Greater Portland Baptist Church

Jesse and Tiffany Shanks: April 2006

As I turned to the next Bible passage, I suddenly realized again what an amazing opportunity this was that God had given me. I explained to the people about the churches of Macedonia in II Corinthians 8 and saw a look of comprehension on their faces as I told them, "the basic ingredient in missions and in giving to missions is our willingness, not our wealth."

Tiffany and I drove away from that church in Kansas City completely amazed at God's unique ways of working in and through His people. The church has been in existence for quite some time, but they have never supported missionaries or even known why they should. God has been working, however, in both the pastor's and youth pastor's hearts about having a Biblical missions program in their church. Through a number of "chance" circumstances, we came in contact with them and they invited us to come to their church and to be their first missionaries! After we gave the presentation of our ministry, the pastor had me explain to the church what missions is and how it works. What an awesome responsibility! Using the Bible as our "textbook," I showed the people God's plan to reach the world through missions, and our responsibility in that plan.

By the end of the night, those 60 people had given us an $800 offering and committed to support us for $300 per month. While that is such a blessing materially, we were blessed most of all to know that they have formed a prayer support team which 28 people have joined already. They will individually pray for us on a regular basis, then meet together each month to read our prayer letter and pray for us collectively. It is so incredible for us to see a church that is truly willing to learn and to simply obey what God would have them to do.

God truly has been doing amazing things in us and through us, and we praise Him for the churches and people He has led us to. Some other highlights of April were: a great missions conference in Murfreesboro, TN where we were greeted by a two inch hailstorm with tornadoes nearby; several great single meetings; a long but safe drive home from the east coast, including a 16 hour overnight stretch from K.C., Missouri to Salt Lake City; a pastors' conference in Summerville, Oregon where we heard great preaching and met several pastors with whom we set up some future meetings; and, most importantly, many opportunities to minister, especially to many children and teens.

We are immensely enjoying our pre-field ministry, but we are anxiously looking forward to the day when we plant our feet on African soil for good! Thank you all so much for your faithful prayer and support of our ministry. Thank you also for praying for my mother. She has made a complete recovery and is doing much better!