10 years ago, FPGM began; our eldest daughter was sleeping in a drawer, and we were on the road with a truck provided by God.

Dear Brethren,

It has been more than a month since my last post . . . but make no mistake, a lot is happening; and we have been very busy for the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ, both here on the home front at at some of the world's uttermost corners. As always, we covet your prayers and value the partnership of local church bodies and individual Christians.

Recent rumblings in the life of FPGM have prompted me to ponder the nature of genuine blessing from God versus worldly dainties often erringly identified as the Lord's blessings. Is rapid expansion, a spacious office, a bureaucratic hierarchy, and a huge financial support network necessarily evidence of God's blessing upon a missions ministry? Is sudden growth with full pews, a large ministerial staff, a plethora of programs, and abundant tithes and offerings necessarily evidence of God's blessing upon a church? Is technological prosperity, a high standard of living, and a government Constitution necessarily evidence of God's blessing upon a nation? Many would say "yes" and have claimed such to rationalize their own efforts while yet veering from the clear teaching of Holy Scripture and palling around with the ways of the world. While the Lord often does prosper those who truly serve Him (Psalm 35:27), yet do the wicked seem to prosper in the world and rapidly increase in riches. Just ask the author of Psalm 73.

The Crystal Cathedral: God's blessing or the world's dainty? The answer is obvious.

The Lord recently brought me to Proverbs 28:20 where I heard some loud truth: "A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." Two things are obvious: First, abundant blessing from God is inextricably tied to FAITHFULNESS. A faithful man is motivated by simple obedience to the Lord and His Word (cf. Luke 17:10), not by the prosperities of blessing. Neither does a faithful man follow natural reasoning and use the world to achieve his own desired ends in ministry. The prosperities of pragmatism are temporal, at best; and they can only be the world's dainties mistaken by the spiritually naive for divine blessing. Just ask the former members of the once-renowned Crystal Cathedral megachurch in Orange County, California. Worldly dainties are not God's blessings. Second, hastiness to prosper under God's hand of blessing can only lead to God's judgment. HASTINESS in the life of a believer, in the life of a church, or in the life of a nation is not a virtue; it's a wicked vice that breeds delusion after the manner of II Thessalonians 2:10-12 and tailors a bag full of holes (Haggai 1:6-7) that cannot retain genuine blessing from the Father of lights (James 1:17). Those that truly know the blessings of God are those that know how to wait upon the Lord, to rest in the Lord, to be satisfied in the Lord without the world's dainties (Psalm 37). And, the blessings that these receive do not fade away; they endure.

Dear Christian, ponder for a moment . . . Are the blessings in your life really God's blessings? Like the "scientists" who misidentified a pig's tooth as Nebraska Man, have you sampled the dainties of this world, wrongly pigeonholing them as divine blessing? What about our nation, the good 'ole US of A? Oh, how "blessed" we are; God bless America, right? It's certainly worth asking: Is all the technology, mobility, education, advancement, government programs, so-called freedom, and "equality" really a blessing from God, or could it be confusion of face upon a stiff-necked people that have turned their back upon the God of their fathers? Remember, my dear brethren, it is the FAITHFUL who abound with divine blessing, not the HASTY and SELF-ABSORBED. The latter may follow a path that looks prosperous and blessed from the outset, but the end thereof is as Ramoth-Gilead was for King Ahab (cf. I Kings 22, II Chronicles 18). Even faithful and blessed Jehoshaphat was deceived for a time and thereby invited wrath from the Lord for palling around with the ungodly and appeasing those that hated the Lord (II Chronicles 19:2). In this verse alone is a whole other lesson for the churches and ministries of today who boast in God's blessing while placating the world. My brethren, the time is short; let us all value faithfulness to the Word of God and the Great Commission and the act of waiting upon the Lord over any material dainty that we might erringly label as God's blessing and thereby justify our failure to "make full proof of thy ministry" (II Timothy 4:5).

