Nan Update – from her mom

Words from Nan….

I have finally been able to chat with Nan a bit yesterday and this morning via Facebook IM…praise the Lord for His Timing!!!!

Their internet has been down and have only had short periods of time with connection, so she apologizes for not being able to send an update recently.  She was actually at the Samaritan’s Purse office last night when we first talked and this morning was at a restaurant that amazingly had internet connection…SHOCKED ALL of them.  I was just grateful God gave us the short time He did.  I asked her quickly what she wanted me to share with others to be praying for…so will share them with you.

First, though, allow me to say again …how very blessed we are to have such loving and caring friends that support us greatly and are willing to stand in the gap for her and the team over there.  I can only praise God for your faithfulness. Thank you.

She had a praise from this past Monday night…they were awakened in the middle of the night to RAIN!!!!! They had to move thier beds inside, where it was very humid and a lot hotter but the next night was quite cool and they enjoyed it greatly. 

Her words: “IT WAS AMAZING!!!” 

Her health and Penny’s remains to be good, so continue praying for that healing.  They need strength and rest…please continue lifting them up in this area…that throught the heat of the day they will still be able to function and accomplish the task set before them.

Yet, at night pray that rest will come to their bodies and spirits and they will awaken each morning refreshed and ready to do His will. 

They are trying to get into every compound  to play the WORD with each one by way of radio or recording, I believe.  This is an EXTREMELY HUGE TASK…please pray that HIS WORD will not be stopped from going out.  Also, pray that God will open the ears and spiritual eyes of all that hear His Word and seeds will be planted, watered, and harvested.

Along that line…especially be in prayer for a group of girls that are called the “CREW”…they have been totally blinded by Islam.  And their eyes so desperately need to be opened.  I feel by the way she shared this…a change in these girls would make a GREAT impact on others…but that is ‘my interpretation’.

Continue also praying for the ladies that have been coming for Bible Study with them at their house.  Pray that they will continue growing with the Lord and the knowledge of Him. 

They will again be showing the Jesus film next week and asks for prayer greatly for that time.  She actually mentioned that to me on both times we talked.  Yesterday she just asked that we pray people would respond to the message told in this film.  I am not sure if all of you are familiar with this film but it shares the life of Jesus so vividly and the message is so clear of the way of salvation.

It is VERY POWERFUL…

Today she shared that they would be showing it on Sunday evening…which will be around noon for most of us…so as our services are ending on Sunday please be in prayer for an outpouring of His might work.  This showing will be in AK…a village nearby the one they are living in…and is without electricity…so let’s remember to pray for the generators to work properly!!!!

I sense though that this is not the only showing of the film next week, so stay in prayer and be sensitive to God’s nudges to lift them up in prayer…it could be another show time. You have to realize the enemy does not want this shared…and will fight it…so we need also to be willing to fight him through prayer…we are in a battle….May we all be found on guard and faithful in the battle.

In HIS precious love,
Vicki
(Nan’s & Ms. Jamie’s Mom & Bro. Mark’s mother-in-law)

April 24, 2009 | Categories: Nan | Tags: Nan | Leave A Comment »

Nan Upate – Answers and Blessings

What are we up to…

                Well last week I gave you a run down about what our weeks normally look like, so this week I just wanted to let you about a few exciting things that have happened this week and how He is answering prayer.

                We hadn’t seen the Believer Freda in about a week and a half, she’d been sick and we’d been busy at night and hadn’t been able to study. So Monday during our prayer time we decided to pray that God would have us cross paths that day and that we would once again be able to start disciplining her if it was His will. 3 hours later she was sitting in our house. Praise Him! She came by that night and we were able to have a great time in the Word, without any distractions or interruptions which is a miracle within itself that we also asked Him for. She also was able to come back the next night, when we felt led not to do the study we had prepared but to have her listen to Philippians 4 and talk about that, it’s so amazing to see her listen to the scriptures, understand them and repeat them back to you. We also memorized Psalm 119:105 in Zarma together. “Ni sanno ya fitilla no ay che se, kaari mo no ay fonda ra”

