The past few weeks, we have had the privilege of leading a girls bible study for the middle school and high school aged Karenni girls. They have never before had a specialized outreach to their age group, especially specifically the girls. Many only know the basics of Christianity and have had little to no discipleship. One of the concepts that we introduced to them was quiet time. They have never been taught about the benefits of doing a daily quiet time with God. The idea of a personal daily relationship with God was brand new to most.
We got the chance this past week to take the girls to the mountains. The goal was to have some fun with them, and also show them an example of what a quiet time looks like. Meeting on the side of the mountain, we opened the word, sat in silence, and prayed together. We hoped that being surrounded by the beautiful landscape showed them how God created everything, and even cares for the smallest leaves in the mountains.
We wanted them to walk away realizing how much God loves us, that even in the midst of caring for all of nature, He still takes the time to meet with each one of us personally, and desires time with us daily.
Pictures from that day:
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| Pretty sure they are part monkey. |
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| Breanna and I with Christina. |
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| Waterfall! |
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| Emma and Say Wah playing in the water. |
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| Christina is one of the leaders in the youth girls, and plays guitar for New Start. |
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| Say Wah was the only one who could stand right in the waterfall and still look this put together. |
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| True Karenni style: hiking barefoot and all. |
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| Shar Tway and Theh Mar Htoo taking a turn rowing on the lake! |
-The Nepalese families here were previously having to walk about an hour on Sunday mornings to go to church. We were praying for a closer church to open up for them to meet at. This week we found out that they can begin meeting at Calvary Baptist, which is only a 5-10 minute walk from their homes!
-We had a girl in the youth named Christina that spoke with us about maybe leading the Karenni girls in Bible study when we leave, and is also looking at mission work!
*Prayer Requests:
-Karenni VBS is this week, please pray that the kids would get a lot out of this week, and would see that God is a personal God who desires a relationship with each of them.
-Community Serve is this week, so we will be doing many things with New Start to reach out to the community through music, and volunteer work. Pray God's love and hope would be shown through the work done this week.
-Pray for leaders to step up in the Nepalese, and Karenni groups for the youth girls, boys, and the kids. Also pray for a pastor to be brought forward in the Nepalese group.
As always we greatly appreciate your prayers! Without God nothing is possible. On our own we would just be on a vacation out here, but He makes it a mission!