Rejoice with us!
- Many of us have been able to have SP conversations with friends this week
- We all continue to remain healthy
- There have been many blue skies this week
Here’s how you can
lift us up this week:
- Good time with friends and many more SP conversations before they have to head home
- Please ask that Father would draw our friends to Himself and transform their hearts
- Ask that our language classes would continue to be enjoyable and that we would be able to share truth about JC with our teachers
- Ask that we would have energy—physical, emotional, and SP
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| Eating like locals! |
As we continue to remain faithful to what Father has called
us to this summer, He remains ever faithful in showering us with His unfailing
love. Each of us would agree that Father is graciously allowing us to build
stronger, deeper relationships with our friends. Out of these deeper
relationships have come many great conversations (see some of the stories
below). As their semester comes to a close, most of our friends will be heading
home next week for the summer. In early July, we will be traveling to the
hometowns of some of our friends in the western part of the country and are
PRfully anticipating that we will get to see them there.
Today we got to do some sight seeing with the same friends that
took us a few weeks ago. They are going home on Friday so this was one of the
last times we will see them. Father has given us sweet friendships and a deep
love for these friends and we’ll be sad to see them leave. Please ask that
Father would use conversations we had with them to stir up doubts about their
current beliefs and get them thinking more deeply about the Good News. Also ask
that we would be able to see them in their hometowns in July.
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| Guys on the train! |
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| The girls eatin' a street food breakfast! |
Heather
Wow this week has been filled with a lot of sweet time with
friends. One specifically who we met the first week named Sharon went to lunch
with us 3 girls this week. There’s a game we play in the states where we ask
the person what their favorite color is and why, what their favorite animal is
and why, and what their favorite landscape is and why. The color answer
explains how they view themselves, the animal is what they look for in a spouse
and the landscape is how they view Father. When we asked her about her favorite
landscape her answer gave me chills. She said that her favorite landscape is
the ocean; although she had never been
there she had seen pictures of it and she thought is was very big and
beautiful. PR that we could be a picture of Father and that she would want to
experience Him for herself.
Shout-Outs- Mom and Dad I hope you had a great time
celebrating your 25th anniversary! I love you! Jackie, Kelsey, and
Rachel I love and miss you!
Maya
I got to spend some more time with Ziya this week, which
resulted in a deeper friendship and fun bonding times. One day, when her and I
went to lunch, we started chatting about what type of music we like and I told
her that I really enjoy the songs that I sing in CH. After lunch, while we were
getting some ice cream, she asked if I could suggest some songs for her to
listen to and when she asked, I thought, either
she forgot that I said I liked CH songs or she really is interested in hearing
more about Father. This thought struck me because Ziya has typically been
pretty closed off to things relating to the Good News, so I’m thankful that
Father has opened this door for me to share some CH songs with her. Please PR
that Father would help me choose songs to give her and that He would use them
to get her thinking about JC.
Shout-outs! Grandma, tell everyone (including little Sevy)
that I say hi! Mom, Dad, Ram- I PR for you guys every day! Love you all!
Gayle
This past week I have been able to spend a lot of time with
a friend I made two years ago who studied abroad last year, Talitha. She is the
smartest in her class and is graduating this year, I want so much for Father to
call her to him and heal her heart. It has been so great to reconnect with her
and just hang out with her. Last Thursday, I was able to share about PR and
what it meant to me and share truth about JC. Ask Father that we would be able
to spend more time and that language would not be a barrier to speaking about
SP things. Also, PR for our friends who we have been sharing truth with, as
they get ready to go back home this week!
Shout- outs: Jori, I had a dream with you and we held
hands…I think this means we need to start holding hands! Green Tribe: you have
been in our hearts and minds! HOT: continue to persevere this summer; I have
been lifting you guys up! Family- I love you!
Ryan
Hard to believe its already been three weeks, this week I
have been doing well, and it has been going awesome; I got the opportunity to
share my story of how Older Brother changed my life with one of my You friends.
His eyes widened as I told him about all the things I’ve done and the
rebellious lifestyle that I used to know, and still I was forgiven and saved
because of Older Brother’s love. But then as my story got closer to its end, my
friend put up a wall because of his beliefs as a cousin and the look on his
face that I remember from when I first became like-minded began to fade away.
Then we began to talk of the difference between like-minded people and cousins;
however we have been having more talks than just that one and I can see Father
working. Please PR that Father would grant me more opportunities to share with
this friend of mine, he is open to talking but please ask that it would go
deeper than that; that it would change him and that the words I say would not
be mine but Fathers.
Shout outs: Mom, Dad I love and miss you guys! HOT squad and
SWAT love all of you, and am in PR for you guys.
Brandon
Well this week has been amazing! We’ve had so many
opportunities to have great talks with a lot of our friends and seen a lot of
specific answers to pr-er. I had one chance to share the whole good news with
one friend who had never heard it before and we’ve been able to talk a lot
about JC. Thank you so much to everybody who has pr-ing because it’s so great
to know that many other people are asking for the same things as us and we can
definitely see how all the pr’s are being answered. This trip has definitely made me see the
importance of pr-er and changed how I view it completely. Well on the note of
pr and because that’s like all I’ve talked about, here is what you can ask
Father for: Ask that we will continue to have good conversations, that we will
speak with boldness, wisdom, and clarity, that our friends will see the truth
in what we say and continue to think about our conversations, and that our
friends will have dreams about what they are hearing.
Shout-out to Jameson, I love you, miss you, and am pr-ing
for man! Hope everything is great, and also the family, HOT team, and SWAT
team.
Logan
Things just keep getting better and better as the days go
by. We’ve seen so many more specific responses to PR it’s fantastic. For
example, we’ve been asking Father for deep, good news-centered conversations to
come up, and He’s certainly providing a lot of opportunities. As I was having
dinner with a friend, Eugene, we started the conversation about what we value
in life, which eventually led to deeper things and he admitted he was a “dead
man” in the Father’s eyes, which wasn’t easy to hear him say as he looked me in
the eye. Please, please continue to PR for us and our friends (such as Eugene),
and thanks for the faithfulness you’ve already shown in that area- it’s having
an impact! Love and miss you Dad, Mom, Grandma, HoT and SwAt.
Russ
Well exams are over for our friends! So they have a lot more
free time to hang out with us, which is coming at a great time. Over the last
couple days we have been asking Father to put the good news on our friends’
hearts, and now conversations have been effortlessly leading to the good news.
Recently we had some friends over to our apartment to play cards, eat food, and
play guitar. By some “coincidence”, one of them found our songbook and read the
first line in “Nothing but the Blood”. Father has been at work in our friends’
lives since we got here (and definitely before we got here). Please lift up our
friends and that what we have been sharing will weigh heavily on their hearts.
Miss you mom, dad and the rest of the family! Jori, thank
you for all your encouragement and support, miss you!
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| Drawing an audience while playing cards in a train station |
Thank you all for your continued PR. It is undoubtedly
having a great impact in our lives and the lives of our friends.
Until next week,
TEA
