Missionary Evangelist

Many questions arise on what our ministry in Nicaragua entails.

Adrian are you an Evangelist or a Missionary??

Why not BOTH...a "Missionary Evangelist"

This picture shows how our schedule is broken down in percentages of times in a given calendar year. The reason for "Missionary Evangelist" is because we are supported similar to a missionary during the yellow 25% time frame while overseas. Currently we are around 60% of that goal, and that is why in the fall we preach and present in Missions Conferences.

 

While we are overseas we do what we do in the states, strive to see people saved and exhort churches to godliness. Our prayer is that we might have enter a new level of effectiveness by learning Spanish but in the mean time, I still preach and teach through translators till we reach that point of preaching in the native tongue.

 

To answer some questions out there, we are not permanently here in Nicaragua its the open door God has told us to minister to and hone our Spanish. Every year may be different or could be the same, I simply am a free agent before the Lord. In the United States we do not solicit or ask for meetings, we pray that God has the pastors that believe that we can help contact us. They do and its not man pushed but God ordained. The exact same is true for international ministry. We have open hearts and God directs our steps to individuals or ministries that we can help. Every year is different because we are the free agents and God is the owner. We live by faith, and we thank God he has directed our steps for the past 10 years. Psalm 84:11

 

During these beginning days of the transition, we by faith make overseas moves and we have seen God provide. Thank everyone for their prayers!

December Update

 Merry Christmas to so many friends across the nation. God bless each of you, and we do truly hope and pray that you have a blessed Christmas. 🎄

In our last letter we sent out a definite plea for God’s people to pray and consider of what they could do to help us with a very specific need of housing while in Managua. We understood not every church and individual could help, but we prayed the ones God spoke directly to would get involved, and praise the Lord, He provided through His people. Well before November 27th, I was able to message our contact in Nicaragua to tell him that he can expect our family from Jan-Mar of next year. What a blessing!! 

 Faith is the currency God responds to, and when by faith we act upon what He asks us to do, it's wonderful to have a front row seat of God showing Himself as Jehovah-Jireh. We know you all pray and give for God’s glory, but we do not take for granted that your giving is benefiting our family directly. 

 

While overseas our family lives off the monthly support that is given by churches. Recently we just received news that Savannah River Baptist Church of Savannah, GA has taken us on for support bringing our monthly support up to around 60% Our family still goes overseas no matter the level of our monthly support, but monthly support enables longer stays during our international travel. During the spring and fall, we would love to present at your church our heart for international evangelism as a missionary arm of your church. 

 

During the holiday season, I had some time to prayerfully reflect on the mission and goal of Burden Ministries. I wanted it to be clearly stated for all of those who want to know the heart and focus of the ministry. In our current day, people typically identify me as an evangelist or missionary evangelist. Labels do not bother me in the least, but I do deem it necessary to be clear about what our overall aim is. It can be summarized as follows:

 

 Burden ministries exists to glorify God though the clear, passionate, worldwide proclamation of the gospel for the purpose of evangelizing the lost, edifying the saints and equipping the body of Christ.
 

Thats our heart in a nutshell. Whether we are stateside or overseas this is our focus and drive. Please pray that we will passionately obey our Savior in season and out of season.  

       Please enjoy the new prayer card, and if you need more for your church just send me an email.

Truck/Trailer News

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Though communication has been somewhat silent, the last month has been incredibly eventful in relation to our truck and trailer. A couple of weeks ago our family was trying to climb a hill and literally got stuck with wheels spinning and heading back down the VERY steep hill. Frozen at the wheel, I had every brake engaged and literally could not move without the truck and trailer rolling back down the hill into a ditch along the side of the road. My poor wife had to be the one who had to chock the wheels so I could at least release the brakes enough for my leg not to remain strained on the brake. 

To shorten the story, God used a guy to help us get out of the terrible predicament. Somewhat before and since then unfortunately our truck has had some issues, including possible transmission trouble. We are having a very hard time diagnosing whats going on with the truck because it only fires codes when under a load or under a very specific strain. For now we have just switched out vehicles and praying that we can get it sorted out soon. 

Thankfully our trailer was able to be picked up by my father in law who parked it in Wilson, NC at Tabernacle Baptist. They have agreed to let us use their RV hookup till we can get it back home. 

Please pray that after we finish up our fall schedule that we will know what we need to do concerning the transportation of our trailer and the repairing of our truck. We are not in a huge hurry since Lord willing we will be living in Nicaragua soon however it would be wonderful to know its ready to go when we get back to the states.

Just an update, and thanks for all those who regularly pray for our family.

There is first for Everything...

