Nina Hoblitz
Dear Friends and Prayer Partners,
This prayer letter might reach some of you after Christmas but whether you receive it before or after we want to wish you all a most blessed Christmas season and thank you with all of our hearts for your faithful love, prayers, support and gifts for our ministry in 2021.
We were so busy and blessed at Thanksgiving that we did not have time to thank each of you for your part in God’s ministry here. Our church was packed for Thanksgiving and we have attached (look below at the end of Dr. Lini’s letter) a picture of our service. One young lady from a very closed country was at the service and had never heard about Jesus. She is in her mid-twenties. After our service, we explained The Gospel to her, we answered her many questions and then
she received Christ.
We must also report to you with great joy, that our Iranian church is flourishing with God’s blessing. We conducted a three day Bible Seminar in the Farsi language. The church was full and thousands of people listened online. We have also purchased a wonderful bus to bring people from the refugee center to the church services. People from many countries arrive with the clothes on their back to Georgia seeking safety from persecution.
We will mention again, one family from Pakistan was thankful for the refugee center because it protected them from a hit squad that was sent to kill them. The hit squad could not enter the center and therefore returned to their country. Georgia offers housing for the refugees but nothing more. We are able by God’s grace and your gifts, to take food and donated good used clothing from our church students who return to their home countries with limited luggage allowed.
Many of these refugees that we are working with, and asylum seekers that Pastor Reza contacts, speak Farsi, Russian and English. Many have come to Christ and we have discipled them with a ten lesson course by Dr. Don Fanning (we have had the course translated into Farsi and Russian). We have also baptized many of them (a hundred and twenty to date). Pastor Reza is really being used by God. He learns fast and has almost completed his Bible seminary training that you all helped provide.
We are also so happy to share with you Pastor Beso Jr’s progress. He is responding well to his pastoral training that we give him. His ministry is growing. His family gave us land in the village he is church planting in, and we have received permission from the government to construct a building there for church purposes. The building should be complete by the middle of January. There are over five thousand people in the villages he is working in (connecting villages).
We thought we would just include Dr. Lini’s latest report in our prayer letter so you can get to know her and her labors for our Lord better. We haven’t changed her wording just put her report into paragraphs for easier reading. Also, we haven’t added anything to her report just a few parentheses to clarify some things. We know you will enjoy this personal word from Dr. Lini.
Here is her report:
Dear friends and family in Christ,
Greetings in the magnificent name of our Lord Jesus Christ! I pray that this letter finds you and your family well. Thank you so much for your prayers and support .I really appreciate it and it means a lot. The Lord’s been so faithful! (All of our churches stayed open – when Dr. Lini speaks of church she is talking about her Christian Indian student fellowships that are conducted on Sundays). Praise God for all that He is doing.
Amidst the pandemic we still have a lot of happenings in Georgia. Hallelujah!!! By God’s grace we never cancelled any meetings in the Church. Though there was lockdown , the Church was still open and we had regular meetings . We have meetings every day. All the 7 days of a week. Thank God for His faithfulness. The Lord Almighty protected us from every government official restriction that could have set us back. (Dr. Lini holds campus meetings and prayer meetings and has recently started a separate meeting for new believers).
We also had mission trips to Islamic regions in Georgia . The Almighty Lord enabled us to go more than 40 Muslim villages and share the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We also have active medical missions ( medical camps going to unreached villages).
Moreover the Lord is also blessing our campus ministry. We have student evangelism programs on a regular basis. We have had many new decisions for the Lord . Praise God. We were also able to start a new fellowship or gathering on Sundays besides the morning and evening service, just for non believers and the new believers on Sunday afternoon. All glory to our Lord Jesus. I kindly request your prayers that the young generations will rise up in the land of Georgia.
Last Saturday we had wonderful street evangelism where a team of young missionaries from United States joined us. It was a blessing indeed! To our surprise we hardly had rejections after a very long time. People in Georgia need God, They are seeking God.
Testimones:
1 )We came across a young man named Luka who became an atheist two years ago in the month of October. Right after two years in the month of October he happened to meet some of our Indians on the street who shared the Gospel. He was surprised and so he responded saying he wants to consider this Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2)There was this another lady named Rusana who’s baby was suffering with Meningitis and cerebral palsy. This lady was in a hopeless state. We could share the Gospel with her ,she was open and asked us to visit her home. God willing we will be meeting her soon. Please pray that her eyes will be open to know the truth that the only hopegiver is our Lord Jesus.
3)We were also able to meet 4 Indian families and we were able to share the Gospel with them.
There was this one man who was an atheist suffering from Sciatica. This man challenged us saying if there is a God , He should heal him .Please pray that there will be a divine intervention in his life.
4) An Indian girl named Haritha from a Hindu background who’s family members are priests in the temples ,and she was a dancer in the temple since her childhood, had received the Lord and got baptized in the month of July. But since 3 weeks she was suffering from severe headache. When she went to the hospital the doctors had diagnosed her with a brain tumor. She was totally shattered and was filled with sorrow. Once the diagnosis was confirmed she came running to church and shared this bad news with pain. We all prayed together and tried encouraging her with the Word. By evening her parents had booked the ticket and the next day she was flying to India which was not a good idea though because of the spiritual atmosphere. We were just praying that her parents wouldn’t force her to visit temples during her stay in India.
Anyways the next day she had appointment in the hospital and the doctors initially said she had tumor. They asked her to do a further diagnosis. The International Baptist Church and the student fellowship were praying fervently. And to her surprise the result of diagnostic tests was calcium deposits in brain and not a tumor. She thanked and praised God and in two days she travelled back to Georgia. The Lord helped her to grow in her faith. She received a clear vision of the sovereignty of our God.
There are many more wonderful testimonies but I would conclude with this…by saying we have a very big God who is always by our side! We do have a lot of challenges but we completely put our trust in The Lord Jesus who promised us never will I leave you nor forsake you.
Future ministry plans:
We need prayers, support and God’s grace for the
- Evangelism training for the youths
- Field operation .(mission trips)
- Medical missions .
- Sharing the Gospel and having an effective ministry for the Lord in 35 university campuses in Tbilisi.
- Reaching out to the student community in Kutaisi. etc (Kutaisi is Georgia’s second largest city).
- To start a Christian mission hospital for the poor.
- And also we need prayers for a bigger church hall.
(That is a prayer request our International Church and all our daughter churches also have).
Please do continue praying for Georgia and our team here. We can see the harvest is plentiful…
Last but not the least, once again I kindly request you to please pray for me and the ministry here. It means a lot. And thank you all for your valuable prayers and support.. So, I kindly ask all of you-to please join us with your precious prayers to work efficiently in this land of Georgia which is a great mission field. They need to know the truth. I really pray and wish for the salvation of Georgia.
Once again Thank you so much for the sacrifices you make to bless the kingdom of God even giving us your blessings to join in what God invited us to do. “I thank God for faithful, Godly family members. We need your support. Thank you for your love and faithfulness to Lord Jesus and your commitment to righteousness!
Thank you! We are on the winning side! Dr. Lini George
