for planting Sovereign Grace churches. There are four brothers being assessed and so please be praying for everyone involved.

5. Please pray for the nine young people in Sovereign Grace Churches, Australia that have signed up for our Young Leaders Internship Program for 2023, starting at the end of January. Please pray that God quickly builds them together as a cohort and that they catch a vision for serving Jesus in the Local Church, the Dearest Place on Earth.

   … Thank you for praying for our family of churches. May His grace abound to us all!

Rather than give you several different updates this month, I wanted to share with you this one 14 minute video to watch, our 2022 Global Update.

What a wonderful year this has been!

As you watch this video, I hope it encourages you, excites you and reminds you just how glorious He really is. For this is all the Lord’s doing, and so may it always be marvelous in our eyes!

In a recent prayer email to our Pastors, Mark Prater wrote the following…

One of the ways Jesus taught us to pray is to ask that God’s "will be done" (Matthew 6:10). Praying that short phrase, “your will be done” has wonderful theological and practical implications for our lives. In his book, “Prayer and the Knowledge of God” Graeme Goldsworthy writes, "God graciously allows us to be involved in the carrying out of his will. He gives us the privilege of identifying with his will by asking him to do what he has already determined to do.” It’s stunning that God allows us to be involved in the carrying out of His will, and that begins with us asking Him to do what He has already determined to do.

Stunning it is! In God’s kindness, we get to participate in the carrying out of His will for our family of churches, and so with that in mind, here’s how you can be praying for us in the month ahead…

1. Please pray that God would draw unbelievers to Sovereign Grace churches, and save them, as we hold our Christmas related events and services this month.

2. Pray that God would use the Sovereign Grace Music “Prepare Him Room” concerts in various cities in December to celebrate the birth of Christ and to declare the good news of the gospel.

3. Please pray that God would give the members of Sovereign Grace churches opportunities to share the gospel, a powerful reality, with unbelieving family members, friends, neighbors, and coworkers over this holiday season.

4. Pray for the Arche Church in Dnipro, Ukraine that Sovereign Grace is relating to, asking God to protect them, and to use them to offer gospel hope as the war continues.

5. Pray for the men on the SGC Australia Planters & Pastors Academy - Andrew Leung, Austin Loke, Jack Packham, Joel Seric & Richard Song, as they graduate this month. Four of them will be moving forward into paid staff positions in Sovereign Grace in 2023, and the other, increasingly feeling the burden of overseas missions. Please pray this is a sweet time of celebration for these men, along with preparation for what lies ahead.

6. Pray for the men who are participating in our Church Planting Cohort: Ramon Flores (Yuma, AZ), Gabriel Magill (Warren, PA), Perry Wang (Charleston, SC), Jeremy Hetrick (Harrisburg, PA), asking God to use the Cohort to equip them to plant a Sovereign Grace church in the next year or two.

7.  Pray that God would continue to provide financially for Sovereign Grace Churches so that we can fund the gospel opportunities He is giving us throughout the world.

… Thank you for praying for our family of churches. May His grace abound to us all!

An update from Dave York, Senior Pastor at Covenant Life Fellowship, Roseburg, Oregon, and Emerging Nations Representative to the Philippines…

One of the great joys of serving Sovereign Grace in the Philippines is seeing first-hand that the Lord of the Church is indeed building His Church. When Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 that He would build His Church and “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” He meant it, and what God is doing in the Philippines is a fresh reminder that He’s doing just that.

Our latest trip to the Philippines (October 7th-16th) was a historic trip for SGC, and it was a joy to work alongside faithful brothers on this trip.

Jeffrey Jo (Cross of Christ Salvation Gospel Ministries in Cavite) being installed as an SGC elder.

Cornelio Ebo (His Dwelling Place Church in Cebu City) being installed as an SGC elder.

The historical part of this trip for SGC was the joy of installing Jeffrey Jo (Cross of Christ Salvation Gospel Ministries in Cavite) and Cornelio Ebo (His Dwelling Place Church in Cebu City) as SGC elders. Jeff’s church was celebrating its 30th anniversary on the day of his installation, so that was a unique gift to attend. Seeing these brothers installed as SGC elders means establishing SGC Philippines can officially begin. It was remarkable to be present for this moment in our denomination’s history.

As part of establishing SGC Philippines, our major task on this trip was to do oral examinations for 15 ordination candidates. Over the past year, these brothers have studied, written papers, taken exams, and prepared themselves for the oral exams. We “crammed” these exams into 4 days which made for long, joy-filled days. The joy of talking with these men about their lives, their love for Jesus, and His church was an amazing experience. We built friendships through the exam process, and we faithfully went through the oral exams. I am happy to report that 10 of them passed. When we informed the men who passed, it was a unique privilege watching them celebrate with each other. Even the brothers who didn’t pass celebrated with the men who did. It was sweet and revealed remarkable grace in their lives. 

One of the interesting parts of this trip for me, personally, was the men who went with us from all parts of the globe. Lynn Baird (Gilbert, Arizona) first went to the Philippines on behalf of SGC in 1987. Since the late 1990s, Lynn has gone every year. The Filipinos call him “Daddy Lynn”, which reveals their love and respect for him. Lynn is the main player in SGC’s early development of relationships in the Philippines. Tony Walsh (Denver, Colorado) started going to the Philippines with Lynn in the mid-to-late 2000s. I was jealous to have these brothers go on this trip because I wanted them to see Jeff and Nilo installed as SGC elders. It is important for SGC not to forget our history and the brothers who helped build that history. This trip to the Philippines was Daddy Lynn’s last one (at least by his recent comments), and Tony said the same. So to have their last trip be the one when they witnessed the establishment of SGC Philippines was a remarkable gift from the Lord.

