This is the one time of year when rather than give you several different updates, it’s my joy to just give you the one.

I recently got to give this Global Update at our Sovereign Grace Pastors Conference in Orlando, Florida, which I began with a short Slideshow. I hope it encourages you, excites you, and reminds you of just how good the Lord has been to us!

What a wonderful year it has been…

In an previous 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 across the world this month.

2. Please 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. Please pray for our two church plants in Mexico, one in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, and one in Huajuapan Oaxaca asking God to provide for their needs, strengthen their church planting teams, and draw unbelievers to both churches.

5. Please pray that God would bring peace and end the wars in Ukraine and in Israel. Pray that God would turn the tragedies of war into gospel opportunities in both nations. Please continue to pray for the Ark Church, our sister church in Dnipro, Ukraine, asking God to protect them, and to use them to meet practical needs, and to offer gospel hope to people impacted by the conflict in Ukraine.

6. Please 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 Markus Kniesel, Dean of the Arche Pastors College in Hamburg, Germany...

In a few months, the Arche Pastors College (APC) will have existed for 10 years in Germany. We are glad to share with you with much gratitude to God how He has built and blessed the APC for His Kingdom during this time.

The model for the development of the APC has been the Pastors College of Sovereign Grace Churches that was located in former times in Gaithersburg, Maryland, where Christian Wegert, Senior Pastor of the Arche church, and myself, Dean of the Arche Pastors College, were able to receive our pastoral training (in 2007-2008, and 2011-2012 respectively).

In February 2014, the APC was founded out of the desire to plant and to strengthen gospel centered churches in Germany and beyond. According to 2 Timothy 2:2, it is our goal to train men for pastoral ministry through 3 things: theological training, building character, and practical serving in the local church. The APC is not a full-time program. Rather, within 4 to 5  years the students undertake 4 modules each year. Each module is taught on Friday, Saturday, and Monday in the classroom. Since 2017, parallel to the lectures, the wives of the students meet with my wife, Kati on Saturdays to prepare them for ministry by their husband's side and to be strengthened in their personal spiritual lives.

Sovereign Grace Churches has been a great support in the development of the APC, both in an advisory and practical way. From the beginning, we have been supported by pastors and theologians who also teach at the US SG Pastors College. These men include Pastor Josh Blount (SGC Living Faith, Franklin, West Virginia), and Dr. Thomas Schreiner (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky). We are especially grateful to Jeff Purswell for his personal commitment to come to Germany every year whenever possible to teach one out of four of the yearly modules.

Since the very first module which was taught by Jeff Purswell in March 2014, two cohorts of students have graduated from the APC. In 2018, the first class of 11 men from German churches and Arche Church plants in Ukraine and Russia graduated. The second graduation took place in May 2022 with 15 more students after 4 to 5 years of training. Several of the graduates now serve in full-time ministry in Germany, in the Arche churches of Hamburg, Stade, and Hannover as well as in our daughter churches in Ukraine and Russia. We see that the APC is serving to be a church planting and mission project.

Over the years, the students of the APC have consistently expressed gratitude for theology taught in a true-to-life manner and the high quality of education. We are deeply grateful to God for this wonderful partnership with Sovereign Grace Churches in the gospel!

Currently about 25 students are being trained at the APC. Our prayer is that God would use the APC to equip our students to be godly, skilled, and faithful shepherds who lead and care for local churches in Germany and beyond.

May God use the APC to equip a lot of men to spread out God`s gospel over Germany and beyond to save sinners like me and you. We have the hope that each student, his family, and the church he will serve will be strengthened as we endeavor to proclaim in our ministries and reflect in our lives the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ for the glory of God.

Watch this overview video to get an idea of the Antioch Program.

An update from Ricky Alcantar…

For the last two years I’ve had the privilege of sitting in a room with other Sovereign Grace pastors as we studied Scripture, prayed, and strategized about how to advance the gospel beyond our own local churches. And as I’ve done this something powerful often happens. 

One retreat in particular I was fighting some persistent health issues and discouragement about mission in our local church. Spending three days thinking and praying about mission felt like it might only add to a sense of frustration or burden. But in fact, the opposite happened.

• As we spent time around God’s Word and as brothers in Sovereign Grace led us in teaching and discussion the mission that might feel vague and overwhelming began to feel much more specific and concrete. 

• As we spent time in prayer and ministry to one another my sense of excitement for God’s mission and faith for playing a part in it grew. 

• As we spent time around good meals (many of them!) I no longer felt isolated or alone in pursuing the mission, but felt I was linking arms with other brothers and churches. 

The Antioch program was created exactly for these reasons. 

The main piece of the Antioch program is a retreat for pastors in Sovereign Grace focused on equipping churches at the intersection of ecclesiology and missiology to be sending churches. It’s called “Antioch” because we want to see our churches become Antioch churches in the model of Acts 11-13. The retreat is followed and supported by coaching from a trained church planting coach in Sovereign Grace and the project will wrap up with a meeting just before the 2024 Sovereign Grace Pastors Conference. 

Our hope is to see Sovereign Grace churches intentionally, effectively, sacrificially, and consistently pursuing church planting and mission work. We believe every church regardless of its size, location, and resources can participate in this work. It will not look the same in every context but should be marked by the same consistent faithful pursuit. 

As we gathered in 2022 and 2023 God met us and we’re seeing God do some amazing and encouraging things in churches as a result. That only builds our anticipation for what God could do in the future.

Our next planned Antioch retreat is March 2024. Please let us know if you’re interested, and we’d love to get you more information. 

Also, I just wrote an article in the recent SGC Journal on the church in Antioch and what we can learn from it.

Ricky serves on the National Church Planting Group with Sovereign Grace Churches, leading the Antioch Program, and is the lead pastor at Cross of Grace Church in El Paso, Texas, USA.

An update from Brendan Willis, Pastor at Sovereign Grace Church Wahroonga, Australia…

 “How did you come to faith in Christ?” For many of us that question may raise memories of a specific moment or event that was pivotal in our journey towards faith in Christ.  

Yet for every pivotal moment, there is nearly always as many names and faces of those who have been deeply influential: praying for us, encouraging us and challenging us to consider following Christ. That youth leader. That parent. That aunty or uncle. That close family friend or neighbour.  

In fact ––though we don’t often like to admit it–– it is often the example of those closest to us that have far more profoundly shaped us than any single ‘moment’ or ‘event’ in our lives.  

All of us stand on the shoulders of those who have come before us.  We are a part of an incredible gospel chain stretching back from God’s calling of Abraham (Gen 12:1–3) through to the very first disciples of Christ (2 Tim 2:2). Generation after generation faithfully commending the message of Christ to the next. As King David himself wrote, 

“One generation shall commend your works to another,  
and shall declare your mighty acts.”  Psalm 145:4 

“Don’t break the chain.” This is the task of the church in every generation. It’s also the heartbeat of our Young Leader’s Internship! 

