Dear pastor, friends, and praying church,                           April 9, 2026

 

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! 

In Judges 8:2 the men of Ephraim ask Gideon a question, “What have I done now in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? Gideon and his band of three hundred soldiers had just miraculously defeated the Midianites. God used Gideon in a great way, but God used the men of Ephraim to capture the princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb. The men of Ephraim were jealous and wanted the honor and glory that Gideon received. Sometimes we also can become jealous and want the honor of others, but all we need to do is focus on what’s God’s purpose for our lives and do the best, with God’s help to live that purpose.

We praise the Lord for our students are who learning more and more about ministry. We have recently completed classes covering Christology, Pneumatology and the Exodus stage covering Old Testament history from the departure from Egypt and entering the Promised Land. We are looking forward to a class covering the Book of Acts with an emphasis on the practical aspects of church planting and ministry.

      

We are grateful to the Lord for the outreach opportunities, church planting and soul winning we are involved in every day. Late one afternoon we noticed a city vehicle just down the road from our house. My wife noticed a body being carried out of the house by some official men. Someone had died! A few days later we saw them setting up for the funeral. We asked them if we could share God’s Word with them and they agreed. So, when all the family was gathered at this house, I had the opportunity to open my Bible and share with them their need for a Savior.

A couple weeks ago we were at the fruit stand buying some fresh apples and oranges when the lady selling us the food asked if I was a pastor. I said yes and she asked me to pray for her. Merlina has cancer growing on her neck. I was able to pray for her and share the Gospel. Every day we have opportunity to share the Gospel with people. Here are a few pictures from our outreaches. In this first picture you see two girls standing in the doorway. There was a third one not seen in the picture. After I shared the gospel with all three, they all bowed their heads and trusted Christ as Savior. In the third picture you can see my wife, Sophia, and Eman teaching the children. This is one of the church planters that we trained. He will be graduating this year. We praise the Lord for the churches being planted by young men that we have trained.

   

We praise the Lord for the three deaf Filipinos faithfully attending church services. We are praying that we can go to a city nearby and train a group of young people in sign language, reach a few deaf and set up another deaf ministry at a sister church. Please be praying for this. My goal is to take two or three of the Filipinos we already trained in sign language and develop them as teachers. We have a deaf man and his wife that will be able to locate many deaf in the area in order to share the Gospel with them.   

We give praise to God for the birth of a grandson! Benjamin Dean was born on March 14th weighing 7 pounds and 7 ounces. Praise the Lord for the ten grandchildren already here plus two more on the way. We appreciate our sons’ and daughters’ faithfulness to the Lord!

Thank you for your prayers and gifts!

                                       In Christ,

 

                                   Missionaries Paul & Tiffany Jones