Conviction in the night

This week we had the privilege of meeting with a short-term team from Ohio that spent the week staying in villages that our team had recently visited. At the beginning of the week they had the opportunity to go to T village, which is where my team first met with a man named H.

While we were in T village, we shared with H for several hours and he even invited us to come to his house the next day. After presenting the Gospel to him, we quickly learned that he had never heard about Jesus before. He said that it was “a very beautiful story.” After hearing each Bible story, he was asking us to teach him more about our Holy book. He seemed so incredibly receptive to the Gospel, however we were unable to spend much more time with him due to extenuating circumstances.

When we left the village, we hoped that we could see him once more before we left Southeast Asia so that we could share more with him and see where he was spiritually. Unfortunately, we were unable to see him again. However, the Ohio team just so happened to run into him on one of their last days in T village.

H is a very hospitable guy so after their first encounter, he invited them into his home for tea and coffee. While they were spending time together, the Ohio team was granted the opportunity to share the story of Jesus with him once more. After hearing all of the Bible stories he told them, “I had a group of guys tell me about the same message just a few weeks ago. I have been restless every night since they shared about Christ with me.”

Every single night H has been meditating on what we shared with him. The Lord has been working in his heart and we expect God to do amazing things in him. We must remember to continue to be obedient to the Lord and his commandments. Our obedience to the Lord, or lack thereof, could affect the eternal destination of those that we come in contact with. We must be intentional with everything that we say and do, because we may never know how our actions will affect those around us.

My prayer is that the Lord continues to work in the heart of H, and that H will recognize his need for God. Please continue to lift him up in prayer so that he will hear the call of the Lord and hopefully one day choose to follow him.

          

-Caleb W.

God's work coming full circle

During the summer of 2016, I traveled to Southeast Asia for my first overseas mission trip. It was a great experience filled with many stories of how God demonstrated his power and presence while we shared His Good News. When I arrived back in America, I told about all that I had seen God do in our short time in SEA. Though we saw many amazing works by God during our very short trip, this week I finally realized the extent to which God used my team and me.   

Last summer, we stayed in L village for a few days. During our stay in this village, we went around sharing the Gospel and praying for all those who were ill or oppressed. On one of the last days in this village, me and a couple of guys came across a young man who had been plagued by a blood disease for many years. We expressed our sorrow for his situation and asked, “if we could pray for him in the name of Jesus?”  He welcomed our prayers and then we visited with him for a short time before we went on our way.  We left the village very shortly afterwards and never saw or heard from this young man again.

This summer, my team and I returned to this village but we never saw this young man during the whole week we were in L village. This past week, a short-term team from Ohio visited L village and did similar things as my team did this summer and summer. During their visit this past week, they came across this young man and he told them about how a group of guys had prayed for him last summer, and how the next day he was completely healed. He never experienced anymore symptoms from that particular disease from that point on.  When I heard this news, my team and I could only praise the Lord with the Ohio team and our M.  God is alive and active!

This miracle has demonstrated to me that God is always at work, even if we do not see the result of our work immediately!  Trust Him and remain obedient!

                                                                                                                   

-    -Aaron G.

Overcoming Struggles

Man, this is it. We have made it to the end of our journey and we are so blessed that God gave us this opportunity to be here. However, we wanted to go back to the first village that we visited at the beginning of the trip. 

We went back to G village this past week and reconnected with all our friends we made earlier in the summer. It was a great time seeing all our friends we made and saw how much they'd change since we left last time. 

From our last time there, on the second to last day before we left, we met this guy named B. He loved hanging out with us and he wanted us to come back the next time we come to the village. So, when we came back, we reconnected with him. He was excited for us to be there. We hung out the whole time there, but God was with us and him one of our nights together. We were hanging out in the bungalow where we were staying & our translator told us that B was starting to reveal some things in life that he was struggling with. Turns out, B has been struggling with homosexuality for almost over a decade now and has always wanted to change, but couldn’t because his flesh said one thing. It got to the point where he wasn’t interested looking at girls anymore. We knew the enemy had a stronghold in his life, and he knew that was a sin before God. 

From that, we got to share the gospel with him and show him what God says in the Bible about homosexuality. We asked him if we could pray in the name of Jesus for him... that God will convict his heart for what he's doing is wrong and help him realize that there is power in the name of Jesus. We also prayed that the Holy Spirit may dwell within him and help him see that he needs a Savior in his life. 

As we were praying, he started breaking down in tears knowing that he is a sinner and wanted to change so badly that it hurts in his heart. Our friend A was there & came over and prayed with us. He was also in tears because he was praying for his friend who he knew that he has struggled with. We told him that if you pray in the name of Jesus, He can make it happen if you truly believe that he is God of this universe. He agreed and didn’t make a decision at the moment, but we have confidence that the Holy Spirit is convicting his heart right now. 

After praying, we told him that we will be continue praying for him and we would love to pray for him before we leave, so he can have the strength to move on forward. It broke our hearts how much he was hurting, but we still loved him so much that the stuff doesn’t bother us at all. We need to love all people like God did when he went up on that cross to die for our sins. 

Pray for B that God will give him the strength to overcome his struggles, and pray for the whole village of G that God will start to dwell on that place by revealing His Holy Spirit through the people there.

-Johann M.