Friday

“Bear one another’s burdens,

and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

~Galatians 6:2~

Please keep Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Harrell in your prayers. They both continue to have health issues.

Please continue to pray for the many people who have health issues.

It a fall Friday night, so pray for everyone involved in high school football events in our area. Many people participate in one way or another. Many miles are traveled to and from games. Pray for safety of all tonight. Pray Christians will be a strong witness at football games and other athletic events. You never know when or who you might influence someone.

Plan to participate in On Mission in Kentwood tomorrow morning. You can make a difference right here in Kentwood! Meet at FBC at 8 A.M. If you cannot attend, please pray for those who will be working.

Kidnappers Demand Ransom
for California Pastor
By Mickey Noah

TIJUANA, Mexico (BP)–Kidnappers are demanding $1 million for the safe return of Manuel Jesus Tec, a Southern Baptist pastor in San Diego who was kidnapped in Tijuana, Mexico, around 5 a.m. Oct. 21.

Tec, who lives in Tijuana, was driving across the border with his wife and one of his sons when gunmen stopped his car and forcibly abducted him. His wife and son were unhurt.

The pastor’s older son, Johnny Tec, who also is a pastor, said his father’s kidnappers have called the family three times, demanding a $1 million ransom, according to Richard F. Vera, multi-ethnic evangelism specialist for the California Southern Baptist Convention and a colleague of Manuel Tec.

“Johnny stated the last time the kidnappers called, they were very menacing and threatened to take Manuel’s life unless the family responded right away,” Vera said. “The family is projecting a strength and a trust in Christ that is admirable. They believe they will see Pastor Manuel Tec again.”

Tec is pastor of a new church plant in San Diego, Iglesia Familiar Amor y Vida, according to Hugo Campos, Hispanic ministries director for the San Diego Baptist Association and the Vision San Diego outreach in conjunction with the Strategic Focus Cities initiative of the North American Mission Board, the California convention, the San Diego association and local SBC churches.

Campos, who spoke to the Tec family on Wednesday, said the family now believes the kidnapping is a case of mistaken identity and that the pastor — thought to be around 60 — will be released once the kidnappers realize that.

“There’s a lot of praying going on all over the place,” Campos said.

(Mickey Noah is a writer for the North American Mission Board.)

KOMpray

Kids on Mission Pray

 

“Let the little children come to Me,

and don’t stop them,

because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these,”

Luke 18:16b

HANDING OUT TRACTS

A 9-year-old missionary kid (MK) set up a “store” outside the elevators of her apartment building. She wanted to catch neighbors when they came home from work. She wanted them to buy some of her beads and craft projects. She didn’t want to miss any opportunity. So she put gospel tracts on the table too. She confessed later to her parents that she had some help with the tracts.

Some of her Hindu friends grabbed the tracts and handed them out. A couple of the boys even went outside on their bicycles. They gave away the tracts in the apartment parking lot. God wants everyone to know Him. He will use a little girl to tell others about His love at her store. Or He will get non-Christians to give away the story of Jesus in a little book.

How do you tell others about Jesus? Please thank God for this young girl’s faith and desire to share the gospel with the lost. Pray that she will get to lead her young friends to receive Jesus as Savior. Ask God to honor her efforts with a harvest in their apartment complex.

MORE PRAYER REQUESTS FROM MISSIONARY KIDS

Please pray for the people in Mozambique to be healthy and help the people to be strong. Pray that they will have Lots of water. Make them like the food that they eat in their Life. The kids have a good time at school. Help my pets be healthy. The End. ABIGAIL, age 6, (Central, Eastern and Southern Africa)

Pray for my neighbors to be become Christians and my piano teacher to become a Christian. EMILY, age 11 (Central Asia)

Dear God, thank you for our friends and our family. Please help us to make more Christians in our country. Thank you for the food and thank you for our teachers. I hope we can get along with friends. Amen. GM, age 8 (East Asia)