On May 5th of this year, Full Proof Gospel Ministries will "officially" be ten years old. Where has time gone? I can only pause and place my hand over my mouth as I ponder the marvelous grace of God; the intricacies of His divine Hand of Providence; His abundant provision over the years; and the spiritual fruit that we continue to see in places like Nepal, Bangladesh, South Africa, India, South America, and on the streets of the United States, one the the world's largest mission fields. Some of you have partnered with us by faith in prayer and support from the beginning. Thank you! All this started out as a bicycle ride across America seeking the Lord's will in our lives for ministry and looking for opportunity to preach the Gospel along the highways and byways. On June 15, 2003, I penned my first email update (i.e. before I even knew what a blog was). Do some of you remember those lengthy epistles I used to put out every few days along the bicycle route? Jamie and I recall spending hours in podunk town libraries in the strangest of places. I am sure many grew weary of reading these things long ago. In recent years, I have tried to be a little more sporadic and concise. Hey, what can I say? I love to write; maybe I should write a book as so many have encouraged me to do. Anyway, I thought you all might get a kick out my FIRST words from the road. Those days of uncertainty, need, and ever-changing horizons really were a BLESSING. Ironically, my first update was probably my shortest in ten years of ministry:

Jamie and I are in Washington State and will be leaving Wednesday morning so as to make our way back east for the embarkation of Coast to Coast 2003. For all of you who have supported (through your thoughts, prayers, and/or financial gifts) Full Proof Gospel Ministries and our endeavor to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ from one end of this country to the other, THANK-YOU! We moved our stuff up to Yakima from California a couple of days ago not knowing how or where we would get a vehicle that would meet our needs this summer. At what seemed to be the last minute, God provided us with a brand new truck from an anonymous source. He is good and He does provide. But alas, our responsibility is grave. Please continue to pray for us. As Paul requested of the Ephesian church in Ephesians 6:19, we now request such a prayer of you: "And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the Gospel."
We hope to keep all of you informed about what is going on this summer as I bike from sea to shining sea. Every once in a while you will get an email detailing what God is doing and how you can specifically pray for needs and situations we encounter--a road journal of sorts. As friends, prayer partners, and supporters, you are a part of Full Proof Gospel Ministries. In fact, a few of you lie along our route and just might get a knock on the door sometime this summer. Blessings to you all!
For the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ,
Jesse & Jamie Boyd II Timothy 4:1-5

We still don't know where that brand-new Toyota came from; we just picked it up from the dealership in Yakima, Washington. Truly, it was a blessing the Lord delivered right on time (not early, not late) after months of fervent prayer. Who knows where she is today? But at the time, we knew such provision wasn't dainty from the world to be showcased and seldom used. It was a blessing from God to be used for His service; and believe me, it was: many, many miles along many, many highways and hedges for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Those were the days.

Praying over Project Jagerna Materials before Smuggling Them into Bhutan

Ten years later, FPGM is still a small ministry with a small one-room office in Vale, NC and a small room for storing Bibles and tracts on a rooftop in Kathmandu, Nepal. We have one vehicle in the States with an odometer that just crossed 140,000 miles and an interior that has hauled preachers and missionaries across America multiple times and along 900 miles of dirt road in Quebec and the Labrador. In Nepal, we have been blessed with a 175CC Honda motorbike and a small jeep that is 18 years old. Praise God, these are used on a daily basis by our national partners there to carry the Gospel and copies of the Word of God to the streets and villages of this distant land. To this day and as it has been for ten years, our monthly operating budget exceeds committed monthly support. Yet, we have been blessed to serve the Lord and publicly proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ in more than 40 countries and on more than 100 college campuses, both at home and abroad. I still can't figure how or where we got the funds to do it, but God has blessed the printing of more than 350,000 Scripture portions and 300,000 Gospel tracts in Nepal, almost all of which have gone into our little storage facility and then shortly BACK OUT again into the hands of Nepali-speaking peoples on the streets, in the villages, and in remote corners of Nepal, India, Bhutan, and Tibet--all FREE OF CHARGE. Countless times, we have been told that you can't preach or openly share the Gospel in this place or that, and countless times, we have seen the Word go out in abundance. Wow, my mind is instantly flooded with images: large duffels of Gospel literature smuggled into Tibet; boxes of Bibles distributed on the streets of Dhaka; open-air preaching outside the Potala Palace, at Tiananmen Square, and in the heart of Kuala Lampur; covert tract distributions under cover of night in Bhutan and Indonesia; 1,200 New Testaments distributed in 20 minutes right in the middle of an orthodox Hindu festival; a cross carried to the border of the disputed militarized area in Kashmir and planted nearby. How can I forget about the 15,000+ miles pedaled on a bicycle for the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ; the mob attacks in Ratna Park and Dhaka; sharing the Gospel at 21,000 ft. above sea level on Aconcagua, atop a camel in Mongolia, from a boat on the Buriganga, and well above the Arctic Circle? There were countless nights of tent camping, sleeping in the back of a truck, or preparing a meal with a small stove on the side of the road. And oh, the churches . . . bodies of believers planted in the strangest of places as a result of the Lord using FPGM. It started out with me and my family, and it stayed that way for a good while. But, praise God, we have grown. When Brother Ricky came to us, he definitely wasn't something dainty offered up by the world, but he has proven to be a faithful full-time missionary and one of God's greatest blessings to this small outfit of Great Commission service.

