Barry and Rachel Baggott Crieve Hall Church of Christ 4806 Trousdale Drive, Nashville, TN (615)

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Laura Tucker
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Algeria - Barbados - Belgium - Benin - Brazil - Burkina Faso - Cameroon - Canada - Central African Republic Niger - Republic of Congo - Senegal - South Africa - Saint Martin - Surinam - Switzerland -

1 Algeria - Barbados - Belgium - Benin - Brazil - Burkina Faso - Cameroon - Canada - Central African Republic Niger - Republic of Congo - Senegal - South Africa - Saint Martin - Surinam - Switzerland - Tanzania - Togo - Uganda - United States Bonjour! Literature Ministry Year-end Stats Looking back on 2013, we are pleased to see that we have hit a new milestone in the quantity of French gospel literature provided; this was the first year that over 200,000 pieces were shipped out from the facilities here at Crieve Hall and the literature center we operate in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. These materials were sent to churches and individuals in 45 different countries (listed on border of this page). That means that since our family moved to Nashville in 2008, over one million French correspondence courses, tracts, songbooks, and other publications have been sent out, thanks to the support provided by many of you. Each tract or booklet may be read by more than one person, so only God knows how many lives are touched by this work. We pray that all these materials may find their way to the hands of people with hearts that will be receptive to God s word. New Publications In the last few months, we have published a few more new items. One is an excellent book written by missionary Charles White, entitled Un cœur droit - traits du cœur qui plaît à Dieu. (This is the French version of the book put out by J.C. Choate Publications, Upright - Traits of the Righteous Heart.) Charles and his wife served in France for Barry and Rachel Baggott Crieve Hall Church of Christ 4806 Trousdale Drive, Nashville, TN fwo.ceb@gmail.com (615) January 27, years and just recently moved back to the States. We have also republished two smaller books that had been out of print for several years: Paroles de Christ sur la montagne (Words of Christ on the Mountain), by French evangelist Yann Opsitch, and Le livre où Dieu me parle (The Book Where God Speaks to Me), which has chapters written by several different authors. We printed a new tract on divorce and how to avoid it, and three new issues of our periodical, Chemin de Vérité. One of them deals with what God has and has not promised, as well as discussing the conditional promises of God. Another provides teaching for single Christians. The issue that was mailed out just last week is entitled Christ, Yes! The Church, No? It was written for the many people who claim to believe in Jesus but have no interest in being a part of His church. This is an attitude I have seen especially often in our efforts to evangelize on the island of New Caledonia. Guadeloupe - Haiti - Ivory Coast - Kenya - Lebanon - Madagascar - Mali - Mauritania - Mauritius - New Chad - Democratic Republic of Congo - Denmark - Djibouti - Domincan Republic - France - French Guiana - French Polynesia - Gabon - Germany - Guinea

2 Improvement to Website I have written in the past about our websites, chemindeverite.com, where people can read or download all past issues of the periodical and listen to radio broadcasts, and editionsceb.com, where they can learn about our literature work and download a catalog of about 400 publications we keep on hand. My co-worker Aaron Palmer spent a lot of time improving that site by adding an e-store. It is now possible to order materials directly from the website rather than just sending a letter or to request them. Visitors can also use a credit card or Paypal to contribute to the cost of production and shipping for the materials they request. So far, this function is only available on the side of the website that is in French, but we hope to create the same kind of online store on the English side of the site, which can be accessed directly at the address Financial Need Before leaving the subject of literature, I need to make an appeal for help with our free periodical Chemin de Vérité. We send bundles to every Frenchspeaking congregation around the world for which we have an address, as well as individual copies to isolated Christians, Bible correspondence course students, and many other Truth-seekers. It is used as a tool for evangelism, for grounding Christians in sound doctrine and for edifying and strengthening them in their spiritual lives. We regularly receive positive feedback, such as the message that came just today by from a French World Bible School teacher who often shares various issues of Chemin de Vérité with his students. He wrote to tell me about a student in Rwanda who said: I would like to inform you that your teachings taken from Chemin de Vérité are an encouragement to me like that of Barnabas. When I preach lessons from Chemin de Vérité, many people are changed. I would like to receive it regularly. For many congregations, this bimonthly publication is the only printed teaching material they receive in the course of a year. Unfortunately, because of ever-increasing postage costs and the growth of the French-speaking churches and our mailing list (it has grown from about 1,400 in 1993 to over 16,000 today), the funds that we receive for producing and shipping Chemin de Vérité are woefully inadequate. We are grateful to the four congregations which provide a total of $800 per month for this important work, but the actual cost is about $1,700 per month. We are forced to either count on occasional, unexpected donations or use funds that would otherwise be devoted to other aspects of our mission efforts (radio broadcasts, travel, etc.). If you or your congregation would be willing to contribute monthly to enable us to continue providing this great tool for evangelism and edification, please let me know. Or, if you can arrange for me to speak to a church or group of Christians who might help, please do so. Mission Trip to New Caledonia The mission trip I made since the last newsletter was another three-week trip to New Caledonia, November 20-December 10. I went with my co-worker Aaron Palmer, and five days later we were joined by his wife, Betsy, and Bonnie Tirey, who worked with Rachel and me in Ivory Coast for ten years. It was the first time to have any women make the trip to New Caledonia. We went into this trip with high hopes that we would see fruit, in the form of new congregations, from our efforts to establish the Lord s church in New Caledonia. During the first few days those hopes seemed to be on their way to becoming reality, but by the end of the first full week, we had experienced three serious setbacks. These related to three families with whom we have studied and worked on numerous occasions in the past few years, and whom we had either baptized or recognized that they had been previously baptized according to the Scriptures. One of the couples seems to be returning to a worldly lifestyle; another family is

