2022 World Missions Conference

A Hope

Worth Sharing MARCH 9-13, 2022 /

WORLD MISSIONS CONFERENCE

“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have…” 1 Peter 3:15

A Hope

Worth Sharing The road to Kingdom renewal begins with missions.

Since its inception, Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church has sought to make disciples of all nations, starting here on the mountain, spreading into our local communities, and reaching the world through evangelism.

A Hope Worth Sharing is the theme of our 2022 World Missions Conference, March 9-13. With much of the international community still impacted by the global health crisis, our conference this year will focus on how we, as a congregation, can extend our reach and resources beyond the borders of our community as we support our missionary partners. As we renew our zeal for The Great Commission, we seek to sharpen the church’s focus on: EQUIPPING our congregation to reach non-Christians on the mountain, in the city, and around the world with the Good News of the hope that we have in Jesus.

ENCOURAGING our congregation through stories of God’s faithfulness as we hear from missionary partners ministering around the globe.

ENLARGING our vision as we ask God to open our eyes to “the fields white for harvest.”

LOCATIONS OF SUPPORTED MISSIONARY & NATIONAL PARTNERS

LOCATIONS OF SUPPORTED PROJECTS

Let’s Meet our Missionary Guests

DANIEL & APRIL EMAIL AVAILABLE BY REQUEST

Daniel, April, and their three children have been serving in Southeast Asia for 4 years, developing and training leadership in a church plant, seminary classes, and pastor conferences.

They also direct translation work for Third Millennium Ministries material.

They work directly with local Christian pastors and are guided by a longtime Myanmar partner and friend (“PK”). Their field of service is an area of high conflict and is now closed to foreigners.

During this season, their family has taken a Home Ministry Assignment (furlough) on Lookout Mountain, where Daniel continues his distance PhD work for The Oxford Center for Missions Studies.

PRAYER REQUESTS

- Please pray for the country of Myanmar as it suffers under a military takeover. The military is using force tactics against civilians, such as unjust arrests, torture, bombings, and daily threats.

- Please pray for the Christians to remain spiritually strong as they experience persecution in a renewed effort at a country-wide, military-led Burmanization campaign, which means enforcing a certain tribe’s culture and religion (Buddhism).

- Please pray for Daniel and April as they endure the waiting period to return to the field, wisdom for the right time to return (planning for August 2022), and for their children’s trust in the Lord for their surety and true home.

BRIAN & CONNIE SHEPSON EMAIL: BSHEPSON@MAF.ORG

PRAYER REQUESTS

Brian and Connie Shepson have served with Mission Aviation Fellowship for 36 years. Twelve of those years were in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador, South America, as a pilot/mechanic serving many different missions and medical outreaches. The remaining 24 years have been at MAF Headquarters in the Training Department.

- Wisdom as we seek the Lord’s leading concerning how to re-enter a certain Central Asian country after having to suddenly evacuate our expatriate families, some national staff, and all three airplanes.

Brian currently serves as the Chief Pilot, which includes evaluating applicants wanting to serve with MAF, training to company standards those who are accepted, and traveling all over the world checking active pilots to maintain their current training.

- Ask for God’s favor with the local government as we open a new program in Guinea, West Africa. The plane arrived there Sunday, January 30! We are hoping to start operations in early April.

Connie has held many important roles in MAF, including flight following, bookkeeping, purchasing for interior missionaries, recruitment of teachers for MAF world-wide, and director of the Advocate Wing. Brian and Connie have two adult children, Stephanie and Steven.

- Protection as our pilots and mechanics rotate into Haiti to continue service in a country of turmoil. Their families are staying in the States.

PRAYER REQUESTS

JOHN SANDAGER EMAIL: J.SANDAGER@BIBLEMISSIONS.ORG

- Please pray for our workers in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan (both bordering Afghanistan) and the work they are doing with the refugees who are crossing over the border.

John accepted Christ in 1969 through the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ on the campus of the University of North Dakota.

- Please continue to pray for our workers who minister in Afghanistan.

For 50 years, John served on Christian boards of directors for local ministries and outreach and evangelism ministries to high school athletes. After practicing law for 40 years, John’s prayer for an opportunity to serve with a ministry of direct evangelism and discipleship training was answered, as he joined Bible Mission Global.

- Following the distribution of our Christmas packages, pray that the message of the Gospel will bear fruit in the children’s hearts, and that they would come to know the true joy and peace of Christmas which can change their lives forever.

