Philadelphia Bible Fellowship Church Planting Alliance

06/08/2026

June 30Plus Feature - Cynthia's Calling Point To Serve

For decades now, Missionary Jacqui Forde has referred to Cynthia as, foot solder. It's an affectionate designation given to mark Cynthia's longstanding role and practice simply to serve missionaries as a supporter of their lives and ministry work.

For over their three decades journey, serving as supporters of missionaries and mission's ministry work, it's a role the Parks have cherished. Cynthia Parks has even highlighted a single Scripture reference that perfectly describes and validates the supporting role, The Apostle Paul's request of Pastor Timothy in his travels, "When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments." [2 Timothy 4:13]

In the early years, Cynthia passion for missionaries and their work was expressed by writing to them encouragement letters. One missionary in particular responded to Cynthia's letters, Missionary Jacqui Forde, and a relationship was spun that would become decades of friendship and collaborative ministry service. In the 90s, Jacqui Forde and her late husband, organized the Windows of Hope International Children's Ministry, a ministry that would serve at risk youth in Uganda during the height of the aids epidemic at which time many youth lost parents to the disease. Simply, the couple believed their God would 'open the windows of heaven' (Malachi 3:10) on behalf of Ugandan youth and give them 'a hope and future.' [Jeremiah 29:11] https://wohuganda.com/ Decades later, the ministry has been used by God to be a catalysis of redemption and renewal for the lives of hundreds youth.

Cynthia found a certain missionary call to serve in a supporting role to missionaries, again in the spirit of 2 Timothy 4:13, "When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls', especially the parchments." Her international travel would translate into bringing to field missionaries what they needed for their work, their lives, those they served. Especially serving WOH over the decades, Cynthia trips to Uganda and those traveling with her, it was common practice that travel included 4-10 completely full duffle bags with what the ministry needed as deemed by its directors.

Over decades now, Missionary Jacqui Forde's designation of Cynthia as foot solder of the ministry, it would become a practice whereby one would perform all efforts necessary to ensure a broad range of physical needs were met on behalf of the ministry. It's the lesson anyone can learn who may not be a year round lifetime or fulltime field missionary. If you know a missionary who has dedicated their life to serving Christ and others abroad, your support ministry can be making sure they have what they need at the expense of you getting it to them.

Serving is definitely support and supporting those who serve.

05/02/2026

30Plus Years - Global Missions Expanded My Affection Due To God Expanding My Audience

For three decades, the Apostle Paul’s heartfelt desire expressed towards Roman believers in Christ, it has become the personal testimony and truth that underlies every ministry travel abroad, every support effort of encouragement, edification, equipping, evangelizing: “I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” [‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬]

1996, stepping on the West African soil of Cote D’Ivoire to serve Liberian refugees whose country (Liberia) was war torn due to the civil conflicts, I knew with absolute certainty God was giving me an expanded call to the gospel ministry to a people beyond my Philadelphia-USA boarders. What I did not expect was to cultivate such deep affection for the people that again, only The Apostle Paul’s testimony helped me to adequately describe, “I long to see you.” [Romans 1:11]

More than at any time in my life and Christian journey, I know exactly why the Spirit disqualifies anyone’s gifted service who doesn’t genuinely love the people they serve. [1 Corinthians 13:1-3] The gospel ministry is the wrong place to love watching your gifts operate more than you love the people you’re serving. When the Spirit concludes ‘one is nothing’ and ‘one gains nothing’, it’s because there’s a disconnect of the heart with those served though the gift is in action serving. I’m convinced it’s traceable to The John 3:16 love bar the Father sets for rest of us involved in His work to emulate, this made abundantly clear in Matthew 5:44-48 and Ephesians 5:1-2. Ministers and missionaries must authentically love the people they serve just like the Heavenly Father or else ‘they are nothing’, ‘they gain nothing’ for their service. There are possibly many in ministry who love the acts\gifts of service more than they love the people they serve. And judgement day before Christ and His throne, unfortunately they will discover just how serious and true the Spirit’s revelation was, “I am nothing”, “I gain nothing.” You must love those you serve.

For me, gospel mission ministry abroad is driven by God-given affection for new audiences He set before me over a thirty year period of my life and ministry. There’s a work of God that can only happen in your heart by going where they are, by seeing them face to face, by listening to them, by learning from them, by physically touching them, by emotionally bounding with them. Even they will tell you, your coming to see them, it means more to them than other forms of support you can send them.

And it’s the affection that creates bonds, deep relational bonds of the heart. The words, “I long to see you”, I view as a gift of Almighty God, especially when it becomes a mutual longing with mutual encouraging benefits, again, only Paul helps me to describe it perfectly, “That you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” [‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬]

After three decades, I’ve watched that affection become an audience I’ll be bonded to for all eternity, on this side of heaven and the new heaven and earth God promises is to come.

05/02/2026

Saturday, May 2, 2026! Listen now at https://globalnetworkradio.airtime.pro/
Or TuneIn at https://gnrgmf.org/ or https://tunein.com/radio/Global-Network-Radio-s245414/

09/28/2025

09/09/2025

Des Moines, Iowa Weekend of Church Equipping, Edification and Encouragement Ministry

09/01/2025

Minneapolis, Minnesota - So Proud of Our Windows of Hope International Children’s Ministry Nephew Dr. Edward Nelson Kankaka

Never understand the power of being global supporter! Thank you family! ❤️

08/26/2025

Three Advantages to Being New Evangelistic Church Plants - Evangelistic Thrust

Hard to believe we're home and packing our bags again for our coming weekend of celebration and ministry of God's Word at the 29th Anniversary Celebration of the Faith Chapel Evangelistic Ministries in Minnesota. Faith Chapel, "Get ready! Get ready! Get ready! Get ready!" 😀 So looking forward to celebrate with you guys!

