Friday, March 8, 2019

February 2019 End of Month Report


“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. Matt 11:12
Wordsower Liberia exists because our Lord has called and united a team of obedient disciples who have all sacrificed.  You are a part of the team by praying and participating financially.  Money you earn could have been spent on selfish desires, but instead was given towards an everlasting harvest. These who go on the bikes to the villages would not be able to do it without your participation.  The harvest is truly plentiful.  The workers are us; the united, the sacrificial, the faithful, the obedient. Let us continue to pray for even more laborers here in Liberia and supporters abroad.  I believe that as we unite, we will be utterly amazed, far beyond our dreams, at the harvest that will come from our obedient sacrifice. 
“The Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.  So, neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.  The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 1 Cor 3:5-7

You see our monthly reports, sometimes skimming them in haste of other things. You see the numbers. Numbers on paper create small effect. Below is a story from within one of those numbers. 
The team in the pictures below left their mission in Grand Bassa County at 3:00 in the afternoon to return to our base. They arrived at 9:00 in the morning. The following day they drove throughout the night for 18 hours on a bad road. They suffered, wrecked, bled, were bruised, were in danger, risked, slept for a few hours on the ground in a village, and returned rejoicing!!! Mission accomplished! The Gospel of Christ and His word of Salvation and hope was taught and preached!!!  For that, the team - you and I - joyfully sacrifice and greatly suffer.  You read in the report that we went on 86 missions to 139 villages, without knowing the cost.


Two bikes and four field leaders returning from mission
Notice the laughter and smiles
The wound you see in the picture is a burn caused by a bike wreak from the muffler laying on the leg.  The brutal treatment is to rub gasoline from the bike into the wound to stop infection and reduce swelling.  These are common, most of us have scars from muffler burns.
United, each team member doing their assigned task, forcefully advances the Gospel of our Lord.

I have been reading “Letters to the Church” by Francis Chan.  He says, 
We pursue Jesus, and suffering always accompanies Him. As believers, we spend our days pursuing Christ Himself, Christlikeness, and the mission of Christ, none of which can be done apart from suffering… As we are fixated on and obsessed with our pursuit of Jesus, we know suffering and persecution will come at us from all sides…Part of the reason we have created a culture of non-committal Christianity that avoids suffering is that we don’t treasure Him enough, we don’t love the lost enough.  We want Jesus, but there are limits to what we will sacrifice for Him, for His mission, for the lost.  We want Him, but there are also lots of other things we want in life…We are to fall in love with Him, to the point where it actually becomes a joy and desire to give our lives to Him in return.”

Paul said, “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him… I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Phil 3:8-11.  “Paul was obsessed with knowing Jesus, he even wanted the fellowship of sharing in Christ’s sufferings… There’s a level of love we can reach where we actually grow to want that.  To want that type of intimacy, where you feel as if you were nailed right there next to Him.  You could lose everything - your reputation, comforts, possessions - and count that all a bunch of trash, because it is all worthless compared to knowing Christ.” *

Our Weapons used in February:
  • 3 were baptized
  • Our first indigenous missionary team in Wacco village of Capemont County are boldly advancing. They are surrounded by 3 unreached Muslim tribes, the Vai, Gola, and Mandingo. They went on 26 missions to 16 villages/towns and did one conference while teaching 80 students in the school they started.  Rest? Hardly!
  • We sent teams on 86 missions to 139 villages/towns in 7 Counties
  • We did 3, three-day regional trainings.  Many are unable to attend our school so we send teams out to do trainings.
  • We have an hour radio broadcast every day.  The broadcast presents the Gospel and teaches scripture.
  • Our dentists treated 20 patients and extracted 24 teeth. We have the only dentist in 6 counties.  The Gospel is presented to every patient, many of which are Muslims.
  • In January, we acquired 3,000 Gideon pocket Bibles.  Again, in February we acquired another 3,000 Gideon pocket Bibles.  Hundreds of thousands of bibles have been distributed in over 1,000 villages.  For those who are illiterate, we have given away many audio Bibles on small memory chips, in their dialects, that can be used in phones and music players.
  • Our water filter team did follow-up visits in 28 villages/towns.  They also did assessments in 24 villages.  Every home that receives a filter also receives the Gospel.
  • Our adult literacy team is training adult students.
  • We have the only known Christian book store in 6 counties.  We sell NT/OT Bibles at cost that we get in Monrovia.  We can purchase a Good News Bible for $3.50.  We also sell reference books and dictionaries.  This is a much needed and appreciated service.  The Gideon Bibles we hand out freely as part of a Bible training program. 

Participate with us in Praise and prayer:
  • URGENT PRAYER REQUEST. 10 men from Woodside Bible Church are coming to spend 2 weeks with us. They will be going into four villages of the Muslim unreached Vai and Gola tribes to show the Jesus film and do evangelism.  Pray that our Lord will prepare the people to hear and receive the Gospel!!!
  • Our Lord says to pray for more harvesters to be sent into the field.  Truly the harvest is plentiful and the workers few. Pray for more indigenous harvesters.  Pray that our Lord would send more Western missionaries full time and for short term.  
  • Pray that our Lord will use us to train and send an army of Liberian warriors that will reach into the 393 unreached tribes of West Africa.  
  • Pray for our team now on mission in Ivory Coast, we are trying to lease property that will be used as a base.  Our primary goal is to train and send indigenous missionaries into the 36 unreached Muslim tribes of ivory Coast.

100% of all donations go to the mission. None is used for administration. Tax-deductible receipts will be sent each January.
Please send donations to:
Wordsower International
16960 Sidney-Plattsville Rd
Sidney, OH 45365

Financial Report for February:
Summary of expenses:
·    $905 - Staff support for 7 employees
·    $367 - Assistance to the poor          
·    $426 - Radio Ministry   
·    $759 - Base Expenses.  Covers food cost for the team, visitors, maintenance, on base
·    $1,045 Missions
·    $1,267 Water filter team is in Maryland County installing home water filter systems
·    $1,805 Capemont missionary project
·    $822 - Gas for bikes and generators
·    $461 Motorbike maintenance and repairs
·    $80 Adult literacy Ministry
·    $1,102 Wordsower Bible Institute, 2 week class on our base
·    $522 - Wordsower Bible Institute satellite, 1 week class within Liberia
·    $12 Printing press supplies and labor
·    $150 Gideon Bibles
·    $380 Good News Bibles
Total $10,103

* From the book, Letters to the Church, by Francis Chan, pages 140-142.