News

This past week severe flash flooding came to Waverly TN and the surrounding area of Humphreys County. People who track such things noted that the rainfall was measured at 17 inches in a 24 hour period. The result was devastating flooding. The death toll as of the writing of this newsletter stands at 22 and many still unaccounted for. The flooding came very fast and caught people unawares. Many were caught in their homes, where the lower levels flooded and they had to move to higher levels. Others still, in modular homes, actually floated away due to flooding where water had never been before. It was a truly devastating event and those who live in the area estimate that it will take many, many years to recover from this incident.

As our fairly near neighbor county, we invite you to pray for this community. Some in our congregation have friends in the area, and even historic familial ties. And while ties of friends and family aren’t necessary to pray for a place, it certainly makes it a more present need. Pray that God would comfort those who have lost loved ones, or property. And pray for mercy, that those still unaccounted for might be found. And pray for the rebuilding and healing of the community.

Afghanistan: You may have heard some things this week. And regardless of where you are on the political opinion side of things, we can all agree that what the people there are facing, particularly our brothers and sisters in Christ, is gut-wrenching. There are several things going on that we won’t be able to cover easily here in this one or two paragraphs, but here’s a couple things:

The Taliban are now going door-to-door taking women and children. The specifics and the rest of what’s going on are perhaps too grizzly for this newsletter. Suffice it to say that they are suffering horrendously at this Taliban resurgence.

And the Taliban has a hit list of known Christians they are pursuing and killing. And with no U.S. Embassy there now, there is no good place for them to flee to.

God often uses these types of things, paradoxically, to grow the church. This is a hard thing for us to grasp, understand, or even, in our flesh, to agree with God about. We can and should pray for God’s mercy. But we should also pray for the strength of these Christians — these martyrs and potential martyrs — as they live out the gospel in a very real, gritty way.

As pressure continues to mount from both our government and employers to require people to put things in their bodies that they do not believe they should — in this case it’s vaccines — be praying for:

1) Those in our congregation whose livelihoods are either in question or directly threatened.

2) Those among our leaders who believe these authoritarian measures are good and proper: that God would change their hearts or strike down their evil intentions.

3) Those among our friends or colleagues who are cheering on the authoritarianism that God would change their hearts.

4) Much wisdom as we navigate these matters and that our Christian witness would be strong as we seek to love our neighbors, our families, our church, and so on.

5) Pastor Thacker as he serves on the CREC committee dealing with this issue as they seek to come up with a denomination-wide statement and response.

6). The peace of the church and our congregation.

Hope Russia is one of the ministries we support at St. Mark and encourage you all to pray for and support as well. One way you can pray for for one of the Hope Russia seminary students, Victor Nedorezov.

He is the father of five children and a deacon of the church in Prokopyevsk, Siberia.

Victor contracted encephalitis through a tick bite. This has left him paralyzed on his left side, and he can hardly sit or hold up his head. But unfortunately, hospital care is not an option for him right now due to the fact that the hospitals are overwhelmed, so he’s at home.

But it’s difficult to be about the work he feels the Lord has called him to in this condition. The church in Prokopyevsk has been praying and fasting for Victor and his family and is asking that the brothers and sisters throughout the rest of the church lift him and his family up in their prayers too.

The most recent report is that this past Lord’s Day, Victor was able to attend church services — which is an answer to prayer. Continue to pray that complete healing might take place.

This week, we’d like to ask for your prayers for 10 year old Susanna Ketchen, daughter of Nathan and Melissa Ketchen. Nathan was formerly the pastor of a CREC church in Colorado.

At age 7, Susanna started complaining of back pain — to the point that she could not sleep because of it. An MRI revealed a large tumor on her spinal cord and emergency surgery was preformed the morning after the MRI to remove the tumor. This was in October of 2017.

Unfortunately, they were unable to remove everything. Some small nodules remained. The Ketchens learned a year after the surgery that those nodules are still growing. Though she has been through radiation therapy (which was pretty rough and caused a lot of swelling which left her in bad shape), the tumor nodules continue to grow and they believe she’ll need another risky surgery soon.

