Growing in faith!

Pics:
1. Party in the laundry room
2/3. Practicing sharing bible stories in pictures

Pray for these girls (and some guys not pictured) who meet together weekly and are learning to depend on the Holy Spirit to lead each other in redemptive community. This group is especially multicultural, representing Nepali, Rwandan, Karenni, Karen, and American people groups.

»»Pray especially as summer brings more free time that they will stay close to the Lord and grow in faith and faithfulness as many of them have their own disciples.

»»Pray for their families, specifically their parents, to see the Lord in them and be called to seek him more intimately themselves.

Jewish Community

Pics: Private park in a Jewish neighborhood across the street from Los Arcos

There are 50,000 Jews in Houston.  Salem Oaks team is currently head quartered at Los Arcos apartments which is located directly across the street from the largest community of Jewish people in the city.

It's a special type of neighborhood called an Eruv, surrounded by walls that make certain Sabbath day practices possible, allowing the people to continue following the Jewish law while living in the midst of a city of "gentiles".

The apostle Paul wrote to the Roman believers about the Jews, saying,

"Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved... if they do not continue in their unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy" (see Romans 10 and 11).

Current day ministry among Jewish people looks very different from Paul's ministry, as well as from disciple making among refugees. The  team has little to no experience or knowledge of it.

So, June 13th and 14th we are hosting a training with a brother in Christ who has experience ministering to Jews.

»» pray for this community as a whole to be softened and prepared for the gospel

»» pray for a key man/family of peace to be found among them who will have influenced in the test of the community

»» pray for a married couple with a calling to minister to the Jews to join the Salem Oaks team and move in to this community by the end of the year

»» pray that the rest of the team and our disciples will be empowered through the training in June to pray and minister effectively

Women and children

Pictures
     Mothers:
1. Ko Meh and Neh Meh practicing retelling a story from the life of Christ
     Daughters:
2. Kho Meh, Pleh Meh and Mi Meh (and younger siblings) practicing a new story to share with the women
3. Nga Meh and Neh Meh practicing
...........................

Pray for 6 Karenni women, Klaw Meh, Kho Meh, Lu Meh, Pray Meh, Ko Meh, and Neh Meh, growing believers at Los Arcos. None of them speak English nor are able to read in their own language, and there is no complete audio bible in their tribal dialect. Needless to say, feeding them with the word is somewhat challenging.

We've almost completed loading some oral stories in their language and the entire New Testament in a dialect similar to theirs onto mp3 players. In the mean time, their daughters have been helping them by sharing bible stories in pictures, learning to read the story in English and simplify it while still maintaining accuracy.

Two nights ago the girls spent 2 hours preparing and practicing a story from the last supper where Jesus says "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me." They chose this story to help their mothers and neighbors understand that Jesus is the only way, as some of them are still wrestling with Catholic/Christian conflicts and animistic practices of their cultures.

It's easy for us to judge them for this, though we often seek job security, technology, or self help philosophies in the same way. Only by the mercy of God do we learn to depend solely on Christ.

»»Please pray for the girls, Kho, Nga, Mi, Neh, Pleh, as they go out in pairs to teach this story this week, that they will be filled with the Spirit and be able to set an example for these women.

»»Pray also for the women, that God will help them to understand the truth of Christ more deeply and be willing to give up all others for him.

Transitioning Back From Training

Multiple team members attended the Keystone Training in South Dakota that was four weeks long. The training was powerful and the team members were challenged in many ways. Now that they are back, pray that the transition is smooth and that they are able to implement what they learned effectively. Specifically, pray for God to provide faithful, first generation disciples. Also, pray for wisdom to know which aspects of training are the most important to begin putting in to effect immediately. God is good and the team is trusting in Him to unify and direct us!

Names and Faces

A few posts back we asked you to pray for our disciples as we call them to a deeper commitment to Christ and the vision.  Here are two names and faces of leaders who we have recently integrated into the team.

Pics:

1. Susana eating with children who frequently visit her home.

2. Kho Meh with her discipler, Katie, at a retreat

Susana is a 23 year old Karen young woman, who also speaks English and Burmese. Catherine has been discipling Susana for the past seven months and describes God's work in and through Susana in this way:

"Susana has recently joined the team and is rising up in leadership.  She is working with several children, ages 5 to 13, and their families, sharing the gospel with them and discipling them.  Her main disciple is a Karenni woman in her mid-twenties named Me Wgeh, who has four daughters she is discipling.  Besides her own children, Me Wgeh is focusing on two young moms named Mi Mi and Ma E Boat.  Susana is also encouraging her friend Ma Naka Bo to make disciples."  

Prayer Points:

** For these young moms to follow Jesus and make disciples
** For the husbands of these women to come to know Jesus.
** For Susana to continue to grow in leadership and an understanding of the vision
** For the families of Susana's young disciples to all come to follow Jesus.
** For wisdom with some family issues of Susana's disciples and that the Spirit will move in their hearts.
** For Susana's family to continue to be understanding and supportive of her as she makes disciples and to catch the vision themselves

Kho Meh, 14 year old Karenni girl, has been discipled by Katie since coming to Christ at camp almost nine months ago. Here's Katie's account of God's faithfulness to set an example for the believers through young and willing lives:

"Since I started discipling Kho God has blown me away by his patience and faithfulness to show his power when I get out of the way and let him do his work in Kho's life. She's currently discipling two of her older sisters, her aunt, and a close friend, leading a group of her peers (with less and less direction from me), and helping me lead a group of adult Karenni women, all mothers and grandmothers of her friends who have either come to the Lord for the first time or been encouraged in their faith through the influence that God has allowed Kho to have in her community. As we have invited her into the team she has continued to grow in hunger for the Lord and in excited commitment to his vision."

Prayer Points:

** Growth in leadership, wisdom, and time management as Kho works with a lot of her friends and adults

** Continued building up of her foundation in Christ himself, that her diligence will flow out of sitting in his presence, that she may not be overwhelmed by the responsibilities he has given her but trust him to lead her and know him deeper in the process

** That the Spirit will continue to mature her and empower her in leadership (like the waterfall in the picture above), surrounding everything she does and bringing Glory to God through her life