My busiest time of our furlough cranked up in the middle of October through the end of the month, as I was a part of three Missions Conferences and two other emphasis Sundays. The Lord has allowed us to report on our work in nearly 25 places and schedule several new churches to present our work. We are looking forward to traveling together as a family at the beginning of next month. Thank you for your prayers towards Sabrina’s recovery from her procedure and for baby Aaron, who is growing and developing well.
Our family and ministry are very grateful to our longtime friend and co-laborer, Missionary Evangelist James Belisle, the Americas Field Service Coordinator of Fundamental Baptist Missions International, the mission board with whom we’ve served for 16 years. Bro. Belisle completed a first in October: a guest preacher traveling to Nigeria in our absence and conducting conferences in two locations! On the 14th through the 17th, Missionary David Maskey hosted a Missions & Leadership Conference at Independent Baptist Church of Port Harcourt, with morning and evening sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Bro. Belisle was the keynote speaker. Our youth pastor at Grace & Glory Baptist Church, Bro. Adewale Adesina, was also invited to preach and teach Sunday through Wednesday. On the 21st, Pastor Adewale accompanied Bro. Belisle to Ibadan to minister for a Sunday at Independent Baptist Church of Ijokodo, followed by a full-day Pastors’ and Workers’ Conference on Tuesday. Without Bro. Belisle, we would have been forced to cancel these meetings; instead, because of the Lord’s blessing and our friend’s determination, we are able to continue and even expand the work of encouraging pastors with conferences in several locations throughout Nigeria.
There are many ways to keep in touch with our work and family. We have a new page with several videos (vimeo.com/missionaryholmes), including the update that we’ve been showing in churches during furlough. Our mission board’s website has a page for us (fbmi.org/missionary/holmes), with a newly improved online-giving feature. On Facebook, you can find our personal page (markandsabrina) and our ministry page (search Abuja’s Conferences and Colleges). Our sending church also has featured us in many different ways; go to missionsclub.wordpress.com, and search for us by the tag “holmes.” Finally, as always, all of our prayer letters are archived, with pictures and videos, at missionaryholmes.blogspot.com.
Believing God,
Mark Holmes
Written 19 November 2018