We live in a huge city, full of crime. Please pray for our safety as we travel different places around the city for work and school. Pray for my dad’s ministry in the township of Soweto. Many people are in cults and many worship their ancestors. There are 4 million people in Soweto and many areas do not have any evangelical churches! Pray that God will open their hearts to the gospel so that they can know Jesus as Savior, Lord and Friend! JOSHUWA, age 5, (Central, Eastern and Southern Africa)

Some of my national friends’ parents push them too much on good grades. Some ids in my class at my school are on probation (like when your mom and dad put you on restriction or tell you can’t go to a friend’s house). As my brother gets older, I hope he picks good friends and not bad stuff. Please pray for my friends and my brother. BELLE, age 9 (South Asia)

A week ago I was discussing with my friends if Jesus was the father’s son or not. I talked to them for a while and gave them a French copy of the Word to look at, then my dad came in and told them to ask their parents if it was OK if they watched the film. So the next day our friends watched the Jesus film. I would like you to pray for my friends. Well I will talk to you later. Your friend, NOAH, age 12 (West Africa)

6th grade at Faith Academy is a big change. Pray that I will be comforted in problems and that I will make the right choices. JOY, age 11 (Pacific Rim)

Please pray that the boys and girls get more toys. Pray they get more food because they are very poor. Please pray for the people to have better houses. CALEB, age 6 (Central, Eastern and Southern Africa)

I need to improve my memory. I would like you to pray for I need a confidence boost. Pray for my family too. THOMAS, age 12 (South Asia)

THE MIND OF CHRIST

 

I heard once about a man who went to the doctor after weeks of symptoms. The doctor examined him carefully, then called the patient’s wife privately into his office. He said to her, “Your husband is suffering from a rare form of anemia. Without treatment, he’ll be dead in a few weeks. The good news is, it can be treated with proper nutrition.”

“You will need to get up early every morning and fix your husband a hot breakfast-pancakes, bacon and eggs, the works. He’ll need a home-cooked lunch every day, and then an old-fashioned meat-and-potato dinner every evening. It would be especially helpful if you could bake frequently. Cakes, pies, homemade bread-these are the things that will allow your husband to live.

“One more thing. His immune system is weak, so it’s important that your home be kept spotless at all times. I can’t impress upon you just how important this is. If you don’t do these things, your husband is going to die. Do you have any questions?” The wife said, “No.”

The doctor said, “Do you want to break the news to him, or shall I?” The wife said, “I’ll do it.”

She walked back into the examination room. Her husband, sensing the seriousness of his illness, said to her, “It’s bad, isn’t it?” She nodded, tears welled up in her eyes. He asked her, “What’s going to happen to me?”

And, with a sob, his wife blurted out, “The doctor says you’re gonna die!”

While I would like to think that those of us who are husbands and wives would be willing to serve our mates in a situation like that, the truth of the matter is that we don’t really get too excited about the opportunity to serve someone else.

Paul says in Philippians 2:5 to, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”. And the “mind” or “attitude that Paul tells the Philippian Christians to take on is the attitude of selflessness, humility, service. “Let nothing be done through selfish ambi¬tion or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:3-4). The attitude a Christian should have is one that focuses on the needs and interests of others.

That’s not something that comes naturally. When Christ came into this world, he brought into being a whole new approach to relationships with people. Listen to what he said to his disciples one day when they were arguing among themselves regarding who was to be greatest in his kingdom:

“You now that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28).

Jesus says that in the Gentile world, in the world around us, there’s very little humility. People operate basically out of selfish motives. They have little or no interest in helping others to reach their goals — except when it might benefit themselves. The name of the game is to get power and authority and then to exercise that power and authority.

But that’s not how Christians are supposed to act. And Christ did more than just teach us that truth. He lived it out as well. He demands nothing of us that he wasn’t willing to demonstrate himself.

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”

Have a great day!

Alan Smith
Helen Street Church of Christ
Fayetteville, North Carolina

Have a fantastic Friday!

Anna Lee