Feb 19-13, 2015

Middle East Team

It is a bittersweet time for our team, as we now have finished our time of ministry in the refugee camps. We are so grateful for all of the people God led us to that have impacted our lives, including our translators and the local church who are now like family to us. We are convinced of God’s strong love and faithfulness to all He promised (Romans 8:28). We know we will never be the same.

We are excited to share that our last weeks were full of miracles and answered prayers! We followed Jesus to six new refugee camps that were completely unreached. Meaning none of the people had heard the Gospel before. In each camp, we were eagerly received by crowds of children and invited into the homes of families. It was amazing to see crowds of people gather into single homes as we ministered. In these new camps, God broke our hearts as we listened to their stories of the trauma and reality of fleeing war-torn areas and living in refugee camps. Almost every family has lost loved ones, some only can afford three to four meals a week, and others live in physically hard conditions in addition to the spiritual darkness and emotional trauma. But in their brokenness, God is bringing His comfort, hope and peace. He is revealing Himself in dreams and in power as we and others share the Gospel. We were overjoyed as we saw the awe and wonder in the eyes of those who heard and encountered Jesus for the first time. One woman exclaimed as we prayed for her, that the heaviness she always lived with lifted and she felt security for the first time. Others tried to describe the healing, joy and peace they felt when we prayed. God is so eager to embrace every hungry heart here. In fact, during the week, people would come looking for us, asking for audio bibles and for us to come pray for the sick in their camps. We were stoked to see Jesus’ fame and healing made known. There are so many testimonies of how the Gospel is going forth as light in this darkness. We now understand why John wrote “There are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25). Likewise, this update cannot contain all that God has done and is doing here in the middle east! To hear some amazing testimonies, keep reading below:

The Camp Leader is Saved!
We were so excited to see the refugee camp leader of an unreached camp give his life to Jesus! He eagerly welcomed us into the camp to share with the few families that were gathered there. This camp was isolated and had never received visitors before, let alone the Gospel! We know that his salvation will open the door for many to know Christ!

Healing Hugs
Jesus’ embrace truly heals! Everywhere we go, people of all ages are hungry for love and eager to receive hugs (and sometimes they don’t let go). We were amazed to see Jesus heal one woman from her head pain through a hug! Susanna felt led to hug her for a long time, and afterwards, the pain had melted away!

Explorer’s Team in Northern Africa

Hello family and friends! Last Monday morning we did evangelism in a village and in the evening we did evangelism in the city and gave out 8 Bibles. We talked to a few Muslims and told them the Gospel and they were interested enough to receive Bibles.

We left for the city early on Wednesday morning. We caught a bus and traveled eleven hours. That night we connected with one of our contacts who is a pastor at the Assembly of God church there. Thursday we met with the head pastor at the church who tried to help us get into the refugee camps and invited us to speak daily at the various programs they have during the week. That afternoon we also met with a Christian family. The husband has a vision to start a church that is in the local language and in the language of the refugee camps because his wife is from the same country. They have a lot of connections to Muslim refugees and it was an incredible privilege to be able to encourage them and give them thirty Bibles in the refugees’ language for them to distribute in the refugee camps.

Friday we returned to the families house and found out that we would not be able to go to the refugee camps during this trip because we needed special permission from the office in the capital. We also found out that we were the first team that ever tried to go into the refugee camps to share the Gospel. So now the contacts we have know the process so our time in the city served to open a lot of doors. Friday afternoon we also did evangelism, splitting into two groups. We shared the Gospel and got words from God for twelve people on the streets (which the leaders of the church had told us was impossible to do), and we received a lot of positive feedback.

Saturday evening we met with the family again and they brought in three of the fourteen Christian refugees from the underground church. We prayed with them, gave them scripture and encouraged them to continue to share the Gospel with the people around them. They also gave us their addresses so that we can send training materials on how to do ministry to Muslims to the man with the vision to start a church, as well as to one of the pastors.

