Quarterly Publication 8 3 2012

8/2/2019 Quarterly Publication 8 3 2012

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One of the ways we are

responding to the eco-

nomic stress of this re-

gion is by increased gen-

erosity. Our former

benevolence to needy

individuals was com-pr i sed o f twe l ve

“beneficiaries”, who

were either individuals

or small, one-parent

families & mostly wid-

ows, elderly, young

struggling mothers, blind,

HIV/AIDS patients, or

disabled persons. Begin-

ning November 2011,

Mesi & I, along with our international Chris-

tian friends, added eleven more needy per-

sons to the list of beneficiaries. One was anelderly disabled man whose wife is blind &

with whom he shares four children. The

remaining “Ten” are the ten poorest church

members of the local evangelical church to

which Mesi formerly belonged. We struck a

“compact of kindness” with this local fellow-

ship, called Tehadeso (Reformed) Church,

for the purpose of assisting them to assist

their own poor saints. The gesture has been

gladly received & together with the deacons

of the church, we have been delivering food

baskets to their humble, smiling saints.

Tears were shed, hearts were strengthened,& prayers were answered. The only require-

ment we made was these poor saints take a

portion of their food basket to give to a

poor neighbor for the purpose of sharing the

name of Christ through the means of kind-

ness. The “Ten” will, just as the others to

whom we are evangelistically serving, receive

this benevolence package once a month.

During Christmas time, those in our interna-tional fellowship also added some Christmas

gifts. We are so thankful for your giving and

your partnering with us to impact the lives of

poor Christians & their lost neighbors simul-

taneously for the name of Jesus. This is actu-

ally a new approach of ours to a common

method of benevolence in which we normally

minister; but after the Lord answered our

prayers in giving us a partnership with this

church & its needy, we had to ask ourselves,

“Why we had not been so thoughtful to ask

for this before?” Possibly in a zeal for mis-

sions & evangelism, we had overlooked a verypowerful evangelistic tool: God’s own people,

when they have hearts which rejoice in His

goodness & have reason to share with others

of the glory of His Son Jesus Christ. And,

God’s Word has been working on all of us,

increasing tenderness of heart inside us! DM

~THE TEHADESO TEN~

For He delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper.~ Psalm 72:12

LAST CALL

MINISTRIES

March 2012ISSUE VII

Doug & Mesi

Special points of

interest:

Ministering to the

needs of the poor &

needy. . .

Use the Color

Coded Prayer Cal-

endar to Pray for

us!!!!!!

Meet other Partners

Visit us on Face-

book (see back)

Freedom (back)

Inside this issue:

Cover Story:

The TehadesoTen

C

Color Coded

Calendar

2

Partnership with

Signs of Peace

3

Support Part-

ners in Deaf

Ministry

3

Contact Info 4

Still Kicking!!

Football sponsor-

ship article

4



Lord’s Day Worship ~AM

Boys’ Home Bible Study Ministry ~PM

Monday Chronological Bible Classes ~PM

Tuesday Prayer Meeting ~PM

TBS (Truth Bible Study) @ Orphanage ~PM

Benevolence Home Visits—Food Basket Drops ~AM

Tigrinya Language Classes ~AM

Lord’s Day Preparations PM

Freedom Football Game; Afternoon

Page 2 Doug & Mesi

March 2012

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 23

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 14 15 1617

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 3031



Page 3

Cool stuff! The couple

that I was honored to

marry in the Lord, Jona-than Bucklew & Feven

Zegeye, are serving the

Lord by partnering with

us, supporting our minis-

tries to the poor & needy,

to ex-pats, to orphans and

to those who haven’t heard

the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But Jonathan grew up with

deaf parents, and has skills

in sign language valuable to

the mission work in Ethio-

pia. Jonathan & Feven

are reaching out to the

deaf communities of

Mekele & Hagere Selam.

In Mekele, they recently

opened Signs of Peace Café

in the downtown area, to

give a place for the deaf to

come and visit one another

and also to expose them to

the gospel in sign. They

have open-house programs

for the deaf each Saturday.

Also, Jonathan & Feven have

great compassion on deaf who are near-destitute and

struggling to eat. Because

Mesi and I already have a

ministry to the poor and

needy of Mekele delivering

food subsidy to their

homes, we recently picked

up 3 new deaf poor friends to add to our

monthly visits. Jonathan has

begun visiting with me

some mornings of the week

and it gives us the chance toshare the gospel and under-

line the goodness of the

God of the gospel through

the benevolence shown to

these poor deaf. In the

town of Hagere Selam,

Jonathan & Feven have

opened up a sign lan-

guage learning center.

