Christmas prayer list

We praise God for providing a cheaper house to rent in the city where our church is being planted (Riga) and a new kindergarden for Caleb that is Christian.
Here are some prayer requests for December 2009:
1. Pray for a smooth transition for our family as we move in December and for God's provision for the extra bills this month.
2. For the future of our Bible study in Ogre, one man who comes offered to have it in his home, but we still need more translators for 2010.
3. For Sergey and Martin to continue to grow as disciples of Jesus, Praise God for much time spent with them, may they bear much fruit.
4. For our evangelism team being formed, for the equipping of the saints for the work of this ministry, pray for the Lord to send out laborers.
5. For the preparation for our furlough (we're coming to California February 9-March 23) that the fellowship will abide in the word while we're gone and for opportunities in California to speak at more churches.

Praise and Prayer Points

• Praise God for answering prayer: providing increased support last month and healing Caleb's fever yesterday.
Please continue to pray for us in October:
• For Brenten's teaching through the book of Isaiah this month, that it would draw our fellowships closer to Jesus.
• For Martin, the new believer who was baptized that he would hide God's word in his heart as we meet together regularly.
• For the teen age orphans that we'll meet with monthly, that they would acknowledge the truth and commit to Christ.
• For God's provision if we should visit Monterey in January 2010 or for patience if it's His will that we wait until next winter.

Got a minute for missions?

This is Brenten from Calvary Latvia saying hello to Calvary Santa Cruz,
I heard you are doing a spaghetti dinner to support our ministry, so I wanted to say thank you! And I hope you enjoy all the spaghetti you are going to eat. (:
This is a one minute update about what we’ve been doing this summer

• We’ve been enjoying the freedom and the warm weather to preach the gospel on the streets, and I began preaching open air in the center of Riga, and there’s been a great response from the crowds that have gathered.
• One young man named Martin got saved and was baptized in the Baltic sea. That was a little bit cold but it was such a thrill.
• Also we went into an orphanage, we are sharing food and the gospel with about 70 kids who had never heard the gospel before.
• Everyone in the church is growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus as I’m teaching through the Old Testament. You can listen to those Bible studies online at CalvaryLatvia.com
  

Be encouraged! God is working! But please continue to pray for us. Thank you.

Prayer update

We'd appreciate your prayers as we head into the Fall of 2009. Please pray for...
1. Finances. Pray for more individuals and churches to support us monthly.
2. Church. Pray for both the home fellowship in Ogre and church in Riga to abide in the Word.
3. For Martin, a new believer who wants to be baptized, needs boldness to tell his family.
4. Orphans. We have been sharing the gospel with them this summer, pray for changed lives.
5. Health. As Caleb goes back to kindergarden, pray that we don't get sick before winter.

Summer Update

We certainly have been busy this summer but we wanted to let you know what we have been doing. I have prepared this presentation for you to check out if you have a few minutes. Click on the forward (>>) button for next slide.

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Ministry to Orphans

Blessed in Riga

Last Sunday, we were blessed by great fellowship and heard that the church was blessed by the teaching. You can listen to Bible studies at CalvaryLatvia.com.

Instant Focus Latvian Translation

If you have trouble seeing (up close or at a distance), put the hole up very close to your eye, and it should sharpen your focus. Keep this card in your wallet or purse and please make sure you read the back.

Someone gave you this card because they want you to focus on the most important issue of your life – where you will spend eternity. How do you find out? Simply pinpoint the Ten Commandments. Have you lied? Stolen (anything)? Blasphemed? Jesus said, "Whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart." On Judgment Day, will you be found to be innocent or guilty? Heaven or Hell?

The Bible warns that all liars, thieves, fornicators, and adulterers will end up in Hell. But God Himself made a way for you to be forgiven. Jesus suffered and died on the cross to satisfy the demands of God's Law -"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Then He rose from the dead, defeating death. Today, repent and trust Him. Then read the Bible daily and obey what you read. Muziba.blogspot.com

Prayer update

• Praise God for the 2000 people who got gospel tracts and for the 2 girls that repented last month.
• Praise God for the better location for our Sunday morning services near the center of Riga.
• Pray for the provision of $8000 of support in the month of May so we may renew our visas.
• Pray for our church and family to be empowered spiritually to fulfill the great commission.
• For the orphans who we visited May 6th, that God would use us again to teach them about Jesus.

May Newsletter

Dear friends,
The month of May marks the two year anniversary since we moved to Latvia as church-planting missionaries. We are thankful as God has been faithful to provide for all our needs according to His riches in glory. And we are trusting Him to continue the good work that He started here in Latvia. We are writing to share great news and to inform you of a great need we will have in May, 2009.