We also had international brothers join us. Dave Taylor and Riley Spring from Australia provided great leadership and encouragement. Dave serves us faithfully as our Global Missions Director (a big title for a huge candy lover). Dave has been a huge source of encouragement and insight in developing relationships in the Philippians.

Riley serves SGC Church in Parramatta, and he was our comic relief and a true “giant” among us. Riley was key in encouraging the ordination candidates and gave keen insights on areas where each brother could grow. Having these brothers along on this trip reminded me of the unity that only the gospel can provide. Here we were, in Manila and Cebu City, with Filipinos, Americans, an Australian, and a Brit, joyfully serving Jesus together and worshipping His great name. Human minds cannot conceive this type of unity and joy-filled work. 

Over the next few years, we are excited about what the Lord seems to be doing in the Philippines. There are another 15+ elder candidates that Jeff is preparing to go through the ordination standards. We are working on major translation work in Tagalog and Cebuano for the SGC Statement of Faith, 7 Shared Values, 7 Shaping Virtues, and website information. In March 2023, SGC Philippines will host a Pastors and Wives Conference in Manila for SGC pastors and wives from Asia Pacific. As you can see, the Lord is building His Church…and it is marvellous in our eyes. God is doing great work in the Philippines. 

An update from Todd Peterson, Pastor at Cross of Grace Church, El Paso, Texas, and Emerging Nations Representative to India…

Even though Erik Rangel (Lead Pastor in Yuma, Arizona) and I have been working separately in India for about 20 years combined, we only started working together for Sovereign Grace in the last 3 years. Because of Covid this was our first opportunity to travel to India together to see ministries that we had been working with separately and to meet new pastors that we have gotten to know since we started working together.

Our first stop in this trip was Prayagraj, which is in northern India in the state of Utter Pradesh. Churches in the northern states have much more opposition from the government, so I’m not going to use any names for their benefit and safety. Erik has been working with one particular pastor separate from Sovereign Grace for the last 12 years as a partner in their Bible College. The Lord has used this Bible College to plant nearly 100 churches in the region around Prayagraj over the last 10 years.

Over the last year, this pastor has expressed an interest in getting to know Sovereign Grace more formally. Our doctrine is very closely aligned and he is in agreement with our 7 Shared Values. There are several very exciting possibilities about how we might be able to partner with and serve this group of churches that I’m not at liberty to enunciate here. Our goal on this trip was to make a “formal” introduction to someone from Sovereign Grace, and to start building the relationship from that standpoint. Since Erik has known him for years, it made sense for me to go and begin to understand the dynamics there and help start the conversation about what the Lord may have us do together.

We happened to arrive on the last night of a conference that gathers the pastors (former students) from the various church plants together. It was such a joy to see their love for Erik and their excitement and appreciation for us making the long trip to see them. I was able to get a sense for the area, the church and denominational dynamics as well as getting to know the pastor and his family personally in their home, which is a huge value in India. We are very excited about the possibilities that God may have for the new phase of this relationship. Stay tuned!

We have been relating over the last year via email and zoom to two brothers, Caleb and Sidhanta Suna that have a church in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. During this time we were able to assess our doctrinal compatibility as well as understand how we can partner with them. The time had come where we needed to visit them to move the relationship forward so we spent part of three days with them. During this time we were able to see their city and the surrounding region (neither Erik or I had been to this part of India), see their church, meet their families and spend many hours trying to understand the challenges that they face.

Caleb and Sidhanta have a church of about 200 in the heart of one of the biggest slums in India. They already align almost exactly with us doctrinally, but feel extremely isolated as they haven’t been able to find any like-minded churches to relate to in the 15 year life of the church. Sidhanta said that when he finally found the Sovereign Grace website and read the Statement Of Faith, that he cried because he had finally found all of the doctrines of the Bible that they believed but had never seen written down in one place. Even though they are surrounded by hundreds of “Christian” churches, they had never met another church that held these doctrines, much less a large group of churches.

Besides desiring to be part of a group of doctrinally aligned churches, they also have a desire to train many of the village pastors in the area that are hungry for better theological training. The logistics of accomplishing this is quite daunting given the many obstacles that face churches in India.

We left there with a deeper relationship with them personally, a much clearer understanding of their environment, their challenges, and their need for partnership. We look forward to continuing to move this relationship forward!

Our last stop was the southern village of Gundugolanu, Andhra Pradesh, the home village of pastor Jaya Prakash (JP) Ravuri. This was Erik’s first visit to “southern” India. We have been working with JP since 2018 and this year he became a fully ordained pastor in SGC. One of the purposes of this stop was to be there on Sunday at his church to formally ordain JP as a Sovereign Grace elder. The ordination service was a tremendous blessing! 

It was such an exciting time for the church and for us to be able to do the ordination service in person. The church was packed, with people who couldn’t fit inside sitting outside looking in the doors. Even the children who were sitting on the floor in front of the stage didn’t want to leave when dismissed for Sunday School, but instead stayed to be a part of the service.

JP said that re-affirming his vows as a Sovereign Grace pastor gave him a fresh passion from the Holy Spirit for the work ahead. About a year ago, the Lord put it on JP and I’s hearts at separate times to start a Pastors College near his village. We have been putting together a plan for the last year, but this was the first time we’ve been able to sit down in person and plan. We had an extremely productive time working through the details and I believe the Lord really helped us to understand some of the significant challenges that we will face that led us to revamp much of the plan. We were also able to meet with two other possible instructors for the college which lent more insight into the process.

