Dear Friends,

Why are these Nicaraguan pastors and cell-group leaders smiling? They’re smiling because of you! Thanks to your kindness, they’ve just enjoyed three days of ministry-equipping teaching that has refreshed and revived them. They’ve enjoyed spending time getting to know fellow pastors, eating good food, and listening to me slaughter Spanish. (It’s not Buenos Nachos, but Buenos Noches.) They’ve also received a gift of five Spanish Christian books they could only have dreamed of owning. And you can be sure their congregations will be smiling more now too, with happier pastors. I hope you’re smiling, knowing how much happiness you’ve brought to one hundred forgotten pastors and cell-group leaders on the rarely-visited Atlantic coast of Nicaragua.

We had a fantastic conference. Many thanks to Global Connections of Denver for allowing me to have a part in it. I didn’t have any Spanish books to give, but I found 32 pastors who could read the English books I brought with me. One of them was one of the few Moravian bishops in the world. One was a pastor whose church has grown from 90 to 800 in four years.All of them were so hungry to learn. Thanks for making all that blessing possible.

What do the following 55 countries all have in common?

Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Brazil, Canada, Cambodia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgian Republic, Germany, Guadeloupe, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan,Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mali, Martinique, Mexico, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway,Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Trinidad & Tobago, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Virgin Islands

Believe it or not, at least one person from every one of these countries has visited the Shepherd Serve web site. Last month www.shepherdserve.org was visited 2,195 times.

I’ll be leaving in a week and a half for Sierra Leone, West Africa, which, according to the United Nations Human Development Report, is the world’s worst place to live. Last June at our Sierra Leone pastors’ conference we had real revival, and so the planning committee has titled this year’s conference, “The Second Great Awakening”! While there, I’ll be visiting a camp for some of the thousands of people who had arms or legs chopped off by rebels in Sierra Leone’s recent civil war. I plan to bring with me hundred pound bags of rice and fruit to ease their suffering to some degree in the name of Christ. Below is a photo of one of war’s younger victims whom I met last year in one of those camps.

We are anticipating that 300 pastors will be attending our conference this year in Sierra Leone, and it costs us less than $10 per pastor to offer them much needed encouragement, ministry-equipping teaching, and a modest lunch for three days. Could you help us to meet the need of serving one or more pastors? Could you help us buy rice and fruit for some war victims who are missing arms and legs and who live in the world’s poorest nation? Thanks so much.

For the Kingdom of Christ,

David

P.S. Here is an excerpt from a letter from a pastor in Ghana who listens to our shortwave radio broadcast whom we made very happy with just one book:

I have just gone through Modern Myths About Satan and Spiritual Warfare and my God you have just saved me from not digesting the Word of God to my people. In fact, I have not met such an abrupt teacher into myths such as is contained in your book. My God as if there were chains that locked my brain and broken off after reading your book. After reading that book alone, I personally felt delivered, free and liberated from myths that choked me up unexplainably…