Our greatest need at this moment is to make sure that each child has proper care, nourishment and education.

You can support one of these children! Already some are committing to help in this meaningful way. For $40.00 per month you can feed, cloth and educate one of these beautiful Haitian children. Think of it! $1.00 per day gives them food and nourishment. Just $10.00 per month pays for their Christian education in the Guilgal Baptist School. Would you support one of these children?

See our website at Baptist Evangelism for more information about our ministry or call me at 561-818-4937. If you want to give an offering click on donate on our Baptist Evangelism website. Support online at our website or send your offering / support to Baptist Evangelism, 8153 SE Carlton Street, Hobe Sound, FL 33455.

At the very least -

PLEASE PRAY!

Guatemala – What a wonderful start to 2012 we had in our ministry in Guatemala! Put together an exciting team of Americans led by Chris Tolley and Tim Web from Hands of Compassion, a welcoming group of Guatemalan church members from our own Iglesia Bautista Faro de Luz, all coming together to work with from our High Road Mission in Xejeyup and we were witness to an incredible experience. The Americans were divided up into evangelistic teams, children’s ministry teams, medical teams and construction teams. So much good work was accomplished! Hundreds of homes were visited by our teams. Hundreds of children enjoyed and benefited from the children’s ministries every day in Xejeyup and Pochol. Hundreds of sick villagers from Xejeyup and Pochol were seen and treated by our medical team. Those working on the construction saw two of the dormitories progress toward completion with beautiful new drop ceilings. The rest of the toilets were installed and functioning in the bathrooms. The electricity was installed in the newly completed kitchen. The foundation was finished and the walls are going up on the High Road pastor’s home. All I can say is INCREDIBLE!

Last but NOT least! I just heard that we have 39 signed up for the teams coming in March. A literal army of missioners. Pray!

Haiti – This coming week I will be working with Pastor George Warren and his team from New Hope Baptist Church in Pascoag, RI as we begin the foundation and walls for the new building of Good Shepherd Orphanage in Santos, Haiti. This orphanage, open since September 2010, desperately needs their own home. These young children need care! You can help! Pray that the walls go up quickly. Help here at DONATE.

Cuba – We have heard from our pastors in Ilusion, Chambas, Colorado and a couple of other of the brethren. They are excited to be using the Bible Institute materials and curriculum that we put in place in the local church institutes. Pray for them as they train new leaders and develop workers for their churches.

South Florida – On January 21st we will host our FIRST outreach in the our new Palm Beach Gardens location with a Health Fair. Some of our associates from Carelink International will join with us to offer free health exams for the community. We hope this will be a viable introduction for our ministry in this community. Our meetings in Palm Beach Gardens have been going very well. We have had a consistent attendance each week and we have some new interest from some other local residents. Some of our men recently finished painting the interior of our meeting place and it is a great improvement!

Engineer’s Plans for Good Shepherd Orphanage 

What a blessing! We have been realizing the need for a home for our orphans for some months now. The temporary place that was rented to house them is not a good place for them to do as well as we hope for them. Land was made available for us in Santos which is on the outskirts of Port Au Prince and now we have the opportunity to build. When this happened we had NO $money in hand. By faith we moved ahead to draw up the plans, get a building permit and arrange for a construction team to come to Haiti. As soon as we moved forward in faith, God, as He ALWAYS does, begin to touch hearts to give to this project. We now have the money to get the permit, prep the land, dig the foundation and for the team (scheduled for January 23, 2012) to begin raising the walls for Good Shepherd Orphanage.

Please pray about participating in this orphanage project. If you would like to donate you may go to www.BaptistEvangelism.org and click on donate or you can send an offering to Baptist Evangelism or Carelink at 11611 Indiantown Road, Jupiter, Florida 33478.

We BELIEVE! Just two years ago I stood on land we had purchased for our ministry in Xejeyup, Guatemala. I had NO $money for the project. But we scheduled a team to come (Hands of Compassion International) on a mission trip from Virginia to Guatemala. The group raised some money and we were able to begin the building of our High Road Ministry Center. When the team left that first week in January with just two levels of blocks out of the ground, I honestly looked out on the work that was done and wondered HOW LONG it would take to get the building completed. But because we moved forward in FAITH, the following January we opened the doors for the first services in our new building. Since then we have been working on dormitories, a kitchen and plan to began on another building phase (pastor’s house) next month. I STAND AMAZED at how God worked in Guatemala. Little by little God met each need through donations by individuals and churches. Not all at once, but as it was needed the work was completed by these teams from churches in Virginia, Florida and other areas.

Why Work With Orphans? – Our Philosophy.

Part of the outreaches that Baptist Evangelism has been involved with since 1998, with Carelink International and in just the last few years working with orphans we have been confronted with questions like, “Why?” “Why meet people on a physical level?” “Why treat the body?” “Why branch out into ‘social activism’ and help orphans?”

