summer's curtain call
Greetings, dearly beloved, “ . . . and a great voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done . . . and there was a great earthquake . . . and the cities of the nations fell (Revelation 16:17,19).” Men blaspheme and mock the Word of God, but one day, He will say, IT IS DONE. The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ. And He shall reign forever and ever. Amen. Therefore, I both labor and suffer reproach because I trust in the Living God. May the same, I pray, be said for you.
On June 15, 2003, I penned my first email update from Yakima, Washington as Jamie (pregnant at the time) and I set out to begin the coast-to-coast bicycle missionary journey that ultimately led to the formation of Full Proof Gospel Ministries. More than seven years later, and after 1,160 total pages of recap, I am somewhat sad to inform those of you on my recipient list (a list that is much bigger than when this all began) that this will be my last email update. Perhaps some of you will breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that you will never have to open and be overwhelmed by a 10-page epistle from Jesse Boyd in your inbox.
Long story short: my family and I are fleeing America, never to return; and email or internet will no longer be a part of our lives . . .
. . . just joking, although this could be a real scenario for true believers in the United States in the not too distant future. Seriously, some things are changing with how FPGM will go forward informing our loved ones and prayer partners about what is transpiring as we attempt to make the Gospel of Jesus Christ an unavoidable issue for as many people as possible all around the world, and just around the corner. I have completely revamped our website (www.fpgm.org), and instead of lengthy, spaced-out emails, I will now be posting directly to my site blog. This will allow me to post more frequently and succinctly while allowing you the choice to read and/or catch-up with a clear archive and a more eye-pleasing template. Going forward, I may, from time to time, send out very short emails with urgent prayer requests and links to the latest post on my site blog. You can then follow that link or later check-in at the website where you will easily find links to recent posts. You can also sign-up to receive the RSS feed from the site directly.
I am very grateful for all the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ who have kept up with us these 7+ years. Your prayers and support have been an impetus to keep preaching the Gospel, and by God’s grace, we will never cease. The only thing that is changing is the way we’ll go about getting word out to you.
As I glanced over all my email updates going back to the summer of 2003, I calculated 1,170 pages of script! If I had some cataloging and editing help, I’m sure I could write a good book or a series of books. Perusing through, I recalled some of the old answers to prayers, the divine appointments, God’s provisions, and many crazy adventures for the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ. Maybe some of this needs to be put into a book for the glory of God. If I had some help, I would do it, but where is the time? Awhile back, I actually started on this project, something I entitled Making Full Proof: Autobiographical Observations, Indictments, and Narratives from the Missionary Journeys of a Fanatic. It was going to be a collection of short stories, and I actually completed a few, but I never could find time to finish what I had started. Interestingly, you can read two of these sketches on the new site HERE. Anyway . . .
A couple of critical prayer requests:
First of all, you might remember, although I never got around to a detailed recap, that I, my family, and Bishnu spent some time ministering and preaching the Gospel to Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees on Prince Edward Island back in June. The Lord allowed us to get into ten different homes and share Christ in Nepali for hours to attentive ears. Project Jagerna Scripture portions were distributed, and the hearts of these people seemed open. We even had a church service for them in their language at the local fellowship that invited us up there. Anyway, several weeks ago a small group of the refugees whom we interacted with were in a terrible vehicle accident near Halifax, Nova Scotia. One older man and his wife (she had been one of the few, along with her son, that tried to steer her countrymen away from us and away from the Gospel) were severely injured and put into intensive care. Others suffered broken bones. I haven’t gotten an update in a while, but please pray for these folks, that God would take this tragedy and use it to draw people unto Himself. Kul, the man who was put into ICU, always seemed to come around when we were in different homes up on PEI. He had lots of questions and seemed very interested in the Gospel, despite his wife and son’s objections. May the Lord heal him and his wife. May the Lord save him and his house and all the other precious souls with whom we spent much time and shared many meals.
Next week, a team of solid open-air preachers is coming in to help us target Oktoberfest, a local festival that brings in 100,000 people over a long weekend. Our goal is to have a preacher and Christians ready to witness one-on-one at every corner of this festival in downtown Hickory, the same public street where my brother and I were arrested for distributing Gospel tracts more than two years ago. The festival starts on October 8 and runs through Sunday afternoon, the 10th. Both Friday and Saturday nights will be crazy with mobs of people. We attempted to secure a booth as we have done in previous years, but like last year, they denied us one, claiming they ran out of space (despite the fact that we applied during the “Early Registration” period). Actually, we later discovered, the festival coordinators did not want us there, particularly because of some graphic anti-abortion signs we used back in 2008. Denying us a booth based upon our message is actually a violation of the permit issued by the city, and I inquired about this with the City Manager’s and Mayor’s offices. When the festival coordinators got wind of this, it stirred up a hornet’s nest. All I did was ask some questions. One lady actually called my brother and warned that if we came out there, we could preach, but we would not be allow to “judge anyone” (whatever that means). Nevertheless, we are going to take advantage of this unique opportunity without a booth and with a solid team of preachers. So many will be out there who attend church regularly but know little, if anything, about biblical salvation, their words and actions bearing witness. Right here at a southern festival in the heart of the Bible belt is a spiritual darkness clouding those that should know better. More than anything, sound Gospel preaching is needed in the open air. Maybe the Lord will usher in a Great Awakening like He did in the early days of our original Thirteen Colonies. Pray for us, that the Word will go forth with boldness, meekness, and humility; and that many will hear the Gospel--the lost unto salvation, and the saved unto holiness in the Lord.After the festival, our team will be spending the next week targeting nearby university campuses with the Gospel. Pray that we will have open doors to preach boldly to crowds of students, to entertain their questions in the open air, and to be witnesses for Jesus Christ. I really believe that the college campus in America is one of the most spiritually dark places in all of the world, as dark, if not more so than the dank Himalayan Buddhist monasteries or the blood-soaked temples to Khali in India that I have visited while attempting to proclaim the Gospel of Christ. So many are perishing, knowing little more than how to regurgitate the vomit ungodly professors have puked down their throats while blaspheming God. GOD SAVE THE UNITED STATES, especially in view of true words once spoken by Abraham Lincoln: “The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.”I am really excited about some of the brethren coming down to join us. Despite all the terrible things happening in our country these days, the Lord is raising up solid believers around this nation that are taking the Gospel to the open air, not whackos (we’ve always had these on America’s street corners), but doctrinally-sound and biblically solid prophets who are willing to suffer for Christ and warn those that hate them about impending doom, all the while pleading that man would flee to Christ to escape God’s wrath and bask in His free gift of eternal salvation upon repentance and faith. With many of these faithful saints I have had the privilege of laboring and suffering. Glory to God, glory to the Living God.
