Pakistani Water Baptism

Colombo Church

Nepal Pastors Conference

Islamabad, Pakistan

Our model church in Islamabad continues to grow at a steady, healthy pace.  Pastor Safeer baptized 63 new believers this month, added five new families to the church and launched eight new home groups.  Life in Pakistan is precarious and the financial crisis has hit the nation especially hard.  In spite of the difficulties, our people have increased their giving.  One of our leaders gave $600 last month – the equivalent of one year’s salary in Pakistan.  Our monthly income has held steady at about $1,500 per month, and the church finances look healthy.  In an outreach in another area of the city, an evangelism team from the church led 70 adults to the Lord.  Pastor Safeer’s wife, Shamsha, was diagnosed with cancer three months ago, but a test last month could not find any trace of the disease.  She has continued to improve in her health.

Colombo, Sri Lanka

A church in South Carolina has sent $10,000 to our Colombo congregation this month to be used in humanitarian work.  With the $12,100 we have sent, it brings our total to $22,100 for the flood disaster relief effort.  This effort proved to be more important for our congregation than we realized.  We are running out of seating space in our second Sunday service and are looking into ways to expand our building.  This will require approval from the city government.  The assistance we have been giving to the community has helped give us favor with local officials.  Approvals have been granted for the building expansion.  There has been a fresh wave of persecution against Christians, and we got word that a mob was planning to attack our church.  But because of our humanitarian work, the police and army sent police officers and fully armed soldiers to our property to spend the night and guard the property.  (Please don’t publicize this since it is sensitive information and will not be posted on my website)

Nepalgunj, Nepal

A pastor friend of mine, Pastor Dane Gresset, recently visited our work in Nepal and held a leaders’ conference with a hand-selected group of 60 of our village pastors.  His ministry on spiritual authority was timely for our work and had a significant impact on our leaders.  Now that we have over 120 churches in West Nepal, we are beginning to face some structural challenges, not only in buildings and property, but in the organization of our leaders.  The teaching Dane brought came at a critical time and was much appreciated.

Bev and I are in the States through September, traveling and ministering in churches that partner with us.  We spoke together at our home church, Bethany World Prayer Center, this past Sunday.  We ministered our video message on compassion and had a great time.  I have the video posted on my website if you’re interested in viewing it.

Many thanks for all you have done to stand with Bev, Shane and me in our work in South Asia.

rick@rickzachary.com - bev.zachary@gmail.com - shane.zachary@gmail.com

ChurchAsia - P.O. Box 82080 - Baton Rouge, LA 70884

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