Dear Friends,

Thanks so very much for helping to make August a productive ministry month. My daughter, Charity, was able to completely redesign and update the Shepherd Serve website to make it more relevant and easy to navigate. Just about all of the teaching articles, monthly E-Teachings, and Foreign Language articles are now available to easily download in PDF format. Praise God that in the last twelve months Shepherd Serve has received 1.1 million hits. If you haven’t visited lately, browse on by! And don’t forget to click on the “Kingdom Commerce” banner, and watch closely as your mouse scrolls over George Washington’s face (You’ll see one of Charity’s classic touches!).

The Orphan’s Tear website has also been attracting more visitors over the past two months, for which we thank the Lord. In August, we were able to do more for our orphans in Myanmar, Tanzania and India than in any previous month. Our Tanzanian orphanage director recently wrote (read slowly, as Swahili is his native language), “I was again take this opportunity to say we are so much delighted with full of love tears on how it is so wonderful our God is, for our children to have fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters from overseas.”

ShepherdServe.org Home Page

OrphansTear.org Home Page

Destination: Restricted Nation

I would appreciate your prayers as I depart for a restricted nation in a few days to conduct underground pastors’ conferences. Most of the congregations in this particular country have no choice but to secretively meet in homes because of government policy. The 500-page The Disciple-Making Minister has been translated and printed into the native language, to be given to 1.000 strategic pastors. So please ask God, who can open the eyes of the blind, to blind the eyes of some of the seeing while we are there!

I Was Hungry Project #2

I will be traveling to India in November to conduct a pastors’ conference and visit a number of orphanages supported by Orphan’s Tear. I also hope to see a smile on the face of the three-year-old girl in the photo below who was born with a cleft palate. This is the kind of project that comes under the “I Was Hungry” division of Heaven’s Family, and we’ve pledged, by faith, to pay for her surgery. Her father is a pastor, and when he shares the gospel with local Hindus, they often chide him by asking, “Why has your God done this to your daughter?” Soon he will be able to tell them that his brother and sisters from far away have shared God’s love for his daughter, and that she is healed. If you would like to be one of those brothers or sisters, just mark your gift for her surgery. I’ll take her photo when I see her in November so you can see the finished result. (If we receive more than is needed, your gift will be applied to help other children who need the same surgery.)

Join Me in Cuba in January!

Right after the new year I will be traveling with my friend, pastor Chuck King, to eastern Cuba to serve pastors and impoverished believers. You could be a blessing there. This is an easy mission trip, as it is just a short flight from Miami, there is no jet lag, and it is relatively inexpensive (around $1,000). You’ve never worshipped God until you’ve done it with a Latin worship band in Cuba! We’re going for just one week, and if you’re interested in serving with us, let me know.

And Some Real Good August Letters…

From Kentucky: I have just finished your book [The Great Gospel Deception]. It was one of the most amazing books I think I have ever read, and I read a lot. Thank you for the scriptures, for they have made me re-evaluate my salvation and my walk with the Lord. I have taken these scriptures to my Bible Study group and we have dug into the Word. This book has changed my life. You must hear that a lot, but it is really true. It has brought me to discuss these things with the people I work with too. Praise God for that!!!

From a Florida pastor: I must tell you, last Tuesday night at our Discipleship Training (aka Bible Study) I read “the Parable of Revival” [from The Great Gospel Deception] to the congregation. There were such silence as everyone listened to the things that some hardly realize are sin against God. In our Friday night corporate prayer we repented and repented for the things we’ve taken for granted as well as the things the Holy Spirit revealed to us as we asked Him to shine the light of heaven within us.

From Kansas: The “best letter of the month” [in last month’s Ministry Update] could have been written by me. I have totally missed it. We were supposed to take up our cross and follow, make disciples, have a mission, and I have stayed with the stuff so long I am suffocated by it. Deep in debt over wood hay and stubble. 50 and compromised. Many years at every service, now can’t drag myself to one very often. But you are not only helping orphans, you are helping us.

From Texas: Hi David, we met in St. Cloud where I bought a few of your books. I wrote to you before about sending one to my friend in Port Aransas, Texas who does prison ministry for over 300 men. I talked to him last night and he told me that his teaching of your book has turned the whole prison upside down. This is reaching and touching the hearts of the men who are locked up.

Thank You

As you can see we are receiving plenty of encouragement. It is so much fun to share our joy with you over what God is doing. But we don’t forget that it is your prayers and financial help that also make all of this ministry possible. This fruit is your fruit, so rejoice! And thanks so much.

David