Please be praying for this work. There are many more obstacles than I can talk about here, but we know that if God wants this to happen that He will make a way.

Those were the major stops. We also made two other stops for an initial meeting with a new pastor as well as to another ministry that I’ve been helping for years, but that JP is now also assisting with.

Keep praying for us and for all of these pastors, that the Lord would show us the way forward in each of these complex situations, to know how he wants us to partner together in the days ahead.

An update from Nick Kidwell, Senior Pastor of Valley Creek Church, Malvern, Pennsylvania, USA…

What a joy it is to share with you all what God has been doing in and through Valley Creek Church thus far. Thank you for all the many and varied ways that you have provided support for us along the way. We are so grateful that we do not walk this path alone!

We launched from Covenant Fellowship Church on October 2nd in strength with 52 adults and 40+ kids (most under the age of 10!). This is a group of people committed to the Gospel and eager to serve.

It was confirmed for us immediately that this area needs a reformed, missional, Gospel preaching, bible believing church. In our first two months we have already had over 60 first time guests. When we started, we had 52 members/regular attenders. That number has now grown to 74! We will hold our first members class in January and many are eager for it.

We have had numerous people express how they have been praying for a church like ours in the area and how for the first time in a long time they feel like they've found a home. What a joy! If there is one thing I have come to see, it is that God has paved the way for this plant using the prayers of many faithful saints.

An area of surprise for us has been with the youth. We initially thought that we would not have any youth (7th-12th grade) but suddenly the Lord brought several our way, and even had the regional director of Fellowship of Christian Athletes begin attending our church with a desire to use our church as the location he funnels new believing students to! Because of this, we already launched a youth program and will have our second event this December. We are eager to see what God does through this ministry!

Finally, we have been exceedingly blessed by God to be meeting at the First Baptist Church of Malvern building. This church was established in 1833 and the building was built in 1875 with updates in the 1960’s. We have nearly 24/7 access to the building with its large fellowship hall, sanctuary, and 15 classrooms. This building is older than the town itself and has been a huge witnessing opportunity for us already as people in the area know it and likely have some previous tie to it.

We were excited to celebrate two baptisms last month and were able to get the baptismal in the building working for the first time in 20+ years! The members at First Baptist were thrilled about this. They have expressed that we are an answer to their prayers and they are excited to see the Gospel mission continuing at this location.

All that to say, we are excited about what God is doing in Malvern. It is evident to us He has prepared a work for us to do, and we are seeking to be faithful and steward that well. We are again exceedingly thankful for your ongoing prayers and support.

An update from Jeff Purswell, Director of Theology and Training for Sovereign Grace Churches…

October may be festival season in Germany, but in Hamburg it’s the time for the Arche Church’s annual Eckstein (“Cornerstone”) Conference. This year, Mark Prater and I had the great privilege of serving at this strategic conference, which for many years equipped and strengthened not only the Arche, but Christians throughout Germany and in numerous countries the Arche serves with the gospel. Including the nations represented within the Arche itself, this year’s Eckstein touched people from some 56 nations.

The Arche pastors chose as the theme of the conference “Staying the Course,” with messages drawn from 1 Peter designed to fortify believers in the face of suffering, persecution, doctrinal deviation, and social upheaval. It’s hard to describe the privilege of seeing so many people, so passionate for Christ, so hungry for God’s Word, and so desirous of glorifying God in such a spiritually dark portion of the world. We left so grateful for our partnership with the Arche and its remarkable pastoral team led by Christian Wegert.

Perhaps the greatest highlight was seeing Michael Ostanin, the pastor of Ark Church in Dnipro, Ukraine. Michael planted his church 20 years ago out of the Hamburg Arche, graduated from the German Pastors College, and has become a very dear friend of Sovereign Grace (SGC has had the honor of supporting Michael and his church financially during the Russian invasion of Ukraine). To our great surprise, through some last minute providences Michael was able to come to Hamburg for the conference, and we were able to hear from him, cry with him, and pray for him about his gospel labors amidst the cataclysmic circumstances unfolding in his nation.

I wish every SGC pastor could meet Michael. Since the war began, his life and his church has been turned upside down. At the outset of the war, 90% of his church departed—either joining the army or fleeing the city for the west—leaving mainly the elderly and those unable to flee.

Since February the church has been turned into a refugee center, and Michael and his team are serving people 24/7. Beds cover their entire building—pushed aside on Sundays for worship, which is overflowing, mainly with refugees, almost all non-Christians, and all of whom are traumatized by the ravages of war. Every day Michael and his team serve meals and clothes and medicine, they wrangle for supplies, they clean overstressed toilets, they help refugees evacuate west, they listen to heart-breaking stories, they counsel, and they unflaggingly share the hope of the gospel with desperate victims of war. For every Sovereign Grace church which has contributed to the European Development Fund to support these efforts, Michael asked that we pass on his deeply felt thanks.

Please do continue to pray for Michael and his church. The past week has brought targeted rocket attacks which left Dnipro without electricity, water, or communications for three days. They now have power for several hours a day, enough to charge batteries, cook food, and take a shower. Despite these deprivations, by the grace of God they remain joyful and devoted to proclaiming the gospel in this historic moment.

