Dear Praying Friends and Churches, April-June 2010
Psalm 40:16 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
When Sarah and I began courting, over eighteen years ago, I carved into a large beech tree “IN JOHN AND SARAH’S LIFE LET THE LORD BE MAGNIFIED”. Thank God the Lord has allowed us the opportunity to do just that! Each time I have presented the work in nearly 180 churches over the last couple years, the LORD JESUS CHRIST has been lifted up that all men may see His lovingkindness. We have reached the end of the line for deputation! Amen! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
April and May were very fruitful as we finished deputation. In April we started in Chicago and headed out West. We had a blessed time and count it a great privilege to have met many faithful brothers and sisters in Christ holding down the fort in North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Before our last week of meetings we had my ordination service. The evening was a great milestone on our journey in serving the Lord. Many lost souls were able hear the Gospel and the LORD was MAGNIFIED! I had the special blessing on Mother’s Day to preach and present at North Coast Baptist Church in Lakewood, OH. A young boy came forward to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour. It was great to see Pastor John Lutz and his church excited about shining the light of the Saviour into a notoriously sinful area. Keep MAGNIFYING the Light of the World!
June has found us very busy making all the final preparation for our departure on June 25, 2010. The Lord has seen fit to make it possible for us to leave on our expected day, for which we are very thankful. Our home church raised up a large part of the cost of our air fare- Thank you so much! The tears are beginning to flow knowing that we will be saying good-bye to a lot of dear family and friends. The Lord in His grace has given us many special opportunities to see some long time friends we normally would not have seen. He continues to bestow great handfuls of purpose along the way. Our family is doing well, thank you for all your prayers for us. Sarah has been the greatest help I ever could have hoped for, keeping us organized on the road of deputation. Many may never know what a missionary’s wife goes through, I thank God for the strength He has supplied. Aaron, Joel, Luke, and Seth are now seasoned travelers and are looking forward to their longest trip yet- MOLDOVA! Please pray all goes well as we settle down and begin the paperwork of obtaining our yearly living permit.
Our house is sold, and we have signed a year lease for a house in Chisinau, the capital city. Our mailing address for at least the first year will be:
277059 Chisinau
Str. Doina 27/2
John Weldon
Republic of Moldova
God continues to supply all we need according to His riches in Glory! Our support level continues to rise and we look forward to other churches joining us in pray and financial support as we land in Moldova. Some immediate needs we still have are to finish shipping the remaining boxes of our belongings and once we arrive in Moldova we need to purchase a 4x4 vehicle. Please pray that God guides and provides. Our faith tells us He will continue to do so. I have a quick note to all supporting churches and others interested in doing so. Please make all checks payable to Bible Believers Baptist Missions or BBB Missions (for tax purposes) and send them to the Support Address listed here. We are very grateful to all of you who have given your time, home, prayers, and money to make the road of deputation a great blessing. We will forever treasure the time we spent with all of you, and will pray the Lord continues to bless your labours to MAGNIFY Him!
The next prayer letter I will write will be from Moldova. WOW! Mark Dombroski, a member of our church, will be distributing our future letters for us from Ohio. If anyone would like to receive our prayer letter via email, that is not already doing so, you can contact him at tpcone@aol.com. In the event you do not receive our prayer letter in the future, please feel free to contact Mark, my sending church, or me.
Please pour ardent prayer over the orphan children of Moldova, and for the work on God’s Orchard to blossom and bear fruit to MAGNIFY the LORD! Our God is sending us to meet the needs of these fatherless children. We’d love to see you there or in the air!!!
GOOD BYE!!!!! LA REVEDERE!!!!
For His Glory and Honour,
John Weldon and Family
Dear Praying Friends and Churches, January –March 2010
II Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.
In the midst of each day
To make the boat stable,
Guiding us along His way.
When questions may arise,
In the wilderness He sets our table.
Lovingly, here our faith He tries.
To make all grace abound,
Though unseen is the cable,
Unending strength in Him is found.
What a blessing to know
Not trusting in a fable,
True riches He bestows!
Our God Is Able
We have just returned home from two months of busy travel covering many miles. We have been blessed as we continue to see that our God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. The Holy Spirit faithfully is teaching us valuable lessons that we will be able to recall once we set foot in Moldova. There is much to tell you of the goodness of the Lord. He has protected us, guided us, and supplied our each and every need. Space does not allow rehearsing it all, but I would like to thank all of you whom God has used to manifest His power on our behalf. Thank you for being a willing vessel. GOD IS ABLE!