Sunday we went to church in the morning, and Alyssa B and Alyssa P led worship. In the afternoon we visited two families that had been struggling with a lack of faith, sickness, and had been having problems sleeping during the night. So we prayed for them. After that we went to speak at a “youth” event (people eighteen and older). We all spoke a piece of a message on fear of the Lord, and the Great Commission. The message ended in a call to give up any rights that people had been holding on to. There were many deliverances and the night concluded with the most genuine worship we had seen yet in that church.

On our travel back to the capital, we stopped in a city along the way that was 100% Muslim. We went into the city to do our last day of evangelism and there were 2 people that gave their lives to Jesus! We have one more day in the capital and then we are going back to California.

Central Asia Team

We have seen the Lord do some absolutely incredible things this past week in the Eastern part!!
We spent half of this past week bringing the Gospel to unreached villages, and we were able to communicate the Gospel, give out 15-20+ bibles to people who really wanted them (overall we have given out 100 bibles here!), and deep seeds were planted in many hearts!!
About a week ago, when we arrived in a new city in the East, Patrick and I (Samantha) prayed about where in the city to go. We felt like the Lord had spoken to go to a place just northwest of our city, and that it began with an “A”, so we looked at a map and sure enough there was a village in that exact location that started with an A! When we traveled there, we prayed as a team and asked the Lord what He had for us. We felt like He said that we were going to meet a shepherd, pass out Bibles, meet a specific woman, and be taken to a school to play soccer! That very moment, an Imam (false shepherd!) walked around the corner and started a conversation with us! We gave him a Bible and began sharing the Gospel with him, and then he asked if we would want to meet other people as well. Right then, a woman came out of her home, gave us gifts, and asked us if we would like to go to the nearby school! So, we went there, drank tea with the teachers and principal, gave them Bibles, shared the Gospel, prayed for the Imam, and went outside right when the kids were playing soccer during their recess! Isn’t that incredible? We did this almost every day in the East! We would ask the Lord where to go, and then when we would get there, we would ask Him to simply lead us to the harvest. Every time, it resulted in sharing the Gospel in creative and effective manners, giving Bibles, and leading folks to Jesus!

We spent two days reading the Bible, ministering, exploring, visiting, and eating lots of incredible food with the only Christian family in a city here in the East! We were able to keep them company, play with their kids, and share the Gospel with the dad’s atheist cousin (which was amazing!). He took us to visit a refugee family one evening, and we had the opportunity to hear their story as well as pray for them, prophesy over them, and give them Bibles. They fled ISIS a few months ago and need to come into relationship with Jesus! Please keep them in your prayers. They are not Muslim, but they are in another religion and they don’t know Jesus. And now to quickly share a few things from our last two days here in our last city in the East. Yesterday we took a taxi to a specific street that we felt like the Lord spoke to go to, and we literally stayed on that same street for hours! We gave a Gospel tract to one man standing outside of a shop, and that led to us going into his shop, drinking Coca-Cola with him, and typing the Gospel into his translator on his laptop! He heard the full Gospel and he now knows that he has a choice to make, to be in relationship with Jesus or not! After that encounter, we walked just a little bit and were invited into another little market, where we were given tea and snacks. There we got to give out Bibles and share the Gospel! After being there for a while, we started walking along the road again and were almost immediately invited into another market! There we were given free fruit (lots of free gifts this day!) and we shared the Gospel with the owner of the market. Then, a woman walked in and Ruth and I gave her a Gospel tract that reads “you are special.” It’s all about how she is lovely, made in God’s image, and that He has a wonderful plan for her. She lit up with joy, so we gave her a movie about Jesus (in her language), and then when we gave her a Bible. She gave Ruth and I hugs and kisses! She was EXTREMELY thankful and excited to be able to learn all about Jesus!! It was so powerful to meet someone who truly wants to know Jesus. I wish I could share about our other day there but for the sake of such a long update already, just know that God was glorified and people came so close to salvation!!!

Feb 1-7, 2015

Central Asia Team

It has been a great past couple of weeks, we appreciate all of your prayers and support for our team. The Lord is moving mightily among us and it makes such a difference to know that friends and family are supporting us.

