Monday, May 30, 2016

Returning to Houston

As many of you know, Polo has been a disciple for about 3 years now. He's been our main leader in Port Lavaca, where he's lived for the past couple years. And today he's traveling to Houston to stay for the summer again. This will be his 3rd summer living with Jacob.

Please be in prayer for him, that this summer would be very impactful for him. Since he's shown faithfulness for a while now, we hope to actually involve him a bit more with our team, rather than just being involved with the boys here. And we'd like to see God really give him a vision and passion for discipleship this summer, so that he commits to establishing God's Kingdom the rest of his life, wherever that may take him.

Sunday, May 22, 2016

A Prayer for Ma Ei Ei

For the past 37 years, a Burmese lady named Mah Ei Ei has been following Buddha. She came over to the USA from Malaysia almost 3 years ago. After 12 years of being married and unable to get pregnant, it was suggested to them that they ask God for a child. They got pregnant, and their son is now 14 months old. They couldn't believe that God had given them a son. Team member, Susana, connected with Ma Ei Ei a month ago. She told Susana that she follows Buddha, but also believes in God because he gave her a child. Susana and Catherine were able to share the creation to Christ story with her, and she shared that if/when she decides to follow Christ, her family and friends will oppose her. Susana began praying for next steps, and felt that Keri was supposed to share her testimony with Ma Ei Ei. In the end, Ma Ei Ei said she believes in Jesus, and that she would like for all of us to pray that the Lord would specifically speak to her, so that when she shares with her family that she follows Jesus, she will be able to explain the personal encounter that she had with him, instead of saying "so and so said I should follow him." Please pray that she would completely deny herself, Buddha, and any other idols in her life and completely follow the one TRUE God!

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Finding Leaders Amongst Refugees

For the past year or so the Houston team living in Los Arcos has been actively praying for leaders that we could invest our lives into. We know that it’s going to take the right people with the right giftings to launch a movement, but we’ve found it’s not so easy to find those people. Like many seasons we’ve found ourselves in, we’ve been reminded that the only way we’ll see success is through a supernatural work of the Spirit.

Some of the men we’ve poured our lives into within the complex in the past year are Man (Sangay’s dad), Mani (the deaf couple), and Sabisua. Man was pretty faithful for a while, but he struggled a lot to teach others, due to his introverted nature and lack of education, so he soon lost interest in the mission altogether.

And Mani has remained pretty faithful, having cut himself off from the Mormons’ influence and started attending a Christian church regularly, as mentioned a while back. But we never got very far with him just because were unable to find a willing and able interpreter. Finally, Sabisua continues to be a disciple and is actively pursuing his disciple Karkha. However, it’s going to take some time to work through some of his character issues before the Spirit has complete freedom to work in and through him, simply because he’s still new to the faith.

But we’ve been encouraged by a new contact recently, an African Muslim man, Tambwe. He’s a guy in his mid-50’s from the Congo who moved to the States about 2 months ago. Jacob met him soon after Tambwe arrived to Los Arcos, and he started going to his home regularly to minister to him. It turns out his parents and siblings are all Christian, but since he converted to Islam at a young age he’s rooted pretty deeply in that faith. He’s been super friendly with us, even as we share with him about Jesus.

We were especially intrigued by his background. He was a high school teacher most of his life, and has always shown natural leadership skills. One day, a man approached him with a job offer for a refugee organization, and Tambwe accepted. So he became the president of the Youth Society amongst refugees in the Congo, and he held that position 10 years before moving here. While living there, several people encouraged him to work toward becoming the president of the Congo, just because of his leadership anointing, and he believes Allah brought him here to prepare him for that presidency someday.

Every time Jacob goes to Tambwe’s apartment he shares some of the supernatural things Jesus is doing in our midst, such as healings, dreams and prophetic words. And we told him that we’ll begin praying for Jesus to visit him in his dreams to confirm what we have been saying. We’d like to ask you guys to be praying for such supernatural works in his life, since that might be the only way he’ll really believe us. If he does realize the truth about Jesus, I believe God could use him in a mighty way back in his country and beyond. (And we’ll try to get a picture of him soon :)

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Soul and Ali

Soul and Ali are Burmese Muslim. The Hutchinsons have been spending time talking about their past and trying to learn more about why they are who they are. Last night, a very good (long) conversation happened in which Ali and Joe agreed that they will start meeting weekly. Ali will share things from the Quaran, and Joe will share things from the Bible. They will then, together, pursue what the truth and only way is. Please pray for this family's hearts to be open to the gospel! (Pictured are Soul, Ali, Kimberly, and Jasmine)

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Mang

The little girl on the left, Mang, decided to follow Jesus about one week ago! Keri and her daughters frequently take walks around the apartment complex and Mang always wants to follow them and ask them a ton of questions, as any 6 year old does. When Keri was on a walk on this particular day, Mang asked,"Can I follow you?" Keri's daughter, pictured above, had some chalk she was playing with. Keri felt the spirit promoting her to share the creation to Christ story with this precious girl. Mang was amazed, and said she had never heard of Jesus. She wanted to accept Jesus in her life and asked if she can share about Jesus with all her friends! Please pray for wisdom for Keri in pursuing this relationship, and for her family to be accepting and go also be open to the gospel!

