Brethren, pray for us!

We are rejoicing for a good Lord’s day today and ask that you pray diligently for us and the ministry here.

A self-professed non-believing Filipino lady came to church today. A Christian friend who lives overseas somewhere found our church on the internet and encouraged her to visit. She called in advance and said she would be coming to visit and was hoping to also find another Filipino to befriend her. God is looking after this lady, and we do indeed have another Filipino lady in the congregation. The visitor said she previously spent 20 years in Hare Krishna religious practice but is no longer involved with that group. She is searching for truth and said she has lots of questions. She readily agreed to meet with us for a regular Bible study. Please pray for us to have wisdom in directing her to biblical answers to her questions. There is also a 17 year-old daughter whom the mother identified as “another lost soul.”

We are reminded of Paul’s writing to the church at Corinth with the words, “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.” (I Cor. 3:6-7) We are so thankful to have the opportunity to share in the care for this lady’s soul!

The various cultures and native languages of the people in the church family continue to be a significant challenge. As part of our attempts to get to know the church people attending church and build a sense of family among them, this weekend we invited everyone to our house for an evening of fellowship. We managed to play Guesstures (game where you act out a word without speaking to your team), with the added requirement of drawing pictures of the words for our Mandarin-speaking people to participate. The game was successful in joining everyone in an activity, but it felt more like work than a game! We need to purchase a Chinese-English dictionary to aid in communication, and we need wisdom and guidance from the Lord to help these people to grow in their love and care for each other.

Scott has focused his initial teaching and preaching on the church from a biblical basis…what the church is for, role models in the New Testament, etc. as well as the topic of the Bible itself…it’s sufficiency, authority, etc. Please pray for Scott to have wisdom as he studies and seeks direction from the Lord on what to feed this congregation made largely of babes in Christ.

We continue to attempt to unpack boxes and are once again amazed at the bountiful material blessings God has bestowed upon us. Having lived over two years without the majority of our earthly goods, we have become less attached to them. Many of the church people are not as materially blessed as our family, and we have decided to pick something from our home to give each person/family when we visit them in the coming months. We tell you this not to impress you, by any means, but to share a part of our own spiritual journey that it may encourage you in yours. It is always fun to stop and see where we have grown ourselves in our spiritual walk on this earth. We are just so delighted to be serving the Lord here. We are so thankful for His goodness to us in spite of ourselves. Please pray that we will keep our hearts attuned to Him.

Serving joyfully in New Zealand,
Scott, Lori, Heidi and Daniel