This last week has been full of miracles and the power of God being released into peoples lives. We spent our first week in the eastern part of the country. A cool story is one in which a group of us met with two English speakers on the street. We went to have tea with them and were able to share the Gospel very clearly with them. Before leaving we exchanged numbers and one man even mentioned that he had never heard the true story of Jesus. He knew very little and was interested to know all we had to say.

We met up with them again the day before we would go off to our next city. We were able to explain that knowing Jesus was not about about religion but actually that the men could speak with God, and God would speak back to them. This is a very foreign concept because prayer here only means reciting a formulated prayer which all people use. We asked one man if he wanted to speak with God. He said yes! We prayed and asked God to speak with him. Afterwards he said it felt like all his burdens were lifted and a peace had come over him. We told him about the presence of God and asked him if he wanted to repent of sin and follow Jesus completely, but he said “not yet.” The next day I called him and he said that his family told him that he could no longer see us, but he thanked us and said ” I now know that it is not about religion but only about Jesus.”

We proceeded to travel to our next city the day after. We are now in the very far east, right next to the border. Today we met with a man who spoke English very well. We soon find out that he is actually the owner of the hotel we are staying in.

After talking with him for a while he said he didn’t believe in God, and thought that when he died he would just go into the ground. We ended up going to his house and talking with him for a while. After we explained the Gospel, he went on to say “I believe now that Jesus is the Son of God and is God.” For someone to say that here is huge! We asked him if he wanted to talk to God, and he said yes. We explained that following Jesus is not a small thing, and it requires every part of your being and life. We asked him “Are you sure you are ready to give up everything to follow Jesus?”

He said he did so we prayed and asked Jesus to speak to him. We waited for a few minutes to give him time to hear from God. After that we asked him what God told him; and what we heard was amazing. He said God told him that “If he were to draw near to God, God would draw near to him.” Our team was given a clear word of the Lord before coming to Turkey that it would be very important for us to read through the book of James. Just today we read chapter 4, where it says ” Draw near to God, God will draw near to you.”-  James 4:8a. This man ended up giving his life to Jesus!

This is huge because there are no known believers in this city. We left with him saying “I must hide this Bible from my wife because she is a devote Muslim.” He was very serious about reading the Bible.

These are just a few of the many stories that we could share. God is doing amazing things through our time here.

Explorers Team – Central Asia / Northern Africa

Hello friends and family! As promised, here are a few highlights from our time in Central Asia! Before our time there God spoke to our Redding staff about us visiting homes, a prison, and blessing the local church. They all ended up coming true! On Sunday (the 1st) we visited a local church and prayed over the leaders there. On two occasions, one of the evangelism groups was invited into our neighbor’s apartment and were able to share the Gospel with him as he offered dinner and tea. On the last day of our ministry we met a man who volunteered to use his day off to come with us to a local prison and translate for us. We were able to pass out 20 bibles and a few CDs to the guards of the prison after they offered us tea. We then passed out an additional 10 Bibles in the village where the prison was. We were able to make many personal connections, and share the Gospel with the people we met throughout our time in the city. Some of our team was also able to pray with a young man who wanted to know Jesus and said that he felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, like peace washing over him, as they prayed.

At around 1am on the 5th we arrived safely in Northern Africa! The family that we are staying with here are absolutely wonderful, and have made us feel comfortable and welcome! We started our first full day of evangelism on Friday. Our team went out to a small village and split up with a translator in each group. Alyssa P and Alyssa B stopped to talk with a young woman who knew Jesus but wanted to know Him more and hear His voice. She didn’t know much about the Holy Spirit, so we shared about Him with her and she let us pray for her to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. The next girl that we met had never heard the full Gospel, so we got to share it with her. She made the decision to accept Jesus as her Lord and Savior! We also prayed for her to receive the Holy Spirit. Between our two groups we had the opportunity to preach the Gospel to over 100 people in this village alone.

The same night we made up a quick drama which we then performed at a deliverance meeting in a local church. Meghan preached and invited people forward to receive prayer. Jaiden prayed for a man who was deaf in his right ear, and his ear was miraculously opened! Meghan prayed for the daughter of a witch doctor, so that she would have freedom and deliverance from the oppression of her family. We also prayed for numerous others who received the Holy Spirit and were encouraged by the words that the Lord gave us for them.

