February 2003 Newsletter

Dear Prayer-Partners,
“Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (Rev. 19:7,8).  What a beautiful picture of this we had in Haiti with our mission group in January.  The Lord provided several wedding dresses and suits that we took to help the Christian folks in Haiti.  We also were able to take several wedding rings (bands).  We had a wedding at a country church and 12 couples got married at the same time!  They each had a married couple to sponsor them so that meant there were 48 people that walked down the aisle in the procession.  The ladies in our group had a wonderful time getting all those brides ready for the wedding.  There were many community people there for this big event and I had the privilege of preaching the Word of God to that whole group.

The wedding dresses will be used over and over again but we give the suits to the men.  If any of you have a suit that you would like to donate to this ministry it would be a great blessing to a man there in Haiti.  Also, wedding bands (no diamonds, please) are a great need too.

All the people in the group are thankful for your prayers while we were there.  Everything went just beautifully!  We were delayed an extra day in leaving the country because the small plane was 4 1/2 house late in picking us up to go to Port au Prince but even in that the Lord blessed us.   

NEXT MISSION TRIP 

The Lord willing, I will be taking another group over to finish a church building the first week of May.  We need much prayer for this trip as there are so many details to be worked out as far as building materials and finances.  Of course, there is the need for my finances to go.  Also, because of the extra responsibilities I will have to take care of while there I will have to hire an interpreter to be at the work site to help the builders communicate with the Haitian men who will be helping.  The ideal situation would be if the Lord would supply the funds for my son, Luke, to be able to go with me again and then he could be in charge of the work site while I am traveling other places taking care of other responsibilities.  If the Lord leads you to help with this you can send any gifts through our church or directly to Luke.

In my last newsletter I mentioned a missionary leaving the country who had a good Toyota truck for sale.  He had to leave the country three months earlier than he originally expected so he had to sell it right away.  We will keep praying for the Lord’s provision according to His will and in His time.

LOCAL MINISTRY 

Have you heard of the magi-cube?  Well, someone has come up with the Evange-cube.  It is on the same principle and as you show it to a person it tells the gospel story.  I got these for my youth group...but the teens had to earn them.  To earn their Evange-cube they had to stand in front of the class and share their testimony in 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, just like if they were sharing the gospel with someone.  Then they had to present the gospel while quoting the Scripture verses from memory.  What a joy it was for me a week ago for the first four of the youth group to accomplish that and then I got to present them with their Evange-cubes in the morning service.  Some of them have already had several opportunities to share Christ with friends at school using this fun little tool. 

SPECIAL MEETINGS 

I am in the process of going out more for special meetings in other churches.  If you know of any church that might want to have me for a mission conference, a missionary presentation or any kind of special meetings please let me know or feel free to give them my name. 

MISSION SUPPORT 

I thank the Lord for a couple year-end offerings that came in.  That was a big help and encouragement to me.  It looks like I have picked up two more shares which brings the total to 42 out of 80 (reminder:  a share is $25.00 per month).  A pastor friend of mine suggested that I communicate to my prayer-partners that 17 of the 42 shares are the support I get for the youth ministry in our local church so only 25 of the shares are actually mission support.  The Lord is faithful and I thank Him daily for His goodness. 

PRAYER, PRAYER, PRAYER 

I want you all to know how wonderful it is for me to hear that I am being supported in prayer.  Some let me know that they pray for me every day.  Others have let me know that they pray for me in a special way during the mission trips.  I say like the apostle Paul, “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the Word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you” (II Thess. 3:1). 

In Christ our Savior, 

Dave Stockelandbbb

For tax-deductible gifts please make check to:
Beth’El Baptist Church, Box 437, Green Forest, AR  72638