without benefit of furlough

Greetings, dear brethren, in the matchless name of the One who went to Calvary. Lately, I have been perusing through some of my late grandfather’s sermon notes and old radio program transcripts. He, also called Jesse Boyd, was a Baptist pastor for more than 50 years and often preached the Word of God on the air. Today, I stumbled upon these, his words, spoken February 5, 1967 during the Word of Truth program on the radio:

Calvary - the place where divine mercy met human madness in mortal combat, with mercy rejoicing against justice as she emerged the mighty victor to display the spoils of her triumph! Oh, the matchless mercy of Messiah manifested to men.

All I can say to this GOOD NEWS is “Amen,” and thereby commit to keep preaching the Saviour of Calvary--not only in Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Tibet, Mongolia, and around the world--but also on the streets of the United States of America, one of today's largest and darkest mission fields.

As a missionary, I have always been uncomfortable “raising support” or “going on deputation.” But, the Scriptures are clear: “Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel” (I Corinthians 9:14). Therefore, I am compelled to express a bit of sadness toward the perspective of brethren who think that a missionary is only a “missionary” and in need of financial support while on the FOREIGN field. My friends, please understand that, as mentioned above, the United States is one of the world’s largest mission fields, and that FPGM has also been called to her streets. Therefore, we operate without benefit of furlough. Moreover, have you prayerfully considered that FPGM is still laboring in Nepal and South Asia by directly supporting local brethren, despite our forced absence due to immigration regulations? Since returning to America, FPGM has witnessed its monthly support noticeably dwindle; and our monthly operating budget is again well below our level of pledged monthly giving. With inflation (more obvious when one has been out of the country for more than a year), it is going to be difficult moving forward without your help. Here are a few prayer needs that are currently before us:

  • We would like to help purchase a piece of land for a small church of landless brethren that Bishnu has been training and discipling down in Nepal’s Kapilbustu District. Because these are poor and forced to “squat” on public land, the local Hindus have been persecuting them and trying to drive them out of the region. To purchase this poor church body a 2-3 acre piece of land as a place to live and congregate around the Word of God would probably only cost about $5000-$7000. Moreover, this tract could also be used as a base to store materials for outreach in the surrounding remote corners of Nepal’s Terai belt and the inner foothills, particularly as we send out the local brethren. Please pray that the Lord will provide the means to purchase some land in Nepal's Kapilbustu District.

  • FPGM is planning to send Ricky Springer down to Argentina in late November so as to labor alongside the ministry of Dylan and Cheri Harris, faithful laborers in Argentina, for a 6-8 month period. There, Ricky will be helping to train other believers in evangelism and target travelers and backpackers with the glorious Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord willing, we will be traveling with Ricky down to Patagonia to help him get settled in and then kick things off with an outreach at a local rock climbing festival and at Aconcagua Base Camp (the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere). For this to happen, the Lord will have to provide for traveling expenses, 6-8 months of rent for Ricky, and some supplies that will be needed up in the Andes. At the end of Ricky’s time down south, I would like to again return to Argentina for a few weeks so as to join him and Dylan as we follow the backpacking crowd, typically traveling north at that time of year from Argentina into Peru and Ecuador. Please remember that Argentina is a place FPGM has frequented on several occasions; and our desire is to keep sowing in that unreached land. Moreover, we believe wholeheartedly in the ministry of the Harris family and thereby desire to send Ricky to them as a fellow-laborer. We are going to need your help. Please pray for the Lord’s provision, not only for us, but for Ricky Springer as well.

  • With the onset of the Fall semester, FPGM intends to again target America’s college and university campuses while there remains freedom to do so, making a tour of sorts around the country. The university campus, particularly in the United States, is one of most spiritually darkened settings in all of the world, as dark, if not more so, than the dankest of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, the bloodiest of Khali temples, or the most draconian of Islamic mosques. Therefore, the “institution of higher learning” is worth targeting with the light of the Gospel, and the time to do so in this country, I believe, is short. Please pray that the Lord brings this “campus tour” together and provides for the necessary traveling expenses, particularly for the cost of fuel.

  • Our printing needs for Project Jagerna are continually before us. As we endeavor to print and distribute 100,000 Scripture portions to Nepali-speaking people in 2069, the current year on the Nepali calendar, we need, and are going to need, printing funds. Please keep in mind that we can print a Gospel of John with a “Creation to Cross” Gospel introduction for only $0.08/copy. Please pray that we can keep printing and keep distributing through the local brethren on the ground in Nepal. For more information, please visit projectjagerna.org.

  • Due to ridiculous inflation, my family cannot continue to live off the amount we have been receiving from the ministry. This was possible in Kathmandu, but no longer in the United States. Either the Lord is going to have to provide me with some supplemental work that doesn’t infringe upon my calling as a missionary without benefit of furlough, or FPGM’s monthly support must increase. Presently, I am trying to generate some income online and through freelance writing, but nothing seems to be materializing. Please pray for the Lord’s provision in terms of work or additional support.