The next day we did evangelism in the market where we met two men, Ronny and Thomas, who were both from Uganda. Ronny started out skeptical of all religion, but after Alyssa P shared with him what the Gospel was really about his whole attitude changed. We invited him to meet us at church the next day, where he informed us that he had been reading his Bible and was interested in doing a YWAM DTS in Uganda when he returns home next year!

Jan 25- 31, 2015

Central Asia Team & Explorers Team

It’s week four here in the capital city. Over the past few  weeks we have encountered many people that were on the edge of wanting to give their lives to Jesus. Yesterday one man did decide that he wanted to give his life to Jesus.

Just this week we also had the other half of our team join us. They spent a few weeks in the Middle East, will spend a few weeks with us, and will fly from here to spend a few weeks in northern Africa. We are gaining momentum now; it has been great having the other half of our team here.

We have also partnered with another ministry here in the capital that works with refugees from closed nations. It was great last week getting to go for our first time. It’s a weekly gathering in which everyone comes to fellowship. What is great is that instead of having to go out to the streets to talk with people about Jesus; they come to us. We have many translators also which makes things easier with communicating.

This coming week we prepare to fly to the eastern province in which we will spend a few weeks traveling and preaching the Gospel. There are three major unreached people groups in this area, with only 1% reached, meaning many having never heard the Gospel.

After our last few days in the capital, we flew out to the province in the eastern part of the country. We are seeing the Lord move in incredibly powerful ways! Thank you all so very much for your support, love, and prayers! I hope you realize that you pouring into us and our mission is literally bringing Jesus the reward of what He paid for on the cross. He is honored when we all come together to bring Him glory and make Him known!

Last Sunday we got to hit the streets of the capital again and proclaim the gospel boldly to over one hundred people!!! Our Arts in Ministry track kicked off the afternoon by performing their dance to a Lecrae song, and this drew us the crowd. Brandon, Jaiden and Samantha then preached to the crowd the uncompromised Gospel! Many of these people have never heard the Gospel before, and they were asking questions such as, “how do I receive this gift of eternal life that Jesus paid for? What must I do?” It filled us with joy as people came forward to get Bibles and get prayer from us, and we would love for you all to pray for these people to come to know Jesus as they read His Word! It’s thrilling to both experience proclaiming the power of the Gospel to the masses, as well as see their hunger stirred up as they hear the truth for the first time in their lives!! Praise Jesus!!

We arrived in the province this last Friday and are literally in awe of what the Lord has done so far!! Our team and the Explorers outreach team went to a castle where we worshiped the Lord and spent a long time in prayer and intercession. Each day the Lord has been speaking to us and telling us what we are going to do with Him in this city, and the EXACT things that He speaks are happening! He spoke that we would go into private homes to share the gospel, and that happened! We prayed that He would lead us to the very few English speakers here, and we literally are being approached by English speakers! They see us, come up to us, and say, “hello! I speak English! Can we go to tea?” It’s so easy! So we go to tea, sit down, and get straight to the Gospel. We have been so blessed to pass out lots and lots of Bibles within only a few days, and the people here are so grateful for the Bibles! The hospitality here is outstanding and people spend hours with us as we explain the Gospel in its entirety…and as a matter of fact, it’s very often that we explain the story of the Bible to people…that takes hours! But people want to know! They are hungry to know the truth of Jesus, and we sure do proclaim it boldly! In nearly every single conversation that we have had, we have been able to also get prophetic words for the people. That has been fun! While no one has prayed for salvation with us, I (Samantha) 100% believe that there are multiple people who will in fact begin a relationship with Jesus and be saved. The Lord has set up very specific meetings for us, and it is a complete honor!

