Brandon and Ali Heselschwerdt Prayer Letter: Our Very First Youth Conference

April was an exciting month for us as a church. We held our very first Youth Conference for a day. For our first Youth conference, I encouraged our own teens to invite 10 friends each to come to the conference. They each were given an invitation to give each teen that they invited. We were aiming and anticipating for around 100 teenagers in total. When the day finally came, we only had around 40 teens in attendance, but we were excited for each soul that was there to hear the preaching of God’s Word. Many of the new teens made professions of faith, and many of our own teens were greatly encouraged from the preaching of God’s Word. We were blessed to have one of the pastors we trained from our first PPTA program come in and preach the Youth Conference for us.

The next day on Saturday, both Pastor Wycliffe and I, along with four other teen boys, went out to share the Gospel with others from our community. We were blessed to see a few other people come to Christ while out soul winning! Then on Sunday, Pastor Wycliffe preached for us in all of our services before returning home. Our church was greatly encouraged through the preaching, and I as their pastor was blessed by how much our church people took it upon themselves to help support the Youth Conference and help prepare the meals for the youths.

This month, we were also able to see souls saved almost every Sunday, either before or after church, and we had one young man come forward for baptism. We also had one neighbor from our neighborhood contact me about the church, and our families were able to have dinner in their home later in the week. It was a blessing to hear that the husband had a clear testimony of salvation, and I was able to lead his wife, sister-in-law, and mother-in-law through the Gospel. Praise be to God, all three of them called upon the Lord as their personal Saviour!

PPTA is going well. April marked the completion of our second month of training, and we had 28 men in total. They are showing great growth in the fact that they are asking many good questions to seek clarity on the truth according to God’s Word. We are looking forward to what these men are going to do for Christ in the near future!

Lastly, on April 27, our last Sunday, I was just closing up the church when I suddenly experienced right lower abdomen pain. To make a long story short, I had to go in for the emergency removal of my appendix due to appendicitis, which was caused from a precancerous tumor within the appendix. As I write this letter, I am fully healed now at just over six weeks after surgery. Unfortunately, now I have to go in to have part of my colon removed due to the precancerous cells spreading from the appendix to the large Intestine. Please pray for my upcoming surgery on June 13 and my recovery following it.
Thank you for your faithfulness, prayers, and support. God bless you.

Your co-laborers for lost souls across East Africa,

The HESELSCHWERDT Family
Brandon, Ali, Jeffrey, Hannah, and Esther
Romans 10:14

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Pastor Samson
Lolgorien Region

While out visiting church members this month, I was able to see one person get saved! This month we also had a joined service with two other churches. Through that service, we witnessed three new people receive Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Also, starting in August, we will have three churches coming together on Wednesdays for a seminar to teach through the constitution we are adopting from Bro. Peter and Bro. Brandon.

I have an ongoing project with the church building. We are currently building the caretaker’s house. Then we will start constructing the toilets.

We have a lot we need to do to serve the Lord concerning soul winning. Thus, we agreed with Pastor John Kirui to start meeting twice a month for training classes to teach our members how to become more effective in leading others to Christ. We will meet at the church in Ilaburr during the second week of every month and at the church in Sitet at the end of every month.

Pastor John
Lolgorien Region

I am happy to report that our church is doing well. We thank God that we are continuing on in the ministry. First, this last month, I was blessed to see two people receive Jesus as their Saviour!

Second, on a Tuesday this month, we had a meeting and voted to start a Bible study, beginning in August, with another church from our area. Please pray with us as we start this new Bible study.

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Before I did not know about God and the church, but one day I understood about knowing God and church. My friends told me to go to church with them. I used to believe that doing good works would take me to Heaven, only to realize that I was wrong.

First, in baptism we were taught that baptism is a symbol of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In understanding salvation, God gave me a new life as a new human being and washed and sanctified me. When we sin, we are spiritually dead.

In the purpose of works, faith justified man in the eyes of God, while works justifies man in the eyes of men. We are saved by grace through faith and not of works.

I myself came to realize that neither works nor baptism will get us to Heaven but by believing in Jesus Christ ONLY as our way to Heaven.

~ Victoria