prayers needed

Greetings Remnant Body of the Lord Jesus Christ, dear friends, and to whomever else may stumble upon this post. Grace, mercy, and peace be with you from the God of the Bible; He is the LORD: “O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together” (Psalm 34:3).

This post will be short as its primary occasion is to petition your prayers for this upcoming week. Ricky and I will be traveling from Kathmandu down to Bangladesh, a closed Muslim country and one of the poorest and most chaotic nations on the planet. At roughly the size of South Carolina, Bangladesh boasts a population of nearly half that of the entire United States. The streets of Dhaka, its capital city, are crowded with nearly 15 million people and more than 300,000 bicycle rickshaws. Simply put, Bangladesh is a place where people suffer: annual flooding, cholera flies, extreme poverty, disease, terrible pollution, a history of bloodshed, etc. Worse than this, untold millions are perishing in this place without knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and under the bondage of Islam and religious witchcraft. I have been to Bangladesh a couple of times before and was privileged to be a part of preaching and distributing the Word of God en masse on the streets of Dhaka. Back in 2008, we took in team for a week and distributed nearly 18,000 pieces of Gospel literature. But alas, in a city of 15 million, that was only a drop in the bucket.

By God’s grace, I’m going back, and this time, Ricky gets to taste the insanity and the chaos. Lord willing, we will be laboring alongside local brethren; distributing en masse; training new believers in a village area; and targeting a large university campus. As you pray for us, keep in mind that all such activity is illegal in Bangladesh, and the few believers that do exist (approximately 0.1% of the population) know real persecution. Twice in that place, I have been told that I was under arrest by local police. In both instances, God made a way of escape. For security reasons, I cannot go into any more detail. Lord willing, we shall return to Kathmandu on March 23rd.

Thereafter, we will hit the ground running here in Nepal. Again, we earnestly covet your prayers. On March 24th, Paul Langford, my martial arts instructor and one of my best friends, a good brother, will be arriving for 7 days. He is transporting two half-mile hailers (the ones we have been praying about) that we will pass on to local brethren for the open-air preaching of the Gospel here in Kathmandu and in the villages. During Paul’s brief stay, we aim to conduct a self-defense seminar at a nearby school (a great bridge to preach the Gospel), continue shaking up the streets of Kathmandu, and possibly make a quick distribution run into some nearby unreached villages. There will be a large festival taking place near Pokhara at that time; it may be that we can target this event as well.

The day after Paul returns to America, a couple brothers from California are arriving for two weeks. Kevin Borden and Kenn Lightsey will be bringing a third 1/2-mile hailer with them. In fact, let me take the opportunity to express immense gratitude to Kevin and another brother from his church who purchased all three hailers (not cheap). They will be put to good use over here in South Asia, a place where finding quality, portable, and reliable amplification is virtually impossible. Both of these men are bold preachers. I have not personally met Kenn, but I had the great privilege of preaching with Kevin and some men from his church in the San Francisco Bay Area during the Fall of 2010. Needless to say, once these arrive, ‘twill be a whirlwind of activity: lots of open-air preaching, literature distribution, finishing up our circumnavigation of Kathmandu’s Ring Road with the cross, and a possible trek into the mountains so as to further target unreached villages.

In terms of Project Jagerna, Bishnu and I just finished a difficult but needed revision of our translation work on the Gospel of John. While Ricky and I are in Bangladesh, he will be placing an order to print 20,000 of these Johns and another 10-20,000 Gospel tracts (depending upon how far the funds will stretch). So, Lord willing, there will be an abundant amount of literature available for distribution during the time we have with Paul and the brothers from California. Pray for us as we labor even now through the Gospel of Matthew and the Book of Hebrews. My goal is to have these ready for print by the time we return to the United States in May. The current Nepali translations have many, many problems in both of these very important biblical books. The work is mind-numbing at times, but the Lord gives grace as we labor to stay faithful to the Reformation text-tradition. By the way, April 13th is the first day of the year 2069 on the Nepali Calendar. Project Jagerna, at Bishnu’s behest, has set a goal of distributing at least 100,000 Scripture portions during 2069 (mid-April of 2012 through mid-April of 2013). This is a lofty goal, but doable with God’s grace and your continued prayers. The upcoming printing mentioned earlier, of course, will help us get started. Praise God for His provision.

Since Brother Shawn Holes departed Nepal back at the end of February, we have laid low, resting up for the intense work ahead and focusing primarily upon Bible translation. Nevertheless, there has been some opportunity for walking the cross, open-air preaching, more distribution, and targeting the northeast quarter of Kathmandu. Below is a video collage that you might find interesting:

more kathmandu outreach

Pray for us in Bangladesh; we need prayer cover.  Please pray for Jamie and the children as they remain back in Kathmandu. Pray also for continued financial provision: We need to keep printing materials; there will be traveling expenses with upcoming village runs; Ricky has some needs; and somehow, I am going to have to come up with the funds to fly all of us back to the States in May or June. In case you haven’t noticed, airline ticket prices have moved from the realm of ridiculous to the domain of ridonkulous. Notwithstanding, Jehovah-Jireh never guides where He does not provide. Thanks, in advance, for your fervency in prayer. As the Remnant Body of Jesus Christ is one, rejoice: for this witness is as much your fruit as that of Full Proof Gospel Ministries. And in all things, to God be the glory.

Deo Vindice,

The Boyd Family & Ricky Springer