Recently on the Mark Prater podcast, Mark (Executive Director of Sovereign Grace Churches) shared some exciting updates on Mexico. Here’s ia clip from that conversation with Ben Kreps. The full podcast is linked below…

Ben Kreps:

Excellent. I've had the honor of spending time with some of those guys down in Mexico and in Mexico a little bit, and it is always humbling to interact with these pastors. I mean, their example is compelling. These are gifted and godly men. Just hearing Carlos talk about how that church began as a small group of believers that met in a park leading up to where things have grown, to God be the glory, and we are certainly grateful for the grace in Carlos's life. So the Fieles Conference is coming up. You've talked about it before, but people checking on the podcast, don't necessarily know what it is and actually how strategic this conference really is in Mexico.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, this is one of the most strategic conferences we do in Sovereign Grace every year. Of course, we have our pastors and wives conference in November here in the States, but this conference is just as strategic, especially outside of the states. I mean this conference, which we'll be in Juarez, as you mentioned, it serves primarily pastors and wives in Mexico. But there are several pastors and wives that travel from different Latin American nations to attend this conference because it is a conference that is not only gospel centered, it is a conference where Carlos's leadership is very intentional to equip and care for and invest into pastors and their wives so that they leave not only equipped for what they've been called to do, they leave very encouraged and cared for, and the conference because of that, the conference has just grown. Last year they completely sold out.

Full Podcast link (click here)

An update from Leo Parris, US Global Missions Coordinator for Sovereign Grace Churches, and Pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania…

Four years ago, my senior pastor, Jared Mellinger, approached me about spearheading our global missions initiatives at Covenant Fellowship Church. Desiring to be a good hire, I enthusiastically agreed to his proposal, but I was actually masking my inner doubts about my suitability for this role.

Me? The delco-boi who has lived his entire life in the same town, never been outside the US except to dip my toes in the water of a Caribbean resort, and has exactly 1 week of education on the topic? Yikes! But mercifully, global missions is not dependent on any of our brilliance, experience, or expertise; it rests on the faithfulness of God to continue and complete his mission. We are merely tools in the Almighty’s hands to magnify his glory among the nations, and he loves to use the weakest of people to show his power!

As I read God’s Word and a treasury of great books on Global Missions, my heart awakened to the amazing opportunity that lay before me. Now, leading global missions for my church is one of my absolute favorite things that I get to do. One particular aspect of this that I love is helping others catch a vision for God’s global work in Sovereign Grace Churches, and even consider whether God is calling them to become a missionary.

To help our people learn more about this, I invited them to participate in a 9-month class I called The School of Missions. Using Nathan Sloan’s You Are Sent curriculum as a basis, my hopes were to instill a global conscience into our people, identify leaders for our global efforts as a church, and missionaries that God wants us to send from our midst. By God’s grace, 13 people with a broad range of age and experience signed up for this class.

In the School of Missions, we walked through a Biblical theology of Missions, Church History, the Necessity of Missions, Cultural Challenges and the Priority of the Unreached, and Missionary Calling. Each time we gathered we video-called with missionaries or watched missions updates from around the world to increase our awareness of the progress of the gospel. As we learned together, we processed through the material in community, asking God to reveal how he wanted to use us in his global mission. At the end of the course the class participated in two separate missions trips: one to a Sovereign Grace Candidate church in Playa Azul, Costa Rica, and another to partner with a Sovereign Grace family working in Eurasia.

I was thrilled as I witnessed the joy of our people building new global friendships and outreaching to the lost. Putting into practice what they had learned throughout the year was a powerful experience for them. Many communicated a deep desire to return or follow closely in prayer and support the work that we had engaged with.

As we graduate our first School of Missions class, I’m grateful that several of these folks are earnestly pursuing a missionary calling, and many more are eagerly joining our church’s global missions committee to lead our church in its global endeavors.  It’s my prayer that God would continue to use this School of Missions for years to come to help to train our people to live as global Christians, and identify the missionaries that God plans for us to send.

If you want access to any of the School of Missions resources mentioned in this report, please contact me, Leo Parris at lparris@covfel.org. With so many lost around the world, in need of people to go to them with the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ, I’d love to help!

An update from Michael Granger, Lead Pastor of Trinity Fellowship Church, Ethiopia ...

For the last year, Trinity Fellowship has had ZERO space to grow. Sunday mornings are regularly standing-room only. Finding a meeting space for a church in an urban context can be difficult. We would know, our team has been looking for over a year. About ten months back we began a conversation with a Lutheran Seminary down the road because they have a conference hall that holds approximately 700+ and is not currently occupied. After months of dialogue, talk talk talk …. and more talk talk talk … and synod talk talk talk … Trinity Fellowship was approved for a one-year lease of the space on Sunday mornings.

On April 7th we experienced the answer to a year of prayer. Trinity Fellowship launched at our new location with an evangelistic sermon from John 6:37, “Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.” In his providence, the room was packed out and many unbelievers heard the gospel. We are now getting 300-350 people on a Sunday, what a wonderful God we serve!

The first quarter of 2024 has certainly been jam packed. We’ve welcomed two short-term mission teams: one from Castleview and another from Grace Miami. As for the Trinity Fellowship Pastors College, it would not be what it is without our many friends. Our professors in recent months have included Eric Bancroft, Steve Wellum, Joseph Stagora, Brian Chesemore, Bob Kauflin, Steve Bice, Jason Derouchie, Joel Bain, Mark Alderton, Tyson Ziegler, Pete Payne, and Andy Farmer.  

As for our Sunday morning services - we are nearing the end of our Ecclesiastes series entitled: Normal Life to the Glory of God. As we’ve preached through this series we are doing something new. I am splitting the series 50/50 with Amanuel (Pastoral Intern at Trinity) so that he is preaching every other sermon. The purpose is to intentionally grow him as a preacher by giving him more reps. This also builds the church into his leadership. And as leaders we’re incredibly encouraged by the response of our members to this series.

In 2018 The Telegraph did a study finding Ethiopia to be the #1 most religious country in the world. If that is true, perhaps we are especially prone to a Pharisaical mindset. Ours is a culture of legalism, asceticism, and the prosperity gospel. However, week after week we’ve received feedback of how this book is correcting thoughts and helping to organize lives. Slowly it is helping to establish a theology of suffering, and also a theology of joy; slowly it is helping to establish a gospel culture. One of the most helpful resources has been Carolyn Mahaney and Nicole Whitacre's book, True Life. We highly recommend it!