Ever since Sovereign Grace Churches Australia was founded in late 2010, we’ve had a deep desire to invest into the next generation of leaders, and so in January of this year we launched our very first Young Leaders Internship with 11 interns from our two churches. 

The aim of the year long program? Simply that our interns might fall deeper in love with the Lord Jesus and His Bride, the local church! 

The program consists of monthly readings, teaching sessions and assignments aimed at growing students in their character, competency, and convictions. These topics have ranged from ‘Humility’, to ‘the Doctrine of Scripture’, ‘the Gospel’ and ‘Engaging With Culture’. 

Alongside these monthly teaching sessions, each intern has also participated in a ministry mentoring group aimed at providing them with opportunities for further accountability, encouragement in their focus area of service, and a more detailed look at an area of character specific to serving (e.g. interdependence, joy, generosity etc). 

Lastly, each semester the interns have had a ministry project that they’ve participated in. In the first semester this was to run together a Holiday Kids Club: Egyptian Adventure, and in Semester 2 it has been to participate in our Team Leaders Training program. 

It’s been an absolute joy to watch the way the Lord has been at work amongst the cohort over the course of the year, stretching them and growing them together in friendship with both one another and the Lord!  

They served their socks off during our Kids Club which was a huge success with well over 40 kids in attendance–– we were stretched just to have sufficient leaders! It was incredible to see their devotion to everything from set design to Bible talks, and prayer for the families represented! In addition, many of them have stepped out in faith to take on new leadership responsibility in their home churches. 

More importantly, it’s been incredible to see the way God has been growing our interns in their heart for the Lord Jesus and the local church over the course of the year! Here are just two reflections from the group: 

“Over the past year, I have developed a deep love for serving the local church. I have embraced various areas of serving […] These opportunities have allowed me to experience the joy of serving God's people in different capacities.” Esther Monck

“My heart for the local church is something I pray people notice. Not to boast in myself, but instead to make known the unmatched beauty of Christ that is present in and through the local church. My heart to serve the local church is not something that may have been well displayed. I believe God is continuously working in my heart to increase my joy in serving, not doing it out of obligation, but out of love for my community.” Amy Taylor

Excitingly, two of our interns are now even stepping into paid internships in 2024! Marcos Cabral will begin an internship focused on Youth & Evangelism and Hannah Payne an internship focused on Youth & Community! We couldn’t be more excited to see these guys want to continue to pour their time and energy into serving Christ and his Church! 

As we step into our final month of our Young Leaders Internship, how can we do anything but thank God for his work in our midst this year!  

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

As I sit down to write this update, my heart is filled with gratitude. It is evident that everything happening at Trinity Fellowship is a testament to the Lord's grace and your unwavering support. Your faithful prayers and generous gifts have been instrumental in advancing the gospel in Addis and we are excited to share how you have propelled the gospel forward in Ethiopia through your partnership with us.

In the growth of Trinity Fellowship Church, God has consistently brought young men to us with a desire for pastoral ministry. In September 2021, we inaugurated Trinity Fellowship Pastors College, with eleven church members making up our first class. Today, we're thrilled to see another cohort of ten men, all church members, who started the Pastors College this past September. Their backgrounds include Ethiopians with theology and Bible degrees, a popular secular music artist with a desire for pastoral ministry, and a Somali man with an MDIV who aspires to plant an underground church among his people.

Following the apostle Paul's charge to Timothy—"watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers" (1 Timothy 4:16)—we seek to equally emphasize both theological precision and the development of pastoral qualifications. Pastors are not merely conveyors of the gospel; they are living examples of its transformative power. Because of this, our program places great importance on the pursuit of practical holiness and pastoral qualifications. Throughout their studies, students receive personalized discipleship from Trinity Fellowship Church's elder team.

Our program also offers demanding academics. It consists of 42 one-week master's level block courses, each comprising 25 classroom hours. The curriculum is rigorous and designed to prepare men for the challenges of pastoral ministry.

The year began with me teaching the first three weeks of class. I covered Prolegomena and Bibliology, followed by Hermeneutics, and concluded with Biblical Theology. Michael Granger, our lead pastor at Trinity Fellowship Church, then taught The Gospel-Centered Life, and Kruger DeKock from South Africa taught The Gospel-Centered Pastor. Jason Hudson, a seasoned Sovereign Grace pastor, led Pastoral Ministry 1, and Ben Lovelady taught our course on The Torah.

Looking ahead, we are excited to welcome teachers from Africa, Europe, and North America. They are both scholars in their respective fields and seasoned pastors with decades of faithful shepherding. In the coming months, we eagerly anticipate the arrival of individuals such as Thomas Schreiner, Steven Wellum, Jason Derouchie, Andreas Köstenberger, Michael Heykin, Conrad Mbewe, Peter Leithart, Matthew Harmon, Thomas Renz, Ronald Kalifungwa, Paul Kayumba, Eric Bancroft, Bob Kauflin, Mark Prater, Josh Blount, Tim Kerr, Markus Kniesel, Pete Payne, Mark Alderton, and others. Truly, the Lord continues to abundantly bless us!

One of our main objectives at Trinity Fellowship is to gradually phase ourselves out and pave the way for the ministry to be fully led by locals. Our goal is to achieve this within the next decade. The new year at the Pastors College marks significant progress towards this vision, as several graduates from 2022 are actively serving the college.

Mekdim has taken on the role of Operations Manager while pursuing certificates in counselling through CCEF to further prepare himself for ministry. Samuel, another graduate, now serves as my Academic Assistant while also advancing his studies as he pursues an MTh at Union School of Theology. Finally, Amanuel has taken on the role of Student Care Coordinator, dedicating 10 hours per week to student discipleship. This year has also given several of our graduates the opportunity to assist me in teaching selected sections of my classes. In the image above, Brian Kiama is teaching his 30 page thesis paper on membership in the New Covenant from Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 8, which he wrote during his time at the Pastors College.

Witnessing these graduates stepping into these roles is not only a testament to their growth and the Lord's faithfulness, but also a significant step towards transitioning Trinity Fellowship completely to Ethiopian leadership.

I am grateful to God for the work unfolding at Trinity Fellowship, and I am grateful to each of you for partnering with us on this journey. Drawing from Paul's words in Philippians 4:18–20, we can confidently say that we “have received more than enough. The gifts you sent, through Epaphroditus, are a fragrant offering and a sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. And just as God has provided for us, He will also supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Let us give glory to our God and Father forever and ever. Amen.”

