Most of the team is back! The Central Asia trip is a two week trip where teams from different churches rotate in for a specific week. The majority of the team from our church just got back. They spent an amazing week seeing God work with one of our mission partners in Central Asia.
This is a unique trip for our church. The team is able to directly engage people from an unreached people group, having conversations and distributing digital Scripture and other resources. Many of the people the teams talk with have never heard the true gospel or had access to the Bible.
Given the nature of this trip, we are not able to share pictures of the people or places our team went. However, below are some stories team members (from our church and others) shared of how God has been working over the past week.
WHICH ONE OF US NEEDS JESUS?
“We were having a conversation with a large family and only one person could speak English. They were visiting different churches since they could not go into a church in their home country. We talked with them about how important a relationship with Jesus is and asked them to come back to a cafe to have a conversation about Jesus with someone who speaks their language. They were very excited about this and immediately began to walk towards the cafe. Once we were at the cafe we tried to say “goodbye” so we could go back out on the street, but the family was insistent that we stay with them. As the native speaker talked with them and explained to us what happened, we all began to laugh. They thought we were interested in hearing about Jesus and they were excited to take us to the cafe so we could hear the gospel!
God never wastes any opportunity though. While the family was at the cafe, the native speaker took this time to engage in some important discipleship. During this time, one of the family members realized they had not truly believed the gospel and professed faith for the first time. This family member who was saved likely would not have come to the cafe without this initial misunderstanding with our team.” God works in amazing ways!
SOVEREIGN OVER STORMS
“The first week had some bad weather that was hindering distribution. One day in particular was forecasted to have bad weather the entire time we were scheduled to be on the streets. We began to make alternative plans, but also prayed that God would use the weather for his glory. We sent teams out and waited for the bad weather to start. After an hour, I looked out the window and it was still clear, so we pulled up the radar online to see when it would start. As we watched the radar forecast play out the next several hours, we couldn’t help but sit in amazement and praise God. The bad weather had shifted and now wrapped around the city we are in, but did not come into the city until after we would end distribution.
Right there on the screen in front of us, we could see where God had told the storm, ‘This far and no farther.’ Sure enough, just as we were ready to start having teams come in for the night, the bad weather swept the city.” We know God is sovereign, but it never ceases to amaze us when we see him work!
COME AND SEE
“A team brought a man they met to come have a gospel conversation with a native speaker. As they walked through Scripture, looking at the gospel, the man professed faith. He told the native speaker his job is to drive people around from his country. He promised the native speaker he would bring others to hear this good news of Jesus Christ that he just believed in. The next night, he brought in three other men to hear the gospel. He sat at the table with the men as they spoke with the same native speaker and heard the gospel themselves. By the end of the night, each of these three men had professed faith!
Throughout the gospels, we see people who meet Jesus then immediately go out and tell others, ‘Come and see…’ This man lived out that same response. When he heard the amazing truth about Jesus Christ, he couldn’t keep it to himself but went out and brought others to hear it as well.” Oh that all believers would have this enthusiastic response to Jesus’ daily work in their lives and couldn’t help but regularly tell others in their life, “Come and see!”
PRAY FOR WEEK TWO
These are just a few of the multitude of stories from this past week. God is moving in a powerful way among this unreached people group. Please continue praying for the new teams here for week two.
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PRAY God will give the teams providential conversations where he is working out a plan larger than we can even see.
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PRAY God will hold bad weather at bay so the teams can engage in many conversations every day.
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PRAY God will use those who profess faith this week to go out and bring others to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.
THANK YOU!
Thank you for being willing to give and pray for missions at West Bradenton! You make trips and partnerships like this possible. This team did an awesome job, but there is still more to do. Join us!
