Southeast Asia Dec 2013-Jan 2014 Journey
Day 1 & 2 - travel days.
Day 3 - this was quite a first day in this Capitol
city! We met with university students
during the day as well as in the evening at a local coffee house. A pastor from another city came in to meet
with us about possibly serving with one of our fellowships.
It was a great day with many significant conversations,
especially between our students and the students from some of the local
universities. We then departed on an
overnight train to a location in the north to connect with our adopted,
unreached people group (UPG).
There were 4 beds in each cabin and there were 7 on our
team. As only God could orchestrate, we
met a young lady who was extremely excited to meet us and invited us to visit
her home on the way back to the Capitol.
Day 4 - we arrived around 6 a.m. and then departed to a
location even more north. It was misty
and cold when we arrived and of course the hotel had no heat.
Our interpreter/guide met us to schedule our activities
for the 3 days and 2 nights. It is
always imperative that we incorporate some sightseeing into our schedule to
justify our tourist status. Our team was
able to see some of the sights in this resort town and reconnected with a
family that owns a local restaurant.
Hopefully this will be a ministry point in the future.
Day 5 - our guide led the team on a several hour
backpacking walk to the village where we would stay with our family of peace
for two days. It was great to see the
family again and continue to build on the relationships already started.
Some of the team visited with other family members who
lived nearby. The families are all so
hospitable and we had more green tea than we can remember.
This was already a full day but we were invited to visit
some families higher up on the mountain.
We just didn't realize how much farther on the mountain they lived! It seemed as though we hiked miles straight
up, on narrow and muddy trails, before we arrived at the homes of the
villagers.
The mood was fairly somber because of the death of a 13
year-old boy who was bitten by a wild dog.
We were able to pray over this Christian family (from a different tribe)
and offer our condolences. The dog had
bitten all five members of the family and they needed medical attention. Our team decided to join together to offer a
hand of mercy in providing the money to help them receive the medical care they
needed.
Day 6 - this day was planned to spend as much time with
the family with whom we were staying.
Our one team member, who spoke the language, engaged many of the family
members in spiritual conversations and read to them from the Bible in their
language.
Next we visited with the family of the young lady who we
met on the train. Her parents prepared a
feast for the family and were most gracious hosts. The young lady, indicated she had a friend
who was a Christian, and wanted to know about Jesus. We promised to connect her with Americans, in
the city in which she worked, who could talk with her more about Jesus. We also promised to provide her a Bible for
when she returned home.
Finally it was time for a return, overnight train ride
back to our initial location.
Day 7 - this was another busy day where we spent time
with students (who served as tour guides) that we had met the day before. Again, there were great conversations and our
students have fallen in love with these open and engaging young people.
We also spent time talking with and encouraging a young
couple and a woman who are serving as missionaries in this city. It is always exciting to hear how God is
working in the lives of the people from this country.
In the evening we gathered with many university students
for another coffee house meeting. We had
some new students join us and one of our students gave her compelling
testimony. I believe it was very
appropriate to the lives of many of the local students and requests were made
to make time for follow up conversations.
Day 8 - off for another early, 2-hour trip to another
city to join in a day of worship and fellowship with a local house church. It was great to visit with this pastor and
his congregation after a couple of years away.
There were 8 who came forward and we had the joy of praying
for them! Praise God for the work that only He can do. One of these was a student I had met earlier
in 2013 in one of our coffee house meetings when she was still in college. I had given her a Bible at that time because
she seemed to be very interested to know more about Jesus.
