“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
~ James 5:16a  ~

Great is the Lord’s faithfulness. He is mighty to save and gracious to sustain us in the faith. He is the one who builds His church in accordance with His promises. One of the ways that the Lord has given us to see His faithfulness is through prayer. Prayer directs our attention to depend upon God and in the end give Him all the glory. Thank you for your prayers for Iglesia Bautista Reformada Antorcha (IBRA). My hope is that this update would help you see more of God’s faithfulness and bring Him praise. I would like to update you on the work in IBRA, our work together with other churches, and briefly how we have been as the Mudge family.

        The Lord has been gracious to continue to edify IBRA by the verse-by-verse studies in Genesis and Revelation. It is beautiful to see how the major themes of the Bible connect in the first and last books of the Bible.  We are currently in chapter nine of Genesis studying the Noahic Covenant and in chapter twenty-two of Revelation studying about the Lord's return.  The church has continued to grow slowly in the number of people who are attending.  We have also seen the saints growing in obedience and love for Christ.  

This past April we celebrated an answer to prayer in the ordination of a new deacon Jaír Vallecillo.  Jaír has been a great blessing and a godly example to our young church.  It is a joy to see the church affirm that he lives out the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3:8-13.  We have prayed for the past few years to see the Lord raise up new office bearers in the church.  Praise Him for His kindness.

        In the past few months God has given us various opportunities to be working with other like-minded churches. In April we had an edifying conference on Covenant Theology led by Pastor Jorge Rodriguez from Iglesia Bautista Gracia Soberana in Ecuador.

During that same week we had the blessing of visiting Iglesia Bautista Reformada Gracia y Verdad in El Salvador and I was invited to teach on the regulative principle of worship.

        In May, I was blessed with the opportunity to attend the pastor’s conference of Iglesia Bautista de North Bergen. I was also encouraged by visiting two sister churches in New York on the same trip (Christ the King Reformed Baptist Church and Poland Baptist Church).