So, after ten years, we cannot boast in a spacious office facility, an immense travel budget, a large staff, dozens of missionaries, a complex budget, huge missions conferences, or hundreds of churches planted. Much of our labor has probably gone unnoticed; and in many cases, the Lord doesn't even allow us to see the fruit. We only hear about it, and that not always. Yet, with gratitude and conviction we maintain that have been blessed by God: blessed to wait on Him, blessed to rest in Him, blessed to declare Him to the nations. And, the fruit, for many reading this, is YOURS. As for American Churchianity, both at home and on the mission field, keep your comfort and your worldy dainties!

To Jew & Gentile in a High-Altitude Corner of South Asia

Speaking of blessings, the Lord has lately intensified FPGM's burden for the lost sheep of the House of Israel; and we are not waiting to act upon it. A burden for the lost really is a BLESSING from the Lord and one of eternal value (Do you pray for this blessing or only for those of financial value in the world?). Anyway . . . for security reasons, I am restrained from much detail; but do know that our ministry has taken a big step of faith and formally appointed another full-time missionary, after the manner in which we appointed Ricky Springer back in 2012. This time, we are commissioning and sending a laborer to a remote high-altitude corner of South Asia (i.e. a place Jamie and I have labored before) that sees an interesting flux of Tibetan Buddhists, Nepali speakers, and young Israeli backpackers, the latter primarily during the summer trekking season in the rain shadow of the Himalayas. By God's grace, we are putting someone on the ground in this locale to begin the process of duplicating what we have already seen and been a part of in terms of hospitality ministry to Israeli travelers down in South America. Moreover, such a presence will provide a strategic base for extending the reach of Project Jagerna to Nepali speakers and increase opportunity for outreach amongst those wallowing high in the mountains in the darkness and bondage of Tibetan Buddhism. Concerning this matter, more details will be forthcoming; but for now, please understand that I must give preemptive consideration to the issue of security. Again, this is a big step of faith for FPGM, a step that makes the fervent prayers and faithful monthly support of the saints all the more requisite. And, praise the Lord for our new missionary, an extraordinary single woman of God who has a passion for souls and is WILLING to go one of the world's uttermost corners in the spirit of Moon, Aylward, Carmichael, Elliot, and Kim. This, my friends, is a real blessing. Here at FPGM, we are a community that shares with one another; we don't deputize; neither do we require our missionaries to raise a certain level of support before sending them to the field. If God calls, we send, resting in the Lord and trusting for His provision through the generosity of the saints and the support of missions-minded local church bodies. Sometimes, it not an easy path; but all the time, it is a blessed path. For, the Lord never guides where He does not provide; and He often uses people like you to do it.