Also in the first quarter of 2024, Josh Pannel (Dean of Trinity Pastors College) and I jumped on a plane bound for Europe. The purpose? An MTh module at Union School of Theology in Wales. Union officially partnered with Trinity Fellowship last year and they are so so so generously giving us majorly subsidized tuition rates.

The set-up of our program consists of block-course modules. Similar to our Pastors College, we sit in class from Tuesday-Friday and then write an essay. Our professor Clive Bowsher is the provost for the school and he lectured on Union with Christ. He recently published Life in the Son in D.A. Carson's New Studies in Biblical Theology series.

For a week I felt pastored by his lectures. It was such a refreshing time. Additionally, we felt we left Wales with a new friend. I was texting Clive last week appreciating the effect his class has had upon my meditations and he asked, "Doesn’t union with Christ make such a difference to feeling at home and bold in prayer?" I responded, “You hem me in” is the feeling. Secure in every direction I look, like St. Patrick’s prayer: “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down.”

We are more aware of grace than anything else. Thank you for contributing to our awareness of grace. James 1:7 says "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights." If that is true, and it is, I cannot think of anyone richer than us because of you. You are a gift to us, worthy of celebrating God's generosity.

"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea." 
Habakkuk 2:14

Recently on the Mark Prater podcast, Mark shared about church planting. Here is a clip from that conversation with Ben Kreps. The full podcast is linked below…

Mark, before we started recording the podcast, you were talking about how at the recent leadership team retreat you had a discussion about church planting and why we plant churches. We definitely don't plant churches to merely spread the Sovereign Grace Church brand or anything like that. We actually have biblical convictions about church planting. You guys were talking about that. Talk to us about your discussion…

Assumption number 1: We want to plant churches, and here's the reason why. We as a family of churches, we desire to reflect the New Testament model of advancing the gospel by sacrificing for the mission and sending people to plant new churches to reach people that haven't heard Christ or reach an area that may not have a solid gospel preaching church. So that's a biblical conviction. That's a New Testament model that we are wanting to reflect in Sovereign Grace.

Assumption number 2: We want to plant for endurance. So we want to plant churches that will be faithful to God's word, faithful to our theological convictions and endure over time. So what that means is we're not as interested in numbers and we're not going to have these goals for numbers, but what we're interested in is planting solid churches that will be faithful and endure over time.

Assumption number 3: We plant with Sovereign Grace pastors. And what that means is we plant with men who are ordained in Sovereign Grace, who share our theological convictions, our seven shared values and our seven shaping virtues and where possible they also have some degree of pastoral experience. Now that may change based on the planter and how much experience he either has or needs, but we're just learning that guys who've got some degree of pastoral experience plant more solid churches because they've learned about pastoral ministry and that helps them plant well. Basically, Eric Turbedsky, when he was our director of church planting just unashamedly said appropriately, we plant Sovereign Grace churches a Sovereign Grace way. And that's kind of a little bit of what he was getting at in that phrase, right?

Assumption number 4: We value team ministry. That's not new to the pastors and even members of our churches that are listening to this, but where possible we'd love to send a plurality of elders more than just a solo elder. Now that's not always possible, but where we can, we want to do that. Or if we can't send a man already ordained, we'd love to send somebody who certainly is called and potentially on that ordination track because it will strengthen the church plant because pastoral teams are a reflection of the church. And so that'll be a stronger church.

Assumption number 5: We plant with denominational financial support. So in other words, we together as a family of churches, we are committed to replicating this New Testament model of planting churches so much. So we want to give our financial resources; those coming from our national resources, Sovereign Grace Central, those coming from our region. It's just one way to invest into the gospel and that allows a man to really devote his time to planting the church and not needing to find ways to earn other income.

Assumption number 6: (This is really the next logical one) We plant with vocational pastors. Now this is one that may not work outside the United States because of the economy in certain nations, guys may need to be bi-vocational. But here in the states, our assumption is we want to plant with vocational pastors again because they can focus on the work of planting and not have to worry about how they're going to support their families.

Assumption number 7: We prioritize preaching, which is again not new in Sovereign Grace. CJ has led us down that road so well. You lead your church from the pulpit and you build your church on God's word Sunday after Sunday in solid expository preaching. And that's going to build churches that endure and that's going to build strong gospel centered churches.

Assumption number 8: We value denominational preparation and ongoing care. It's why we have a Church Planting Group. Those guys exist to help you, a planter, prepare, assess, and prepare. It's one of the roles that our regional leaders play in providing care for the planters. So our denominational structures that we have in place are in part there to foster and strengthen our church planting efforts.

Assumption number 9: We prioritize cooperative efforts. So we just believe that we're going to be able to do more together as a family of churches. And so the sharing of resources and the sharing of prayer, meaning we pray for one another as we plant churches is really important. And when I talk about sharing resources, I'm not just talking about financial resources, I'm talking about people. First of all, people that may be in one church that can join another church's church planting team because they have a desire to be a part of a church plant or the sharing of pastors. You may have a location to plant but not a pastor. And so a church in Sovereign Grace sacrificially gives that pastor to that other church so he can plant a church and the gospel can be advanced. Those are huge sacrifices, but they reflect the resources that we share.

Assumption number 10: We prioritize pastoral ministry. Planters are pastors. That's something that I think Eric said. It's something that Jon has emphasized. Pastors are planters we want to plant with. Men are shepherds who will shepherd the flock of God that they begin to gather as the church plant forms.

Assumption number 11: We prioritize godly character. In other words, we want to send planters who are proven in godly character, tested in godly character and we can affirm their godly character. I think that's one of the roles of our, not only of our local churches, but our regional church planting committees, as well.

Assumption number 12: We take faith-filled risks on the right things. So I want to continue to call us to take faith-filled risks, but we've got to take risks on the right things. I won't spend a lot of time on that because I dedicated a podcast to that topic just a few weeks ago. So if you haven't heard that, listen to it. But for example, we don't want to take risks on godly character, but we do want to take risks in sending our best to further the mission of the gospel as we plant churches.

Please pray that God would give us resources, men called to plant, people wanting to be on church plant teams, and financial resources to plant churches.

In March of this year, as I sat in the CCSGM one worship service in Manila, rejoicing with 400 others in the Lord’s goodness after what had been an incredible week at Worship God Philippines. I got to hear the testimony of Rhobie Sureta, a dear sister in the Church in Cavite, and what a wonderful testimony it was!

