Pastor Dean Noonan and his church are willing to match, dollar for dollar, up to $25,000 for donations received by May 31 to help us build our church building. We have raised $20,000 and estimate that we could build the building with another $50,000. If $25,000 would come in, that would be the $50,000 we need! What a tremendous blessing it would be to save over $1,200/month for rent and to have our own facilities. I am so excited about this and would really appreciate it if you could help with any amount. Anything you could give would be a great help. If you prefer, you can conveniently give online at www.fbmi.org/give. If you would like to speak with Pastor Noonan personally, his number is 414-301-9319. Thank you so much.
Ester and I went to Nepal to visit our missionary and his family. (I won’t mention his name for safety reasons.) He was my assistant pastor for almost seven years. What an unspeakable blessing to see the work there and the people who have been saved and the lives that have been changed. God truly broke my heart for them and made me appreciate the tremendous freedom we have here in the Philippines. Christianity is not illegal in Nepal, but it is illegal to “convert” people and share the Gospel. Many of the members in his church are refugees from Pakistan. Most of them were well to do but had to leave the country because their lives were in danger. Nepal does not accept them as refugees and makes life difficult for them. What an unspeakable blessing it was to meet these dear people whose faith cost them so much. I was able to preach five times while in Nepal and visited several families who invited us to their homes to eat with them. The refugee families we visited had given up every earthly possession they couldn’t bring in their suitcases, including their homes and businesses, because of their faith in Jesus Christ.
We had a very successful youth revival, with young people from several churches attending. God moved in a tremendous way in their lives. As far as I know, most, if not all, made major decisions for Christ. John Michael, one our young men, surrendered to preach and is preparing to move into our college dorms this week.
We have been having Bible studies in Lipa City for seven months and recently rented a facility there to have services and start a church. Please pray for this new work.
Please also pray for John, my assistant pastor, and his wife Marisu as we send them out to start a church this June. Praise the Lord! They already have an unused school building that needs some fixing up for their facilities. Our people are excited about helping them start this new work.
Our folks were so kind to me on my 61st birthday. Among many other things, they put their money together to have a painting done of Ester and me for our home. The several bags of goodies they gave to me are somewhat of a hindrance to my goal of losing a few pounds.
We recently had a Father-Son Fellowship. I, along with several of the men in our church, “adopted” the boys and teenagers in our church who don’t have fathers or whose dads don’t attend church. It was a great blessing to the men and boys.
Thank you all so much for your sacrifice for all these years to help us stay in these amazingly white harvest fields. We appreciate you more than we can express.
Yours for souls,
Courtney & Ester Godsoe