The need for this service

is unparalleled to any

other regarding the suc-

cess of the deaf hearingthe gospel message.

You see, the deaf in

Hagere Selam are

largely without a com-

mon sign language. Ap-

parently, in each home

where a deaf child lives,

somewhat isolated from

others, a “home sign” was

taught. Imagine 10 to 12

different homes where a

different sign language is

used...or, imagine persons

not being able to communi-

cate to anyone, because of

huge misunderstandings

about the reasons for deaf-

ness which keep them iso-

lated. That’s where the

power of Jonathan & Fe-

ven’s ministry in teaching a

common sign language come

in. Not only does it give

impetus for the communica-

tion of the gospel message

in the future, but it gives the

light of common grace bygiving a working sign lan-

guage that will benefit the

deaf community in all areas

of their lives from now on.

To add to this, it gives great

weight to Jonathan & Fe-

ven’s credibility as a re-

spectable couple in that

town. Already, because

they go nearly every Friday,

I have been able to go along

and meet English-speaking

Tigrayans there for the pur-pose of preaching the gos-

pel. We’ve been able to

hand out some tracts as

well as talk about the per-

son & work of our Lord

Jesus Christ to a great ex-

tent to a few individuals

there. They are small steps,

but indispensible & effective

steps. I wanted to take

this segment of our

newsletter to cover

what Jonathan & Fevenare doing, because not

only are they are partnering

with us, fellowshipping with

us and worshiping the Lord

with us, but they have a

ministry distinct from

ours and are trying to

establish their lives in

Ethiopia for the advance

of the kingdom of God. I

also wanted to share some

photos of what God is doing

with this precious couple, to

show you exactly what it

looks like as they serve the

Lord. I do not intend to

take away from their minis-

try by featuring them. I

desire that they might also

benefit from this. So I’d like

to post their contact info,

support info, and info about

Jonathan’s commissioning

church, for the purpose of

giving them assistance. If

you’d like to give to their

ministry, I can vouch fortheir integrity. Jon & Feven

are trusting the Lord as they

serve Him in love & fear.

Please consider helping this

young couple realize God’s

gracious hand as they serve

Him in faith! DM.

Partners with a Deaf Ministry: Signs of Peace

“Unparalleled

to any other

regarding the

success of the

deaf hearing

the gospel

message.”

Page 3Volume 1, Issue 1

To Support Signs of Peace:Antioch Baptist Church

11812 Hwy 80

Minden, La 71055Checks made out to:

Antioch Baptist Church (with Ethiopia

sions in the memo)



To Support: PO Box 4203,

Shreveport, LA 71134 USA

To Contact: Phone: 318-458-9602; Email:[email protected](or)

[email protected]

To Correspond w/ Doug & Mesi:PO Box 1944, Mekele, Tigray,Ethiopia; Email:[email protected] (This

works for

Facebook, too!)

About LCM: Last Call Ministries is a 501c3 Organization which began in

1997. Its inception rose out of a growing fellowship of believers interested in

gospel evangelism primarily within the inner city of Shreveport, Louisiana.

Currently LCM partners with several gospel mission works around the world,

including Brazil, Chad, Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Bayou Du Large ( S. Lou-

isiana ) . LCM is currently sponsoring Doug & Mesi, who are commissioned

by their home church: Heritage Baptist Church in Shreveport, Louisiana. All

monies received are currently in the support of the budgeted work underway

in Mekele, Ethiopia.

LAST CALL

MINISTRES

A community effort

to establish relation-ship building and gen-eral interest in thelives of young people,

Football (Soccer)Sponsoring has been ameans of communi-cating the words of

God to several young-sters. Creating a fo-rum for the gospel is

not always easy in aregion such as thisthat’s known all over

Ethiopia as the“hardest area”. The

kids love the game,

though. In fact, getoutside of the USA,and you’ll find some-

one asking

you aboutf o o t b a l l :“Do you

like it?” you

may hear.But their not talkingabout the

p i g s k i n .T h e y ’ r e

t a l k i n g

about soc-cer. It’s the favorite

sport of almost every-

one, everywhere inthe world outside theUSA. This is one fo-

rum for the gospel:investing in the kids’

lives: to preach truth.

Still Kicking!! FREEDOM FOOTBALL SPONSORSHIPWe’re on

Facebook! Go to:

Partnership-Doug

& Mesi Merrick-

Last Call

Ministries’ Mission

Workers

LCM

Proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ until

He returns in word, letter and deed!!!

THE MESSAGE???

Jesus sets sinners free

from sin, ignorance,darkness, rebellion

against God and the judgment that follows

death.

Documents

Quarterly Publication 8 3 2012