Evangelistic Campaign being Planned in Peru

In Peru, new church-planter Jaime Ovalle requests prayer for an evangelistic campaign being
planned for November. Pray for power in preaching and for the salvation of souls!

Young Orthodox Priest Causes Problems at Bible Meetings

In Komarivka, Ukraine, a young Orthodox priest has begun attending the Baptist church
services and is causing problems. He accuses the locals of teaching heresy and refuses to stop
coming until he converts them all to Orthodoxy. The missionary doesn’t want to throw him out
physically, but requests prayer that God will open this young man’s eyes the same as He did to
young Saul.

Young Believer Brutally Attacked for Christ

In one of the restricted lands where our missionaries work, a young woman was brutally attacked
a week after her baptism. She had to flee her hometown. Please pray for her health, safety, and
adjustment to the new area. A male new believer, Ali, has been threatened by family members.
Please pray for these and others taking their first steps on the Christian path in these hostile
lands.

Islamic police question neighbors of BIEM national pastor to accuse him

One of our active former Muslims in Central Asia is Pastor Eagle. He has seen good spiritual fruit with souls turning to Christ. However, the local police are questioning all the neighbors about him in their efforts to find any accusation against him. Pray for him and his wife. Meanwhile, Pastor River has 5 groups to which he ministers. They baptized 10 people this past summer!

Read the full report in November’s BIEM’s of Light

New director of Russian orphanage hesitant to accept BIEM

In Otradnoye, Russia, Oleg Vladyko lists these needs: “We need to raise $1000 to finish the work on the sides of the building. Prayer for the orphanage ministry. We are meeting with the children outside of the compound in small groups since the new director is not ready to meet with us at this time.”

Read the full report in November’s BIEM’s of Light

BIEM makes initial delivery of Bibles to Arab Christians

BIEM is excited to have made an initial delivery of Bibles and related materials to former Muslims in order to assist them in evangelizing a particularly restrictive nation. (Forgive the vagueness; we’re being elusive for a reason.) May the Lord use His Word to save souls!

Read the full report in November’s BIEM’s of Light

Central Asian Pastor chased through street by angry Imam

A Pastor in Central Asia reports that on the way town they met the village Imam in the street. He grabbed a club, and five other men with clubs chased them through the village. Laughing, River said, “They wanted to beat us to death; they ran really fast, but we praise God, we ran even faster. They did not catch us.” This Imam is the same one who was very angry at his daughter for being arrested with believers a while back. River said his rage stems from the fact that his entire family has left Islam and trusted Christ and been baptized. He is the only one left in the family to repent. Please pray for this man to recognize Jesus as the Son of God and repent.

Read the full report in September’s BIEM’s of Light

Goal: 30,000 Bibles by years end

Please pray for God’s blessings and empowerment on our project to distribute 30,000 copies of His Word before the end of this year. People need to know what Christ has done for them!

Read the full report in September’s BIEM’s of Light

BIEM sends thousands of New Testaments for Muslims in Russia

Pastors in the Moscow area have written to thank BIEM for the gift of thousands of New Testaments in the Uzbek, Turkmen, and Kyrgyz languages. Muslims from all of these nations (which were once part of the USSR) have settled in Moscow for work. Praise God for willing workers, for whom these New Testaments in native languages are vital tools.

Read the full report in August’s BIEM’s of Light

God opens another field for BIEM in Latin America

Many friends of BIEM don’t realize that our founder, Ukrainian-born Peter Slobodian, received Christ and began serving the Lord in Argentina. He and his wife Mary occasionally returned to Latin America to visit friends and to evangelize in Spanish.

Now BIEM has accepted an opportunity to boost church planting in Latin America, the continent of our roots. The “beachhead” for this evangelistic thrust is Peru. In that country, there are two fundamental Bible schools for national believers. The students receive a solid foundation of Bible knowledge and training in church-planting. However, after graduation these men face an uphill struggle. Despite ministerial training, they must work secular jobs simply to survive.

Enter BIEM. We have experience providing limited-time support to approved nationals to help them plant churches. What we don’t have is a Bible school in South America. Conversely, there are quality schools, but not a program to assist graduates. In this win-win scenario, the schools already there will provide the education, plus recommendations concerning graduates, and then BIEM would financially aid such men for two years while they focus on evangelism and church-planting.

This model is reminiscent of Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.” When the goal is spiritual fruit for God’s glory, it’s unimportant who planted or watered (or who taught, and who financed). We merely want to see souls saved to the glory of God.

Why limit the support to two years? This time period was recommended to lessen the risk of nationals becoming dependent on American dollars. Another advantage is that U.S. churches who want to take on such a project don’t need to pledge support forever. In 24 months, their commitment is done. Even if the church planter ends up working part-time after the initial two years, in the worst-case scenario his church is two years farther along than it would have been.

The first candidate, Segundo Rodriquez, has already been accepted and is busy on his field in Peru. The second man that we aim to help was saved out of drug addiction. He has already started a church in his mother-in-law’s home, which is in a drug-ridden area of Urubamba. (At the moment, he drives a taxi to earn a living and can’t concentrate on church-planting.) The third and fourth men hope to work as a team in the Peruvian interior.

Of course, accountability is crucial. These church planters will be answerable to a team of five advisors (three Americans and two Peruvians) who teach at the schools in Trujillo and Urubamba. In addition, BIEM board member Pastor Andy Counterman will oversee this program as part of his regular ministry trips to Latin America.

The pluses are abundant: trained workers, endorsements, favorable economics, a system of accountability and oversight, local advisors, and good stewardship. If this program functions as well as we hope, then we can expand it into other Latin countries.

We praise God for another way to serve God and to grease the wheels for world evangelism!