Letter from Cody: Review – Dec. 2009

As the days get progressively shorter, how glad I am that soon the trend will turn around. While our darkness in Washington does not even compare with the long nights of the northern hinterlands, I am always glad when the days start increasing again, even if it only incrementally. The longing for long sunny days makes me ponder. What would life be like with the sun in absentia? Life could not exist. Without the warm, life-giving rays of the sun, this earth would be an orbiting, lifeless ice cube. But what would the Christian life be like minus the Christian’s sun? “Christ’s death proves God’s great love for man. It is our pledge of salvation. To remove the cross from the Christian would be like blotting the sun from the sky. The cross brings us near to God, reconciling us to Him.” Acts of the Apostles, 209. Praise the Lord we have a sun in the sky! Let us never forget the great life-giving, warmth-spreading, illuminating center of the Christian life—the great sacrifice of our Savior upon the cruel cross of Calvary for us.

As I think about this past year and what the Lord has done and is doing, I praise the Lord for His goodness and leading and also want to thank you for your prayers and support to make each of these advances for the kingdom of God possible. The Lord has blessed as He has opened the doors to hold evangelistic programs at several locations here in our local mission field and assist in evangelistic work in Angola, Brazil, India, Vietnam and other locales. What is always the most exciting to me, though, is to see the work that the local workers in their own territory are doing to spread the message abroad. Around the world there are faithful workers who are endeavoring to stand for the truths from the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy and are doing all in their power to share the message of a crucified, risen and soon-coming Savior. In El Salvador, Brother Arsenio and his co-workers are faithfully distributing truth-filled publications and doing personal evangelism in the remote and forgotten villages. In Brazil, Brother Alexandre is preaching to tens of thousands every week over the radio and making personal contact with hundreds every month through CD’s, Bible studies and literature requests that come in from the listeners. In Argentina, faithful Bible workers are using every means within their reach to awaken the doomed masses to eternal realities. Over in the Pacific islands, faithful brethren are traversing the wildernesses to reach souls who are earnestly looking heavenward. Children are being reared up by God-fearing parents to preach the message to hundreds in market-place evangelism throughout Papua New Guinea. Further north in the Philippine islands, brethren are fearlessly preaching the truth and entire churches are receiving the message with joy! Faithful workers are translating, evangelizing and doing house-to-house labor in seeking to win souls to the Master. Brother Titing has started a missionary training school seeking to equip the many young people with the basics of self-supporting missionary work. Up in the remote mountains, growing much of their own food, they study the Bible and do missionary work, praying that the Lord will teach them how to win souls for the Master. In India, another missionary training school has just ended in which a couple dozen young men and ladies have been grounded in the basics of presenting and sharing our faith. In Vietnam, a brother leads out in a training program and then sends the students out into the field to work for the Master. In Togo, the faithful laymen have committed to spending part of their time giving Bible studies and raising up churches. Traveling further south through Africa to Congo and Angola, we find thousands of villages and entire territories that have never heard of Seventh-day Adventists and the Third Angel’s Message. Dozens of believers have become Bible workers and are raising up churches throughout the forgotten bush. Churches have been raised, many have given their lives to the Lord through baptism, thousands have received the message of truth and tens of thousands have heard the final warning through these faithful workers—and this is just the beginning! Praise the Lord that “By thousands of voices, all over the earth, the warning will be given.” Great Controversy, 612. It is through your prayers and support that we are able to continue to equip these workers to do their work. From around the world, a resounding “thank you” goes out to you for your help. May we each do our part and continue to help these faithful workers give the warning message that soon we may all be gathered together a happy, rejoicing company!

Yours in hastening that day,
codysig1-website

Cody Francisdec-letter-2009