A time to share...
Dear Friends and family,
You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.
I am so excited to share with you the joys of our labor during our summer season. Can you believe that I have already been here 8 months and just around the corner we will embark on our largest outreach of the whole year, English Camps? But the work started long ago and God has been active in the preparations!
On June 10th, a beautiful team of 12 high school students and five youth leaders from Scottsdale Bible Church arrived;during their time here they played five major rolls. The first being a work team:
They chopped wood for the winter, cut the grass, sanded and stained our playground, and stained the wood for our beautiful new fence!
Another big role they had was visiting the local schools:
They went into the English class, made connections with the kids and also told them about the Agape House ministries and our upcoming English Camps. It was not only a big help in advertising, but also helped build respect and trust for the ministry in this community.
The third major role was Community Outreach:
Every afternoon we went to the poorer part of town that is populated primarily with Roma (gypsies) It was the first time in this town that this kind of outreach was ever done. On the first day we just showed up and started looking for kids, telling them to come and play games with a bunch of Americans; there were about 15 kids that day. On the 2nd day at least 40 children were waiting for us to show up and 20 to 30 more came once they heard what we were doing,every day after that was packed! This is actually the neighborhood where Chello lives, so now when I am there I stop and talk to the kids and keep inviting them to camps and Agape House events;it has really opened up a door for me.
Every evening we would open the teahouse and invite people to come and just hang out. I was so grateful for our new space, because this team attracted A LOT of students to come, many new faces showed up at Agape House and some are still coming. Praise God for the work He is doing here, AMEN!
And lastly, they were a rich blessing for Chello and I. We fell deeply in love with this team and working beside them was effortless; God instantly united us and we served as one. When we were on the bus taking the team to Budapest to say good bye they wrote Chello and I the most beautiful and encouraging letters… we still like to pull them out and read them from time to time. And after the hardships we have been facing in the ministry here it meant more than words can say to have so many brothers and sisters ready to serve, encourage and just love us as we needed.
Prayer request
That the Lord will lead my steps and I will let Him
I can see that God is working in the church, but I can also see that a lot of our problems are issues of the heart. I know we will not heal or really move forward until hearts are changed by the only One with the power to do so. Please pray for God’s healing of hearts.
July 18th English Camps start! That only gives us a few weeks left for preparations. Pray for Noah and I as we work out all the details on this end and for the Grace Community Church team as they get ready on their end.
Once again thank you all for your prayers and encouragement. It really does take the prayers of many to keep any ministry healthy and growing. So I thank you all for having a hand in this ministry with me. You are a blessing!
Comments