Moving Christians from the Pew to the Harvest
Staying Grateful
It’s that time of year again. We are in the first stages of the holiday season, with Thanksgiving coming in just a few days. As a nation, we often forget just how blessed we are. To be a citizen of this country is truly a gracious gift from God. We have so much. The first official declaration of a day of thanksgiving came in 1623, the third year of survival of the Plymouth pilgrims. I think it’s good to remember:
“Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.
Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the daytime, on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.”
William Bradford
Ye Governor of Ye Colony
For us Christian folks, gratitude is at the heart of our faith. The New Testament mentions the giving of thanks 60 times. That’s a lot. Paul said that a person full of the Spirit should be, “giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” Ephesians 5:20).
This year, I am grateful for just being alive and able to keep serving God and people. It has been a year of highs and lows, and learning again to just keep on truckin’ and trustin’. I am particularly grateful for all the people who pray for us and believe in us. Judy and I thank God for you, and pray that His blessings rest upon you, “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).
Mexico Bible School: November 6 & 7, I taught the final installment of “Panning for Gold (Buscando Oro)” at Iglesia Vina Nueva in Hermosillo. This was the last of the upper level leadership classes that we will teach in this location.
We presented pastors Aberto and Nelly Maldonado with study bibles to recognize their determination and faithfulness in providing facilities and hospitality for these classes. They have been tremendous!
In 2019 we graduated our 4th class of first level students in the Hermosillo area. Since then, the first level classes have been taught in local churches by our graduates. At the same time, I began regularly teaching the upper level classes, and have now taught 144 hours of class since then. We are now compiling grades to see who will get their upper level certificates in January.
In our congreso, January 29-31, I will teach the remaining course that we have in Spanish, “Preparing to Preach.” It will be powerful.
Saturday morning pastors meeting. For 7 years, we have held a breakfast for the pastors who are part of the ministry organization spawned by the Bible school. In that setting we have specifically taught things helpful to pastors and leaders. During the pandemic, we did this online and continued a monthly online teaching even after the churches re-opened. Now we are expanding our reach.
November 8 marked another step in our shift in focus for the new year. We did a mini-seminar focusing on using your time well. 32 pastors attended. The church that hosted us, Iglesia Cristiana Maná de Vida para Las Naciones, also provided the equipment and crew to allow us to live stream the event on YouTube. Thank you Pastor Vargas! By stepping outside of our own group of graduates and focus specifically on pastors, we hope to expand our ability to help pastors from all denominations and organizations.
In the new year, we will do Saturday Seminars to help prepare pastors to shepherd the end time harvest. We want to be available and open to all who are interested. No strings attached. We have a great team to take the responsibility for planning and strategizing. I will also continue the monthly Zoom meetings for pastors and leaders, and we expect to expand our reach there as well. This is going to be very good.
Gratitude for the stripes of Jesus: In September, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. After a summer of random health issues, I thought I was finally at the end of the battle, when suddenly my blood pressure zoomed upward. I was started on medication, and the numbers came down. Unfortunately, I came down as well. I had been told it might take a while to get used to the meds, so I pushed forward, but I was a mess. I traveled to Mexico, then New York and was busy non-stop in both places. Thank God for His grace, in spite of weather, government shutdowns, and being drugged up, I was able to complete my assignments.
The blood pressure numbers were all over the place. I was light-headed and had some difficulty keeping a train of thought. I just kept reminding my body that it was healed, and I did my best to take care of business. The trip and the return were quite a challenge. When I got home, I was still miserable, so I went to a cardiologist. He took me off the blood pressure meds and said to watch my pressure, but if it was a little high don’t worry about it. Apparently, people in my age bracket often function with a little higher pressure.
But God! Since I got off the medication, my blood pressure has been normal. Yes, I am healed! Thank You, Jesus!!!
Reports: Glory story
- As noted above, we have finished the daunting project of teaching our upper level classes in Hermosillo.
- Doors are opening to allow us to touch pastors on a larger scale.
- We have a volunteer to help in getting books migrated to Amazon Kindle. Than You, Jesus!
Coming up:
- We are revisiting the task of recording leadership material in Spanish for our YouTube channel. Pray that we can upgrade the internet connection in Mexico so the recording is of high quality.
- My goal is to get huge amounts of writing and editing done between now and January. Pray that interruptions are few and that we are healthy.
- I want to remodel a room here at the house for office space and a place to record.
Attention!!!!! BIG DEAL!!!!!
Our local church has changed its name. After many months of leg work and prayer. We are now called Goodness Family Church. All of our finances go through the church. We are part of the Goodness team!
Financial support can be sent to Goodness Family Church at the address below or given online at https://www.goodnesschurch.org/giving . Checks can be made to Goodness Family Church and designated to missions or to pastorvirgil and it will get where it needs to go.
Here are some things you can do to help:
- Please follow us at www.pastorvirgil.com. Share it with your friends.
- Visit the Pastorvirgil.com Facebook page and hit “Follow.”
- Whenever you see a post, share it. This will help us reach more people. (We also maintain a Facebook page in Spanish @IEMFeonline.)
Pray: We need God’s direction and provision as we adjust our efforts to move into the new things in front of us. Also, please keep our physical health in your prayers. Pray for one another. This is no time to be the Lone Christian. We need each other.
This season of political turmoil in America seems almost surreal. I hear language that makes me cringe. We are fighting each other, and that ought not be. For thanksgiving, let’s pray Philippians 2: 1-4, that nothing will be done through strife or vainglory but in lowliness of mind that each will esteem others as better than himself. Pray that these United States, and especially the Church, would reflect the mind of Christ.
With that in mind, I conclude with a paragraph from the declaration of Thanksgiving as an official federal holiday. It was done by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, during the civil war. It seems appropriate for us today.
“No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”
President Abraham Lincoln, 1863
Happy Thanksgiving!!!!
Virgil and Judy Stokes
3141 W. Ironwood Hill Dr.
Tucson AZ, 85745
520-792-3238
pastorvirgil.com 