Global Outreach

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Pastor,

[I pray and hope] you are safe even as we are safe in the body but we know all comes from the Lord who gives to us perfectly and in him there is no shadow of turning. I bless the Lord for the year 2023 though it's been a challenging year but still we have a lot to thank God for. He is indeed faithful and His love endures forever. I take this opportunity to thank you and the entire body of Calvary Chapel Lincoln City, we thank God for every bit of support whether in prayers or financial support God knows, but whatever support we received from you has been a force to help us to see through this year 2023. We have been able to rent our church premises through the year and also repair our sound system and even do outreaches. We witnessed new members joining our church slowly by slowly, we baptized 30 people from the missions we had to Bukova in the Eastern part of Uganda and we gave them baptism cards and some Bibles. For that may we share together into the kingdom of  God. As we are looking forward to entering the New year 2024, we pray for the Lord's great opening for you and your families and ministries and also for us to grow more in the knowledge and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to enter the New Year with our spiritual antennas being raised high in order to hear and quickly identify the Leading of the Lord.

For us as Agape Calvary chapel our theme for 2024 comes from Psalms 16:7-11. Our theme statement says 'OH LORD GUIDE ME". Our objectives in the years 2024 are: 1. To evangelize our community 2. community fellowships. 3. improved prayers sessions 4. improved fellowships. [Our work plan is that] 1. We will be evangelizing our community on a weekly basis and we are going to establish the evangelism teams and training session on evangelism. 2. We are going to improve home fellowships on a weekly basis. 3. We are going to improve on our prayer altar that happens every Friday evening. 4 We are going to put home cells in different corners of our community. In all this we need God's guidance, and financial support to be effective. So we pray you continue to support us both financially and in prayer. Our main prayer request is to let God by His mercies open a door for the church to have its land. Secondly, as we are believing God for the Land, let God continue to provide for us financially with funds enough to pay our rents. 

Thank you friends this remains you sincerely in service,

Ps. Bartholomew  Agape Calvary Chapel Bulenga

After 4 months of serving the Ukrainian people, we have seen a lot of heavy, heartbreaking things. Our teams have heard stories from mothers and children who lived in basements waiting for an opportunity to escape. We see a country crippled by war. 

The juxtaposition of God’s grace and man’s evil is blatant, flagrant even. And the question of where God is and what He is doing becomes very real.

But I was reminded of the story of Lazarus recently. Mary and Martha lost their brother. They sent word to Jesus asking for help. But Jesus didn’t arrive before Lazarus died. In fact he waited 2 more days! From an outside perspective Jesus seemed calloused. Uncaring.

But the beauty of the story is we get to see Jesus’ heart. When Mary spoke to Jesus and was going to take him to the tomb….Jesus burst into tears. His heart broke for this family, broke over the consequences of death, even though he was about to raise Lazarus from death unto life.

When asked by Jesus where the body was laid, Mary said, “Come and See.” What was she showing Jesus? Death, the source of sorrow, decay, loss. Jesus was heartbroken.

But the echo of the Gospel to our broken cry of “Come and See what’s going on here?” is exactly the same. When Jesus called Nathaniel, this man was skeptical and said “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”. Jesus’ response: Come and See.

Psalm 66:5 says: Come and See what God has done, he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.

In Ukraine we see brokenness, but simultaneously we see life, joy, courage, selflessness, and peace among God’s people. We see believers sold out to serve their people and point them to Jesus.

Things may be bleak, but our Lord is a redeemer and restorer of all things broken.

Paul said ‘...give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ
Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Beloved, we recognize God’s sovereign hand being in charge of every situation that we have experienced. As the year begun it started in a tough way for our church. When I sit down to reflect I cannot imagine how we survived the storm; the family of the land where the church operates from had strong wrangles, and by all means everyone thought the church building would not survive. But God in His greater mercies gave me the grace to stand firm and encouraged the church to pray. As a result, we saw every storm calmed in ways we could not imagine. We have been operating in all difficulties. We had no money because some of the people left the church and they feared that the church was going be dismantled. Personally, I had no other option but for us to live and serve God up to now.

Thank you Calvary Chapel Lincoln City for standing with us. Whatever donations you have made have helped the church to stand.

We have two services on Sunday 8am-9:30 am and 10am -12:00. Bible studies are going on during the week. What has been affected is the children's ministry since we don’t have space where they can sit and be discipled. How we dealt with it, was to call children in the morning service and adults mainly attend the 10am service.
Our rent has been doubled this year from $150 to $180 every month; per year, $2160. Our prayer is to buy land we can move the church to, in a new community where we can have land cheaply. For instance, if we can be able to raise $5000-6000, we can get church land and put semi-temporal structure that problem will be solved. That means if we raise something like $15,000 we can have land permanently and structure on it. Secondly, we need to renew our registry with the Government that needs $400.

We bless the Lord as continue lifting us in your prayers.

Yours in service,
Bartholomew Mayombwe, Pastor at Agape Calvary Chapel Bulenga

Hello Everyone, 

This has been a strange and busy year. Jeanette and I are back in Guatemala for a time. There has been loads of rain, but we are doing well. We have a group from Miami, Florida coming this Friday. Please pray for safety and health for them.

With all the rain we've been having the mosquitos carrying Dengue Fever have been on a rampage. Several of our staff, their families and the students have been sick, but all are doing much better. Praise the Lord! Please pray for the health of our staff and students.

Our new retaining wall seems to be holding. The pavers on the driveway were damaged with all the rain, but they have now been repaired. We will be continuing with the rest of the driveway down to the church when the rain lets up a bit. 

The staff held a youth conference last Friday. It was a complete success. The students enjoyed the games, food and the teaching. It was a lot of fun.

I have been teaching the Bible to Melki. He is an eager and fast learner. Today at church, he prayed for the service. Melki is becoming quite the responsible young man.

Jeanette and I spent a few weeks sharing in some churches on the west coast. It's always exciting to share about what God is doing for the Deaf of Guatemala. 

The church here continues to grow strong. It's such a pleasure to see them organize and take responsibility for the management of the service. It does our heart good. We installed a stage/ platform in front of the church. Now the people can see the signers much more easily.

The school is doing well despite having several "rain days" in the past few weeks. The teachers are very creative. We have a wonderful staff.

Thank you for praying for us and this ministry. Thank you for your financial support as well. May the Lord bless you richly.

In His service, Greg and Jeanette