September 18, 2009

Dear Prayer Warriors,

Greetings in the precious Name above all names, that of our Lord Jesus Christ! It is such an encouragement and a privilege to study and teach about His earthly life and ministry. Our lesson this week was on the Sermon on the Mount. What a high and holy calling we have! How great our spiritual poverty that we must bring to God for His supply! As Dr. Delnay taught us to sing at Bible college: "God could not pour His riches into hands already full."

Next week at IBBI (Iquitos Baptist Bible Institute) the students will be taking their midterms. That means that they must be up-to-date with their payments, as well. Please pray for them as they trust the Lord to provide this need. Thursday night after their last test, we will begin our annual IBBI retreat. Pray that all of the students and professors will be able to participate in this two-day retreat. We are anticipating a great blessing from the Lord in being challenged from His Word by two of our pastors and enjoying good fellowship with one another. Our theme this year is "God's call." There is a minimal fee of $5 to pay for retreat expenses. Even this seems like a lot to our students when it comes on top of the midterm school bill.

Praise the Lord for His blessing on the anniversary meetings of Efata Baptist Church for the Deaf! Pastor Carlos shared the Word, and several came forward to show their desire to live for the Lord and bring others to Him. Pray that these decisions will be put in practice in their lives with the power of the Holy Spirit. The parents of one of the young people desiring to be baptized have refused to let her do it. Pray that her faith will grow stronger in trial.

Our Sept. 12 outreach to the deaf in Mazan went well. Thank you for your prayers. Eight of us went down there and were able to have a Bible class with two deaf young people and several hearing kids and adults. While the young people and kids colored pictures related to David's victory over Goliath, the adults studied principles related to the deaf ministry. Lord willing, in Oct. I will be making a trip to Gallito to meet the deaf boy there, and our next trip to Mazan will be Nov. 7. The deaf retreat has been tentatively scheduled for the last week in Jan. 2010. Please continue praying for all the preparation involved and that more of the deaf who live along the Amazon River will have the opportunity to learn of the Good News of God’s gift of salvation. I am excited to have Lee and Eva Johnson, missionaries to the deaf in Chiclayo, Peru, joining us for the Jan. retreat! Hopefully others from their church will be joining them in this ministry.

This is enough for now. Thank you for keeping us before the Throne. May our great God supply your needs as well. Keep looking up!

Your sister in Christ,
Lynn L. Porter