Numbers 3:13 Because all the firstborn are mine; for on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast: mine shall they be: I am the LORD.

When all the firstborn of Egypt died God set aside for Himself the firstborn of Israel. He had saved them from certain death by the death of the lamb. He owned their very lives now.

He will take the Levites in place of the firstborn in Israel but there is still a great lesson here.

If you have been rescued or saved from certain death and Hell by the Lord Jesus then you belong to Him.

I have considered that I belong to Him most of my life. I am the firstborn. I have been saved and rescued from death by Him.

I want to serve Him with all that I have and am. I want to give to Him what I have. I want Him to be the reason that I live and breathe. I want my things that He gives me to count for Him also.

The firstborn belong to the Lord!

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Leviticus 25:35 And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.

If your brother gets in trouble you are to help him. It doesn’t matter if he is a stranger or someone you do not know or a sojourner-traveler passing through.

What an amazing concept to teach! We are to take care of each other! We are to watch out for one another. That is not just a New Testament concept but also in the Old Testament!

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Full time Deputation!

It is finally here!  We are on full time deputation to start churches in Thailand.  We have been preparing for this day for 10 years, and the Lord has faithfully brought it to pass.  Our schedule is about to change quite drastically, and we need your prayer that we would be able to have an effective ministry on deputation.  Here are some specific things that we would ask you to pray about on deputation:

• That our support will be raised very quickly and we would be able to have the resources that we will need to minister in that dark land. Our goal is 2 years.
• That he would lead us to the right churches on deputation.  I believe that he will, but we want to find like-minded churches that we can strive with together in the ministry.
• That we could see people stirred up and raised up for the ministry. We are asking God to raise up actual workers that will work with us in Thailand or somewhere in the world.  Would you pray with us for God to send forth laborers into His harvest?
• That we will be able to learn a ton from the hundreds of people in the ministry that we will meet.

We have been busy the last few months filling our schedule, but if you know of a church that may be interested in having us come present the ministry, we still have openings!

Passing the Baton

This last week we have done a lot of things for the first and last time.

Lasts:

• Taught the singles class at Vision Baptist.  For almost the last 5 years I have had the privilege to be the Singles Director and we have come a long ways from when we started with nothing.  The Lord has blessed and people have been saved and baptized, the class has grown, other classes have been started, and now we have turned it over to a young couple that I know will do a great job.
• Lead music. It was also my last time to practice with, sing, and direct the congregation.  I didn’t even know if I wanted that job 5 years ago, but the Lord has done so many great things through it and I am going to miss the music ministry and people that God has allowed me to serve with.

Firsts:

• Anniversary! We have now been married for one whole year, and I had no idea how wonderful this was going to be. I have an amazing, sweet, and very helpful wife and I love her very much.  She has been amazingly cooperative considering all the crazy decisions we have made over the last year!
• Commissioning Service – We had our commissioning service on our anniversary actually, and we are extremely excited to be sent out of Vision Baptist Church.  They showed us a ton of love and person after person encouraged us as we head out to start deputation.

Traveling

This month we had the opportunity to be in a few meetings in GA, and spent a week in Arkansas in a conference there.  God has been providing for our needs in amazing ways as we transition from our normal job to traveling on deputation.  It is strengthening our faith as we step out and begin to live in some uncertain months as we get started

Arkansas.

He has also already provided many new supporters this month and we look forward to our partnership together in the Gospel!

Tonight will be Vision Baptist’s monthly “Goer /Sender Coalition” service. This is a spectacularly exciting service that you do not want to miss! This service will feature Vision Baptist missionaries, and missionaries in training, all preaching mini messages! Instead of one message, there will be several, shorter messages, and there will also be several interesting readings about past missionaries and their service of the Lord.

This is a great chance to hear from your favorite missionaries, and those who are training to serve on the foreign field as well.  We encourage you to be there, because this service is too special to miss! Services begin at 7pm. We hope to see you there

Leviticus 22:32-33 Neither shall ye profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am the LORD which hallow you, That brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD.

He brought them out of Egypt to be their God. He rescued, saved, or delivered them and that was to be their God. He did all that for me and you also. He saved, delivered, and rescued us from death and Hell. He saved us from our sin and sins.

He deserves our honor, glory and respect. He is the one that makes us holy and we should continue to make Him holy and show all respect towards Him.

He is the Lord. He is our God. He is my God.

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All eight of those families are currently on the field.

Mark Tolson is in China. Chris and David Gardner are working in Arequipa, Peru. Travis Snode is working in Northern Ireland, while Mark Coffey and Ronald Tubillas are in the United States. Tyler Masters left only a few days ago for Ceuta, Spain, and Jason Holt is in Chile.

It isn’t uncommon for a church to support eight missionaries, but it is uncommon for a church to have eight missionaries sent out of that church. Those aren’t just some missionary from somewhere else, but eight families that are all members of Vision.

And what makes this even more unusual and exciting is that this is just the beginning.

Scott Newton and Philip Bassham are starting deputation to raise the needed funds to work in Spain and Thailand, respectively.

And what’s more is that Miguel Murillo, an absolutely fantastic church planter in Peru, recently joined our ranks as being sent out of Vision Baptist Missions.

And as the pictures of the Murillo, Bassham and Newton families are waiting to join the other eight on the wall, we are already looking to train more to join them there. With just these 11 families, we have seen God work greatly, and are looking ahead to many more pictures on the wall.

So when James Maguna is hurting, and in a rough time, he, being a part of Vision Baptist Church, is not alone. While it might not be to the full extent he does, we feel his pain, and bear his sorrows as if they were our very own. And we are doing all we can to help our brother in Christ as he prepares to return to Kenya to visit his wife, who is very, very ill.

On Sunday alone, almost 1,700 dollars were raised to help James on his return voyage. And while he physically may soon be gone from among us, we will keep him in our thoughts and prayers, and surely miss him until we meet again.

Vision Baptist loves all of its members, and that especially includes James Maguna. We love him, pray for him, believe in him, and pray God’s blessings upon his life.

What an honor to be part of commissioning two more missionary families to the work. Philip and Lori Bassham are leaving to raise support to go to Thailand. Scott and Melissa Newton are also leaving and will be raising support to go to Barcelona, Spain. I want to ask you to pray for them just like we did last night.

God has greatly blessed Vision. We now have 11 of our members serving as missionaries.

5 of them are serving through our own mission agency, Vision Baptist Missions. God has been so good to us. Continue to pray that God will raise up more men and women and send them to the world.

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Leviticus 15:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean.

Long before science was explaining things God’s people were obeying Him and doing the right thing. The Jews were taught to cleanse themselves and to stay away from impurity. This stopped the spread of disease.

Every time I hold the Bible in my hands I am in awe at how good our God is to give us His Word. His Word is so far beyond what any man could ever have imagined or done.

Read it and learn. Realize that God is speaking because no man could have been that smart and so much ahead of his time!

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Welcome Miguel and Liz Murillo and their daughter, Liz Andrea as our newest members. They serve as church planting missionaries in Arequipa, Peru through Vision Baptist Missions. Miguel also serves at the Peru Bible College.

Betty and I have known Miguel since his teenage years. We were privileged to see God save both of them, train them, call them to the ministry and then serve faithfully for all these years.

It is a real privilege to have them serving with us!