Visas are in... we're heading back!

Thank you for praying with us for our visas to enter and be in the country. We have received our passports back with 1 year visas for each of us.... but we will have to leave the country every 90 days in order for our visas to be valid. We can trust that God will use this too for his glory. It sounds really hard to my mother's heart now, but He will see us through.

As we head back, our major prayer requests are:

1) a home prepared for us in the new city. Location (near like-minded friends to work with and near the people we want to reach), size, good landlords, and cost of rent are some of the key features...

2) a helper prepared for us. We've been put in contact with a friend there who knows of believing ladies who need work and we are trusting the Lord to provide a helper who will be a good language partner and helper in the home so that we can maximize our time and our home for hospitality and evangelism.

3)a good school and local friends nearby for our kids. (Our big kids haven't spoken that language the whole time we've been in the states and we are eager to see them get back in the swing with it... a fun play environment at morning preschool and good friends to play with would be the perfect motivation for them to tune their ears and tongues back into that language again.)

4) language- for all of us! The two of us wanted to spend more time reviewing our lessons while we were in the states, but... when we get back there we'll all need some refreshers!!! The two of us will begin studying the second language we need once we get settled.

our brother A: just sentenced to 15 years

Friends, this is news we wish we never had to share with you. Gross injustice. But it is also exactly what Jesus said would happen, and what he promised would end in blessing for his own: Matthew 5:10-12.

A. received 15 years imprisonment for allegedly "providing state secrets to overseas organizations." Honestly though, a clearer understanding of the situation is gained by knowing that this country very often accuses minorities of "espionage" or of serving as a liaison to foreign governments when the real thing that happened was more related to religious freedom issues... i.e. sharing Christ with others.

A. was held for over two years without a verdict. He was first formally detained and charged on "suspicions of harming national security." The charges were then changed to "suspicion of instigating separatism and providing national secrets or intelligence to overseas organizations or individuals". He was tried secretly on these new charges. The case was then sent back for retrial. He was tried secretly again on July 28 with the first charge dropped.

Ethnic minority and Christian convert "A." helped pastor a house church in Xinjiang with his wife G. and two sons.

"The 15-year sentence is far more severe than I originally expected. It is the maximum penalty for this charge of "divulging state secrets," which requires Alimujiang's actions to be defined as have "caused irreparable national grave damage. This is the harshest sentence against house church believers in nearly a decade, " said ChinaAid President Bob Fu.

Some friends of Prayer Fuel's who are close friends of A. wrote, "We know that Alim is innocent of all these charges and this is a travesty of justice. Please be praying for our dear brother and his family."

You can learn more about this dear brother's case at www.chinaaid.org .

Our brothers in prison

Rejoice in the Lord that our brother O has been released! Pray that God would protect him and his family now, provide for them, and keep their faith strong and use them to spread the Good News of Christ to others around them.

Rejoice also that A's mother has come to Christ in the past few months. Pray that she would be strengthened by the Word and in fellowship with other Christians.

Ask for continued grace for A in prison- that the Lord would use him to proclaim the mysteries of Christ. Pray for special grace to comfort and encourage him in the bitterness of winter there while there is no heat in the jail.