November 2014
Greetings!
We have had a wonderful last month. It’s been unique because we have had a special time with all of the staff, something unlike anything we’ve ever had before. We took a 4 week chunk of our schedules and boiled it all down to:
1. seeking God through fasting, prayer and worship
2. working together to make our “home” (base) better
3. eating meals in the neighbourhood
4. spending our free times to develop closer friendships with one another
God has used this time to go deeper in our relationship with Him and with each other. Unity with God and His family is a HIGH priority for our Father in heaven, even when it means crossing cultural boundaries to seek it.
Family Housing Project
We’ve seen this project come along little by little. The free labor was a HUGE start for us. It’s still available, but now that the workers have other contract work, their only available to help a day or two a week. This really slows down the progress. We have enough to finish the bricks. We saw our original contractor donate the door frames, which was an unexpected surprise. For more information about this project, please click here.
The Gospel on our doorstep (Story)
One Sunday morning we were getting ready for church. Elias had his blow-up swimming pool outside and we were filling it up for play after church. Before we left a bunch of unknown kids show up and ask to play on our property. I gave them permission and went back to doing what I was doing. They were very curious about us and kept getting closer and closer. I asked them where they were from and they explained that their families came to the Chinese temple up the road from us every once in a while. There was nothing for the kids to do there so they just roamed the neighbourhood. Well, we left for church and arrived there ready for a full morning. Cy wasn’t feeling well and things only got worse. We eventually left church early because of Cy’s sickness and arrived home to find the kids still hanging around. I sat down on our front porch to watch Elias play in the pool with some of the boys. One of the older ones came and sat down beside me. He was about 10 years old. At one point in the conversation I asked him if he knew about Jesus. He said no (which is a surprise to me because the areas that we live in have a good gospel/church presence. I asked him if he wanted to know the story about Jesus and he agreed to listen. I shared with him the story of Creation to Christ and what it means to believe in Jesus. He was very interested and we had a good talk. His time with me suddenly came to an end and he returned with the other boys to the temple to see his family again. It was a wonderful experience of having God bring “one of these little ones” to our doorstep for me to share the life-giving story of Jesus with him. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for that opportunity. May you bring that boy into your kingdom!
Healings? Salvation? Where?
We recently sent our Discipleship Training School team to India for a month of outreach. It’s part of their practical training. Here’s a report that we got from them after the first week:
“We all arrived safely in Shillong, India last Monday, although we experienced many obstacles along the was (Antenors bag with camera, iPad, important documents, phone was left behind then stolen, Isaaks flight from Kolkata to Guwahati was missing, my bag was left in BKK and I didn’t get it til Wednesday night and we literally JUST made our flight)… But we’ve had a great first week and have seen God really anointing our activities – we’ve seen healing and salvations and are making good connections and having really good connections from pastors and leaders here – already many have asked me to come back regularly with teams and I’ve talked to some about bringing you teams to Thailand – I feel God is really doing something with this trip and the connections we are making, using us not only to share the gospel straight with ppl and see them respond but also to stir the youth here to take Jesus seriously and move into the world beyond Shillong – many from this area never leave it!”
A desire left unfulfilled…
We’re sorry to report that we weren’t able to raise enough money to bring Cy’s parents to visit us at this time. It was disappointing, but we will continue to seek God’s plans about connecting with them in the future, whether we go there or they come here. Your prayers with regards to this are desired. It’s been a long time since we’ve been with them (almost 4 years).
PRAYER REQUESTS:
– continued HEALTH
– FINANCES – our support levels haven’t changed, the Canadian dollar has weakened and our expenses grow with our little boy. If you are willing and able to support our service as missionaries in God’s kingdom, please click here for details.
– WISDOM – we’re working through some big picture vision, mission and planning with our staff, doing lots of training and processing. Please pray for God’s Spirit to lead us down the right path for His kingdom’s purposes.
– GROWTH – we aim to see growth in our personal lives, the life of our family, our YWAM community and the part of the kingdom of God that we share in…all for His glory.
We thank you for the wonderful blessings and encouragement you have sent our way and appreciate your prayers much.
Blessings!