March 4, 2004

Brothers & Sisters in Christ,

I've now been back for over a month and maybe I'm starting to get used to the heat here.  Yesterday it registered 115 degrees.  The other kind of heat here is the battle against spiritual wickedness in high places.  We are constantly trying to keep the charismatic movement out of our works.  It is persistent!  Many "Baptist" groups are giving in to it in order to "grow".  Pray for us, that the Lord will grant to us wisdom and knowledge to stand against it.

Why should we be so concerned?  It is of the devil and is performed in the name of the Lord.  We Baptist preachers need to teach our people the dangers of getting wrapped up in emotionalism and calling it spirituality.  I visited a former member of my church Monday night who told me that a visiting preacher came down out of the pulpit and put his hand on ten different people and told them their names even though he knew nobody in the church except the pastor.  In the Old Testament days he would have been stoned, now he is praised as a great man of God.  So much for that.  Read Ephesians 6.

We had two spiritual retreats during Carnival week.  I taught at one on the Satanic Strategies to undermine the Christian's life and the Church.  At the other I taught the doctrine of Justification from the book of Romans.

I also performed a wedding last Friday night.  On both Saturday and Sunday morning I was awakened before daylight to prepare to preach funerals.  I'm up to my eyeballs in preaching, teaching and building and loving every minute of it.  Yesterday I had a great start, I almost stepped on a scorpion on the floor next to my bed.  The Lord was with me and I saw it in time.

We are saddened by the sickness that is going on here.  Yesterday I went to the airport to see Sister Tereza Santos off.  She has been diagnosed with bone cancer in her jaw bone and it has advanced up into her skull.  She is only in her early 40's.  Pastor Joao Candido of the Boa Esperanca church is slowly succumbing to liver cancer.  We are made to realize just how fragile this old body really is.  We appreciate so much your support and prayers.

God bless you all.

In Him,

Harold Draper