New Intern

We are so excited to have a new intern here on location with us. Damion is 21 years old and comes to us from Indiana. After battling a variety of addictions throughout his teenage years and searching for something to complete him, Damion found Jesus a little over two years ago. His passion for sharing with the lost (specifically with teenagers) is strong and he is so excited to be joining our team. Please be praying that he can find a local job, that he can find a disciple, and that he will impact the city of Houston while he is here. Damion just completed the month long Keystone Project Training in South Dakota and is looking forward to putting all that he learned into practice.
Picture: Joe(left) and Damion (right)

Opening Up

Recently Srijana, Lacey's contact, has been opening up about her fear. At nights she sleeps in her room alone with her two young boys, 10 months and 3 years, because her husband works at night. She has said she's afraid of ghosts at night and sometimes she hears noises. In Nepal it was much worse. About a month or more ago she asked for a bible because she feels it helps her sleep better. I (Lacey) was able to tell her that it wasn't the book specifically that was going to remove the fear but the words inside it. This past week she asked me to pray that her fear would be gone completely. I know God wants to remove this and more from her, only not through my prayers but through hers.

I know she sees Jesus has power, God has shown himself to her and her family. She even grew up learning about Christ, so she knows some of the stories.

Please pray that:
Srijana would take great leaps towards Christ.
She would fully surrender, repent, renounce, and cast out.
She wouln't let tradition, religion, or fear of persecution hold her back from full life with Christ.
Her fear would be removed because of her full faith in Jesus.

Thank you and God bless your week!

Setting a New Foundation

Hey guys, just an update on Santa's dad, Bal. As I mentioned a few weeks back Bal was Hindu his whole life and opposed the gospel for some time. But after we (Santa and Jacob) kept ministering to him and after a prophetic dream he decided to accept Christ!

He started attending the Nepali church fellowship right away (there are meetings every Sunday and Wednesday), but no one was really teaching him what following Jesus actually means or looks like. Santa was really busy with work, and I couldn't meet with him without someone to translate.

But last week, I decided to start taking my 11-year-old disciple Rekesh to translate (left side of the picture), with the purpose of teaching all the basics of Christianity. (I didn't really like this idea at first because it's a bit culturally awkward for young Nepali people to translate for adults, but I eventually decided there's no other good option.) Both times that we've met with him he's invited us to come daily, so as long as he's faithful to finish the assignments we give him we'll probably go there often.

Some of the things we hope to impart to him in the coming weeks are (1) a full understanding of the gospel, (2) his new identity in Christ, (3) Christianity is a relationship, not a set of rules, (4) daily disciplines, (5) a lifestyle of repentance and growth, (6) following the Holy Spirit, and (7) the Great Commission. Or at least those are the ones that come to mind off the top of my head. :)

Please be praying for Bal, so he continues growing in Christ. He's the head of his household, so he has a lot of potential influence in Los Arcos, and all that Jesus needs from him is a willing heart. Please pray (1) that I would know what to teach and how to teach it, (2) that he would understand everything clearly despite hearing problems and despite Rekesh' limited knowledge of the language, and (3) that Bal would passionately seek to apply the things we're teaching rather than simply add them to his knowledge. Thanks!

Transitions

These two weeks we have felt small. Different members have been traveling the last half of October. Three members just returned from various trips and three members just took off for the South Dakota staff retreat in Keystone. The Veilmans left at the beginning of the month and will return after the staff retreat. Richie is also transitioning out of the team per leading of the Holy Spirit to return to school to achieve a degree.

• Pray God would continue to move in and through him in that place and that the Kingdom would come as he pursues how God wants to use him in this new season of life.

After the South Dakota training we will be gaining one member, Damion.

• Pray for those at the training that they would leave the training empowered and go back into their home countries or new homes ready to make disciples and see God move in a mighty way.
• Pray that Damion would adjust well in Houston and God would grow his heart for the lost in this place.

As everyone returns from travels we will have a fall retreat Women on November 4th, men on the 5th and 6th and everyone together for team time on the night of the 7th.

• Please pray for that time that we would be able to rest together in the presence of God and be able to get refocused on the mission.

Thank you and God bless you all!

Kingdom Girls Group

Every Wednesday evening, anywhere from 5-16 girls meet for Kingdom Girls Group in Susana's apartment. The leaders of the group are team members Susana, Mehmor, and Ashika. The purpose of this redemptive community is to give the local middle school and high school girls who follow Jesus a time to learn more about Jesus and how they can share Jesus with the lost. Our prayer is that from this group, generations of disciples will be made. We're also praying and trying to find who the leaders of this group are, and then spend time taking those specific girls out on mission throughout the week. Since we have been meeting, we've seen more of an intentionality of sharing the gospel from the girls. We're currently working on personal testimonies and how to share them. Please be praying for this group and for the girls to feel empowered to share with others and confident in who they are in Christ!

Night of Worship

Saturday October 8th we held a night of worship at Sunblossom Mountain. 20-30 people attended. We worshiped in song, prayed for the community and took time to listen to the voice of God.
Through this we had a couple opportunities to meet more neighbors and share again with contacts we already had. Joe was able to chat with Muhammad for awhile and below is Chris' testimony:

At our night of worship. I saw a large family of 7+ that were in the apartment above where we were worshipping. there was a boy aged maybe 9 years old who was watching us. I felt that God is going to use this boy to bring many to faith, but how will he if he has not heard. Went to share with the family and found out they are Karenni Buddhists in Apt. 1122. Please pray for them and that Susanna and the Karenni girls are able to share more with them.

Please pray:

• For the young adults to continue to grow in likeness and love for the Lord. 
• Muhammad's heart to soften and be receptive to Jesus.
• For follow up with this new family.

Thank you!
May God bless you and may more and more peace abound in your home.

Discipleship Training in India

Near the end of September, team member, Joe, went on a week long trip to New Delhi India. Joe's brother, Tim, along with his wife Loren, are joining the Keystone Project LA team. Tim and Joe went to India together to join Richard and Marge Greene in leading over 50 church leaders/ disciple makers in a week long discipleship training. They came along-side their Indian partner, Shammagum, who has devoted his life to spreading the gospel in his home country. India has 1.3 billion people, and only 2.1% of them are professing Christians. 95% of the population is UNREACHED, and 2,026 people groups have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. Joe personally coached 12 men and remains in contact with them as they are putting in to practice what was taught. Please be praying for the unreached people of India, for those from the training to feel empowered to launch disciple making movements, and for future trips to India.

October Keystone Training

Our annual October training starts tomorrow in Keystone, SD. This is a very important training because, not only do we have international leaders from around the world attending, but we also have several of our U.S. leaders attending for the first time.

Just from the Houston team, we have Jerome and Jenny, LJ and Chris who will be there all month. Jerome and Jenny moved on site with our team months ago, but Jenny has not yet attended a Keystone training, so we believe this will serve to unify both their family and our team.

Damion, a young man from Indiana, recently felt called by God to join our team, so he'll be attending the October training for the first time and plans to move on site with us afterward. And Chris' friend Kiegan has been living in Keystone and is considering the possibility of the joining our team after the month is over. Please be in prayer for these leaders!

Finally, we've been planning to start a small mission team in Los Angeles soon, and the 6 or so potential members will be using this month to get to know each other and become unified around God's vision. So this could be an important launch for that team.

And as always for these types of trainings, we're praying this month will equip dozens of international Christian leaders to go back to their countries and launch disciple-making movements. Thanks for the prayers!