Sheppard January 2005 Update

Dear friends,

Hi! We trust all is well with you. We have been very, very busy since we
last wrote. We were involved in three big church conferences in December and 
January (One in the Bassa region, one here in Monrovia, and one in Nimba,
not far from where we first lived when we came to Liberia). We have also
been busy with the various church reconstruction projects made possible
through donations to Baptist Mid-Mission's World Relief Fund - as well as
the meetings, social contacts/hospitality, Bible studies, and the "just
living" that make up missionary life.

We are very excited about what God is doing. As you who have followed our
newsletters know, the last years our of ministry here have been very
difficult.  Several years ago two major groups of Liberians pastors and
their churches broke away from Baptist Mid-Missions. Their motives varied,
but most left because they were not satisfied with the benefits of
associating with the mission - and they saw greener grass with other groups.
They made great efforts to recruit. Less than one-third of the original
number of churches remained in fellowship with Baptist Mid-Missions.

However, what seemed very tragic while it was happening has turned out to be
a very beautiful thing. Think of it! Those who remain are those who are
truly grateful for the gospel and the sound teaching of the Bible even if
there is little chance for personal gain. What this means in our daily life
is that instead of going to conferences and having meetings with people who
have varied goals for us as representatives of Baptist Mid-Missions, the
conferences are full of those who want to know and obey the Word of God. We
have been thrilled with the level of commitment we have seen at the core of
many of the churches. We have also begun to notice the first step toward
true revival - repentance. In fact, at one of the conferences a man who
stole $100 from us 16 years ago confessed, asked for forgiveness, and asked
us to give him specifics as to how to make restitution. This needs to be
multiplied many times over. Liberia is filled with people who have a form of
godliness but deny its power (2 Tim. 3:5).

The bottom line is that we need prayer. We feel like we are at the start of
something very great. We just started a ministry we feel the Lord laid on
our hearts during our furlough. We constantly get invitations from churches
to go speak on a Sunday. While we know this is an encouragement to the
churches, this does not allow us to really know the spiritual needs of one
church and to have an impact on those needs. Therefore we have prayed that
God would lead us to a church (and since the churches are independent, we
must be invited to that church) to work with the people and pastor for a
number of months. We have just been invited to the 2nd Calvary Baptist
church here in Monrovia to do so. We will be dealing with the spiritual
condition of the members, the structure of services, evangelism, church
polity and helping the pastor personally in whatever areas he is weak.
(While we do a fairly good job in our Bible Schools preparing men to be
preachers, we still need to work on the practical ministry aspect of their
training - teaching them to be "shepherds.")

Nancy has also begun her ladies' training program. She has decided that
one-on-one is the best way to really see the needs of the women here and
help them to grow and change. She is now training the first Liberian leader
(a pastor's wife), and when they finish the two of them will train another
one each, then those four will train four more, etc., etc.

Please pray for the following requests:
1. Revival for Liberia.
2. Safety as we travel for a conference/Bible School Graduation in Yila
   (upcountry) February 9-14.
3. Funds to help the Jake Memorial Baptist College move to an appropriate
   site.
4. The October Presidential elections in Liberia - they need a godly leader.
5. Continued opportunities to minister to the various United Nations
   personnel and others stationed here.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support both financially and through
prayers. You make the ministry here possible! God bless you.

In Christ,

Mark, Nancy, Nathan, Heidi and Jared Sheppard