Praise Reports

My apologies for not updating you on this: the interns returned from their trip a week ago Monday. Last night they got to share a few of their stories at prayer meeting. It was so neat to see how God answered your prayers and impacted their lives during this trip.

Thank you for praying for Melissa. I received an email today saying that she had committed to meet weekly with a young adults Bible study group for the next six weeks. Praise God! I didn't know if we would ever hear from her again. Continue to pray for Melissa (and the group leader) as the Lord lays it on your heart.

I recently received an email from Bro. KP's secretary regarding the Lookout software install we did two weeks ago. She was excited about the hours of time her new software had saved her that week as she worked with projects and correspondence. Praise God for his tools through technology.

Blog Changes - Life and Death

You've read my recent posts about the increase in persecution on the mission field. It's not only pastors and churches in remote villages being attacked, but there is organized attack against the Church and organizations that work to grow and strengthen the Church. This attack even affects -- you guessed it -- my blog. While we try to figure out what I can share on my blog and what I cannot, the already sparse stories from the mission field may become even more sparse. My simple stories here can mean life or death to a missionary or area of ministry.

Praise Report: The pastor and believers mentioned in my post two weeks ago have been released and charges have been cleared! Praise God! We firmly believe it was only because of your prayers that this happened.

Sobering evening: About three months ago, I spoke to a middle-aged man who lives two houses down from us. He told me his name was Gary and his wife was Diane. We spoke briefly that morning and I brought up the topic of God and church. He said his son went to church, but as for them: "We're good people. We don't need church." I asked how we could be praying for him and his wife and he responded again, "There's nothing. We're fine."

I became concerned recently when his business truck didn't leave at the usual 6AM time. And then the business stickers were removed. Today, I spoke with his wife and son as they were leaving the house. "So you know the story," his son said. What story, I replied. "Dad died of a heart attack last month."

I would feel more helpless except for something that the wife and son asked separately. "Are you the girls that live just a couple doors down? Dad came home one evening and said, 'The girls down the street are praying for us.' That really meant something to him."

Pray the Lord will provide a way to reach out to our neighbors as well.

Can you hear me now?

No, it's not a cell phone. They've been training me to run the soundboard for the audio system at the ministry and tonight (Ladies' Mtg) was my first time to do it. The end result was "good overall mix of vocals and instruments, but it needed to be a little louder." For my first time, I'll take that as a compliment.

I was blessed today to talk with a good college friend and faithful supporter. Granted, it was just a phone conversation, but we haven't heard each other's voice in so long, it was a blessing just to do that. When she finishes up her vet program, she'll come for a visit. In the meantime, another college friend and supporter (the vet's sister) is potentially coming for a visit in April. Yay! I am so excited!

Finishing newsletter

I've just finished the rough draft of my newsletter and I am heading to bed. I'm usually in bed way before this! I haven't put together the final details of the newsletter yet. Any questions you have that you'd like me to answer in my newsletter?

Reaching the lost...next door

Okay, so it wasn't quite next door. As I arrived at church this morning (much earlier than my usual time), I noticed a well-dressed young lady walking along the side of the road. That's not a common sight around here, so I parked and walked back to meet her. After an invite, she joined me for church and during the course of the morning and early afternoon I heard a good deal of her testimony.

Please pray for Melissa. Although she has walked with God at one point in her life, she's living a life of sin, alcohol, and drugs. And she doesn't know how to get out. And she's scared--horribly scared--that God won't take her back after what she's done.

I took the long way home after my long/late lunch and stopped by Arbor Hills Nature Preserve. As I parked, I noticed three guys tossing a frisbee and (as one would expect) I quickly joined them. Within a few minutes, we had started a conversation about what it means to be a Christian and what determines if you get into heaven. After about 20 minutes of healthy discussion, I concluded my frisbee time and left them reading over tracts. You can pray for Aaron, Alex, and Chris.

Trust me. This is not how I usually spend my Sunday afternoon. I did get home just in time to join another GFA family for tostados and fellowship - including reading the story "Summer Lightning" from the Deek Creek collection. Now I just need to go prepare for my week in the office.

Persecution continues

Although the topic wasn't planned, much of tonight's prayer meeting came back to the topic of persecution. Every leader, every ministry program, every regional area was reporting more persecution: murders, beatings, harrassments, death threats, churches burned, literature destroyed, pastors' families threatened, believers denied medical treatment...

Continue in prayer for the growing Church in Asia. And pray for the salvation of their tormentors as well.

Friday Night Prayer

We've got all-night prayer meeting tonight. I've got a cookie-cake in the oven (thanks to Debbie's recipie in the Anthony church cookbook) for midnight snacks. My bowl of mac-and-cheese is sitting on my lap. And I'm listening to teaching by Pastor Zac Poonen on the book of Ephesians. He's talking about selfishness. Ouch!

"There is a lot of selfishness in us... When children are young, they always grab. We don't grab because we would lose our testimony. But that is still how we are inside."

This week was busy--I helped fix a couple PDA's, installed security programs for two computers, setup databases so people could call churches and arrange meetings, researched printer solutions, fixed a problem with the phone setup so our operators could take backed-up phone calls, setup folders for new projects, and much more...

We also spent time this week praying for the upcoming Renewing Your Passion missions conference. Check out the website and pray about coming -- it's going to be incredible!