Peace and greetings! Another week has passed and I am here to tell all of you a little more of what has been going on.
This week we had lectures on evangelism, giving testimonies and the honor & shame culture throughout Asia. It was really great to be encouraged in how to share the gospel and our own stories of how Christ has walked with us through life. We were prayed for by the staff and God spoke to each of us!
Honor and Shame is a cultural concept most widely seen in the 10-40 window. The characteristics is that anything that brings shame on the family is shunned. People are often rejected by their families because of their deeds and on the rare occasions of a person returning back to their family afterwards, the deed is ignored as if nothing ever happened. However, because of the shame, most people never return home again. They feel the shame deeply, not only against their families, but as their own guilt and shame. The honor part of society is closely guarded during the growing up years. Academic intelligence brings honor, since you will then be awarded the opportunity to go to university, which will then lead to a good job, resulting in you being able to provide for your family, since that is your responsibility as soon as you are old enough to get a job. We learned that using the Prodigal Son story in the New Testament is one of the best ways to present the gospel to cultures like this, because it shows how God covers our shame with His own honor. They are beautiful cultures and it was a blessing to learn how to identify with them in a way we all could understand!
Now for the outreach! We had our first outreach as a Discipleship Training School team this past Friday, at Temple Street Market. It was a street ministry, meaning that we brought our sound equipment and set up. We did an island dance, a drama, combined with powerful testimonies and the gospel that has the power to change our lives of we let it. Afterwards, we all would go out into the crowd that had gathered and just share about the love of God. I had the pleasure of speaking with several ladies. He led two women from Malaysia, who are Roman Catholic, to come speak with me about what we were doing there on Temple Street. I shared with them my own testimony, story, of how I came to have a relationship with God and how much He loves each of us. It seemed to visibly encourage the women, who asked for a picture with me and thanked me for sharing. I asked to pray for the English speaking Malaysian, Bernadette, who asked for happiness and prayer for family. Her sister, Elisabeth, who did not speak very much English, used Bernadette as a translator to ask if I would pray for her and several of her children who refused to go to church/acknowledge God in their lives. I prayed with them and said goodbye, hoping that they would come to a deeper revelation of who God wants to be in their lives. Soon after that, I had the chance to speak with two young women from the Philippines, Esther and Vergie. Vergie seemed more open to hearing about the Fathers heart for her, but both were close to tears. Unfortunately, neither agreed to accept salvation but did allow me to pray for them before they had to catch a bus. Overall, many people heard the gospel, many were prayed for, and there was a couple salvations that night throughout the team! God truly moved and opened hearts to hear the message. The location has many people of Nepali, Muslim and Hindi backgrounds, so the fact so many were willing to stop and listen was a blessing and miracle. Sweet people and awesome ministry time!
So, this coming week we have a guest speaker, Bill Payne, who will be speaking on the Character of God. Also, Wednesday will begin our team doing outreaches with local ministries. We have food distribution, Shanti (tutoring with ethnic minority children, and the mentally disabled), community connections (outreaches into our village, visitation and helping with a farm) and Chung King Mansion (red light district outreach to prostitutes). This week I will be at Chung King Mansion with a couple of the other girls from the Discipleship Training School and staff. We will just share love with the girls and minister to them as much as we can!
Prayer requests:
The health of our base has been getting better, praise God! Keep praying!
Unity
Blessing on all of the outreach locations
Salvation for those who heard the message at Temple Street
Strength for the new Christians
Anointing and understanding on the lectures this week
God's presence and speaking to each of us
Much love to you all, until next week! As always, would love to hear from any of you, whether questions, encouragement, prayer, or support. My address is on a previous post for those of you who wish to send me a post card or anything! Blessings!
~*~Leave a Legacy that will Make a Difference in the World Around You.~*~
