Dear pastors, churches, and friends,
The past year of furlough has been one of the busiest we've ever experienced. We have visited well over 100 churches, traveled over 50,000 miles, and God has been faithful. During this time, we've seen several people saved, called to preach, and surrender to missions. Additionally, we have picked up some much-needed support (95%) and provided updates to a majority of our supporting churches. We are excited to return to the islands and continue preaching the Gospel for the coming years. In September, we worked alongside 10 churches in the Indianapolis area distributing over 12,000 pieces of Gospel literature and invitations during the three-week Gospel tent meeting. In the first week, we assisted with the Who Will Go School of Evangelism guiding 40 students through classes on sharing testimonies, articulating the Gospel, dealing with cults, and discipleship. Following the classes, we took the students out to practice what they had learned. One morning, as I was able to share the Gospel with a young man, He looked at me bewildered and said he had never heard that before and didn't really know how to process everything I just shared with him. A few weeks later, I was flying back from preaching at a Missions Sunday in California and was able to share my testimony and the Gospel with the lady seated next to me. This was the first time she had ever heard the Gospel. Both of these individuals have lived in the USA their whole lives. Both are in areas with churches. Neither had heard the Gospel before. Sadly, they haven't been saved yet, but I wasn't saved the first time I heard the Gospel either. Please pray for these two souls that God would allow them to reach back out to me or that God would send another witness and they would be saved. Over a year ago the Lord laid it on our hearts to work with the other pastors to preach the Gospel in every village in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. We began praying about smaller tents and God provided! We also prayed about the need for sound equipment for the tents and God provided! The last major thing we need is a truck. We have been looking at a double cab truck that will seat 6 inside, and with a canopy and benches built on the back it will hold another 6+ people. This truck will enable us to move the tent and teams around when needed and be strong enough to navigate the mountain roads. The cost will be about $25,000 with all fees and taxes. We know this is a lot, but the van we have used for the last 8 years is no longer able to work for what we need. Please help us pray about this great need so we can begin the Every Village Project at the first of the year. We already have several local churches, groups from the USA, and other island countries offering to come and help. We desire to see souls saved and churches planted as a result of this effort. In closing, I ask that you please keep my family in prayer as we fly out December 5th and transition back to the field. These days can be hard on the kids leaving family and friends and the excitement of the road to settle back into a routine. Thankfully, we have been able to ship our belongings, the kids Christmas presents, tents, chairs, sound systems, and several things donated to the churches. They should arrive about the same time as we do. Please pray that we can clear things easily and without much expense. There is no doubt in my mind that we are facing some of the most exciting days ahead. I can't wait to see what the Lord will do in the islands! A servant, David Ballinger & Family Dear pastors, churches, and friends, Thank you! Thank you for your support of our family and the ministry. July marked 22 years since I repented and believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and 19 years of preaching. Still, I just want to be as Paul said in Romans 1:1 “A servant of Jesus Christ.” A servant is one that will go where ever and do whatever the Master bids.
This furlough has been different than I had expected in that. Since our last letter, we assisted in the “Who Will Go?” missions camp. We saw 4 saved, 18 surrender to missions, and 5 surrender to God in general. This is a blessing because we prayed that we could see 12 young people surrender to missions on this furlough and God has exceeded that already. We left the first camp and preached a few services at Antioch Baptist Church youth camp, then on to a missions retreat that was a great help and blessing to our family. At the end of June, my wife and I flew out with 13 others from “Who Will Go?” to Papua New Guinea. It seemed the devil fought every step of the way, but this was an amazing trip! We spent the mornings preaching in the open markets and afternoons helping to teach discipleship and evangelism to churches. The Lord was using the churches to teach us as well. The burden of the people was astounding and the receptiveness of the locals was encouraging. In the morning market outreach, there were so many that came trusting their works and left trusting in Christ alone for their salvation. These were not mere professions but people that truly repented of their false religion and began to trust Christ. One morning after dealing with a Seventh-Day Adventist lady, while preaching to over 50 people standing there, a young couple came to us after and wanted to be saved! This was thrilling! Nearly every morning was blessed with testimonies like that. In the evenings we marched into a different village with a large crowd from the churches. We would hand out tracts and invite folks to the service in that village. Every night over 500 people were sitting on the ground or standing around hearing the Gospel preached and many, many people were saved. It was truly eye-opening and encouraged me to get back to the Islands