If the Lord lays it upon your heart to support FPGM financially, please consider that monthly giving, even if but a small amount, proves a double blessing in that it helps our debt-free ministry to better understand the Lord’s direction as we plan and budget. All contributions to “Full Proof Gospel Ministries” are tax-deductible and can be mailed to P.O. Box 791, Conover, NC 28613. We also offer the convenience of online giving. To donate online, CLICK HERE.

Well, you might remember that my first open-air outing upon returning to the States (i.e. after a 13-month absence) resulted in arrest and a $500 bond down in Holly Ridge, North Carolina. Praise be to God, for as soon as Onslow County District Attorney Ernie Lee received the ridiculous charges of “disorderly conduct” on his desk, he called me personally to dismiss them. Within a week, the State of North Carolina sent me a refund check in the amount of $500 to cover the bond I had paid at the Onslow County Jail on July 4th. Undoubtedly, all your telephone calls and emails had a positive effect. Thank-you, and praise Jesus! An article appeared in the Christian news media detailing this dismissal. Here is the link, and as you read, please give thanks to God for answering all our prayers:

North Carolina Prosecutor Drops Charge Against Missionary Arrested for Telling Officers to ‘Repent’

Since this incident, I have also had opportunity to preach outside the transit station in Charlotte. The overall apathy of the throngs enhanced my longing to return to places where people are hungry for truth (e.g. Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Tibet; hey, I could even be talked into returning to Mongolia). Nevertheless, as the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippian Church, so must I also exemplify: “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Philippians 4:11).

So, with my first outing, I encountered ARREST. With my second outing, I encountered APATHY. This past weekend, my third outing to preach the Gospel in America since returning from the nations, I was hardly prepared for a response of VILE PERVERSION. Am I missing Kathmandu, with all its chaos, pollution, rolling black-outs, and bandhs? You better believe it! Rather than offer my own recap, I stumbled upon a news article that appropriately covered our outreach at Asheville, North Carolina’s annual Bele Chere Festival (the headline photo shows me preaching):

Evangelists Endure Vile Acts, Assault at North Carolina Bele Chere Festival

Perhaps an echo of Thomas Jefferson is the only appropriate response:

“God, who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.”

If you are interested, I posted a podcast of a sermon I preached Friday evening at Bele Chere on the LOVE OF GOD. If you pay attention to the crowd in the background, you will see how people in America respond to the love of God as manifested in Jesus Christ. I dare say that Nepalis, Indians, and Bangladeshi Muslims would never act like this. But, proceed with caution. The audience discourse contains profanity, vulgarity, and some very disturbing language. Also, take note that the police were standing by and doing nothing. Here is a link to the podcast:

Street Sermons by Jesse Boyd: The Love of God (7/27/2012)

Despite the response of the hearers, I must say that it was a real joy to preach with dear brothers in Christ this past weekend, some I had not seen in a good while. To stand alongside men of God in the face of pure evil was a real honor. If you would like to contact the Asheville Police Department and express your disdain for the indifference toward public lewdness and the assault against street evangelists, here is the contact information:

Asheville Police Department: (828) 252-1110

Asheville Chief of Police: (828) 259-5855; wanderson@ashevillenc.gov

Dear brethren, I regret that I have yet to share with you in detail exactly what the Lord did on our overland journey from Kathmandu to Beijing, as well as in China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan. It was truly glorious, and even now I am working on some video documentaries that I hope to let tell the story. Please be patient with me; it has been difficult transitioning back into American culture (p.s. reverse culture shock is real), and I am currently having to comb through more than a year of receipts, bills, and ministry contributions for FPGM accounting purposes. On top of this, I have been giving attention to Project Jagerna Bible translation work, a very difficult task in the Book of Hebrews and II Peter; and I have been helping Bishnu facilitate the printing of an additional 50,000 Gospels of John as we push for “One Lakh in 2069.”

Speaking of my Nepali co-laborer, he contacted me on Friday morning just before I left for the Bele Chere festival. Surprisingly, Bishnu reported that he and his wife, along with Brother Laxmi and another Christian sister, had decided to return to Ratna Park and openly preach the Gospel. As you might remember, Ratna Park is the very place where a mob, incited by radical Hindus, viciously attacked us with stones, tree branches, boards, and poles back in February. Though having preached in this place many, many times, none of us had returned since this incident. Last Friday, the very day my preaching would be met with vile perversion up in Asheville, Bishnu and the brethren stood in Ratna Park (on the very same pedestal where we were attacked) and preached Jesus Christ in the open-air with a "1/2-mile hailer" for more than an hour. Upwards of 1,000 Gospels of John and nearly 700 Gospel tracts were distributed during that time to throngs of Muslims and Hindus. In Bishnu’s own words: “People kept asking for more tracts even after everything was given out. So I went around to see if some people had thrown away some. I found few and was able to give out to more hungry souls.” Glory to God! Oh, I wish I could have been there. Please keep praying for Bishnu and the labor for the Gospel that we are perpetually endeavoring to support on the ground in Nepal.

Well, I better sign off. Please don’t forget the prayer requests that prefaced this update. Stay tuned for some video documentary from our long homeward journey from Nepal: via Tibet, mainland China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan. We love and cherish you all. The LORD is good.

Laboring Without Benefit of Furlough,

The Boyd Family, Full Proof Gospel Ministries

2012FPGM