An update from Greg Dirnberger…

On January 20-21, 2023, the National Church Planting Group offered a Church Planter Assessment Weekender in Irvine, CA.  The purpose of the “weekender” was to come alongside potential church planting couples, to serve them and care for them, by offering discernment regarding their next steps in ministry.  

The Church Planter Assessment Weekender rose from the burden of the National Church Planting Group to serve local elderships and regional church planting committees that might not have the same "in house" resources for evaluating potential church planting couples that some other Sovereign Grace churches have.  To this end, the National Church Planting Group assembled an “assessment team” of experienced church planting couples, each of whom also serve in extra-local capacities for Sovereign Grace Churches.

 To be sure, the “assessment team” does not possess the ability to determine, infallibly, whether or a not a potential church planting couple can or will effectively plant a church.  The ultimate determining factor in that regard is God.  Nor does the “assessment team” possess the authority to decide if a potential church planting couple should, or should not, be deployed to plant a church.  That authority resides in their local elderships, together with their regional church planting committees.  However, the “assessment team” is able, with God’s help, to pay careful attention for the presence of leading indicators that consistently contribute to fruitful church planters.   Our aim is to offer discernment.  

The 4 men who participated in the weekender, did preparatory homework ahead of time.  Over the course of two days, they each told their “story” – an exercise designed to evaluate self-awareness, self-preservation, resilience, critical shaping influences, as well as their comfort level with who and how God has made them to be.  Each couple completed a marriage “check-up” inventory.  Each of the individuals had the opportunity to communicate the essentials of the Gospel.  Each of the men preached a mini sermon.  Each couple took turns “envisioning” us (as if we were potential launch team members) with the distinctives, location, target demographic, and burden for their respective and potential church plants.   Our matrix was essentially “The Planter, The Place, and Sovereign Grace.”  We looked for alignment between the man, the couple, the location they were considering, their relationship to their local Sovereign Grace Church, as well as their commitment to Sovereign Grace values and embodiment of Sovereign Grace culture.

We ended by sharing with them our observations and one of three possible recommendations.  1) "Move ahead in taking next steps with local eldership and regional church planting committee."  2) "Move ahead with taking next steps, but with conditions to address certain “risk factors” before entering the church planting "pipeline." 3) "We do not recommend moving forward at this time, and for the following reasons . . . " These observations and recommendations were then forwarded in a summary report to the pastor’s and elderships who had sent the couples to the assessment weekender.  

It is with eager and joyful anticipation that we anticipate hearing about specific plans for new Sovereign Grace church plants emerging in the future. It is the prayerful desire of the National Church Planting Group that the “assessment weekender” might serve Sovereign Grace Churches in the coming years for planting healthy, fruitful, enduring churches to the praise of God’s glorious grace.

We are thrilled to have 8 couples join us for the 2024 event. If you are interested in participating in a future event, let us know.

Greg serves as the Senior Pastor at Emmaus Road Church, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA. Greg is also the SGC Asia-Pacific - Area Leader and serves on the US National Church Planting Group.

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

“Building relationally has always been a value in Sovereign Grace, and by the grace of God, it's our hope that it always will be. One of the ways that we strengthen the relationships we have among our churches is to pray for one another. It is right that we, as a family of churches, pray for one another, but it is also right that we remember who we pray to. Charles Spurgeon in his book, “The Power of Prayer in a Believer’s Life” writes: “The frail, feeble, undeserving creature is permitted to stand in the august presence of the God of the whole earth, and the Lord regards the poor creature as if there were nothing else for Him to observe, bending His ear, and His heart to listen to that creatures cry. It is essential that we know that we are speaking to God, and that God is hearing us.”

It’s amazing isn’t it!? The Lord of the whole earth bends His ear and His heart to listen to our prayers, and so here’s how we can be praying for one another in the month ahead…

1. Please pray for Bob Kauflin, Fabrizio Rodulfo, and David Zimmer as they join with brothers and sisters in Guadalajara, MX, this week, to host our first ever Spanish Songwriter Retreat, with representatives from Mexico, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, and the US. Please pray that their time will lead to an abundance of songs to serve Spanish speaking churches.

2. Please pray for myself (Dave Taylor) and Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney as we continue to host 17 pastors and wives from the Philippines for the second half of our SG Pastors Immersion Training. This training will help us to continue putting some key foundations into Sovereign Grace Churches Philippines and bring these pastors together as a foundational leadership cohort. We’re very excited about this step as our two big groups of churches in the Philippines start to come together in partnership in this way, all under the one banner of SGC Philippines.

3. Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Pakistan who have been affected by the recent rioting. There were about 20-25 churches that were looted and burned as well as many homes of Christian families. One of those looted and destroyed churches is pastored by a man who is with the group that we have the privilege of partnering with, in Pakistan. So please pray, that God would meet them in this time of great affliction and sorrow.

4. Please pray for the Sovereign Grace Churches Pastors Conference, November 14-16, 2023, in Orlando, FL asking God to work in a way that our relationships among our churches are strengthened, pastors and wives are equipped for what God has called them to do, and that our family of churches is united in our shared gospel mission all for the glory of God alone. There will be pastors and wives coming together from 24 different nations, so what a special and strategic time this will be together.

5. Pray for our two church plants in Mexico, one in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, and one in Huajuapan Oaxaca asking God to provide for their needs, strengthen their church planting teams, and draw unbelievers to both churches.

6. Pray that God would bring peace and end the wars in Ukraine and in Israel. Pray that God would turn the tragedies of war into gospel opportunities in both nations. Please continue to pray for the Ark Church, our sister church in Dnipro, Ukraine, asking God to protect them, and to use them to meet practical needs, and to offer gospel hope to people impacted by the conflict in Ukraine.

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 so much for praying with us in these things. He’s ready to bend His ear towards us even now.

An update from Jeremy Hetrick, Lead Pastor of Redeeming Grace Church, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, USA...

On Sunday, August 27, 2023, Ben Kreps and Living Hope Church in Middletown, Pennsylvania (PA), commissioned and sent out my family and I, along with approximately 100 other adults and children to launch Redeeming Grace Church in Mechanicsburg, PA. It was a joyous yet teary occasion as members and friends who, for years have done life together at Living Hope, said their good-byes for the sake of Jesus Christ and the gospel mission in the Mechanicsburg region. While we still live within about a half hour, we all recognized the cost of going on this church plant and being on mission for Jesus.

We (Redeeming Grace Church) held our inaugural meeting the following week at Elmwood Academy in Mechanicsburg on Sunday, September 3rd, with 190 in attendance. Now, after two months of meetings, we have seen many new guests from various cultural backgrounds and walks of life, and our attendance has hovered around 140.

