The first two months of 2016 brought forth another important milestone for our ministry, as Providence Baptist College and Seminary celebrated its second commencement on the last Saturday of January, with fourteen seminarians receiving their degree, another nine students completing their diploma through Temple Baptist Institute, and the first-ever awarding of a certificate from Revivals Christian Correspondence College. We were honored to host the pastor of Independent Baptist Church Calabar, Bro. Nicholas Wayih, as our guest preacher for the special weekend, and I am looking forward to preaching their church’s 30th Anniversary Service in June. Of the twenty-four graduates, most are already laborers and pastors in various locations, and we are trusting God to use all of them in ministry service and church planting in the near future. Please pray with our ministry, as the next seminary semester will begin in May, and the institute has already resumed on Saturdays with sixteen new students!
By the time we leave for our furlough in mid-August of this year, with God’s help, we will have conducted nine conferences in twelve months! Our first two regional Soul-Winning and Leadership Conferences concluded in September of last year, with the 8th annual national meeting scheduled for the end of March this year. In the two churches where our family serves, we hosted missions conferences in November 2015, and we are planning Spirit Renewal Meetings (multi-day revival) for both congregations in July 2016. To top it off, we will conduct two youth camps this year for the first time ever; one will be held in Port Harcourt, and the 6th Annual SMITE (Student Missions Institute for Training in Evangelism) will be in Nyanya-Abuja in August. Immediately after those youth camps, we plan to be in the U.S. until mid-January 2017; please let me know if you would like for my family to visit your church during the five-month span.
I have posted details of each national and regional conference, updates on the youth camps, and information about our seminary and correspondence college on the pages of our website: missionaryholmes.blogspot.com. Also, with our improved internet access at home, I’ve been able to post videos for the last three updates, as well as pictures for all of our prayer letters (since January 2003). Soon I will add a traveling schedule for our furlough; my family would love to meet up with supporters and prayer partners if we pass through your area.
Believing God,
Mark Holmes, written 17 March 2016
