January - April 2014

Here is a copy of Mike's latest prayer letter:

                                                    January-April 2014

Dear Co-Laborers,

Greetings in the Name of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Psalms 2 speaks of the sovereign God accomplishing His will in spite of man’s best attempt to resist Him. Verse 4 says He sits in the heavens and laughs at their puny attempts to thwart His purposes. I don’t know about you, but as I see the world mounting its opposition to God and Christians, it helps to remind myself that we’ve ALREADY WON! We give thanks NOW for the “victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor.15:57). I especially like verse 8, “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” I know that one day Christ will return and rule all the earth as King, but even now He has sent us to the far ends of the earth to proclaim the Good News of the saving Gospel and God is taking possession of hearts and lives and gaining an inheritance among the heathen(all the unsaved) through the co-labor of God, churches, and missionaries. Thank you so much for your love and faithfulness to God, to us, and to the unreached of the world. 

We thank God for at least 15 more that have accepted Christ and a number of others that have reconfirmed salvation or recommitted to Christ. I am pleased to see the growth among several of our leaders. Especially pray for my associate, Hotir, Obdulio, a talented young man who directs music, preaches, and teaches children in the mountain works, and Cecilio, the leader in the mountain work of Ojo de Agua, who I see as becoming key to the whole area there, called Opalaca. 

This year started with a bang, as we began a Youth Leadership Conference, the first week of the year. We offered preaching, creative teaching, song leading, music specials, instruments, Christian art, Bible quiz, Bible memorization and drama. The idea is to develop abilities that can be used in the ministry of the local church. It went very well with about 150 in attendance. The next one will be the last week of December.  

The theme of the conference was
'Champions for Christ!'.  A trophy
was awarded to the church that
best exhibited Christian character
throughout the conference and
competitions. 

There were about 150 teenagers in attendance the
first annual Youth Leadership Conference.

Last minute "cramming" for the
Bible Quiz Competition.

Bible Quiz playoffs

Choir Competition 

A couple of the happy winners.

Two of our own:
Victoria and Obdulio

Winners of the Christian character trophy.

EVERYTHING was centered
around the Word of God.

Our ONLY reason for this conference is to
encourage and train teenagers to use
WHATEVER abilities God has given them
for His honor and glory.

Our prayer is that these young people will be spiritual leaders in their churches... now AND in the future.  We pray these young people will become pastors, teachers, missionaries, leaders and faithful witnesses for Christ.

Also in January, we enjoyed a visit from two young men from Grace Baptist Church of Surrey, B.C., Canada (Pastor Steven White) in preparation for a visit next year of a group of their Bible Institute students."

This was Debbie at the
height of her illness.

After cooking and serving students and teachers for a week long intensive Bible Institute the last week of February, my wife, Debbie became sick with Erysepelas, a disease caused by strep that broke out on her face.  It was very painful and left her very weak. She couldn’t get out of the house except to go to the Doctor for over a month and a half. Thankfully, she is feeling better, there is little scarring, and most of her energy has returned, although she still can’t accompany us to the mountain works on Sundays. Keep her in your prayers. " 

Privileged to Be Serving the King,
Mike and Debbie Lane