We’ve also had a lot of sickness in our village lately, the hotter it gets the more sickness there is. But one compound in particular right behind our house has experienced a lot lately. And through that God has been doing mighty things. It started with one girl one day telling us she had malaria she asked us for medicine we told her we didn’t have any but we’d pray for her and He  could heal her, so we did right there and when we finished she said “Is the Malaria gone?” and we said Yes.  Almost every time we’ve gone back into that compound that girl has asked us to pray for someone. Another lady was having a lot of back pain and was unable to walk for 3 days. So they sent a child from that compound to come get us to see her. We went and prayed for her, she really didn’t believe that it was enough so she went to the Doctor the next day but was feeling much better before she even left. This past week one of the other children in that compound came to our house and asked that we would pray for her because she felt really sick and she came back later that afternoon and said she felt fine. I know it doesn’t sound huge like some massive miracle or anything but God is touching their lives and opening their eyes. For them to come to our house and ask that we would pray to our God… that is huge. It is a miracle.  We’ve also seen many other sick while we visit out and about and have been praying for them that God would show them that he is the healer and open their eyes to the truth.

Another blessing and answer to our prayers have been with the weather. This makes me laugh a little J So April is hot season… but… every morning when we wake up we’re freezing… God is so good. It’s at least 80 or 85 degrees and I know that probably sounds hot but during the afternoon it gets up to 135 so 80 degrees is enough for me to really want a jacket and run in my house from my bed outside because it’s warmer in the house then outside.  None of the career missionaries and even Brandy and Kanesa can’t believe that it is this cold still, so thank you for your prayers! Please keep them up, we have been able to keep our schedule and even get in more time with the people then we had been because the weather has been so nice. Also when we talked to the people about the weather they can’t believe it, we tell them that we’ve been praying that it would stay cooler so hot season wouldn’t be so hard on everybody and the fact that God is answering that prayer is a huge testimony to his greatness.

What we have been learning…

                These past couple weeks God has been really teaching Penny and I a lot about Love. 1 Corinthians 13:3 says “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to burned but have not love, it profits me nothing.” Every day we face tough situations with the people, helping those who are sick, wounded and hurting in more ways than one. And we do what we can but do we love them? Do we act out of duty, out of what we know we should do or is it from the overflow of what God has given us that we love the masses for His sake that they might know the love of the Father as we know it. We are the Light in the Lord (Eph 5:8) and are called to be imitators of God, walking in love, as Christ also has loved us and gave himself for us. (Eph 5:1-2) He gladly gave himself away for us, who for the Joy set before him endured the cross (Heb. 12:2) for our salvation. Our aim is to be able to say like Paul “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls…”(2 Cor. 12:15) Something that God showed me this week, that I began to pray over us is in  Ephesians 3:16b-19 “…to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you , being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Once we start to comprehend the greatness of God’s love how could we doing anything else but give it away? 1 John 3:1 says “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” When I begin to think about that especially with this holiday coming I think about all the things that I have done that should disqualify me from being a child of God, truly His grace and love are uncomprehendable. And all people are the same, without His sacrifice we are all in the same predicatament; we cannot with hold that which we have been given from those who have not yet seen the truth. I pray that even where you are, you would begin to give freely away what you have been freely given and not out of duty because you know it’s what you should do but because you’re overwhelmed by the love that has been most graciously given to you that you would seek in every opportunity to give it away. Sometimes when I think about the Armor of God in Ephesians 6 I think about what Paul might have meant by the “helmet of salvation” A helmet covers your head and completely surrounds your mind, should our thoughts be completely captivated with the grace and love of God that has given us our salvation? And if it were would we ever lose sight of trying to reach those around us and share the love that we have been given? I think it would ignite an indistinguishable flame within us to reach the world. 