Middle East Team

We are overwhelmed with God’s goodness! In the past week, we have seen Jesus save, heal and set free masses of people of all ages in every camp we visit! There have been at least 11 confirmed salvations (we believe many more) and even more healings and miracles that followed as we preached the Gospel in homes and to crowds. We have truly ministered under an Open Heaven, where signs and miracles happen constantly, as Jesus promised we would. Yesterday in a new refugee camp, we were in awe of God’s faithfulness, as masses of adults and children gathered around us to hear the Gospel and receive prayer.To our amazement, every person, except one child, received healing the moment we prayed. This caused the refugee camp leader and people who were healed to go gather their other friends and family for healing. During this time, multiple people received Christ and a Bible for the first time. So many people experienced God’s presence for the first time, and described heat, lightness and peace that they had never felt before. Please read below for more testimonies:

1) Visions and Dreams- in each camp, we meet many people and children who are having visions and dreams of Jesus and of our team. One man we visited had a dream of Jesus telling him that he had sin in his life that needed to be taken away. The man asked Jesus how he could do this, as he was Muslim and didn’t know the Gospel. The answer came when our team came to share with him. He eagerly agreed that we came with the truth. After accepting Christ in in his heart, he tried to put to words the joy and peace he had never felt before. He shared how before he had constant anxiety and rage, but now felt “as if his heart were in Heaven”. He exclaimed that “in this month, my new life has begun!”. He also learned the meaning of his name: Receiving Grace. He didn’t know what grace was until this day! Hallelujah!

2) Hearts Healed- We have seen Jesus heal hearts physically and emotionally, such as from anxiety and anger. Many experience trauma and depression and are so hungry for hope and peace. One story that touched our hearts is of a child who received Christ and needed healing in his heart. He explained that he was sad that he couldn’t run because of the pain and asthma that hindered him. We had him place his hand on his heart and ask Jesus to heal him. We then shared that the Bible promised that “We will run and not grow weary” and in faith, told him to run as fast as he could with Jesus. He did so and with such joy celebrated his healing! He left beaming with a healthy heart and listening to his new audio Bible.

3) Freedom for the Captives- one incredible testimony is of a woman who came to us in desperation for freedom. She described how on the 25th of every month, uncontrollable rage and despair would come upon her, resulting in her beating her children. After explaining the Gospel, we asked her to place her hands on her heart and ask Jesus to set her free from the darkness. Her countenance dramatically changed as she exclaimed that her chest tension had left and how she felt lightness, peace and the sensation of water going down her back and body. She then received Christ and left with hope, joy, a radiant smile and of course a Bible!

Jan 18- 24, 2015

Central Asia Team

Hello friends and family!

We are at the end of our third week here in the capital, and this week has been incredible! We saw the Lord do amazing things last Sunday. Our team partnered with a few other teams here as hit the streets to proclaim the gospel. Two girls on our team, Samantha and Ruth, who are a part of the Arts in Ministry track in this DTS, got to perform a dance they learned during lecture phase. We simply plugged a phone in to the speaker and hit play, within ten seconds 100 people had already created a crowd. So the girls performed, and then immediately following the performance, another student from our team, Brandon, went forward to share his testimony and preach the gospel. Nearly everyone in the crowd stayed to listen to him as our translator translated every word into Turkish. It was so powerful!

He called out for whoever wanted to be physically healed in Jesus’ name from a sickness or pain, and nobody moved. Then, one elderly man stepped out from the crowd and said he needed healing. Brandon started to talk with him through the translator about what was wrong with his body. The crowd then gathered around this conversation. We prayed and the man was not immediately healed. He walked away laughing at us and laughing at our “made up God.” But our team kept praying for his healing while Brandon prayed and saw five other men physically healed. A knee problem, an elbow that couldn’t bend properly, a man’s hand who had no feeling due to nerve damage, all were healed and more! Suddenly, the guy who mocked us came running back and said he got healed!! He was exclaiming things like, “How did that happen?! All the pain left my body!!” And they all asked how to give their lives to Jesus.

We went to two other parts of this city to dance and preach, and both times saw people encounter the Lord!! Sadly, no one gave their life to Jesus on the spot, but please join us in praying for breakthrough!! Samantha and Ruth got to share their testimonies and also pray with two girls who were saying “you’re so joyful! Something is different about you… how?! What is it? It’s amazing! You’re glowing!” And when we all prayed for them they became extremely excited because they felt the tangible love and presence of the Holy Spirit!! They felt warmth on their hands and were laughing so much, they got so much joy from the Lord!! It was so fun! Hundreds heard the gospel, many were healed, and hearts were opened to the Truth!!