Over the course of our summer pre-launch meetings, we had several new families join our church plant journey. Because of this, we held a new members class (Explore) in October, which was attended by 14 individuals. It is simply a joy to see how God is bringing people to RGC and to see their desire to be a part of what God is doing here.

As I type this update, I am so grateful to God for a number of reasons…

First, it is hard to explain the privilege that it is to represent Jesus Christ and the gospel mission in this church plant. We began RGC with a study of the Gospel of Mark, and already, Jesus is revealing how precious He is and how amazing His gospel is for us. And we get the opportunity to share this amazing news with others?!!! Additionally, as a church, we get to express a warmth and joy in interacting with our guests that reflects gospel grace. And what a blessing it has been to talk with our guests to find out that this is their experience!

Second, I am grateful to God for the sacrifices that Living Hope Church has made to enable this church plant to occur. What a picture of the gospel at work! Please join us as we pray often for an outpouring of God’s provision and faithfulness to Living Hope so that they are strengthened, and they can plant more churches!

Third, I am grateful to God for our Sovereign Grace family. Space does not permit me to share the totality of the blessings and support we have received from all of you. Thank you for your financial support through the church planting grant, the process for knowing how to plant a church (including the cohort), and the relational support from pastors and churches in both the Lower Great Lakes Region and the Northeast Region.

Most significantly, thank you Sovereign Grace for the investment made in us over the years to ensure we are founded on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you, C.J., and all of the leaders who have gone before us in establishing our group of churches on the foundation of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. May we never lose our grip on the gospel, and may we plant more churches to be gospel lighthouses in the days ahead for God’s glory!

If you would like to pray for us, please pray that:

• God would continually enlighten the eyes of our hearts by His Spirit so that we can see Jesus more clearly with eyes of faith and treasure Him and His gospel above all other things.

• God would continue to keep drawing us closer as a church and we would have a strong corporate witness among the community and region. May our church be marked by love and gospel humility for God’s glory!

• God would provide open doors for the gospel in our community, and we would be clear in our communication of it (Col. 4:2-4).

• God would bless the efforts we are making in the discipleship of men. My prayer is that we would grow in being gospel men of conviction.

• God would provide clarity and success in the identification, training, and raising up of other men for future leadership at all levels, including church planters!

• God would grant to RGC the vision, faith, and success to be a church planting church in 5-10 years in partnership with Sovereign Grace!

Soli Deo Gloria!

An update from Riley Spring, Lead Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta, Sydney and National Leader for Australia...

Not long ago we gathered together as a church for our 4th birthday. It was a day filled with celebration and joy as we marked four years of God’s kindness and faithfulness to us as a local body.

An anniversary can provide a timely opportunity to pause and reflect on God’s grace in getting us here. He has sustained our church plant through the middle of a pandemic. He has provided us with at least six different venues for our Sunday worship. He has encouraged a spirit of evangelism, which has borne fruit in the saving of individuals and families through the Spirit. He has grown the children’s ministry, with the young hearing about Jesus' love each week. He has matured believers in the faith, spurring them on to delve deeper into understanding and applying the Gospel. He has equipped a music team that leads the congregation in joyful praise for His glory. He has raised up pastoral interns and a deacon team to better lead and serve the church. He has empowered the preaching of His Word for the proclamation of the good news of Jesus through the books of Ephesians, Matthew, 1 Peter, Psalms, and other topical series. He does it all so that He gets the glory and we get the joy. 

Added to our joy was the fact that we also got to baptize two of our newest members: Amane and Stefania! It’s their stories that really capture why we planted this church. 

Amane grew up in Japan, and by God’s grace the gospel was shared with her by her friends at college. But it wasn’t until she moved to Australia to study at a local university in Parramatta that she came to finally place her faith in Jesus after one of our members loved her and shared the gospel with her. Amane testified,

“Before coming to Australia, I went through my lowest times. I was lost, lonely, and scared. But at the same time, this lead to events that brought me closer to God. The more I read the Bible, the more I thought about God, the more I prayed, the closer I got to Him, I realized that He had already given me what I needed. From that moment on, I was saved by Him and committed to live according to Him.”

Stefania had already turned to Christ years ago but was in and out of church, including ours, for years. Last year we ran the Alpha course and she came along and it was during this time and the subsequent one-on-one bible studies that God joined so many of the dots of the gospel for her and changed her life. She said, 

“I used to beat myself up because I couldn’t reach perfection. I felt like I kept failing God all the time and had thought like maybe “I don’t love God” or maybe “God doesn’t love me because of my failures." I kept missing an essential point, that Christ was, is and will be the only man with a righteous and perfect life. I had and have a desire to obey but back then I was chasing after the wind and focusing solely on becoming the impossibility of perfection, when instead, I should have surrendered it to the Lord, in His righteousness and blood as that is what covers me… I am not perfect, but praise God that I am his work in progress and am slowly being sanctified. So I stand here today to get baptised, and declare to you that Jesus is my Lord and Saviour in whom I delight, believe in and trust. “ 

We desire to be a church that no matter where someone is at in their faith journey, they will come to know the glorious Gospel in the depths of their being so that it changes all of their life. 

Over the past twelve months we’ve seen God on the move in many ways. We have been able to take on another Pastoral Intern, we’ve started a parent-youth group, and we have seen so many new people come to our church that we’ve had to move venues! Thankfully, even though our anniversary Sunday was one of our last services in our permanent facility, an old Brethren Chapel, God has graciously provided us a hall in a local public school and classrooms for our SG Kids program! We moved in there a week ago and are glad to have room to move and breathe and grow! 

As we look to the future, we hope to install elders, seriously work towards church planting, continue supporting Global Mission, and partner with our sister church in Wahroonga, Sydney so that we can seek to reach more and more of Australia with the gospel. Thank you for your prayers, and please please please keep praying for us. The work of gospel outreach in one of the most multi-ethnic areas in Australia is always perplexing, challenging, and exciting! 

“… praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.”
(Ephesians 6:18-19)

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

Greetings to our Sovereign Grace Church family.

Hope you are doing well. First of all, we are very thankful to all who contributed so generously and provided funds for the supplies we have given to the Christian families that were affected by recent riots in Pakistan. We can feel the intention of everyone who donated the funds.

We are one body and one family in Christ. Just after this incident happened, SGC felt our pain and prayed and supported the Pakistani Christian families. In return, all of us are praying for you and asking God to protect you and your families. 

Regarding our recent trip, we went with our team to (location concealed) yesterday. Our local brother arranged the distribution and a prayer meeting. Yesterday evening we went from house to house for prayers and we encouraged the families to stand strong. It is a difficult time because they don't have household things, but our God is a good God and only He can provide and protect us.

