Mike Peper's Report from Sierra Leone

We are pleased to report to you that, because God is blessing the hard work and capable leadership of our local believers, the ministry in Sierra Leone continues to progress in our absence.

Specifically we can report the average attendance in the 13 churches we've planted was 1044 for the month of November, and the number of those accepting Christ was 101. January 2011 marks a new year, and marks the month when Diane and I will return to Sierra Leone after four months of stateside work for the ministry.

The New Year also brings exciting plans for ministry expansion into two neighboring countries: Liberia and Guinea. Liberians speak English; and that country, like Sierra Leone, is ripe for a harvest of souls. French is the heart language in Guinea, and one of our team members who has a heavy burden for the lost of that country speaks French fluently though we envision these two new frontiers, reaching Sierra Leone for Christ remains our priority.

We've also set a goal this year to plant at least one house church a month. In that effort, we have but three limitations: our passion, human resources and financial support. Because we know that God is not willing for any to perish, we forge ahead by faith into the fields God has prepared as we rely on Him and His children to aid us in our endeavors.

Please keep us topmost on your daily prayer list. The grips of spiritual darkness in Sierra Leone are strong, and we face them every day. With your prayers and God's power, we can all be a part of capturing this country for our Savior, Jesus Christ. In Christ,
Mike & Diane Peper

Peper's Plant Churches in Sierra Leone

Even though we are in the midst of the rainy season, our churches haveexperienced excellent growth. The average for the month of August was 705 with 342 accepting the Lord as Savior. Last Sunday we had a total of 810 in the churches. Because all of our baptismal services are conducted outside, we only baptized 47 due to the heavy rains. I am planning on returning to the States this month. Spiritually, this has been a very profitable nine months. As I reflect on where we were just a year ago....less than 200 in our churches....I am so amazed at what the Lord has done in such a short time.

We have our 12 churches with a new one beginning in Mekeni this month. Last year the Bible Institute was started and this month we will be adding our sophomore year. Monday will mark the start of a new elementary school. In the two schools we anticipate approximately 450 students. Also, the feeding program will expand to 5 days a week for each of the students. The college ministry is averaging 270 a month in three locations. Since this ministry began last June, we have had 386 college students saved.

We feel like we have a solid foundation on which we can build. With our members being discipled, there is an increased confidence in the spiritual growth of this ministry. I am always aware of the fact that none of this would be possible without you. A "thank you" does not seem adequate. May God continue to bless you in a wonderful way.

In Christ,
Mike & Diane Peper

Newsletter: Mike and Diane Peper

One of the strategies instituted among our churches was that of having a monthly combined service. This program began one month after starting our first two churches here in Freetown. This has worked very successfully for the churches here in the capital, but we had not been able, until now, to expand this to the other areas where we have churches. Last Sunday we had our first combined service in Waterloo for our two churches located in that city. We had 77 present with 20 being saved. Everyone was so excited about having their own combined service.
This week the team went to the second largest city in Sierra Leone to conduct a combined service for our two churches in that location. We had 116 present with 46 saved and 25 baptized. It was a great day! For the three churches in Makeni, the third largest city, we will wait until the rainy season is finished. The distance between the churches is too far for the people to walk in the heavy rain. Those churches are doing so good. A week ago they had a total of 271 present with 49 trusting the Lord as Saviour.
In September we will begin a new church in Makeni and then in October we will begin two combined services in that area. For the last two months, I have been appealing for money for a temporary building for one of the churches. I am very thankful to report that we received the money and the building is being built. Thank you for being so faithful to this ministry and to us.
In Christ, Mike & Diane Peper

The Pepers' Report from Sierra Leone

Our 11th church, located in the village of Mabantu, was started two months ago by the pastor of one of our other churches. There was no church of any kind in this villaage and only five Muslims. The first service was attended by 182 people and they have averaged over 130 every Sunday since they began. I had the privilege of preaching in this church two weeks ago and we had 32 people make a profession of faith. After the service the church people walked approximately 5 miles to the river where we conducted their first baptism. Exactly 100 people were baptized and everyone went home rejoicing over what the Lord is doing in their village.
Last week we held a two-day revival in conjunction with the starting of our 12th church. In the two nights we had 114 professions of faith and on Sunday there were 60 in attendance and an additional 11 were saved. Thank you for your prayers for us and for the great opportunity here in Sierra Leone.
We are so grateful for your faithfulness.
In Christ,
Mike & Diane Peper
P.S. We still have need of $400.00 for the temporary building for the church in Bo. The rains have started and there is a great urgency for this young church.