First of all, the great news: We have been studying through the Bible with twelve disciples (Vitaly and Christa, Janis and Marion, Sergey and Jelena, Leonid and Inese, Artis and Ieva, Agnese and Sveta). Currently I am teaching 1 Kings and our plan for 2009 is to finish the Old Testament. Last week, we moved our Sunday morning services to a bigger venue in the center of Riga and the rent is covered by those who are attending. Our evangelism team continues to give out many gospel tracts every week and we have also been invited to minister to orphans in a village where Sergey has been delivering humanitarian aid. So God is doing great things and we believe greater things are yet to come in the months and years ahead!

Now, we have a great need in the month of May... It's time to renew our residence permits for our 3rd year and one of the requirements is that we prove we have the "necessary substinance" (a minimum of $11,500). This is not the cost of the visa, it's the minimum Latvia expects to be in our savings account for our living/ministry expenses. Because of the economic crisis, some of our generous supporters have been out of work, so our savings falls short. The bottom line is, we will need an additional $8000 by the end of May.


If you are interested in helping to meet this need, the best way to help is to send a check any amount made payable to "Calvary Chapel Monterey Bay" and then mail it to 3001 Monterey-Salinas Hwy, CA 93940. Do not write our names on the check but include a separate note designating "for Latvia" and we will receive 100%. But if you want to donate by credit card online, you can conveniently give to our cause and we will receive 95.25% (because of credit card processing fees). If you can send a one time gift this month it will help us to renew our residence permits for the next year of church planting in Latvia.

Thank you all for your partnership in the gospel.
To God be the glory!
Brenten and the Powers family
www.calvarylatvia.com

Outreach Week - Jesus is Risen!

The snow has finally melted in Latvia and God is opening more doors for effective ministry - but there are many adversaries (see 1Cor16:9).
The week leading up to Easter was a great opportunity for evangelism. I went out everyday for about 2 or 3 hours, trying to give out as many "good person" comics as I can (I had another 3000 Latvian ones printed) they are actually twice as big as the ones we gave out last summer and people are drawn to them. Each day I've had dozens of conversations with individuals who never understood or never heard the gospel before.

The very first people that I spoke with on Tuesday were 3 young women sitting at a bench outside Riga's Central Station. They spoke English but I used as much Latvian as I could. They thought they were good enough to go to heaven but after going through the 10 commandments they understood they are guilty and destined for hell! So then we shared the good news of what God did for them so they could go to heaven and what they must do to be saved. One girl still had questions about the Bible but the other two were ready to turn to Jesus from their sins and trust in His death and resurrection to justify them. "The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ" (see Galatians 3:24). We prayed together there under the spring sun outside the train station. It was a great beginning of 6 days of evangelism.

But not everyone was as receptive. The second day on the train into Riga, I tried sharing with 7 different people and was rejected 7 times. No one sitting around me wanted a gospel tract and some spoke harshly against Christianity. So I got up and tried again with others, but still more cold shoulders. It made me upset and I started to question if I should go on that day or not. But God encouraged me with 1Peter chapter 1 and chapter 4. After reading that, I was ready to reach out again, counting it a blessing when I am insulted as a Christian. Each day, God sent at least one helper from our church along with me. Marion, Agnese and Christa faithfully shared the gospel with hundreds of people too. However, besides the faithful few, and inspite of all the tracts and invitations, no one new showed up at church Sunday

We'll continue meeting in Riga Sunday morning for English service and in Ogre Sunday afternoon for Latvian service. Both groups are small but growing in their knowledge of God. There's a total of 14 adults and 8 kids (including our family). Everyone is enjoying going through the Old Testament and finding Jesus. I taught the book of Ruth on Easter, showing how Boaz could be compared with Jesus Christ, as a kinsman redeemer. Plus a devotional about the evidence and importance of the resurrection of Christ.

We trust that the word of God will not return void. He is glorified through the preaching of the gospel. It's a blessing to see people repent and put their faith in Christ but you never know how many people we will see in heaven because they repented after they read a tract or talked with us. The test for effectiveness is not how many people show up at my church this Sunday but how much glory God gets on judgment day, and I think that sometimes he keeps us from seeing the fruit of our labors right away so that our joy and our crown will be in heaven. It is disappointing when no one new shows up at church but we need to be encouraged by looking to the Lord to keep our hand to the plow, not growing wearing in doing good, knowing that we will reap if we do not loose heart (Galatians 6:9). His word will not return void (Isaiah 55). Our labor in the Lord is not in vain (1Cor 15:56). He has appointed us to bear much fruit that will remain (John 15).

So that's a short update of what's going on here. I'd love to receive an encouraging comment from anyone keeping up with this blog. Thanks for reading!