and do more for our Lord. When we got back, we wasted no time and were able to preach and do some administrative work for another church camp. After that, we headed to a Vacation Bible School. The theme was “Sail Away to Bequia!” We had a blast doing skits, preaching, and talking about the island ministry. During those three nights, we dealt with salvation, sanctification, and service. We were thankful to see another soul saved. We have slowed down for a week but will be hitting the road soon helping over 10 churches with a tent meeting, door knocking, and the first “Who Will Go? School of Evangelism” in Indianapolis. (visit www.whowillgo.org for more information on this) Our furlough is coming to a close and we are so thankful for a supporting church that has purchased our tickets home! We will fly out on December 5th. I have a few dates open, so if you would still like us to come by please give us a call. I do want to leave a few prayer requests with you. When we arrive back on the field we want to begin the Every Village Project. To do this we will need a larger vehicle. The type of van that we need will cost around $15-$20K. It will hold the tent, chairs, and about 10 people. We still have our smaller van but would like to leave it in Bequia for the other churches to use. The boat will need some annual maintenance and general repairs done when we arrive. New bottom paint, engine service, and some electrical updates. We hope to be able to get all the materials to ship with the two tents and church supplies that have been donated. We are estimating the shipping cost will be around $5,000. We know the Lord can meet these needs and look forward to watching Him move. Thank you again for all that you have done and please continue to pray for us as we hope to better serve the Lord. Dear pastors, churches, and praying friends,
Happy New Year! I know this letter is late getting to you, we have really had a busy but productive few months. As you know we arrived back in the USA late November, we really hit the ground running reporting to our supporting churches and even presenting at a few new churches. We have seen several folks saved and many opportunities to share the Gospel with people along the way. God has been gracious in our travels keeping us safe despite some car troubles right from the beginning. Please keep us in prayer as we have a pretty full schedule over the next few months taking us as far north as Maryland and as far west as New Mexico. We are praying for new supporting churches and looking froward to fellowshipping with those that have faithfully supported us through the years. If we have not been by and you would like us to come please feel free to reach out to us with possible dates. The work in Bequia continues by God’s grace and the help of Brother Osie. He has done a wonderful job preaching and teaching. He loves his people and has a burden to see the people saved and follow the Lord in their daily lives. Please keep him and his family in your prayers, jobs are not always easy to find, especially a job that will allow him off for church. He is praying about starting a small business to allow himself to better support his family and serve in the community. It is our desire to see the work grow under Brother Osie and we trust the Lord that it will. The church has worked together recently to get moved back down stairs and have it decorated and looking really nice. The new fans will help keep things a little cooler, we eventually hope to put in some AC and a small sound system. Pastor Mitchell and the folks at Gospel Light Baptist Church have finally gotten their block machine and are planning to make their own blocks to build their new church building as the old wooden structure is beginning to fail. They are planning to make about 10,000 blocks at a cost of $1 per block. Please pray with us as they step out by faith to accomplish this great task. And if you would like to give to this project please let us know. Pastor Wilson and the folks at Bethany Baptist in Stubbs, St. Vincent are doing well. Pastor Wilson will be using some of our tent equipment to go out and do some street preaching there around his community. He has also offered to come over and preach in Bequia once a month focusing on evangelism. Brother Wilson has asked us to pray for him as he is trying to start a printing and embroidery business to better support his family and take care of the work of the Lord. On a personal note, I have been invited to go to Papua New Guinea in June. This is a tremendous opportunity for us. We will be traveling with a group of young people and folks that are interested in world missions. We will be meeting with several missionaries and national pastors that are actively working to evangelize their field. We believe that this will help us and others. The cost will be $4000, the Lord has already provided $950 for the trip. In Christ Missionary David Ballinger Dear pastors, churches, and friends,