We return home convinced even more of our updated call of God to stand with new church plants. Being in Kalungu and Kampala (Uganda), it brought such joy to our hearts to witness firsthand the all around growth of these churches, both moving to complete their third year of existence. As it was said of the new church planting move of God in Antioch, so is our testimony: "When he (we) arrived and saw this evidence of God’s blessing, he (we) was filled with joy, and he encouraged the believers to stay true to the Lord." [Acts 11:23]

Three W words can describe the reason any local church exist, the WORSHIP of Christ, the ministry of the WORD of Christ and the WITNESS of Christ to the non-Christian world to complete His global mission precisely as He commanded, "Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you." [Matthew 28:19-20 NLT] One of these W's Christ himself made the primary purpose why a church should be in existence, WITNESS. And while we live in a church era that attempts to balance everything, balancing may not help us at all if their is clear practical and spiritual evidence WORSHIP and ministry of the WORD of church is outpacing WITNESS of the church to the unsaved. In extreme cases, WORSHIP and WORD of church can greatly diminish the importance of WITNESS of church and reduce it to an optional (periodic) practice or no practice at all.

In our world, church plants are evangelistic in initiation and direction, meaning, the purpose of the new church is to produce next generation disciples with new salvation experiences, much like the Apostle Paul’s gospel proclaiming church planting expeditions which always began with evangelizing the lost in cities most of which had no Christians, though some had adherents to Judaism. [Acts 13:1-14:1-28] Evangelism was followed by discipleship, discipleship equipping, equipping leadership development. And a weekly fellowshipping and worshiping congregation would eventually emerge along with ministry programs to encourage spiritual and all around church growth.

While for some the term church planting as a great commission mission can be somewhat new, organizing new churches isn’t new at all. The difference has always been in the church purpose and strategy. Many new churches are foremost organized for worship and the ministry of God’s word (the feature of a minister’s individual preaching-teaching ministry). But if witness to the lost without Christ isn’t priority number one, it’s very easy for a newly organized church to slip into an exclusive strategy of Christians reaching Christians, attracting believers to the church with an existing faith in Christ already familiar with church worship and the ministry of God’s word. Without intentional witness to win the lost without Christ (fulfillment of the great commission), a newly organized church can initiate and numerically thrive perfecting attractive dynamic features of worship and praise, and concentrated messaging of the ministry of God's word. Today, a new church can definitely grow by exclusively appealing Christians as a practical philosophy of growth, and throw in practicing evangelism periodically as an option or not at all. You don’t need to evangelize the loss to grow a church today.

From our observation, there are three advantages to being a new evangelistic church plant. To be clear, this isn’t a comparison to churches with decades of existence and history. These three advantages are derived from witnessing the work of church planters we are in association to.

1. The Intentional Emphasis Placed On Evangelism - New church plants we associate to, we see a clear evangelistic thrust. The church planting team tends to be very intentional about producing a congregation of next generation disciples with new salvation experiences, again, no different than the evangelism fruit our Brother Paul and his mission team realized. [Acts 14:21-24] The spiritual and practical thrust on the literal fulfillment of Christ great commission mission, it tends to drive the new church more than any other church practice. By comparison to worship and the ministry of God’s Word, the DNA of witnessing Christ to the unsaved is paramount to the church’s purpose and plan, paralleling Christ personal purpose statement, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” [‭‭Luke‬ ‭19‬:‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬]

2. Commitment To Trust God - It requires faith in God for a church planting team to launch a new church with very little believing God will honor their obedience and begin to build a community congregation. Many of the new church plants we associate to are three years in existence or less. Between years one and three, we’ve watched God be faithful to their faith. We’ve often said, we have a tremendous amount of respect for church planters we know who take steps of faith to launch a new church with very little versus the ministerial leader who’s hired by a longstanding church with systems of ministry already in place. Make no mistake about it, it requires faith in God to oversee any congregation in existence for any number of chronological years. But particularly launching a new evangelistic church plant, it requires trusting God every step of the way to fill every detail of need as they begin with so little.

3. Leadership Character Building of Servanthood - Due to the evangelistic thrust of their work (sheer passion to fulfill Christ great commission mission), we've met church planters who did not want to become pastors or elders of a congregation. Some of them have already began to plant their second or third church in select regions of their nations. They all were simply found serving Christ cause of the great commission and those who became the fruit of their evangelistic labor. They were in it for Christ work of the spread of gospel, not aspiring to be leaders of a congregation. Even this trip, one of our dear pastor associates chuckled recalling the days of refusing to be ordained as a pastor. We've had to convince them all that church planting work eventually will require eldership and pastoral ministry. We're watching many grow into the role of pastoral ministry, some doing exceptionally well in the care of God's people. About evangelistic church planting mission and leadership, its was said of the Apostle and his team: "Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders in every church. With prayer and fasting, they turned the elders over to the care of the Lord, in whom they had put their trust." [Acts 14:23] It's truly refreshing to see when the mindset of servanthood comes before the installation of leadership.

Again, thank all of you for your prayers and financial support of us. We appreciate you!

Contact us if you wish to support (adopt) a new church plant.

Ronald and Cynthia Parks
P. O. Box 16867 - Philadelphia, PA 19153
215 365 6264 [email protected]

08/24/2025

08/24/2025

Kampala, Uganda - A Note of Gratitude to Supporters

God’s word describes your support perfectly: “So two good things will result from this ministry of giving—the needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God. As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God. For your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ. And they will pray for you with deep affection because of the overflowing grace God has given to you. Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words!” [‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭9‬:‭12‬-‭15‬ ‭NLT‬‬]