An undeniable blessing from the Lord is OPPORTUNITY when it comes to carrying the Gospel to any corner of the globe. From day one, FPGM’s approach, as it has sensed direction from the Lord, has involved a series of missionary journeys, patterned after those of the Apostle Paul and for the purpose of making the Gospel of Jesus Christ an unavoidable issue for as many people as possible, both Jew and Gentile, all around the world. Our strategy has always been simple: Seize open doors or blessings of opportunity whenever, wherever, and however! We have never bound ourselves to scheduling; and in view of Isaiah 55:9, we can only view each journey, however proposed, as ultimately indefinite in time and scope. We endeavor to go, to stay, to proceed, and to exit according to the Lord’s divine guidance. According to doors of opportunity opened or closed, some of FPGM's missionary journeys have been long, involving more of a permanent presence and/or partnership with local churches on the ground; some missionary journeys have been short; some have involved revisiting areas previously targeted. In all, the Word of the Lord has been publicly proclaimed, seeds have been abundantly sown, and born-again believers were exhorted and discipled unto boldness and steadfastness in the faith. To God be the glory, great things he hath done.

Ricky preaches Christ at a funeral procession for Nelson Mandela.

Over the years, South Asia and South America have proven areas where open doors of opportunity have constrained us to focus and establish a presence. As long as these doors remain open, our efforts and partnerships in these corners of the globe will remain; and we aim to conduct ourselves in such a way as to foster an ongoing and self-sustaining work amongst local believers in the event that open doors suddenly slam shut. With Ricky Springer currently based in Cape Town, it seems Southern Africa can now be added to this list. After some fruitful months of ministry there back in 2011, the Lord opened the door for us to send Ricky back in December of last year. Not only has he been able to re-kindle some of our old contacts and carry over bags full of Gospel materials for local believers to use in the work of evangelism, but opportunities for public preaching, mass distribution, one-on-one evangelism, and discipleship of local believers have been seized. For security reasons, I cannot comment on the exact nature of some of this; but all has been good, and all has been blessed.

Nate Henderson, 15 years old and 6'4", is on the right. The man on the left is a black belt and a former special forces Army Ranger.

In this vein, we do covet your prayers. On March 4th, I will be flying to Cape Town, South Africa, accompanied by Nate Henderson, one of my martial arts students and a young man I have been discipling for more than a year (this will be Nate's first trip outside the country). For about a month, we will be coming alongside Ricky Springer and assisting him in his work. Lord willing, Nate and I will be doing some Aikido demonstrations in a few public schools and a local Jewish home for the elderly. The martial arts, of course, will serve as a unique bridge to declare the Gospel and to distribute Bibles in venues where we may not otherwise have access. Back in 2007, we saw some success with this in Moldova; and I'd like to start using this platform more. On top of this, we will be preaching around Cape Town and seeking out opportunity amongst the lost sheep of the House of Israel. For about two weeks of our time, we will be hitting the road in a small borrowed car--a 2,000+ mile preaching circuit that will take us into Namibia and Botswana. Nate and I are carrying over about 20,000 English and Afrikaans language Gospel tracts and some Bibles for this journey. With petrol hovering around $5.00/gallon; fuel will be our biggest expense. So, please join us in praying for the Lord's provision. Notwithstanding, the opportunity to preach the Gospel in remote corners and at the end of the road will undoubtedly prove priceless, as it has countless times before in the life of this ministry. And as is our custom, we will be traveling on a shoestring, a unique blessing in and of itself. Please also pray for Jamie and her ministry of homeschooling our children while I am away. Praise God for solid Christian family and the fellowship of a Remnant local church body nearby! These, too, are priceless blessings. Speaking of my wife and Lord willing, she will be traveling to South Asia in June to help our new missionary get established. So, there's a lot to pray about.

