May 2023
Dear Friends and Prayer Partners,
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6)
How often do we start a task, a job or a project and we never seem to get it finished? Perhaps we lose interest or another job takes priority. Maybe there are events out of our control that prevent us from progressing further. Not so with the LORD.
When God created the heaven and the earth He saw everything that He had made and it was very good, such that on the seventh day He rested, for it was finished (Genesis 2:1-2). When God’s Son died on the cross and completed the work of redemption, He cried ‘it is finished’ (John 19:30). When God saved us and we began our Christian journey with Him, He became the author of our faith and will be the finisher (Hebrews 12:2). Whatever God begins, He will finish. Despite our faults and failures throughout life, it is ‘God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure’ (Philippians 2:13). We are God’s work in progress, for ‘we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them’ (Ephesians 2:10). Let us be encouraged to continue on in the work of the LORD whether it be big or small, until the LORD comes again.
Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father (1 Thessalonians 1:3)
We are pleased to advise that, to date, we have been able to continue marking the Panorama of the Bible course assignments, and those particular students have been able to continue their studies.
The mail coming from overseas is still quite slow, and we have lost some students because of the pandemic, despite regularly sending follow-up letters to them. We would particularly appreciate your prayers for these students. We have just recently received an enrolment request from a previous QMBC student, for 40 Sunday School children in Papua New Guinea. We pray that they will do the lessons and return them to us, as we have received very little mail from PNG over the past year.
For your interest, the following table shows a month by month summary of the weight of mail received and sent during the past year, from all countries. For the 2022 year, we posted out about 38kg less than in 2021, and 122kg less than in 2019 (before the pandemic).
Please take time to read the following excerpts from some of our students’ letters and answers to assignments, which we are sure you will find interesting.
From students doing the basic lessons:
Caritas, age 33, Papua New Guinea:
It is very amazing when I read through the lesson booklets, and answering the questions really helps me a lot. I have been working very hard in order to enter the kingdom of Heaven but now that I learn from my lessons, I am very much amazed with what God has done for me as a particular person and now I can see clearly that the Lord Jesus came for me, to save me. Thank you so much.
Timothy, age 42, Thailand:
I thank God so much for your encouragement through the Word which is giving me faith and wisdom. I’m very happy and enjoying learning your Bible lesson courses. I have been sentenced to life in a case of drugs, so I lost inspiration to do anything because my family was broken. I thank God a lot, for He preserves me to do His work. I’m now serving the Lord as a leader of a Christian group of more than fifty persons. Many of [them] are believers, a few new ones have received Christ to be their Saviour, but some have not. However, the ministry is going well.
Tom, age 48, Thailand:
I’m so glad to receive the Bible lessons. I wish to be free soon because I have been here for eight years. My Christian friends told me about the Bible. The first time I read the Bible I couldn’t understand. It’s difficult for me. I pray to God every night now [and] I have understood.
Simangaliso, age 46, Thailand:
I have been in prison now four years and eight months. My case is drugs for which I’m serving 35 years. All of my family live in Zambia in the capital city Lusaka. I lost my father seven years ago and have just lost my mum this year. Thank you so much for the Word of God you are sending to me. I am really enjoying knowing the Word of God each and every passing day of my life and it’s making me to draw more close to God than ever before. My prayer is for me to be a better person than I used to be before and I have faith that I will be a changed person. I want my family back home to see a new person in me in Christ Jesus.
Thuo, age 34, Hong Kong:
I was happy to receive your reply [to a previous letter]. You always lift my spirit, my faith and my hope, thank you so much. God bless you all for your support, encouragement and comfort that you give to me and others through your beautiful and strong works from the Bible, the ‘Word of God’, and also for your prayers. God bless the Mailbox Club, may it grow great and last forever. May all the team be blessed and protected and may God meet all their needs. It’s not an easy trial I’m going through [in prison] but I know God is working for me. He is the One who allows all this. Pray for me, my kids and my family and that my case will finish so I can go back to my family.
****************