FBC Gallatin,
When I first heard about Sam’s calling to the Middle East, I was really excited for him and encouraged by the ministry that was going on at Gulf Theological Seminary in Abu Dhabi. However, I had no idea that he would be preaching at our church months later to edify our congregation and tell us more about his ministry. It wasn’t until a finance meeting on March 13th, less than two months ago that I even realized that there might be an opportunity to hear from Samuel at FBC Gallatin as we were discussing potential outreach opportunities and I mentioned Samuel and his calling to Abu Dhabi and everyone at the meeting seemed interested to hear more and even encouraged me to reach out to Samuel to see if he was available to come and present to our church. This was surreal to me because I had not intended this opportunity but was so excited to reach out to him to see if he was even available or if he still had any need because I knew he was leaving soon to the Middle East.
To my delight, he still had a need for support, and he also still had a few weeks left of availability to visit churches, and after a 3-hour conversation and many pages of notes regarding his ministry, I was more excited than ever for him to come to FBC to present to us. And after rewatching both his Sunday School presentation and sermon on Romans 15 several times this week, I can say that I am so thankful for what he presented and his kindred heart for reaching, teaching, discipling, and training people at his church in Abu Dhabi (Evangelical Community Church) and seminary (GTS). And though I have only really become friends and gotten to know Samuel the last month and a half, I have found a quick connection of likeminded fellowship with him and his family that I am so thankful for that I don’t believe would have ever happened without our church deciding to want to reach out and potentially partner with him.
I see all of this as a kind providence of God and whether or not we decide as a congregation to partner with him and directly support him and his family and their ministry, I thank God for His kind providence to get to know the Parkison family and hear about all that God is calling them to for the glory of God and the good of the nations! So, as we prepare to further discuss, I hope all of our church members would prioritize watching soon both the Sunday School presentation and sermon from Romans 15 titled “A Holy Ambition” to be ready to pray and discuss the potential of partnering with Samuel. The reason I encourage viewing it after the fact, is due to unforeseen circumstances we had our lowest attendance of our church family in Sunday School and morning worship last week when he came on 5/1 since the pandemic (but there were over 20 people who came to support him from his church in Kansas City Emmaus Church that filled out the sanctuary nicely and also filled up the nursery classrooms with many children), but thankfully we all have the ability to all get caught up by watching it online before discussing at our next finance and business meeting next week on 5/15.
And I leave us all with thoughts from Dr. Parkison’s words from his sermon in closing, as he said last Sunday; “So, rather than spending much more time talking about this ministry in particular, I’d like for us rather to sit under God’s Word and meditate on His mission to save a people from every tribe and tongue and nation. I want, in other words, for us to let God’s Word orient us around what we should care about, because if what my family is doing in the Middle East doesn’t align with God’s mission on this earth, it may be exciting but it shouldn’t demand our attention.”
And as your pastor, I am seeing Samuel’s ministry as something for us to give our serious attention to as Gulf Theological Seminary is the first and only Seminary in the Arabian Peninsula ever! Furthermore, due to Samuel’s strategic and providential means of training pastors in the UAE at a faithful church with a good reputation, in his known and familiar language, and sending these trained and built up pastors with years of equipping and not just “thimbles of knowledge” as he said, who will be going back to their home countries in unreached and under-reached parts of the world, I am convinced myself that this is a way that FBC Gallatin can get behind reaching the “red area” on the map in the 10/40 window with a rich Gospel partnership and ministry in our holy ambition of being useful for Christ and aligning with God’s mission of making a people from every tribe, tongue, language, and nation to become worshippers of God and to bring Him glory and praise all over the earth! And we will all get an opportunity to consider if and how we might support him in the next few months, so please watch and be praying and we will see what God might do through our local body of believers at FBC Gallatin for His glory!
Sincerely,
Pastor Daniel Pelichowski
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