Friday, May 15, 2026

Friday, May 15

“And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.” —Acts‬ ‭21‬:‭19‬ ‭

Dr. Tom Sexton was used of God to start the Five Star Christian Ministry in 1992. Now that he is retired from pastoring, he and I have been praying for some time about the future direction of this fruitful ministry. On February 11 of this year, I became chairman of the board. Five Star is now a ministry of Shining Light Baptist Church. As the founder, Dr. Sexton will continue to serve as a representative of Five Star.

With this ministry also comes Five Star Christian Publications featuring many training books, booklets and gospel tracts that we are putting into a Five Star Institute which will operate under the auspices of our developing Compass College. These resources will be available on our online Moodle platform to help train fellow laborers in local churches worldwide.

Rejoice with us over this 2025 report from the 1700 pastors and churches in Africa which are a part of our Five Star Fellowship of African Independent Baptists:

1.Souls Saved in 2025:

Public Schools—88,307
Prison ministry—12,722
Crusades & Streets—9,219
One on one Soul Winning—1,008
Jesus Cinema Nights—19,602
Stores—105
Conferences/Camps & VBS (Youth, Women, Children Men)—1,076

Total: 131,532

2. Churches Planted: 36

3. Churches Built: 18

4. Total Baptisms: 2,178

One of our co-laborers there reported this recently: “Came today from Kenya/Somalia border where God allowed us share the gospel not only on the Kenyan side, but the Somalia side too. 301 souls, including a Somali Muslim Chief (area leader) and an Imaam (a mosque leader), professed faith in Jesus Christ.”

To God be the glory! Pray with us as we train more servants of Christ at home and abroad to shine the gospel light and make disciples.

You are loved and prayed for.

Sincerely,