Gord Martin (Vision Ministries)
Indy is home! A few of us met Indy at Pearson this morning (October 19). He's now on his way home to Winnipeg.
What an ordeal! I traveled with him in Myanmar/Burma in February of 2020. He's been there, separated from his family since then, experiencing one hurdle after another: the pandemic, covid, war, death of his father, constant danger, illegal escape to India, becoming a chaplain to land mine and bombing victims from Burma, heart attack, stents, recovery, unable to walk, stone walling from Indian authorities, help from Canadian Global Affairs and 3.5+ years of prayer by a group of 10 who prayed with and for him every Friday morning + many others who prayed!
Thank you LORD!!!
Thanks very much for all of you who have prayed for his safe return!
Robert & Susan Martin - Kingston Prison Ministry
Dear friends,
One of the songs we are introducing to the men who join us for chapel services is “Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me”. Those who have understood and believed the gospel can sing the truth of these words with thankful hearts.
“No fate I dread, I know I am forgiven
The future sure, the price it has been paid
For Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon
And he was raised to overthrow the grave
To this I hold, my sin has been defeated
Jesus now and ever is my plea
Oh the chains are released
I can sing, “I am free”
Yet not I but through Christ in me”
As men come to trust the Saviour they can know fruitful Christian living during their time in prison. Some have many years of incarceration ahead of them while others only months.
Our goal is to help them see the importance of making the most of the present time, and not to wait until they are out of jail before they seek to live for the Lord and serve Him. Their worship now can be meaningful to God and they can gain deeper understanding through personal daily Bible study. Their witness can be effective as they let their faithful actions do most of the talking, allowing meaningful conversations to be guided by the Holy Spirit - knowing wisdom and discernment for the right timing.
Pray for… RM, is a believer, but desperately wants to control his environment resulting in undue conflict with staff and other inmates. Recently the stress of this has required hospitialization to stabilize him.
K and C have been a great support to each other both spiritually and emotionally. However, recently their relationship has become strained. Pray that Satan would not have success in separating them as Christian brothers.
Its been a different end of summer and September for us. Susan’s mom, Verna Millson, went home to heaven Aug 22nd. She was still quite independent, living by herself and driving her own vehicle. It was a sudden and unexpected event for sure. We are thankful for His supply of grace and strength as we grieve, remembering the promises of our future hope and reality. She was a wonderful mother to us and we are thankful for her faithful example in our lives.
As we sing the last verse to the above song we can’t help but think of Mom.
"With every breath I long to follow Jesus
For he has said that He will bring me home
And day by day I know He will renew me
Until I stand with joy before His throne.
To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus
All the glory evermore to Him
When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat
Yet not I but through Christ in me."
Thank you for praying for us.
Blessings,
Robert and Susan
Our mailing address is:
Prison Minstry, Kingston
PO Box 20051
Kingston, ON K7P 2T6
Canada
Trevor & Hannah Martin - Power to Change (local)
Discipleship Through Evangelism
A UW student named Jordan has spent his last few semesters on campus leading out in our discussion based outreach called DEEP DIVE. He has grown tremendously in his faith as he engaged in meaningful conversation with non-Christians. Naturally, he wanted to continue doing this, so he was hesitant when asked to take on the greater evangelism coordinator role. Jordan prayed about it, and took a step of faith taking on the bigger role this semester.
In doing so, he's been able to raise up other leaders who have also grown in their faith through DEEP DIVE like Christina. Christina was inspired and excited when she saw how normal and easy conversations can be. And at our booth telling the campus about DEEP DIVE, Joseph grew in boldness as he approached and chatted with students. Praise God for students willing to lead others to help students take their next step towards Jesus! Pray for students on campus to be open to Jesus as Saviour and Lord of their lives.
Sunday August 20, 2023
Every year churches across Canada take a Sunday to focus on lifting students up to God in prayer. Over 2 million students are shaping their futures in colleges and universities across the country every year. Will you pray with us that they will meet God in this critical crossroad of their lives? If you want to help your church pray for students on this day or another Sunday in August, let us know and we can send you resources to help make it easier.
Family Fun
Clockwise from top left:
1) A recent family picture. It's hard to get Avery to smile for pictures
2) Going strawberry picking early on Canada Day
3) A future DJ or construction worker
4) A quick grown-ups picture on vacation
Prayer and Praise
1) Pray for wisdom in how to love the students at the University of Waterloo after the stabbing on campus in June.
2) Pray for the thousands of students who are preparing to step on a university or college campus for the first time this September.
3) Praise God that he has opened up a part-time daycare spot for Avery starting in September.
Gord Martin
Greetings to you all at Wallenstein!
Very much for the gift of $250 that you forwarded to VMC for our support!
Just this morning I was part of a prayer group on Zoom, we've been praying for Indy who has now been separated from his family in Winnipeg for three and a half years. He was stuck in Burma/Myanmar for about 3 years and now is in India.
He entered India illegally to avoid the very dangerous border crossing, it's now complicated for him to leave India since he "never entered". Nine of us have been praying for him every Friday morning for three years. We are praying that he will be able leave, within a week or so.
Last weekend I was with a group of Nigerians for their annual retreat. It was a very exciting time for them since two of the top leaders of their denomination in Nigeria came to be with them.
One of the leaders said several times over, that in the first 14 years of missionaries coming to Nigeria, starting 130 years ago, there were more missionary graves than converts. But today in Nigeria alone that denomination has 8,000 churches and 10 million members! (this large group of churches is just one "branch" that grew out of SIM, the organization Phil Bauman is serving)
They are so grateful to Canadians because it was from Toronto that those missionaries first went. It's something for us to be greatly encouraged about!
Again for your kindness,
Gord Martin