Pray for our Friends...

Our training and ministry time have been going well - we have been learning many different things about church planting strategies and evangelism.  This past week we had a couple days of training on language acquisition.  We really enjoyed these sessions and it made us even more anxious to get to Romania, get settled, and start our language school.  We are less than three weeks away from our departure!  We have had several Skype conversations with the couple in Bucharest that are preparing for our arrival and are working out the details, so it is becoming very real for us!  Along with our excitement, we are also feeling burdened for the people we have met here and wish we had more time to spend with them. We would like to share with you some specific people God has brought into our lives and ask you to pray for them as God works in their hearts:

• J and F (from Ecuador and Nicaragua) are a couple we met at the park shortly after arriving here. We have had many family interactions with them and have gotten to know them quite well. At our last visit with them, we were able to give them a Spanish Bible. They were extremely grateful as they have never owned their own Bible and were excited to start reading it themselves. We were able to clearly share God's plan for salvation with them and they had many questions. We prayed with them and hoped to follow up quickly to answer additional questions. However, we feel that the enemy has been working against them and their schedules have been so busy that we haven't been able to meet with them again. Please pray that we will be able to see them again, and that the Spirit will reveal truth to them as they read the Bible.
• M (from Vietnam) owns a small Chinese restaurant near our apartment. It has become our Tuesday evening routine to go to her restaurant for dinner and we have had many opportunities to talk and pray with her. She has a Catholic background and a general belief in God, but doesn't have a personal relationship with Him and struggles to understand all the hurt and sorrow in this world. Please pray that her heart would continue to be softened towards the gospel and the God would give us the words to speak to her.
• A & M (from Iran) own a European Deli near our apartment. They are fellow believers and we have enjoyed hearing their testimonies and experiences. Please pray for them as they are struggling with decisions related to their business, and also for their teenage son, S, as he searches for truth in is own beliefs.

We have met many others throughout our time here and every encounter is a learning experience!  Every day we are learning to trust God more, even when we feel like a particular conversation didn't go as well as we would have hoped.  We are constantly amazed that God chooses to use us despite our inadequacies!

Again, thank you for your love, support, and prayers on our behalf.  As we finish our time here in Vancouver and trust God to work in the lives of those we will leave behind, we are reminded of this verse: 2 Corinthians 15:58 says, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."