Dear Ministry Partners
The world is in a mess. But, as WWII was breaking out in 1939, King George quoted this poem by Minnie Louise Haskins, ‘I said to the One who stood at the Gate of the Year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the Unknown.” And he replied, “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known way.” So, I went forth gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of Day…’
This is so applicable to us all today. For myself, in 2025, I was looking back over 75 years of full-time ministry. But we’ve got to stop looking back; I’m looking AHEAD to the coming years, to the responsibility and ministry in front of me even as Satan shakes the world. Paul says, Phil 3:13-14: Forget those things that are behind… press forward to the goal, to the prize, to the high calling of God!
Building on our success last year, in April I have the unique opportunity to preach Christ to several thousand Moslems living on the borders with Turkey in the Autonomous Republic of Adjara in Georgia. The strategy is to bring these closed communities down from the mountains to the capital city Batumi by bus for a 3-day event. We have won the trust of the village elders, but we must cover the cost of the venue, their food and accommodation – £250,000! We urgently need your support to make this miracle of evangelism possible. Then we follow them back into the mountains for celebrations in Khulo and Shuakhevi.
We spent everything we had both in finance and energy before Christmas, preaching Christ on the frontline in East Ukraine. Travelling on military roads covered with anti-drone netting and zig-zagging across village roads shattered by shell-fire, I ministered in a growing church planted in Izyum immediately after it was liberated from the invaders in 2023; I visited and ministered to the military manning the observation post for the 26th Artillery Regiment protecting the whole of this part of the Front, and then, further up the frontline, to commanders of ground units, who gathered in another secret location to meet us and to hear the Word of God. I ministered to chaplains gathered together from the Front, who themselves live and work on the Front with the military. On the Sunday I ministered in a packed church that daily ministers the only hope for the spiritual, social and material needs of the people of Slov'yansk, who are now living under daily bombardments from the invader. And on Sunday evening I encouraged and had fellowship with over 20 pastors and leaders from the surrounding towns and villages that also have to endure the constant Russian bombardments.
We passed whole villages wiped off the map by the enemy. Destruction is everywhere and ever present. But what struck us was the orderly, busy daily activities of the ordinary people. As the poster at the military command centre said, 'We fight so we may live.' Ukraine is not defeated as some say in the West. God is with Ukraine and He will drive the invaders back, and God will give this miracle! In the coming months!
This is the message I want to share with you for the New Year: “Wherefore, seeing we have this ministry, seeing we have received mercy, we faint not.” (2 Corinthians 4:1ff.) We have received mercy, we have received a ministry – so we must not be afraid, we must not faint when we look at the enormity of the task in front! I must not faint when I look at the enormous task that is in front of me in 2026 – because Paul says, the devil is hiding the Gospel from the lost and has blinded them, lest the Light of the Glorious Gospel of Christ shine on them... But this is the Light you and I are called to bring to this dark world!!!
For us, the reality is, as Paul says, we preach not ourselves, but Christ, because we are His servants. We must live, not by church doctrine, but by the Word of the Living God. We must live as the early believers did even under persecution and suffering: the world is no better, Satan is more evil, the Gospel has never been needed more than today. But Jesus is the same and the Holy Spirit’s Power as great as at the beginning. God has commanded the Light to shine out of darkness! This Light, this Treasure is IN US who are just ‘earthen vessels’. Clay, pottery. Fragile, easily broken, but with a Treasure IN US, which is our Faith and experience in Christ. Yes, in 75 years’ full-time ministry I have had a phenomenal witness and experience of Christ in my life. And I must not stop now.
The greater the darkness, the greater the Light must be in us. But it’s NOT us, it’s NOT what we are and who we are. It’s who Christ is! We have to give Him the Glory and the Honour in all things! To God be the Glory!
2025 was a very troubled year. A year of instability, insecurity, anxiety, suffering, sickness, loss of loved ones. Many faced war. I think particularly of Ukraine. But not only Ukraine, countries all around the world are living in a state of war or under threat of war. The first weeks of 2026 have been shaking. Paul, in the early years after Christ, writes of his own experience, 2 Corinthians 4:8ff, “We’re troubled on every side, but I’m not distressed.” No, in the midst of trouble we are NOT distressed, because we have hope! “Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down but not destroyed. Though we are bearing in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus, it’s so that the Life of Jesus can be manifest in our body!” In other words, we’re must constantly die to self so that the Glory of Christ may be seen in us! We must share this Light – this is why I have a very intensive programme of evangelism this year – and I desperately need your support financially and in prayer.
2 Corinthians 5:1ff is a message from Paul that we need in these uncertain times: whatever happens, our eternal future is in Heaven! Our Kingdom is not of this world! It’s not under the politics and governance of this world. Our Kingdom is in Christ, in Heaven! The whole of our Glory is in the future!
Whatever the past or the present, whether good or bad, our Glory is in the future when we’re going to be with Jesus! Yes, Paul says as we wait for this, we groan, we’re burdened, waiting to be clothed in the ‘house’ God has made for us in Heaven. But our future is secure in Christ – 2 Corinthians 5:17 – ‘If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation – all the old things have passed away, and everything has become new.
David
We have a great job to do together – to preach Christ! The task is urgent – the time is short – the need is great. Thank you for your loyal and continuing support of my dad’s ministry, both in prayer and giving. Please consider making a special gift to support our work, and especially the April evangelism for the Moslem Adjarian people in Georgia. You can give online, bank transfer, cheque or by telephoning our office +44 (0)1924 453693. Thank you! - Mandy Hathaway-Whitehead