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Wednesday, 18 February 2009

  • Currently
    Why I Am Not a Muslim
    By Ibn Warraq
    see related

    BACK AGAIN

    It's been a while since I have updated this site! I was checking my home page and saw in the footprints that 93 people have viewed this site this week. I now have a facebook and a blogspot page but quite frankly I do not have the time to blog every day or  every week.
    In November I was in Grenada to launch a new study center for Miami International Seminary (MINTS). We had about 70 students for the first class. In December I was back in Grenada with Rev. Dr. Richard Wolfe (MTW Director for the Caribbean). We both taught a class and had close to 90 students! Our MINTS director in Grenada is Rev. John Lewis (MIA missionary) and is doing a terrific job.
    In December we host a MTW medical team and move our church to a temporay but more permanent facility. We are now looking for property to purchanse and build. Two weeks ago, we had 5 adult professions of faith and baptisms. The Lord contiues to bless our work and for that we are grateful.
    I have posted so pictures of the last few months ministry.


    The official lauch of our MINTS center in Grenada

    Rev. John Lewis, Rev. McGee, Mininster of Education in Grenada
    Rev. Dr. Walford Thompson (President of MIA and one of the
    founding fathers of MINTS.

    Students in Grenada MINTS center

    Yours truely teaching the book of Romans in Grenada

    Rev. Dr. Richard Wolfe teaching in Grenada

Sunday, 24 August 2008

  • Currently Reading
    Landmines in the Path of the Believer: Avoiding the Hidden Dangers
    By Charles F. Stanley
    see related

    BACK IN THE USA

      
    Wow its been another 2 months since I have updated! Time indeed flies when you are having fun or if you are very busy. Both of the above is true in my case. So here is the update on the McGees and Mission Trinidad.
     

     In July, we had a VBS team from South Carolina come to minister in our Carlsen Field mission station. The team was led by Al and Lisa Gemmen who recently graduated from Columbia International Seminary in Columbia, SC. Al and Lisa brought 11 of their young people from their youth group along with another adult leader. They spent 7 days with our Carlsen Field children and worked 3 days on the LOGOS II mission ship. Al and Lisa did a great job in leading this team and IMHO they are superb leaders. THANKS, AL & LISA FOR A GREAT JOB!
    Adanna and the kids left for the US  on July 18 to attend the RYS convention in Minneapolis.

    On August 1st, I received a ministry team of 22 people from Maryland. This team was led by Pastor Jace Broadhurst, who is a graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, Florida and a PhD candidate at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia. Jace taught two classes at our Mars Hill Institute (MINTS center). His team taught a VBS in Caroni village. They had about 45 in attendance. This is an amazing attendence since this area is a predominately Hindu area. One of the team members is a nurse and she was able to minister to those who needed health care. This was an excellent VBS team due to their organization and the material that they used (Reachout Bible Adventures).  Jace is also a very gifted teacher and an excellent Old Testament scholar. I have invited him to join our MINTS team in the Caribbean. This means he will be writing many of our OT courses in our MINTS format and teaching in our MINTS centers as time permits. This team departed on the 10th of August. However, God used them to open the door for us to begin a weekly Bible study in the Caroni area which, we pray, will lead to a church plant.

    On August 8th we had 73 dental students from the MTW and the Medical College of Georgia invade us! They came to provide free dental care to the people of Trinidad. We set up a clinic at the compound of the Aramalaya Presbyterian Church. We bused in patients each day and even had a special day for those who listen to our radio broadcast and the employees of 98.1 radio station. At the end of the week they were able to see over 500 patients. They did check ups, cleaning, root canals and extractions.

    On August 15th I left Trinidad for the US to join my family for a much needed vacation. We spent a week in Pittsburgh at Adanna's parents home and then drove to Atlanta. I had a meeting with MTW on Friday and today we worshiped at the First Baptist Church of Atlanta, where Dr. Charles Stanley pastors. Dr. Stanley has had a tremendous impact on my life and the life of my wife and two oldest children. We were members of FBC, ATL during the 80's and it was under the preaching of Dr. Stanley that I was called into the ministry. We were able to see and talk to Dr. Stanley after the service. Hannah, Joshua and Geneva were able to meet him as well. Next week we will be in Orlando and will be able to worship for 2 Lord's Days at St. Andrews Chapel and be under the teaching ministry of Dr. RC Sproul. God used Dr. Sproul to open my eyes to the Reformed Faith and make my transition from Baptist to Presbyterianism.

    My schedule for the last part of Semptember - October will be packed with traveling and teaching.  I have two classes to finish at our institute in Trinidad when I return. In October I will be in Belize to teach NT Greek in our MINTS center and then on the 15th of October Rev. Dr. Richard Wolfe and I will travel to Grenada to lauch a new MINTS center.  At the end of October Dr. Boodhoo from Florida International University will come to Trinidad to teach Church history.

