approaching....

I'm sad to see how long it's been since I've updated here....  thank you still for persevering in prayer for the U people by praying Scripture and using the prayer guides linked to in the sidebar.  I'm hoping to update those pages too, sometime soon!

You've probably seen in our email updates that we've connected with some good groups on the ground.  We're grateful for the friends we practice with on Saturday mornings, kids our kids can play with, and parents for us to connect with.  These families, and neighbor families, and our language tutors are the main groups we are praying to be able to move forward in relationship with...

When we came to this country, mis.n.s leadership talked mostly about "friendship evangelism".  In more recent years, we are hearing more abut "rapid chu ch planting"..... and frankly, we see some serious weakness/limitations to both of these approaches.  We know that hearts set on the Lord can be used even when we're using faulty methods, but we eagerly desire to please the Lord, leaning on and submitting to the Word of God, in how we go about proclaiming his grace among this dear people.  Would you please pray that the Lord would give us wisdom and a settled peace with His guidance for us, as we seek to develop real, serving friendships and present not just "seeds" of the Gospel, but present the Word of God itself, invite people into opportunities to engage with the Word of God....  that's where the Lord most powerfully speaks and we want to see Him use His Word to draw people to Himself!

We are also approaching a short, different season....   the transition for our family in the nearly three months ahead, will be many and tiring and no doubt, full of joy too.  Would you ask that the Lord would give our kids especially, His peace, for this fast moving time?  And ask too, that He would use us to equip and encourage His church to a brighter, hotter flame for mis.sns, worship, and prayer.  

And lastly, we ask that you'd pray with us for several marriages around us.  Honestly, every single local, believing marriage that we know is strained... some quite seriously.    That's not even to speak of marriages of not-yet-believing friends!  May the Lord come gently and bring repentance, healing and peace to these relationships, showing His glory in and through His people's brokenness.