Brother Bishnu and His Two Children with Maan Kumari Gurung

All of this talk about God's blessings versus worldly dainties . . . well, I can't help but ponder how this relates to the fate of nations. Several weeks ago, I received an email from Brother Bishnu in Nepal informing me that his mother-in-law, Maan Kumari Gurung, had passed away after a brief stint in the hospital. She was 86 years old. What I find interesting is that Maan and her husband were both born in remote villages, and both of them were first-generation Christians in their respective families. They married at a time when Christian weddings were not recognized by the Hindu government; and they served the Lord, opening their homes to traveling evangelists (something many American Christians would never do) and feeding them while faithfully bearing witness of the Gospel in their own spheres of influence. Their sons would grow up to be pioneer missionaries in Nepal; these preached the Gospel in many parts of the country when it was illegal and dangerous to do so. One of their daughters, Bimu, first shared Christ with Bishnu and helped lead him to faith as he wrestled between Hinduism and atheism. These two later married and now serve the Lord faithfully in a Nepal that looks very different than the one in which Maan Kumari Gurung found Christ.

Make no mistake, my friends, the Nepal of today is still the Third World. The capital city of Kathmandu is one of the world's most polluted cities, particularly during the dry season when the smog gets trapped in the Kathmandu Valley. The superstitions of Hinduism yet rule everything, breeding chaos, piles of trash along the streets, cows lounging in the busy intersections, dirty and diseased water, the foul smell of the Bagmati River running through the middle of the city, the shantytowns, rolling blackouts that leave people without electricity up to 18 hours a day in the spring. Sometimes, the gas lines and queues for propane simply elude description. As for Nepal beyond Kathmandu, the infrastructure remains horrible with very few roads. Many, many, many mountain villages are still isolated from the outside world. It is a common occurrence for landslides to completely obliterate houses and villages with no warning. Bus accidents and lightning strikes are as common as the common cold; and airplane crashes . . . well just look at the news from a few days ago. Medical care in many places remains virtually non-existent and common nationwide strikes can literally hamstring the flow of commodities for days. As for Nepali government corruption, well it makes our political leaders, in comparison, appear as great statesmen.

This building was torched by Hindu radicals; and I don't know what became of my pastor friend.

In the 70's, 80's, an 90's, the Gospel made some in-roads in Nepal, but the few Christians who endured, like Maan Kumari Gurung and her husband, knew the threat of real persecution in a tightly-closed Hindu Kingdom. When Jamie and I first traveled to Nepal back in 1999, the way we conducted ministry was very different than the labors we enjoy there today. Tract distribution had to be done with stealth and care; open-air preaching was unthinkable; and the threat of retaliation from local Hindus in the villages was very real. In fact, one place we staged free medical clinics on the road to Jiri, in partnership with other missionaries and a few local Christians and in conjunction with declaring the Gospel to those who would come (I even preached once in broken Nepali to a line of people outside that block building where Jamie was inside taking blood pressure, giving shots, and administering medication), was shortly thereafter burned to the ground. The pastor that hiked with me all over those hills, well, I don't even know what happened to him. Many Christians in those days would just disappear.

Men receive the Word of God in their language in the formerly inaccessible Baitadi District

Fast forward to 2014, the year that Maan Kumari Gurung, one of Nepal's first-generation Christians, went home to be with the Lord. Her son-in-law, Brother Bishnu, leads a team in that regularly preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the open-air in Kathmandu (i.e. at the temples, parks, outside government buildings, at local festivals, etc.). In fact, he just picked up 35,000 Project Jagerna Gospels of John and 20,000 Haven't You Heard Gospel tracts from a local printing press, 110 boxes of materials that Full Proof Gospel Ministries paid to print. All of these will be freely distributed in many places in Nepal within a few months, EASY. Since 2007, Project Jagerna, FPGM's joint labor with local Nepali believers, has been able to print and freely distribute more than 650,000 pieces of Gospel literature from one end of Nepal to the other, including more than 100,000 Scripture portions in the Nepali Year 2069 alone. And, this has been enjoyed without any real hindrance from government or local officials. Moreover, churches have been planted in remote districts like Baitadi and Kapilbustu where there was no Gospel and no access for missionaries as recently as the 1990's. My, my, my . . . things sure have changed since Maan Kumari Gurung first gave her life to Christ. A country that was fast closed as recently as 15 years ago is presently WIDE OPEN for the preaching of the Gospel!