    That's it for now. Tomorrow we will travel to Orlando where we will spend the next two weeks with our 2 oldest children and 5 grandchildren! Thanks for all your prayers and God Bless!

    Below are some pictures of the past 2 months.

    AL GEMMEN'S TEAM: FRIDAY NIGHT YOUTH NIGHT AT THE McGEE'S

     

    JACE BROADHURST'S TEAM




Thursday, 26 June 2008

  • Currently Reading
    Dialogues and Natural History of Religion (Oxford World's Classics)
    By David Hume
    see related

    ANOTHER MONTH IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

    I can't believe it has been almost 2 months since I have updated! A lot has been happening in the past few months so I will try and bring everyone up to date. First of all, the crime here has been on the increase! So far this year, we have had 252 murders! If this keep up, we will easily hit 500+ for the year. I was coming back from the US last New Years and remember reading a US paper and seeing how many murders took place in the major cities in the US.  We had more murders in Trinidad/Tobago than they had in NY city or Houston, TX. Both of these cities about double the population of Trinidad/Tobago.This past weekend we had 3 kidnappings here in Central Trinidad.
    So as you read this, please keep us in your prayers as we go about our daily routine in ministry.
    Over the past 2 months, I was able to teach 6 classes in our MINTS study center here. So far we have completed 2 courses since February. In July, we will begin a new course on systematic theology. We expect at least 3 more students to join. Next weekend I will be in St. Vincent to finish a course in Historical Theology. They will take their summer break and get prepared for graduation in the fall. They plan on graduating 40 students!
    Our church in Central is continuing to grow. We have new visitors each week and brought in a new member this past Lord's Day. I continue to preach through the Heidelberg Catechism and the congregation seems to enjoy the in depth teaching. Most of our congregation comes from a Pentecostal background so doctrinal preaching is something that is quite new to them.
    Our two radio broadcast continue to do very well. Since we began the Ligonier broadcast in February, we have sent out over 1000 CDs. We give a free offer each week and offer (for sale) many of Dr. Sproul's teaching materials on CD, DVD or in book form.
    We are preparing for a VBS team to come in July and then a medical team of 93 med students to arrive in August! After that, I hope to join my family in the US for about a month of rest!
    We are expecting 2 couples to come down this summer to observe the work here to see if there is where God may be leading them. We do need help! So please pray with us that God will soon send 1 or 2 couples here to join in our labors!
    Currently we have a MTW missionary couple that are in the process of raising support to join our work here. They need about $1800.00 more per month before they can make a move. Please join us in prayer that they will soon have these funds raise. Ron and Peg were missionaries in Equador and came back to the US about 2 years ago. They have been looking for a new field of service and it seems that Trinidad is where they want to be.
    Ron has extensive radio experience and will be a great help to us here in our radio and church planting efforts. We are ready to go into a new area to begin a weekly study but Ricky and I cannot take on any more work.
    Jerry Bridges has come out with a new book that I encourage all to read "Respectable Sins."  It is so easy in our fallen nature to point the finger at others and cast judgment upon them. We like to point out certain sins as particularly evil and ignore or even approve of transgressions that we often consider more trivial. In this book, Jerry Bridges looks at some of these so called "trivial" sins such as judgmentalism, anger, discontentment, selfishness, pride, gossip, slander, tale-bearing and others. He helps us learn to reonize these "trivial" sins as real sins and just as offensive to God and the so-called "big" sins!
    Many times we slander and gossip about others under the guise of "concern" or asking for prayer for someone. I think this book is very helpful to point out these "trivial" sins that are often tolerated in the church and reminds us of God's perspective on such sins. This book is available through Ligonier Ministries.
    Below are a few pics of what has been going on:


    We finally took a day off for some R&R. We were celebrating our 25th anniversary with our
    children at the beach.


    Hannah on her 19th birthday. We had the Gosyne family over for dinner and of course
    cake!


    Our daughter, Jennifer, and four of our grandchildren. I was able to spend a day with them during
    my recent trip to Orlando to meet with the folks at Ligonier International.


    My son-in-law, Jon, with some of our grandchildren (and his children too)


    Patrick Dyer. He is one of the broadcast engineers who is with me in studio for our
    all night broadcast.


    This is the Hindu god Hunaman (the Monkey god). This is the largest idol outside India. He resides about
    10 miles from our home in Central, Trinidad.


    This is Joshua reminding everyone just how big this idol is compared to the Yahweh, the True and Living God!

