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January/February 2009
Dear Friends and Family,
In our recent prayer letters, we have updated you on our two
construction projects. Our school building is nearing
completion, and we have made much progress on the ground floor
of our church building. Construction progress is pictured and
the end of this letter. We certainly ask for your prayers
that the Lord would continue to supply the needed funds in order
to complete both projects. However, the buildings that we
construct are simply to allow us to help build the lives of
those whom we contact in Bingerville and elsewhere.
Building through
evangelism Two months ago,
we came in contact with Bléka Leonard. We gave him a copy of
John/Romans along with a tract and invited him to church. He
attended for a month and spoke with myself or my associate,
Pastor Ouattara, after each service. Typically he would ask us
many questions concerning the Scriptures and life in general.
After a month had passed, he finally told me one evening that
after having had all his questions answered, he was ready to
receive Christ. He is now actively involved in our church.
Building through Bible instruction
Last week, one of our young men, Séoulou Franck, came to tell me
of his efforts to evangelize in a nearby village. He explained
how he had many discussions with several groups of people. The
people to whom he spoke were quite impressed with his ability to
answer questions using the Scriptures. Franck expressed his
thanks to me for the fact that our church was giving him the
Bible training he needed for his own life as well as answering
the questions of others.
Building through missions
As mentioned in previous prayer letters, the Bingerville church
has opened a church in the village of Zanaplédougou. This is the
village of one of our older members, Coulibaly Sapané, who has
Bible College training. Coulibaly is now in the village full
time leading this effort. He called me today to explain how they
have established three services a week. This work has generated
over 60 converts. As well, we have been able to use some of our
funds to begin fabricating cement block so as to put a simple
church building in place as soon as possible. In addition to Mr.
Coulibaly, our church is supporting six other missionary
families to increase our overall outreach.
Building through Bible College training
We are currently in a transition with the Bible College in order
to make necessary improvements in its organization and
structure. Through this school, we count on preparing many
people for the ministry in the future. We anticipate with the
restructuring that we will have many more in addition to our
current 20 students.
Building through pastoral development
In September of last year as well as January of this year, we
were able to organize special conferences for our pastors to
improve their knowledge and skills in the ministry. We have had
special speakers come in from the states to help with this
training. The response from our pastors has been quite positive,
and we look forward to continuing these conferences.
So as you can see, the construction of buildings will give us
the means necessary to build the lives of the people of
Bingerville, the members of our church, the souls on the mission
fields that we are reaching, the Bible College students who will
one day be in the ministry, and our pastors who are already
serving in full time ministry.
Your help and prayers are greatly appreciated. They are
producing fruit that will last for eternity.
Most sincerely in Christ,
Robert C. Mach
B.P. 551
Bingerville, Côte d’Ivoire
W. Africa
Tel/fax 011-225-22-40-10-26
RobertCMach@cs.com
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