Newsletter from Mike Peper in Sierra Leone

This past month we were able to start our tenth church. They have been meeting on a vacant lot that the owner said they could use until he builds on it. He told them that it would be some time before he would be needing it. Since the rainy season has already begun, it is imperative that we provide a shelter for them. It will cost approximately $500.00 to erect a temporary building that will seat about 75-100 people.

When I come home this next month, I would like to seek the help of an engineer or architect to help us design a prefabricated building that would be more permanent. We will need something approximately 20'x40' in size. Since we don't have to be concerned about cool weather, it could be like an 'open air' pavilion. Each church could build walls to keep out the rain as they are able to raise the funds. I am planning to be home for the months of July through September in order to raise additional support and see my family.

I know this is not the best time to do deputation, but it is critical for this ministry that I increase my monthly support.

Thank you for your love toward us and for making this work in Sierra Leone possible.

In Christ, Mike & Diane Peper

April-May Newsletter From Sierra Leone

Last Sunday we celebrated the first anniversary of our combined services. We had nine churches that met together with a total of 807 present and 32 saved.. All the people were not able to attend because of distance and the cost of transportation. The music, fellowship, and the entire service was outstanding. I reflected on our first combined service with 64 in attendance and only 2 churches present and thanked God for all He had allowed us to experience in just one short year.

Last month we started another branch of our college outreach ministry called "180 Degree Cafe". In each region where our churches are located we use the Friday Night Cafe for gathering college students. We held one of these college meetings in one of our newer churches where we had 289 in attendance and 200 of those were college students with 57 of them making a profession of faith in Christ.

We are very grateful for all of you who have invested in this ministry. You are so faithful in your financial support!

Thank you!!
In Christ, Mike & Diane PeperMissionaries to Sierra Leone

Mike Peper in Sierra Leone

A year ago last Sunday we started our first church with 36 in attendance and 12 accepting Christ as Saviour. For the month of February we averaged 665 with 360 saved and 87 baptized. We now have 8 churches and they are all pastored by national pastors who receive their support from the churches they serve.
We are in the second semester of the Bible Institute and we have a Christian School that began last summer with 231 elementary students. God has truly blessed the ministry here in Sierra Leone. One of the newest churches had a special 'Outreach Sunday' and they had 182 present with 91 making profession of faith. They are presently meeting in a former night club. The property owner has been letting them conduct services rent free, but he told the church that he has sold the building.
They can continue to meet in the facility until the new owners begin remodeling it. We have located a piece of land that they can lease for five years at a total cost of $188.00. Because the rainy season is approaching, I want tolease the property and build them a covered meeting place at a cost of approximately $3,000.00. We need to do this as quickly as possible. If you can, please help us with this project. I want to thank you for your prayers and support. If it were not for God's blessings and your investment, none of this would have taken place.
We are so grateful.
In Christ,
Mike & Diane Peper

News from Mike Peper and Sierra Leone

February 1, 2010

It was our privilege to host a wonderful group of thirteen members of the Heritage Baptist Church of Georgetown, Texas, beginning on December 27th. They conducted Vacation Bible Schools for three of our churches, held a three-day meeting for the beginning of our newest community church, and led in a New Year’s Eve outdoor service. The crowd was numbered at 904 people.

The group ministered to a village that had been devastated by a sweeping fire. Forty-five homes had been affected and over 500 people had been displaced. It will cost approximately $500.00 per home to make repairs and put metal roofs on the homes. It would be a wonderful testimony for Christ if we could assist them with this project in this predominant Muslim community.

The last day of their stay with us was ministering to our college students. They visited several campuses inviting students to the evening service. They had 93 in attendance with 14 being saved.

When they left us they were tired, but it was a ‘good tired’. During their 11 days we had 622 names and addresses of people that made profession of faith.