Finally, please pray for Bishnu, FPGM’s national partner in Nepal. On Friday, he is again heading to the Far West of Nepal to follow-up with the handful of believers there and to try and take the Gospel into other unreached villages. Pray for his safety and boldness; he will be in a very remote area. As for our needful return to Nepal, pray that the Lord brings this to pass. It looks like we will be delayed until the first of next year. I just received our renewed India tourist visas, and it cost almost $900 for my family! New restrictions will also make things logistically complicated. Air tickets for a family of five will be very expensive, and we still have not secured a place to live. Please pray that the Father will provide and that a home will open up somewhere for us in Kathmandu. We need to get back and finished what we started with Project Jagerna. As for Bishnu’s diminished level of support, I wrote concerning this in my last update. Please keep praying that God will make up for the support that was lost because of Bishnu’s integrity and his faithful loyalty to our partnership. It’s a lot cheaper to support a local believer like Bishnu on the ground than it is to sustain a missionary family full-time on a foreign field, and the money goes a lot farther. Presently, we are about $150 dollars/month shy of the level where he needs to be. Please pray about helping us raise this threshold. Remember that all contributions are tax deductible, should be made out to Full Proof Gospel Ministries with “Nepal Ministry” or “Bishnu Shrestha” noted in the memo space, and can be sent to the address at the bottom of this update. In contemplating or praying about this, don’t forget to continue lifting up Full Proof Gospel Ministries in general and Project Jagerna. Our ability to meet Bishnu’s needs is dependent upon the needs of the ministry in general being met as well as our wherewithal to continue printing and distributing the Holy Scriptures in the Nepali language.
Well, in characteristic lengthy fashion, I am longwinded. But, being the last so-styled email update, ‘tis only appropriate. So much happened this summer for the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ, and I wish I could go into detail, praising God and giving you cause to rejoice with us. Nevertheless, like John the Apostle, “having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink” (II John 12). I suppose some of you were waiting on Part 3 of my recap from this summer’s missionary journey with Bishnu and my family up in Canada. I wrote of Labrador and Newfoundland, but I never got around to expounding upon our time in the Maritimes, PEI, and a couple of New England towns that we targeted. Suffice it to declare that the Word of God went forth, and your prayers concerning that journey were answered.
Perhaps a quick cataloging is the best way to review the past several months:
A 6,692 mile drive (including 900 miles of gravel road) allowed us to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth in Northern Quebec and Labrador; the west coast of Newfoundland; to Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees on Prince Edward Island; to Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Peninsula; and to the streets of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Charlottetown, PEI, and Bangor and Skowhegan, Maine
Open-air preaching and Gospel tract distribution several weekends at Hickory Alive, the same venue where my brother and I were arrested in 2008; Bishnu was there on that fateful night and got to return with us this year
Open-air preaching with amplification in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina on numerous occasions outside sporting events and concerts; Charlotte offers really easy sound permits via email, and the police are some of the best in the nation, they never gave us any trouble
Times of witnessing and discipleship in remote corners of the Black Mountains and Great Smokies
An open-air preaching tour of colleges in Central Pennsylvania (Penn State, Lock Haven U, Shippensburg U, Bloomsburg U) with a solid group of fellow-laborers
Open-air preaching and tract distribution with another group of solid Christians over several days at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville
Open-air preaching and witnessing at local festivals and nearby Appalachian State University.
Yes, ‘tis been an engaged summer. ‘Tis been an occupied year. ‘Tis been an amazing run going back to the summer of 2003. To God alone be the glory! So many faces of those to whom we had the privilege of sharing Christ flood my mind, divine appointments, evidences of Divine Providence. All the ends of the earth where our feet have been allowed to trod . . . we weep, yet rejoice; we’re thankful, yet somber; we’re weary, yet resolved; we pause, yet press forward. Why should it be otherwise? For those of us who know the Lord confess to be mere strangers and pilgrims upon the earth, ultimately looking for that city “which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10). Until then, we strive that others may follow suit.
Don’t forget to check out the new website: www.fpgm.org; there’s plenty of places there where you can leave comments. Pray for us next week. Remember Bishnu and the injured Nepalis up on Prince Edward Island.
Deo Vindice,
Jesse Boyd