FUAD & NAHID EMAIL AVAILABLE BY REQUEST

Fuad and Nahid, along with their two daughters, have been serving God with ministry projects in the Middle East since 2005.

They have helped coordinate the training of church workers and lead many relief projects to show the love of Christ to the people of the region. They are praying for God to bring many people in their country to Christ in the days ahead.

PRAYER REQUESTS

- We PRAISE GOD for His provision of finances which has allowed us to move forward with the Sports Outreach Center, to be used for sharing Christ.

I am currently working on the needed permits and paperwork required to proceed with the project. PRAY for all the government offices to help us complete this process, granting permission to begin building.

- Pray for God to provide the funding and resources to hold a family camp this year. It is very important because many of the churches need this gathering, and it has not been done for the past two years.

- Pray for monthly gatherings (online) with pastors from Western Asia.

These meetings are a time for pastors to fellowship, pray, and study. We are thankful for this time to encourage the men and their families in their difficult work.

LEWIS & ELSBETH EMAIL: CODINGTON1956@GMAIL.COM

Lewis and Elsbeth Codington and their family of nine children have been missionaries with Mission to the World and CLC International (a Christian literature mission) since 1990.

During the last 30 years they have lived in France, the United Kingdom, South China, and most recently, in Seoul, South Korea, where they served North Korean defectors by teaching them English and Bible.

Today, Lewis continues to serve on the CLC International leadership team, and he is also working to update the last 40 years of CLC’s 80-year-long history. Because of the international pandemic restrictions, the Codingtons have relocated to Lookout Mountain, where Elsbeth continues to teach their North Korean students via Zoom and where Lewis researches, writes, and meets with CLC International leaders via Zoom.

PRAYER REQUESTS

- As Lewis is updating the 80-year history of our literature mission, CLC International, pray that what he writes will be honoring to God and really do justice to revealing God’s faithfulness to this business as mission.

- Pray for the countries of China and North Korea, where religious persecution prevails and where the light of the Gospel cannot penetrate freely. Pray that God would do a miracle and allow these countries to open.

- As we continue to teach our North Korean students in Seoul via Zoom, ask that we might know how to encourage them to trust their Heavenly Father in all things, but especially for healing from past trauma and for their families who remain behind in North Korea.

PRAYER REQUESTS

- For the transition of our new team to Central Asia: God has provided two new couples to join us who will attend language school this summer and transition to the field with us in the fall.

- For transition in our various roles: We are both trying to know where and with whom we need to focus in this next season of ministry.

- For the personal and financial needs of our ministry partners in church planting, theological education, small business development, and working with special needs children.

NEAL & DEBBIE EMAIL AVAILABLE BY REQUEST

Neal and Debbie serve with Mission to the World’s outreach ministry to the Muslim world through recruiting, training, and caring for over ninety workers laboring around the world.

Additionally, they lead a church planting and theological education team in Central Asia.

Neal and Debbie have three children, Zachary (23), Peggy (21), and Kailey (20). They are currently living on Lookout Mountain and preparing to return to Central Asia this fall.

NORMA EMAIL: NORMAA@ENTRUST4.ORG

PRAYER REQUESTS

- That the Lord would raise up workers to come to Spain and serve with Land of Hope among Arabic Speaking nonbelievers.

- That he would send people who would like to use their talents (ESL, etc.) to share Jesus through storytelling.

- For the provision of partners for Land of Hope.

Norma is serving as a field leader to the South Europe Orality Project (SEOP) in Spain.

Her primary responsibility is to teach, train, and apply oral storytelling principles in evangelism and discipleship to churches and missionaries, as well as in her personal evangelism. Her work allows her to serve the Lord among refugees and immigrants from many different backgrounds, ethnicities, and religions; and she recently received government recognition for her non-profit organization to increase her effectiveness in reaching immigrants, refugees, and local residents.

PRAYER REQUESTS

Hope Centers: Many children in the countries we serve do not have a future or much hope in their current circumstances.

Through loss of parents, abandonment, or even just extreme poverty, they lack the basic necessities of day-to-day life. Hope Centers are safe places for children at risk to go, where they will have nourishing meals on a daily basis, warm clothes, and even a place to stay and continue to receive care. Hope Centers provide educational and training opportunities for children, teaching skills for a better future perspective. Most importantly, Hope Centers are a place where children will hear the Gospel.

- Please pray that the seed of the Gospel, planted in children’s hearts, gives them living hope in the living God. - Please pray for the volunteers and workers serving with the Hope Centers, that they would be renewed daily in their faith in Jesus and in their desire to serve the Lord through this ministry to children.