Open-air Preaching to Fields White Unto Harvest

The reason for this is also quite interesting. Historically, Communism has been a barrier to the Gospel and has resulted in the slamming shut of open doors for the Church. Not so in Nepal. In this small little land-locked country, it was Communist guerrillas in the villages that instigated the eventual overthrow of the Hindu monarchy and the ushering in of a "people's republic" in 2008 that, until just recently, was under the control of the Maoist party. For the past six years, various political parties have bickered and vied for position as the matter of finalizing a national constitution has been tabled, tabled, and tabled again. The Constitutional Assembly has been officially dissolved at least once followed by fresh elections every bit as corrupt as the Presidential elections of 2000, 2008, and 2012 in this country. To this day, Nepal has no Constitution; the people have no rights officially articulated on paper; and the "people's republic" remains a house of cards with Communist ideology still wielding an influential voice. From the perspective of those who vocalize "God Bless America" like a broken record, equating God's blessings with affluence and convenience, Nepal bears all the marks of a land of idolatry cursed by God. Not so, my friends! You see, in Nepal, the Divine Hand of Providence used Communism to boot out the Hindu Monarchy and usher in a period of political instability that has turned the government's attention away from the Church and toward it's own in-fightings. The political powers that be have little time to concern themselves with silencing the Gospel or placating the demands of radical Hindu factions. They are too busy arguing over constitutional semantics and vying for power. Thereby, the door of opportunity for the Gospel of Jesus Christ has flung wide open for the churches and for the missionaries. And, the fields are white unto harvest amongst a people and a generation that is fast losing faith in its government and its Hindu traditions. Maan Kumari Gurung, in her lifetime, saw the door of an idolatrous nation that had been barred shut to the Gospel of salvation suddenly kicked open. She saw it with her own eyes before the Lord called her home. That, my friends, is the ultimate BLESSING upon a nation, come down from the Father of lights in whom there is no variableness or shadow of turning.

In the United States, we have pristine national parks, top-notch infrastructure, mobility that even puts Western Europe to shame, clean water and clean food at the drop of a hat, nationwide internet, churches on every street corner, colleges and universities in the thousands, free elections, a Constitution with a Bill of Rights, the latest medical technology, cars in every garage, credit cards, bank accounts, huge flat-screen televisions, iPhones, laptop computers, cashless purchasing power, shopping malls, Bibles for a dollar and in almost every hotel room, tract racks in churches filled to the brim and overflowing, mega-churches, pastors pulling down six-figure salaries, Christians that haven't a clue about any real persecution, racial equality, interstate highways, an airport in every decent-sized city, an abundance of ports on two oceans, indoor plumbing with s-traps, central heating and air, snowplows, the ability to quickly re-build after a disaster, and the virtual absence of REAL poverty. We have all of this, what many would deem blessings from above, and yet we are a nation fast becoming as Nepal once was in terms of access to the biblical Gospel. We have turned our back on the God of the Bible in this country, and a nation that was once blessed has become fat and overstuffed with worldly dainties misidentified by a self-focused, self-absorbed, and spiritually deluded people. And yet, all the while, a polluted backward nation of idolatry has been given a blessing by God that cannot be measured in human currency--an open door for the Gospel, the ultimate divine blessing of the Creator upon a nation. As I type, I cannot help but think of verses like Deuteronomy 32:21, Isaiah 65:1, and Romans 10:19. Israel, a nation that knew the blessings of God, turned its back on God. The Gospel then went to the Gentiles, a people who sought not after God, so as to provoke Israel to jealousy. The message of salvation that Israel spurned, well, the Lord turned and dropped it in the laps of idolatrous Gentiles that weren't even seeking it. Perhaps the same can be said of this once-great nation. America is much like Israel of old. We knew God, we feared God, we experienced His blessings. Today, we have forgotten God while many, including droves of professing Christians, are immersed in the idolatries of this world. We have turned our backs on God; and He has turned His hand of eternal blessings to idolatrous nations like Nepal who weren't even seeking after Him. As the salvation of the Gentiles serves to provoke Israel to jealousy in such a way that she will one day wake up and recognize her Messiah (Romans 11:11-12); may the blessings of an open door for the Gospel in places like Nepal, and testimonies like that of Maan Kumari Gurung, provoke us here in America to jealousy in such a way that we turn from worldly dainties and seek after real blessings, returning to the God of our fathers. GOD SAVE THE UNITED STATES!