Monday, May 2, 2016

Update from Nepal

These are Ashika's last two updates to us:

just a update on Bishnu and Dena and other stuff. Bishnu auntie and others girls who are with her are doing lot of great stuff like they went back to there old villages and shared Gospel with them lot of them were Christan but went back to old relagion they accpeted   Jesus again.
Bishnu Auntie told me one of the Girl who comes to her house helped her friend accept Jesus just by talking on phone and she is going to catch up with her. And about Dena auntie,she is still working with her neighbor . She told me people comes to her house now and asks her to pray for them or for their kids even they have not accept Jesus yet they are beginning to see the truth.
And update on That old grandma we prayed for her at Dena's Auntie house ,last time when I met her we prayed for her again and asked her to pray too. Day after we prayed for her she was totally different person ,she was all happy and laughing ,she was walking around . She looked very healthy. Her face was glowing. Even I was surprised! 
Lot of things are happening people are interested on learning new things and asking about how to make disciples. Last Saturday I went to church where we had our training and bunch of people were there from India for outreach and I got to share with them about keystone project and showed them 10th step on disciple making . They were all open and wants to go to the training .
One of them said he heard about keystone project and really wants to attend the training . He took the picture of 10th step. He was asking what can he do to attend the training and stuff I told him  I will ask Lj or Catherine about it . And I also told him it's better if he  contacts lj or shanmugam.
And also that Grandma we prayed for at Dena's auntie house she comes to pray with Dena every evening . Sorry de I hope you understand what am I trying to write . I don't really know how to explain when I'm writing.
Pray for her:
Sometimes I get discouraged by people that I share with even my dad side if the family they still really believes in Hindu God . Sometimes Satan tried to bring distraction from my family or friends . Even when I m sitting with so many people I feel lonely and sad. And I pray to God I won't feel that because I know it's from Satan. Please pray for me I won't feel that.


Bishnu auntie said she is almost ready to go she said she is preparing for prayer team and mission team for illam she said she wanted to go earlier but God told her to be ready before she goes in the battle field. I told her if I can go with her soon she said its not possible for me to go there now. She said that place where she is going it needs lot of prayers before they go in .
That's why she is making prayer team too. She is thinking probably after 2 weeks. There will probably be 10 or more people going . Please pray that it will happen. She is still not sure how many but she is thinking. The ppl on her team are all very committed to making  disciples . I talked to some of their team members and they hears God voice before they do anything and whenever I ask them about hearing God's voice and obeying them and I teach them about 10th steps they already knew most of it like be a disciple ,fill with Holy Spirit and fill with God's word and pray. Lifting curses and everything . They only need to know how to multiply and I'm sure Bishnu is going to find a leader and teach them . And I'm going to help them with most of it. Bishnu knows about multiplying and making disciples. I think from that training she is the one who understood more.
SHe really liked how simple and easy we made them understand. I think it will be no problem for them to multiply if they all go with prayers .  She told me there are already so many open doors for them . She said she heard people are getting sick Alot there,one already died today and she told me time has come to go there and she is ready and preparing for strong prayer team and to heal the village. I want To prepare bishnu and her team before I leave I want to help them more. And I want to help Dena auntie to help multiply disciples . I know she will do great job on making disciples but multiplying will be hard for her . I can already see her winning people in Christ .but not so much multiplying .
And also my little cousin  Sumuna has her own little girls group of 4-5 little girls. They gather together every evening. I need to help my little cousin to teach them more on making disciples . My little cousin is already a leader .

Other day my older cousins heard her pray and my older cousins are not believers they were all amazed how nice and mature she was praying. My other guy cousin asked her to pray for his head becuase it was hurting real badly. He got healed after we both prayed for him and he had lots of questions for us. I told him ask God to show you what to do and he said he will.

Please continue to pray for her and this movement.
Praise God with us for the work he is doing in Nepal!

Team "Staycation"

On Sunday and Monday, the team is participating in a mini retreat that we're calling a "Staycation." We spent the whole day Sunday together having intentional time relaxing with one another and engaging in praise and worship to the Lord. The team had a great time playing "Can-Jam", kayaking, grilling out, fellowshipping, and interacting with Jesus through scripture and songs. On Monday, we plan to dig even deeper into the scriptures to use this Staycation as an opportunity to recharge and refocus as we prepare for this next season. Please join us in praying for a restful, challenging mini- retreat and for a greater focus on reaching the lost!


Keri