Nov-Dec, 2014
Ministry News
Ministry Update
“The work is soon to close. The members of the church militant who have proved faithful will become the church triumphant. In reviewing our past history, having traveled over every step of advance to our present standing, I can say, Praise God! As I see what God has wrought, I am filled with astonishment and with confidence in Christ as leader. We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and his teaching in our past history.” Review and Herald, October 12, 1905.
We have certainly seen God’s leading in establishing this ministry. This is not our work but God's and we have merely stood on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. Our journey really began in 2010. We had began studying the subject of the time of trouble since 2005. Both of us had been impressed for a number of years that we were already in the time of trouble and the more we read and studied, the more we were impressed that the standard, SDA end time scenario, that our remnant brothers and sisters were believing and teaching was really a serious error that would lead them to be caught unprepared.
In 2008 we started collecting all the quotes in the SOP and the Bible regarding the time of trouble and the Sunday law. At the time we planned to write a single study titled “Caught Unprepared.” Little did we know that the single study would turn into a 10 part series and book. By the end of 2010, we felt that we had enough material for the presentation on the time of trouble but that there were some big pieces missing, so we prayed for guidance.
Right after we began praying for light on the time of trouble, and specifically, on how the little time of trouble concept came into Adventism, we stumbled onto the king of the north in Daniel 11:45. We had looked at it before with mild interest but never seriously considered it as more than one of those gray areas that was not essential to understand. But this time it was like a light bulb had been turned on and we could see the whole prophecy laid out perfectly in connection with the time of trouble and the Caught Unprepared study.
There followed several months of intense research of history and the Bible and SOP, along with the history of Adventist teaching on the subject. By the summer of 2011 we had amassed an enormous amount of material on the subject. We now felt that we had something major that our remnant people needed to see. So we began to assemble the material into a series of articles on the king of the north, hoping to publish them. We began to share them with our brethren in the movement, hoping for an open discussion of the topic and an opportunity to publish our findings. To our great disappointment, there was almost no response and no opportunity to publish the articles.
After trying unsuccessfully for two years to get the articles published, we decided that people needed so see the study as a presentation. So we began preparing the 10 part slide series, Caught Unprepared. By December of 2013 the series was finished.
In January of 2014 a brother we knew from Northern California came to see us. His purpose was to set us straight and show us where we were going wrong. He was going to convince us that the Papacy had to be the king of the north. But first, he allowed us to share our study and the reasons for our position. By the time we finished, he had nothing to say in opposition. He was entirely convinced that we were right. He was so excited about the information that he began sharing it with everyone who would listen. Seeing the need for a condensed version, this brother condensed our 10 part series into the single King of the North presentation. In the mean time, we were invited to present the series on the “Let There Be Light” online church, which we agreed to do. We also put up our website.
We were then invited by the Christadelphian church we rent a building from, to share our research with them. We took the condensed version and reformatted it for non SDA’s and then created a booklet from it. The presentation to the Christadelphians was well received and when we left out a hand full of the Time of Trouble booklets, they were all taken by the next week.
We finished the online presentation the beginning of September, 2014. We received no negative comments or responses to the material, but were met with great enthusiasm.
One brother from Uganda was so impressed that he went and got a projector, downloaded our series, and began to share it with everyone he could. He told us that he had been wanting to do a presentation on this very topic and was really happy about the material we had provided.
By the first of October, 2014 we had a second booklet ready, this one for Adventists called Caught Unprepared.
We held a convocation in Orland the weekend of October 10, 2014. There were about 30 people present, at least 3 of them conference Adventists. Again, there was no negative response to the material, but rather enthusiasm.
We also started getting requests for the booklets from Kenya. Working through our contact there, we provided funds for him to print 330 copies of the booklets. Within one month all the booklets had been handed out and the people were begging for more.
We have been receiving one or more booklet, visit, and rally/crusade requests a week, mostly from Kenya, but also from Tanzania, and Uganda. There are 3 rallies being planned in Kenya in December, all of which are requesting booklets. We have received donations to cover printing of another 330 booklets, which are being printed now.
We also asked our contact in Uganda if he could print some booklets. He replied that he would love to print the booklets and had already put together a tract on the subject, that he was currently printing. He requested funds to print 5000 booklets and a minimum of 100,000 tracts.
We are planning a topical magazine titled “The Loud Cry.” We are working on a series titled “The Four Waymarks, Islam In Bible Prophecy.” This series is aimed at a general audience for general witnessing purposes. We have received numerous requests for a DVD and are getting ready to start production of “Caught Unprepared” as a video series.
Please pray for us as we go forward as the Lord leads in this great work.
God Bless,
Rick and Gini Markwell