Praise God for the lives of believers like Maan Kumari Gurung. American Christians could learn much from the earthly pilgrimages and testimonies of such faithful soldiers of Jesus Christ. What an honor it is for Full Proof Gospel Ministries to be a part of her legacy through our partnership with Bishnu and Bimu Shrestha. She and many others of Nepal's first-generation Christians are with the Lord. May those believers who presently enjoy the open-door blessings in Nepal that these one sought fervently in prayer strengthen the things that remain and carry on the legacy. Pray for the people of Nepal, my friends. Pray that the door of opportunity for the Gospel remains open. As long as the Lord allows, we at FPGM will have a stake of labor for the Lord in this uniquely blessed nation of people.

Bishnu with the Jeep Gypsy — The Jeep provided by God

On an interesting sidenote, Brother Bishnu and his family were rushing over to Pokhara to be with Maan in her last hours. Bishnu, of course, was driving the Jeep that some of you helped our ministry purchase last Spring. Enroute, he stopped to pick up a couple of Hindu pilgrims who were returning from idol worship atop a renowned hilltop temple that is reached by cable car. It was a festival day, so there were few vehicles on the road, and this couple was desperate for a ride. Immediately, Bishnu and Bimu started to share the Gospel with these people and they were very open. Puspa Kamal asked for a Bible and promised to read it for himself. Several days later, he left Nepal for a job in Dubai. Even in the last hours of Maan Kumari Gurung's life, the Lord orchestrated things to so that yet a few more heard the Gospel. Please pray for Puspa Kamal and his wife, for their salvation.

Bishnu described the passing of his mother-in-law in this fashion:

Thus, an era was ended when Bimu's mother passed into glory. She accepted Christ when it was illegal to do so, and she kept her faith for such a blessed long life. She was a historic person herself for Nepali Christianity through whom many souls of her relatives were also saved. She had 16 grand children and 19 great grand children. Not only that, she raised her children unto righteousness and all of them were or are in the ministry. We just praise the Lord for her life and faith. All the glory be to our loving God for His mercy and faithfulness.

God's Blessings or Worldly Dainties? What say you?

In closing, know that we have needs and would value your partnership in this work. Brother Ricky recently communicated these words to a local church body, and I would like to leave you with them:

The work continues here in South Africa among the Jewish community where many here the Gospel (i.e. that their Messiah was delivered to the world) for the first time. There remain many things ahead this year for me and the ministry in which I am involved; and I humbly request that you prayerfully consider monthly support to the work God has bestowed upon Full Proof Gospel Ministries. We recently took on another missionary, and when I finish my current stint in South Africa, our team must travel to NW India to help set this missionary up and began realizing a long-term establishment there as in Nepal. In Nepal, the ministry continues to print thousands of Nepali Scripture portions via Project Jagerna; and with my experience gleaned from working with Jewish people in South America and South Africa, I am excited at the prospect of a more permanent presence in South Asia, not only taking the Gospel to Tibetans and Nepalis, but to the steady stream of Israeli backpackers that flock to the tourist areas and trekking routes each year. If you believe that FPGM is a ministry you could support in faith, know that even something as seemingly insignificant as $50 or $100 a month, well, we can make it go far in places like South Africa and South Asia. I want to encourage you as a church or as an individual Christian to lay up such treasures in heaven, and I assure you that in doing so, your help will be greatly appreciated.

Stay tuned for news from the bottom of Africa. Pray for us, and let us know how we can pray for you. For more information on how you can partner with Full Proof Gospel Ministries, click HERE.

For the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ,

The Boyd Family

God's blessings or the world's dainties