Creation vs. Evolution in Latvia

200 years after the birth of Charles Darwin, Latvia is divided when it comes to deciding what to believe about the origin of life. According to this Diena news article, when asked which position residents believe, 43% of Latvia's population answered that God (Intelligent Designer) created life on earth, 32% believe life on earth showed up by natural processes of evolution (Darwin's theory), 25% said it's hard to say or had no answer.

It's not hard for me to say. As I wrote on my facebook status on Darwin day, I'm not fooled by the arguments of evolutionists who suffer from the Darwin delusion. It really is a ridiculous theory that atheists BELIEVE and preach as scientific fact, but when you hold them to their own definition of science they cannot claim anything about the origin of life on earth because it was not observed or tested in a lab. Life does not spontaneously appear from non life. You don't get order and design out of a big bang. What caused the big bang? Atheists cannot account for the laws of physics, logic, thermodynamics that they rely on, but these laws can best be explained by the Law Giver. If there is a creation, there must be a Creator. The irreducible complexities of everything from DNA to the human body to the solar system cannot be accounted for by "billions of years gradual changes". With a little common sense and sceptical inquiry you can spot many serious problems with such a theory. What came first the chicken or the egg? How did a new species evolve and reproduce with out a mate? You cannot prove that one set of bones ever had any offspring much less is related to some other species!

The Bible gives us the most reliable answer to "where did everything come from?" in Genesis 1. God told us Himself that in the beginning, He created the heavens and earth and everything that is in them in 6 days. And it was all very good. God should get the credit for the great things He has done.

So then why do many believe in evolution and not the Creator? I think Jesus answered this best in John 3:19-20 "And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed."

The problem is sin, man's rebellion against God's authority. Adam brought sin into the human race as a result death entered the world because God is faithful and holy. Even though God gave us a conscience and the 10 commandments, no one has lived up to them. Even though what can be known intuitively about God is evident to us in creation, men have chosen to worship created things (giving credit to nature rather than God), being willingly ignorant (that means dumb on purpose) in order to suppress the truth because if they acknowledge God, then they have to answer to Him and they don't want to turn from darkness to light because they love their sin too much.

The solution is actually what they are running from: the light, the truth, the nature of God being just yet merciful. When someone stops running or fighting against God and turns to hear what God is saying, the heart can be changed. Jesus Christ came into the world not to condemn the world (the world was condemned already) but to save the world. We deserve the wrath of God but Jesus died in our place so that we could be saved. We must all die but Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life, we can come to the Father through Him. You must repent (have a change of mind, heart and life) and believe (trust in, rely on, cling to) Jesus Christ as both LORD and Savior. Then you will be born again spiritually, and you should grow in new life and one day enter eternal life in the kingdom of God. That is the good news of the gospel.

But if so great an offer of salvation is neglected, all that's left is a fearful expectation of judgment. Hell is real, it's painful, tearful, and eternal. No one knows the day of their death or the day when Jesus will come back to judge the world. Therefore God is now commanding everyone everywhere to repent, leave your sin, follow Christ. Darwin is dead. Jesus is alive - believe in Him.

Pray for the Lord to give us an opportunity to speak to more people on Creation vs. Evolution in Latvia. I know that the teaching of evolution has tripped many people up and it must be confronted with Biblical truth and good science. If we want people to take the gospel seriously then they must be able to take the Bible seriously, starting with Genesis. There are many here who are still undecided when it comes to the origins question, if only they had more knowledge it wouldn't be so "hard to say". The proverbs say that people perish for lack of knowledge. If they know the truth then the truth will set them free!

Prayer update March 2009

1. For our two church services (in Riga and Ogre). Pray that all the believers will grow in the knowledge of Christ as Brenten teaches through the Old Testament.
2. For evangelism. We have been met with many hard hearts. May God convict of sin, open eyes, grant faith and repentance and the fruit of changed lives.
3. For Women's ministry. One of the women coming to Bible study is not a Christian yet. Pray she'd surrender and the other women keep growing in truth and love.
4. For our health. We are finally healthy after a month of sickness. Pray we may stay healthy through the rest of winter.
5. Pray that Brenten would find time this month to study for his Latvian drivers liscence test.

Discipleship

Picture: Sergej and Brenten at the cafe where we meet for Inductive Bible Study.

Praise the LORD for bringing Sergej to Calvary Riga. He is a relatively new believer who I am spending extra time with for discipleship. I am really blessed by fellowship with him and seeing how he desires to serve the Lord. He has been enjoying pastor Chuck Smith MP3s in Russian, he consumed a new believers study guide, and now I am teaching him how to study the Bible Inductively. We usually meet Thursdays mornings at a cafe in Riga's central train station. Please pray for him and his family as he seeks the Lords will for work during Latvia's severe economic crisis.

