Prayer Letter: November 2025
Dear friends in Christ,
There is a verse that haunts me in the best possible way, one that keeps returning to my mind with increasing frequency as I sit down to write these letters. It is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:17: “Pray without ceasing.” Not because the command itself is burdensome, but because every time I contemplate it, I am reminded that you, our faithful friends and prayer partners, have taken that commandment seriously on our behalf. You have remembered us before the throne of grace with a constancy and devotion that has become the invisible architecture holding up everything the Lord has permitted us to accomplish in this season of ministry.
The truth, stated plainly and without embellishment, is this: we would not be here without you. The mammoth ministry the Lord has entrusted to us, the books, the translation work, the local church planting efforts, the public ministry, the sermon audio, these exist not because of our sufficiency, but because of your faithful partnership. You have understood something that many seem to have forgotten: that the one who prays and the one who labors are engaged in the same sacred work (John 4:34-42). Your prayers have opened doors. Your financial support has made impossible things possible. And your continued friendship has reminded us that we are not alone in this labor.
We are eternally grateful. That phrase, I know, can become empty politeness if we’re not careful. But I mean it with every fiber of my being. Gratitude is not sentiment here, it is the recognition of a profound debt we can never repay except to point upward, always upward, to the One who orchestrates these mercies.
The Lord’s Work: November’s Labors
A New Book Released into the World
The Lord has been gracious to permit the publication of a second book, The Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is deliberately and intentionally brief, for we have discovered through these years of ministry that contemporary readers are not best served by exhaustive theological treatises. Instead, we have attempted something perhaps more difficult: clarity without oversimplification.
The book traces the Gospel narrative from our Lord’s birth through His resurrection, presenting the person and work of Christ in straightforward narrative form. It is meant to serve as that rare thing, a tract that respects the reader’s intelligence while remaining accessible to the youngest believer. Our prayer is that the Lord will use this small volume to bring many sons unto glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. We have already begun to receive encouraging feedback, and we are hopeful about its potential usefulness in the hands of faithful believers who wish to put clear Gospel truth into the hands of the lost.
The Luganda Bible Project
If you had asked me a year ago whether I believed we would see the rapid progress that has characterized this translation project, I would have expressed cautious hope tinged with the realism of a man who understands that such work moves slowly, painfully, brick by brick. I would have been wrong to harbor such doubt.
Our Ugandan translators have moved through the scriptures with a diligence and focus that commands both our gratitude and our amazement.
In November alone, they completed the following:
- Proverbs (Level 1 completion)
- Leviticus (Final Review—bringing Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus to completion)
- Ecclesiastes (Level 1 completion)
- Song of Solomon (Level 1 completion)
- 1 Samuel (Level 3 completion)
When I list these accomplishments in this manner, readers might glance over them and move forward. But pause with us for a moment and consider what this represents: the word of God, in the language of the Buganda, becoming accessible to people who have never held an accurate copy of scripture in their native tongue. This is not only linguistic labor, it is spiritual archaeology and architectural work of the highest order.
We ask earnestly that you will continue to pray for these faithful men. Pray that the Lord will grant them unwavering focus as they journey through the remaining books. Pray for their encouragement, for their protection, and for supernatural grace to sustain them in work that is, at times, minutely tedious and requires both exacting precision and sustained spiritual vigilance.
Local Ministry
Here at George County Baptist Church, the Lord continues to open doors we could not have anticipated. We are privileged to welcome a young couple who have begun attending services faithfully, individuals with minimal church background but with a hunger for God’s word that is both genuine and increasingly evident. They sit forward in their pews. They ask questions. They return. These are the small evidences of real work being done by the Holy Spirit in human hearts.
Alongside this, our mailing ministry has continued. In November, we prepared and distributed more than 500 personalized mailers to citizens throughout George County. This labor, while seemingly mundane to the outside observer, carries more spiritual and relational significance than numbers suggest. Every Thursday evening, we gather at our home. We stuff envelopes. We hand-address each one. We affix each stamp. And we do this because we have discovered something that contemporary church growth philosophy has largely abandoned: that personalization communicates value. When a homeowner receives an envelope bearing their own name, their own name, written by hand, they sense that they have been thought of individually. They understand, perhaps not consciously, that someone cared enough to do this work without cutting corners.
This approach has garnered a blessed response. People have reported that receiving such an invitation felt as though the Lord Himself had arranged the encounter. This is not hyperbole born from pastoral optimism. This is testimony borne from actual conversations with actual people who experienced genuine surprise and warmth at receiving such an invitation.
We covet your prayers for the young couple we have welcomed, and for the many households yet to receive these invitations.
Christmas Outreach
Some time ago, we asked for your specific prayer regarding our Christmas parade outreach. This event, while offering tremendous gospel opportunity, finds us woefully understaffed. We are attempting far more than our current volunteer base might suggest is feasible, and yet we move forward in faith because we have learned that the Lord often honors work done in dependence upon Him rather than accomplished through our own sufficiency.
The Lord has answered our prayers in a tangible way: all 5,000 tracts have arrived. The mailman delivered them, and we received them with genuine thanksgiving.
Here is what matters: between now and the end of this calendar year, we intend, by the grace of God, to distribute every one of these 5,000 tracts, along with church invitations, throughout Lucedale and the surrounding areas. When these are complete, we will have distributed more gospel tracts and church invitations than actual citizens in George County. We will have done this in a two-year period. And when these are complete, we will begin again. We will cycle through this labor faithfully, systematically, patiently, diligent in the highways and the hedges, working for the Lord who commanded us to “go” and never to cease going.
A Personal Gratitude and a Request
Thanksgiving for Your Words
We have been deeply encouraged by the feedback you have sent regarding the books, the articles, and these letters. Such encouragement, while it might seem a small thing to those who offer it, becomes a wellspring of renewed vigor for those of us in the labor. Thank you for taking the time to write. Thank you for allowing us to know that what we are attempting is resonating with faithful believers who understand the value of clear Gospel truth and encouragement by way of biblical exposition.
Prayer Needed
My wife is expecting our child in February 2026, and thus far the Lord has shown tremendous grace. The pregnancy progresses well. She carries our children beautifully, not only with physical composure, but with a spiritual grace that models for our children what it means to trust the Lord in all circumstances.
However, we ask for your faithful intercession regarding a complication that has emerged with this pregnancy but not with previous ones: she is experiencing considerable difficulty with varicose veins. While she has borne this burden with remarkable fortitude and without complaint, I would deeply appreciate your prayers that the Lord might grant her relief from this discomfort. Pray that the Lord would sustain her strength through these remaining months, and that the Lord would guard both mother and child as we anticipate the arrival of our newest gift.
Closing Thoughts
November marks two years since we arrived in Lucedale to plant this church and launch this ministry. When I reflect on it, I experience something akin to disorientation, it seems as though we have been here far longer, as though we have roots here now that reach deeper than two years could possibly permit. And yet the calendar insists: only two years have passed.
This is, I suspect, the nature of faithful labor in any context. When you work closely with a people, when you shepherd them through seasons of joy and sorrow, when you invest yourself in their spiritual formation, time behaves strangely. It compresses and expands simultaneously. Two years feels like ten, and yet it feels as though we have only begun.
We are profoundly grateful that the Lord has seen fit to plant us here. We are grateful for the church He has gathered. We are grateful for the work He has entrusted to us. And we are grateful, deeply, genuinely, eternally grateful, for your prayers, your support, and your friendship.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.
In His service,
Your faithful laborers in the Gospel
Thomas Irvin
George County Baptist ChurchÂ
Lucedale, MississippiÂ