Aaron and Betsy Palmer, Bonnie Tirey unwilling to commit to the Truth that has been learned or to worship God; and the third family has begun a church which meets in its home but has decided not to

3 Aaron and Betsy Palmer, Bonnie Tirey unwilling to commit to the Truth that has been learned or to worship God; and the third family has begun a church which meets in its home but has decided not to follow the Bible s teaching in several ways and no longer wants us to come there to teach. I won t go into all the details. Since we still had another ten full days, we just set our minds to sowing more seed, both by working with existing contacts and by doing what we could to find new people who could be interested in studying God s word. Since my first trip to New Caledonia, I have seen that people we have already met are the best source of new contacts. Even people who do not seem to be ready themselves to make a serious effort to discover the Truth or put it in practice will nevertheless refer others to us so that we can study the Bible with them. This continued to hold true on the trip I am describing. Daniel Saipélé, the one who has gone back to worldly living, referred two fellow employees to us. Both of them called us up and arranged to meet us for Bible study. Loria Kapissiri, the mother of the man who asked us not to come back to teach anymore, not only made a point of attending every worship service and ladies class we had while in the country, but also arranged for us to study with another family, Raymond and Bella Trojani. After our first study together, the Trojanis invited us to lunch at their home, where we met a group of about 20 believers who worship with them. It appears that this will be a new open door for sharing God s word. Another man we have studied with numerous times in the past, Richard Pham, also set up times for us to teach people that he is close to, an employee named Philippe and a friend named Antonina. We also studied the Bible with Francine and Christine, two women we had made contact with on previous trips. Just as in the States, there are many people in New Caledonia who will never be reached if we only try to take the gospel to people in our circle of friends. So when we did not have appointments for Bible studies with the people I have just described, we spent time trying to reach a wider audience. We approached people in the public square, conducting a brief religious survey, handing out literature and occasionally enrolling someone in a Bible correspondence course. We also went from business to business handing out cards and telling people about the World English Institute website where they can go to improve their English skills (and learn about the Bible in the process). On other days we chose a neighborhood and went from house to house leaving tracts or other literature in mailboxes. We had inserted a slip of paper in the tracts providing information on how to learn more about the Bible, by studying either through the mail or by Internet. We used the contribution money from the two Sundays we worshipped at our hotel to place ads that will appear for several weeks to come in the two major newspapers in the country, ads for both Bible correspondence courses and the World English Institute courses. Hopefully some of these efforts will eventually put us in contact with other individuals with whom we will be able to study God s word on future trips. Perhaps the brightest spot on this trip was Marie Jo Kikanoi, who was baptized at the end of our previous trip to New Caledonia. She spent as much time with us as she could during the three weeks we were in the country this time. What she wrote to my sister really

