Short Circuit Vol 5 Num 1

Short Circuit

Volume 5

Number 1

January 2004

C.B.F. in the Greater Boston Area

Greetings from Boston,

Things are going well here, and Deb and I are enjoying ministry. During Thanksgiving week, Deb put together two international Thanksgiving dinners. The first one was attended by around 60 people and was held at the Malden community center just around the corner from our ministry home. We made some new friends, and became better acquainted with some old ones. Some of these people now want to do introductory Bible studies with us.

International Baptist Church

The second dinner was on Thanksgiving Day. We had six guests which included five Chinese and one American. All of our guests were graduate students and very accomplished in their fields of study. One man told me that he has thoroughly investigated our church website. He is very reserved, but friendly. He has a number of degrees and seems to be searching. He goes by the name of Lee. Please pray for him. The ones we minister to are truly our friends and we try to really give ourselves to them.

One Chinese student, Peng, has placed his trust in Christ and is now attending church every Sunday. He is a key person, and is always introducing us to new students. He came to the USA having recently become a theist. He was surprised to learn that there was more to walking with God than to simply believe in God. He was introduced to us by Xiao Peng, who gave us high recommendations. You might say that it took four years for us to nurture the kind of relationship with Peng that would result in his salvation, even though we have only known him for 3 months. It took four years of friendship with Xiao Peng for him to feel the need to recommend us to his friends. Please pray as the new Peng considers baptism and church membership. Others have stopped short at this point.

The ministry in the church is doing well. A French economist who is working on her doctorate in economics at MIT attends the IBCB. She is a Christian and is now looking over our discipleship material possibly to use with her French friends. She has been asking for advice concerning a number of spiritual issues. We also now have two African women attending, one from Burundi and another from Kenya. They are studying public health at Boston University. The Burundian is a Christian and never misses church. So now we have the USA, France, Burundi, Kenya, China, Singapore and the USA represented in many services. Not bad when the over all attendance is around twenty. This is why we came here, and is it fun!

1st Annual Christmas Dinner

This year the IBCB had its 1st Annual Christmas Program. The people of the IBCB prayed and prepared for this memorable event. It was a simple program with Scripture reading along with instrumental and vocal accompaniment. Our orchestra includes two violins, two flutes and one trumpet or keyboard. The story of Christmas was simply told through music. We had 10 guests. Three of our new friends raised their hands, desiring to know more about Jesus Christ. This is quite a victory, considering that those who expressed interest have very little, if any, background in Christianity. I was exceedingly proud to be part of this faithful flock as we labored together to make the gospel known to the nations located in Boston. From our visitors it is possible that five new evangelistic Bible studies will develop.

Our potential influence around the world is steadily increasing. We have ministry contacts in Chile, France, China, Germany, Singapore, India, Burundi, Kenya etc. We are very thankful to the Lord for the privilege of sharing His life with a dying world.

Bill and Debbie Edmonson