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Here are a couple great videos I want to share. The first is from the Bible College I went to and the second is from pastor Nate at my sending church Calvary Chapel Monterey Bay. They both express the heart for the word of God that I share. Blessings.





Tradition vs. Scripture - Mark 7:13 from Nate Holdridge on Vimeo.

Stepping out in faith

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me." (Galatians 2:20)

Things in Latvia are changing for our family's mission as the Lord is sending us out from two church groups that we have been serving. Now we feel free to focus to our original calling: preaching the gospel to the lost, making disciples of new believers and planting a new church for the glory of God in Latvia.

And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man's foundation; but as it is written, "THEY WHO HAD NO NEWS OF HIM SHALL SEE, AND THEY WHO HAVE NOT HEARD SHALL UNDERSTAND." (Romans 15:20-21)

First, God answered prayer for a graceful exit from the Russian church in Ogre that we had been helping since May 2008. Pastor Vadim came back from his trip to America and let me share last Sunday about how the Lord is leading us forward in our mission.

And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. (Acts 13:2-3)

The other group we are leaving is in Ikskile, consisting mostly of believers who go to a Latvian Baptist church in Ogre. Since January 2008 I had been teaching through Acts on Wednesday and we all hoped that we would see a revival in this city of 7,000 and a new church would be born on Resurrection Sunday. But even though hundreds heard the gospel in Ikskile and a few received it, the church didn't grow.

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord." (1 Corinthians 15:58)

We decided to continue offering Sunday services to the city hoping that it would take root as I taught faithfully through the gospel of Mark every Sunday for 6 months. I had 2 faithful translators and 2 faithful Sunday school teachers, but there was no one to teach except for the small group that has been praying for revival for 10 years. I decided I would be committed to feeding them the word of God and equip them to preach the gospel with me. But we were not all on the same page, some resisted my emphasis on teaching and equipping, while others where hungry for it.

"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. " (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

So again I sought to clarify our vision for planting a Bible teaching church this time attaching the name "Kalvarijas draudze" or "Calvary church". Now there are a few young people that are committed to studying the Bible with us, but none of them live in Ikskile. Those who live in Ikskile are no longer willing to plant a new church and want to change the emphasis of their home fellowship back to prayer for revival. So since God is leading us in different directions, we will be moving the Bible studies to our house in Ogre for those who are hungry for the Word. It reminds me of the book of Acts when Paul had to leave the synagogue but other effectual doors were opened to him.

"But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus." (Acts 19:19)

So, Sunday September 28 will be our last service at the Culture Hall in Ikskile. For those who want to continue, we plan to finish the book of Acts on Wednesday and finish the gospel of Mark on Sunday from October to November in the warmth of our home. In December, we will be visiting our home church in California but we will be back by January, in order to begin an exciting plan to study through the Bible in 2009. But it is getting late, so I'll tell you about that next time.

"Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires" (2 Timothy 4:2-3)

Brenten's Testimony

I would like to share my testimony. My name is Brenten Powers, I was born January 28, 1977 in Sacramento California. My parents were following the Lord at the time but after a few years they divorced. My mom married an agnostic man and I grew up with my mom and step-dad. So we didn’t go to church unless I was visiting my grandparents. My grandparents were the best example in my life because they were faithful to the Lord in all they did. My grandfather was a pastor (before I was born) at a small Mennonite church in the small town of Reedley California.

• How I first believed
  

At the age of 7, I first heard the gospel and put my faith in Jesus Christ to save me. I did that a couple of times that year. First of the two times I was at a [Good News Club] in my neighborhood. My neighbors were this old couple, the woman’s name was Betty, she had all the kids over in the neighborhood to share with them the good news, how to be saved. I remember learning John 3:16 there:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have eternal life. John 3:16.

And I never forgot that verse and I never forgot praying to ask Jesus in to my heart. But later that year I did pray again to ask Jesus in to my heart at another children’s outreach called Vacation Bible School at my grandparents’ church. But the reason why I prayed and asked Jesus into my heart that time was, not because I felt convicted about my sin or I wasn’t sure that I was going to heaven or not, really I did it because I wanted to get a free Bible. (: I saw them giving Bibles to the other kids who were praying. So that wasn’t the best motivation. I thought maybe I was doing something wrong in praying again. But my understanding as a seven year old was not very deep of course. I knew and I believed that Jesus Christ died for my sins and rose from the dead and that if I believe in Him then I would have eternal life.

• Calling myself a Christian
  

But after Vacation Bible School I went back home with my mom and step-dad and my sister. My sister also was excited by the Vacation Bible School, she would make me sing all the songs that we learned there, over and over again until I would just get sick of it. (: But our understanding as children wasn’t very deep and growing up in a non Christian - not a church going family, we kind of strayed from the Lord, both my sister and I. When I was about 13 years old, I started going to church again with my friend because I wanted to go skateboarding with him after church. But at the same time I was living a life like a non-Christian. I didn’t understand that being a Christian means more than believing intellectually that Jesus is alive and able to save you, but it’s putting your faith in Him in order to save you – not just so you can go to heaven when you die but to save you from the practice of sin, to save you from actually sinning, to keep you from sinning. You know 1 John is written to you so you may not sin. Jesus wants to save us not only from the consequences of sin but from sin itself which destroys our lives. But I wasn’t taught, I didn’t know that when I was growing up. I thought I was a Christian because I prayed and asked Jesus into my heart, twice!

