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| The Praise Report |
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| This
Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony
to all nations and then the end will come. Matt: 24:14 |
 Overlooking the ocean down in Baja, Mexico |
We’ve been staying
busy ministering in many different areas. We recently taught an intensive course at Bethany Bible Institute in Ensenada, Mexico, on Theology of Mission and Mission History. We have also been ministering in different churches and various evangelistic outreaches as well as ministering at an Easter Retreat and Outreach in Tecate and Tijuana. God’s Spirit moved very powerfully at the different venues: the students at the Bible Institute were powerfully endued with the Holy Spirit--the Spirit of Mission--during a ministry time, and the presence of God was poured out again and again at the retreat with many experiencing the filling of the Spirit for the first time. The meetings there went on with God’s presence being poured out long into the night, and even young children were filled with the Spirit. We also had 15 people receive Christ on Easter Sunday during Easter outreach services in Mexico. We were able to donate a large amount of audio and video teaching materials to the Bible Institute and class we taught to help equip the students. We also recently donated materials to other groups, churches and institutes as well. We are pointing this out because it is through the contributions of our supporters that we are able to help others in ways like this. We are also thankful that we have been able to produce our materials in both English and Spanish (the two most spoken languages in the world) to spare us the heavy and expensive task of converting already-produced materials into another language. In fact, we even get responses from time to time regarding those who are learning and improving their second language skills by using our stuff. |
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| Holy
Ghost Surf Story |
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| A friend of ours was recently
visiting from Sweden and joined us as we traveled down to Mexico to minister.
On the way down we stopped to go surfing. I had in mind a place I wanted
to surf, but I felt led by the Holy Spirit to go to another particular
spot that in my own view wasn’t very good, but out of obedience
to what I felt the Holy Spirit was showing me, we went to this inferior
spot. While out in the water I began to second-guess the decision to come to where we were, it seemed like a mistake because there were better waves in other places. I really began wondering whether we had done the right thing. |
 An isolated beach in Mexico |
| But as it often happens in God’s
Kingdom, right when you are in doubt of what you felt was the right thing
to do, God shows up. Right then we started talking with a young guy who
had been heavily into drugs. This young guy had become burned-out on the
drug scene and had recently began checking out the Bible, so we talked
with him about the need to receive Christ and be born again. He responded positively so we asked him to meet us on the beach so we could talk more and pray with him. There on the beach in North San Diego County we prayed with and led this young guy to the Lord, and also gave him a surf video and information about a local church. God is full of surprises when we listen to His leading and has even better things in store than just waves when we pay attention to what He wants us to do. |
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| Breakthroughs |
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| We were blessed recently to miraculously receive a new computer. Our computer had been acting up and was having problems. We had only 7 days on our warranty left, which we figured the company would just try to run out on us while trying to just bandage the problem. Instead, God intervened, and miraculously we were given a new computer that costs about $900 dollars more than the one we had. It was completely bewildering that they would do that but we knew it was God’s hand and it has helped us greatly in our ministry work. | |
 The power of God falls at an Easter retreat in Tecate |
After many years of suffering with some difficult circumstances in our living situation God has brought some small breakthroughs. For years we have suffered with a bed (mattress) that was completely worn out. It got so bad toward the end that the springs were sticking through. We’ve willingly suffered many hardships to fulfill what God has called us to do including sleeping on what became in the end a virtual torture rack—bed of nails (!)—for the Gospel as well as living in a tiny, cramped apartment, so we can be available |
| to do what God calls us to
do. We’ve done it willingly, sacrificed many comforts of this world
as well as sacrificed economically and in many other ways to preach and
minister, and we know that God is faithful and will in His timing bring
forth other breakthroughs we need . Jesus said that no one who has left
houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers… or fields will not
fail to receive a hundred fold blessing in return. We believe that and
know that God will perform it in His time. Like Paul we can boast that we have endured hardships, suffering and sleepless nights for the sake of the furthering of the Gospel. |
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| God in His grace however, brought
some breakthroughs recently, which enabled us to get not only a new bed
but also a new dresser. We have been fighting with the old dresser for
many years just to get our clothes out because the drawers would hardly
open. It’s hard to fully communicate the price paid for following Christ’s call in this fallen modern world that is concerned only with worldly comforts. Suffering can really give you a clear and intimate understanding of the fact that we are just aliens and strangers who are just passing through this temporary existence on our way to our real home in heaven. |
The Spirit of
the Lord moves |
| Paul himself boasted about the sufferings he endured to extend the Gospel so that others may be inspired to sacrifice as well for the extension of God’s Kingdom. We are sharing a few of our sufferings so that you would be inspired to prayerfully consider sacrificing economically to help us in our mission efforts. | |
Upcoming
Mission Trip |
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| We’ll be heading off for
a mission trip to Europe soon. As I’ve shared before, Europe is
now the least evangelized continent in the world with only 3% of the population
having a saving faith in Christ. Just pause for a moment and think about
that statistic: that means 97% of the population in the western world’s
2nd most prominent continent is unsaved. The Gospel has advanced in other
regions like Africa and Latin America while Europe has declined. This doesn’t mean that other areas are to be neglected, not at all, the need remains great in those other regions too even though there have been advances. Rather it just needs to be understood that Europe has become a mission field like other areas in the world are. |
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| Some young girls around seven years old, who were filled with the Spirit and overcome by His presence. They remained on the floor for a considerable time. | |
Any idea of a“Christian Europe” is no longer valid; state-sponsored religion and religious institutions that don’t preach the Gospel, along with wide spread secularism, socialism and the resurgence of pagan spiritism have squeezed what true Christian population still exists into a very small struggling minority. There is a great need for renewal, outreach and the preaching of the Gospel in the power of the Spirit; it is the only hope. We can use your help. Europe is very expensive, but the Kingdom of God must make an impact. Jesus told the church in Sardis to wake up and strengthen what remains, lest it be lost. |
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Christ’s Commission should compel
us as Christians of the importance of taking up and supporting the extension
of the Full Gospel of the Kingdom into all the earth. Your help towards our efforts are greatly needed and appreciated. It is treasure laid up in heaven, which is the only treasure that lasts anyways, where rust does not corrode and moth does not destroy. (If you’d like to stay updated on our ministry while we are traveling, send us your e-mail to gracewm@flash.net and we will send you periodic short updates and prayer requests.) |
| Do not
store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroys,
and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasure
in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not
break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will
be also. Matthew 6:19-21 |
Many blessings to you from Bryan , Mercedes and Patrick Marleaux |
| E-mail:
gracewm@flash.net Web page: www.graceworldmission.org Toll-free phone: 877-gracewm (orders) or (949) 723-6316 Address: Grace World Mission 2521 1/2 First Avenue Corona del Mar, CA 92625 RADIO TIMES: (you can hear KPRZ on the web at www.kprz.com) 10pm Sat. night 1310 AM XEC 12 Fri. night 1210 AM KPRZ TV TIMES: *NEW STATION! Cox South Orange County—Channel 31—Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. *Adelphia Orange County—Sundays at 7p.m. Fullerton/Placentia—Channel 65, Santa Ana/Buena Park—Channel 95 *NEW TIME! San Diego -- Time Warner Cable Ch. 19--Sundays at 9:30 a.m. in Mission Valley, La Jolla, Del Mar, Poway Areas *North San Diego -- Adelphia Cable Ch. 3 in the Carlsbad, Encinitas, areas. Usually second and fourth Tuesday of the month at 3:30 p.m. |
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