We went to one of the houses of a widow, her house was burnt and she had nothing at home. She was very brave and her faith was really strong. She said, "They can destroy our homes and burn our Bibles but they cannot destroy my faith." She also said, "Jesus suffered so much for our sins to give us freedom so we are free in Him. We don't ever need to worry about anything because He will provide for us everything that we need. He is always standing with us and will never leave us."

All our team members are very inspired that our Christian brothers and sisters are so faithful and strong. They have nothing to eat and yet they are still trusting God. Another lady said that it was a horrible time when the mob attacked their house. She said, "I left the house with my children to a different place and later saw my house burning in the news. It took me many years to build my home and buy household things and all of that turned to ashes within minutes. But we are happy because God saved our lives and He has promised to be with us and provide for us."

These testimonies make us very strong and brave. They help us work harder for the great commission that God has promised. Our local brothers worked very hard with the families to make them strong spiritually.

This morning we started distributions, and we organized a list with the local leaders. Our main hope is to help the neediest widows and our church members. We went to 4 different villages today. Most of these places are neglected. When we reached people with the supplies they were so joyful. Everyone is very thankful to God and to SGC for their kindness and generosity. 

We had a meeting with our local brothers and leaders and asked them about the next steps and how we should help the community. There were different opinions. The majority of them believe in giving people the opportunity to start small businesses, by supplying rikshaws, chickens, goats, cows, and buffaloes. They could use them as milk and meat businesses. Some families are willing to start small shops for basic household things. School is a great need as well because there is no Christian school in the area. 

Once again we are very thankful for your blessing and generosity. May Our Lord God Bless you and keep you safe. 

An update from Jeffrey T. Jo, Senior Pastor of Cross of Christ Salvation Gospel Ministries (CCSGM) in Manila, Philippines, and National Leader in the Philippines...

With the alarming growth of cultic groups in Surigao province in Mindanao, one of which is even being investigated today by a group of Philippine senators, one of our church staff approached me the other day and said, “I am grateful to God that in His kindness, He used us to plant churches in that region 15 years ago and now we even have an ongoing bible training school so we can raise up and equip more pastors who will be gospel-bearers, church planters, and teachers of biblical truth for the generations to come.”

Indeed, it has been our passion for the gospel to grow in Mindanao and to see churches planted in that region. For the past two years, we have been praying and planning how to raise up younger pastors and church leaders in Surigao, for we have observed that most of our pastors whom we started serving alongside 15 years ago, have aged. One of these pastors passed away this year and a lot of them find it challenging to give pastoral care to their congregants due to their health conditions.

With these realities, God gave us wisdom to establish PPI or Philippine Pastors Institute. It officially started on September 2 with 19 enrollees and right now there are 15 committed students from 5 different Cross of Christ Salvation Gospel Ministries (CCSGM) churches in that region. These include eleven men of which some are intern-elders and four women who are either serving in women’s ministry or children’s ministry. Two of the women are wives of our local church elders.

The students should be high school graduates and can understand and write in English. We provided every student an ID, a school uniform, lecture modules and readings in English and a free lunch. Their local church provides their transportation expenses and their pastor’s recommendation letter. They will meet every Saturday from 9AM to 3PM but for the last week of each month, they meet for two days for live-in learning where one of our Sovereign Grace ordained pastors will fly from Manila to Surigao for 2 hours and travel by land for another 6 hours to do a summary lecture of what they’ve learned for the past 6 weeks. In this way the students can be refreshed with what they’ve learned in those 6 weeks, while also giving us an opportunity to assess the clarity and efficiency of our two pastors, Joseph Piamonte (San Miguel, Tandag City) and Ronnie Bautista (Tandag City), who have been teaching them week after week in their own native tongue.

We are currently renting a church facility in one of our churches there and a hotel-like facility for the last week of each month. Our 9-month curriculum covers the basics of the following: Introduction to Theology, Bibliology, Anthropology, Soteriology, Christology, Pneumatology, Ecclesiology, Eschatology, a Preaching Class and Sovereign Grace’s 7-shared values and 7-shared virtues. Our SGC ordained pastors Reynaldo Lacbayo (Cavite City) and Francis Mariano (Imus City), both graduates with bachelor's degrees in theology, will take turns every 2 months to fly to Mindanao to concretize and review the learnings of the students.

According to the reports of our teachers there, the students are like ‘sponges’, eager to learn and have a deep hunger and humility to know more scriptural truths. Though this is just a pilot project, we hope and pray that God will favor us to use it year after year as an equipping arm of Sovereign Grace Churches here in the Philippines. We give thanks to God for the partnership of Sovereign Grace Churches Asia-Pacific region in this inspiring, yet not-without-challenge endeavor. Both the students and their pastors are extremely grateful for the support of SGC for equipping and raising up a younger ‘breed’ of pastors, church planters, and leaders so that the gospel of Christ may continually be proclaimed and for the continuous establishment of gospel-centered churches not only in Surigao del Sur but throughout all of Mindanao.

An update by David Del Castillo, Pastor of Iglesia Gracia Soberana, Santa Cruz, Bolivia...

This has been a time of growth for our church. Although we have already started conducting pastoral interviews for the group that finished the last membership process, we have many waiting to start the process because they arrived once it had already begun. They are very encouraged to be part of our church!

So much so, that our place is already getting too small. We added 15 more chairs which is the capacity limit and after worship time we have to wait for the children to go to Sunday school so that people have a chair to sit in. Every Sunday we have between 80 - 90 people in attendance and so we pray that God guides us in what to do, since the place we have is very low cost compared to the increase we would have to pay for a new meeting place.

I also wanted to tell you that we recently had our third annual conference Servants for His Grace. At this conference we were visited by Joselo Mercado, Matthew Williams, Chris and Maria Deloglos and Abelardo Muñoz from different Sovereign Grace churches. We also invited Jose Mendoza (Professor of the Spanish Southern Baptist Seminary) who lives in Peru, and Felipe Castro (Director of Hispanic Initiatives at Southern Baptist Seminary). They all taught us about family and it took place from September 14-16. The number of attendees was similar to last year, about 180 people, with the difference being that close to 50% of people in attendance were from our own church, because of the growth we've had in the last year.

Our church was very blessed by this and, as always, was very willing to serve in all the logistics of this event. Joselo also stayed to preach at the church on Sunday the 17th and gave us a course for married couples before the service.

Another important thing I would like to mention has to do with Pastor Erick Miranda of the En Su Palabra church, located in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He recently signed the Sovereign Grace Letter of Intent to be adopted by our ministry and traveled on the 16th to be a part of the conference there. Abelardo Muñoz stayed with this church until Sunday for their Sunday service. The participation of the church was very good and they were very receptive to our ministry. There is a genuine desire to walk together.

