August 2020 – The Armor Bearer

“For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;” ~Philippians 1:8-10

The Apostle knew well the results of prayer, and from jail continued to intercede for those who faithfully cared for him. Like Paul, we learned love, at the foot of the cross, for those who see to our needs. Our prayers are for your excellence and peace until the Lord returns. Thank you for your love for our heroes and their families.

Our ministry reaches our heroes using four ministry pillars out of local churches: 1. Planting local Independent Baptist Churches outside of military bases without a solid witness. 2. Working under local churches to start Servicemen Centers, whose goal is to serve as a ministry of that church, evangelizing, bringing to church and training service members to work as a witness in their commands. 3. Distributing Bibles to our heroes, pointing them to a Savior and to a local church where they can hear the Gospel and serve.  4. Providing training materials and training for people with PTSD. Throughout the process, we emphasize the biblical command for them to join a local church and grow as a Christian.

Under our first pillar out of local churches, we have two overseas missionary church planters on deputation:

The Bruce Clingamen Family to Okinawa, Japan.  I received the following deputation update: “We’ve been affected some by the pandemic, had a few meetings canceled or postponed. The churches we have been able to visit, and present have been very warm and encouraging. A supporting church mailed to say (in the middle of a world-wide economic quake) they are increasing their support. My wife cried, I cried. God has us on course to reach the service men and women on Okinawa Japan, where I myself was stationed for two years while serving in the USMC. We are working to fill our calendar with meetings with churches ready to consider us. Where the Lord calls, the Lord provides. Thank you for praying for us. -Heb 6:10.” Please contact Brother Clingamen at baclingaman@yahoo.com to partner with him to reach our heroes and families in Okinawa.

The Scott McCain Family to RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall, planting Faith Baptist Church, in Lakenheath.  The following is an update from Brother McCain: “We stayed busy with six meetings in the first fourteen days of June but had only two scheduled meetings in July (and one of those was canceled just days beforehand). We dropped in on three churches and had the opportunity to preach and teach three times at our sending church. We have two new churches that will be supporting us, another church that expressed an interest in supporting us a while back but has regularly given to our ministry in the past few months, one church that has increased their support level, and two new individuals who are being counted toward our figures. We’re going with 62% as our new tentative figure, although the actual number could be higher.” Please contact Brother McCain at info@godsavebritain.com to partner with him to reach our heroes and families in England.

On behalf of our AFBM Missionary Family, Doug Carragher