The Cadenheads are Zimbabwe-bounds. Here's a brief review of our pre-field preparations, developments related to our departure, and a quick update on what's to come for Great Commission Conversations.  Your feedback is welcome. You can email Bro. Lee at [email protected]. 

I was privileged to be with Dr. Don Sisk in a missions conference at Capitol City Baptist Church in Austin, Texas. Dr. Sisk, after several years of pastoral ministry in Kentucky and Illinois, went to the country of Japan as a church-planting missionary back in 1965. In addition to his missionary efforts he’s served as the Far East Director for Baptist International Missions, Inc., and eventually became the president and general director of BIMI, a position he held for 19 years. He resigned from this role back in 2002 at the age of 69, but continued to serve the cause of missions as a professor of missions and a popular missions conference preacher. His travels have taken him to over 80 countries around the world and as of the publication of this program, at the age of 88, he continues to serve the Lord Jesus Christ through his itinerant preaching ministry. Your feedback is welcome. You can email Bro. Lee at [email protected]

My guest today is missionary Joel Haynes. Bro. Haynes is one of the most intense men that I’ve been around in a while. I’d heard of the work he’s doing among the Navajo a few years back and it was my privilege to be with him in a missions conference a sit down to discuss their ministry and amazing fruit that they’re presently seeing after many long years of plowing and seed-sowing among the Navajo. The conversation also took us to the subject of serving in missions as a family. I enjoyed this interview immensely and I think you’ll be blessed and provoked by Bro. Hayne’s testimony today just as I was. Your feedback is welcome. You can email Bro. Lee at [email protected]. 

In our previous program we heard from veteran missionary to Ukrain, Chris Rue as he explained how the Lord dealt with him about missions and directed him to the country of Ukraine. I saw Bro. Rue’s ministry presentation quite a few years back at a missions conference in Florida and that presentation included some of the Biblical research and missionary strategizing that he was doing at the time. That exposure was really timely for me as I had been studying the missionary pattern in Acts and doing some reading on missionary and church-planting methods. If you’re interested in these kinds of considerations I think today’s program will be a blessing to you as we tackle Paul’s missionary methods, the challenges and limitations to the indigenous principle, and different approaches to church-planting efforts, along with the progress and future vision of Bro. Rue’s efforts in the Ukraine. Your feedback is welcome. You can contact Bro. Lee at [email protected].

My guest today is 28-year veteran missionary to Ukraine, Chris Rue. Bro. Rue has had a lengthy, fruitful, and thoughtful ministry in Eastern Europe that stretches back to a time shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union - a particularly exciting time in terms of evangelistic openness and opportunity. One of the reasons that I wanted to have this conversation with Bro. Rue is for the fact that he is thinking deeply about Biblical missionary methods and trying to employ these methods practically in the field where he is serving. But the methodological questions will have to wait for the second installment of this interview. In part one, Bro. Rue traces his conversion and call to Ukraine, at length, including some amazing stories of how God grew his faith and gave supernatural direction and guidance to get him to the very place that he’s labored for more than two decades. Your feedback is welcome. You can email Lee at [email protected].

When it comes to church planting and local church multiplication and reproduction, one of the most fruitful fields that I know of in terms of recent missions history is found across our southern border in the country of Mexico. Because of its proximity to the US - basically representing our continental Samaria - a lot of laborers and resources have been poured into this field and many Mexican missionaries have engaged in this great work in cooperation with American missionaries and churches. While some of that interaction and cooperation has been limited in recent years owing to the violence associated with the drug cartels, the work of church-planting has continued. For years I’ve heard of the labors of missionary Sonny Fritz. Bro. Fritz went home to be with the Lord a few years back, but I was in a missions conference recently with his son-in-law and fellow-laborer Rubin Murillo. I was told that if I wanted to meet a church-planter I should get to know Bro. Murillo. Bro. Murillo agreed to sit down with me and talk a little bit about his 45 years of church-planting mission work in the country of Mexico, including the methods they’ve undertaken over the years to multiply local churches in an amazing way. Your feedback is welcome. You can reach Bro. Lee at [email protected]. 

My guest today is Bro. Jim Fellure, the director of the Victory Baptist Press located in Milton, Florida. I pastored for twelve years in Brewton, Alabama, not far from the Victory Baptist Press and I am thankful to have been introduced to Bro. Fellure and the work of the Press early on in my pastoral ministry. Bro. Jim has been a friend to me and I’ve followed the work of the Press closely over the years I’ve been acquainted with him. Back in 2018 the Victory Baptist Press assisted me in shipping a container of John and Romans to Zimbabwe, something a pre-cursor to what the Lord has since called our family to full-time. I sat down with Bro. Fellure recently to discuss the ministry of scripture printing and to get his insight into how the pandemic has affected the American church and what VBP is doing to sow the word of God in America in these last days. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation with Bro. Fellure, as I always do, and I hope that you’ll be blessed by it as well. Your feedback is welcome. You can email Bro. Lee at [email protected].

There were some amazing moves of God that took place across Eastern Europe following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Some of the ongoing mission works in that region of the world are a direct or indirect result of the revival that God visited upon them at that time. My guest today is Missionary Zach LeFevre. Bro. LeFevre has ministered among Turkish-speaking people in Bulgaria and Romania for the past 26 years. The story of how this labor commenced with Missionary Ralph Cheatwood following the fall of the USSR is fascinating. And the ongoing work of the LeFevres and their fellow-laborers is cause for rejoicing as they’ve witnessed a once despised, forgotten, oppressed people group embrace the glorious gospel of Christ.  Your feedback is welcome. You can email Bro. Lee at [email protected].

While in a missions conference at Shady Acres Baptist Church in Houston, Texas I had an opportunity to sit down with Bro. Mullins and talk to him about his ministry over the course of more than 28 years in New Guinea. I set out to speak with Bro. Mullins about pioneering, which is largely what he was engaged there in PNG over the course of nearly three decades. We did address this subject and Bro. Mullins provides some helpful insights into pioneering a work in a tribal setting like that in which he labored in the mountains and swamps of New Guinea. But perhaps more than this, the theme of my conversation had to do with following the leadership of the Lord, or perhaps better yet staying out of the Lord’s way, as God did an exceptional work at a particular time and among a particular people whom God had specially prepared. If you would like to contact Ted and Lyn Mullins to obtain one or both of Mrs. Lyn's books they can be reached by email at [email protected]. Your feedback is welcome. You can contact Bro. Lee by email at [email protected]

In our last program Bro. Brad Wells, pastor of Graceway Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. related the story of his call to our nation’s capital while deployed in missions to the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea. It’s a fascinating and enlightening story, if you missed, you’ll certainly want to go back and catch that program. Today, we pick right up where we left off last time with the arrival of the Wells family in Washington, D.C. Once we finish unpacking this new calling, Bro. Brad provides a bit of contrast between these two fields of service, including an analysis of the different spiritual climates. We proceed to discuss some of the doors of utterance and ministry the Lord has opened unto the Wells family on Capitol Hill and some of the progress and prospects for Grace Way Baptist Church. Your feedback is welcome. You can contact Bro. Lee at [email protected].