                As we seek every day to be led by the Spirit, that we may find what it is He would have us do, we’ve been learning in the scriptures that we find and can approve what the will of God is when we are renewed in our minds (Rom. 12:2) taking on the mind of Christ,(Gal. 3:27) beginning to see everything from His point of view, to love like He loves us(Eph. 5:2), to wage war in the Spirit and not in the flesh(2 Cor 10:4-5), to set our minds on things above and not on things below(Col. 3:2); that are temporary when what we live for is eternal. (2Cor 4:18) When we remember that we were once in darkness but are now in the light and should walk in the light for it is there where the fruit of the Spirit- goodness, righteousness and truth are, that we find what is acceptable to God (Eph 5:8-10) That when we abound with love more and more in knowledge and discernment we can approve the things that are excellent, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Christ for the Glory of God (Phil 1:9-11)

I ask that you would pray that we would hide these things in our hearts that would never cease to remember where we can from, what He has delivered us from and that now we are called to be the light and to walk in it. That we would not sit still but we would move in love for all people at all times because of the love that He has given us. That God would continually open our eyes to the truth in His word and give us the knowledge, discernment and will to live it out in our daily lives. This week coming up marks that we have 5 weeks left in our village. Please pray that we move in knowledge, discernment and that He would make our work effective as we seek to pour as much as we can into the little time that we have left.

You know you’re a Bush kid when…

-          You know you’re a Bush kid when you’re trying to figure out how much soap cost so your friend pulls off her flip flop and does the math on the heel of her shoe.

-          You know you’re a Bush kid when you make microwave dinners in a skillet.

-          You know you’re a Bush kid when your friends invite you to go see a movie at their compound and you go and you sit on mats, surrounded by children under a full moon and watch an Asian film dubbed in French.

-          You know you’re a Bush kid when you go to the well and a lady is having trouble with her goat so she hands you the baby goat to hold while she gets the mama.

 

Lift it up, Lift it up, Lift it up

-          For the Team- That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of understanding to be enlightened, that we may know what is the hope of His calling. (Eph1:17-18)

-          The new believers – Freda & Meg and our studies with them and the others that come. Pray against distractions and interruptions and that the people that the enemy would try to bring in to disturb or hinder the study would be stopped.

-          Kids Clubs- that Penny would continually be blessed with knowledge of the language so she can tell the stories and confidence to boldly proclaim the truth. That the children would have open and receiving hearts to understand the Word as well.

-          The hearts of those we’re working with- Boaz, Barnabas, Rachel, Rebecca, Alec, Moe, Anna & Zoe. And all who hear the Word. (Mark 4.)

-          We have a new group of ladies that seem to be very interested in hearing the gospel, one lady in particular- Vicky. These ladies are the ones that live in the compound behind us that have been experiencing all the sickness. As they hear the Word, please pray for them that He would continue to do great things among them showing them the truth and the light that they might turn to Him.

-          We’ve had a lot of encounters with people this week asking about why we don’t do certain things that they do and they don’t understand the difference in between what it is that we follow and what they follow. PLEASE pray that we would have wisdom in what to respond with and that their eyes would be open to the truth, that they would no longer be bound but be able to see and understand clearly and chose to follow the Way.

-          - The Monday Village that we visit, that the people’s hearts there would begin to be changed by the word. We were unable to show the Jesus film this week because the generator wasn’t working and they don’t have any electricity. It has now been fixed so please pray that sometime this week He would open a door that we might be able to show it.  

-          Brandy is coming back from her trip on Friday, please pray that she will have safe flights and make it in on time.

-          Kanesa is leaving on Sunday night, please pray for traveling mercies and that this time will be relaxing and restoring for her.

-          For Boldness – to speak up and step out in faith in trying situations.

-          For Strength- Spiritually (as we face many trying and refining days) Physically (as It gets hotter and our tasks get more difficult to accomplish) Mentally and Emotionally ( as it gets closer to the end of our time that we would stay focused on the mission)

-          Continual unity for the Team..

I hope this letter has been encouraging as you see the things that He is doing and know that your prayers and being answered. Please stay faithful in prayer we only have a little bit left but in this time we are asking Him to do above and beyond all that we could think, ask, or even imagine. We love you and can’t express how much we appreciate you and encouraged by you daily just knowing that you are there praying for us. We pray that He is blessing you and growing you and increasing your opportunities daily to infect the world around you with the Truth. Be blessed.

Grace and Peace,

Nan

April 11, 2009 | Categories: Nan | Tags: Nan | Leave A Comment »