Thank you for all that you do to make it possible to be here among this great harvest of souls.

In Christ,


Mike & Diane Peper


Sending Agency: Central Missionary Clearing House, P.O. Box 219228, Houston, Texas 77218-9228

Bibles for Sierra Leone

Dear Pastors and Friends,

Hello to all of you again. I have great news from Mike Peper and the wonderful work being done in Sierra Leone. As I have told you previously, Mike is now superintending seven churches that have been started under his brief ministry there. Last Sunday they all met together for their monthly combined service. There were 707 Sierra Leonians present with 89 professions of faith and 67 baptized that day. The church that was started thru the preaching of Harold Anderson while we were there (In Waterloo) sent 68 folks to this meeting. Wow, God is so good! I praise the Lord for such a marvelous mission field and all of you who have had a part in it.
Now some more good news. We are ordering the books for the pastors and students early next week. Almost all of that money has come in and I feel that need will be met by the end of next week. We are ordering 34 sets of books at $77 for each set.
Now, for some really remarkable news. Missionary Mike Peper estimates that only about ten per cent of his church members own a Bible. We want to remedy that if we can. We have found paperback New King James Bibles for a buck a piece...that's right, one dollar buys a Bible. I just got off the phone with Mike and he is ecstatic. His words were, "Ed, do you realize we can put a Bible in the hands of every believer for about $500?". So, here's the deal. Harold and I would like to lead in the raising of this money for Bibles to send to Sierra Leone. Do you realize you can put Bibles into 25 homes in W. Africa for $25? Now, I know that it is Christmas time...and, many of you have already given sacrificially to this work. However, I believe most of us can find 25 bucks in the next 30 days. I can and I will! Our goal is to send 1000 Bibles...500 to give out immediately and another 500 for Mike to give to future believers. If there is such a need as this in such a poor country as Sierra Leone, how can we not rise up and meet this challenge together?
Now, the container that will be packed with these books and Bibles will not be shipped until the end of January. We have plenty of time to get the money raised and the books shipped to Mike's Pennsylvania address. Mike is home until after Christmas and he said he would help raise money for this. I told him..."No way!" He has many other needs and he needs to raise money for them. I told him that I have great confidence that Harold's friends, as well as my own, will meet the challenge for these Bibles.

Ed Rothenberger

Sierra Leone According to Ed Rothenberger

My Dear Supporting Friends,
I am back from Sierra Leone but many of my thoughts and much of my heart is still there. This country is truly an “open heaven” as my good friend Harold Anderson described it. The harvest there is “ripe” and missionary Mike Peper is certainly God’s man for the hour. It is difficult to believe that this much has been done and he has only been in Africa since March of this year.
I am so privileged to have spent 19 days in ministry there. Harold and I saw almost 300 professions of faith and that doesn’t count the many children who also prayed to receive Christ. Both of us preached 3 nite revivals that ended with the birthing of a new churches on the following Sundays. What a joy that was! Harold was used by the Lord to plant a new work in a suburb of Freetown called “Waterloo”. They had over 100 professions of faith there. On their first Sunday service after the revival (which Harold preached) there were 67 in attendance.
For some time now, Mike has wanted a church plant in downtown Freetown and that was my great honor to have a part in. We held the revival meeting outside and on the last nite, the crowd nearly closed off the street. We saw at least 60 adults come to know the Lord in those three nites. The following Sunday, our first church service (which I was honored to preach), we had 47 in attendance and another church was born. Right after that we had to catch a taxi and race to the airport to catch our flight home.
Mike now has seen seven churches established in his seven months in Sierra Leone. God has blessed and all of the churches but the one just established in downtown Freetown are pastored by nationals. Mike will pastor the downtown church for a short while until he can train a national to take that one. By the way, once a month all of the churches meet together for a combined meeting and that crowd will run between 500 and 700 wonderful folks (the number varies depending on the difficulty many find in getting to the central location). Our first Sunday in Sierra Leone was such a Sunday and my first experience in the country was preaching to this crowd of over 500. We had 35 adults saved that day. Wow, what a country; what a missionary, what a ministry!
In a follow-up letter to this one, I will tell you about the wonderful moving of the Lord in the Bible Institute. Twenty-seven young men (and one lady) are in preparation for ministry and what a delight to teach them in the classroom. Much more about this later.
Many of you have written to ask about needs over there. I will share just one now and more later. Mike Peper needs more monthly support and I cannot think of a better place to put your mission money that this “Open Heaven”. I am committing myself to send Mike $100 each month, beginning today. How I pray and hope that many of you will do the same. For your information, monthly checks can be sent to a missions clearing house in Houston where they will process them for Mike. Checks should be made out to “Central Missionary Clearing House” and Mike Peper’s name should not appear on the check but his name should be used in an accompanying note. The clearing house will keep a record for your income tax purposes and send you a yearly statement. The address is…
Central Missionary Clearing House
POB 219228
Houston, TX 77218-9228

