Brag Time

It occurs to me that I haven't posted any pictures of our amazing grandson, Cole, in quite a while.  That simply must be rectified immediately! 

The holidays were filled with lots of fun - including a Silly String battle.  

I'd say Jimmie got the worst of it!

We took him bowling . . .

. . . where he developed his own unique style.

All dressed up in his new suit.

When Julie told him that we were going to a wedding Cole promptly asked her, "Am I getting married?"

February Hill Mission Report

Dear brethren,

It is February and things are shaping up for 2010. I am planning my mission trips for this year and it looks like I will finally make it to Australia. Brother Gary Young has invited me to Hobart, Tasmania to speak on the Eastern Shore Lectureship which will take place from Thursday, April 29 to May 2. My topic for this lectureship is His Last Day and I will be discussing the events surrounding The Last Supper and the Agony and Arrest of Jesus Christ. I will also be doing a presentation of my work and be involved in Questions and Answers.

I am thankful to be asked once again to speak on this great lectureship. I have been asked before but have had to turndown previous opportunities. This will be my first time in Australia.

In July this year, I plan a two-part trip to Africa. Brother Yaw Boateng and I will be traveling together to Ghana, West Africa. We plan on arriving in Ghana on July 21.

On our way to Ghana, we plan to take time in London, England to visit with some Ghanaian brethren and set up some Bible studies and future mission trips. These brethren have a difficult time in England and we would like to work them with and encourage them in the Lord.

In Ghana, we plan to hold five 2-day Gospel meetings in five different congregations and make short visits during the day to area congregations for Bible studies and Question and Answer sessions.

We will arrive in Accra on July 21 and the next day take a bus to Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region where we will be met by the brethren. Then we will proceed to Nkoranza which will our base of operations for this evangelistic effort.

Brother Boateng and I will then part company. His vacation being over, he will have to come back to the States and back to his job. You have to truly appreciate men like brother Boateng and the sacrifices they make for the Lord and His Cause.

I will travel on to Livingstone, Zambia and arrive there on August 4 and meet with brother Ronald D. Gilbert and some other brethren. In Zambia, we will teach courses in the Zambia School of Biblical Studies, the International College of the Bible, hold Gospel meetings Siamafumba and Misika, hold Bible studies, and Question and Answer sessions.

Brethren, as you know, the cost of things has not been going down but continues to rise. This was one reason to combine the Ghana / Zambia trips. Still, it will cost a great deal and I plead for your prayerful and financial support. This is a breakdown of some of the expected cost.

Airfare and Travel Insurance for

Australia, Ghana, and Zambia ...............$ 8,200.00

Transportation, Gasoline, and Other

Traveling Expenses .................................. 1,200.00

Food and Lodging .................................... 1,500.00

Shots, Visas, Miscellaneous Items ............. 500.00

TOTAL.................................................$11,400.00

Please, if you can, help me to defray these expenses and send your contributions to Truth for the World, Post Office Box 5048, Duluth, Georgia 30096-0064 and mark them Hill Mission Fund - Trips. Please help me by giving generously toward these efforts. Thank you, in advance, for your prayers and contributions. And, as usual, I will send a full report upon my return. To God be the glory!

I will also be collecting funds for the preaching students of the Zambia School of Biblical Studies and the Siamafumba School of Bible Studies. These funds will be used to achieve the target goal of purchasing:

• 30 bicycles for faithful preachers

• 200 Tonga Bibles (native language)

• biblically based books for the libraries

• food for preaching students

• benevolent works

Brethren, this is a great opportunity to help in the salvation of many souls and to help train faithful, Gospel preachers. Thank you for your consideration. If you have questions please add a comment to this blog and I will get in touch with you.

In Christ Who Saves,

Jimmie B. Hill

Greetings from Georgia!

Is it really a whole month into 2010 already? What happened to January? Obviously, I had my eyes glued to the computer screen far too long, but creating a whole slew of new databases in a program I had never seen before mid-December has been a bit of a challenge. I still have a few issues with those, but I believe that I almost have ‘em whipped. Yeah! Next I get to finish reformatting TFTW’s 67 Gospel tracts into MS Word. Switching from Macs to PCs has definitely complicated my waking hours, but I have to admit that on the whole I love the Dells. However, you will NOT hear me singing to them.

I won’t be singing about the next bit of news either. William and Katrece Howard decided it was time to focus on other work for the Lord and resigned from Truth for the World in January. They have been a wonderful asset to this mission and, even though I will still see them frequently, their smiling faces will be sorely missed at the office.

As a result I had to spend some time this month coming up with a plan. I have often said that the women of Truth for the World are only called secretaries for want of a better word. We do whatever is needed to keep the Gospel going to the world. That rings true again as we regrouped to cover more work. Thank you, Kristen and Ellen!

