March/April

2019
Dear Ones,

You all — supporting churches and individual Christians — make all of our work, Betty (Mrs. J.C.) Choate
here and overseas, possible. For that reason, I treasure these hours spent at the com- (Continuing the work begun
puter writing my bi-monthly reports so that you can know what your prayers and monetary by J.C. in 1962)
contributions are accomplishing, world-wide. I pray for you every day, prayers of thanks- 708 Burton Drive
giving and prayers for your welfare. Winona, MS 38967
662-283-1192
Coming and Going in March
email: Choate@
March brought some expected “ins and outs” with the office here in Winona. On the WorldEvangelism.org
first Monday of the month, Shane and Emily Fisher arrived to begin their work with our Web site:
World Evangelism team. Since the Rushmores had vacated their office to move to Florida, WorldEvangelism.org
gospelgazette.com
Jerry and Shane moved desks into the empty space so that work could begin! The Fishers
will be living in the adjoining apartment, at least for now, though they anticipate buying a Sponsor:
house in the future! Wonderful! Liberty Church of Christ
689 Highway 25
On Tuesday Jerry and Paula spent Dennis, MS 38838
the day showing the Fishers many things 662-454-7362
about office work responsibilities. Time Co-worker with
was short because the Bates left on Wayne and Janet Barrier
Wednesday for six weeks overseas. They Jerry and Paula Bates
would be in Nepal, various parts of India Louis & Martha Rushmore
for seminars and meetings, and finally in Shane and Emily Fisher
Myanmar, teaching in the Bible school Joey Barrier
there for two weeks. In addition to a very Jeremy Barrier
full schedule, they had some bouts with Nathan Daily
stomach problems along the way so they Ed Gallagher
were a tired twosome when they returned
to Winona on April 15.
Harvest

The Rushmores left for Guyana on

Global

March 4. They continue to work as part of

the team, though their visits with support-
ing congregations will be somewhat lim-
ited because of the distance from Florida.
Louis continues to be the primary editor
of The Voice of Truth International, and is doing a very good job with that work.
International

The Fishers are fitting in well! With the background of four years in South Korea, they
The Voice
of Truth

are well experienced and are people of initiative, not needing somebody to point out every-
thing they might do. One day when I came to the office, I found Emily sweeping downstairs!
Hooray! There is always a little cleaning that needs to be done! But, more importantly, they
are very busy contacting and visiting congregations to raise their support, and they submitted
articles for publishing in the next issue of The Voice of Truth International. They are filling
book orders and helped to get packets of the new issue of Global Harvest assembled for mailing. It is such a blessing to
have four more willing hands to do the work here, and we look forward to their first visit overseas so that they can add to
the work that is being done there. The expectation is that they will accompany the Bates in September, leaving me alone
again to take care of the office work...
Wayne and Janet Barrier
We were shocked to learn that both Wayne and Janet have been newly diagnosed with cancer! Wayne had surgery
March 4 for prostrate cancer. Follow-up tests have been good, without further treatment, and we are very thankful for that.
Janet was diagnosed with breast cancer, and some cells were found in five lymph nodes, so she had surgery at the
end of February and is presently having chemo treatments, to be followed by radiation. She was warned that the chemo
could cause her to feel really sick. After the second treatment this is what she wrote: “Well, I definitely crashed on Saturday
night. All of the side effects hit at once. Diarrhea, joint pain extremely bad, infection, fever, my taste was not the same. The
last two days (Tuesday and Wednesday) have been great. No side effects at all, except for the infection. I went to the doctor
for that today. They say days five through ten following a treatment can be bad and it was five through nine for me.”
We are continually praying for Wayne and Janet, for their own sake and also for the work’s sake. They are a vital
part of all that we do, and we are praying for long, healthy years of service.
Mailouts
The new issue of Global Harvest arrived, so we had volunteers from the church in Greenwood, MS and Old Union
(another nearby congregation) to come in to help us with the packaging and mailout. Brother James Wright (husband of our
Barbara Wright who takes care of The Voice of Truth International subscription and
contribution records) was here to do some repair work at the building so he lent a hand
when his other work was finished. We really appreciate brother Wright’s abilities and
willingness to do the construction repairs that we too often need! He is one of the deacons
of the Huntsville (MS) congregation where their son, Nathan, serves as the very able
preacher.
Whenever we have
a mass mailout, groups of
volunteers come in to help
us, often reducing what
would be days of work on
our part to two or three
hours for the group! We
are so thankful for those
willing hands, and for the
opportunity to show others what we are doing, face to face.
Reports from Co-Workers Overseas
Rajanayagam in Tamil Nadu:
“This is to let you know of the baptism of a young man who is a software engineer in Chennai, and of the two meetings
where I spoke today in two different places. Both meetings went very well and were attended above 200 and 300 respectively.
Thanks for your prayers and constant encouragement.”
Arjunan in Tamil Nadu
“Thanks for your continuous
support for God’s ministry and for your
prayers.
“Hope you know that RSS (the
Hindu militant sector of the BJP politi-
cal party, presently in control of India)
people are increasing their opposition to
Christianity in all ways in India. In the
past, every three months we have con-
ducted Bible School and Preachers’ meet-
ing in one meeting hall at Tiruchirapalli,
 but this month onwards these people
instructed the management of that place
not to allow Christians to have any
meeting there. So we had to arrange for
the World Evangelism Program in the
Don Bosco Media Center, 12 kilome-
ters from Thiruchirapalli. Brother Jerry
and sister Paula took classes. We had
the 4th Graduation on 27th March.
Only six students received certificates.
“Our TV and magazine min-
istries are going well. We are receiving more contacts even from other states, so we have many opportunities to start the
Lord’s church where there are no congregations in Tamil Nadu. Every month we print seven thousand copies of our maga-
zine and are mailing five thousand copies. The rest are distributed to our fellow workers. Please continue to pray for us.”
Philemon in Tamil Nadu:
Photos of the lectures at the J C School of Evangelism at Mysuru, and graduates who have finished the 18 months
of one-weekend-a-month classes in Arakkonam. Jerry
and Paula were present for the graduation exercises.
Many brothers and sisters have been taught how to
reach out evangelistically to their neighbors through
these classes, and many have been converted through
their efforts.