Beyond the conference, we had the unique joy of hosting the first Sovereign Grace European Fellowship gathering. The goal of this gathering was to pull together SGC pastors and pastors pursuing Sovereign Grace in Europe to build relationally, to learn from one another, and to pray and dream about the future of gospel mission together on this continent. In addition to the Arche pastors, we were joined by Matt Chapman and Peter Bowley, along with a guest pastor, Greg Cruse, from Bristol, England, and Ed O’Mara (who has recently relocated to Italy for a future church plant). Kyle Huber from Greentree Church (New Jersey) brought with him three pastors from Belarus whom he’s supported and labored with for 20 years. To a man, we were humbled as we listened to Sergei, Valeri, and Sasha share stories of ministering amidst governmental restrictions, surveillance, and outright persecution. We learned of the arrest and conviction of another pastor’s wife, recently convicted and sentenced to two years in prison for the crime of holding a poster with a Bible verse. Yet, these undaunted believers do not cower or hide—they continue to meet, they worship, they evangelize, they disciple.

Please pray for these pastors and the people they serve, and especially for Philip and Lida as they seek to navigate the unthinkable circumstances they are facing for the cause of Christ.

Although our time together was limited, it was beautiful to see relationships already beginning to form and faith rising for how the Lord may want to use the labors of Sovereign Grace pastors and churches to see the gospel proclaimed on the continent of Europe.

One of our cherished values in Sovereign Grace is partnership in the gospel—which is more than a slogan. Partnership strengthens us. It protects us. And it enriches us, with Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered friendships across the U.S. and around the world. I know I speak for Mark in saying that our whirlwind week together in Hamburg left us more grateful than ever for the partnerships He’s given us in Europe—and more inspired than ever for the gospel ministry we pray lies before us in the future together.

After the Pastors Conference and Jared's excellent closing session on church planting, you may be wondering, "How can I participate in that vision for church planting?" There are two key opportunities coming up that we believe can serve our pastors and churches as we seek to take up the work of church planting in Sovereign Grace.

Church Planter Assessment Weekend

Greg Dirnberger is leading a church planter assessment weekend in January for men who are seeking to discern whether there is a call on their life to plant a church. It's a two day intensive for the prospective planter and his wife where they'll have the opportunity to be assessed by some of our most experienced pastors in Sovereign Grace. This doesn't replace the local assessment or regional assessment, instead it aims to provide an additional layer of assessment to help both the local team and region as they walk with a man through this process. That weekend is coming up soon in January, so please contact us soon with your interest.

Antioch Project

The entire Church Planting Group will be hosting a retreat in March for pastoral teams desiring to more fully participate in our mission to plant churches in Sovereign Grace. While every church is in a different local situation, we desire all our churches to have the heart of the Antioch church in Acts 11-13 as they are committed to mission beyond their church. See this flyer for more information. This retreat will be March 20-23 and space is limited so please contact us soon with your interest.

May our next 40 years be marked by a commitment to plant and strengthen churches across our regions and around the world!

An update from Lauren Maples, Content Strategist for Sovereign Grace Churches…

I am excited to share that we have officially launched an Instagram account for Sovereign Grace Churches.

Our goal is not to gain a massive following, but to provide a more accessible form of communication about and from SGC for our pastors, church members, global partners, and anyone interested in learning more about SGC.

This account will highlight local churches around the world, updates from our leadership team, stories from our Emerging Nations, latest Sovereign Grace Journal updates, and more.

Follow @SovGraceChurches to catch the latest updates, photos, videos, and resources from SGC churches, missions, and leaders.

Join us as we celebrate all that God is doing in SGC and throughout the world!

As a Sovereign Grace Pastor one of the highlights of any year, is the annual Sovereign Grace Pastors & Wives Conference. Gathering together in Orlando, November 1st-3rd, this time serves as a “family reunion” for so many, and after the pandemic prevented so many of our global pastors from attending these past two years, this year is particularly special!

Current registration for the conference is over 700, with folk travelling in from places such as Germany, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Liberia, Zambia, Nimibia, Philippines & Australia, to name but a few.

For this month therefore, I’d love to enlist your prayers for this special and strategic time for our family of churches. Here are some ways you can pray for everyone involved:

• Please pray that God would use the preaching to equip our pastors to live our lives, and pastor our churches, in a way that we make much of Christ as we faithfully serve His people.

• Please pray for our main session speakers: Jeff Purswell, Jon Payne, C.J. Mahaney, Jared Mellinger, and Dave Taylor, as well as all of our breakout session speakers and worship leaders. That the Lord would bless and give grace to all that we do.

• Please pray for the work of the Holy Spirit as we spend time together, both in our gatherings and outside of them.

• Please pray that God would give us opportunities to care for one another and strengthen our relationships, both the old and new alike.

• Please pray that God would use our time to strengthen and unite us in the gospel mission we share, all for the Audience of One.

... What a wonderful time of year this is. May the Lord meet us and do what only He can do!

An update from David Del Castillo, co-pastor at Iglesia Gracia Soberana, Santa Cruz, Bolivia...

I have been really looking forward to this moment, since I want to update you on what God is doing among us. Thank you for all the support. It is very nice to be able to count on so many brothers in this great family to which we belong.

First of all, let me tell you that God has blessed us with several faithful people who have a passion for the gospel and are beginning to understand our Statement of Faith and our seven shared values. God has been very good to us. The church has grown remarkably compared to last year and now demands our focus on other challenges related to membership and leadership. We want God to guide us as we move forward. If you would like to see more of what our family has been doing, there is a video here. Right now, we are studying the book of Acts in the Sunday preaching and aspects of our Statement of Faith in our study meetings. God is building his church in our midst.

