FRM Newsletter
June 2024: We cannot be silent while evil flourishes
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I have many things to cover in this newsletter that are critical. First, many of you may remember last year when we shared the story of one Afghan family in great danger. The mother had immigrated to the U.S. and chose to go back and visit her daughter right after the fall of Afghanistan. This may seem to us to be one of the most foolish decisions ever made. But what I have learned after working in Third World countries is that many people do not have the ability to make good critical decisions. Folks, when people are raised with no education, their critical decision-making skills have never been developed, and Afghan women of that generation were not taught this in school. The Afghan family were Christian, and the father had a small shop. The Taliban had great suspicion that the mother was a spy from the U.S., even though she just wanted to visit her daughter. Her decision would have tragic consequences. So the enemy followed the father to his workplace, and when he did not return from work, the mother went to find him. He had been severely tortured and murdered. After his death, the enemy showed up to let her know that her other very young daughters were to be given to enemy soldiers for marriage. The fact that the girls were very young made no difference. It is common for a ten-year-old girl to be given to a 50 or 60-year-old man. I received a call from Brent, who oversees our operations in Afghanistan. He shared the tragic story with me of how complicated and expensive it would be to get the remaining family into hiding until we could extract them. I green-lighted the operation. It would be a very dangerous mission, and we would have to move the family into a safe house and keep them in hiding. It took months before our team could extract them, but we have now extracted them unharmed and moved them safely out of Afghanistan.
Many of you who gave can take credit for this family being saved Second, I want to share an update on our orphanage project in Ukraine. We have found a great location that is even better than the first. It not only has room for an orphanage but future Bible school as well as a chaplain base. The property is seven acres and has a natural waterway. When the owner found out believers from the U.S. wanted to help Ukrainian orphans, he lowered the price from $180,000 to $140,000. We have raised the complete amount to purchase the property so that the next phase will be the construction of the first dorm for 100 children. For another $250,000, we will be able to complete a kitchen and cafeteria, and the new children’s dorm. We have already raised the first $100,000 and only need another $150,000 to complete the initial phase of the project. One of the ideas is to build the buildings in an Austrian or German Bavarian style so that the children will grow up in a beautiful home and have many happy memories. We are also looking for pastors to come to Ukraine to train the chaplains.
The third thing I need to share is that Far Reaching Ministries (FRM) has shipped a container of Bibles into China. We can share no details so as not to hamper future operations.
The fourth thing we must report is the loss of two more chaplains–Chaplain Jacob Wuoi and Chaplain John Ebele. With the death of three more chaplains in the last year, this brings the total to 76 chaplains lost since the beginning of the ministry. Jacob joined the chaplaincy program in 2019. He fell ill one evening and was gone by morning. Being in South Sudan, he was buried the next day, and whatever took him, we will never know. Jacob had graduated in Class 11 and served for four years before he was summoned home by our Lord Jesus Christ.
John was shot and killed. He never knew his mother as she died in childbirth. His father was not in the picture, and John was put in an orphanage. It was at the orphanage that he became a believer. John graduated from Class Two in 2000. He said that he had a dream
one night, and the Lord told him he would go to a great college. He pondered what this meant because South Sudan had no great college. He later said that he realized it was the FRM chaplaincy training program the Lord was showing him. He served faithfully for over 20 years and was taken from us by a bullet, which is considered a merciful way to die in South Sudan. In a moment, he stepped on the other side to be greeted by more than 70 of his fellow chaplains who had gone before him. Both John and Jacob are now considered to have been dispatched to Unit Seven of the Chaplain Corp–the unit that has journeyed to our Lord’s Kingdom.
As a last note, we are still sending funds to Israel. I want to be very clear that FRM supports Israel 100 percent. I had one individual who sent a letter in support of Hamas. They did not sign the letter. They wanted to complain about a child being killed because of an air strike. When Enemies, who are cowards, put rockets on top of hospitals, nursery schools, kindergartens and every kind of civilian infrastructure, this type of tragedy will happen. If that individual would like to provide their name and address, I would be glad to send the testimonies of captured Enemies boasting about putting a baby in an oven and turning it on and leaving the child to be cooked alive, or Enemy soldiers firing machine guns into a room of four- and five-year-old until the screams stopped. There is also the rape of every age women from pre-teen to the elderly. This is the act of the worst kind of evil and no one has the right to excuse it or defend it.
Lastly, the Bible says God will bless those who bless Israel. I want to encourage all of you to go and watch the speech from the ambassador from Israel to the U.N.. It is one of the best speeches I have ever heard. If you support Enemies over Israel, I must warn you one day, you will stand before a Holy God and be condemned. As I write this, I do not write in anger but because many are misinformed. We have a great problem in our nation today of men and pastors not addressing hard truths. In Revelation 21 God says the cowardly will not inherit the kingdom of God. As believers, we cannot be silent while evil flourishes. If Enemies were in charge of all the students who are rioting in support of them, or people who have signs that say “Gays for Hamas”, should know that Hamas would kill them if they were in control. Hamas has refused to ever negotiate with Israel. They have said the only solution is the complete destruction and death of the Jewish people and state. A young man whose father was one of the founding members of Hamas, a prince among his own people because of whom his father was, defected to the west. He eventually became a Christian. He said one of the reasons he defected was because of how cruel Hamas was to their own people-Palestinians. This is a man who could have had everything but recognized evil for what it was.
For the love of God’s chosen people.
Wes Bentley
Far Reaching Ministries