Monday, 28 April 2008

  • Currently Listening
    Don Francisco's Signature Songs
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    ANOTHER WEEKEND IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

    My neighborhood is bigger than Trinidad. I was in St. Vincent over the weekend teaching a class in our MINTS study center. Between classes (Friday night and Saturday afternoon), I taught a 3 hours seminar on Suicide prevention. Those who attended the seminar were students, pastors and professional care people who work with those who have attempted suicide. On Sunday morning I preached at the church in the mountains called Hill Top Pentecostal Church. The pastor is in our master's program at MINTS. All in all, it was an interesting weekend and I a glad to be back home.
    Today is our anniversary. Adanna and I have been married for 25 years!
    Here are some pictures from the weekend!


    The "Island Hopper" Just landed in St. Vincent


    Saturday morning's class on Suicide Prevention.



    Students


    Preaching Sunday Morning


    The lady in the picture is a member of Hill Top Church. She is the wife of St.Vincent's
    ambassador to Cuba. She is originally from Cuba and has been living there with her
     husband for the past 3 years. We discussed how MINTS and Mission Trinidad can
    help get teaching materials the churches in Cuba. I will be working on a shipment from
    Ligonier since she is part of an Evangelical group that reaches out to English speaking international
    aid workers.

Wednesday, 23 April 2008

  • Currently Listening
    The Early Works
    By Don Francisco
    see related

    I'M BACK

    I can't believe it has been almost two months since I have update my xanga site. A lot has happened over the past few months that have kept us busy! So here goes the update.
    In February we launched our Ligonier office. The office is set up in my study, where we produce teaching CDs, stock books and the Reformation Study Bible. We continue to get many calls from the radio broadcast and are able to send out a free offer each week. Dr. Sproul's teaching is being well received here in Trinidad! We thank God for this valuable partnership in enabling us to ground God's People in sound theology.
    Also, in February we launched Mars Hill Institute of Biblical Theology. Our first class began with nine students. I taught the first part of Historical Theology. The students had their first exam on Saturday.We pick up with part two on May 9th. We are looking to have about fifteen students enrolled by that time. I leave for St. Vincent in Friday to teach in our MINTS center there and to teach a seminar to church leaders on suicide prevention.
    In March we hosted 25 students from Reformed University Fellowship (RUF), Wake Forest University, NC. This was a wonderful team and accomplished a lot in their 7 day short term trip! They helped me set up the equipment that Ligonier sent down to reproduce CD'/DVDs and to print labels directly to the CD/DVD. I have never seen a machine like this! I can burn 10 CDs/DVDs at one time and print the label directly to the disk! This team went right to work and had the equipment running in a couple of  hours. They also set up a new  blog page for me at: www.missiontrinidad.blogspot.com/. In the mornings, some of the team members went to Carlsen Field to work on our Sunday School building for the children and another team went to Pastor Ricky's home to work on his house. In the afternoons they held a bible study for the kids in Carlsen Field and played soccer with them. At the end of the week it was very hard for them to leave because they really bonded with the kids there.
    After the RUF team left we hosted MTW's Advance Medical Leadership Training team. A team of 33 doctors, nurses and medical providers were here for  a week of mission training. Part of their training was setting up two on site clinics. We are looking forward to another team to arrive in August.
    Our two radio broadcast continue to do well. The Lord is indeed blessing His Word. We continue to receive calls each day regarding information about our school, books, bibles, church etc...Sometimes it gets crazy and we have to unplug the phone! If not, we would get calls all night especially during the broadcast from 12:00am - 4:00 am.The first night we were on the air Adanna got a call at 2:00 am! She learned very quickly how to unplug the phone.
    The church continues to grow as well. When the medical team left in January, we had over 60 people attend the next Sunday and each week since the attendance has been steady with new visitors almost each week. We hope to baptize the first person to make profession of faith from Carlsen Field next month.
    Below are some photos from the past few months







    RUF team members working at Pastor Ricky's home


    Sunday afternoon lunch with the RUF team



    RUF team working in Carlsen Field on our Sunday School building

    Teaching in St. Vincent


    Preaching in St. Vincent in one of our student's congregation

    Hannah working on sending out Ligonier material to those who called during the Ligonier broadcast.


    We celebrated Adanna's birthday on March 1st! She still looks good at ??? doesn't she?


    In the studio broadcasting "All Night With Ligonier Ministries"
    One of the RUF team members worked with World Vision Radio in
    Texas. So our broadcast engineer let her behind the "mike"

    Our first Ligonier CD production from the RUF team members who
    worked on getting the equipment "up and running"


    This is Richard! He is a student at our MINTS center here and works for Pizza Hut as a delivery person.
    He also delivers product for our Ligonier ministry and delivers our mail to the post office.
    He is a huge blessing to us!

    Some of our kids from church and Carlsen Field enjoying  a meal during our
    monthly "fellowship" meal.


    Saying our goodbye to the RUF team the night before their departure!

coconutsteve

  • Visit coconutsteve's Xanga Site
    • Name: Steve
    • Country: Trinidad And Tobago
    • Gender: Male
    • Member Since: 6/4/2005

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