Stay warm this winter.

In Christian Love,

Linda Hill

January 2010 Report

Dear Christian Friend,

 

With the current economic outlook we have had several donors tell us recently to drop their name from our mailing list to save the postage money. Actually, since our Update is sent via the non-standard, non-profit rate the postage is only $0.16 per copy. So we would really prefer to keep in touch with those who want to know about our work and not take this savings step.

 

However, there are a few simple ways that you can help us.

• You can write the name of the specific work you are supporting on your donation.

 If you are supporting one of our staff missionaries, please write the name of his Mission Fund on the Pay To The Order Of line. Banking rules continue to tighten and some of our staff have already experienced difficulty in depositing checks written to Truth for the World. When we rewrite these checks for them there are charges at our bank.

If you want your support to go to a specific work of Truth for the World, please write that on the memo line to make processing easier and always accurate.

Naturally, if you are supporting more than one fund and prefer to only write one check, we will happily continue to disperse the funds.

• You can send us your email address. Each paper receipt costs about $0.50 to produce and mail, but we can send you an electronic receipt cost-free. Just send us an email at office@tftw.org telling us it is okay to switch to our PDF electronic receipt. If you do not have a PDF reader there are several available for free download online.
• You can tell others about us. We will be happy to send you materials to help.
• You can pray for the staff and our work. We face problems with this work daily, many of which seem overwhelming at first glance. We need your prayers.

We pray you are having a wonderful beginning to 2010 and thank you for all that you do for the cause of our Lord.

  

Staff of Truth of the World

 

December Report

Dear Christian Friend,


Why is it that things often come in threes . . . for instance, our news this month?

The Good News – Our Mission Forum went well with good attendance and even better mission reports. Plans are already being formed for next year’s event so we hope you will plan to be here the second weekend of November.

The Better News – For the third month in a row we had an increase in our nation count. Reunion, a small Island in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar, is an overseas region of France. Most people speak Creole Reunionnais there, but French is the official language. The predominant religion is Catholic with Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism also taught. These 800,000+ souls certainly need the Gospel of Christ, so we pray that the one soul who came to our website will continue to learn there.

The Best News – Jimmie Hill, Director of Publications, is now officially cancer-free! It is such a blessing to have him and Ellen Mills both now free of this disease. We greatly appreciate the prayers said on their behalf.

As the year is winding down to its last days, the Truth for the World staff wants you to know how much your loyal support means to us. We really could not do this work without you. And as our thoughts turn to next year we hope we can count on you again. We will still be about the mission of saving souls from sin in 2010.

May the Lord bless you with health and happiness during this Holiday Season and all through the New Year.

With love from our family to yours,

Phillip Gray, John Grubb, Jimmie & Linda Hill

William & Katrece Howard, Dave Komisak, Ellen Mills,

Benjamin Richardson and Kristen Underwood

Staff at Truth for the World

Thank you for your support in 2009!

Dear brethren,

Linda and I want to thank you most sincerely for your support of our work together for the Lord in 2009. Our Lord and Savior stated, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind (Matthew 22:37) and it is evident from your ongoing support (in spite of the economy) and even, in some cases, an increase in the amount of your support from the previous years, that you truly love the Lord our God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

When someone purposes to support a work in a very generous and continuous way, what does this say about their spiritual heart? Jesus said, "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart" (Matthew 15:18). The things that come out of the mouth originate in the heart, and if they are evil it indicates an impure and defiled heart but "A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things" (Matthew 12:35). Our supporters give from the good treasures of their hearts and thereby teach many good things. What can we learn from such goodness?

• A good heart is a thinking heart and will think on good things (Philippians 4:8).

• A good heart is wise and understanding and will strive to obey our God (Psalm 111:10).

• A good heart is one that knows God and that He will reward it’s diligent effort (Hebrews 11:6).

• A good heart is one that believes in the peace that God offers and that it passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7).

• A good heart is one that purposes to do right, reasons, has spiritual aspirations and desires, one that repents and moves forward, does not presume evil but shows agape love for all others, feels grief, sorrow, and compassion for all others, and that will live forever. And this list could go on and on.

Now how do we know that our supporters possess such heart? The heart is the soil of the soul and when the Word of God, "the seed" (Luke 8:10), is sown in the heart and takes sufficient root, it produces these (and many more) characteristics seen in a Christian’s life. A good heart realizes that the only way to open the human heart of man is by teaching him the Gospel of Christ. Since you sow the seed of the Gospel through our work together with Truth for the World (and we are sure through many other good works), you are exposing your heart. When others see this, they see Christ in you. Since Christ is "meek and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29) and you are like Christ (a Christian), others know of your good heart.

