Prayer Request

In March, I received the following invitation from Al Jackson, pastor of Lakeview Baptist Church, Auburn, Alabama. This request for my participation was submitted and affirmed by our deacons earlier this month.

March 24, 2009

Dear John,
I’m writing to invite you to join a Lakeview Baptist Church mission team to London May 12-22, 2009. We will be engaged in direct evangelism on the streets of London. As you may know, only about 5% of citizens of Great Britain are in church on Sunday morning. London is one of the great un-evangelized cities in our world.

Our evangelistic thrust will have two dimensions. First, we will be working with British evangelist Martin Durham sharing the gospel of salvation with unsaved Englishmen. Secondly, we will be working with Southern Baptist International Mission Board representatives who are targeting the multitude of ethnic groups who have come to London from the countries of the British Commonwealth.

The all inclusive cost for this mission trip is $1650. The reason the cost is so inexpensive is we are being hosted in homes of the members of South Hanwell Baptist Church.

I pray that in God’s providence you can accept this invitation of Great Commission outreach.
Sincerely,
Al Jackson

The Need & Opportunity
London has a population of 8.5 million people with an estimated 14 million in the greater metro area. The Guardian newspaper reporter, Leo Benedictus said of London “Never have so many different kinds of people tried living together in the same place before… Altogether, more than 300 languages are spoken by the people of London, and the city has at least 50 non-indigenous communities with populations of 10,000 or more. Virtually every race, nation, culture and religion in the world can claim at least a handful of Londoners.”

My Participation
You can read about people and churches we will be “teaming up” with on the internet:

Martin Durham: http://www.k180.org/; www.billygraham.org/DMag_Article.asp?ArticleID=632
South Hanwell Baptist Church — http://www.shbchurch.org.uk/
Al Souls Church — http://www.allsouls.org/

The mission team will be comprised of 10 people. The success of this endeavor is built on prayer. Let me suggest praying in-light of Colossians 4:2-6. The following are the names of the team members for Mission London 2009. The are:

• Al Jackson, Pastor
• Kem Jackson, Pastor’s wife
• Hal Cooper, Associate Pastor of Evangelism & Prayer
• Karen Land, Nurse Practitioner
• Otto Land
• Millie Nichols, Retired Educator
• Andrew Slay, Auburn University student, freshman called to missions
• Bo Smith, Auburn University student, 18 months old in the faith
• Rusty Letson, Pastor Happy Valley Baptist Church, Lanett, AL
• John Bracken, Pastor First Baptist Church, Lakeland, GA

The Time
We depart at 10:10 PM Tuesday, May 12th and will arrive back Friday, May 22nd at 5:50 PM. Departures and Arrivals are all from Hartsfield Atlanta Airport.

I will post the itinerary on my blog at www.iij-jesus.blogspot.com and updates as much as possible as to any changes in our schedule, needed prayer request and praise reports.

For God’s glory and the worlds’ eternal joy in Christ,
John