by Equip the Nations | Aug 4, 2021 | Church Planting - Mark Antony, Missionaries
Church Planting & Mercy Ministry Home Page Mark and Hepsibah Village Ministry Greetings from India. We believe God is calling us to reach our district consisting of 1,486 farming villages and a population of over 400,000 people. Ninety percent of our villages do not have a church. Only 2 percent of the population is Christian. EVANGELISM: We shared the Gospel with many people this month. At one village we met three young girls. They were interested to know the Christ. We talked to them about Jesus Christ. They admired His love. They became convinced that Jesus is the one and only God. They gave their lives to Him. Hallelujah! Please keep them in your prayers that they may fellowship with Christ every day. On Sunday, the four of us including my son went to a village for evangelism called A*. It is located 45 kilometers from my house. There we met and prayed with many people. We had interesting things happen. One example is about a young lad who is 18 years old. His name is J*. This boy was very much arrogant. He never obeyed his parents. He is studying in college, but he is not learning. He is continually playing games on his mobile day and night, very much addicted. His parents shared this with us with heavy hearts. We talked with J* and counseled him, “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.” (Pr 6:6) and we preached the love of God. He was quiet while we were talking. God was working in his heart! Then he said, “I will change my...
by Equip the Nations | Feb 13, 2021 | Church Planting - Mark Antony, Missionaries
Church Planting & Mercy Ministry Home Page Mark and Hepsibah Village Ministry Greetings from India. We believe God is calling us to reach our district consisting of 1,486 farming villages and a population of over 400,000 people. Ninety percent of our villages do not have a church. Only 2 percent of the population is Christian. Presently, we are equipping and supporting pastors and their lay leaders in our area to plant more churches. We are praying to expand our ministry in 2021 to plant new churches throughout our district. We plow the hard rocky soil in our area with good works in Christ’s name. We have ministries like sewing and tailoring schools for mothers who need extra income. We offer free Day Care centers so the moms can work. We have after school tuition classes for the poor school-aged children who are not currently enrolled in school. We also have literacy training. We work to help the needy start small businesses. For ones who are hurting, we offer medical care, a counseling center, and help feed the orphans and widows. Our social work has opened to the door for evangelism, Bible distribution, home care groups, and discipleship training of lay leaders and church believers. During the Covid lockdown, we were able to help 95 pastors by giving about half of them enough food to help the poor in their churches. Additionally, we gave over 100,000 drinks, 25,000 food packages, 20,000 immunity boosters, 4935 kg tons of rice with all the spices and cooking oil they needed to the homeless and migrant workers. We helped the local police force by...
by Equip the Nations | Sep 13, 2018 | Church Planting - Mark Antony, Missionaries
MARK: Church Planting & Mercy Ministry Mark and Hepsibah Village Ministry Acute Alcoholic Saved After drinking for forty-years, Kris*** is now a sixty-five-year-old acute alcoholic. Through the years, we have consistently met with Kris*** and shared about the power of the One who came to give us a new life in Him. But she had never paid attention. The other day she became extremely ill and she went to the doctor. But he didn’t give her any hope for life. In short, he said that her addiction had damaged all her vital organs. She left the doctor’s office very depressed. And when she returned home, she tried to commit suicide. Luckily, the family members in the house saw what was happening and rescued her. Soon after this incident, our team came to her home and we again shared the Good News with her and all her family. This time she chose to believe in Je*** over and above her traditional beliefs. PRAISE THE LORD! We prayed with her and we are talking with them about their next steps in faith. Please pray for a complete change in her life! Thank you for your support One high caste lady who really hated Je** had a severe stroke on her left side. She sought healing by spending her savings at many hospitals and doing many treatments. Then, to my surprise, her husband came to church and asked me to follow him home to pray for his wife. My wife and many church believers left immediately. When I saw her I said to the J-hater, “Jesus is the healer from sickness.” Then I asked...
by Equip the Nations | Aug 1, 2016 | Church Planting - Mark Antony, Missionaries
Church Planting & Mercy Ministry Home Page Mark and Hepsibah Village Ministry Greetings from Mark and Family! I pray for each of you and your safety. I am writing to update you on our ministry that you are helping us to achieve. I pray this update will bless you as you read it and I pray that God will open all of our eyes to His Spirit and His power, and His grace for the world. JESUS PROVES HE IS “LORD OF THE HARVEST” TO ALL: A woman we will call LTA found new love in Christ for her life by the POWER of God. LTA is from the streets and the handicraft trade. She lost her right leg in the accident on 2010. LTA works farming, planting, and harvesting rice. Because LTA is cripple and suffers like many who do not have money. Every place LTA plants rice, the people in the village say it will not grow and she is heartbroken. They tell her that she is wasting her time, energy, and money. The villagers promised her that during harvest time that she will gain nothing and stay poor. She shard these stories with my wife and I. We began to pray with her. Then God give us a verse: “And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The LORD blessed him.” (Ge 26:12) Hepsibah and I began to declare this verse for Latha daily. YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED? God blessed the seeds and they grew into plants. Latha was able to have a great harvest for all to see! The villagers were...
by Equip the Nations | Jun 11, 2016 | Church Planting - Mark Antony, Missionaries
Church Planting & Mercy Ministry Mark and Hepsibah Greetings from Mark Antony and Hepsi. I hope you all are doing well. Here everything’s going well! By the Grace of God Hepsibah is getting better. We are very thankful for Dr. Boaz, the “right” diagnosis (rheumatoid arthritis) and finally getting the correct medication. PRAISE THE LORD! We are not thrilled with the diagnosis, we are praying for healing, but in the meantime we know God’s grace is good. Each quarter we need to go to Chennai (Madras) for check up and to see how the medication is working. This is very costly to us. Please keep her and our family in your prayers. Threats, Trials, Tribulations in Church Planting: The government in India has switched hands. In brief, Hindu Temples are going up and church buildings are being tore down. …Last month we conducted our annual VBS in the village where we are Church planting. Our goal for this year’s VBS was for 500 children, which is not unusual. However, we were not able to accomplish this goal. The village leaders and some who are against Christians in this area came and wanted to fight with me. They were not happy with the Christian ministry in their community. They were really upset! The children who were there at the VBS at the time were scared. The men were trying to make the children run, but children were not going. –We as ministers have to stand our ground in the face of this opposition! Later, the same men came again and got angry with us. They again were threatening us. They were telling...
by Equip the Nations | Jun 11, 2016 | Church Planting - Mark Antony, Missionaries
Church Planting & Mercy Ministry Mark and Hepsibah I great you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope this year held many blessings for your family and in your life. Our God is so faithful to accomplish His promises in our lives. Now we are looking ahead in our new year, and we trust that it will be filled with abundant blessings, peace, and joy in your lives. This past year God has used us in many ways here in Villupuram and also in Colochel. We have started a church in Villupurumat at the end of the year. The church is in a village about 15km from our home in Villupurum town. Colochel Church Planting Movement People are growing spiritually and they are starting to share the gospel themselves. They run all the church programs now without my presence. Please continue to pray for the church building work. We still need to finish the electrical work, flooring, plumbing work, and painting. Evangelism: This year we shared the gospel in many villages near Villupurum. More than 2000 people were able to hear the good news about Christ. We met a man named Siva Krishna who was 53 years old in a field one day. We shared about the gospel with him and he shared his struggles and his family situation with us. We explained that if you believe and pray to Jesus He can change your whole life. After that he said “I believe” and we led him through the acceptance prayer. Then he took us to his house so we could share with his whole...