The better question is, Why haven’t we sooner? A continuing theme throughout the Bible is that of God being the champion of the undeserving, the unable, the “underdog”. God was never ashamed to call Himself the champion of the weak, the helper of the helpless, or the Father to the fatherless. So why, as His representation on earth, should we do anything less?

This isn’t social activism

This isn’t a social gospel program. This isn’t even some “gimmick” to give people the Gospel. This is just God honoring. This is the effectual working out of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, moving us into a Christ compelled mission of touching people’s lives and demonstrating the salvation of man.

Perhaps one of the most oft quoted passages in the work of orphans or the underprivileged would be James 1.27,

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

Where is James coming from in writing this? Where does this definition of pure religion come from? This all stems from the outflow, the outward appearance of faith. We help others because we have been helped. The work that Baptist Evangelism is doing in providing humanitarian aid and caring for the fatherless is action prompted by transformation. It is also demonstrative of the work that has been done. Again, we help because we have been helped. God became Father to every single believer when we were made joint heirs with the Son. We, though destitute and sinking ever further into the mire of our own iniquitous pit, were raised up by the strong arm of the Lord and made to sit with Him in heavenly places. This imagery is acted out in the care of orphans. They are destitute and hopeless by themselves. But, not by any merit of their own, they are raised up in strong arms of Christians who are giving themselves to provide for the weak.

This is not an article written solely to address the purposes of the ministries of Baptist Evangelism, but also a call to arms for others to join us. If you have been changed change other’s lives. If you have been touched by the hand of the Lord, touch others. We have been given much and much will be required of us. Are we exercising a pure religion? Are we being Christ-like and giving ourselves for the wretched and the poor? These are the marks of Christian. Are they found in your life?

In a social aspect this means bringing the physically, mentally, and socially hurting (mourning – grief) to a place where they can see the Bright and Morning Star of God. We believe the Scripture when it says that “joy comes in the morning.”

This joy, however, is by no means restricted or limited to physical joy or a relief of physical mourning. At the center of bringing physical relief is the relief of spiritual mourning that Christ brings. When we’re dead in our trespasses and sins, separated from God, we have no joy. We have no peace. We have nothing but mourning. But when Christ, the Son, comes we behold His glory and we are set free. We, through Christ, are brought from mourning to morning.

With this theme in mind we’ve continued in our humanitarian efforts in the country of Haiti in the vehicle of Carelink International, the relief organization of Baptist Evangelism. We’ve (as you’ll see through later updates) begun a more organized and emphasized church planting effort through the work of Seminaire Baptiste Evangelique Haiti. As part of these works we’ve acquired a building in Port Au Prince where we can host groups to come to Haiti.

The groups that we’re opening the Mourning to Morning Ministry Center in will be working in every aspect of the ministry in Haiti. Teams will be involved in:

• The Baptist Evangelism Seminary
• Orphanages
• The church planting efforts in towns and villages across Haiti
• Construction of ministry centers for evangelism

This emphasis is in keeping with Baptist Evangelism’s philosophy of ministry (planting churches & training leaders) the Mourning to Morning Ministry Center. We hope you’ll continue to pray for the work in Haiti and the new avenue of evangelism and leadership training by the Mourning to Morning Ministry Center.

You can learn more about IBFL at http://farojupiter.wordpress.com/  (Spanish)

For Our Latest Work In Cuba read here: Cuba, A New Church Is Planted!

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest

God has really blessed us as we reach out to work in the central mountain jungle of Guatemala. Xejeyup is the home of Centro de Ministerio Camino Alto (High Road Ministry Center). Through the ministry of Iglesia Bautista Faro de Luz (Lighthouse Baptist Church) we are touching many young lives that will be changed for good by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  They will be rescued from lives of confusion and misery and have the opportunity to learn to live for Christ. Pray for Pastor Salomon Gomez and his wife Arsenia sent out from our church in south Florida.

The older residents of Xejeyup and the surrounding 22 towns and villages also need to hear the Gospel. Many are hardened by their ancient religious traditions, their local tribal brujos (witches) and confused by years of false teachers and religious charlatans. We operate a medical clinic and while patients wait we have the opportunity to give them the Gospel. Soon we will also open other features in High Road Ministry Center for various types of vocational and academic educational programs. Through these ministries we believe we will have the opportunity for many to hear the Gospel. One of our good friends in Florida is purchasing wood working shop equipment to use on site to train local men and also provide sources of income for the ministry.

If you would like to help us reach the Guatemalans in Xejeyup and this area of Guatemala go to BaptistEvangelism.org and click on DONATE.

Mission Trip to Guatemala

If you would like to go on a mission trip contact us at rmaggard@juno.com or call 561-818-4937 for more information. Mission teams can stay on site in our dormitories or in a hotel in nearby Mazatenango.