Dear Partner,

A new year. A new century. None of us knows the hour nor the day, but one thing we all know for sure is that with every year that passes we are closer to the glorious day of our Lord's return. The harvest to be reaped is great. The time we have available to reap that harvest is growing shorter and shorter.

With that thought in mind, I would like to share with you some of the things the Lord is instructing Sue and I to do as our assignment in the Master's vineyard as we enter this new year. After all, your giving into Gary Carpenter Ministries makes you partners and co-laborers with us. The Great Commission is:

Mark 16:15-16 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

In the first century after the resurrection of our Lord, the methods available to "Go and preach" were pretty much limited to physical travelling by the preachers, and the mailing of hand written letters. The number of people who could be reached by any single minister in a lifetime was very limited by those methods of communication.

The most rapidly expanding method of communication today is the Internet. Every time I "preach" a message by posting it on the Internet, the potential audience is in the millions … worldwide. In addition, by having those lessons posted there, I am "preaching" twenty four hours a day … even while I sleep. While I am sleeping at night here in America, people in Australia (for example) are awake and can receive that "preaching" by reading the lessons posted at the Web Site.

For years our Web Site has been sort of "hidden," tucked away in a little corner of an Internet service called Angelfire. We have been very thankful for this free service because they made it possible for us to get started on the World Wide Web. We have received hundreds of testimonies from people whose lives have been changed and blessed by the teachings posted there. However, the people at Angelfire have recently changed their policy, and while still free, they now require us to accept commercial advertising on every page at our Web Site. We have no control over what they choose to advertise on our pages. Of course this policy change makes it impossible for us to continue using their free service.

At the Lord's direction we have purchased our own domain name on the Internet and hired a professional Web Site designer. The construction of this new Web Site is nearly completed and by the end of January we will be "up and running" on the Internet as www.garycarpenter.org.

This will make it much easier for people to find us on the Internet. This new tool will allow us to "Go and preach" to more people in a single month than we could physically reach in many years. In addition, although we will no longer be on the Web for free, this new site will eliminate the problem of being forced to accept commercial advertising over which we have no control. As for the added expense, we believe that "where the Lord leads, the Lord provides." Amen!

The free cassette tape ministry continues to grow at a phenomenal rate. In fact, our mailing list has been growing so rapidly that we found it necessary to hire an administrator, Robert Guida, to process all of the new names, address changes, tape requests, e-mails and telephone calls that we receive every day. Robert has been working for us on a part time basis (noon to four) daily since July of 1999. If the mailing list continues to grow at this present rate, however, we will soon need him to come onboard full time. Additional office space will soon be required as well.

Isa 43:19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

The Lord continues to surprise Sue and I by doing "new things" to expand our capacity to "Go and preach" the gospel to the nations. This week I was contacted via e-mail by a large ministry in Holland. They were asking permission to include some of my teaching tapes in their monthly mailings. Are you ready for this? They will be mailing these tapes to people in 55 nations! Of course we gave our permission, with the only condition being that they do not sell the tapes. They have agreed to offer them freely.

We cannot help but be awed by this. Just think. How long would it take me to physically travel to 55 nations in order to "Go and preach" the gospel? Yet I will be doing so THIS MONTH via the cassette tape ministry alone. I am once more reminded of something the Holy Spirit said to me one day while I was in prayer at the Ugly Building. He said, "Know and understand that I can accomplish more in a single day for you than you could accomplish yourself in many lifetimes. Releasing My power in every facet of your life comes by your continual awareness, continual fellowship with Me and continual hearkening to the instructions I give you by vision, revelation, and voice."

How true Sue and I have found those words to be. By following His instructions, we began by teaching a small group of people in our living room on a weekly basis. We started with a ten dollar bill and a twenty year old tape recorder. And then step by step, in these few years, He has expanded our ability to "Go and preach" to the point we are now ministering in the living rooms of people in over fifty five nations! And this is in addition to the thousands of free tapes we are sending out each month to people who are on our own mailing list. What a God we serve!

In this first month of a new century, we wanted to share with you concerning the "new things" the Lord is doing because you are co-laborers with us in the Master's vineyard. "Shoulder to shoulder," we are working together to reap a mighty harvest of souls for our Father. From the bottom of our hearts, Sue and I thank you for helping us "Go and preach" this gospel of the Kingdom to the nations!

Thank you for your gifts to GCM. Sue and I love you and appreciate you. We thank God for your generous and giving heart. God bless you!

Your friend and co-laborer,

Gary Carpenter

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