Hello!

I wanted to take a few minutes and update you on something really exciting that is happening in my city right now! Not only is it a first for the X, but it is a first for us as a group as well!

Starting this summer, three Asian friends started interning with us. Two of them are full time as they have already graduated, and one of them is part time as she is in her final year at school. This is big. It is the first time we have had Asian people partner with us in this way, and it is the first step in seeing this happen more and more as our family parties grow all over Asia.

Just some of the things that they are doing include:

  • Leading our biweekly church meetings (with help from us behind the scenes). We hope in the next year to completely phase ourselves out of working with the church meetings so that it can be completely run by Asian friends. Yay!
  • Sharing sharing sharing on the campuses
  • Leading training groups with friends who have joined the family
  • Teaching Asian to our first year workers

This past week they have had one of their first major leadership opportunities as they planned and organized a 24 hour prayer time and a 2 day trip to a nearby mountain during the current national holiday. The purpose of this trip was to bring friends who don’t know God so they can have the chance to hear about Him.
While it is really exciting to be a part of this, it has certainly presented its challenges along the way. From cultural barriers to young, inexperienced leaders, this process has been a learning activity for us as well in so many ways.

Please lift up our interns-J, D, and K. Ask that God would strengthen them, give them boldness, join them together in unity, and teach them more and more how to follow Him and serve others.

Please also be lifting up my team mates, Sonny and Autumn. They are directly responsible for leading our interns. Ask for wisdom and an extra dose of grace as they continue to walk this out.

In other news, life in the X continues at it’s busy pace. There is a fall nip in the air, praise the Lord as summer gives way to autumn!

Please be asking God for health for our team here. Several people have been knocked out by the flu (thankfully I have been spared-so far!). If you think having the flu is bad in the States, trust me, it’s worse over here, hahaha.

I will also be taking a week-long trip to our other CT cities from October 8-14 to encourage the teams there, and to help equip the leaders there to assess their language learning ability.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

Happy Fall!

McDoogle