Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Praise God!

Today we got word that another brothel in Sunblossom Mountain apartments has been shut down!
The first was Jerome and Jenny's old apartment. Oh, how the Lord redeems his land! Let us rejoice together!

Loving June Be and Nu Git

August 5th:
Catherine, Susana, and I (Keri) visited a Burmese Muslim family in mountain last night. We were able to share the gospel with them. They listened and asked questions. They are by far the poorest family I've seen since we've been here.  Their house was very heavy. No A/C on at first, no food whatsoever, rats running everywhere, and they're both sick, especially the lady. We were able to buy them some food and we're all going to pitch in so Susana can take her to the doctors next week. She's going blind, high blood pressure, and lots of other complications.

A few things I realized/ learned:
- there are lost people all around us in our complexes, we just have to be willing to "go"
- though we may fee intimated when sharing the gospel, especially with Muslims, they'll generally always end up thanking us for sharing with them

Please join us in praying for June Be and Nu Git. They allowed us to pray over their health in Jesus' name.

August 22nd:
June Be's blood work came back and she has been diagnosed with diabetes and asthma. We're taking her to the doctor now for a follow up so she can learn how to deal with these to start feeling better. Please pray for opportunities to share Jesus with her.

The first time we prayed for June be husband pain in his stomach, it worked. He told us today the pain hadn't returned since we prayed in Jesus' name. But then again tested us and had us pray for another pain. As soon as we finished he said "It's gone!"

August 26th:
Susana and I are taking June Be and her husband to the eye doctor today. 
Pray for continued conversations about Jesus.

Keri and Susana have been faithfully following up with these two, loving them and lifting the curse in their life naturally and supernaturally. And Jesus has been revealing himself in big ways to them.
Please pray for this couple to see the light and love of Christ through Keri and Susana.
Pray they would recognize the truth of the Gospel and that hope and peace would be restored in their family through the blood of the Lamb.

Thanks!

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Kingdom Girls Redemptive Community

On Wednesday, we had our first gathering for our new Kingdom Girls Redemptive Community group. This group is led by Burmese team member, Susana, and overseen by team member, Keri. There has been a need for quite some time now to figure out a way to challenge, encourage, and spur on a lot of the local junior high girls who have either been disciples in the past, or recently given their lives to Christ. This group is a great opportunity for Keri to empower Susana, and in turn, for Susana to work with these girls. The goal of this group is to help the girls to have someone regularly pouring into them so that they can be stronger in their faith and have guidance in making disciples. We had 11 girls at our first meeting, so please be praying for the direction of this group, for Susana as she grows in her leadership skills, and for us to have wisdom on who the leaders among these girls are!

Friday, August 19, 2016

Multi-Cultural Camp 2016

Thanks for all the prayers for camp a couple weeks ago! Here are a few of the highlights from the week…

Keri:
All seven of the girls in my cabin re-dedicated their lives to Jesus! They have all already committed their lives to Jesus, but five of the seven girls (the five who live in or next to my apartment complex) strayed away from the Lord this past year, falling into the temptations of their peers. They were very excited to have some spiritual Guidance, and were like sponges soaking everything in!

Chris B.:
At camp I mostly interacted with Zar Kit, a Burmese Muslim kid. God really laid him on my heart. He and I really connected, and in a way he looked up to me. Joe Hutchinson would clue us in on the stirring and curiosity in Zar’s heart, which only propelled us to pray for him more. It was an incredible thing to later see Zar accept Christ in tears with counselor Peanut. With Zar in tears and Peanut saying his goodbye to Zar, Zar and I walked together, and he was still in tears. I just put my arm around him, and I was just so full of joy that Zar was experiencing God’s love. I just spoke to him some words of encouragement and that God had much that he wanted to use him for and that his life was just beginning. When I got back to Houston, it was funny, because I ran into Zar twice by accident. Before camp, I had never even seen Zar before. I feel God was teaching me how deep his love is and how much he wants us to see His Glory as painted through His creation and His people. Excited for Joe and Kyaw to begin discipling Zar!

