marked as with Christ

It still makes me gasp to remember this evening last week.... That I could be there for this... knelt down in the bathroom with four other women present to hear this new sister profess in Uyghur "Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior from God, and I will follow Him."  She was baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

We had prayed for her just before she went into the water...  and I cried as I stumbled through three languages in prayer:  "We're not surrounding her with our support and our joy because we believe that her life will be marked with ease and comfort now that she's following you.  We believe what your Word says, that she will be persecuted and that you will be with her on that day, giving her wisdom and the words to say, being her rock to protect and defend her.  We praise you God that you will not let her go, that she is safe because she is yours.  And you are eternally worthy of all the suffering she might endure for your name.  Keep her in You God.  Make her faithful and give her the grace to stay, to stand firm in you til the end."

And now she's leaving town... heading back to her family, back to the province where she's not ready to dare bring a Bible into her father's home.  But she's got it on an encrypted drive on her computer and she'll be able to read and pray through the Word.

Would you ask that the Father would give her wisdom for how, when, if to connect with a few other Uyghur believers in that city?  Pray that she would be given wisdom, maturity, courage and strength as she begins her first days apart from the missionary community through whom she's come to Christ.  Pray that the Lord would make her a bold ambassador of His name to her people.  Pray for her protection and that she would be given wisdom to evade her family's strong pressure to yield to their plans for her to have a muslim husband.  Pray for her to continue to grow in His grace and bear much fruit for his glory.

And friends.... dance with joy with us that the Lord would so kindly afford us this high privilege...  that seems to be the first that our eyes have seen of many lambs ahead, to come into the True Shepherd's fold.

We Rejoice!