Through careful research and a Doctor in Mexico they are comfortable with, they are currently preparing to try alternative treatments as they await the need for another surgery. The Ketchens are requesting the following specific prayers: that Susanna would be healed, that they would have no trouble getting passports renewed, that Susanna’s symptoms would not return before they get to Mexico, that they make the best decisions on Susanna’s behalf, and for comfort and trust. Please be in prayer for this family.

One of the difficult things about living in the information age is, paradoxically, the availability of information. We have in our pockets and at the ready at all times, news and information about events that either concern us not at all, or that we can have no impact on one way or the other. This provides consequences of both the positive and

negative variety.

One the one hand, we can get ourselves worked up into a frenzy about what’s happening with laws preventing one from walking their dog after 9:05 PM in Nowheresville, Anystate, USA. And make no mistake, with such a hypothetical law we would be within our rights to fight against it were it in our municipality where we had some say over it.

On the other hand, it connects us much more closely to those who have needs we can pray for across the world. And praying for and connecting with our brothers and sisters is a right and proper use of the technological wonders God enables us to afford.

One of the concerning things that instant and global news makes us aware of is that we can and should pray about for our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. As the U.S. withdraws from the area and a power vacuum is created, the Taliban has begun to swoop in and enforce their godless regime and evil plans in a manner which directly affects the church there. Pray that the church would thrive, that where necessary they would be bold for the Lord, and for mercy as they face the cruel and evil intentions and punishments of Islamic terrorists.

Continue to lift up Ashlee Holst, her husband Ryan, and the family. Brain scans revealed that Ashlee has had new strokes and that more are forming on the other side of her brain. When we pray to God, sometimes he answers with a “yes,” sometimes with, “wait,” and other times, he answers with “no.” It seems that the answer to Ryan’s and our prayers for Ashlee’s healing is, “no.” And while we can be sure that God is on His throne and in control of this situation, it is a hard providence for her family

to endure.

In accordance with Ashlee’s wishes, she is being removed from any life support measures and moved into hospice where she is expected to pass on to glory in a week or so.

The prayers we have been asked to make now are that her transition to glory be as peaceful and painless as possible, and, of course, for her husband and family as they bear that which God has given to them.

This is also a reminder to us of that which we profess on Ash Wednesday, “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” But, though it may be coming sooner than we would have expected for Ashlee, Jesus himself had these words of comfort for Martha in the face of her brother Lazarus’ death: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” As Ryan and his family face this anguish, we pray that they will live in the comfort of this truth.

Tim Stephens, the baptist pastor in Alberta, Canada who was arrested for continuing to gather with his congregation to worship God, was released from jail on July 1st. But before he was released, he wrote a letter to the Alberta Premier and MLAs from his jail cell. A Premier in Canada is roughly analogous to a state governor here in the U.S. while an MLA (member of the legislative assembly) is a representative in a provincial legislature roughly analogous to the members of the state legislative body (TN House of Representatives) in one of our U.S. States. The letter can be read at www.fairviewbaptistchurch.ca/letter-june23 and it is a commendable read. In the letter, Pastor Stephens does an admirable job of balancing the Christian’s call to obey the civil magistrate, and to obey God. Here’s a sample:

“For example, I’m commanded by Jesus, who died to make me his own, to practice hospitality. In fact, as a pastor, this must be a defining mark of my life. Hospitality is the practice of welcoming guests into your home. A practice forbidden by your government for 6 months. When forced to choose between obeying God and obeying men, the choice is clear.”

The entire letter is a recommended read, and is not all that long. But it is worth reading as a faithful man of God calls to repentance those who would insert themselves between man and what God has called man to do. May we be found as faithful.

We recently reported on a situation of severely weather damaged homes for some of our brothers and sisters in Tanzania.

To keep you apprised, Eric Pyle recently forwarded some news to Brian McLain from Mara Presbyterian Church in Tanzania. This is the church we reported on back in May who had 3 members with homes significantly damaged by rain and winds. With the agreements of the elders, the deacons were able to disburse some of the St. Mark benevolence fund, sending the money to Eric, who coordinated the transfer of those funds into monetary value usable by the folks in Tanzania.

