What a gift from God to be in the Middle East! We landed sick and exhausted but have now, thankfully, for the most part, healed up and are sleeping when we should. Our time so far has been really rich. We have visited most of the believers in this city that we connected with before we left and are excited to get to serve them again. I recently had an opportunity to teach out of 1 John to several locals and share about Christ as the only way to know God. It went well and I pray the Lord produces fruit from the time. We are learning how to share the simple truth of the Gospel and focus on the primary foundations of the Christian faith.
Earlier this week I was talking with one of the believers here who told me how much he wanted to be a better person so that God would use Him more. I told him, “Of course we need to strive to be better and flee from all sin, but God will not use you more because you’re a better person. He will use you because of what He accomplished in His life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. It is not your obedience that will bring more of God or allow God to use you more… it is the work He accomplished on your behalf, Christ’s atonement and redemptive work that enables you to stop sinning.” It was short and simple yet he was shocked. Coming from America it continues to amaze me how little the people here have been discipled. Please pray that God’s Word would produce Christ-like image bearers throughout this land.
God has been so faithful to us as a family and we have so much to be thankful for. I, personally, have had a massive breakthrough with language learning! Language has always been my “thorn in the side”. These past few weeks we have been looking thru our various language-learning options. We knew of a really good private teacher and we knew of a few local language schools in the area. The only problem with both those option: few hours and really expensive. As we prayed thru options we felt the Lord leading us to wait. A few days later I told my neighbors about our language class searching and they offered to teach me! I have now begun classes with them 5 days a week for 5 hours a day and it has been absolutely incredible. They only speak this language so it forces me to speak and learn like a child. They have taken me around town, introducing me as a “priest” to people. One huge guy put his hand on my shoulder and started to ask questions. I told him that his bulging muscles were making me nervous… he laughed and then my neighbors backed me up and talked about how excited they were that we were here doing what we’re doing. The Lord is always leading us, on the seen roads and the unseen roads!
We are also excited to announce that, thanks to you, we will be getting a car on Monday. Many of you asked if there was anything practical that we needed and a car was on the top of the list. All three of us ride on our scooter long distances on bumpy roads and often in the rain. There are also many times I have to be somewhere and my wife gets stranded at home. Getting a car will open a lot of possibilities to connect with more people, go more places, and have a happy wife (just kidding). Thank you to everyone who gave so generously to make that a reality. We are so richly blessed by you and, as we have said many times, could not be serving the way we are without you! Please continue to pray for us and for the work God has called us to accomplish, as we continue to pray for you. We love you all dearly!