July 2008

Jeremiah 33:3  Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. 

A little over two weeks ago I received a certified letter from the commanding officer of Mayport Naval Station. In the letter the commanding officer stated that there had been people from our church passing out gospel pamphlets. He also stated that it is against Naval Station Mayport’s, and Department of Defense  policy to spread the gospel on the base. He also included the base instructions which do state that passing out religious literature and spreading the gospel is prohibited. It further states that if a military person is caught in violation of this policy they would go to Captain’s Mast. If a civilian or retired military was caught it could mean permanent disbarment from the base. For over two years we have been passing out tracts on the base and we have put a New Testament in hundreds of homes on the Mayport base. We have seen a number of sailors and their families saved while witnessing on base. But after receiving that letter, I must say that I was discouraged. I went to my prayer closet and got alone with my Lord. I prayed, looking for direction, knowing that God is the one who sent me to Mayport. The Lord took away the discouragement and spoke to my heart saying, “Go off the base into the highways and byways and compel them to come.” Since I received that letter, the past two Tuesdays we have had 9 people go out soul winning and several more on the past two Saturdays. God answered our prayers. We have seen 10 people saved and one baptized in the past two weeks. We had 7 visitors this past Thursday night for prayer meeting and Bible study. People in our church are excited and are expecting God to do more wonderful things.  I ask each person reading this letter to pray for Captain Bowman’s salvation. He is the commanding officer of the Mayport base. We know that when a person receives Christ their outlook changes and they see things differently.

Jeremy, one of the men who was saved at our church, is on deployment. He has just received permission to have a Bible study on the ship. I will give Jeremy whatever he needs to start and maintain that Bible study on his ship. Our hope and prayer is to have at least one sailor in our church off each ship home ported in Mayport. We will teach them and then encourage them to start Bible studies on their ships. I believe God can use us and our church in a great way to win hundreds even thousands of military folks and their families to the Lord as we serve Him here in the Mayport area.

 Please continue to pray for our military here in the Mayport area and around the world. Pray for the spiritual growth of the folks in our young church. Please pray for those who were recently saved that they would be faithful and come to church. Our rent just went up and the space is small. Please continue to pray for a larger space where we can have more room for Sunday school classes and a larger nursery. Please pray that God will continue to use Freedom Independent Baptist Church to reach many sailors and their families for Christ.                 

 

In Christ,

Brother Chris War and Family

2006 Freedom Independent Baptist Church