We are thankful to God that we have been able to work with other ministries. Simeon Trust has continued to invite me to participate in their training and with God's favor, I will be going to Venezuela from December 7 to 11 as an instructor of this ministry. I have also been invited to help in a workshop here in Santa Cruz in April 2023, and in La Paz in May 2023. I ask for your prayers.

By God's grace, on Monday October 24th my first article was published by the Gospel Coalition. Here is a link to the article in Spanish. This month I will be sending a second article as I have been invited to write for them quite regularly. I am convinced that I have been invited to participate in this ministry because of my role as a pastor and my affiliations with our beloved Sovereign Grace ministries.

I also want to tell you about our recent conference, "Servants by His Grace 2023" where we addressed the theme of "A Church According to His Word". This event was a great blessing. We had Joselo Mercado, Rich Richardson, Matthew Williams, Jose Mendoza and myself as speakers, as well as Chris and Maria Deloglos, Oscar Vargas and Erick Miranda as panellists. You can access video recordings of the conference here.

The conference was very good. We had close to 200 people attending, including several pastors. This number was higher than those who attended last year and included attendees not only from Santa Cruz but also from La Paz and Cochabamba. We had the support of the Gospel Coalition and Ligonier to give away books. In addition to this, we were visited by more than 10 different churches, among which two are considering adoption into our family of churches.

I really want to say that the expositors did a remarkable job. Each of them taught us about aspects of how a solid and good church should be. I do believe that the goal was achieved and many church members received the messages well, glory to God! We also spoke about the purpose of the church, the local church, how the church was the plan of God since the days of the Old Testament and how important missions are for the church. We thank God for all the support that each one of you has given us, either by being attentive to us or by praying. We believe that our little church is making an impact in our city.

Last but not least, I want to ask that you continue to pray for Pastor Jorge. His eyesight has continued to deteriorate. He cannot see out of one eye and has partial vision out of the other. Thanks to a relative, he is now in Texas and is being seen by a medical professional that this same relative is paying for. This medical professional has completed very prominent studies relating to the retina, and so Lord willing, it is my hope that we will have better clarity on how to move forward.

We ask for your prayerful support as we navigate the various challenges that a small church faces, including what it means to implement membership and leadership.

We will be traveling to the States soon to visit some churches and attend the 2022 Pastors Conference in Orlando. We are very excited to see many of you.

God bless you and thank you very much for reading.

An update from Josh Pannell, Dean of Trinity Fellowship Pastors College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia…

Since our inception as a church, Michael Granger (our lead pastor) and I have been eager to begin training Ethiopian men for pastoral ministry, which is why this update excites me so much. Our first class of the Trinity Fellowship Pastors College just graduated! This is a massive answer to prayer, and I am grateful for the Lord’s faithfulness. 

In the past 12 months, these men went to over 1000 hours of classes, read over 12,000 pages, and wrote over 250 pages in final assignments. They completed a year in seminary Greek and sentence diagramed 1 John 1 in Greek. In addition to this, they attended weekly elders meetings, conducted membership interviews, taught Sunday School classes, sat in on biblical counseling meetings, and preached on Sunday mornings. Not an easy year, but so very rewarding!

I could tell you amazing stories from all of these brothers (they are indeed a gift from the Lord!). Allow me to introduce you to just a few of them:

• Mohammed (Back Row, Far Right): Mohammed (not his actual name) is a Somali believer. Somalis are 99.9% Muslim. He’s a walking miracle! He has been imprisoned 14 times for preaching the gospel. He has a current ministry organizing Somali believers into churches and mobilizing evangelistic efforts toward Muslims. He desires to continue to help strengthen the Somali church in Addis and eventually return to Somalia with a partner to establish healthy Somali churches.

• Amani (Back Row, Third From the Left): Amani gave up a promising career at Ethiopian Airlines to invest fully in our church and pastors college, and invest fully he has! In addition to our studies, Amani has preached twice at Trinity Fellowship and assisted Michael regularly in counseling meetings. Amani is a gifted preacher and a compassionate counselor. He hopes to lead a church plant out of Trinity Fellowship in the upcoming years.

• Sammy (Back Row, Far Left): Sammy is one of our brightest. He desires to pursue further theological studies and is already applying for MtH programs. After that, he hopes to teach at our pastors college so that he might invest in the future pastors of Ethiopia long-term.

• Yeabtsega (Front Row, Second from the Left): Yeabtsega is also sharp theologically. He won our Academic Award after graduating with a 3.99 GPA. He desires both to church plant and to start a theological training center among unreached people groups in the Horn of Africa.

• AB (Back Row, Second from the Left): AB won our Leadership Award at graduation after the students agreed he demonstrated the greatest degree of Christ-like leadership throughout the year. AB is a talented musician and has served as our worship leader at Trinity Fellowship since it began. TFPC has greatly strengthened him both in his theology and pastoral gifting. In addition to continuing to lead worship on Sundays, AB wants to produce gospel-centered music in Amharic (the local language). His goal is to write songs that are easily singable in church and so impact the Ethiopian church at large.

God is doing something unique here in Addis Ababa, and it’s incredible to see him so clearly at work. We’re already looking forward to the 2023-2024 TFPC class, and I pray that we will still be sending out pastors to plant and strengthen churches hundreds of years from now.