Jesus in Exodus

Listen to MP3

January 25, 2009
Exodus 1-14 (stream all)

Exodus 1-3

The Burning Bush

23 MB

Exodus 4-14

The Exodus from Egypt

26 MB

February 1, 2009
Exodus 15-28 (stream all)

Exodus 15-18 The Rock and Manna			17 MB
Exodus 19-20 Ten Commandments			15 MB
Exodus 21-28 The Model Tabernacle			12 MB

Jesus in Genesis

This past Sunday, I finished teaching through the book of Genesis in Riga and Ogre and now the recordings are posted here. For those of you who have been reading along, you can listen and leave coments below. Sorry I didn't post them sooner, I will try to post our next series of studies in Exodus within 3 days after the Sunday it was recorded on. I haven't had as much time to keep up with the blogging as much as I inteded to, but God gave me much to say as I prepared for these messages. I hope you are blessed as you listen.

Here are the links to each MP3 (left click to listen, right click to save):

• Jesus in Genesis Intro
  
• Jesus in Genesis 1-12
  
• Jesus in Genesis 12-29
• Jesus in Genesis 30-50
  

Listen to all the messages together here: streaming audio or download all MP3s

In Genesis we discovered Jesus in many Messianic prophecies, appearances of Christ, types and shadows of Jesus' life, death and resurrection. Our faith in the Word of God was strengthened and we have come to Jesus who is the Eternal the Word, God the Son, the Creator of all things, the second Adam, the Seed of the woman, the Lamb of God, the Ark of our salvation, the Seed of Abraham, Like Isaac obedient to the point of death, Jacob's ladder to Heaven, Lion of the tribe of Judah, the exalted Savior like Joseph, the Beginning and the End, YHVH, El Shadai, Shiloh and Yeshua. Our Jesus has fulfilled gospel preached to Abraham by giving his life for us, blessing every nation by turning us from our sin and justifying us by grace through faith.

Now we look forward to discovering Jesus in Exodus! But don't forget to leave your comments about Jesus in Genesis here.

The send off prayer from CCMB

The send off prayer from our home church from Brenten Powers on Vimeo.

Nate and I have been friends since 2000 when he was teaching the college age group and I was leading worship. He is a very gifted teacher and has always encouraged us in missions, so we are blessed to have him as our new senior pastor at Calvary Chapel Monterey Bay. This video is from January 29, 2009 when the church prayed for us at the end of our furlough and sent us back to Latvia with their blessing.

CCMB website: calvary.com

Check out what Nate had to say about me on his blog:
nateholdridge.blogspot.com/2008/12/brenten-powers.html

Pray for Calvary Bible Church

We are sensing that this is going to be a GREAT year with great challenges and joys as He has given us the assignment to preach the gospel and form a new church Latvia. We are going to call it "Golgātas Bībeles draudze" which translates to "Calvary Bible Church". If you pray for us monthly, weekly or daily - we thank God for you! This month I would ask you to be praying for three specific things:

1. For our evangelism team: Praise God for sending more laborers from Riga! Pray for boldness to preach one and one and open air, freedom to keep preaching in the train station, conviction on the hearers hearts.
   
2. For the church: Praise God for drawing people to hear the word. Pray for Brenten to passionately preach Christ as we go through Genesis and Exodus, for the hearers to understand and apply the word, for translators to be faithful.
3. For our family: Praise God for the love, joy and peace at home. Pray for a good babysitter so Brenten and Lena can have a regular time to date.
   

2009 Vision for Bible study

"Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture,
to exhortation and teaching."
-The apostle Paul, 1 Timothy 4:13

To encourage you to get in the habit of reading your Bible and the habit of fellowship (Heb 10:25), we are suggesting the schedule (in the side column) to read through the Old Testament in one year. Pastor Brenten will be preaching Christ each Sunday from the chapters Old Testament that you read during the week, thus connecting your Bible reading to the church's Bible teaching (1Tim4:13).

This week, for example, you should read Genesis 1-12 by Sunday, January 4 so that when we come to church we will review what was written about Christ in the beginning (from the time of Adam until the time of Abraham).

If you would like to print out a daily schedule that follows closely with our OT plan but also includes New Testament in 365 days, click here for the pdf.

As you read, remember to seek Jesus so that you may learn of Him, come to Him that you may have life abundantly and eternally. After you have read it for yourself, you can visit this blog to see pastors comments, and share your comments with the church about how God is revealing Himself to you through His word.

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Luke 24:27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures... 32 They said to one another, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?" ... 45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

John 5:39-40 "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; 40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life."

John 1:45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

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

Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

2 Peter 3:18 Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.