March/April 2020 SWM Prayer Letter
Dear Friends,
As we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ we joyfully proclaim that He is risen – He is risen indeed!
Exciting things are happening here at Silent Word Ministries! We continue to see the hand of the Lord on our ministry in wonderful ways. Years ago a pastor made the statement that he wanted to be sure our church stayed under the spout where the blessings came out! We feel that way here at Silent Word as well. While we are rejoicing within the ministry, we want you to realize that we also consider you as much a part of our SWM team as any of our missionaries. As we rejoice, we trust that you will rejoice as well.
At our annual SWM Board meeting the statement of the purpose of SWM’s existence was read. I thought it would be fitting for you to see that purpose. We believe SWM exists to accomplish the following:
SWM helps to fulfill the Great Commission by edifying churches and evangelizing the world. SWM specializes in establishing Deaf ministries in strong, fundamental churches; planting deaf churches; winning deaf to Christ; helping to strengthen established Deaf ministries; and teaching Deaf people and Deaf ministries and helping them spiritually grow into Christian maturity through trusted literature and worldwide evangelism. SWM is also the headquarters of the SWMission Board which specializes in reaching Deaf for Christ worldwide with like-minded missionaries and team-members. We are here to serve!
With this statement of purpose, we realize that past blessings do not guarantee future blessings. For that reason, we ask you to continue to pray for the things we believe God wants to accomplish with and through our ministry as we move forward. We praise the Lord for doing much with us in the past, and we look forward to seeing Him continue in the future. We rejoice in the 360 souls saved through the different aspects of our ministry in 2019. We praise the Lord for pastors and missionaries all around the world who see SWM as a trusted ministry and reach out to us for help and advice on a regular basis. We praise the Lord for 1,598 Deaf who are enrolled in our Deaf Bible Institute (deafbibleinstitute.org). We are grateful to God for allowing us to print over 2.6 million Gospel tracts!
There are exciting things happening with our missionaries every day of the year! David Bennett recently returned from a very successful ministry in Australia, and Papua New Guinea. After surveying, he stated, “I consider PNG as one of the greatest challenges we face in reaching deaf people for Christ. Please pray that God would raise up two missionary families to spearhead this ministry.” Nicole Condra is on the field in Romania learning the spoken and signed languages. Bud and is wife Jenna (our missionaries in Canada) made mission trips. Bud Ring recently returned from a mission trip to the Philippines, and Jenna went to Papua New Guinea to help another missionary learn sign language. The Strosniders and the deaf church family are praying about purchasing a church building in St. Louis area. Rusty and Cassandra VanDonkelaar recently became a new SWM missionary. They are establishing a deaf church in South Carolina. Jon and Diane Barr have begun their Fantastic Saturday schedule. We continue filming Deaf Bible studies on YouTube every week of the year.
As you can see, Silent Word Ministries is a flowing and growing ministry. The multimedia has greatly opened doors of opportunities to the deaf worldwide. Reports of salvations from our varying ministries: 2019: 360 – 2020: 46. We praise the Lord for the part He allows us (and you) to have in this on-going ministry. As always, we thank God for what He is doing, and we thank Him for using you to help us do it. Please continue to pray that we will always keep the main thing, the main thing! Also please view our new website: SilentWord.org. We are delighted to serve with you in this work!
“We are here to serve!”
Jim Bracelin
SWM
Outreach Ministry