As I rejoiced in her story, delighting in what the Lord has done in her life, it was also a wonderful reminder to me of why we do all that we do, to plant and strengthen churches all across the world. I pray her story blesses you too... What an incredible Saviour we serve!

You can watch her testimony here

Psalm 127.1 says, ‘Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labour in vain.’

It’s a truthful and sobering reality. Unless the Lord builds the house, we labour in vain. We’re all just wanting and wasting our time, unless the Lord truly builds, and so as we look out on July and what’s ahead, here are some things you can be praying for…

1. Please pray for Sovereign Grace Pastors College Class of 2025. Even though the Pastors College only wrapped up graduation a few weeks ago, preparations for the upcoming class are well underway. This year the college will welcome nine students from all over the US and Australia. Please pray for them and their families, as they continue to fundraise and prepare to move to Louisville, USA.

2. Please pray for the WorshipGod Conference: One with Christ, How Our Union Affects Everything – July 24-27th. The conference will be held in Louisville, KY, and is designed to equip and encourage pastors, leaders, musicians, tech personnel, and songwriters as they seek to plan and lead congregational worship. Please pray for Bob Kauflin as he leads this conference, as well as the speakers John Piper, HB Charles, Jared Mellinger, Devon Kauflin, Mike Bullmore & Josh Blount.

3. Please pray for the 40-person missions teams that are heading to Rancho 3M (July 1-8th; 8-15th) from Cornerstone Church (Knoxville), as well as the 5 people who are doing summer internships there. Please also pray for the missions team from Covenant Fellowship Church (Glen Mills) that is heading to Iglesia Biblica de Playa Azul (July 1-8th), as well as the missions team from Covenant Fellowship that is heading to serve alongside our missionary family in Turkey (July 1-8th).

4. Please pray for Joselo Mercado as he serves in Peru this week. He and his wife Kathy will be with 150 pastoral couples at a marriage retreat of the Christian Missionary Alliance of Lima. These churches represent about 60,000 members. So please pray that as they invest in these marriages, it will encourage churches to grow families that model the gospel to a society that so needs it. In addition, Joselo will be in Miami later in the month (July 23-25th), meeting with the Gospel Coalition Spanish Council. TGC Spanish is the most visited Christian website in the Hispanic world and so please be praying for Joselo, as the council meets to talk about the future direction of this ministry.

5. Please pray for Pastor Ángel Miranda, who this month is leaving with his wife and daughter from his hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia to plant a church in Sincelejo. Although the two churches that are sending him (Santa Marta, Jacobo Aldana; Barranquilla, Alejandro Cueto) are still in the process of adoption, in their hearts, this is an SGC plant.

6. Please pray for the Ark Church in Dnipro, Ukraine asking God to continue to protect them, and to use them to meet practical needs, and to offer gospel hope to those around them who have been impacted by the war.

   … One thing’s for sure, we so need the Lord to build the house.

An update from Songhwan Kang, Lead Pastor of Lord's Grace Church, South Korea...

I am Songhwan Kang, serving at the Lord's Grace Church in Korea. I am grateful for the opportunity to share the Gospel & Life Conference that was recently held in our small Asian country of Korea.

The Lord's Grace Church hosted the Gospel & Life Conference from June 6th to 8th with a mission team of 17 people from the United States. This conference first began in 2012 when Pastors Larry Malament and Bill Kittrell visited Korea for the first time. Not considering the pandemic, this year now marks the conference's 10th anniversary. Firstly, I want to thank Pastor Larry, who is now in heaven, for his sacrificial love and dedication to the work he began with us many years ago. I am also grateful for the continued partnership, excellent cooperation, and sacrificial service of Pastor Bill of Cornerstone Church in Knoxville, TN.

When the Lord's Grace Church started in 2010, we were like children in the gospel and did not know what a gospel-centered church was. We wanted to learn and grow in living a gospel-centered life, but did not know how. God heard our prayers and sent a mission team from the United States, who then started the Gospel & Life Conference. This year, at our 10th conference, God poured out great grace on us once again.

For the 2024 conference, 190 people gathered, including members of the Lord's Grace Church and 18 families from outside. The theme of the conference was "Don’t Waste Your Life". Pastor Walt Alexander from Trinity Grace Church in Athens, TN delivered five thematic lectures from Ecclesiastes. He said, “life is meaningless, but God has given life as a gift, and we must live a life that fears and obeys the eternal God”. His message was clear, simple, and showed the excellent wisdom of the gospel.

Among the attendees was an unbelieving man who said, “I used to dislike the church and criticized the selfishness of Christians. At this meeting, I learned what God's love is and resolved my misunderstandings about the church.” There was also a family on the brink of separation before coming to the conference. God spoke to this couple, leading them to reconcile and restore their relationship.

The children participated in an English camp led by Pastor Jake Cronin from Cornerstone Church in Knoxville, TN. The children of our church look forward to this camp all year. This year's camp was themed around the sea, using the story of Jonah to reflect on God’s love and grace, despite our disobedience. The teachers worshiped with the children and led them in thematic songs, scripture memorization, crafts, and games, helping them to know God.

On the last day, the elementary students performed a play based on the book of Jonah, and the middle and high school students presented gospel tracts. All the parents were deeply moved. The joyful care and humble attitude of the teachers, along with their indescribable joyful service, touched the children. The children who attended the English camp said they wished it could be a week-long camp instead of just three days, and they shed tears when parting with their teachers.

God has given the Lord's Grace Church in Korea the gift of the conference. I'd like to share three clear evidences of grace over these years.

First, we are learning how to apply the gospel to our lives. Over ten years, the conference themes have included Gospel-Centered Believers, Gospel-Strong Marriages, Gospel-Based Parenting For The Next Generation, Biblical Masculinity and Femininity, The Excellence of The Word, and God Above Fear. These themes have taught us the principles of living as gospel-centered believers.

Secondly, the dedicated service and love of the American mission teams has set a wonderful example for the members of the Lord's Grace Church. We learn from our friends how to serve as those who have experienced the gospel and how to live as witnesses of the gospel.

Thirdly, we are deeply thankful that we get to witness the joy of church unity. The consistent and joyful service of American church friends to a small church in Korea spanning over ten years has been the greatest joy and thrill for us as we experience Christ, the head of the church. The reason the Lord's Grace Church in Korea is not alone today is because we have friends in the gospel. The passionate prayers, voluntary sacrifice, and loving care of our gospel friends have been great gifts and blessings to us over many years.