Joe:
This year of camp was unique due to the amount of Muslims that we brought to camp. Kyaw has personally taken it upon himself to be intentional with them, therefore many of his friends came. In his group there were 7 boys, 4 of them being Burmese Muslim. God spoke to them and we could see their wheels turning, and we really realized He was up to something on Cross talk night. 3 of the 4 Muslim boys said that they would seriously consider Jesus but that they had a few questions.
I followed up with Zar after camp, whom Chris was mostly investing in. And at this point I do not feel comfortable calling him a follower of Christ yet, but he is willing to do some searching on his own and some assignments that I have given to him. Kyaw is currently teaching him how to have a quiet time so that he can process Scripture while he is on his journey. I still feel extremely good about his growth, and I am praying that he will soon be a disciple.

Xavier
Another student who I saw the most change in was a 13 year old boy named Tiger Three, a Karen Buddhist. With this particular boy, we’ve shared the gospel many times, but there was never any commitment. It wasn't until camp that I saw that God had filled him with the Spirit and I saw a fire in him that was eager and ready to learn more about Jesus and willing to go out and share to those who have never heard of Him. There was one night where he wrote a scenario where he was sharing the gospel with his friends, and as I heard it all I got a clear picture of how the Spirit was at work in his life. We now have a new member to God's Kingdom and a fired up disciple!

Meh Mor:
Koung Mo, the one that go by her nickname Doe Meh, gave her life to Christ at camp. Her family background is Buddhist. She said she never heard about Jesus Christ before, and she was so happy to learn about God at camp. She was hungry for God and she asked several questions. After she accepted Christ and asked us to pray over her to be filled with the Spirit, it looks like she received wisdom from God, and she understands deep spiritual truths very quickly. She knew what God wants her to do, and she is excited to do them. She wants to share with others about what she learned from camp, and I'll follow up with her. Please pray for her that she will be faithful to God and follow the 10 steps (5 things to do and pray everyday) that I showed her. She also always puts others before herself. She loves the quote, "God first, other's second, and I'm third". Pray that she will be able to apply these words to her life. She is 11 years old.

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Haiti

Thanks for the prayers for the Haiti training by the way! We (LJ, Julio and Jacob) spent about a week training a group of pastors and leaders in the city of Grandgoave (the city where Julio lives). And then we spent a week just meeting one-on-one with some of the key leaders from that training.

            Most of the leaders haven’t really been exposed to the idea of discipleship/multiplication, so it’s really going to take a major lifestyle change for many leaders if this movement is going to be successful. The primary religion in Haiti is Catholicism, and hence the Protestants there have an unhealthy value for the institutional church. They work hard to draw people into the church meetings, and they spend as much time as they can ‘doing church’.

We did a Keystone training a few years ago, and what we’ve seen is that the 2013 training spurred on many leaders there to be engaging the lost through evangelism. But I can’t say that anyone really caught the vision for discipleship at that time, at least in the sense that Jesus modeled it. So we spent more time this training showing, practically, what discipleship looks like and how to effectively equip those disciples to multiply.

 There were many that came up to us throughout the week just to say that the training was exactly what they needed in this season. And the week that we spent following up with those leaders seemed to be really effective. We were able to sit down with them and write out some practical, strategic plans to begin launching movements. Within just a few days following the training, a few of them had already begun sharing the gospel with the lost, looking for their 1st generation disciple.

We finished the training Thursday the 28th. And one of the leaders went home that day and spent a couple days praying and fasting for a movement. God laid it on his heart to go to another part of the city, which he did, and he started talking to people there. He met 3 young men who were very interested in joining the vision, so this leader began discipling them. In the end, just a week following the training he was already taking some of his new disciples to share the gospel with others in the community.

Many throughout the city heard about the training, and so we received several invitations to teach at various churches. Jacob ended up sharing with 3 different congregations during his second week there, and every single person from those meetings made commitments to begin making disciples (almost 200 people). And after LJ and Jacob had left, Julio held a mini-training for many others that were begging to learn about discipleship.

Please be praying for all these leaders, that God would bring them the key disciples that will launch a movement. And pray that the leaders would have great wisdom to know how to disciple other leaders effectively, even though no one has necessarily shown them what each part of the process should look like.


Julio will stay there as long as he needs to help get the movement going. And if most of the people we trained work through the 2nd generation within 6 months either LJ or Jacob will likely go back to follow up with everyone.