James and Linda Belisle Prayer Letter: French-African Ministry Growing

Shortly after sending out my last prayer letter, I was able to go with a group from our church to a conference on the West Coast, hosted by the North Valley Baptist Church. I had never been to this conference and, in fact, had only been in California once prior to this trip. Our church group had a wonderful time seeing what God is doing out there and meeting many servants of God. The preaching was great!

Later in the month, I was able to preach a weekend Missions Conference at a church located in Bettendorf, Iowa. This was their first Missions Conference, and the pastor was very pleased with the results. It looks like they will be able to take on another missionary. Praise the Lord! If you ever need help in the area of missions, I would be glad to come to your church.

The French-speaking class we started last month continues to grow. Let me tell you how God is guiding in this endeavor. First, God has brought two interpreters our way, both from Africa. Then we found out that one of our church members had studied French for eight years when he was younger. He decided to help with the class. Paul, my main interpreter, was led to Christ by one of our bus captains. I started discipling him about baptism, and he followed the Lord in baptism recently. Here is his picture.

I, along with my French-speaking church member, attempt to visit some of the people on Saturdays. This past Saturday, I was able to lead my interpreter’s mom and dad to Christ. Amen!! They had been coming to the class and seemed very interested in the teaching. They readily admitted they had been taught salvation by works and gladly received the free gift of eternal life. This is a picture of Paul’s mom and dad.

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday, with 13 in attendance (4 of us being workers). We then had 16 in attendance the next Sunday, 3 being children. We are seeing visitors almost every Sunday.

Please pray that God brings a French-speaking preacher our way to take over the class. Please pray for me, as I plan to fly to Poland in mid-May. A missionary there is planning a medical furlough and has asked me to consider overseeing his work, at least for some of the time he will be gone.

Your servant,

Missionary Evangelist James Belisle