On behalf of the church, I sincerely want to thank Cornerstone Church of Knoxville, TN, Trinity Grace Church in Athens, TX, and Grace Church of Clarksburg, MD for serving us with humility and love at this year's conference. And I sincerely want to thank over 150 American friends who have attended Gospel & Life Conferences over the past ten years. Our church does not forget your gospel love. We express indescribable gratitude to Sovereign Grace Church for your humility and care. We praise God who builds us into His church.

An update from Mark, our missionary in Turkey (full name concealed for safety reasons)…

Nearly four years have passed since we moved to Turkey. The Lord has shown himself faithful and gracious every step of our journey. He paved the way for us to get here. He met all our needs. He sent help in unexpected ways. He has taught us and shown us much. As we celebrate what he has done, we also remember the challenges he has carried us through. Most days we have felt like we’re trying to move a mountain with a teaspoon. 

That picture regularly came to mind in Turkish language class. My Turkish teachers would ask me questions about Christianity, Easter, the Protestant church, etc. With broken Turkish, I did my best to get to matters of first importance—Jesus Christ and his death on the cross for sins. Yet, I was all too aware of my inability to communicate it well. Like trying to move a mountain with a teaspoon.  

The mountain looms large when we consider the lostness of people all around us. Turkey is 96% Muslim and 99% unreached. The evangelical Christian percentage is less than 0.04% of the population. The people here have been told every day of their lives, “To be Turkish is to be Muslim.” Sadly, most are convinced of that lie. Gospel advance has moved at a snail’s pace in this field for a long, long time. 

The situation feels additionally desperate when I consider the advice given us by a Turkish lawyer. Given the ongoing changes in Turkey’s residency program, his opinion is that we will need to buy a house to stay here long term… a house which quite frankly we don’t have the money for. Once again, a huge obstacle and a teaspoon of visible resources.

Yet, the Lord gives ample evidence and encouragement that he is on the throne.  We realize that this awareness of our inability is actually his grace and is by his design. It casts us on him again and again. It keeps us asking for miracles. We have already seen him work miracles in the lives of people here who came to faith. The situation keeps us asking for his provision. We have certainly seen his provision time and time again as well. He is helping us to lift up our eyes away from the mountain and away from our teaspoon onto the Lord of Glory himself. 

As we reflect on the last four years, we also anticipate the next four years (and beyond). We pray the Lord grants us the opportunity to continue our work, making disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ in this unreached land. We want to continue helping Turkish Christians keep their eyes on Christ.

When we dream of our future, we can envision a Sovereign Grace Church here, holding out the gospel for the glory of Christ. We long for that. We also recognize the challenges such an endeavor faces. And so we pray to the Lord who can move mountains with a word. Would you pray for this with us? Would you ask the Lord, who is able to do more than we can even imagine, to make this dream a reality?

What a comfort it is to pray bold prayers to our God who hears us and who promises to be with us until the end, no matter what happens. What a comfort to know that he guarantees one day there will be a multitude from every nation, language, and people joyfully worshipping around the throne.

Come, Lord Jesus!

An update from Bart Lipscomb, Senior Pastor of Christ Church of Conroe, TX and Sovereign Grace Area Leader for Africa...

In late May, Leo Parris and I had the privilege to participate in a young adults’ conference being hosted by Sovereign Grace Life Church in Freetown, Sierra Leone. It was such a joy to be with that local church, to see the wonderful Gospel work happening and to spend time with brothers from all over West Africa who came in to participate. Lead pastor Morlai Kamara and his team of elders did an excellent job selecting the topics and order of messages. And, many tireless servants happily labored behind the scenes in hot conditions to feed and host the attendees!

There were so many highlights, it is hard to pick a few. But, one that really stood out to me was a Q&A panel that took place after one of the main sessions. It included a moderator from Liberia and leaders from Guinea, Sierra Leone and the US all sitting together fielding questions with Bibles open. It was a wonderful reminder of how we are truly becoming a global family of churches.

There are many denominations present in West Africa, some doing very good work. However, because of the overwhelming prevalence of prosperity teaching, Islam and works based salvation, the light of the Gospel is still veiled for so many. That’s why the clarity and power present in each of the messages was really encouraging. It was obvious light bulbs were going off, especially for people coming from other churches around Freetown who were invited to participate. Based on the questions being asked by the young people, the open declaration of God’s Word was definitely hitting the mark and affecting hearts. Pray those seeds fall in good soil!

After the conference each night, we were all able to stay up late. We ate together and spent unhurried time hearing personal updates from the brothers, learning about the challenges they face in their contexts, and fiercely, but healthily, debating some heavy theological topics. Each of the pastors participating was coming from a candidate church and is pursuing their ordination. So, those times were precious and a major answer to what we were praying for in getting everyone together in the same place.

And, finally, once the conference wrapped up, we were able to all go spend an afternoon outing at the beach, including renting a court for a very competitive football (soccer) match. The laughter and trash talk ensued! It was the perfect way to continue building that comradery that is a mark of SGC all over the world. And, I believe the bonds created and strengthened throughout the week are going to yield a lot of fruit in the years ahead.

Moving forward, there is still much work and many challenges. Daily life in this part of Africa is hard. Gospel work in a dark place is hard. But, we left there with full hearts and a sense of strong faith for the future. The Lord Jesus is building his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it!

Please pray for the brothers who are serving this network of local churches - Morlai Kamara, Francis George, George Conteh, Sallieu Conteh, Roland Blackie, Emmanuel Willie, Harrison Suah, Joe Kolliegbo, and Samuel Kotee, Jr. Pray for their walk with and affection for Christ to grow. Pray for their marriages and homes to be enriched by the Gospel. Pray for their theological discernment and boldness to increase. Pray for their financial needs to be met. And, pray for a mighty anointing on the work, that many souls will be saved through faithful, Christ-exalting local churches in West Africa.

I am so glad to be a part of a family of churches who takes the Great Commission to heart, roles up our sleeves and gets to work. You already are and will continue to make a massively outsized impact on the continent of Africa, all for the glory of King Jesus and the radiance of his Bride!

An update from Michael Ostanin, Pastor of ARK Church in Dnipro, Ukraine...

Dear friends,

Thank you for your faithful and sacrificial service.