What bitter sweet moments have happened in the past months. The opportunity to have so many invest within our lives to be able to have this opportunity to be here at language school will forever be close to our hearts. Though much excitement surrounds language school there have been many difficult days, periods of times when concepts are just not being grasped etc.. Through it all the Lord has been faithful. After a lot of prayer and hours of prep, I had the opportunity to give my first devotional in Spanish at a small Bible study, There are many pronunciation blunders and other mistakes, but the reason I put the link to the video is 2-fold. First it helps me to see where I need to go from here, Secondly, that I am not taking lightly the investment that has been made in our family. Please continue to pray for the rest of our studies till May then for next year as we take another season of time for more language acquisition.  

January/February 2017

We are here!! The Lord has blessed and we are in deep south Texas for language school at Rio Grande Bible Institute.  Our new home for the next five month is around 20 milesaway from the Mexican border and we are immersed within an area of Spanish speakers.

Many have prayed and supported and we wanted to personally thank all of you for doing so. The goal of 12k was exceeded. The trip down here had many obstacles and plan changes, but the Lord provided all that was needed for 1600 mile trip. The kids traveled very well for the many miles on the road and the Lord’s hand has been on our truck to make it without a hint of a problem. 

Jasmine is absolutely loving the local Christian school which she is enrolled in, and Janae is in the language school day care where she is even learning some Spanish. 

We are getting involved within two local churches in the area. We have 3 services in a given a week which are COMPLETELY in Spanish, but for the sake of our family being fed spiritually we also attend an English speaking church. We thank the Lord for some good churches in the Mcallen, TX area that we are able to have this flexibility. 

Language School is underway and it is definitely starting at an accelerated pace. Since my wife and I are both in the program, it makes for busy days juggling picking up Jasmine from school, tutoring schedules, homework, house work etc. Please pray for us during this adjustment. It sounds silly but we are very much ‘night people’ and making sure the kids are in bed by 8 and off to school and day care before its even light out is a new world for us among other things. 

Specific requests: 

1. Wisdom to learn this language

    2. We will soon have to make a decision about getting a trailer

    3.The kids adjustments: making friend and adapting to a new type of schedule

October/November Update

Pray!! Pray!! That is what I have heard repeated in reference to our nation and for our churches. We are asking for fervent prayer warriors on behalf of the ministry as well. This fall we have been tested in many areas and we are beckoning Gods people to pray for our family like never before. 

Spanish Language school is quickly coming around the corner and the Enemy is trying to derail what God has called us to do. It has been a blessing to see the Financial goal thermometer go higher and higher At the time of this letter we stand around 3k dollars away from our goal.  Our prayer is to exceed that amount because of some lodging changes that had to be made during the application process. We have been overwhelmed by the amount individuals who have stepped up and been such a blessing to us, it has meant so much to us.

The preaching schedule has been fantastic, we have been involved in many missions conferences and challenging churches about world wide missions. Although tears and filled altars do not directly indicate God's Spirit being always evident, the responses to the messages particularly during Missions Conferences have been very encouraging. 

Specific prayer requests include obviously language school, but also for the selling of our trailer. Last year an incident occurred making our 5th wheel not fit for the travel schedule we maintain. We have prayed much and believe it's time to retire it, please pray we can get a small amount for it therefore we can look to purchase another in the very near future. Our family is staying encouraged and faithful in a large part by those who are reading this letter right now, God bless and thanks so much!  

 

 

                                          

October Update

Pray!! Pray!! That is what I have heard repeated in reference to our nation and for our churches. We are asking for fervent prayer warriors on behalf of the ministry as well. This fall we have been tested in many areas and we are beckoning Gods people to pray for our family like never before. 

Spanish Language school is quickly coming around the corner and the Enemy is trying to derail what God has called us to do. It has been a blessing to see the Financial goal thermometer go higher and higher At the time of this letter we stand around 3k dollars away from our goal.  Our prayer is to exceed that amount because of some lodging changes that had to be made during the application process. We have been overwhelmed by the amount individuals who have stepped up and been such a blessing to us, it has meant so much to us.

 

The preaching schedule has been fantastic, we have been involved in many missions conferences and challenging churches about world wide missions. Although tears and filled altars do not directly indicate God's Spirit being always evident, the responses to the messages particularly during Missions Conferences have been very encouraging. 

 

Specific prayer requests include obviously language school, but also for the selling of our trailer. Last year an incident occurred making our 5th wheel not fit for the travel schedule we maintain. We have prayed much and believe it's time to retire it, please pray we can get a small amount for it therefore we can look to purchase another in the very near future. Our family is staying encouraged and faithful in a large part by those who are reading this letter right now, God bless and thanks so much! 

