- 2:48pm Sunday – The young church leader led Clive and I through the university and then down countless twists and turns of a narrow alleyway in the back of the campus. We ducked through a cement doorway and climbed up several flights of stairs. Then she fished in her pocket and pulled out a key. She opened the door to a partially finished apartment, and I looked around as proud as a Papa. Today was the first day this young church would have their own church building. Started several years ago by CTers but now led by Asian young adults, the church had pooled their resources and rented this apartment to serve as their first dedicated location to reach this campus and their city.
- 5:12pm – As the first service in their new location came to an end, a young man who came to church for the first time in several years rededicated his life to follow Christ. There was much rejoicing!
- 10:37pm – Clive and I disembarked from a 1-hour train ride to meet my friend Joe. We had the privilege of leading him to Christ 5 years ago, but soon after, my wife and I moved back to the States. As we reconnected, I heard of how he had continued to chase after Christ and was now feeling God was calling him to full-time ministry.
- 1:15am Monday – I told Joe about my meeting in the morning with a pastor I had never met before, to talk about the idea of training his leaders to reach their local university students for Christ. I found out Joe had started going to this very pastor’s church 6 months earlier. I knew 1 person in this city of 10 million people, and he went to this small church! What are the odds of that, like 1-in-200,000!
- 10:23am – With Joe’s introduction, God opened the door for us to minister to the leaders of this awesome young church and set the framework to equip them to reach their campus for Christ!
- 4:59pm – In the last 2 hours before we had to run to the airport, I met up with another friend from my very first year in Asia. At that time, because of his poor English and my non-existent Asian language skills, I had never had the chance to share Christ with him. As we sat in KFC, he shared with me the heart-breaking story of the stillborn baby they had lost a year earlier. After hurting together over his loss, I shared with him in his language the hope and love I’d found in Christ. Right there over fried chicken, he decided to follow Jesus.
It is such a delight to serve Jesus and ride shotgun while He does incredible things. 🙂
Prayer Requests:
- On January 23-26, over 20 of our key disciples will be gathering from 4 cities in Asia for a special retreat on how to pursue the call of God on their lives. I have already heard that God has been speaking to at least 5 of those attending that God is calling them into missions or full-time ministry. I believe that our first significant Asian ministry partners will come from this retreat. Please pray for protection from anything the enemy will do to keep people from coming to the retreat. Please pray for protection from any security issues as we do this bigger event. And please ask God to call some to partner with us full-time in sharing the gospel here in Asia.
- Immediately after this retreat, our entire team in Asia will travel out to Thailand for a special time of refreshing, planning, and training. Please pray for God to move powerfully among us during this time.
- Please pray against spiritual attack on our young disciples. There has been an onslaught in our city of attack in many different areas of their life, faith, and family. Pray for God’s protection and the strength to persevere. Pray specifically for Chloe, Kristine, Jack, Lynne, Grace, Catherine, Bruce, Ark, James, Jason, Leo, King, Xie, and LiLi.
Thank you so much for standing with us in prayer! That is what makes 26 hours like that happen.
Sonny and Cher