Thanks for your support and generous donations, from Sovereign Grace Churches and Arche Hamburg, so that we can continue to care for hundreds of people suffering from war and preach the Gospel to them.

This month we were blessed to have our friend, Pastor Frank visit us. He cared for us like a good pastor, like a father and an older brother. He shared the love of Christ with us, supported our hands in service, and strengthened us spiritually and morally. Our Lord Jesus is glorified in the humble service of His servants.

As a grateful testimony, I just wanted to share with you the story of Zinaida (82 years old) from the city of Bakhmut.

The Lord saved her life during the bombing. At night, while she was sleeping, a bomb hit her yard. The explosion was so strong that the house was completely destroyed and the roof came off. But the shock wave carried Zinaida out into the street right on the bed on which she slept.

Zinaida remained alive and did not even have a scratch. The bomb destroyed all of Zinaida's property, and she was evacuated to our city in her pyjamas. Our church helped Zinaida from the first day of her resettlement in Dnipro. We gave her food and clothing, medicine, a mattress, and a blanket, but most importantly, Zinaida heard the Gospel for the first time in church. 

She was an atheist all her life; during Soviet times she was a communist director of a large plant. The Lord opened Zinaida’s heart to faith in Jesus Christ and gave her repentance. Now Zinaida’s greatest wish is that her son also believes in Jesus, and she prays for him every day. Every time she meets me, she asks for one thing, that the Lord would give salvation to her son. This is one of hundreds of stories of God's glorious grace at work during war.

Thank you, friends, for effectively and faithfully helping us reach such people. The devil took away their earthly property, and the Lord prepared for them an imperishable eternal home.

Thank you for your words of encouragement and support!

An update from Rich Richardson, Lead Pastor of Center Church, Gilbert, AZ, and Sovereign Grace Area Leader for Latin America...

At the beginning of May, the Mexican Assembly of Elders gathered in Guadalajara, Mexico for the first time. Now, it wasn’t the first time that these men have gathered at Iglesia Gracia Soberana in Central Mexico, but it was the first time they gathered as an official nation in Sovereign Grace Churches. Last November, the United States Council of Elders voted unanimously to welcome the nation of Mexico on equal footing with the United States. This achievement came after years—decades really—of faithful and fruitful ministry in Mexico. 

It is one thing to vote an ecclesiastical nation into existence, and quite another thing for that nation to begin to function together in compliance with the BCO. Yet, through Carlos Contreras’ leadership, the Mexican National Assembly is beginning to take shape. During the three-day gathering in Guadalajara, Carlos announced the formation and responsibilities of the first-ever Mexican National Leadership team. Both Hellman Avila and Manolo Quintal will serve as regional leaders. Hellman will serve the churches in the Northern part of Mexico, while Manolo will take on the churches in the central and southern parts of the nation. Abelardo Munoz will continue to be responsible for all things ordination. Jaime Chow and Cuauhtemoc Campos are going to head up the administration and financial side of the Assembly. Carlos will continue to lead the nation but will also be responsible for training men to pastor and plant churches. 

To be there was to be aware of the Lord’s mighty work amongst these men. There are over 30 men who are in the ordination process, two who are serving a one-year training residency in Juarez, and many other churches pursuing adoption. Yet, the most important element of our gathering was that the men, this Assembly, is Sovereign Grace. They are committed to the same vision and values as the rest of Sovereign Grace Churches with a passion to see churches planted and supported. Praise the Lord for his mighty work! 

From Mark Prater, Executive Director of Sovereign Grace Churches…

At our Pastors Conference last November I shared a burden that Sovereign Grace Churches would take prayerful risks to plant more churches especially in the United States. The 1st quarter Sovereign Grace Mission Video captures one story that illustrates how taking risks to plant a church leads to good gospel fruit. Living Hope Church in Middletown, PA took the prayerful risk and made the sacrifice of sending over 100 of their best to plant their first church, Redeeming Grace Church in Mechanicsburg, PA. On September 3, 2023, Redeeming Grace Church held its first service. What I love about this story is that it includes families who were at Living Hope for 20+ years and families living in Mechanicsburg who were praying for a local church like Redeeming Grace. In many ways, the story of this church plant is decades old even though the church hasn't even celebrated its first anniversary. 

This video gives you just a glimpse of the sacrifices made by many to start a new church, as well as how God is using their small beginnings to make a big impact. This church is truly walking in the good works God prepared for them. As you watch this video, rejoice with me in the good work of a shared mission in planting churches that preach the gospel. What a glorious God we serve!

Please consider giving to the Sovereign Grace Church Planting Fund. The prayers and the generosity of the members and friends of our churches will allow us to continue to plant churches in the United States and beyond.

Let us continue to plant churches to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ, all for His glory alone.

This post first appeared on the Sovereign Grace Churches blog on May 15, 2024.

Matthew 28.18-20,

‘And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

The great commission that we have been given as Christians is far bigger than we could have ever asked or imagined... But how wonderful, comforting and inspiring it is to know that the One who has called us, is always with us, even to the end of the age. What a mission changing reality this is!!

With that in mind, here are a few ways that you can be praying for our wider mission in the month ahead…

1. Please pray for the Pastors College graduating class of 2024, students and their families from 3 different nations who having moved to Louisville, KY for the past 10 months, now head home to make a difference in their local churches. Please pray for a smooth transition back home and for faithful and fruitful days ahead for each of these graduates.

2. Please pray for the missions teams from Cornerstone Church (Knoxville) and Trinity Grace (Athens), as they send a group of 18 to South Korea, with Jake Cronin and Walt Alexander, June 4-11th. In addition, please also pray for the missions team from Sovereign Grace Church, Toronto (Canada) as they send a team of 7 over to Trinity Fellowship Church in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, along with Timon Lau and Tim Kerr, to partner with and serve the church there.

3. Please pray for Jeffrey Jo, National Leader of SGC Philippines, as he and a team head to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, to visit church members there and explore the possibility of a Church Plant. May God give them much wisdom and grace as they consider this great endeavour.

4. Please pray for Songhwan Kang (Lead Pastor of Lord’s Grace Church, Seoul, South Korea) as he leads the annual Gospel & Family conference. Please pray that they find great favour with the parents and kids alike, and that the Gospel goes forward in wonderful ways.

5. Please pray for Bart Lipscomb (Lead Pastor of Christchurch, Texas, and SGC Area Leader for Africa) as he heads to Guinea, West Africa, June 4th-7th to invest in our key leaders there and serve the local church. Please pray for safety and stamina in travel, for the Holy Spirit to guide him and for his teaching to be clear, Christ-centred and affective. 