“The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few” Matthew 9:37 The last few months I’ve been reminded over and over again of the need for laborers in the ministry. Each week there are more opportunities to serve here than we can accomplish alone. I’m thankful for each of you as you have prayed for us and supported our family as we labor for the Lord here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Gospel Tent Ministry: Our tent meeting in Bequia this year was definitely a struggle. We got a call on Monday of our meeting that we had to take the tent down. After speaking with several lawyers and government officials they informed us we had done nothing wrong and could continue the meeting. On Sunday morning of our second week, about 5 AM, an unexpected wind storm came through and nearly tore the tent down. Thankfully, the damage to the tent was minor and we could continue the meeting. With the help of local pastors and Brother Duane Moore, the Gospel was preached each night. A special service was held on Saturday for the local churches and we had 7 pastors and preachers and other laymen there. Despite all the troubles, two young men were saved, and a young lady was saved on the Friday after the meeting! After our meeting, we delivered the tent to a national pastor on St. Vincent who held a special service on their new property and a 3-day crusade. This is the 9th Gospel tent-meeting we have helped with here and look forward to more in the future. September 2nd, we were able to get all the chairs for three churches here. Each of the churches gave to help with the cost, shipping, and movement of the chairs. They are all excited about having more comfortable seating and the church looks so much better! On behalf of Bible Baptist Church, Bethany Baptist Church, and Gospel Light Baptist Church, Thank you for your help!!!!! We were also able to help install the new sound system at Bethany Baptist Church in Stubbs. Along with helping Grace Baptist Church with an older sound system that was given to us on deputation, we then set up our tent meeting system at Gospel Light Baptist Church temporarily until we can get them a new one. There are several needs for sound systems and good quality keyboards here. If anyone wants to help with those needs please get in touch with us. Church in Fancy: Pastor Mitchell, Primus, Malachi and myself were able to make the trip to Fancy, the last village on St. Vincent, (for us, it was a 6:30 AM ferry that takes 1 hour, then a beautiful 2 hour drive along the coast) to begin working on their church building and parsonage. We spent a full day and a half working. We laid tile on the church porch, framed up the kitchen cupboards, pressure washed the buildings, and fixed a list of little projects. We plan to go up again to start working to remodel the bathrooms, tile a bedroom, and much more. Our goal is to have the house ready for a family to come in to pastor the church. The members have been holding the ropes for several years praying for a pastor. The community is small but the need for a pastor to lead the flock is great. If you know of someone praying about missions please get in touch with us. There is an opportunity to come temporarily and fill in for the church. All you need is a passport to come in for 3-6 months. The people are friendly and speak English. Furlough: To be honest, I do not want to leave. There is so much that needs to be done here. But we are praying that during our furlough the Lord can help our family and prepare us for the next 4+ years of ministry here. We will fly back to the US on November 16th. We already have some meetings booked, but we will be calling over the next few months to get everything booked. Please help us pray for a good, used large SUV to drive when we are back. Thank you again for all that each of you have done to help the churches here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Rainy season is upon us here in the islands and things are finally starting to turn green again. The kids and I have once again started a small garden and are looking forward to enjoying some more fresh fruits and vegetables this year. With the rain comes good things but also problems. The main one is it hinders church attendance, because everyone has to walk to church and the paths become very muddy and slippery. Many will come despite the rain and we will do our part by being faithful. About about a month ago, we had a young family that started coming and asked
us to dedicate their son. We were glad to do this and had 9 first time visitors. We were able to give the gospel to all of them. The young couple has been faithful for many of the services and we are praying for their salvation and growth. Dear pastors, churches, and friends,
I pray this letter finds each of you doing well. We are thankful for your faithfulness in the service of the Lord. It has allowed us to continue to serve Him here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Bequia Bible Baptist Church, along with Gospel Light Baptst Church, have finally been registered with the government here. This will help both churches, and we want to say thank you for praying with us and giving to this need. This month we have seen one young lady saved! We have started to help her with some basic discipleship, and we are looking forward to baptizing her along with several others in the future. Brother Osbourne has been preaching chapter by chapter through the book of Matthew and is continuing his studies in Fundamental Bible Baptist Institute. Mckenzie is also enrolled in the Bible Institute. She has also started teaching the ladies bible studies. I have almost finished preaching and teaching through the book of Acts, and the by-laws and constitution of the Church. It is great to see folks learning and growing in the Lord. We continue to see visitors coming out to the church as a result of Gospel tracts and personal invitations. We hope to see many more come to church, but more importantly we want them come to know Christ as the their personal Saviour. The restrictions on meetings have finally been lifted and the quarantine period has been dropped to 7 days. So, we have started to make plans for three tent meetings this year! Our first will be here in Bequia in June/July. The other two will be on Union and Canouan, where we have started tract distribution and outreach. Lord willing, we can get permission to hold meetings around August/ September on each of those islands. We will be preaching a revival meeting in St. Vincent this month (April). The pastor has been praying about holding a tent meeting in