Reaching Out

As we are nearing the last quarter of the year, that also means we are nearing the end of reaching our yearly goals. The Salem Oaks are focusing on four major points:

1. Raising up Head of Household Leaders among the different nations.

• 1 Karenni
• 1 African 
• 1 Nepali
• 1 Hispanic

2. Building in roads to the Middle Eastern and Jewish communities.
3. Having each 1st generation disciple leading their own redemptive community.
4. Taking our disciples out of context (out of Los Arcos) at least once each week.

God wants to do a greater work than just inside Los Arcos.

Currently we have one Nepali Leader, Man, but is struggling to see himself as a Leader. Please pray God would raise up a leader in the other 3 nations.

Different Houston team members have connected with one Jewish man on three different occasions, beginning from almost day one of our journey on permanently being on this side of town. Please pray for discernment and action on our part if he is one key person of peace that will start building relationships with the Jews!

Pray God would use our 1st generation disciples to empower those they are leading in their groups to see the bigger picture and continue to reach out.

And pray that as we are taking our disciples out God will start to build connections into the rest of the Salem Oaks area.

Thank you for your faithful prayers!

Susana's Girls

Praise God for the work he is doing through Susana! Karen sisters Htoo Ku Paw and Ree Mi Yar have shown great faithfulness after recently attending multi cultural camp. They were both already believers, but the Holy Spirit has been working powerfully in their lives, challenging them to have a greater sense of urgency in sharing the gospel and to let Him work in their lives more. Susana is very encouraged by the girls' willingness to obey and share. Without prompting, the girls have been sharing and doing ministry with their friends and peers. Susana believes that these girls could potentially be her first generation disciples. She has been pursuing a disciple relationship with them for about a month now (and has known them for a year). They are both already excited to make their own disciples. Please be in prayer that they will be faithful, obey His commands, and that they'll fully give their lives to Christ!

Our Young Karenni Leader

Around the time that some of our team was moving to the Salem Oaks area (back in March), God was preparing and raising up Kho Meh, 15, who would eventually become a key disciple of ours. Katie originally met her while ministering to other Karenni girls in Los Arcos, and she quickly recognized the leadership potential that Kho has.

Kho Meh has since discipled several key people such as Salina (an Ethiopian girl), Purnima (a Nepali girl), as well as Kho's sisters. And Kho is the reason we got connected with Oo Reh in Nacogdoches. He's the guy we posted about months ago who helped to lead several other families to the Lord in that city.

In each of those instances, Katie was always there to coach and disciple Kho in order to be most effective. But since Katie recently moved to Portland, Kho has been surprisingly consistent and diligent largely on her own. She is leading a group for all the girl first generation disciples in Los Arcos as well as co-leading a group for all the first generation disciples in Los Arcos. She continues to be the main translator for the believers in Nacogdoches and plays an important role on the Keystone Team itself.

We're encouraged and blessed to get to be a part of everything God's doing here in Houston, but it's especially encouraging when we see fruit that lasts and flourishes. It's a reminder that the effect our team has here isn't just for a season but rather is lasting and permanent. And obviously Kho and other disciples like her are only the result of fervent, passionate prayer.

(1) Please continue to lift up Kho as one of her main disciples, Purnima, is actively looking for a disciple of her own. God's really changed Purnima's heart the past few months through discipleship and through camp recently. So since school has started up again, she's been praying for a Nigerian Muslim girl in school, Adijat, and is ministering to a Vietnamese classmate, who's interested to learn more about Christ. (In the 1st picture Kho is the girl in the blue shorts, and Purnima is wearing the yellow shirt.)
(2) Kho's also excited because Jacob went with her yesterday to share the gospel with her brother Seh Reh (2nd picute). He's recently showed interest in Christ, and after talking to him about the gospel he gladly prayed to follow Jesus! Please pray that he'd develop a deep relationship with Christ, especially since he lives a couple hours away and doesn't have anyone around him to help him through the process.

Sunblossom Mountain

There is a spiritual battle going on in a local apartment complex, Sunblossom Mountain. Over the years, our team has made many connections and spent a lot of time in this apartment. Various team members have been prayer walking, warfare praying, making connections, and working with people of all ages in this apartment complex. Over the past two months, we have seen multiple religious groups working and interacting with the people. Specifically, the Mormons are working diligently with kids and sharing stuff that is not Biblical with them. Also, a few days ago, Jason met a guy named Alex who lives in the complex so that he can live amongst the people and share his beliefs with them, which is that all religions are right and should be tolerated and that everyone goes to heaven. Lastly, there is a sect of the Muslim religion that rallies teenagers every weekend to teach them their beliefs. Our team has committed to spending more time in prayer and more time in the apartment complex. Please join us in prayer over this issue!

General Team Update

It seems like we often share testimonies of what we see God doing in the lives of those we're ministering to, but it's probably hard to get a full picture of the team dynamics just from our posts. So I just want to give a quick update on a couple of the developments lately.

First of all, Joe and Keri had their baby, Zoe, Friday morning! Please be praying that she would be completely healthy, as she's spent the past few days in the hospital adjusting to life outside the womb. We've been praising God for the new life, and obviously this means Joe will be taking some extra time to focus on the family. We would appreciate prayers in the coming weeks that the Ranchester team would remain united and maintain momentum while Joe and Keri step back from leadership. As one team member quoted yesterday, "Joe is like the glue for the Ranchester team."

In general, the our team has entered into a slightly slower season, now that the summer is over and school has started up once again (although it's likely none of us have really slowed down much at all). In this new season of ministry, we're excited to have gotten a few new team members, since we've been praying for that all summer. We've had to say goodbye to several team members throughout the year, as people have gone to other cities or simply stepped into other works here in Houston, so it's great to see God's providing right when we need it most. With the new recruits, that brings the Ranchester team to about 8 adults and the Salem Oaks team to about 11.

Please be lifting up all the new team members in prayer - Jerome, Jason, Chris & Julia. Jerome lives in Houston and has been called to join our team. He'll likely transition into leadership of Keystone Academy by the end of the school year. He could use prayer that the dynamics in his home would be smoothed out supernaturally so that he'd be free to be a part of the work we're doing in a greater and deeper way.

        Jason was one of two interns that we had this summer, and God has called him to remain a part of our team for the time being. Please pray that he'd have direction for next steps in life and ministry, pray that he's find his 1st generation disciple, and pray that he'd find his role on the Ranchester team.

        Finally, Chris and Julia are from Wichita, KS, and were recently called to be a part of our team, along with their three kids. Please pray that they would quickly get acclimated to life in Houston, as they're still in somewhat of a transition phase. Pray that Chris would know where to invest all of his time in ministry and that he would find a faithful 1st generation disciple.

A Desire for God

Xavier had the opportunity to have Kay Reh in his cabin at multicultural camp. He is a 14 year old Karreni boy. Kay Reh was very impacted by camp and has shown interest in the Lord ever since. Recently after getting a Bible, he began reading it non- stop and not wanting to put it down. Xavier has been explaining the vision to Kay Reh of making disciples who make disciples, as well as describing to him what Gods kingdom here on earth is. Kay Reh wants to be a disciple and given unto God, he just doesn't know what that looks like. Please pray for Kay Reh and for Xavier as he is walking him through this beautiful process!