Greetings. Thank you all again for your many prayers and kind support this years. We would like to send you this short prayer letter, only a few months after our last letter, to keep you all informed of some new developments in our family and in Betel. We would greatly appreciate your prayers.
MINI-FURLOUGH
We have decided to take a short mini-furlough from March 20th through July 14th in America. Our motives are to give Mary a chance to rest and recover in an English speaking environment and in the presence of her family and friends. This last month has been very difficult for Mary. While she has made progress on many fronts after her brain surgery, she is struggling with panic attacks and adverse reactions to the myriad drugs she has had to take, and simultaneously to the associated abstinence syndromes each time her medication is changed. We are told this is not unusual and that, all in all, Mary is doing well. Nevertheless, she does not feel ‘well’ and is often dizzy and weak. She would welcome your prayers.
If Mary finds rest and refreshment in Wilmington at her mother’s home, I will fly to Thailand for two weeks to participate in Intercom, WEC’s tri-annual leader’s conference, in May. I will also participate in Faith Training Center’s Annual Conference the last week of April in South Carolina. WEC Canada has asked me to speak at their Annual Conference in July. Other than those three commitments, I will be in Wilmington. Believe with us that Mary will be comfortable with these short separations. I have been right at her side since last April.
BETEL SPAIN
This last Saturday Betel of Madrid hosted the National Day of Prayer for the Comunidad de Madrid. Each Region of Spain gathered their churches in a large auditorium for intercession and every Region was connected by internet and conference video allowing the entire Evangelical Body of Christ in Spain to pray together. Betel’s auditorium was full to the walls with representatives from most of the Christian streams in our Region. Truly there is a new ‘Spirit of prayer’ rising up in our midst which bodes well for Spain and the nations.
On March 16th,17th, and 18th we will gather most of the Betel pastors from Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and the UK (Not all of them, but over 50) for a time for us to seek the Lord at our Betania Conference Center in Ciudad Real. Please pray. This will be a very important time. We want to refine our vision and commitments for future advance. We need all of our Betel pastors on the same page and in perfect harmony with the faith declarations we have made and will make at WEC’s Intercom in Thailand in May. We few senior WECCERS who have lead Betel these last 25 years, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, can really give no more than the ‘roar’. It is the indigenous Betel family, born within the house, that has the ‘Lion’s heart’ and makes the greatest sacrifices as we together endeavor to fulfill the Great Commission. Pray. We will discuss and pray over many delicate and difficult internal matters concerning finances, movement of workers, opening and closing centers and churches, families and children, businesses and new ministries and projects.
We need two IT specialists to oversee our worldwide data network for accounting, records, publications, software, and maintenance of our information systems. We also need a sound, video, and TV and engineer, and a graphic designer and media specialist. We have relied for a long time on short term volunteers, but we really need missionaries with these giftings. At least one must be bi-lingual: English/Spanish or willing to study Spanish, as Spanish is the ‘lingua franca’ of Betel in the world.
Give thanks with us. For the first time, after two decades of having to yearly renew our license and certification, the Comunidad de Madrid informed us that they have issued Betel a ‘permanent license’ that will not need to be renewed again. After so many years of semi-persecution and skeptical handling by the Regional government, this comes as a relief and a sign of their respect for our work among the marginalized and addicted. Very few benefic entities have this classification in Spain.
This last Friday I was invited on to the ‘Cesar Vidal’ show in Madrid. It is one of the most watched programs in Spain. He is conservative and Evangelical and one of the best selling Spanish authors, certainly the most prolific modern author (check Wikipedia). He is a cross between O’Reilly and CS Lewis. He speaks 12 languages and is a polymath who knows everything about everything. His appeal and popularity is amazing, especially in the light of the fact that his audience is mostly Catholic and secular. He gave me 20 minutes, which is an eternity on TV, and let me speak to a half million viewers about Betel’s communities, Christ, Missions and my personal testimony.
After the show he called my home at midnight to say how pleased he was with the interview and how positive the audience response was to the program. He suggested we have lunch together and discuss some future projects. Pray.
BETEL INTERNATIONAL
RUSSIA
Pray for Betel of Russia. Demitri and Mario informed me recently that one of our men’s houses in Moscow was intentionally burned to the ground. There was no loss of life, but everything inside was destroyed--our communal property and all the personal belongings of the men. The house was rented from a Baptist Church. It sat near the edge of their property within view of a luxury hotel. The hotel owners had made repeated offers to the Church to buy the house to eliminate the ‘eyesore’. The Church would not sell, so it was burnt down. There is little justice in Russia. We have no recourse. We are rebuilding the house with modular units.
INDIA
Pray for Betel of Calcutta. We are about to lose our only house in Calcutta. The owner of the house we rent has not paid his mortgage in five years and his bank has finally foreclosed on the mortgage. We have been given less than a month to leave. Properties are very difficult to find in that crowded and needy city. Conservative estimates count over 100,000 homeless children on the streets. Who knows how many adults are homeless? If we had five houses in Calcutta, we could fill all five. Pray. A half finished school property is available for $100,000 which would be perfect for a large headquarters and community. They need a miracle. Pray for our ABC (the Asha Bhwan Childrens) Project. Check out our
MOROCCO
Carlos and Leticia have obtained a commercial rental property and have incorporated our first Moroccan legal entity for our first tent making ‘business’ in Morocco. We rejoice cautiously. This month the Moroccan government made a sweep and kicked out 42 Christian missionaries from the country. Please pray for Carlos and Leticia and their little flock and also for other missions and missionaries living and working in Morocco. Someone in government has decided to purge missionaries from Morocco or at least to cower them.
BRAZIL
Fran and Monica informed me today that we now have a community of 16 and a waiting list in our Sao Paulo community. Give thanks with us for all the help they have received from the Brazilian Churches in restoring their property. A Church has agreed to build them a new large multi-use building on the land for another dorm and shops.
We close with our love and look forward to seeing some of you face to face soon. We will be spending the first 10 days in America in NYC with Betel of America and David, Naomi, and Gabriel. Peter has just been accepted for ordination in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) and will be ordained in Wilmington at Myrtle Grove in April. We will be there. Peter, Michelle and little Sophia will again bring two teams of Oxford student to Betel Madrid this summer. Jonathan has been very active with his new ventures: ‘Demotix’ and ‘Variant Perception’. (Check out Youtube for ‘Jonathan Tepper” and you can see some of his interviews on BBC, CNN, Bloomberg, Canadian TV, and TV3 of Barcelona.)
In Christ, Elliott and Mary
C/O WEC, International
PO Box 1707
Ft. Washington, PA 19034
USA
emtepper@yahoo.com or emtepper@betel.org
(34) 629 356652
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