his area where their church is, and around the areas that he has started street preaching with our portable sound system. Please keep us in prayer as we preach, but also pray that God will raise up laborers here. By the end of the year Gospel Light Baptist Church, and Pastor Mitchell, will begin a building project. They need to tear down the old, wooden building, grade the property, and then begin construction. We have offered to set the tent up for them to use as a temporary church building until they can move in to the new building. The church will also be making their own blocks to reduce the cost. They have started to raise the funds to purchase a block machine to aid in the process. The machine will cost about $1100 and will also be available for future building projects here in the islands . Every two years we have to apply for our temporary residence visas. This is normally a cost of about $2000. Our current visas expire at the end of 2022. We’ve prayed about re-applying, but we believe that it would be the best time to take a furlough. We have a good number of supporting churches that we have not been to in over 7 years, and some that we’ve never even been to before. I really do not want to leave the work here, but it will help us when we return and begin working full-time on Canouan and Union. Our plan is to arrive in the U.S. November 16th. Our focus will be reporting back to our supporting churches, but there is always a need for new support especially with the boat ministry and working to plant two new churches. Pastors, if you can have us in during 2023 please reach out to us ASAP. We would love to be able to be a part of your missions conferences or just a single service. Phone: 980-866-1030 What’s app: 784-532-7459 Email: davidballinger@mwbm.org Dear Friends,
Thank you! As 2021 came to a close, we looked back over the year and are amazed at all that has happened. God provided us a boat for our islands ministry, we’ve been through volcanic eruptions and tropical storms, we’ve given shelter to multiple families, helped to provide 1000s of meals, and given away food, clothing, and supplies to many evacuees, pastors, and churches. We were able to remodel the upstairs of our church rental building for a family to stay in and presented the Gospel to countless people on multiple islands and countries. We’ve seen lives changed and christians grow in the Lord. We’ve had the privilege to teach and assist national pastors, preachers, and laymen in 3 different countries. This last year has been busy and hard but, no doubt, rewarding. Without God’s help and your faithfulness we couldn't have accomplished any of this, again we say thank you. Looking ahead into 2022 we are expecting great things from the Lord. We are again teaching in the Fundamental Bible Baptist Institute through the last half of the book of Acts. We have been teaching through the By-laws and constitution of the church and are almost finished with that. Once completed we plan to have the church legally registered with the country. We are praying that we will be able to purchase some land or building to have a permanent location for the church. We love the location we are at now and are praying the owner will agree to sell all or just a portion of the property. Please make this a matter of prayer. I would like to introduce you to Brother Osie. He’s a faithful christian in the church and has been working along side us here for a few years now. The last few months he has been preaching once a week, and this year he will be preaching every Wednesday service and every other Sunday. This will allow us more time to spend on the other islands. He is enrolled in Fundamental Bible Baptist Institute and doing very well. Please keep him and his family in your prayers. Below is his testimony: My name is Osborne Ollivierre, also known as Bro. Osie for short. Born and raised in Bequia, I consider myself a Bequia-man. My testimony is like most young people. I grew up in a society that is rebellious and I joined that lifestyle, even being the son of Christian parents. I lived a life of partying and living for the world. When I finished high school my parents and I moved to Tortola (BVI) where my rebellion continued more extreme against God and my parents. In all of that I felt ashamed but continued in the world. One afternoon, I can’t remember the date, as I was doing some research and listening to some preaching, on the floor of our apartment God by his own power opened my eyes to my sin and I saw how horrible it was. It is was there for the first time in my life I repented of my sins and trusted Him as Saviour, and a joy came into my heart that I never had before, a love for Jesus. Along with this joy came a question that troubled me, and that question was ”Lord, what do you want me to do?” Until one day, a young preacher was preaching and soon as he finished it was like a light bulb came on in my head and the Lord said “That’s what I want you to do.” I was afraid at first because this was completely new to me. I had no experience or training, but I submitted and did it because my only desire is to please Him. I was discouraged along the way. I failed along the way, but I kept trying. After Hurricane Irma in 2017, I came back to my homeland and started preaching again at an evangelical church. I left because of doctrinal issues (doctrine matters).I met Pastor David at the tent meeting and the rest is history. We been working together since for the Lord. All I can say is “Glory to God.” I was the worst, but God in His goodness, grace, and mercy saved me. Once again, thank you for your continued support and prayers for our family and the ministry here in Bequia. |
Archives
February 2024
|
Wimissions
When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. ~ Jonah 2:7