Christmas 2009
Dear Church Starts International Family and Friends,

As I write to tell you “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,” I can’t help but believe that there has never been a time in the life of Church Starts International when we should be more encouraged and more energized and assured of making a difference for God in our world.  Doors of opportunity are open before us in several nations and people groups in our world. What joy!  What excitement!  Dreams are coming true before our very eyes.  Our churches are sending out volunteer mission teams that are returning with great enthusiasm and transformed lives.  New work is beginning where churches are few.  Nationals are discipling nationals. Churches are equipping from within to reach out beyond the walls of the church. 

When I close my eyes, day or night, I see families like mine was 55 years ago: lost, facing an uncertain future, lonely in a crowd, no eternal security, and no clear direction for our children.  Today there are 36 of us in our family which includes RNs, principals, teachers, teacher aides, secretaries, computer tech specialists, a programmer, a marketing exec, a DPS trooper, a cowboy, and four preachers. Two of the families - 10 in all - are missionaries on the foreign mission field.  I am so thankful for the Godly family God has given Mary and me.

We are enjoying our precious Mary.  She eats and sleeps well.  She gives us hugs and kisses (sometimes) and just when we think she is distant, she surprises us with searching, hopeful eyes.  We are so thankful we still have her with us in a Care Center just blocks from our home, and she is doing as well as the Alzheimer’s allows.      
            I shiver to think where my family and I might be today if in 1954 Bro. Leroy Hux, then a young pastor in Newhall, California, had not come to our home and told us about the Savior and introduced us to the church and God’s people.  Most of the people in our world are living in communities largely without evangelical churches; some with no church at all.  What would Henrietta, Texas, be like today without its churches? What if the old circuit-riding preacher had not come to the dirt streets of Henrietta and “preached the way to Heaven was by Jesus and his Blood”?  Think of the adults all over the world who are waiting to hear and will respond to the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Think of the millions of children and youth with no church, no pastor, no Sunday school teacher, no VBS in the summer time, and no Godly person to look up to or to reach out to them.

            I have the conviction that God does everything He does through His churches. I also have the conviction that in every city, town, village, valley, and on every inhabited hillside on earth, there are people that God called before the foundation of the world, that God’s churches are to go to, disciple, and call out to be sons and daughters and laborers in God’s fields of harvest.
            The CSI motto is, “Every Community on Earth Deserves a New Testament Church.” We really believe it! It is continually on our minds, engraved in our hearts, recorded in our history, and written on our headstone. Our slogan is, “Church Starts International: A Gateway to World Missions” - not the gateway, but a gateway. There are many good gateways out there. Of course, we think ours is the best. It is a full circle discipleship Bible study and church starting or strengthening and staffing program. It is a program of starting Bible studies by the number and turning those Bible studies into churches by clusters. It really works. It has been tested and proven on the field. It is interactive, warm, and lost-people friendly.

            Church Starts International is now on four continents. We have more than forty booklets in Bible study, discipleship, and church starting, with portions in nine different languages. We have several DVDs and three in the making. One is 28-minutes, titled Implementing the Full Circle Discipleship Strategy, which includes a teacher’s manual and student workbook in five different languages: Spanish, English, Romanian, Russian, and Portuguese. Dr. Ted Lindwall, CSI Vice President and writer of our materials, and I feel we are on top of something that could explode any day now and, through His churches, make a difference for God all over the world.  

To make a difference in our world is a tall order and a lofty mountain to climb. Like Caleb’s mountain of old, there are many giants of all descriptions on our mountain and we will be constantly at war with Satan and his forces (Eph. 6:12).  Some of the most distracting and troublesome giants on our mountain are fear, failure, finances, and frailness. All of these can be stepping stones to victory if we look to God and depend on Him, instead of self. Some wise person has said, “If we are disappointed in ourselves, it’s because we have been depending on ourselves.” 

I am humbled and so very grateful to all you volunteer workers, translators, loyal supporters, and prayer warriors. You have been so thoughtful, generous, and faithful in preparation, production, and operation to make CSI ready and available to assist our dear churches and precious missionaries to start, strengthen, and staff churches by clusters and make a difference for God in our world. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love in Christ,
Bro. Bill Davis

Church Starts International

P.O. Box 177 Henrietta, TX 76365

Phone:940-538-5665

Email: billdavis@churchstarts.com

Website: www.churchstarts.com

Every Community on Earth Deserves a New Testament Church

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