Update from Newsletter 05

I can barely believe I’ve been here for five months already. It’s gone by so fast and at the same time God is teaching me how much of an investment is really needed here in the M world. As you’ve probably read in my email updates, the past few months have been difficult but I have really been challenged to grow in my faith through all the circumstances. Even though I get so easily discouraged, God always leads me back to His Word and enlarges my heart to serve these people and for them to come to know the One who created them and loves them.

He reminds me of the vision that He has called me to. In one of my first
newsletters I wrote about what it means to have life vision, and what the vision is that God has given me to pursue. It’s so easy to lose sight of the vision when surrounded by so many distractions and cares of the world, but God is gracious in constantly calling me back to that
vision.

To preach the gospel to the ends of the earth.

To prophesy to the dry bones.

To prepare the way of the Lord.

To be a watchmen on the walls, a prayer warrior contending and standing in the gap for this nation.

To be an ambassador of Christ, living in reckless abandonment faint with love for the man Jesus.

No matter how weak I feel, no matter if my prayers feel as if they are just falling to the floor, I must press on and press in. I must equip and disciple others. I must desire to live and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. I must not be satisfied with less than “greater works than these.”

Before I set out on a ten day trip to the North, the Lord encouraged me with the
passage in Matthew 10:7-13 when Jesus sends his disciples out all over Israel.

“As you go, preach this message:
‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse
those who have leprosy, drive out
demons. Freely you have received,
freely give. Do not take along any
gold or silver or copper in your belts,
take no bag for the journey, or extra
tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the
worker is worth his keep.

Whatever town or village you
enter, search for some worthy person
there and stay at his house until you
leave. As you enter the home, give it
your greeting. If the home is
deserving, let your peace rest on it; if
it is not, let your peace return to
you.”

At this point the followers were only called to the Jews and not to the Gentiles, but after Pentecost and the following events the disciples set out doing this same thing to Judea, Samaria, and “the ends of the earth” where Jesus commissioned them to go. This calling and this lifestyle was not only for a limited group of people 2,000 years ago, but it is also for believers today if we are to live out the Great Commission.

God is slowly breaking down my notions about the Christian walk, and instead showing me what a life led by the Spirit should look like. Step by step He is allowing me to move out in faith and see His divine guidance and provision. I desire to walk in this Matthew 10 reality, but my faith is so little. I am only at the stage of going and finding a man of peace and allowing the Lord to
provide for my needs. I long to be obedient to the Lord, and to grow in my gifts so that I can be used to share His word with power and authority.

After 27 hours of bus travel, I arrived at my destination where God provided a family for me to stay with. A friend of mine in Lahore was concerned of my determination to head to this town and called one of the area banks to get some information on the security situation there. When
he called the bank manager, the manager invited me to stay at his home and spend time with his daughter who is my age and his son who was back from studying in Karachi. When I got there I was unsure if I should go to a hotel or stay with the family, but when I was picked up by the bank manager I found myself saying, “Yes, I’d love to stay at your house,” and with that
I was off to a picturesque village outside of the main town.


The family was so hospitable and within minutes I was surrounded by about six or seven women chatting in Urdu, drinking tea and eating thick homemade bread. The house was surrounded by rose gardens, small pastures, and rock walls. After freshening up from
my journey and taking a nap, I spent the afternoon exploring the village, meeting neighbors and swimming in water running down from a nearby glacier.

The rest of the week was spent traveling from the town up to the northernmost border and back. I've fallen for the local langage of the area as well as for the landscape. It is spoken by about 100,000 people, including the family I stayed with. As linguists say, it is a language isolate, unrelated to any other language in the world, which is particularly fascinating. According to the Ethnologue, there is not yet a Bible translated in their language, although it seems that at
least one SIL worker (associated with Wycliffe Bible Translators) has spent time working on the language.

During my time with the people of the north I felt the Lord iincreasing my heart for this region.
Please join me in interceding for God to move in this remote region of the earth:

Oh Lord we pray that you would stir
their hearts with a hunger to know
the one true God. Lord you desire all
to be saved and that none should
perish. You are good and You
promised that people from every
tongue and tribe and nation would
worship you in their own lands.

We ask You, Lord of the harvest,
that You would bring laborers for the
harvest to this region. God we ask
that You bring your Word here to
this valley and prepare people’s
hearts so that it may take root and
grow to fruition. To Him who sits on
the throne forever and ever, Amen!