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Newsletter – April 2012

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This month we have a special message from Dr. Patrick and sad news of a SEAM family member's passing in India. Read more

Dr. Patrick's Message – April 2012

“¹The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

“²To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,

“³To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

Isaiah 61:1-3 (KJV)

Dear Friends and Supporters,

We pray all of you had a blessed Easter Celebration in the resurrection of our Lord.

The Gospel of Luke (Luke 4:16-21) tells us that at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus came to Nazareth and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He stood up to read, and from a scroll He read from Isaiah 61:1-3. Then, when all eyes were upon Him, He said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” (Luke 4:21 KJV) Read more

The Rising Son

As a young boy, I grew up in West Palm Beach, Florida. On Easter, most of the Christians would go to the Atlantic Ocean for the Easter Sunrise (Sonrise) Service. There would be thousands of early morning worshipers waiting to Praise God for another Easter and the symbolic rising of His Son Jesus Christ (Note: we were not worshiping the sun, but we were worshiping the Son). We would arrive while it was still dark and we would sing Easter Hymns while watching the orange glow in the sky until finally the orange got brighter and brighter, and finally we would see the break of the top arch of the sun on the watery horizon. We witnessed yet another Easter and the miracle of God in raising His Son from the dead. With that, the choir from several churches would sing, “Up from the Grave He Arose…” and “The Hallelujah Chorus.” Now, fast forward to a couple years ago… Read more

Special Needs

In keeping with our founder and our present President, as we said in February, we have a heart for the people in Southeast Asia. Before Dr. Rao died, he indicated there are over 3500 churches with pastors who live on practically nothing and walk most everywhere they go. We have had limited funds to help them previously, but the Lord wants us to help them more.

Dr. Rao, on occasion was able to put together an offering for them and that was just about what they needed for bus fare to get to a pastors’ meeting. In one meeting with 350 pastors in “ragged” clothes, most were without shoes and the ones who had Bibles had torn and tattered Bibles. They sat on the ground listening to “the foreigner” teach them about spiritual warfare and the mighty power of GOD to overcome such adversities. Read more

Prayer Requests

Passing of Joseph Britto

On the morning of April 9th (the day after Easter), we received urgent news from Pastor Arthur of the death of his Assistant Pastor, Joseph Britto, in a freak accident while working on repairs of the church van that morning. Joseph was electrocuted while doing some welding and died instantly. Pastor Joseph is survived by his wife and two young children. He was 41 years of age.

This is a subtle attack by the enemy on Pastor Arthur’s ministry and a clear example of the spiritual warfare at hand. Pastor Joseph was in charge of filming Pastor Arthur’s ministries and managed all of Pastor Arthur’s video and media for television broadcast in India. Pastor Arthur now has 25 programs, 13 minutes each, that air each week on Indian television! His church has also now reached 30,000 members! Praise GOD!

At this time, we ask for sincere prayer for Joseph’s grieving family, and for Pastor Arthur and his ministry. Only GOD’s love will heal and mend the broken hearts of the families involved, and bring to rest the enemy’s attack. Read more

28th Annual Conference

Dear SEAM Family,

Our hands were full being the host of our 28th Annual NOFFBC conference here in our church. This is a province-wide convention for three days during the Holy week April 4-6, 2012. The NOFFBC (Negros Oriental Fellowship of Fundamental Baptist Churches, Inc.) is a local Christian organization that was formed with only 6 churches in 1984 for the purpose of church planting. Now we have 36 churches and groups.

Our guest speaker, REV. GIL BALIGNASAY, is an expert on the Topic "Raise Up a Child" and is the National Training Director of the internationally acclaimed World Teach. We prayed for more attendees and that their financial needs be sufficiently met. We had about 300 people who attended the conference.

The results of the conference were very good. First, We praise the Lord for the cooperation and commitment of our church members during the hosting of the conference. We saw the excitement of the members for this was the first opportunity to host the event. It was a pleasure observing their cooperation with each other; they knew their duties and roles during the 3-day affair.

Second, another outstanding result of the conference was the enhancement of family values. Conferees were able to understand the roles of each member of the family. This was a way of challenging the pastors and the members to continue the ministry of encouraging families to be steadfast in the faith and ministries.

Lastly, the pastors and churches were educated on the status of the organization and the individual churches, the organization’s finances and the contribution of each local church for the local church planting program.

These people came from all over the province representing 36 churches. We ended the conference with a candle lighting ceremony. The ceremony gave solemnity to the commitment and occasion.

PASTOR EPAFRAS T. ACARPhilippine Ministries
2 Corinthians 4:18

Tragic Death of a SEAM Family Member

On the morning of April 9th (the day after Easter), we received urgent news from Pastor Arthur of the death of his Assistant Pastor, Joseph Britto, in a freak accident while working on repairs of the church van that morning. Joseph was electrocuted while doing some welding and died instantly. Pastor Joseph is survived by his wife and two young children. He was 41 years of age. Read more

Prayers for India

Dear SEAM Family,

Happy Easter Greetings to you all & your families in the Resurrected Name of Jesus our Saviour.

Praise GOD that we serve a Risen Saviour who is Christ the Lord. We thank God for the vicarious suffering of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary for the Salvation of mankind. He has given His Life for us to have Eternal Life as He promised. His presence is near and dear to us always. Well friends, today we had our Easter Service in the early morning 6'0 clock in all our branch churches and proclaimed about the Risen Saviour who gives us peace. Read more