 

August Update

 

What a power packed summer! God’s hand was very evident during the summer ministry months, we were reminded to never underestimate what God can do in a VBS! So many young people were saved this summer through not only that venue but also camps and other special youth rallies. God blessed with around 60 saved over this past summer and many strong decisions of surrender were made as well. Thank you to so many who daily pray for God to use us. 

On a personal note, this was a challenging summer as it pertains to my personal dental health. Though social media many might be aware that I had my wisdom teeth out during the middle of the summer. (not a wise plan) During the process of time, I not only got a dry socket but also my lingual nerve was damaged causing my tongue to go numb, as it still is to this day. I was going to see a specialist concerning the numbness but from much prayer I’m beginning to get feeling back in my tongue. At first it affected my speech, but praise the Lord, my speech is not effected anymore. God blessed that I did not miss one preaching engagement during the summer because of it.

 

Language School is only 5 months away. As as reminder, our goal was $12,000 dollars to have in the bank whereby we could be able to take care of our expenses during the time we would be attending language school. We stand in the neighborhood of $7,000 with more promised beyond that. We are thrilled at what God is doing through His people, in making Spanish Language school very much a reality.

This fall we begin preaching many Missions Conferences, Special Meetings, and other Youth Meetings. Please pray specifically for the rest of our support and that we would be effective in the places we minister over the next couple of months .Thanks to all who pray and support and Lord willing you will continue to see your investment turn into eternal fruit. 

 

May Update

The dates are set!! Lord willing the Burden family will be at the Rio Grande Bible Institute starting January 7th - May 17th 2017. Lord willingthis will begin to equip us to learn the Spanish Langue to be able to have more of impact during our International Evangelistic Trips. We will continue to have a normal schedule as an evangelist right until January and will continue to have a normal schedule beginning June 2017. 

 

 

This is a huge step of faith for our family as we step away from revivals and other meetings to further sharpen our sword in the ministry of evangelism. We are encouraged by the support that has been given to us for those specific 5 months. It’s not difficult to figure out since we are without meetings that we are without our normal income, but the 12k that we are raising to sustain our family during that time, is coming in faster than we imagined. We stand about 6 months away from the start of language school and we are around 5k of the 12k needed, thats almost half way!

 

Our monthly ministry support goes towards our international travel expenses. When the Lord laid on our heart to raise support to do such a thing, I foresaw skepticism, but we have been encouraged by the embracing of the ministry of international evangelism. We stand at 74% of needed support to spend 3 months of our calendar year overseas. We want to go preach for missionaries overseas without them having to spend one penny on ANY of our expenses or needs, but rather leave them an offering or some financial token of our love and appreciation for them. We are amazingly close and thank God for that.

 

Currently we just finished a string of 4 consecutive revivals that were “dynamite” and now we are on the brink of summer full of VBS’s, Camps, and Youth Conferences. Thanks for all who pray and support and Lord willing you will continue to see your investment turn into eternal fruit.

March 2016 Prayer Letter

Doing the work of an evangelist continues to move forward with the Burden family. Proclaiming the gospel through Church Evangelistic Outreaches, Family Conferences and Revivals so far this year. We were blessed to have a family “staycation” this past January. We were able to stay at home for a while and recuperate physically and be refreshed spiritually from a very eventful summer and fall schedule. 

 

During the month of January we were able to pray much about our international ministry plans. Many questions have come about during this international evangelism transition. Questions such as, Adrian, are you still scheduling meetings in the US? Are you a Missionary?  What is Adrian’s Honduras thing?  etc…

 

Please see clearly in this simple letter, that God has called me to be an evangelist. A proclaimer of the gospel and a gift to the local church. My desire is not only to be this in the United States but now to further our reach into Spanish speaking places. I am an evangelist, I still preach for revival in the United States. My prayer is just to be a bilingual evangelist, thereby allowing me to spend approximately a quarter of our year overseas. 

 

We praise the Lord for the churches who have begun supporting the overseas portion of our ministry. Currently we are at around 60% support and are thrilled to hear of those who see the need, catch the vision and help us accomplish what God has called us to do. Between our regularly scheduled meetings, we have presented in Missions Conferences and other services and are blessed by the response of many folks.

 

Our next step is language school and currently we are trying to make plans to attend during the beginning of 2017. All of this is by faith, and we ask that you pray with us about it. Since many questions do arise about this, I would love to direct you to our website (located below).  I was interviewed by the Ministry Connection Podcast about International Evangelism. The interview covers many topics but one in particular explains in depth what our vision is. I encourage you to listen and understand what our heartbeat is.