WEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA
  “I’m seeing things I’ve never seen before.”
That’s what Jordan Adams said the morning after a three-hour, standing-room-only worship service where his church plant baptized 38 college students.
“Seeing auditoriums overflow and students get baptized—this has been way more than we ever imagined.”
Jordan Adams“When we came in 2023, I knew God was going to work,” he says. “But I never imagined auditoriums overflowing, all these people getting baptized—this is more than anything we ever could’ve dreamed up.”
Jordan and his wife, Jessamy, are church planting missionaries in West Lafayette, Indiana, the home of Purdue University. “There are 41,000 students here,” Jessamy says, “and most of them are at that stage of life where they’re looking for something to live for. That makes this a perfect place to plant a church.”
Now, students can leave Purdue with something more valuable than a college degree. “We have students meeting Christ, getting discipled, then graduating saying, ‘Where’s the next church plant? I want to move there,’ ” Jordan says. “We’re sending them out as ambassadors for Christ. Now, I’m certain God’s going to change our world, and He’s going to do it through college students.”
Prayer Requests

• Thousands of students to meet Jesus at Purdue.
• God to send mature adults to the Adams’ church plant who can disciple new believers.
• God to equip and send graduating students to other communities where they can help plant more new churches.

TAPPAHANNOCK, VIRGINIA
  It’s such a small, simple word.
And yet, for church planting missionaries Fred and Casey Weymouth, “fix” is a multipurpose word with a variety of meanings—some sad, some sacred.
In a previous life, Fred and Casey were homeless heroin addicts, and a “fix” was a shameful thing. “We spent many nights sleeping in the backseat of our car,” Fred says. “Every waking moment was chasing the next fix.” But when Fred and Casey met Christ, “something,” Casey says, “got rearranged inside us. We’d been through every program and nothing worked until we came to the Lord. Turns out, Jesus was our fix. He transformed us and called us to ministry.”
The United States consumes more illicit drugs than any other country.

Source: World Population ReviewFred and Casey started a residential recovery and discipleship program for those trapped in addiction and living on the streets of Richmond. It was appropriately enough called “The Fix.” Out of that grew a church plant that now ministers to those in recovery, their families, and the local community. “We’re seeing things we never thought possible,” Fred says. “We have junkies receiving Christ, then never picking up a needle again. Only Jesus can make that happen. He is the ultimate Fix.”
Prayer Requests

• Students in The Fix’s recovery and discipleship program to grow in their walk with Christ.
• More encounters on the streets of Richmond that lead to gospel conversations.
• Opportunities for Fred and Casey to start similar ministries and church plants in other cities.

TAPPAHANNOCK, VIRGINIA
  Will Buchanan cleans up well.
Every Sunday morning, Will, the pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Hanover, Virginia, shows up wearing his best gray suit. He’s definitely not what he once was.
“Will’s like an altar of remembrance. People see him and say, “Wow, look what God’s done in his life—I know he must have a purpose for me too.”
Fred Weymouth“I used to be lost in addiction,” he says. “First it was pills, then heroin. And if I could’ve found anything worse, I would’ve done that too. But then God radically changed me, and now I don’t even look like the person I used to be.”
Will is one of Fred Weymouth’s favorite success stories. They met when Will was at his drug-addicted worst, not long after Fred, along with his wife, Casey, started The Fix, a church plant and residential recovery program aimed at reaching people who are struggling with homelessness, drug addiction, and alcoholism.
“We spend a year with people,” Fred says. “We walk them through recovery, we teach them about Jesus, and now we also make sure we introduce them to Will. When he came here, God made him a new person. Our students see him pastoring and can know God has a plan for their lives, too.”
Prayer Requests

• God to thoroughly equip Will so he can lead his new church well.
• The men and women at The Fix to discover the gospel purpose God has for their lives.
• Fred and others at The Fix to build witnessing relationships with people who need healing and hope.

MONTREAL, QUEBEC
  “At first, people look at you like you’re a unicorn.”
That’s the initial reaction Andrew Mark and Petra Adil get when they strike up gospel conversations with people in downtown Montreal.
In Montreal, only 0.7% of the population identifies as evangelical.
“Quebec is less than 1% evangelical and very ethnically diverse,” Andrew Mark says. “So when people here meet a Christian, they’re actually very curious. They ask all kinds of questions like, ‘How can we know the Bible is true?’ or ‘What’s the difference between your God and my god?’ ”
Every Friday night, Andrew Mark and his evangelism team— “And when we say, ‘team’ ” he says, “we mean our whole church” —go out to the busy sidewalks lined with restaurants and shops to talk with people. “Answering questions, sharing the gospel,” he says, “it’s our favorite thing to do.”
It’s not surprising, then, that their church plant is growing faster than anyone ever imagined. “For us to baptize ten people in our first year and then to double in size in less than two years—that’s unheard of in Montreal,” Andrew Mark says. “Only a big God can take a small church plant like ours and do such amazing things.”
Prayer Requests

• More fruit to come from Friday night on-the-street gospel conversations.
• God to call and equip church planting interns out of Andrew Mark’s church who will help plant more new works.
• More Christians to come and share Christ with the 99% of people in Quebec who are lost.