We have a lot to be grateful for since God did a lot for our church and for the church in Cochabamba during this time. Please do not stop praying for us, the task is growing, the challenges are growing and God continues to do his work. But we need his favor in everything.

Pray that God will raise up leaders in the church to walk with us. We have already identified some, but may God be confirming this. May He guide the process as we need more hands. Also, pray for us financially. This year has been very challenging but we are impressed by what God has done and how He also provided me with bi-vocational work, in addition to the support of several friendly churches. However, we continue to pray for the future and that our local income continues to grow.

Thank you, and God bless you.

An update from Steve Teter, Senior Pastor of Living Faith Church in Franklin, West Virginia, USA, and key leader of our US Small Towns Initiative…

Two years ago, a small group of men and their wives from various parts of the US were brought together for a few days of fellowship and encouragement. Led by Eric Turbedsky, the group included both pastors who were relatively new to pastoral ministry, as well as those who had been pastors for decades. Some attendees were from the eastern U.S. while others were from the midwest and the west. What specifically brought these couples together and what they had in common was their love for Sovereign Grace Churches and their heart for small town, rural ministry. Stories were shared, relational connections were made, and friendships were formed and strengthened. All left grateful for the opportunity to meet with others who, like them, were also investing their lives to spread the gospel and to build churches “off the beaten path” of rural America.

Sovereign Grace Churches is committed to planting, adopting and supporting local, gospel-centered churches.   That means Sovereign Grace is not only an urban movement, it is rural as well! Whether churches are located in city centers, such as the church Eric leads in Orange County, California or are located in rural areas of the U.S. and abroad, Sovereign Grace wants to see churches and their pastors thrive.

To that end, the Small-Towns Initiative was formed specifically with small town churches in view. 

The purposes of the Small-Towns Initiative are three-fold: 

1. To provide care and support for Sovereign Grace small town pastors.

2. To provide help and support for Sovereign Grace small town church plants.

3. To reach out beyond Sovereign Grace to build relationally with other rural pastors for encouragement, networking, and even potential adoption into Sovereign Grace Churches.

Over the past year, several rural Sovereign Grace pastors around the country have begun meeting regularly via zoom.  At this year’s Pastors Conference there will be a Small-Towns Initiative Pastor’s Gathering on Wednesday afternoon from 2:00 – 3:00 pm. This gathering is for all pastors in small towns as well as those interested in rural/small town ministry. If you minister in a small town, we’d love to see you there, if not, please be praying for us!

What a joy to serve the Lord who is building His church throughout the world and what a privilege we have to plant and build gospel-centered churches not only in cities, but in towns and villages all over the world!

Charles Spurgeon, in his book “The Power of Prayer in a Believer’s Life," writes:

“Do not bring before God stinted petitions and narrow desires, but remember, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are His ways above your ways and His thoughts above your thoughts. Ask, therefore, after a Godlike fashion, for great things, for you are before a great throne.” 

In God’s amazing kindness, you and I get to come before his “great throne” and ask Him for “great things”. It’s an astounding reality, and so here are some ways you can be praying for our Global work over the next month…

1. Please pray for Dave Taylor and Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney as they host 17 Filipinos from October 14th - November 6th, for the second half of our SG Pastors Immersion Training. This training will help us to continue putting some key foundations into Sovereign Grace Churches Philippines and bring these Pastors together as a foundational leadership cohort. We’re very excited about this step, as our two big groups of Filipino Churches start to come together in partnership in this way, all under the one banner of SGC Philippines.

2. At the same time, please pray for Dave York (Lead Pastor of Covenant Life Fellowship, Roseburg, OR) as he heads over to Manila, Philippines, this month to spend a week with Jeffrey Jo (Lead Pastor of CCSGM & SG Philippines National Leader) to continue to help talk through and build the necessary infrastructure for Sovereign Grace Churches, Philippines. These are exciting times for this dear country.

3. Please pray for McDonald Chanda, Cheila Chisulo & Ector Makaliki as they continue their ordination process in Zambia, and as they lead Christ Community Church in Ndola, Zambia, as well as the Copperbelt Pastors College, founded by our dear friend Wilbroad Chanda.

4. Please pray for Joselo Mercado, as he continues to write good reformed and Gospel-centered books for a Latin American audience, as well as serve and build many good relationships for Sovereign Grace in places such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico & Venezuela.

5. Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Pakistan who have been affected by the recent rioting. There were about 20-25 churches that were looted and burned as well as many homes of Christian families. One of those looted and destroyed churches is pastored by a man who is with the group that we have the privilege of partnering with, in Pakistan. So please pray, that God would meet them in this time of great affliction and sorrow.

   … Together, may we take these “great things” and head to His “great throne”.

A historic church building in Central London where the church meets.

An update from Pat Tedeschi, Pastor at Greentree Church, Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, USA…

From September 8th-18th our church sent out a short-term mission team to do Muslim evangelism with a church plant in central London, England. You can find people from much of the world in London, where over 300 languages are spoken. This church is located in a neighborhood where there are dozens of unreached people groups, and so we had an amazing opportunity to proclaim the gospel in a place where it is really not understood, where secularism and many false religions like Islam abound. 

Mission team members from both Greentree Church (New Jersey) and Covenant Fellowship Church (Pennsylvania) in the US.

Our team members were very effective in engaging with Muslims as well as other internationals. A main goal for this trip was to come alongside this church’s members (most of whom are converts to Christianity from an unreached Muslim people group), and to help equip them in evangelism so that they would be encouraged to continue reaching out to friends, family and even strangers after our team had gone. 

While there we also had the opportunity to help lead in Sunday worship services. One of the highlights was seeing seven former Muslims be baptized in the name of Jesus! Many of these new believers had to escape their home country because of having converted to Christianity. They have faced much loss and persecution in embracing Jesus and remaining faithful to Him, and yet they are filled with joy because of God’s rich mercy to them in the Gospel! 

Sharing the Gospel with a young man from the Middle East.

We are hopeful to see this church become more involved with Sovereign Grace in the future. We desire to see others within our denomination consider participating in this strategic ministry in order to strengthen that church, and to see other Sovereign Grace churches planted throughout London and even other parts of Europe. Please continue to pray for this ministry. 

All newly baptized believers, converted out of Islam.

