Sunday, January 31, 2016

Salem Oaks Goals



At the beginning of this year both teams took a three-day retreat to recap the last year and set goals for the new based on where God was leading us. The picture above is a list of the Salem Oaks team goals.  Inside the gray triangle are the 7 Kingdom Core Values: Holy Spirit, Multiplication, Primacy of the Kingdom, Strategic Thinking, Great Commission, Unity and Community, and Accountability. We asked ourselves: Is there one Kingdom Core Value that if we took it out, everything else would fall apart? We knew right away that it was the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit is not active in us, everything we do is in the flesh.

Coming into the retreat Jacob felt like we were supposed to read and discuss Isaiah 6 together. From that there were many main points we took away from that.
1.     King Uzziah had to die because he did not handle the things of God with care. King Uzziah has to die among our team and in ourselves.
2.     The mighty, energetic praise of the seraphim shook the Temple to its foundation.
3.     Isaiah was at a place of brokenness before the Lord. He understood and recognized God’s holiness.
4.     He first had to be prepared by repentance.
5.     The Lord forgave Isaiah for his iniquity and chose him to do His work despite his sinfulness.
6.     The Lord then commissioned him, and Isaiah, without hesitance, responded to the call of the Lord.

We also read through 2 Kings 6:1-7. In this story Elisha is a picture of God and the prophets are us. Points from that:
1.     Their focus was inward: we, us, let us.
2.     Their meeting was void of his presence.
3.     They found their identity among the body and not in personal identity with God.
4.     They made plans first and then asked him to bless it.
5.     Only one person asked for his presence; it was a secondary concern.
6.     They cut down the trees and took them away from the river, which had been giving the trees life.
7.     We need to be brought to a place of brokenness.
8.     The work has to be submerged in the Spirit for it to be useful.

Prophetic words we received:
1.     Ps 42:1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
2.     Spirit break out, break our walls down.
3.     The Spirit in us needs to fill us to the point of breaking out and overflowing into the lives around us.
4.     Leaning not on our own understanding, trusting God’s wisdom. Job 38- 42:6 Being brought to a place of utter humility, and laying down our crowns.

Through seeking, prayer, and worship throughout the retreat we felt like the Lord was leading us away from setting measurable goals. We can’t control the uncontrollable. That’s His job. Our job is to stay in a place brokenness, seeking Him and His presence, desiring Him above everything else. Out of the overflow of our love for Him, the Spirit will break down the walls between and among us and overflow into the lives of those we're ministering to. Only as the Spirit does this work in and through us, there will be fruit. We don’t want to produce in our disciples a value for the work to be done, but value the King himself.

Please be in prayer for our teams:
  • That we would increasingly recognize His holiness and revere Him.
  • That every King Uzziah in our lives would die and we would stay in a place of brokenness at the cross.
  • We would grow in letting the Holy Spirit move during our Redemptive Community time instead of coming in with our own plan and asking God to be a part of it.
  • That we would be patient, listening, expectantly waiting on God to move, and follow Him when he does. 
  • Pray we would not run ahead of God, but trust His wisdom and His timing.

Thank you and God bless!



Saturday, January 23, 2016

Mani and Dahn

A couple months ago Chris M. saw a Nepali man trying to salvage a large bookcase from a dumpster and bring it into his apartment. Since he wasn’t getting very far on his own Chris helped him out. The man and his wife, Mani and Dahn, were super thankful, but communication was very limited (could only use gestures) since Mani is deaf and his wife is mute.

We started praying for an ASL interpreter and about two weeks later God connected us with one. They went together to the apartment in order to get to know him and share the gospel, and they found that the family had been adopting many of the Mormon teachings, since the Mormons ministered there often. Mani and Dahn had been considering being baptized into the Mormon church, but they agreed to attend a Christian ASL church with the interpreter.

The couple, plus their 3 kids, have since rejected the Mormon teachings and are attending the ASL church to pursue the truth. Praise God! Please pray for this family, that God would continue revealing truth to their hearts and would use them, through their passion and transformation, to be a witness to other Nepali families around them. Also pray for God to bring someone into their lives who can consistently work with and disciple them. Thanks!

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Reaching a Nepalese Family


Last summer, Lacey, one of our team members on the Salem Oaks team got connected with a Hindu Nepali woman named Srijana. Through Srijana she met this woman’s extended family and has been ministering to and loving on that family since then. Yesterday (1/16) Julia and Lacey were at Srijana’s home and through the Lord’s leading Lacey shared the creation to Christ gospel story. She said, “Yes, I believe that is true.” But was unable to talk in depth because of other family visiting from Cypress coming in and out of the apartment.

Recently, Chris got connected with Mr. Om during the mornings at the bus stop. It wasn’t until yesterday that we realized Om was the same Om that Lacey knew through Srijana(her father-in-law). In total Om has 4 sons and 4 daughters. Almost all are married with children.

Today (1/17), Chris, Julia, their children, and Lacey were at Om’s for breakfast and lunch, they met his son, Kishor, and had an in-depth conversation about his beliefs and about Jesus. Kishor was open to discussing different religions but he was not ready to accept Christ as the only way.

We know God wants this family as he is pursing them through different people.
Please pray in faith with us the impossible prayer of this whole family coming to know Christ as their only God and King!

Some of his children’s names you can be praying for:

Kishor & Sabitra
Nemal & Srijana
Prabitra
Sita
Santi

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Ministering in the Mosque

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2UDvziNCputb196M1lHV0RYak0/view

Last week 12/30 Jerome and Mario felt the leading to walk into a mosque. God led them to a time of meeting with Wassim and Moh Sin.

Wassim is the imam, the head, of the mosque they entered here in Houston.

Here is a testimony of God's greatness and power through Jerome and Mario's obedience.