As a point of interest, we chose to disburse $500 USD. That converts to Tsh 11,593,44.02 (Tsh being a Tanzanian Shilling).

The report forwarded to us by Pastor Manumbu of Mara Presbyterian Church expressed great gratitude for the funds, which has enabled them to commence repair work on the damaged homes.

We praise the Lord for the work he’s doing there in Tanzania and for these faithful families and churches. As we have news to share we’ll continue to keep you updated.

One of the challenges we face as Christians is faithfully balancing our calling to live at peace with all men while also discharging the other duties which God requires of us. There are times when those things come into conflict. This is true for pastor Tim Stephens who has been arrested for a second time and is likely facing massive fines and potential prison sentences. And what did this pastor do to warrant the wrath of the Calgary police? He gathered God’s people to worship on the Lord’s Day. What’s worse, the police say they were responding to many repeated calls from people in the area that the congregation Stephens pastors were meeting in violation of health restrictions. Make no mistake, this is an attack by godless scoffers on God’s people. While this type of persecution is, so far, mild by comparison to times past, we should nevertheless keep this congregation and Pastor Stephens and family in our prayers.

It’s interesting timing for the introduction by Pastor Thacker of our “Men of the Mark” ministry. The timeliness of this call, for men to stand forward and do their duty and be bold and wise men of courage as the Riders of the Mark (also known as the Rohirrim in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings) is plain. Pastor Thacker sent out a notification to the men and friends of St. Mark this past week and we hope it will offer encouraging resources for you in these challenging times. If you did not receive this first email and would like to receive it and future emails, please let Pastor Thacker know.

Our hymn of the month for June is “O Little Flock, Fear Not the Foe.” Coincidingly today, one of the lectionary Psalm readings is Psalm 20, which seemed appropriate to the text of our Hymn of the Month:

May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble May the name of the God of Jacob defend you; May He send you help from the sanctuary, And strengthen you out of Zion;

This is why we need not fear the foe, mighty though he may seem to us. As the text of verse three reminds us, God’s word is true. We take comfort that the powers of hell will not prevail against us. But though they seek our overthrow, our help is in the name of the Lord, and he answers us in the day of trouble.

Be of good courage. We noted many prayer requests this past Wednesday at the prayer meeting regarding suffering, needs for comfort in the face of oncoming death, political situations where the heathen rage and the people plot vain things. Indeed, the kings of the earth take counsel against the Lord. But we serve a God who’s so mighty, he made all that you see from nothing. When serving such a God, we can take comfort. Nothing that happens to us escapes His notice. And he fights for us.

Today, we join our voices with the whole chorus of heaven, with the saints around the world, and with those who have gone before us, worshipping the one who has already won the battle. Thanks be to God!

“Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.”

 — C.S. Lewis

This month the U.S. celebrates what is being called “pride month.” Pride month was declared by the U.S. President in 1999 to commemorate the Stonewall riots of 1969. The idea being if you are homosexual, bisexual, etc. you should be proud of it.

Of course God condemns this behavior throughout the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments (Leviticus 18:22; 20:13, 1 Corinthians 6:9–10, 1 Timothy 1:9-10). Godless man, in all his “wisdom,” mocks God and the morality He has prescribed, insisting instead that they should be proud of being in outright rebellion against God’s created order.

Isn’t it interesting that pride is the term used in association with homosexuality? We know that to be prideful is a sin. It’s quite apt that pride is associated with their hardened and darkened hearts. In 2 Chronicles 26 we read of how Uzziah’s pride caused him to be struck of the Lord with leprosy. And then in Chapter 32 how the wrath of God was about to come upon all of Judah because of Hezekiah’s pride. Pride is no small matter to God.

In today’s world, all of us will almost certainly know, interact with, or work with those who have pride in their rebellion on this matter. Pray that you might know how and when to speak God’s truth to them.