The Karenni People – New Believers!

You have been praying for Meh Mor and Martina, key leaders among the Karenni people group.  We have been grateful to see both of them choosing to remain with us and continue in the work of making disciples here. Praise God for this!

 

è Pray that Meh Mor and Martina will grow stronger in their faith and love of the Lord and that he would be the motivator of their lives on mission.

 

Earlier this year, whole families of Karenni people expressed interest in following Christ and making disciples after hearing from Meh Mor and Martina.  We shared this with you at the time.  Praise God for this also!

 

è Pray for the Karenni people

1.    that they will grow strong in the Lord as individuals and as a redemptive community of believers

2.    be protected from the enemy

3.    and that a Karenni leader will be raised up to continue the movement

 

Since then, Meh Mor has joined our team and she and her discipler, Hannah (team member), have been teaching and leading the Karenni community, seeking key leaders among these people who will catch the vision as well and take on that leadership role.   The Karenni women, especially, have been faithful and growing in the Spirit.  But the men have not been able to identify themselves with Christ or with the work God has been doing due to the lack of a male leader. 

 

Two days ago, however, three Karenni men gave their lives to the Lord!!!  (see the pictures below!) God worked out the timing and circumstances perfectly for a brother from Africa who was here for the training to share with them and they were ready to receive. Wow! Praise, praise the Lord!

 

è Please pray for these three new believers!

1.    Na Reh (blue) had never heard about Jesus before. You can see the joy on his face in his new life with Christ. He is calling his family together Sunday night to hear the gospel. Pray for this time, that Na Reh's family will follow the Lord and that Na Reh will become a great spiritual leader among his people.

 

§  Pray for Xavier, team member who will be discipling Na Reh and speaking to his family Sunday night, that he will be filled with the Spirit, and have wisdom to know how to lead Na Reh and Deh Reh also.

 

2.    Deh Reh (brown stripes), young father, shyer than Na Reh. Pray that he will also grow strong in the Lord and become a bold leader of his family and among his people.

 

3.    Grandfather (hat, sorry, forgot his name), a friend of Na Reh and Deh Reh, will be moving Sunday evening to a different state. Pray that the Holy Spirit will supernaturally lead him and connect him with other believers to disciple him where he is going.

New Karenni Believers

Please pray for Na Reh (blue), Deh Reh (brown stripes), and their friend (hat), newly following the Lord. They are the first Karenni men from our neighborhood to follow Christ.

Training

This week, Monday through Thursday, we are hosting a Keystone training in Houston.  There's a team from Los Angelas here seeking to launch a team to start a movement of disciples who make disciples.  There are a few guys from Portland here for the same reason. 

 

We have people from Indiana, South Dakota, California, Oregon, Texas, and a brother who is coming in from Africa! There's a great sense that God is doing something deep through this time, more than we are expecting.  Please pray for us! Ask the Spirit to lead you in your prayers. 

 

Here are some of the needs we are seeing that you can also lift up with us:

 

·         Spiritual protection for the teams here.

·         Physical endurance for late nights, early mornings, long training hours, and practical ministry experience in the evenings.

·         For open eyes and ears to the Spirit throughout the training and ready hearts.

·         For the people we will be sharing with in the evenings: that the Spirit will bring us to the people whose hearts are prepared to hear him, and that he will fill our hearts and mouths with his words.

Intern Update!

Intern training is finished and our interns are now beginning the process of living out the things they have learned.

 

Here are some specific ways you can pray for Lacey, Sara, and Dylan:

 

 

1.    Lacey is seeking to make new connections, learning to follow the Spirit's lead and step outside her comfort zone.  Pray for guidance, faith, and courage.

 

2.    Sara already has a lot of connections in another part of town.  Pray for clarity of focus:  that she will be able to discern how much time she needs to spend here with us in order that she will be able to put into practice the things she has learned from the training and then transfer that to the ministry context she already knows.

 

3.    In prayer, Dylan felt God tell him he would disciple a boy named Danny. Subsequently, he connected with a Vietnamese boy named Danny who has showed great interest in Christ and has already shared the gospel with a friend. Danny's mom, Yen (Buddhist), has said that Dylan can only come over if he does not teach Danny about Jesus, and she will not allow him to leave the home with Dylan.  Danny, however, still desires to know the truth and has decided to continue learning from Dylan in secret (whenever his mom leaves the room).  Pray that Danny will trust Christ and that Yen will trust Dylan to take her son outside the home. Pray that Dylan will have wisdom, patience, and deep faith in the Lord.

 

4.    Pray for the team, that we will be able to lead the interns well, modeling and integrating them into our daily ministry lives in a way that empowers them to do the work Christ has called them to.