We put our house up for sale in the middle of January. It is my prayer that we would have a sold contract on our house before I purchase the tickets for our departure. This would allow us to wrap up any final paperwork while we are still in America. God has directed and burdened my heart to leave June 25,2010, so please pray all things are done decently and in order. We desire our God to be magnified! GOD IS ABLE!
Preparing for our departure is filling all of our “free” time. We have a long to do list that we have been able to dwindle down. The funny thing is, as we think we are making the list shorter it seems to be getting longer. We have been able to box up many of our clothes, hand tools, kitchen utensils, the boy’s toys, books, and many other things that will be useful in Moldova. These containers have been shipped through an exporter in Ohio. To date we have shipped 45 boxes and praying we can fit the rest of our belongings in 15 more boxes. Each box is costing us an average of $170.00 to ship. We received a love offering from Hills Corner Baptist Church in Buchanan, Michigan, early on in deputation to help with some of the cost of shipping, for which we are very thankful. Another immediate need we ask you to pray for us is the cost of our airfare. The prices I am seeing for a one-way ticket is $998.00; we pray that they will not go up any higher and that our total airfare would be under $6,000.00. Our most ardent prayer, as it has been for the two years we have been on deputation, is that our God would raise up 100% of our support goal. Currently we are at 75% and God continues to add to this. Many Pastors and church friends have asked us about some of the more prominent costs to get us to Moldova and keep us there. Those mentioned are the “big three”, as there will be other larger expenses after we get to the field, such as buying a vehicle and setting up our homestead. Truly, the work the Lord is asking us to do will take our God opening the windows of Heaven and pouring out His blessing, for which we are beseeching our God! GOD IS ABLE!
As I write this letter we are packing for a month and a half trip to the West Coast. Please pray the Lord grants us traveling mercies and gets us into the churches He wants us to be in. Upon our return, on May 16th, we will be having my ordination service at our home church Bible Believers Baptist Church. I am honored as, former missionary and now Pastor Bill Bailey will be preaching the charge. I count it a great blessing to be sent out by my Pastor Richard Kipp and faithful church family. GOD IS ABLE!
For His Glory and Honour,
John Weldon and Family
Dear Praying Friends and Churches, October-December 2009
Nehemiah 2:18 Then I told them of the hand of God which was good upon me; as also the king’s words that he had spoken unto me. And they said let us arise and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.
Nehemiah was excited to tell his brethren how the Almighty God was working on his behalf to open an effectual door to begin rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Once again I write to you with excitement in my heart and joy in my soul, seeing how the Lord continues to prosper our way to begin building an eternal future for the fatherless children of Moldova.
Just as the Lord gathered men to help Nehemiah, we are rejoicing as the Lord has raised up another family to work with us on God’s Orchard. This past June, God called Corby Fetterolf to help minister to the needs of the orphans in Moldova. We have made it a matter of earnest personal pray over the last several months allowing the Lord to continue directing Corby in His perfect will. Please add Corby and Natalie Fetterolf to your prayer list as they move forward on their path to Moldova. They have four young boys- Micah, Noah, Ethan, and Sawyer. At the end of January, Corby and his wife will be making a trip to Moldova to spend time with Paul and Susan Hamilton. They will see first hand the work that the Lord has called them to be a part of. Praise God for more laborers to bring in the harvest!
I am thrilled to tell you another name has been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life! In October, the Lord burdened my heart for the salvation of my third son, Luke. We were learning the song, “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder” to sing and play with our instruments. I wanted Luke to start singing with us, but I wanted him to be able to sing this song knowing he would be there when the roll is called. I fervently prayed that the Lord would convict his heart and prepare him to see his need for salvation. The Holy Spirit directed me to open The King’s Word to Revelation 20:15, “And whosoever was not written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Luke and I sat down and I was able to explain to him the simple plan of salvation through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I asked him if he would like his name written in the book of life. He responded with tears in his eyes, “Yes!” Luke and I knelt in our bedroom and he accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. Will YOU be there when the roll call is made up in Heaven? Don’t wait; don’t trust your own works- Trust in our living Savior, The Lord Jesus Christ. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:9,10,13). Thank God, He always hears the prayer of a repenting soul!
We have enjoyed the opportunity to begin learning the Romanian language. The Lord directed our path to meet Benjamin Vaduva, a Romanian immigrant, who took a keen interest in the work we are going to do. The church he is a member of, Cleveland Romanian Baptist Church, has a Romanian language school and he invited us to attend. We eagerly went and for the last few months have been trying to learn the simple building blocks of the language. Our boys have done very well. We have seen very clearly that young minds have a much easier time of adding new information. What a beautiful example to see the need for training our young people in the Word of God before they are filled up with so much of the world that they no longer have room for His precious Word.