Brethren, we do not know what 2010 will bring. Things happen that cause change and those who love the Lord and His Word must never compromise the Word but make changes in their lives to accommodate such things. It is our prayerful hope and utmost desire that all will obey and please our God. It is also our prayer that our godly supporters will stay with us in 2010 and beyond and all this for the glory of God.

Thank you once again and may our God bless all your Gospel endeavors according to His good will. Happy Holidays?

(In 2010, would you please make all your checks out to the Hill Mission Fund and mark them for Jimmie Hill. This will help us in our bookkeeping and bank deposits.)

In Christ Who Saves,
Jimmie B. Hill




Greetings from Georgia!

Naturally, the really big news of the month is . . . Jimmie is cancer-free!! After almost 2 years of disastrous health issues it was a wonderful relief to hear that. Thank you again for all of your prayers and concern. You have been a blessing to us during a very difficult time.

Speaking of difficult times, I just marked my 10th year with Truth for the World. I started part-time in 1999 just after we learned that our sponsoring congregation had asked us to find a new home and that home turned out to be in another state. I went full-time when we moved the office to Georgia that November and have felt like I was in the midst of a whirlwind ever since. I have been repeatedly startled by some of the problems we have faced with this mission work, but always thrilled by the news of the souls we have touched. In the 11 years since Jimmie took on the work with the correspondence courses more than -

• 700,000 new students have enrolled

• 225 new congregations have been established

• 14,000 lost souls have been baptized

It’s stats like this that keep us hanging on in the whirlwind.

One of those winds blowing me this month is the computer switch the secretaries are making. Our eMacs have been great for years, but they are dying from old age. They have also fallen so far off the grid that updating ideas were quickly dropped. Therefore, the secretaries are switching to PCs to be compatible with the rest of the staff, and because replacement cost was 50% less. My big challenge now is re-creating ALL of the MANY databases kept here in MS Acess and getting our previous Filemaker info to flow into them. If I can I will save TFTW about $1,000 now and more down the road, so wish me luck!

And I wish you a very Happy Holiday!

In Christian Love,
Linda Hill

Caribbean Cruise

We enjoyed a wonderful break in October - our first ever cruise! Our destination was the Western Caribbean - Grand Cayman (Cayman Islands), Roatan (Honduras), Belize and Cozumel (Mexico). The weather was great, and the company was better since we had a small group from our home congregation who went.

Leaving Miami - standing on deck 9 to get that windswept look

A "friendly" pirate on Cayman Islands

The Turtle Farm at Cayman had turles of all sizes from BIG

to little.








The little version is MUCH cuter!

a lava-encrusted beach on Grand Cayman










and a lava field the locals have named Hell.

School children in Belize

A ship-wreck along the coast of Roatan

Some Roatan dancers re-enacting how they beat the French army many years ago - the warriors traded clothing with their women to fool the soldiers.

One of the many towel critters who greeted us nightly in our stateroom.

October 2009 Report

Dear Christian Friend,

School is back in session so it’s time for a pop quiz -

• Did you notice that our nation count went up? Greenland makes 222! This ice-capped land of 57,600 souls is about 3 times the size of Texas and thus the world’s largest island. Located in the Arctic Circle north of Canada it has a harsh climate mixed with spectacular beauty. Greenlanders are mostly Lutheran and speak East Inuit as their official language. Most are also Internet savvy so please pray that this open door will lead to the Lord’s church being planted here.
• Did you hear about the floods in the Atlanta area? Well, they swept across Gwinnett County as well, and right into our building. Ellen Mills was forced to evacuate her office during the deluge so it was a scramble to empty a spot and move her to dry ground. The carpet has been ripped up and repairs are underway, so hopefully we can get her out of that storage room soon.
• Did you read our newest stats? Our teachers have reported that at least 275 new congregations of the Lord’s church have begun because of our work together – 50 of them in 2009!
• Did you know that two of our staff members have cancer? Ellen Mills, receptionist, had surgery in September but the pathology determined they did not remove all of it. She will be returning to the hospital on October 15th for more extensive surgery. Jimmie Hill, Director of Publications, had surgery last year for thyroid cancer and has been taking medicinal treatment since. He returns at the end of October for testing. Please keep both of them in your prayers for complete recoveries.
• Did you remember that the Truth for the World Mission Forum is November 13-15? That’s just a few blinks away so we hope you are making plans to attend. You will find a personal invitation enclosed in this receipt. We would love to see you here!
• Did you know that we appreciate you? Of course, you did!

Staff of Truth for the World