We have gone out to proclaim the gospel every day this week, and here’s another incredible story that we would love to share. Wednesday we went out to street preach with one of our friends in ministry here. We proclaimed the whole gospel at least six times publicly, and each time led us into hours of conversations with people who heard. It was amazing! People were extremely responsive and there were some very soft hearts who genuinely wanted to hear all about who Jesus truly is and how to be saved.

Thank you all for your love, prayer, and support! We are incredibly honored by you all!
Blessings,
YWAM Redding Central Asia Team

Explorers Team

Hello friends and family! Central Asia has been amazing so far! Our team arrived Sunday morning of last week and was excited to reunite with our other YWAM students and staff who have been here in Central Asia since the end of December. We jumped straight into things and joined in on some street ministry with a local team that does puppet shows, art, and choreographed dance to gather crowds of people. Alyssa B had the opportunity to perform a dance routine with a few of our other YWAM team members, and Jaiden and Meghan both had the opportunity to share testimonies with the crowds through a translator. We were thankful that God gave us an incredible amount of joy and energy to make it through a day of ministry after nearly forty hours of travel!

During the middle of the week, our team traveled to an apartment in which a local church hosts hundreds of refugee families through a variety of ministries. The first one we had the privilege to be a part of is called “Moms & Tots”. There were thirty (or more) kids, plus moms and babies that we served lunch to and connected with through the little bit of Arabic we picked up in the Middle East, as well as through the long term workers who kindly translated for us. The second program our team volunteered in later in the week was called the “Tea House”. Entire families of refugees visit the apartment in the afternoon for coffee, tea, fruit, and cookies, and get to sit down and relax and play chess and card games and chat with each other and us volunteers. It was a joy to serve them and connect with them, and there were even a few opportunities for some of us to share the entire gospel with those who spoke English! Alyssa B connected with a seventeen-year-old girl from a closed country who had questions about the Bible and about Jesus. She was extremely open to and interested in the gospel, and was at a point in her life where she was seeking truth. She was able to connect well with the testimonies Alyssa felt lead to share with her, and said she was very thankful for the conversation they had! God is doing a lot in the lives of these families and we are so grateful to have been a part of that.

On another outing we went with another local team to pass out tracks and bibles in a completely unreached neighborhood, an opportunity arose for us to also meet the president, as well as the head pastor, of an Alevie temple (a small sect of Islam that is separate from traditional Islamic beliefs) and for our contacts to make connections there. Towards the end of the day, one of our contacts set up his sketch-board and used paper and paint to communicate the gospel to the crowd that gathered. A few of our team members shared a quick testimony at the end of each sketch, and both received a lot of positive responses. One woman came forward and asked for healing from pain that was caused by a surgery a couple weeks prior. Some of the girls from our team prayed for her and she thanked us and left. After we were packing up, however, she came hurrying back to inform them that she was physically completely better, and had felt a peace since they prayed that was unlike anything she had felt before! Also during that time, Patrick, one of our leaders, was able to talk to a man who decided to give his life to Jesus! We saw God’s first salvation for our team in Central Asia!

We will be posting a series of updates from our teams that are on outreach. Here is the first update from them.

1/4/2015-1/10/2015

Middle East Explorers Team

This past Sunday we had an incredible time of evangelism! We decided to work within the building where we are staying and knock on doors to offer cookies, Arabic Bibles, and prayer to our neighbors. We were warmly received and welcomed in by many families who have found a home here as refugees from the conflict in their country. It was an honor to sit with them and hear their unique stories over tea or the other refreshments they generously offered.

One of my favorite testimonies from this time is the experience we had visiting our neighbor in the apartment directly next to ours. We had met Bana and her husband a few days earlier, along with their son and daughter who are both under two years old. When we went to visit Bana again Sunday she was excited to invite us in, especially since she stays in her apartment alone all day with her two children while her husband is at work. We made some small talk before the conversation fell on the Lord. We gave her a New Testament Bible in Arabic, as well as a book that explains more about the truth of who Jesus is, which is geared toward Muslims in addressing the Islamic beliefs about Jesus as “just another prophet”. We were then able to tell her the whole story of the gospel and she even received prayer from us as we told her about our friend and comfort, the Holy Spirit. After we prayed she asked us, “What happened when you prayed for me? Before you came I felt very sad and tired and lonely, but now after you prayed I feel relaxed and peace!” She was beaming, and we told her again how much Jesus loves her and that she can pray to Him, too, and He will reveal Himself to her again!