 

 

Resolution

Meh Mor has decided to continue being discipled by us.  Praise God for this decision.  It seems to have been made from the head rather than the heart.  Please continue to pray for her that she will be revived by the Spirit and able to rejoice in him.  Pray also for wisdom in how to move forward from here with both Meh Mor and Martina.

 

For Meh Mor

Also pray specifically that Meh Mor will remember some key ways God has communicated with her:

1. Dream at camp almost a year ago

2. She was healed of a terrible stomach ache also at camp when we prayed for her

3. The joy and energy she has found in making disciples

4. The joy,  healings,  and changed lives of the disciples who she has led to the Lord

5. The truths of God's word that she has learned in the past year and now has posted all around her house

** Pray against unwillingness and a spirit of rebellion that seeks to deceive her as she has just graduated high school and is at the threshold of new things.

**Pray that she will truly seek the Lord and that he will meet with her in an unmistakable way.

Continued urgency

Please continue to pray for Meh Mor,  leader in the Karenni community. She is still considering following her priest's instructions to stop being discipled by us. Please pray for her and the many disciples she leads. Pray against the enemy's deception.

Urgent request update

Great news!  Martina has chosen to continue in discipleship with us. Thanks be to God for this!

We are still waiting for the right time to speak with Meh Mor about her decision. Please continue to pray for spiritual clarity and courage for her.

Thank you!

Sorry for the inconvenience!

Prayer Team,

We heard from some of you recently that an e-mail address was sent earlier this week through my phone number including a link to an inappropriate website.  This is likely the result of some internet hacking via my cell phone account.  We apologize for the inconvenience! Please delete and disregard any such messages you have received.  We are working with my phone service to correct the issue.

Thank you for your understanding and for your faithfulness in prayer with the Keystone Project Houston Team.

Blessings,

Katie Riley

Prayer Team Coordinator

Urgent Request

Pray for Meh Mor and Martina, two of our key leaders in the Karenni people group.  Both of them come from Catholic backgrounds and have continued to maintain relationship and participation in the Catholic Karenni community as we have been discipling them. 

 

Recently their priest has instructed them to stop meeting with us and they seem to be strongly considering it. It is clear that Satan is working hard to deceive them because they have given themselves so faithfully to the Lord and he has been working so powerfully through them.

 

Over the past seven months they have lead many others to the Lord and are currently discipling peers, parents, and grandparents alike.  Part of the power of their testimony has been their ability to share truthfully that it is possible to both be Catholic and give your life wholeheartedly to Christ in obedience to his calling to make disciples. 

 

If Meh Mor and Martina choose to follow their priest's instruction, then their disciples will quite possibly do the same. On the other hand, if they choose to obey God rather than people, God will have an open door to work even more powerfully through their faithfulness!

 

These girls belong to Christ.  Satan has no right or authority to take them away from him. What he has intended for evil, God can use for his glory.

 

è Pray that Meh Mor and Martina will recognize the enemy's lies, refuse to obey them, and cast them out of their life.

è Pray that they will have the courage and grace to choose Christ and to communicate this choice well.

è Pray also that we will have clear direction in how to encourage and exhort them.

Honor the Lord

Praise God for the post below!  He is faithful and we are both humbled and amazed by his heart for these people to know his love and glory! We can make our plans, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. Pray that this truth stays at the forefront of our minds and that his praises flow as faithfully from our lips as he is faithful to deserve them.

Spa Update

Thank you so much for your prayers! Saturday night we were able not only to gain entrance to the spas, but also to obtain the information we were seeking. The video equipment did not work, but the audio recordings caught what we needed.

 

Our human trafficking partners commented that things went very smoothly and seemed easy when they are often quite the opposite.  They recognized this as a direct result of the prayers and the fasting that have been sown over these spas in the preceding weeks and months. Thank you for your faithfulness in fighting this battle with us!

 

Next steps…

 

è Stakeout: It's possible that some of the women who work in these spas live in the apartment complexes literally right next door and across the street. We want to find out where they live so we can connect with them in their homes rather than in their place of business. Please pray with us as we prepare to spend long hours watching comings and goings at the spas.  We will let you know when it happens!

 

è Translators: All of the women we have had contact with either identify themselves as or appear to be Chinese/East  Asian. They also claim not to speak much English. Please pray that we will either be able to connect with an outside translator or to raise one up from our own community.

 

è Go to the source: We want to know who is in charge – who owns the land, who owns the business (these two are usually not the same person) – so that we can cut this thing off at it's head.

 

è Keep our guard up: Satan fights back when we enter his territory, sometimes in seemingly unrelated ways. Please pray for the team members who were involved that we continue to walk in God's armor and are able to quickly recognize and counter the enemy's attacks.