An update from Joselo Mercado, Lead Pastor of Iglesia Gracia Soberana de Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, and Key Leader in Sovereign Grace LATAM… 

Last summer at the Mercado's house was a busy one with packing and unpacking suitcases. By the grace of the Lord, my wife Kathy and I were able to take some time to visit Turkey to study some of the roots of the Christian tradition as well as stop in Cairo to see the pyramids. I was able to go to Santo Domingo and participate in the For His Cause Conference as well as participate in a conference in Amarillo, Texas. We then visited Puerto Rico as a family and spent some time with pastor friends there. In July, we took some time off as a family, but not before we made a trip to Medellín, Colombia, where I was able to share with a church that is interested in having communion with Sovereign Grace Churches. Later in the summer, Kathy and I left for Fieles 2023 in Juárez before our family of four went to Buenos Aires, Argentina. We ended with a trip at the beginning of September to Santa Cruz and Cochabamba, Bolivia.

In the midst of accumulated miles, packed and unpacked suitcases and forgotten straps (on more than one occasion I forgot to pack my strap and had to buy one in the country I visited!) God has sustained us and we have seen the work of the Lord move in different countries. Allow me to share more on our trip to Argentina and Bolivia.

 Argentina

The four of us left for the long trip (a 12-hour flight) to Buenos Aires. The main purpose of this visit was to be part of the Spiritual Songs Conference of the Before His Word ministry. It is an annual conference which gives resources to churches to strengthen worship ministries. We arrived a few days early to recover from the trip and to spend time with my sister who has lived in Argentina for nearly 30 years.

On Friday August 25th, I was able to meet with the leaders of the Bible Societies of Argentina who wanted me to help bring greater awareness of the need for biblical truth and depth to charismatic brothers in Argentina. These folk make up 80% of evangelicals in the country.

On Saturday the 26th we were able to participate in the conference which was attended by about 250 people and representing about 50 churches. Karl Sautter from Silao Church came and led the singing during the conference. I shared two messages about the self-care of the worship leader and how this self-care should be seen in community life by modeling lives of godliness. My children Joey (16) and Janelle (14) were able to share testimonies at the conference, as Joey leads at our church and Janelle sings on some Sundays. My wife Kathy did an incredible job of fellowshipping and encouraging many ladies.

On Sunday I was able to preach in two churches that we have befriended. In both churches I was able to give two messages. In total I preached 6 messages in 24 hours and God really gave us the ability to serve with joy. God sustained us, as both my son Joey and I tested positive to the strep bacteria when we returned. I was encouraged to see that while we were sick, God gave us the strength to serve with joy. I would like to thank Grace Community Church in Ashburn, Virginia in the US who helped support us so my family could accompany me on this trip.

 Bolivia

On the weekend of September 15th-17th I was able to be in Santa Cruz and Cochabamba. Again, it was a super intense time (a 10-hour flight). I think in 3 days I preached 8 messages and participated in 4 panels.

In Santa Cruz we were able to attend the church of David Del Castillo who holds an annual conference. In Cochabamba we were able to serve the En Su Palabra church, which is in the adoption process. On Saturday I was able to give a message in Santa Cruz, take a flight to Cochabamba to give two sermons and return in the evening to be ready on Sunday to serve. In both places the theme was family and the gospel. Both churches are faithful in proclaiming the Word of God. In Bolivia we also met with Abelardo Muñoz, Matthew Williams and Chris Deloglos. It was a wonderful experience to see the same values being shared from different brothers in different churches.

Finally when I returned home, I had to start antibiotic treatment for a respiratory system infection. I didn't feel well before going to Bolivia, nor when I returned. But during the days in Bolivia I felt I had all the energy in the world! God by his grace was able to sustain us to be able to serve brothers in this beautiful place.

God is working. We see his power sustaining these churches and it's a joy and privilege to support them in proclaiming the glory of the gospel to all nations.

An update from Joel Shorey, Lead Pastor of Redeemer Fellowship, Newark, Delaware, USA…

Ephesians 3:10 - “so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known…”

Redeemer Fellowship celebrated our five-year anniversary on September 9 this year. God has been very good to us as a young church family in Newark, Delaware. As I think about the past five years and all that God has done, I can’t help but pause and celebrate the gift that church planting is and how powerfully God uses it for his glory. 

I don’t even mean to celebrate a particular way of church planting (though I wouldn’t want to do it with any other denomination than Sovereign Grace!). But rather, I want to celebrate the act of church planting in any form. Whether in perceived ‘strength’ or ‘weakness’; whether with 30 or 300; whether near or far; the planting of new Gospel preaching churches is a primary and powerful way that God continues to do his good work in this world and in our lives. 

Church planting multiplies the manifold wisdom of God. 

This is what we have seen at Redeemer Fellowship over these last five years. We were planted in 2018 with 28 adults and about 20 kids, and the fact that we exist today is a testimony of God’s grace. I say that because I know deep down inside of me, that we are not an impressive people. That’s not false humility. That is simply the truth. Redeemer Fellowship is a simple church, with simple leaders, and a simple church family. 

But this is why the manifold wisdom of God is multiplied through church planting. Because as weak people come together, and in prayerful dependence upon God seek to be the church together, God’s wisdom and power are manifested to a watching world. 

When God miraculously provides a place for us to meet, that shows the wisdom and power of God. 

When God sustains a new church plant through a global pandemic, that shows the wisdom and power of God.

When more than 50 people are baptized and church membership multiplies by nearly ten times, that shows the wisdom and power of God!

When God connects us to a campus ministry at the University of Delaware and we have the opportunity to lead and disciple 40-50 college students, that shows the wisdom and power of God! 

When God allows there to be significant ethnic diversity within the local church, that shows the wisdom and power of God. 

When a small local church sacrificially gives in order to replace that broken refrigerator or to purchase 10 acres of land for a future church building, that shows the wisdom and power of God! 

When such a simple group of people live in prayerful dependence on the Lord (which is the only way to do church planting!), that shows the wisdom and power of God. 

We don’t need any new church planting tricks or gimmicks. By God’s grace, the simple act of planting churches is enough. He’s designed it that way. Church planting is not easy, but church planting is simple. We are called to delight in Christ, love one another, proclaim the Gospel, and serve our community – and to do it all with a deeply dependent prayerfulness. That’s it!

Whether we see quick growth, incremental growth, or even at times, loss of growth, if we are faithful to believe God’s Word, to pray boldly for the Spirit’s help, and to live out the Gospel, God will use church planting to accomplish his purposes in profound ways. 

As Redeemer Fellowship continues to grow and mature, we are thankful that we don’t have to be super creative. Our mission remains simple. As we look forward to the next five years, we pray earnestly that God will allow us to send out many from among us to do more of this simple work of church planting throughout Delaware and beyond.

Soli Deo Gloria!

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

Trinity Fellowship is growing because God is faithful to build His church, and in His wisdom, He's chosen to gather those often shunned by society to be recipients of his saving grace. Indeed, as I look out at our members on Sunday morning, I’m reminded that we're a church of outcasts. I absolutely love that because this is precisely what the first followers of Jesus looked like. Men and women who truly know what it means to say “all I have is Christ” because they have left everything to follow him.