Earnest Gill in Chandigarh:

Each spring the North India Bible College in Chan-
digarh, India, led by brother Earnest Gill, has a graduation
exercise attended by brethren from throughout the country.
To the left is a photo of attendees at this year’s
lectures.

Ricky Gootam, Kakinada:

Ricky, the son of our long-time co-worker,
Joshua Gootam, has been instrumental in begin-
ning a “Polishing the Pulpit” program in Kakinada
for India, and also a “Lads to Leaders” program.
To see covering about the success of these new
initiatives, go to rickygootam@yahoo.com.
Ricky reported: “PTP (Polishing The
Pulpit) is a great event for the whole family.
We had 8 speakers from America this year.
3200 showed up for this event, with 264
Churches of Christ represented. On January
7th and 8th we had our first ever L2L con-
vention with 530 from 20 churches partici-
pating. One of the boys quoted 452 Bible
verses from memory. A girl from the chil-
dren’s home quoted 292 verses.” Great things
for the children of India!!!
 The Gospel is our mission. The world is our home.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
“I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18).
[Angels are] “...ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation...” (Hebrews 1:14).

Don’t miss out on these treasures! Mrs. J.C. Choate

The latest issue of Global Harvest is available World Evangelism
P.O. Box 72 Non Profit Organization
now. Many will receive a free copy because we U. S. Postage Paid
are trying to make more brethren aware of its Winona, MS 38967
Permit No. 12
existence. We do need you to order the maga-
zine ($5 for 1 issue), so that its future publica- Change Service Requested
tion can be secured. The church needs this
mission information.
News!!! The Voice of Truth International, our
116-page teaching magazine is now printed in
color! If you do not already receive it, now is
the time to subscribe! Four issues of TVOTI
are $15, 8 issues are $25; or the congregation
can enlist for a box of 35 copies of each issue
for $30 a month or $350 a year. Place Label Here
We now have 120 titles, full-color,
pocket-sized tri-fold tracts that will
be extremely useful to you in your
outreach ministry. In packets of 25,
they are only 10 cents each. BBC

Family and Travel News

My brother, Curtis Burton, and his family live in Houston, TX.
They encouraged Sheila and me to visit them during the season of the
blue bonnets blooming. I had been hearing a noise with the van (2006
with 172,000 miles) so I decided to drive out and let Curtis’ mechanic
(Curtis buys and restores valuable antique cars) check it out. That
proved to be a good decision because the total fixing was in excess of
$3,000! When the bill was presented, it was marked “paid” and I was
unable to convince Curtis that he should let me pay. Sweet brother!
Sheila came on Friday (12th) and we had good days together.
On Sunday we worshipped with the Memorial Church of Christ where
Curtis is currently teaching a men’s class. They were very supportive
of the Christians in the Florida panhandle who were devastated by the
hurricane recently.
After some great family time, I drove home by way of Tyler,
TX (seeing trees down all along the way from the recent tornadoes in
Texas, Louisiana, and Missis-
sippi), visiting with the West
Erwin Church of Christ on
Sunday. Jim and Helen Boyd
are members there, and he is encouraging the mission committee to begin sup-
porting our TV/radio work. What a blessing that would be!
I have to share a little glimpse of my beautiful Knock-Out roses that
were in full bloom when I got back to Winona....
Love, hugs and prayers, Betty