Please note that Josh Pannell is fully funded by overseas support in these endeavours, as a traditional missionary, and is presently looking to raise support to cover expenses for the next two years. If you’d like to hear more about this, and potentially support the Pannell family with a gift, then please click here.

An update from Bert Turner, Executive Pastor at Covenant of Grace, Ohio, and Emerging Nations team representative to Brazil…

Karen and I were so humbled and blessed to be sent to Brazil for six weeks by Sovereign Grace Churches and our church, Covenant of Grace Church. We logged 16,000 miles in the air traveling from Cleveland, Ohio to five cities in Brazil – São Paulo, Fortaleza, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande and Porto Alegre. The Lord was gracious to build his church and connect us with his people all across Brazil. We are thankful to all who prayed for and supported us on the trip!

Our first stop was São Paulo. It was a joy spending time with our long-time friends and partners in the Gospel, Fabiano and Marcia Medeiros. We had a lovely time with our new friends and partners in the Gospel, Guilherme and Talyta Guimarães. Guilherme pastors a church plant that is pursuing formal partnership with Sovereign Grace Churches.

After São Paulo we travelled to Fortaleza where we visited with the leadership of a growing reformed and charismatic church. I spent a day with the leadership and preached in their Sunday services.

In our next city, Rio de Janeiro, we renewed relationships with long-time friends and pastors who are influential in Brazil in various ways.

In Rio Grande we gathered all the husbands and wives of the churches pursuing partnership with Sovereign Grace Churches for a weekend of fellowship and ministry. We were hosted by Emerson Soares and his church, Igreja Graça Soberana. It was a joy being with Emerson and Tati again. Emerson is in the final stages of the ordination process.

In our final city, Porto Alegre, we spent a wonderful week with Jader Bitencourt and his church, Igreja Casulo. Jader and Andressa are becoming dear friends as their church pursues formal partnership.

It would be hard to overstate how important it was to have Rich Richardson, Pastor and leader for the Latin American team, join us for a week in Rio Grande and Porto Alegre. His ministry of the Word was very effective as was his warm and insightful interaction with the Brazilians. Rich was also a great encouragement to Karen and I.

These were two highlights of the trip. The first was Fabiano’s ordination on September 18th which was a sweet and significant step in his 17 year-long quest to partner with SGC in Brazil. Now he is better equipped to be our boots-on-the-ground for our developing relationships and further ordinations in Brazil, which he is eager to pursue.

The second highlight was meeting with Rich. All the men – Guilherme Guimarães, Fabiano Medeiros, Emerson Soares, Jader Bitencourt — carried the sense of being a nascent team of diversely gifted men upon which God will build in the years to come. That joy was multiplied by having all the wives present that weekend as well.   

In that meeting with the team I shared the sense that the Lord gave me Revelation 3:8 as a context for where these churches and SGC Brazil are at this time.

“I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” (Revelation 3:8)

Truly, we need the Lord to build the house as we attempt to walk through the open door for SGC to serve the Lord’s purposes in Brazil. I believe our efforts there are timely. God is moving in some remarkable ways in Brazil to restore the doctrines of grace and to build his church.

An update from Andy Farmer, Pastor at Covenant Fellowship, Glen Mills, Pennsylvania…

In Sovereign Grace we are committed to planting churches that will start well and last long. Church planting in Sovereign Grace is a cooperative effort between a planter, a sending church, a Region and a national committee serving under the Director of Church Development. One crucial aspect of this cooperation is our annual Church Planter Cohort.

I have the privilege of leading the cohort, which is a year long gathering of planters who are looking to launch churches within one year to 18 months. Through a combination of retreats and Zoom meetings we work through the specific plans and challenges of plants, help the planter prepare for approval of his plant by the Region and provide tools and resources for the health of his soul, his family, and his church planting team. 

This year we have four men in the cohort. Each of these plants is a very distinct but faithful application of our church planting missiology…

Ramon Flores, is a pastor at Legacy Church in Yuma, Arizona, who is preparing to launch a Spanish speaking congregation alongside the existing church.

Gabriel Magill is a Sovereign Grace pastor who is doing an exploratory work to plant a church in Warren, Pennsylvania.

Jeremy Hetrick is a pastor at Living Hope Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who will be planting with a segment of the church across the Susquehanna River around Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

Perry Wang is an elder in training at Risen Hope Church in Charleston, South Carolina who is developing a plan to plant a Mandarin speaking church in North Charleston. 

We began this year’s cohort by gathering in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania where the guys had a chance to meet with the Covenant Fellowship eldership and talk about leading a church plant through team ministry. We met for a full day discussing each plant and its opportunities and questions. We then spent the afternoon working the process of church planting as laid out in our Book of Church Order and the Guidelines and Best Practices. In the evening we met with the church planting team of Valley Creek Church in Malvern, led by Nick Kidwell. Saturday was spent on a tour of historic Philadelphia where we interacted over the work of mission in a complex culture. On Sunday morning the cohort had the chance to attend Covenant Fellowship Church and participate in the send-off service for Valley Creek Church.   

As I’ve led these cohorts over the years I’ve been humbled and amazed at the quality of men who want to plant Sovereign Grace churches, and the level of sacrifice they and their families and sending churches are willing to make to see our mission advance in new ways. We are a church planting movement, we have always been a church planting movement, and experiences like this give me faith that we will always be a church planting movement. 

An update from our key leader in Pakistan (identity concealed for safety reasons), as he speaks on behalf of 17 Churches in Pakistan who we’ve related to for many years, primarily through theological training and mentoring, and who are eager to pursue formal partnership with Sovereign Grace Churches...

