May 2019 Prayer Letter

Greetings,

I would like to thank all of those who sent love offerings to help offset some of the unexpected costs of moving to St. Marie. We were blessed abundantly so that we were able to replenish our depleted reserves and have enough to help with the new church plant. You are greatly appreciated, thank you for your faithfulness to the Lord.

The temperature here is now starting to fall into the low eighties during the day and mid to high seventies at night. The days are more and more overcast as we enter the “winter” season on the island.

I apologize for this prayer letter being late. We are launching Fiangonana Batista Afaka, the first Baptist church on the island of St. Marie in just a few days, and we have been busy preparing for the church opening.

We were able to find a building to rent, at a reasonable cost, near the downtown area and took possession of it on May 31st. We have signs painted, chairs have been purchased and have arrived, and the building has been cleaned. We have also been busy passing out fliers. To date, we have handed out nearly 1,000 fliers inviting people to come to the first service on June 9th at 10 a.m. and are planning on passing out more in the final days leading up to the opening. We also started a Facebook page for the church.

As we have handed out fliers and invited people to church, we have had several positive responses. There was even a Muslim man that said he would be there for the opening. We ask that you would pray for those who get the fliers. Each fliers has a presentation of the gospel on it. Pray that they will read them. Pray that the Holy Spirit will begin a work in their lives. Pray that they will come to church ready to learn more. Please pray for hearts to be open to the hearing of the Gospel, and for a good turn out on our opening day. Also, keep our oldest son, James, in your prayers. He has returned to the US to live with Laura’s parents, and will be finishing school there. Please pray for his adjustment back to life in the US.

In Christ,

Paul, Laura, James, Andrea, Javan, Evelyn, Ingrid, Jowan and Joram Hostetler