Thank you for your prayers for the Easter party! It's never
too late to celebrate the incredible culmination of the Good News, is it? After
a bitter-sweet goodbye to one of the students we met in Virginia Beach last
summer, we joined our M Friends as they welcomed over fifty university students
into their home for fun Easter activities. The students really enjoyed hunting
for Easter eggs outside (we really enjoyed helping the M's young children hide
the eggs!), raced to wrap each other up in toilet paper ("reenacting"
Christ's resurrection, which they learned about from our M's Good News
presentation at the beginning of the party), and had several intense games of
capture the flag. We were able to connect with a few inquisitive students and
have since continued conversing with them over social media. Our M's will be
following up with these students in order to best care for them as they
continue their university work.
After saying our goodbyes to the M family, we headed back to
our hotel to continue upward-focused conversations with our friends who are
asking fantastic, in-depth questions and who are on the brink of making the
best decision they could possibly make.
Day 6-7
We flew back east to one of the country's major cities (much
earlier in the day than we would've liked) and really felt the loss of our
university friends we'd left that morning who'd been extremely helpful
translators the past few days. Despite a few scary taxi rides and some
interesting meals, we successfully navigated our way around this city of over
24 million people. It's daunting to think about the enormous task at hand.
Thankfully, we've been constantly reminded that His Hands are in control, and
that we just need to obey His Voice.
We headed back to the airport in style aboard a high-speed
magnet train. We bid farewell to one of our team members who needed to head
back to the States, and flew internationally into Southeast Asia. Our team has
been building relationships with the manager of a successful hotel chain and
her crew for almost a decade, and it was a joy to see some more familiar faces.
Most of our team hit the sack quite early in order to rest up for the beginning
of a very eventful and exciting two weeks.
Day 8
Our first full day in Southeast Asia started off wonderfully
as we met with another one of our M friends over breakfast. She works very
closely with other national Ms as they reach out to and pour into university
students in the area as well as persecuted minority groups further up north.
It's been a very difficult year for our persecuted Brothers and Sisters, but
our M told us that in the past, difficult years are most often followed by long
spans of rich growth and strengthening of community. Later that evening, we
attended a wedding celebration for two friends who work in our hotel. It was a
great opportunity for us to strengthen our relationships with those people and
their families. They could see that there was something different about us
(other than our "odd" physical appearances), and we pray that future
upward focused conversations will bud out of this experience.
Please pray for our Ms in Southeast Asia: for ease of
communication, open access to dark areas, and physical, emotional, and
spiritual health. Also, several of our team members are fighting against head
colds and sore throats. Please pray for quick healing and restful nights as we
open ourselves to Father's instructions. Tomorrow evening, we will be meeting
with students that we've connected with on past "tours" to Southeast
Asia. Please pray for safe travel for students coming from over an hour away
and for Father to give us His Words to say, not our own.
Southeast Asia Team