Greetings.

As you all know, Pakistan is going through a tough time because of heavy rainfall and flooding. Many areas have been affected especially the Sindh province. People have lost their homes and are going through a very hard time. Our pastoral team visited the flood victims and gave them essential items to help them survive until the circumstances were under control. This is all because of the generosity of Sovereign Grace Churches. With the help of your funds we were able to bless these people. They were overjoyed to see that they finally had beds, warm blankets to sleep in and food to eat. Muslim people have been reaching out to their community and have been neglecting Christians. Your funds and prayers have meant that we could also reach the Christian community, together with Muslim and Hindu families.

The package that we gave them included beds, blankets, mattresses, water coolers, crockery, food items, hygienic items, and mosquito nets. Along with that we arranged a medical camp. We invited a professional physician who examined the patients who were affected from the floods and poor hygienic conditions. We also distributed audio Bibles and Bibles to the people because we knew that apart from their physical needs, their spiritual growth was also very important. We joined them in their huts and prayed with them before the distribution.

There are still families who are not yet reached, so we are praying for those who are living hand to mouth and are suffering. Once again, we are extremely thankful to Sovereign Grace Church, for your soft hearts for the victims and your desire to bless them. We have seen the gratitude on the faces of people. One of the ladies we reached out to said that though they are away from home and are suffering, they know that “Our God has not forgotten us and will definitely make a way for us.” They are also very thankful for their Bibles after having to leave most of their physical possessions behind. The only thing the people could say was how good God is.

We are thankful that the team were able to get home safely and seeing the Pakistani people happy when we left, brought us much joy.

God bless you!

In his book, “Truth On Fire - Gazing at God Until Your Heart Sings”, Adam Ramsey writes the following: “Relying on our own cleverness to live out the Christian life is like trying to circle the globe in a glider. It might fly for a while, but predictably, it is going to crash. Prayer, on the other hand, is God’s sovereignly appointed means of connecting our never-ending neediness to God’s never-ending power. Prayer is the vehicle through which God will accomplish his invincible purposes, through the lives of weak dependent people, like you and me.”

I love that quote, and it’s so true. Without His sovereign help, we’re like a glider trying to circle the globe, all by itself, and so here’s how you can be praying for us in the month ahead, we so need Him…

1. Please pray for Todd Peterson and Erik Rangel who are nearing the end of a recent trip to India. Please pray for wisdom as they continue conversations with various church leaders (Arun in Prayahraj, Caleb and Sidhanta in Bhubaneswar and Hemo in Karaput) in determining a way forward for future SGC partnerships. Todd and Erik have been leading the Villatoro ministry in Vempadu, headed by JP, with the hopes of converting it into a formal foundation. They have also been overseeing plans for a Bible College in Gundugolanu, and so please pray for wisdom and clarity for these men as they continue to serve in this way.

2. Please pray for Bert Turner (Executive Pastor of Covenant of Grace Church, Copley, Ohio) as he continues his time in Brazil (September 1st – October 12th). Please pray for safety and good health for all those who are travelling. Please pray for good communication as Bert meets with Pastors Emerson, Fabiano, Guilherme and Jader as they seek to build gospel-centred relationships through which Jesus can build his church. Please pray for Rich Richardson as he joins Bert in Brazil, so that as they communicate and preach they will “bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 3:9-11).

3. Please pray for Dave York and his team of SGC pastors (Dave Taylor, Riley Spring, Tony Walsh and Lynn Baird) who will travel to the Philippines from October 7th-16th to conduct oral exams for ordination. There are 19 men who are candidates, and so please pray for peace and wisdom for them as they sit these exams. Please pray for safety for everyone travelling from Australia, the USA and the Philippines, and that God would give understanding and discernment to the SGC pastors on the ordination panels.

4. Please pray for Nick Kidwell and his team who planted Valley Creek Church in Malvern, Pennsylvania on Sunday October 2nd. The church building is located in the heart of Malvern amongst many local homes and businesses. Please pray that it will be a place that brings about gospel change for many folk in the community there. Please also pray for unity for the team, asking God to give them a united vision for the mission they are on together.

… Thank you so much for praying with us. May his grace abound!

An update from Dyonah Thomas (Lead pastor of Gracelife Church in Monrovia, Liberia)…

West Africa is home to over 10 nations, a complexity of cultures and two major languages, English and French. The greatest need for Christ cannot be over-emphasized. Gracelife Church has been working in West Africa for over 8 years now with churches in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. This year we launched our first Pastors and Planters Academy.

God has been kind to enable us to build lots of regional relationships. Through our existing churches and relationships, we were able to recruit 15 men from Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast for the first cohort. Ten of these men are Full-Time and five are Part-Time. God has been kind to allow these brothers to relocate with their families to Gracelife.

The Academy is designed with the aim of enhancing the knowledge, conviction and competency of each of these men around gospel-centered theology and ministry. They are immersed into the life of the local church, involved with leadership and ministry as well as the wider community. It is a solid year of training and interaction.

These brothers, supported by the wider network of churches in West Africa are dreaming, working, praying and networking, all in the hopes of sending out teams to Southwestern Liberia, North Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau.

Please continue to pray that as we learn together, the Lord will grow this cohort into men who love Jesus, who love their wives and children, and who labor with joy because of their love for Christ’s church. Please pray that God will continue raising up faithful instructors to teach, mentor and coach these men. Please pray that the Lord will build into the hearts of each of these men a vision for the harvest and clarity on where to serve going forward.