6. Please pray for the Sovereign Grace Global Leaders Retreat in Rome, Italy, June 4th-7th, asking God to equip and strengthen our global leaders from around the world relationally and theologically, so they can better serve the Churches and endevours in their respective nations. Please pray also for me (Dave Taylor) as I lead this retreat, that I’d know His grace and wisdom, and that I’d serve these dear brothers well.

   … It’s a big world out there, so how good it is to know that He holds it all in His hands!!

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

Joselo Mercado, Fabrizio Rodulfo, and I recently had the privilege of serving at the La Adoración Centrada en el Evangelio conference (Gospel-Centered Worship), in Barranquilla, Colombia. It was hosted by Iglesia Alumbra, not a Sovereign Grace church, but one we have been building relationships with for the past few years. Fabrizio and I led the worship in song with musicians from Alumbra, and Joselo and I had the joy of preaching from God’s Word numerous times. 

About 150 leaders, interested in or part of Sovereign Grace, came to the pre-conference on Thursday and Friday morning. We focused on the biblical foundations of worship, and practical ways musicians and preaching pastors can work together to serve God’s purposes for our Sunday meetings. The final session dealt with ways musicians can best serve the singing of their congregations, followed by a Q&A. We weren’t able to answer all of the questions, so we’ll be video recording the answers to the remaining questions and sending them to the attendees. 

Around 400 came to the actual conference on Friday night and Saturday morning, which was for a broader audience. During the conference we explored a gospel-informed view of worship both in our gatherings and in our lives. Again, Joselo and I had the privilege of preaching God’s Word. 

It was deeply encouraging to see the effect of the relationships Joselo has sown into over the past few years. In particular, he has been building with Jacobis Aldana from Iglesia Bíblica Soberana Gracia in Santa Marta. His friendship with Jacobis and other pastors has resulted in a deep respect, love, and appreciation for him and for Sovereign Grace. On this trip we were reaping rich fruit from his investment.  

On the flight back, Fabrizio commented that in America we can be distracted by the smallest of inconveniences - the temperature, the quality of the sound, the nearness of restaurants, or the comfortability of the chairs. But the people who came to the events in Barranquilla were eager to gather and expressed a joy that was no trace of complaining. People repeatedly expressed their gratefulness for how Sovereign Grace Music has impacted their families and churches and how Joselo has been a wise and godly friend to many pastors there. 

It was humbling to realize that within a few years we could have as many as 10 Sovereign Grace churches in Colombia, South America. These would be churches that confess our statement of faith, share our gospel values, are committed to living out gospel virtues, and have a vision for planting and strengthening other churches. It was a joy to play a small part in that process. 

An update from Brian Kiama, graduate of Trinity Fellowship Pastors College, Ethiopia, and SG Church Planter to Kenya…

My name is Brian Kiama, born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. I am married to Julia Kiama, and together the Lord has blessed us with two beautiful and energetics kids; Adriel who is 6 years old, and Tadya who is 5. Early on in my Christian life, I began to sense a call to some kind of ministry and, over time, the Lord seemed to make it clear that it was a call to pastoral ministry, though I did not know when or where that would come about. During that time, I grew in the conviction that I needed to be part of a healthy local church and to have my calling assessed and confirmed by my church community. Added to that, the Lord gave me a wonderful, godly, and gifted wife who has been of tremendous support and encouragement to me as we sought to discern the Lord’s call in my life.

The Kiama family at Trinity Fellowship.

Since before our wedding and early in our marriage, we had been part of faithful Bible preaching churches in different towns in Kenya that we lived in. The Lord gave us opportunities to use our gifts to serve the churches and build relationships with church members. However, we were never fully aligned doctrinally with any of them. Then the Lord led us to discover Sovereign Grace online through the music. We were immediately intrigued by the depth, joy, and passion for Christ that was so evident, not only in the music, but also in the preaching of various SG pastors.

Not long after our discovery, in 2017, the Lord led us to pray for an opportunity to move to the US and to join the Pastors College in Louisville. We prayed for a while, but eventually we gave up, because it didn’t seem that He would open that door. Fast forward to 2018, and the Lord led us to meet a missionary couple that had just moved to the same town in Kenya that we lived in. A friendship was quickly kindled between us and it grew tremendously from that time onward. Our friends knew my desire for pastoral ministry and particularly our desire to be part of Sovereign Grace someday. Toward the end of 2020, he reached out to an old friend of his from bible college whom he knew to be in Sovereign Grace, and asked whether there was any possibility of a Kenyan being accepted in the US Pastors College. This friend of his happens to be Josh Pannell, and in God’s amazing providence, Josh was planning to move to Ethiopia with his family to establish a Pastors College under Trinity Fellowship church, which had been planted in late 2020. There we were, thinking that the Lord had closed that door, and yet He was answering our prayers in His own amazing way!

Jonathan, Rick Gamache, Michael Granger, and Brian at a Nairobi Vision Trip in 2024.

So I got accepted and I moved my family to Addis Ababa to join the first PC class in 2021. Our plan was to go through the whole three-year program, from PC to Ordination, and to see where the Lord would lead us to serve Him and His church. From the beginning of our time in Ethiopia, my wife and I had no desire to ever live or plant a church in Nairobi. But it soon became clear that the Lord had different plans for us. It began with a conversation with my pastor, Michael Granger, during my internship year at the PC. He asked whether we would ever consider moving to Nairobi to plant a church. My wife and I quickly shot down the idea, primarily because we did not see ourselves as “city people”. Then in December 2022, the Lord brought the Leslie family into our lives. Jonathan (US Pastors College graduate) and Lillie Leslie had been living in Kenya for a few years up to that point and they desired to see a gospel-centered church that embodied the shared values and shaping virtues of Sovereign Grace in Nairobi. They visited Trinity Fellowship in early December of 2022 and when Michael realized that they desired to see a church planted in Nairobi, he quickly introduced me to Jonathan and the conversation about planting a church together began there. A friendship with the Leslie family was kindled, and has been growing ever since, and the Lord used them to spark a desire in us to plant a gospel-centered church in Nairobi.

The Kiamas, together with Jonathan Leslie (left) and Bereket, Abigail and their daughter (right).

