Greetings, dear brethren, in the name of the Lord: “To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen” (Romans 16:27).

This will not be a lengthy email update, for there is so much to do in the coming weeks. Please pray for me as I will be departing for Nepal on January 29. I will be traveling alone to Kathmandu for about a week. Then, it’s on to Dhaka in Bangladesh to meet my volunteer team for a week of mass saturation and proclamation of the Gospel in one of the most intense cities in the world. From there, I return to Nepal to welcome another volunteer team and engage in translation/printing/distribution of the Scriptures. I look forward to sharing updates with you all from the front lines.

More important than this, at least for the present moment: I would like to announce the birth of Charlotte Hope Boyd (7lbs. 10 oz.). She was born at 4:46pm on January 14 at home. Mom and baby are doing very well, and the entire birthing process was without trouble. It was so special to experience this natural part of life in the privacy and comfort of our own home. The Lord was very good to allow this to happen. The little one is sleeping peacefully beside of me right now, even as I write. Bethany does not hardly know what to do with herself. She is excited about being a big sister.

I am just realizing how difficult it will be to leave my family in two weeks. Please lift us up in prayer. I am truly being tested by the words of Christ in Luke 14:25-34.

In the past weeks, we have assumed a little bit different of an approach for taking the Gospel to our “Jerusalem and Judea” (i.e. our local area--see Acts 1:8). Going to the loitering kids in Hickory on the weekends got old, and we grew weary of dealing with the same blasphemers and haters of God. Matthew 7:6 was ever before our minds. Therefore, we set a goal of hitting the central district of ever single town or community, fanning out from Hickory, NC, even if the so-called town was nothing more than an intersection with a post office. Granted, this approach has seriously cut down on the amount of people, and with each outing, we have to trust the Lord to provide encounters. However, I must say that He has been faithful. As I think back on places like Cherryville, Maiden, Lenoir, Valdese, Belwood, Fallston, Lincolnton, Newton, Dallas, Vale, Morganton, etc., I recall at least one divine appointment in every locale: two paramedics, some guys working out in a fitness center, a couple of teenagers leaving a smoke-filled pool hall, a man and his wife closing up shop, a band of teenagers carousing outside a movie theater, a young man who had just been released from the hospital after a drug overdose, a party of Jewish folks, a group of girls in a coffee shop, a young man who claimed to be a Satanist, and Iallah, a young man with a Muslim name. Last Saturday night, my brother (Matthew) and my brother-in-law (Jeremy) approached the latter and began to explicate the righteousness of Almighty God, the guilt of man before the law, and the person and work of Jesus Christ. Iallah wept profusely, admitting that we was completely lost and confused in this life. In the end, he took a Gospel of John and showed true humility in the presence of God’s Word. Please pray for his salvation. You see, Matthew & Jeremy were not out trying to get “decisions” for Christ (the typical approach to evangelism). They simply were faithful to preach repentance and faith, leaving the results up to the Lord as opposed to playing on the emotions of someone and guilting them into repeating a prayer. The conviction of the Holy Spirit was clearly manifest in this particular situation as well as all listed above. We trust Him to draw these after the manner of John 6:44. Likewise, we rejoice and rest in knowing that He helped us be faithful to proclaim repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. That, my friends, is the Gospel (Acts 20:21). Churchianity may be about results and numbers, but true ministry is about obedience (I Corinthians 3:7). My friends, Mark 16:15 is our responsibility: “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16:16 is God’s problem: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”

Remember, the above encounters were not in a big city or a large gathering place. These were lost and hurting people in podunk towns, along the highways and hedges, in the out-of-the-way. We have no excuse but to proclaim in our own communities (II Corinthians 4:13); the perishing are all around us. As the old hymn says: “Rescue the perishing. Care for the dying. Jesus is merciful. Jesus will save.”

Add to above encounters the countless Gospel tracts that have been left in the front doors of local businesses, in telephone booths, post offices, and on park benches here within a 50 mile radius of Hickory over the past several weeks, then there is more than enough cause for rejoicing that the Word has gone forth. Pray for us as we continue to saturate our local area and strive for targeting every single community in Western North Carolina. Folks, there are opportunities to proclaim the Gospel all around us. The more I witness on the streets, the more I see the stark reality that American churches are full of the perishing, those who have believed a false gospel. How will they hear the truth unless we who are born again tell them (Romans 10:14)?

Friends, it is God’s faithfulness and your prayers that continue to lift us up and give us the resolve to be bold. Thank-you. Well, I better sign off. Little Charlotte is still sound asleep beside of me.

Thanks for your prayers and support.

Peace be with you all,

Jesse, Jamie, Bethany, and Charlotte Boyd