An update from Fengyu Ji…

My name is Fengyu Ji. I was born and raised in Mainland China, an atheist country that denies God, soul and afterlife. The very first time I heard about the gospel was in 2006 when I was a freshman in college. A young American man named Andy shared the gospel with me after I encountered him on campus. He was studying Chinese in my college. Years later I learned that he was from Campus Crusade.

Andy soon invited me to attend their fellowship gathering. Among those Christians that night, I was amazed by their genuine love towards one another, which I never experienced before in a Darwinist society. Not only so, what surprised me the most was their warm welcome and tender care towards me - a total stranger! In China, trust between strangers is rare. Defensiveness and indifference prevail people’s hearts. Yet this group was so distinctive. That characteristic attracted me to know more.

I was connected to a house church in Beijing. Through hearing the Word being faithfully preached week in and week out, I deeply felt the need to accept Jesus as my Savior. I am a sinner! Only through Jesus Christ can my sins be forgiven. He died on the cross for me, so I am spared from death. And one day I will be raised with Him. What great news to the world! One year later, I was baptized into Christ’s body. Soon after that, God began to test and strengthen my faith through persecution. In those years, a revival was taking place in China. Many people repented and were added to our church. The authorities started to persecute our church since 2008, to stop our growth. However, this trial was turned into a blessing in God’s hand to true believers. We rejoiced that we were counted worthy to suffer for Christ. We followed the Lord through the path of the cross.

In 2010, I received God’s calling for me to feed His sheep through the preaching of His Word, as the burden to build up the Chinese Church through solid teachings from the pulpit became stronger and stronger in me. I was encouraged by my senior pastor to pursue this calling and I began to preach monthly. In 2015, with the support and blessing of my home church, I went to Louisville, Kentucky to get theological training at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

During my studies, my wife and I joined Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. We were greatly influenced by the gospel-centered preaching we heard every Sunday. Over the years our lives have been changed notably, from a legalistic tendency to a joyful appreciation of God’s grace.

In 2018, I went to Pastors College to better equip myself with the Sovereign Grace values. The passionate vision in my heart to build a gospel-centered Chinese church was strengthened more and more.

After graduating from Southern in 2020, I left Louisville to serve as a Mandarin-speaking minister in a Chinese Church in Maryland. God continued His work to prepare me to be a more useful vessel for future church planting. Meanwhile, my wife's heart for church planting grew. This encouraged me greatly and we felt united. We talked about our convictions about church planting frequently at home. We prayerfully sought God and hoped that He would open a door for us to plant with Sovereign Grace.

Last November in the Pastors Conference we were very excited and grateful to learn that God was also preparing Sovereign Grace for a vision towards the Chinese! Our mutual hope is to plant a Chinese-speaking church in the States first, and then be sent back to China for church planting in the long term. It is our strong desire to bring the gospel of grace to more Chinese people both here and later in China.

As we prayed and sought God’s guidance specifically for a location to do church planting in the States, it became evident that He was leading us to Clarksburg in Maryland. Clarksburg is a growing suburban area outside Washington DC. New immigrants are flowing in continually and the Asian population has reached 40% in recent years. Even more than this, in God’s providence I will be starting a pastoral internship for two years this December at Grace Church of Clarksburg, which is a local Sovereign Grace Church. 

I thank God for such precious learning opportunities and support as I prepare for church planting. Please pray for us, that God may open a wide door for us in Clarksburg to preach His word and to effectively declare the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen!

An update from Riley Spring (Lead Pastor, Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta, Australia)…

Dave Taylor and I recently had an amazing trip travelling to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to take part in the Trinity Fellowship Pastor’s College. It was a joy to gather with Trinity Fellowship Church on the Sunday to celebrate the gospel together. We were blessed by the warmth and encouragement of this newly formed and vibrant Sovereign Grace Church. It was remarkable how similar it felt to our churches back home, as we all have the same gospel culture and DNA.

Over the week, we were hosted by Josh Pannell, Dean of the Pastor’s College, and Michael Granger, Senior Pastor, who took us around the city to give us a feel for what God is doing in Addis Ababa, and as well to find out more about what God is doing across all of Africa. It was so inspiring to see how God is on the move and to hear their bold and ambitious plans to plant more churches (ten in ten years!), raise up leaders, and fan into flame a gospel centered movement in their city and beyond. We also ate with leaders from City to City Africa and Voice of the Martyrs and heard more stories of the current work that the Lord is doing in Addis Ababa and Africa as a whole. They encouraged us to see Sovereign Grace as one of the most uniquely poised denominations to have a global impact. This is because of our strong gospel centrality and our clarity of doctrine, values, and partnership.  

At the Pastor’s College, we spent the week teaching on church planting. Our assignment was to teach how to plant Sovereign Grace Churches, the Sovereign Grace way. We took the men through our Seven Shared Values and Seven Shaping Virtues as the foundation. We then spent the rest of the time looking at the practicals of what church planting would look like for them in Addis Ababa and in other African countries that God may be leading them to. We sought to make it as practical as possible so that they had a whole new host of categories to think through how to plant a church in their context. We shared our experience but wanted to ensure that we weren’t imposing a ‘western’ paradigm on their context. We finished our time by looking at the theology and practice of partnership, and how that would look for them going forward to plant churches in partnership with one another and with Sovereign Grace.

These men are very special men. They have a deep love for the Lord, for their local church, and a real heart for Sovereign Grace. If this is a small sampling of how God is at work in Africa, there is much to be excited about!