As we have been very busy traveling, it has been my constant prayer for God to give me wisdom to know when He wants us to leave. My desire has been to be exactly where God wants me when He wants me there. Praying that God would give me the patience to wait, but at the same time the peace to know when it is time to go. After much fellowship with my God in His Word, talking to Him, and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide me, the Lord has directed us to depart on June 25,2010. We ask that you would join with us in prayer that God would continue to show us His favour and bring us in favour with churches considering supporting the work the Lord has asked us to do. It is our prayer that we would be fully supported by June. Our support level continues to increase and by the grace of God, we know he will provide what we need to go and begin to minister to the fatherless children of Moldova!
Please accept my heart felt THANK YOU to all who have faithfully supported us with your prayers and your financial giving. There is much to be done in preparing for our departure. As in Nehemiah’s day, we are strengthening our hearts and hands for the good work. Our prayer is that you would stay strong in the Lord and in the power of His might for the good work He has asked you to do at home and abroad!
For His Glory and Honour,
John Weldon and Family
Dear Praying Friends and Churches,
August/September 2009
II Corinthians 3:5—Not that we are sufficient
of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but
our sufficiency is
of God.
Our travels continue to keep us busy on the road for the Lord, as we eagerly wait for the day we will be on our way to Moldova. We had the blessed opportunity to be in Battle Creek, Michigan with Pastor Anderson. While we were fellowshipping at a Saturday night get together, God used him to quote the scripture I have printed above. What a great blessing of the reminder of who our sufficiency is. We are not to trust in man, methods, or machinery to do the work of the Lord. We must all find ourselves at the feet of our Almighty God worshipping Him for He is the Alpha and Omega, the great I AM! Do you have a question as to what you are to do? God will answer it! Do you have a need that you are wondering how it can be supplied? Our God can supply all that we need! Are you spiritually weak and need strength? Go to the only true power- our God! Do you find yourself trusting in yourself to make things come to pass? How great joy and peace we can have as we go to our Heavenly Father to show His power on our behalf. When God shows His power our faith is increased and we can see the mighty hand of God in our lives. Does your life require the movement of God or can you do everything in your own ability? I wanted to take a moment to encourage you to draw nigh to God; He wants to show himself strong in your life. You then will be able to testify to others of the great God we serve. HE IS SUFFICIENT!!!
In the month of August and September, God laid on my heart to make my neighborhood our mission field. My wife and I spread the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to all of our neighbors and then some. Do you know the physical and spiritual state of those around you? God used this time to help us see our community as He would see it. He saw before we did—A man dying of pancreatic cancer, we were able to give the gospel to his wife who expressed thanks for the truth needed at such an important hour. He sees all those trusting in their own righteousness, blinded by the devil and his deceitfulness. Will you take them the truth, so they have no excuse at the White Throne Judgment? His eyes are on His children who are ashamed to tell their neighbor of the eternal life found through the Lord Jesus Christ. You can be the one to knock on their door to encourage them to live for the Lord. Set the example, set yourself apart by making known who you are trusting in for eternal life. Is there not a cause? Time is short; do not have the blood of your family, friends, or neighbors on your hands at the Judgment Seat of Christ. The Lord will give you fruit along the way. It may be souls; it may be strength in your own walk with the Lord. Go ye in to all the world, starts with your neighbors.
Our support level continues to increase, for which we
praise God. WE ARE NOW OVER 50% CLIMBING TOWARDS 60%!!! Thank you all that
have been faithfully supporting us with your prayers and financial giving.
Will you be the next to help push us out a little deeper toward the work
our Lord is preparing for us in Moldova? That question reminds me of a
song I learned at Metropolitan Baptist Church in Wheeling, WV in their
missions conference that was a blessing to my soul. Here goes! Sing it
with me-
Step into the water, wade out a little bit deeper!
Wet your feet in the water of His word!
Step into the water, wade out a little bit deeper!
Go and preach the gospel until all the world has heard!
The Lord continues to remindbr /nbsp; me that I cannot out give Him. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he has given will he pay him again (Proverbs 19:17). The Lord’s bank gives a guarantee that no one else can give. Are you looking for a good investment? Not only will the Lord give you back, He will add more to it. Give your money to the Lord and allow Him to direct you where to He wants you to spend it.