Jonathan and I have been going through the ordination process, he at Cornerstone Community Church in Burnsville, Minnesota, and I at Trinity Fellowship Addis Ababa. My family plan to move back to Nairobi in August this year, and the Leslies shortly after, to begin the work together. Thankfully, the Lord has given us another couple, Bereket and Abigail, from Trinity Fellowship who desire to be part of the team.

Our city is one of the largest and fastest growing cities in Africa. Many profess to be Christians. However, not many truly know the Lord and many are led astray by churches that preach a false gospel of prosperity and moralism. Many are unchurched and others are de-churched. Still more are living in worldliness and their hearts and minds are captivated by the attractions, pleasures, and prosperity the city life has to offer. The Lord has given us a burden to bring the light of the gospel to our dark city, and beyond. We desire to see many come to the knowledge of Christ, to have their hearts and minds captivated by the beauty and worth of our God and Savior, and to see the transforming effect of the gospel in every part of our society. Would you pray with us toward that end, and pray that we, as a team and eventually as a church, would continually be objects of God’s renewing grace, even as we seek to be instruments in God’s hands to transform our city and our country through the power of the gospel.

The Leslies and Kiamas.

An update from Riley Spring, Lead Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta and National Director of SGC Australia…

Recently, we had the sweet privilege of having Jim and Trish Donohue from Covenant Fellowship Church PA come to Australia to serve our family of churches. Our aim was twofold: to have Jim teach and equip both churches and their pastoral teams on mission and evangelism, as well as having Trish teaching and spurring on our ladies in their womanhood at the inaugural SG Aus Women’s Conference. The Lord used the week in so many ways, here are just a few:

Evangelistic Urgency

Spending time with Jim refocuses your heart and head to see the reality of eternity in sharper focus and especially to face the uncomfortable truths of the judgement and wrath to come for unbelievers. As we spent time with Jim we were freshly awakened with these truths and emboldened to share the gospel with greater zeal. He helped us see that we had sadly become too soft and afraid to turn up the heat for fear of appearing too ‘full on’ or looking weird. Instead, many of us have now gone out with greater urgency for the task of reaching out to the lost with the news of the glorious gospel.

Evangelistic Intentionality

Not only were we stirred up, we were equipped with better tools to help take more steps forward as individuals and as churches to share the gospel. Each of our Pastoral teams has taken this time to review our current practices and now we are planning on working together to run evangelistic courses in a coordinated effort so that we can try and reach more people, more effectively here in Sydney, Australia. We have committed to running the Bridge Course, the course developed by Jim which has recently been re-filmed, and it’s looking great; ‘https://bridgecourse.org’ check it out! By running it well and at the same time pooling our resources together, we can actually do the ‘retreat’ element, and we are really looking forward to seeing what God will do.

Evangelistic Resilience

Jim also helped us to see from Matthew 10 that Jesus intends us to go out and preach the gospel and expects us to get hit in the process. Read the chapter for yourself and note the perilous situation Jesus puts us in, ‘sheep amongst wolves’ for starters! We often see resistance to the gospel as signs that we aren’t sharing it well but actually it can be the opposite, and though we expect people to be saved, because the gospel is powerful, we ought also to learn how to cop a hit, like a boxer, and keep going.

SG Australia Women’s Conference

The theme of our time together was: When Life Is A Lot, and Trish Donohue gave three helpful talks which spoke into our sense of overwhelm in the midst of a full and busy life!

It was a sweet time of fellowship between our two Sovereign Grace Churches here in Australia and a timely opportunity for many of our ladies to slow down for the day and hear what God’s Word had to say about the lies we may believe, comparison with others and distractions in the busyness of day-to-day life. The talks are now available on the Sovereign Grace Parramatta streaming channels on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify or on their website.

This event was put on by a few key ladies and lots of volunteers, but I want to thank Emma Taylor, Rebecca Song, and CJ Lick in particular for their efforts and initiative to make it happen. We’re already looking forward to our next one! And the only unfortunate thing is that they have set a very high standard for us guys to live up to for when we have Eric Turbedsky out in October for our Men’s Conference!

Grateful For Partnership

We are pinching ourselves that we have such gospel centered, generous, and gifted friends who’d be willing to fly all the way out here to serve our growing family of churches in Australia. It makes such a difference for our people to meet and make friends with our pastors and families from around the world. It helps build our values, and it helps build family.

Thank you so much Jim and Trish!

Our friend Rocco Dalia, alongside his wife Mady, are gospel-partners in Turin, Italy, and recently had the opportunity to give a very open evangelistic talk on the true meaning of Easter to about 65 Italian students, 70% of whom were non-Christians. Here’s an update on how it went…

Dear friends, 

Following yesterday's prayer request, we want to thank you all for your overwhelming love and support - what a blessing it is to have you all beside us. Your messages and the verses you shared were so emboldening on a day of spiritual battle.

The message of Jesus, the victorious lamb of God who won over sin and death, got out. The seed has been sown. Carrying on what you began yesterday, let’s water it with prayer so that God may make it grow. 

By God’s grace, most students were very attentive. Sure, there were a couple of mockers, but that could be a sign the gospel was faithfully preached. I was particularly blessed by a 45-minute conversation with a non-religious student afterwards, which led him to say he’d like to believe to have hope, but that he doesn’t yet. Pray for God to reveal Himself to this student and for follow up conversations. Pray also for an angered and cynical (or, truly, hurt) atheist student I had a conversation with before the speech. At times he pretended to be indifferent during the talk, but I could see he was paying attention.

I will likely see most of these non-Christian students again at our social nights. Now that the gospel card has been played, pray that questions may be asked and further conversations may be had. Pray someone may even be in touch and join our meeting this Easter morning. 

With much gratitude and love,
Rocco

One of my hopes is to get good books on Global Missions into your hands and the following work, reviewed here by Leo Parris, our US Global Missions Coordinator, is a great place to start! The books called ‘Missions - How the Local Church Goes Global’ and it’s an outstanding read. Here’s what Leo has to say about it…

Out of the plethora of books you could read in order to begin to develop your theology of global missions, there is one book that tops the list. It’s the Bible. But my second recommendation to you would be this small yet powerful Resource. Do you want to be a missionary? Are you a pastor trying to sort out how your already overburdened church can be faithful to the great commission? Or are you merely trying to make sense of Jesus’s global command to every believer (Matt 28:18-20)? In a mere 120 pages, Andy Johnson provides a theology of global missions that is saturated with practical wisdom for local churches and Christians. Take and read!