4 shows the power of God s word that we are privileged to share on these trips: What can I tell you about myself? Married, with three children, separated from my husband when our older son committed suicide at the age of 19. Afterward I became withdrawn, cutting myself off from family and friends. I was a distrustful person, a heart like stone, with a vengeful hatred for my husband. I will always thank our Lord Jesus Christ for putting Barry and Garrett in my path. Through these two brothers my life has changed completely. After my baptism, I don t know how to express this - it was like magic, a miracle. Now I am back with my husband; the hatred has disappeared. God has transformed my heart. In the past, when the anniversary of my son s death came around, I was plunged into depression, but this year, I spent the day with Barry, Aaron, Betsy and Bonnie worshipping God and did not even realize what day it was. When I saw the next day that it had been the anniversary of my son s death, I praised God who has saved me and taken the emptiness from my heart. So as always, we thank you for your encouragement, prayers and financial support that make it possible to change lives like Marie Jo s through the spreading of the gospel in the Frenchspeaking world. In Christ, Barry P.S. I mentioned the need for additional funds for printing and shipping Chemin de Vérité, but I would also like to mention a different kind of need. Last year a young Christian couple from Nigeria came to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, to work. In December their four-year-old daughter Victoria was hit by two cars. She was in a coma for two days and is now paralyzed in both feet. The local church in Yopougon has spent its entire savings and made extra contributions to pay the hospital bills. Other congregations in Abidjan have helped, too. I have been asked now to appeal to you for help to continue treatment for the little girl. The cost for the next round of medication and therapy will be $500. Please contact me if you would like to help. Marie Jo with her daughter and husband

5 Dear friends, I have not written in the newsletter since August, but because I only have one page for six months, this will have to be a condensed version. In September we had our second Mission Emphasis Week at Crieve Hall. I had the kindergarten through third grades on Wednesday night and taught a class on Ivory Coast and taking the gospel to the world. I had seen pictures and a video of the Ivory Coast rooms in the mission learning center at the Webb Chapel congregation in Dallas where I grew up, and I took some ideas from that. Phillip Brackett at Crieve Hall made a rope bridge similar to the vine bridges in western Ivory Coast for the kids to walk over, with the river and the sacred fish underneath. This was a big hit. The VBS director let me take any props from storage that I needed, and I set up an Ivorian village house and surroundings. I was a little surprised when I asked one of the missions week directors if somebody could build me a vine bridge and he said yes. I was less surprised when I asked if I could use a kerosene lamp and he said no for several reasons including it could set off the fire alarm and bring an abrupt end to all the missions classes. They did let me use a candle. In other news, I still lead weekly Bible studies with Linda, the Congolese lady I wrote about last time. She now has a job at a nursing home close to her apartment and is off on Sunday evenings and able to attend our French Bible study and the English worship service at Crieve Hall. Late news: Linda was baptized tonight, Jan. 30! This winter I have again helped with Room in the Inn, a program to provide shelter for homeless people during the cold months. Crieve Hall keeps 12 men twice a month. This year more people are involved, so I haven t worked in the kitchen every month. I continue assisting Barry in his office many mornings. We have volunteers who normally come to work two Tuesday mornings monthly, three from as far as Murfreesboro. I have a part-time job working for my neighbor in her home-based coupon business. In October I was glad to get to visit my parents in Dallas for 11 days. Our whole family got to go to Dallas to see them and my brother s family for two days after Christmas, plus a day on the road going and coming. Barry s mother is scheduled for surgery on Feb. 3 at Vanderbilt Hospital to have a cancerous tumor removed from her leg. Please remember her in your prayers. Andrew and Matthew s Adventures at ages 23 and 20. Andrew graduated in December from the nursing program at Union University. He took the exam for his RN license on Jan. 28. The results seem to be good, but the official word will come later. In December Barry helped Andrew move from Jackson, Tenn., to Memphis, where he started a job this month working in the emergency room at Methodist University Hospital, where Barry was born. Matthew transferred this semester to Murray State University in Murray, Ky., to study wildlife biology, which means that he is now in classes where teachers are pushing evolution. In one class the assignment on the first day was to watch a video on the supposed fallacies of intelligent design theory. In that class Matthew sat by a woman he identified as a Believer because she talked about her youth group. After class, in reference to the teacher s presentation the woman said something along these lines: This is their fairy tale that they want us to believe. It s just a fairy tale that we have to learn for this class. One DVD we found useful on this subject is Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed that concerns professors who believe in intelligent design who have been blackballed by the academic world. I m also looking forward to God s Not Dead, coming out in theaters March 21, about a student who has to stand up for his faith in face of a philosophy professor who requires all students to sign a paper that says God is dead. Thanks for your prayers for all of us. In Him, Rachel

One of the Colorful Vans Used for "Mass Transit" in Haiti

One of the Colorful Vans Used for Mass Transit in Haiti Barry and Rachel Baggott Crieve Hall Church of Christ 4806 Trousdale Drive, Nashville, TN 37220 fwo.ceb@gmail.com (615) 781-2137 October 10, 2014 Bonjour! It has been too long since our last newsletter,