PR - 30/04/08

Praying for mercy and grace for the PB peoples,

"Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Hebrews 4:14-16
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1) We have another training beginning the 6th of May. Again, more opportunities for non-believers to hear the Gospel in a clear and compassionate manner. For those of us who already believe and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, it is such a blessing to be able to draw "with confidence" near to Him, so let us come and pray for mercy and grace for those who will hear the Gospel during the days of May 6 through May 23. Pray God will open their eyes, ears, and hearts to Him and draw them into His Kingdom.

Again pray for our workers here to be bold once again, sharing the Gospel with these that come.

2) There have been some who have forsaken their Muslim beliefs and have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are looking to gather these individuals into a group(s) of believers. This group ideally will begin studying the Bible together on a regular basis, led by mature believers. Please pray that these new followers would be bold enough to meet together with other believers, come whatever trials they will encounter (be it family denouncing them, community persecution, or whatever). Pray for wisdom for the leaders in knowing how to gather them and for the new believers to be willing to meet together.

3) On May 2nd is a meeting with some of our national partners who really have a heart for evangelism. Please pray that God would prepare and give wisdom to our teammate who will be sharing the Word at the meeting. He will be challenging the attendees to lay down their cultural worldview and take up a Biblical worldview. Within this topic he will be challenging them that though they may not have yet had formal seminary training, they too can go and be ministers of the Gospel. Our team has a great desire to see this happen so that MORE and MORE and MORE PB peoples will hear the Gospel.

Though these "requests" may seem few, oh the weight I feel in writing them. Do you feel it brothers and sisters? PB peoples - 2 million of them - whom may have never heard or never clearly heard the Gospel. And here we are praying for the souls, pleading with the Father for their salvation, talking about Bible studies which we pray will turn into churches, and for all men (and women) who are followers of Christ to be ministers of the Gospel. Oh that the PB peoples may know and follow Jesus, the Son of God.

An Update

Pak Tua and Pak TJ have been followed up by our national partners here. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to work on their hearts.

Update and PR - 4/15/08

We asked you to pray for four main requests two weeks ago. Let me tell you how God has answered them!

We asked you to pray:
* Pray that God would open their hearts, minds, eyes, and ears to all that they will encounter
* Pray that the participants would desire to learn more about Jesus and long to be His followers
* Please pray for the workers on the farm that are followers of Christ. Pray that they would long for all men to know and follow Jesus. Pray that they would be bold to share the Gospel in their many interactions with the participants.

Here is how He answered:
Out of the group of four men, only two finished the program. The other two felt that they had been away from their village for too long and went back. However, these men were shared with MANY times during their time here on the farm. Praise the Lord. We asked you to pray that the workers would speak boldly and clearly of the Good News of Jesus Christ, and they did! We asked you to pray that they would have a desire to learn about Jesus. They did. Both men were VERY open to spiritual discussion about Jesus. Praise the Lord.

And we are not finished yet - you and I.

Now here is how we can pray for the next two weeks:
+ Pray for Pak Tua (can be pronounced two-uh). He is 72 years old. He was the most open of the two (at least he appeared to be). He was shared with openly and clearly MANY times. At the end of the program, Pak Tua thanked the workers for sharing with him about Jesus. The farm workers then encouraged him to not leave the farm with only knowledge, they then went on to challenge him to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. As far as we know, Pak Tua has not yet. Oh pray that he will. Pray that God would open his heart to His Truths and be saved.

+ Pray for the other young man that finished the program, TJ. Although he is only in his mid-20s, he has much responsibility placed on him by his family and village. You see, his father and other important men in his family have either passed away or left and now this young man is left to care for his family (mother, siblings, and children). He is eager to find ways to help support his family. He plays an important role in his family. Pray that God would bring TJ to saving knowledge and belief in Jesus Christ, and that his family would also follow and become followers of Jesus Christ.

+ Praise God with us, that our national workers, those who work here on the farm, "beefed up" their evangelism and boldly and clearly shared with these two men.

+ Pray for the farm that we would have more projects that will help locals have a way to support their families.

+ Pray that God would bring more and more and more people to the farm, and that they would clearly hear the Gospel just as these two men did.

+ Lastly, please pray for now our national workers to follow up with Pak Tua and TJ. Also pray that we would not MERELY wait on the PB peoples to come to us, but that we would be actively pursuing them!

To God be the glory!

earthquake

Hi friends, just wanted to let you know that as we have began our focus on the Cower people, there was an earthquake in their area yesterday. We have not heard of any damage or problems. As God is shaking things up there, lets pray that the Gospel would shake things up there too and the Cower people would run and cling to our great God.