Johnson begins by laying a foundation for global missions in chapter 1. He argues for the priority of spiritual concerns in the church’s global work and that the motivation for global missions must be God’s glory. He then demonstrates that the local church is the primary and normal means by which God plans to accomplish this mission. Johnson then spends the remainder of this book unpacking these important theological principles.

He begins to do this by carefully defining the terms gospel, missions, and missionary.  He argues that “missions” means “the unique, deliberate gospel mission of the church to make disciples of all nations. . . [and] evangelism that takes the gospel across ethnic, linguistic, and geographic boundaries, that gathers churches, and teaches them to obey everything Jesus commended” (p 35). By defining his terms in this way, Johnson prepares for requiring gospel proclamation and prioritizing church centered works in missions.

Johnson then dives into 3 John to derive 5 principles for the sending of missionaries. He encourages local churches to assess aspiring missionaries by focusing on character, fruitfulness, and Bible knowledge. He emphasizes that “the core of missions preparation is not missions studies. It is godliness and Bible knowledge and evangelistic zeal and love for Christ’s church and a passion to see Christ glorified.” (p. 47) Churches should assess and send their best as missionaries, only their best. After encouraging churches to equip their people through classes, international trips, and local engagement with internationals, Johnson challenges local churches to support missionaries generously and engage with a missions agency, but to maintain primary responsibility for their missionaries.

Churches that have encouraged global attention in their midst know the pressure of the many opportunities of need that arise. In Chapter 4, Johnson encourages churches to focus their support on reaching the unreached, work that is being done well, and those whom they know and trust. He concludes this chapter by cautioning against the temptation to seek out fast growth strategies, and urges churches to look more for faithfulness than impressive statistics.

After marking these priorities in choosing works to support, Johnson then begins to flesh out the characteristics of a healthy partnership between churches and global partners. In his experience, healthy partnerships are servant-minded, pastor-led, relationship-based, commitment-centered, congregation wide, and long term in focus. These values of humility, service, love, and committed community are values that we have long held dear in Sovereign Grace Churches. Johnson reminds us that these features will mark partnerships if they keep gospel believing and living at the center of their commitment.

In chapters 6-7, Johnson spends time cautioning against common mistakes churches make in short term teams. He urges churches to ensure that these trips are useful and a blessing to the partners that they join hands with. He challenges churches to focus on the needs of global partners rather than their own experience or desires. Johnson then considers other ways that churches can engage in global work (chapter 7). He points to the outreach of internationals locally, the planting of international churches in areas of common migration, tent-making in other countries, and those who work as supporting teams to missionaries. Rather than illegitimating these options, Johnson sees these options as viable and harmonious to the work of pioneer missionaries. Each type of approach carries with it important challenges to be noted, but each can be ways that God uses different kinds of Christians to reach the nations.

Whether you are a member eager to learn more about global missions, an aspiring missionary seeking to begin their study, or a pastor seeking to clarify your church’s global vision, I highly recommend that you read this book.

In a recent ‘Prayer Requests’ email Mark Prater sent out to Sovereign Grace Churches, he wrote the following,

'In 1859, Austin Phelps published a book on prayer entitled, “The Still Hour.” In his book, Phelps writes, “Any unperverted mind will conceive of the scriptural idea of prayer, as that of one of the most downright, sturdy realities in the universe. Right in the heart of God's plan of government it is lodged as a power. Amidst the conflicts which are going on in the evolution of that plan, it stands as a power. Into all the intricacies of Divine working and the mysteries of Divine decree, it reaches out silently as a power. In the mind of God, we may be assured, the conception of prayer is no fiction, whatever man may think of it.” (Page 21)

Prayer is one of the most downright, sturdy realities in the universe, and in God’s wisdom, He includes prayer as a power that is part of His good, sovereign government of the universe. These truths are not only amazing, they also remind us why we need to pray for one another in Sovereign Grace. As God continues His good plan for our family of churches, we don’t sit passively by, rather we pray knowing that God will use our prayers for one another in the best way He sees fit.' 

What wonderful truth that is, and so to aid you, here’s some ways you can be praying for us in the month ahead...

1. Please pray for the churches in Bolivia, India, and Pakistan who have recently started the adoption process into Sovereign Grace asking God to strengthen them, and to equip their elders as they pursue ordination.

2. Please pray for Bart Lipscomb (Lead Pastor of Christchurch, Texas, and SGC Area Leader for Africa) and Leo Parris (Pastor at Covenant Fellowship, PA) as they head to Freetown, Sierra Leone, to help teach at a Young Adults Conference at one of our EN Candidate Churches, and invest into our leaders that are leading our EN Candidate Churches in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Please pray for safety and stamina in travel, for the Holy Spirit to guide them and for their teaching to be clear, Christ-centred and affective. 

3. Please pray for Bob Kauflin, Joselo Mercado & Fabrizio as they head to Barranquilla, Colombia, May 16-18th for two events sponsored by Sovereign Grace Churches. The first is an event for pastors and music leaders associated with Sovereign Grace. The second is for a broader audience, focussing in on wider topics relating to music and worship in the church. Please pray for safe travel, deep and lasting fruit, and the strengthening of Sovereign Grace Churches in Barranquilla, Santa Marta and Cali. 

4. Please pray for Rich Richardson (Lead Pastor of Centre Church, AZ and SGC Area Leader for Latin America) as he heads to Guadalajara, Mexico, to lead a Pastors Retreat, May 14th-20th. The focus of this year's retreat, for all the SG Mexico Pastors and those in the ordination process, is the integrity needed for pastoral ministry. Please pray that this would be a rich time of fellowship and teaching for the 50+ brothers who will be in attendance. 

5. Please pray for Ed O’Mara (SGC Area Leader for Europe) as he travels to Antalya, Turkey, May 24th-27th, to meet with Sovereign Grace missionaries (names withheld for security reasons) and their local partners. The goal of this trip will be to strengthen our missionaries and help them think through their future steps and ways to serve in Turkey for the glory of Christ. 

6. Please pray that God would continue to stir the members and pastors of Sovereign Grace Churches all over the world, towards local mission and a renewed desire to share the glorious gospel with the unbelievers in their communities and workplaces. 

...Let us pray for one another knowing that it is one of the most downright, sturdy realities in the universe.

An aspect of our zeal in Sovereign Grace Churches is to plant churches, as illustrated by our friend Nick Kidwell…. Enjoy!! (Nick Kidwell Testimony)