PAUL HAGELGANS EMAIL: P.HAGELGANS@BIBLEMISSIONS.ORG

Paul was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan, to a large Christian family of German background. Paul’s father was a deacon of the Evangelical Christian Baptist Church; and although the Communistic government prohibited teaching children about God, he heard Bible stories and learned how to pray early in his childhood.

When Paul was 17, God called him into the ministry of preaching the Gospel, which he has continued doing ever since. From 1993 to 1997, Paul served as the Director of the Bible Mission Regional Ministry Center in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

He then moved to Germany and continued serving at the Bible Mission Headquarters in Germany. In 2007, Paul began serving as the Field Director of Bible Mission Global.

TIM & ANNETTE GULICK EMAIL: TIMGULICK@GMAIL.COM

Tim and Annette have been serving crossculturally for 25 years. Together they serve Christ’s church by training, mentoring, and developing resources for those who disciple youth and serve their families in the church and the community. They do this through on-site, face-to-face training, one-on-one mentoring and coaching, as well as through publishing youth ministry materials (primarily at ParaLideres.org and its social media outlets).

PRAYER REQUESTS

- Please pray that God would guide us as we develop and record an online course (videos, assignments, plus one live class). We’ve been asked to create it based on a book that Annette wrote. It helps teens understand and develop a biblical identity. In other words, how does God see us and who does he say we are. This will all be done in Spanish.

- Please pray that God would give us wisdom and guidance as to how to move forward with our youth ministry website.

- Each Monday night we meet on Zoom with a group of young Christian leaders we have discipled over the last 20 years.

The goal is mutual support and encouragement. Pray that together we would be more useful to God’s Kingdom than individually.

PRAYER REQUESTS

- Ask that the Lord would bless, protect, and strengthen the leadership, faculty, staff, and students.

- Pray that the Gospel would permeate the countries of Central Asia, including: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Pray that the Gospel would spread.

- Pray that the Lord would raise up new seminary students and missionary candidates who can benefit from the training of Almaty Bible Institute.

YURIY EMAIL AVAILABLE BY REQUEST

Yuriy was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Yuriy and his wife, Alexandra, have three children: Olga (16), Alexander (13), and Andrey (5).

Yuriy became a believer in 1996 and was baptized in the Baptist Church. In 1998, he entered the Bishkek Bible College for a pastor-missionary program. After graduating in 2001, Yuriy was invited to join the work of Bible Mission. In 2011, Yuriy began serving at Almaty Bible Institute as an Academic Dean, and in 2019 he was appointed as a head of the education department at the Baptist Union of Kazakhstan.

Yuriy is currently working on his doctoral dissertation at the Free University of Amsterdam through the International Baptist Theological Study Center.

“Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” John 4:35

Agency Partners

MISSION AVIATION FELLOWSHIP LEARN MORE AT MAF.ORG

Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) exists to share the love of Jesus Christ with isolated people so that they may be physically and spiritually transformed. This is accomplished utilizing our God-given skills in aviation and related technologies to speed the Gospel to some of the most remote places on earth.

BIBLE MISSION GLOBAL LEARN MORE AT BIBLEMISSIONGLOBAL.ORG

Bible Mission Global (BMG) is working to equip churches in the former Soviet Union with the resources for outreach in their local communities. By working with, for, and through local Bible-believing churches, they are able to help build a lasting framework in each community for reaching the unsaved with the Gospel, training the next generation, and caring for those in need.

ALMATY BIBLE INSTITUTE The Almaty Bible Institute (ABI) offers pastoral and missionary training and is filling a critical gap in the Christian infrastructure of Kazakhstan. The seminary also serves as a primary regional training center for the other four former Soviet Union countries that comprise Central Asia: Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Thus, the Almaty Bible Institute is key to evangelizing a region that is populated with 100 million people, the vast majority of whom have never heard the Gospel.

Schedule of Events

WED 3/09 5:30 PM

Kick-Off Dinner Q&A with Guests Children’s Program ®*

THU 3/10 10:15 AM

FRI 3/11 5:30 PM

Prayer & Bible Hour

Family Missions Festival *

SAT 3/12 6:00 PM

Missions Banquet ®

SUN 3/13 9:30 AM 11:00 AM

Sunday School Presentations *

® REGISTRATION REQUIRED

MARCH 9-13, 2022 /

* NURSERY

AVAILABLE

WORLD MISSIONS CONFERENCE