MARRERO, LOUISIANA
Church business meetings are not normally fertile ground for happy accidents.
But Ames Boulevard Baptist Church’s tiny remnant of elderly members unintentionally set a miracle in motion when they voted to hire Troy Gause to mow their grass.
Every year, 7-800 SBC churches cease to exist.
“That’s how I got to know the church,” Troy says. “I started taking care of their property and learned how they’d dwindled down to just a few faithful members. They were probably just a couple months away from closing their doors.”
When longtime Ames members like Linda Morrow realized “Troy Gause, Landscaper” was also “Troy Gause, Church Planting Missionary,” they began to pray.
“He’d just started a church but needed a place to meet,” she says. “When we met, it was so clear God was putting us together to replant something new.”
Now, the sign out front says Cross Community Church, and the name is not the only thing that’s changed. “There’s life back in this building,” Troy says, “Baptisms are happening, salvations are happening, and this church has been raised from the dead.”
Prayer Requests

• Humility and understanding as members of Cross Community Church face change.
• The new believers Troy has baptized to grow in their faith.
• Growth and a gospel witness that the surrounding community will see and be drawn to.

MARRERO, LOUISIANA
It was the parking lot that got their attention.
Leon and Javon Every had been driving by the Baptist church on Ames Boulevard for years, but they’d never seen anything momentous happening there. It wasn’t until one morning when they noticed a suddenly packed parking lot that their curiosity got the better of them.
“Seeing all the people we’ve baptized since we replanted here—it says something to the community. It says God’s not finished with Marrero, Louisiana.”
Troy Gause“Out of the blue,” Javon says, “we said, ‘We should go to that church.’ So the next Sunday, we went. And the rest is history.”
That new life at an old church was the result of God calling church planting missionaries Troy and Chanel Gause. They joined with the struggling congregation of what had been Ames Boulevard Baptist Church and, together, they birthed Cross Community Church to reach people like the Everys.
“The Everys were unchurched,” Troy says. “We got to know them and learned that even though they’d been together for 35 years, they weren’t married.”
“They gave us a beautiful wedding, and we kept going back every Sunday,” Javon says. “We brought our family, and seven of our kids and grandkids got saved. It’s amazing. I always wanted us all to follow Jesus, and this new church—this is how it happened.”
Prayer Requests

• More of Leon and Javon’s family to hear the gospel and give their lives to Christ.
• God to draw more unchurched families from the surrounding community to the new church.
• Troy and Chanel to continue to faithfully represent Christ and His kingdom.

RÍO GRANDE, PUERTO RICO
  Their church plant is small. But their vision is big.
When Oscar Ortiz started Iglesia Bautista Esperanza Eterna in Río Grande, Puerto Rico, he knew one new church would not be enough.
“We desperately needed to plant more churches. So did we wait until we had more people? No. We prayed for help. And God answered.”
Oscar Ortiz“Here, there are 46,000 people and almost no gospel witness,” Oscar says. “We can’t wait until we have lots of people and resources. We need to plant more churches now.”
Fortunately, Oscar and his wife, Wendy, have help. Send Relief, Southern Baptists’ compassion ministry arm, is sending volunteer mission teams to Loíza, a needy community where Oscar and Wendy hope to plant another new work. “Loíza is a spiritually dark place,” Wendy says, “but by serving the community, Send Relief is helping open doors for us there. They’re repairing homes and enabling us to build witnessing relationships.”
Now, a foundation is being laid for what will one day be a new church in Loíza. “We want to be a church plant that plants churches,” Oscar says. “And even though we’re small, now we’re seeing how God is able to do so much more with us than we can imagine.”
Prayer Requests

• Send Relief teams to connect Oscar and Wendy to more people in Loíza who are open to hearing the gospel.
• God to raise up leaders in the church plant who can help start and grow a new work in Loíza.
• Doors to open in other nearby communities that need a gospel presence.

Annie Armstrong featured missionaries know better than just about anyone else that the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering is more than a gift. Every one of these missionaries has stories to tell about the unexpected and miraculous things God does when you pray and give.
PRAY FOR:

• North American missionaries to reach more lost people who need the hope and love of Christ
• North American missionaries to have the resources and encouragement they need to plant churches and meet needs
• God to call and equip more missionaries to make Jesus known in North America