Editor's note: Sierra Leone can be one of the most productive mission fields during the year 2010. I encourage you to get behind this project and let's see what God can really do.

November Newsletter From Sierra Leone

It has been a wonderful month of blessings.
Two new churches were started, giving us a total of seven churches. The average attendance of the churches for the month of October was 574. We have had 1,097 saved since we started 7 months ago. The Friday night college ministry has averaged 48 each week with 80 students accepting Christ as Saviour.
Two of my pastor friends of 49 years came to Sierra Leone to help us launch the Bible Institute. We had 26 men and 1 young lady enroll. For two weeks they not only gave college level courses to them, but they gave them their heart and lives. What a wonderful blessing they were to this ministry. The students fully engaged themselves into the classroom lectures and studies. I am going to need to purchase 30 chairs at a cost of $15.00 a chair for the Institute.
Our container has arrived and we should be able to get it out of customs and to our newly rented home early next week. We were without electricity for three days last week so it will be wonderful to connect the new generator that is coming in the container. It is large enough to provide energy for our daughter and son-in-law upstairs and for us downstairs.
We desperately need an increase in our monthly support as this ministry moves forward. We ask you to help us cover the additional expenses if possible. Thank you for the confidence you have placed in us. May God continue to richly bless you.
In Christ, Mike & Diane Peper

Editor's note: The Rawlings Foundation has supplied finances for a place for the Peper's to work. However you can see they need additional funds to continue to do a wonderful work. Go to www.impactyouthww.com to see additional pictures of the work there.

221 Saved and 69 Baptized in Sierra Leone

This past Sunday we held our second combined service with the two house churches, and had our highest attendance thus far. There were 178 in the worship service with 8 adults accepting Christ as Saviour. At the close of our service I had the privilege of baptizing 48 people from the two churches. One of our men expressed what all of us were feeling when he said, “Pastor, the spirit is too high this morning.” Although I did the preaching, the rest of the service was conducted by the nationals themselves. You would be so pleased with the quality of the people God has given to this ministry. We all went away thanking the Lord for meeting with us in such a wonderful way.
So far we have 221 people saved in our churches and 69 people baptized in these last eleven weeks. A young lady from the Salem Baptist Temple in Salem, Oregon, has been working with us since the eighth of April. Her goal was to establish a children’s Sunday school in both of our churches, train teachers, and mentor someone to head up the children’s ministry. She has trained five teachers, and mentored one of them to become the children’s ministry director. We had a total of sixty children last Sunday. She and my grandson, who just arrived, have been developing a college ministry program which will begin this Friday night. I have been so thankful for their dedication and commitment to this ministry.
Discipleship has been a focus in both of the churches. It has been a slow but steady process. We now have several that I have taken through the lessons and two weeks ago they themselves became disciplers. We have our discipleship classes following the Sunday morning service with over forty of our people engaged in intense Bible study. We want both of the churches to be biblically solid before we launch into the establishment of more churches in September.
I will be returning to the states in July for six weeks of deputation. I simply do not have enough monthly support coming in to sustain Diane and myself and the ministry. Bill Dougherty is helping me to fill the schedule with new churches.
Thank you for being so faithful to us. We are partners in one of the most wonderful harvest fields in the world.

Mike and Diane Peper

Bill Aven, reporter