On a typical day doing evangelism, we pass out tracks, Bibles and CDs, and talk and pray with whomever will let us. On Tuesday we made our way to a city that was completely new to us, so we were not completely sure what to expect, but we all had amazing testimonies from our time! There were at least five healings and many powerful, in-depth conversations where we were able to share the full gospel! It has been amazing how time and time again the Lord has found ways to stifle any concerns about language barriers. We even had a man come up to us and tell us that his mom is a Christian and that he wanted us to pray for him to truly know Jesus!

At another point this past week we had the opportunity to meet an amazing woman who runs a Christian book store/coffee shop in the city. We were extravagantly blessed by her and her staff, and we spent time worshipping with and praying over them. Their ministry is geared toward reaching out to the local community, including a nearby university and hospital. A few days later we met partnered with them in evangelism. During our prayer and worship time a Muslim couple and their son walked in wondering if they sold Qur’ans. We told them no but invited them in for coffee to talk with them about the Lord. They shared a bit of their story with us and how they had been through an incredible journey. We asked them if they needed any physical healing and the husband told us about his stomach pain caused by fumes from an explosion four years earlier. We prayed and he said the pain lessened. One of the girls with us felt that we needed to explain the gospel to him, and that his pain would leave completely once we did. So we explained the whole gospel and when we finished he excitedly told us that the pain was gone! Praise God for healing this man!

The family accepted an Arabic Bible, which the father was very happy to receive since his Bible had been burned in a fire. They left with the understanding that Jesus is the Son of God.

Our team will be changing the world by going out and sharing Jesus’ love with the lost and broken in the Refugee camps.

Middle East Team

Marhaba (hello in Arabic) from our team! This is officially our first update coming from over seas in the Middle East. The foreign city has been a thrilling and new experience, especially for those of us who have never been out of our home country. From delicious cultural food to ancient architecture, stepping into this new culture has been amazing. Even though we’ve only been here for three days, God has already been working in powerful ways. We’ve been blessed with incredible ministry, team bonding and getting to know the long-term ministries and evangelists who we have been working with. We have been in awe of God’s beauty and power as so many encounter Jesus for the first time. One story is that a man from a devout Muslim family was healed of chronic headaches that he had for three years. He encountered God’s presence with his sister for the first time. Also, many tourists and locals heard the Gospel for the first time. We were so excited about the crowds of tourists asking for bibles for themselves and their family members. This was right before they boarded the bus to return home to their country. We know that God’s Word will transform lives.

After a long 24 hours of travel, we arrived in the capital city. The view was absolutely beautiful.

We’ve been blessed with a really great place to stay while we serve here in the city. We are staying in an apartment on a hill that’s big enough to fit all of us, a great Shwarma restaurant at the foot of the building where we often enjoy a cultural dinner, and a large balcony with an amazing view. To be able to wake up every morning with a gorgeous view that over looks the sea and the city that God has given to us makes our morning quiet times incredible.

Central Asia Team

After nearly thirty hours of travel, our team of five are here safe and sound. So far, our first week has consisted of adventuring through the loud streets, being drenched in the rain, getting over jetlag, finding wonderful markets with healthy food, drinking plenty of the famous tea, getting to know this city, and growing together as a team!

Yesterday we had a powerful time in worship, where the Lord gave us spontaneous songs to sing to Him! Then in the afternoon, we took a ferry over to the European side of the city where we got to experience the shopping markets and simply learn how people interact in this culture. It was truly a good learning time and we had fun!

Now that we are settled in and have been orientated by our friends who are also doing ministry here, we will hit the ground running next week as we tell people the good news of Jesus!

Thank you all so much for investing in us both as individuals and as a team. We wouldn’t be here without such incredible support!