Many of our members come from backgrounds in mainstream prosperity gospel churches, and have now found a deep, personal relationship with Jesus Christ at Trinity Fellowship. One woman, deeply entrenched in the prosperity gospel and battling severe depression, was tormented by the sound of multiple voices in her head. But during one of our services, as the gospel was preached, all those voices silenced, replaced by one singular, clear and gentle voice. It called her by name and urged, "it's time to stop running." That day, as she embraced Jesus Christ, she found deliverance from her mental anguish and, more importantly, the chains of sin. That evening, she eagerly shared her testimony and the gospel with her siblings and cousins. To our joy, they too embraced Christ, which eventually led to the conversion of their parents as well.

Another man became an outcast even in his own family for choosing the true gospel over the prosperity gospel. After coming to believe the genuine gospel, he made the decision to leave his prosperity gospel church and join Trinity Fellowship. His wife, however, believed that moving away from the prosperity gospel meant forfeiting God’s blessings. This man tried to share the gospel with his wife, but tensions only grew. After heart-wrenching counselling sessions with us, she decided to divorce him, believing she'd be closer to God's favor without him. He remains with us, a testament to his sacrifice for the gospel.

Beyond a prosperity gospel background, we have other members who have left their former lives to embrace Jesus Christ. We have those from multi-generational Ethiopian Orthodox families, families once at the forefront of persecuting Protestants. Yet, in a divine twist, now their children find solace in the very Jesus their families once persecuted. Similarly, Muslim converts, now shunned by their own communities, find community with us. A man who joined Trinity Fellowship was recently stoned for his faith in Christ, leading to an 80% hearing loss. He now desires to join our pastors college so that he can more effectively share the gospel with those who sought to kill him.

Another member who had her roots in animism shared with us that her grandmother, a practicing witch doctor, killed this member’s mother through voodoo. In the midst of such darkness, she discovered the redemptive power of Christ. Truly, God’s saving grace knows no bounds!

Another group of social outcasts are the secular music artists in Addis. The Protestant church in Ethiopia has historically shunned secular music, labelling it sinful. We've been privileged to see a growing number of Christian secular artists finding a home at Trinity Fellowship.

Along with these wonderful stories of conversions, we baptized 11 new converts this past May. This gathering of social outcasts, bound by a single faith in the true Gospel, paints a beautiful portrait of the saving mercy of Jesus Christ.

This growth has been a wonderful blessing but has also brought with it new challenges. Our current meeting space can fit only 200 chairs, many of which have been purchased through the faithful tithes of our members. In our recent Sundays, our gatherings have been so large that every chair is full and around 15-20 people find themselves sitting on the floor in the back. And so, we’ve been on the hunt for a new building for the past several months.

There’s no Zillow.com here in Addis, so looking for a building means hopping in a car, driving around, and asking, “has anyone checked that one yet?” It’s exhausting and time consuming, but we’re so grateful to see our members and pastoral interns step up and spend entire weeks dedicated solely to searching for a new meeting location. One of our biggest challenges when looking for a building in the past was that most of the real estate in Addis is owned by Muslims, who are unwilling to rent to Christians, and that continues to be a challenge. We’ve experienced everything from outright refusals, to requests that we pay $12,000 USD per month for rent.

After several months of searching we found a movie theater with the capacity to seat 600 people, and we were told that the owner, though Muslim, was interested in renting to us. It seemed as though the Lord was orchestrating everything perfectly. The theater was equipped with a projector, sound systems, and a Sunday rental option that fit within our budget. However, after the owner visited one of our church services, he pulled out of the agreement last minute after seeing our strong emphasis on the blood of Christ during our preaching.

Amid these challenges, God has opened another door. We're currently in conversations about a potential meeting spot that can hold about 500 individuals. This building is owned by Lutherans, so we’ve been more hopeful from the beginning. While our conversations are progressing at what one might call "the pace of Ethiopia," which means things are moving a tad slower than we're accustomed to, we remain hopeful. We're optimistic that by the end of the year, we'll be worshiping in this new space.

As we walk this path, we deeply covet your prayers. Please intercede for us that this lease process may finalize smoothly, that we would find favor in the eyes of our potential landlords, and that this space might be a home for us for the foreseeable future, until God guides us to a permanent location.

An update from Carlos Contreras, lead pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico and our key leader for Mexico...

This year marked 10 years since we started “Fieles a Su Llamado” (Faithful to His Calling) with a desire to equip and encourage those called to ministry in the church. Our desire was to serve the growing number of men and their wives that were joining our small family of Sovereign Grace churches in Mexico, but since we were still small, we decided to open our doors to all who would come. By hosting it in our local church in Juarez, we were then able to “share of grace what has been given to us by grace”. God has been faithful and gracious to us every year by allowing us to witness Him accomplish precisely what He had placed in our hearts to do.

This year our theme centered on “The Pastor and his Family” focusing on our marriages and our parenting. Our dear friend Dr. Miguel Núñez and his wife Cathy, who have been a part of Fieles since 2013 joined us again. Bob and Julie Kauflin, Joselo and Kathy Mercado, as well as Rich and Tiffany Richardson also joined us. It was a wonderful and unique experience to hear not just from our main speakers, but also from their wives as they joined them in workshops and panel discussions. Attendees were deeply affected by the transparency and honesty with which they all shared not just their experience and wisdom, but also their failures, weaknesses and trials as couples and families.

After 10 years Fieles is truly a Sovereign Grace event, not just in the exposition of our theological convictions, but also in the modeling of our historical values and practices. Not only are our own pastors and leaders growing in acquiring Sovereign Grace values and virtues, but our guests are also being touched and blessed by experiencing them.

This year we closed registrations at 550 attendees which consisted of pastors, deacons, ministry leaders and their wives from 155 different churches from Mexico and 4 other countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica and the USA). Of those, about 35% were leaders from our own family of Sovereign Grace churches, and the rest represented churches coming from 20 different states in Mexico. We were surprised to see that about 40% were first-time attendees.

Because of the numbers, our building installations and resources were stretched, and yet by God’s grace we were able to pull it off thanks to the 150 wonderful volunteers that give of their time for a whole week to set up and serve those coming.

As it is with every year, at the end of the conference we all left thanking God for what feels like the best Fieles ever. But we now realize the reason for that, and it is because God’s mercies are fresh every year. So again, He was gracious to freshly bless us with joyful times of very loud worship, great times of teaching and personal ministry and wonderful times of fellowship and the making of new friends. We don’t know what to expect for next year, but we know it will be the best Fieles ever, all over again.