Lost Sheep Ministry News October 2014 The Great Commission: Matthew 28: 18-20 is a commission for all Christians to go, make Disciples, and teach them to OBEY all that I have commanded you. LSM is dedicated to evangelizing the lost and making disciples of Christ that make Disciples of Christ according to II Timothy 2:2. Notes from Brother Bob: Well I now know what it feels like to go through gall bladder surgery. I was feeling fine with no reason to believe anything was wrong. I went to the Galveston Baptist Association (GBA) Pastor's prayer meeting at 9 AM on Thursday, Oct. 2nd and found myself in the emergency room at St. John s Memorial hospital at midnight. I was admitted on Friday and had surgery on Monday, Oct 6th. Now I am at home in my 2 nd week of recovery. This illness caused me to cancel our trip to Pakistan. Please keep this trip in your prayers. I am planning on travelling to Brazil with Pastor Bill Purdy in mid November. I do know that it is IMPORTANT when we are asked to pray for those who are ill and in the hospital. I don t believe I could have made it without your prayers. I do ask that you pray for a young nurse named Fatima. She is a Moslem but was very open to allow me to share our Christian faith with her. I am looking forward to having some dear Vietnamese Pastors visit me here at home. They are in Houston participating in a Christian Vietnamese conference and were told that I could not participate due to my recovery. Page 1 of 5
We will use the October issue of our newsletter to highlight a local ministry by LSM staff members John and Dot (Mammy)Overton. We have mentioned their work with men in a recovery program from alcoholism and drug addiction in earlier newsletters. Though they are in their early 80s, they still provide Christian discipleship instruction and encouragement to men in the Bay Area Recovery Center (BARC) located in their hometown in Texas. Mammy has reported in an earlier newsletter that this discipleship ministry actually got started when they accompanied Bro. Bob to a Hodera just south of Managua, Nicaragua several years ago. They use PowerPoint slides to project imagery on the wall of the two recovery centers where they teach each Saturday afternoon and on Monday evenings. John says that the slides keeps him from chasing too many rabbits. Since new men are constantly arriving at BARC and those that complete the rehabilitation process leave, the Overton's repeat the same eight, one hour Christian topics to provide a basic Christian foundation for the men that volunteer to participate. Page 2 of 5
The seven topics are 1) The Bible, our starting point, 2) Some things we know about God, 3) How we are designed and function, 4) How to be Born-Again, 5) Our two world systems, 6) Death and Eternity, and 7) Put on your Armor. Cases of Bibles are provided to the men to study while in the BARC recovery program. The PowerPoint slides and student manuals are uploaded to our LSM website (www.lostseepministries.com) and thus made available free to anyone with Internet access around the world. Some of the materials have been translated to other languages. Included in this newsletter are some samples of the PowerPoint slides used in the Overton's discipleship training. Many of the BARC men have been baptized over the past three years. A weekly newsletter is sent out by email that covers the happenings at BARC during the past week. There have been 122 BARC weekly newsletters distributed since June 2012. Page 3 of 5
This will make the third year that men and women from BARC will address the Jr. High and High school students at the Overton's hometown public school. Over 20 individual speakers from BARC share their addiction story and its consequences to a couple thousand students from seventh through twelfth grade. This year 2,000 copies of a new booklet compiled by LSM will be handed out to students. The booklet entitled Abstinence Beats Recovery is a collection of 24 true stories submitted by men and women from BARC. Copies of this book may be purchased from Amazon.com and Barnes and Nobel over the Internet in both paperback and as an electronic book for Kendal's and Nooks. Royalties from the sale of books over the Internet will be used exclusively to promote alcohol and drug abstinence for students. Page 4 of 5
Training Student Trainers (TST): LSM has developed a course for equipping students to take the Gospel of Christ into their schools. The strategy is to select from six to ten Christian students and equip them off campus to make Disciples of Christ of their fellow students. Our Power Point presentations and student manuals are all on our LSM Web at www.lostsheepministries.com. Recommended Reading: Following Christ by Joseph M. Stowell. What's the secret to real Christian living? It's not how much you know, not great leadership ability, not influence, personal charisma, or a successful career or ministry. Those are fine if you've got them, but Christ's key to experiencing life the way it was meant to be lived is much simpler: "Follow Me!" In Following Christ Joe Stowell has washed away the graffiti of our own agendas, activities, and attitudes, revealing what it truly means to be a Disciple of Christ. For those who are dissatisfied with mediocrity and bored with religiosity this book is a must. Ann Graham Lotz. Lost Sheep Ministries (LSM) was founded in February of 1992 by Evangelist Bob Gibson. Our primary goal is to demonstrate our obedience to the Great Commandment by our obedience to the Great Commission. Brother Bob may be reached at brobobatlsm@gmail.com This monthly newsletter will be distributed by email only. Email addresses may be removed or added to distribution by notifying John Overton at dotnjohn@comcast.net. Our website is at this URL - www.lostsheepministries.com. All of our Newsletters are posted on our website. Tax Deductable Donations to LSM: Lost Sheep Ministries is a 501(c) non-profit organization. Donations may be made to LSM, 2951 Marina Bay Drive, Suite 130-144, League City, TX 77573. We are seeking funds to train Chinese students to take the Gospel back to their country ($100/month per student), Bibles for new Christians in Mexico (English and Spanish), and funds to publish our book for students, Abstinence Beats Recovery. Please designate if your gift is for a specific ministry else it will be used for general expenses. "What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? "When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. "And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!' "I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need Page no 5 of repentance. 5 Luke 15:4-7