• But I wasn't sure of my faith.
  

And so as I grew… I was 16 years old, and I started thinking, “Well maybe there are aliens, maybe we are just put here as a scientific test. Or maybe we were an accident but if not an accident maybe God is just putting some experiment on the earth. Why am I here?” I began asking those kinds of questions.

“Why am I here? What is the purpose of life? Where did I come from and where am I going?”

At the same time I was living a compromised life, doing drugs, getting drunk and seeking sexual relationships with girls. That was my purpose: to have pleasure and find happiness. But when I was 16 and turned 17 I would say that was the emptiest year of my life (when I was a junior in high school, which would be the 11th year in America). I wouldn’t say I felt like I was at the lowest point in my life but it was probably the lowest point in my life because I had given myself away sexually and I had experimented in drugs and I had popularity – everything that the world said you need to be happy. But I wasn’t very happy. I had put on a mask saying “yeah” but I didn’t want people to know that I was empty inside. But all the while I was saying “I’m a Christian" because I believe intellectually in the gospel. But it hadn’t changed my life.

• Calling to live for God
  

Then these 2 girls come to me in my art class, named Joy and Leslie and they shared their testimony with me. They shared like evangelists in our school. I was sitting across the table from Joy as she was sharing the gospel with another student in art class. I was drawing and everyone else in the class were doing their drawings and so it was quiet. Everyone could hear Joy speaking but she was speaking just to this one girl. And the girl who was next to me turned and said to me, “I - I can’t listen to this anymore.” She was getting really frustrated like she didn’t want to hear this gospel (this girl turned out to be a witch). But I at that time, I remember saying, “Well I am a Christian too. There is nothing bad about Jesus. But I am not that radical, like that girl is, I am not that extreme!) What Joy was saying was basically,

“The reason why God created us was to know and to worship Him. Not that He needs us but He loves us and wanted to create people that He could pour His love out upon. He is worthy of our love, worship and service. So logically we should give our lives to Him who gave us life, especially in light of the fact that Jesus loved us and gave Himself for us. He died for us, so we should live for Him.”

To me, living for God was a new concept. But it was attractive to me because they had purpose and I was still looking for purpose in my life. So to make a long story short, they invited me to their church and I started going.

• God was really drawing me to Him during that year.

It was the emptiest year of my life but at then it was a very important year because God was leading me away from the world and to Himself. That year I went to a youth conference called “Aquire the Fire” where they really challenge you,

"Are you a Christian? And are you going to live according to your faith? What things in your life are really keeping you from growing as a Christian?"

I realized, well, there were a few things that were keeping me from growing – My hypocrisy first of all, you know, the pursuit of unhealthy relationships with girls. The second thing was listening to music that was anti-Christian, very overtly anti-Christian, speaking evil about Jesus, and basically blaspheming and speaking very angrily against the things of God. I realized that I had been listening to that music and it had been influencing me. So I decided that I would get rid of all of that music and burn it. Because I knew,

“The Lord is calling me to live for Him now like my ‘radical extremist’ Christian friends.”

So Joy and Leslie became my best friends and they discipled me. Basically after school they said,

“Why don’t you come over to Joy’s house and we’ll disciple you?”

I thought,

“What does disciple mean? Is that going to hurt?”

(: It sounds like discipline! But Jesus said (in Matthew 28)

“Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.” And “if anyone wants to come after me [to be my disciple], let him take up his cross and deny himself and follow me.”

So it was the process of learning how to follow Jesus as a Christian in my senior year of highschool, which was really desperately needed in my life. So I gave my life to the Lord, and said,

“Lord, I am Yours.”

Not only did He call me to get rid of that anti-Christian music and to listen to Christian music that would help me to grow, but He also called me to make music that would glorify Him.

• Because that is the purpose of my life now - To glorify God and to love Him and serve Him.

It’s all centered – my life is centered on Jesus Christ and it has been since I was seventeen years old.

September '08 Prayers

1. For the church plant in Ikskile, as we meet September 14th to layout the vision for "Kalvarijas draudze" (Calvary fellowship) that the believers coming to our Bible studies would be on the same page.
2. For Caleb in Latvian kindergarten, to understand the language and make good friends.
3. For a graceful exit from the Russian church in Ogre, so we may focus more on church planting, and start a Bible study in Riga, for provision and direction for where we should live.
4. For furlough in California between Thanksgiving and Chrismas, for opportunities to bless our home church and for God's provision.
5. For God to send more Spirit-filled laborers to Latvia. Praise God for the team from Calvary Monterey that helped with evangelism and encouragement.