Robert, Michal and Jamie Swain along with their partner and friend Barbara Oliver make up the team of workers of Gospel Opportunities, an evangelistic mission effort by the church of Christ. Gospel Opportunities provides opportunities, tools and encouragement for Christians in the Spanish-speaking world to evangelize their own homes, villages, cities and countries. The Swains are under the oversight of the elders of the Mars Hill congregation in Vilonia, Arkansas and Miss Oliver is under the oversight of the elders of the Winona congregation in Winona, Mississippi. If you are interested in knowing more about this ministry or would like to schedule a visit, please contact Gospel Opportunities at (501) 733-5485 or Michal
Greetings from Vilonia, February 17, 2011
I pray that this newsletter finds you healthy and active in God’s service. We are fine, keeping busy and trying to avoid the winter colds and snow. I started writing this newsletter while we were at the Freed-Hardeman lectureship in Henderson, TN. I put it on hold to accomplish a couple of other objectives and I’m just now getting back to finishing.
Prayer Request
We would like for you to pray for our friend and sister Wanda Tolbert from the DeWitt, AR congregation. She has been diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. I have known the Tolberts for many years. Their daughter Amanda was a dear friend as a student in the campus ministry at the University of Central Arkansas. The Tolberts have been a blessing to the church and now they need that church to pray for them.
Michigan
At the end of December Michal, Jamie, Barbara and I went to Michigan where we spent Christmas with Michal’s parents. We all got our snow fix there, and everything looked very Christmasy. We were also very fortunate to visit churches in Flint and Dexter, Michigan. I always enjoy visiting Michigan. We returned on the twenty-eighth and our “missionary daughter” Haley Chrisman came and stayed a few days with us to help us with our end of the year reporting and to be a big sister to Jamie. The first night upon arrival, she took him in hand and made him clean his room. You are awesome, Haley!! Jamie started back to school on the third of January.
The Real Jesus
Barbara and I spent much of our time in January proofing the book for Brother Fausto Piña Bello. He is a well-respected evangelist in the Dominican Republic and has written a very good book on the real Jesus. It will be a very important tool to teach those who have been shown a distorted view of who Jesus is and what he has done for us. His will be our first book printed completely in our office with the new binding equipment. We want it to be finalized when we visit him in March.
The Central Arkansas Encourager
Another major project that we have worked on in January is a new publication for the central Arkansas area. As a service to the churches in the area where we live, we have designed a topical publication called the Central Arkansas Encourager. It will be published six times a year. Many preachers and Christians in this area have written articles for the first issue that came out on February 1st. Jamie even wrote an article! This periodical will also list all of the up-coming area church events. It is our goal to encourage the churches and increase fellowship and unity. The first issue went out to 44 congregations in five central Arkansas counties. The Gospel Opportunities ministries absorbed the cost of this first issue but will need the help of those who would like to receive it in the future. If you would like to subscribe to the CAE, our need is only to cover the materials, printing and mailing costs. An annual subscription mailed to you six times a year will be $7.50 ($4.00 printing + $3.50 mailing cost). If congregations would like multiple copies mailed together for the families in their congregation we ask for $4.00 per family. If you see this as a good venture that can help the church, any donation towards it would be greatly appreciated. Please pray for this venture.
Church Visits
Throughout the month of January we visited and/or reported to several congregations. Besides the congregations in Michigan, we were at the Crossroads congregation in Enola, AR. Jamie led all the songs during worship and did a very good job. We visited the Downtown congregation in Morrilton, AR, Bells Chapel at Atkins, AR, the Hope, AR Hispanic congregation and in the afternoon, the English-speaking congregation, Vilonia, AR congregation and the Dewitt, AR congregation. I also was fortunate enough to visit the new Main Street congregation in Stuttgart, AR. My good friend Milton Webb has been instrumental in helping establish this congregation as an outreach to the black community of Stuttgart. Please pray for this effort. If you would like for us to visit and report about our work to your congregation please contact us… we would love to visit!
Barbara’s House
In between the projects, teaching on Wednesday and church visits, I managed to go to Winona for a few days to work on Barbara’s house. I have strung out this remodeling project for far too long and need to end it. The work has been sporadic due to scheduling time to work and finding funds for materials. All of the major building is done. Painting a few walls, laying down flooring and kitchen cabinet doors are the big things left to do inside the house. If you would like to venture down to Winona, Mississippi and help me kill this ever-looming project I would welcome the help! I know Barbara would appreciate it too!
Y.O.U.
The weekend of January 21st & 22nd we all attended the annual Youth Outreach University (Y.O.U.). Over 700 young people from the south/southwest region descended upon the campus of the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, AR for this event. Y.O.U. is designed to be not just a youth rally, but as an encouragement to the young people attending to be evangelistic in their homes and school. I was very excited this year because my good college friend, Lonnie “Lonzo” Jones was the keynote speaker. I had not seen him in a couple of years and was glad to see him again. When the leaders of Y.O.U. realized that we were friends, they asked me to introduce him before he spoke on Friday night. Lonnie was a great influence and a great friend… still is!
Freed-Hardeman Lectureship
We also had a booth with our books at the Freed-Hardeman Lectureship, February 6th thru 10th. We shared a booth with our good friends and fellow publishers Forthright Press. This lectureship is always a great spiritual blessing.
Pray for Our Travels
Here are some upcoming trips that we need for you to pray about. On March 1st – 10th Barbara and I will be visiting the Dominican Republic and staying with Brother Piña who I mentioned earlier. We will be preaching, teaching and conducting Bible studies while there. When this trip is over, Barbara will be continuing on to Costa Rica where she will be living and assisting with church work in Sabanilla for the next four months. Over Jamie’s spring break, March 17th – 27th the Swain family will be traveling to North Dakota to visit churches and friends in Bismarck and Williston. We will also spend a few days with Michal’s father who lives in Utah. Also, pray as we travel each weekend visiting churches.
A Contact of Our Own
One of the things that can help to make communication flow better between us is to establish a contact person in your congregation. We need to have someone in each of the congregations that we can call about setting up appointments or to talk to if there is a problem with our e-mail newsletters not going through. It could be one of the elders, a deacon, the preacher or just an interested person in the congregation. Please consider someone and let them contact us with their information. Also, putting us on your mailing list to receive your church bulletin would help us know what is going on with you! (If you are in the Central Arkansas area, this will enable us to put your events on the Central Arkansas Encourager events calendar too.)
Thank You
Thank you so much for your interest in our efforts and thank you so much for your prayers on our behalf. If you ever have questions, suggestions or comments regarding our work, please do not hesitate to contact us at the information provided in the header of this newsletter.
In Christ,
J. Robert Swain
on behalf of the Gospel Opportunities team and the elderships of the Mars Hill congregation in Vilonia, AR and the Winona congregation in Winona, MS.