I have another piece of very exciting news –a great answer to prayer. God raised up David Langham out of Park Avenue Baptist Church to created a website for us. The web site is www.weldons2moldova.com. He has done a wonderful job of taking the information I gave him and organizing it like I NEVER could. This site has already been a tremendous tool in communicating with others the work our Lord is asking us to do in Moldova- and it is only a few weeks old! We plan on being able to use this site to keep all of you up to date in the many years of services that lie ahead for us in Moldova.
Please continue to pray that our Lord gives us wisdom on what to ship to Moldova. We are in the final planning stages of organizing our method of shipping materials and equipment to Moldova. We want to do what God wants to do—nothing more and nothing less. We covet your prayers for God to open the doors to the churches He wants us to be in. God has been ordering our steps throughout deputation and I want to finish this part of preparation knowing He has led us all the way. Also, I ask that you lift up in prayer Paul Hamilton, Clayton McCurdy and each of their families. These are the faithful men that we are excited to soon join in the harvest field of Moldova. Satan desires to pull down the work that the Lord is using Paul and Clayton to build. They need each of our earnest prayers for wisdom, guidance, understanding, protection, health, and strength to fight the good fight of faith.
Until we write again, may you abound and be fruitful in
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. II Peter Chapter 1 tells us all
how we can accomplish this in our lives.
For His Glory and Honour,
John Weldon and Family
May/June/July 2009
Dear Praying Friends and Churches,
Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.
God brought this verse to my eyes and heart just after we got back from our month long trip into Central Canada. After seeing it framed in a house we were staying at, I have recognized it everywhere. I have seen it on several men’s ties, Bible covers, heard it in conversation quoted by others, and read it in my daily Bible study. The Holy Spirit continues to train me in the deepest parts of my heart, to truly wait on God the Father to bring to pass the desire of my heart. With my heart ever yearning to head to the land my God has called me to, I am on the training ground of depending totally on God to accomplish His work through me. This valuable lesson will be used in a lifetime of service for Him. Just as those at the marriage supper in Cana had to wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to perform a miracle and supply their needs, so must I learn to wait on the miracles of God to supply the needs for me and my family. Through your prayer support God will supply the wisdom we need to direct the work He has given us to do. Through your financial support God will supply food to feed the fatherless and materials to build the homes on God’s Orchard. Each day we must learn to wait on the Lord to manifest His power on our behalf for the needs of every moment. Seeing His mighty hand at work thrills my soul!
Thank you for your continued prayers for us. Our travels have been blessed of the Lord, with safety and fruitfulness. We were able to have meetings in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Canada. In Wisconsin, God allowed me to be a part of leading a 10-year-old boy to the Lord! Praise God! That was how old I was when I got saved. May God continue to do a work in this young boy’s heart and call him to a life of service for the King! We had a blessed time of fellowship in Canada. Thank you once again for your bountiful care bestowed upon our family! Being up in Canada during the month of May was a direct answer to pray. We saw God at work the entire time in our lives and in the lives of those around us. In that month we put 5,000 miles on our vehicle, it was worth every mile! June found us back down in the good old U.S.A, with the Lord continuing to bless our travels and meetings. Stay tuned for more exciting news of God’s fruitfulness as we wait on Him!
My thoughts in between scheduling meetings, contacting pastors, and making sure we know which way to turn at the next intersection (“Sarah, I think we needed to turn left back at the last road, Let’s turn around. No, that’s not the road that map quest says we need to turn on. Let’s keep going north. Is this the road? No?! Well, let’s turn around again. Which road is this? I don’t know there is no street sign. Since this is the only road we have not turned down, let ‘s give it a try! Hey, there is the church! How silly to think you need road signs to find your way around!) Oh, sorry, as I was saying, my thoughts are constantly going back to Moldova where my heart is. We are continuing to prepare for our departure. Sarah is going through our house getting ready for a big garage sale to off load a lot of our weight into someone else’s boat. God’s word continues to direct my path, and is giving me wisdom to help me understand the Lord’s timing for us to be able to leave for God’s Orchard! Please pray we make the right decisions that will come upon us, like that intersection we just needed to turn at. Praise God, we are trusting the Lord to get us to Moldova with the road signs we see in His Blessed Holy Word! Keep reading God’s Word and you will see the direction He has for your life! Don’t get anxious when you can’t find the signs you are looking for! Wait on the Lord and He will show up to give you strength and guidance for the road that lies ahead!
We thank God for all the new churches, individuals, and youth groups that have taken us on for support in the last couple of months! Thank you for your faith in God to do His work through us. May God richly reward you for your prayers and offerings you have given to us.
For His Glory and Honour,
John Weldon and Family
Brethren, pray for us. I Thess. 5:25