Tuesday Update

Tuesday-

God Appointment for Brittney

It should be no surprise when God moves things around miraculously for His own glory. This morning we met at Joyful Baptist Church and had some orientation before hitting the roads to do evangelism. There were supposed to be 5 translators and 5 groups all along but yesterday we were one translator short so we only had 4 groups. These 4 groups gathered this morning but at the last minute an additional translator was located and we formed 5 groups. This moved Brittany and Wayne to a new group. Then, as their team was walking down the street they encountered a deaf person! If you are not aware Brittney is one of our deaf interpreters at Castle Hills and although African sign is different from American sign there seemed to be enough overlap that she was actually able to share the gospel with him. God put her right where she needed to be to encounter the only deaf person we have met this entire time.

Follow Up Visits- today we did follow up visits to some of those that trusted Christ as Savior yesterday. I was able to take Pastor Banda, the pastor of Joyful Baptist Church with me to comfort the family that had lost a loved one in the last few days and he was able to share how the church wanted to be there to support her family. The lady who lost her husband looked like a different person. She had changed clothes and eaten and although she was still grieving it was not as one without hope.

Breaking the Sound Barrier

Just in case you should decide to come with us next year (and I sincerely hope you do), I want to make something very clear. Although we trained for six weeks and taught our team how to share Christ, we never just throw people to the wolves by putting them on the streets without an experienced leader. So, knowing that this would be a very new experience for Abigail Flores, I put her on Laura’s team who has been witnessing on the streets of Africa for years. What we as leaders do is to slowly work new team members into sharing the gospel by starting with them giving their testimony and then allowing them to do short portions of the gospel presentation. And, the first time that a person speaks in one of these situations we call: “breaking the sound barrier” because it’s really cool but kinda strange to hear yourself sharing for the first time. Well today, Abigail broke the sound barrier and told the entire story of the rich landowner. Then at our Team Time tonight she said her only complaint was that Laura didn’t let her keep going to present the rest of the gospel. So- pray for her she takes some more big steps tomorrow.

VBS Doubles! Where’s Missi???

Be careful what you pray for. We prayed for more kids and God sent them. We had over 100 yesterday and over 200 today. But I have to say that with the adjustments we made it actually went pretty smoothly. They were divided into three groups and rotated between Bible Story Station, Crafts/Coloring Station and Game Station. Our team was not frantic or stressed and really took time to enjoy these precious kids. Now- a different prayer request, we are definitely a big hit in the compound but don’t want more kids than we can truly minister to (there are over 100,000 people in this compound!) It’s in God’s hands.

Thanks for Praying for Our Interrupters

I’m not sure how many of you have had to speak through an interpreter before but it can be an additional challenge when sharing Jesus overseas.  And yes I meant to say “interrupters” in the title because that ’s exactly what it is and it can be hard to keep your train of thought until you get used to it. I’m so used to it now that when I’m here I will sometimes pause after a short phrase when I’m speaking to a team member and wait for the translation! Thank you for praying over our interpreters. Today things were vastly different and it seemed like sharing the gospel went so much more smoothly for all the teams. 

Please Pray For:

• Sleep- several still have nights and days mixed up and are not sleeping well
• Health- so far it’s pretty good, asthma is much better but stomach and head aches
• Boldness for Evangelism for those taking next steps tomorrow
• Open and Receptive Hearts for the People of Chazanga Compound