1. Jesus Shows Up In Clarkston

Wow. It was been a busy, exciting, amazing first week here in Clarkston Georgia.  There are Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and animists all living within feet of me. Walking into Calrkston feels like walking into another country. Jesus is everywhere and His Spirit is in all of His followers, but in the last few days I've seen Him show up like never before.

Our missional community is made up of about 18 interns and around 10 staff and helpers. We all slept in the same basement together for the first few days to bond as we were trained and taught and poured into by each other. The first days were often compared to drinking water from a fire hydrant because they were so full of thought changing teaching, team build, laughing, crying, and on-field training. By the end of it we were exhausted but but all closer to Jesus' heart for this town and had a clearer vision of what we were called here to do.

Jolly Avenue

During the mornings I will be working at the Jolly Avenue Community Garden where families from several countries and languages come to grow food for themselves. Most of the families in the garden are not believers but for every language spoken there there is a believing family that has offered to translate for us at any time! God has removed any language barrier! Including myself there are 6 interns working in the garden so we are responsible for about 10-12 families each. Our jobs is to disciple the followers of Jesus that translate for us as well as love and share the Gospel with the families through daily interaction and telling Bible stories. We want to train our translators in disciplining so that when we leave they may continue the work themselves. The biggest connection I have made so far in the Garden is with a man from Nepal named Rajesh. He is a believer and when I asked him if he would be willing to translate Bible stories for me his face lit up and he said "Yes yes, I would like to, that will be very good for me!" He has recently been laid off from work so I asked that you pray for Rajesh's employment as well as our partnership in the Gospel.

House Church

Each Thursday the interns and staff get together for church. We practice a house church based off the model we see in Acts and in 1 Corinthians 14:26 "What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up." So we gathered together on a porch and sang praises to Him, shared what He had placed on our hearts, encouraged one another, and prayed for each other about whatever was burdening us. Several interns shared about family members of their's that are bound by the chains of addiction, illness, and unbelief. As we gathered around them to pray an intense thunderstorm broke out and rain began to pour down. We prayed louder and harder and as God displayed His power around us we proclaimed healing and deliverance in the name of Jesus. It was a powerful night. I ask that you pray for freedom, healing, and that eyes would be turned to Jesus for the following people.

Rachel's mother

Wesley
Taylor
Zack's family

I also ask that you just keep our team and Clarkston as a whole in yours prayers as we really get down to work next week!

There is so much more I would like to share but for the sake of brevity it will have to wait. I look forward to sharing more as the summer continues. 

God bless,
Jake

Revelation 7:-9-10

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”