5: Hope

I'm sorry for the delay in posts, free time is space in Clarkston! I have so much to say and have the daunting task of keeping it short so people will read it. I'll do my best, here we go!

Nepalis Love Yeshu

Michael and some Nepali friends during worship

This past Sunday another intern, Cody, and I got to attend church with one of my closest refugee friends, Rajesh! Rajesh is a Nepali believer and a great light within the community. We got to experience wonderful Nepali worship songs and a message from a guest speaker from India. It was so encouraging to see a huge room full of entire families worshiping Jesus! Rajesh is one of the most welcoming people I have ever met and has been a huge blessing to me since the day I met him. There is a GFM staff member that is going to continue followign up with and discipling
Rajesh after I leave. We believe he is going
to play a pivotal role in reaching many
Nepali-Hindu families in Clarkston.

Salon memorizing Bible verses for fun!

Just yesterday, a short-termer named Michael and I were spending time with Rajesh and his two sons, Salon and Nyshon, and he invited to come to a Nepali worship gathering with him. Twice a week around 30 Nepali believers get together in one of their houses to sing worship songs, pray, and share a short message. When we walked in I saw many faces I recognized from the garden and community, some I had visited in their homes, some I had only seen in passing, some I knew where believers and some I didn't. It was so encouraging to see them all in one place worshiping as a community! Michael and I were very blessed to get to be a part of this.
Right now Rajesh is searching for a job, and his wife has been dealing with abdominal pain for many years. Please pray that God provides Rajesh with a job soon and that his wife, Gowli, will be healed of her pain. Also pray blessing upon his two sons, Salon and Nyshon.

Karenni Boys

As I shared last time, I have gotten the opportunity to help with a Bible study among teenage Karenni boys. This last week all the boys returned and we studied the great commission, Matthew 28:16-20. It was a wonderful time of witnessing the boys discuss and discover God's truth for themselves. At the end, two boys stated that they wanted to follow Christ! We are praying we will start to see life change in the boys and that their desires go past verbal faith. Please pray for all the Karenni boys and that they may become a community of young men truly following Jesus. 

Rohingya Healing and Hope

Inside Rajesh's home

For almost two weeks, the Rohingya family that I talked about in my third post have all been very sick with an intense fever and cough. We went over every few days to check on them and pray for healing in Jesus' name. They always welcomed the prayers and were very appreciative. One time when we went over to visit last week they were all feeling much, much better and we could visibly see a drastic change in their health. The only trace of the sickness left was a slight cough that was fading. As the father, Nor, was explaining that they were all feeling better, he said with a smile on his face,"this means that your prayers for us were accepted!" Praise God that they were healed and realized that their healing came from God and not any medicine or natural cause!
During that same visit Nor opened up more about Burma and the persecution happening there. One startling thing he stated was that Burma is basically "an open air prison." He shared with us news of an NGO going before congress that day to continue to request the US government to intervene in the situation. His heart is very much breaking for his people still caught in the persecution going on there.

Recently a short-termer, Michael, and I were visiting with the family and Michael got to share about what he does. Michael is young former Marine who spends half the year building relationships with international students, and then half the year visiting them in their home countries and sharing the Gospel with them. Nor was visibly taken aback and astounded. Nor spoke about how rare it is to see people that genuinely love other people and that it is very unique to meet people with such love in their hearts. This gave us the chance to share that we love because God first loved us! After talking for a while Nor somehow brought up Noah and we began to discuss the story of the Great Flood. We asked Nor if we could take out our Bible and read some of the story to refresh all of our memories and he gladly agreed. We sat with a Muslim man and read verses from the Bible, discussing in agreement God's great love and mercy for his people. At the end of our visit Nor was still visibly in awe of encountering people filled with love.

I want to share with you a story of hope that has blessed me this week in regards to the Rohingya. A GFM staff member told me this week that he has a missionary friend in Burma working directly with the Rohingya there and recently received some news from him. Brace yourself for great news! Within the last four months, they have seen 20,000 Rohingya men, women, and children come into the Kingdom and decided to follow Jesus. Twenty thousand. What makes this news even sweeter is how it has happened. The majority of the Rohingya are coming to Christ because the Gospel is being shared with them by the Rakinae, the people group that is leading most of the persecution against the Rohingya. The ones doing the persecuting are having their lives changed by Jesus Christ and then sharing that love with the ones they used to persecute. How beautiful is this?! I have great hope that my Rohingya family will one day know and follow Jesus. Please pray that they will continue to experience the love of God through followers of Jesus and come to know Him. Also pray that the Rohingya-Rakinae movement continues and thousands more come to know Jesus!

Malakoyo

Michael and Malakoyo studying the Bible

Some more good news! We found out that our ESL student and his family and Christians! During our ESL time we now study English and French Bible stories side by side to help him learn English as well as grow spiritually! It has been a huge blessing to us! Please pray blessings for Malakoyo and his family and that he is able to find a job.


We only have a few days left in Clarkston and have been focusing on wrapping up relationships, saying our goodbyes, and finding laborers to continue the work here that God has started through us this summer.


I hope you are as encouraged as I am by the way God is revealing Himself to people in Clarkston!


God bless,
Jake

4. Connections

This has been a fun week! We had an awesome team from Virginia and lots of awesome stories and hearts drawn closer to God!

I'd like to share a few stories from this week! But first, I'd like to encourage you to check out some other awesome stories from other interns here at GFM! But if nothing else, please take the time to read their prayer requests.
Here are some other intern's blogs to check out:

Morgan Cochran

Amy Chin

Grace Pritchard

Kaeleigh Shuler

Karenni

This week I got to tag along with a GFM staff member and help lead a Bible study with 6 young Karenni teenage boys. The Karenni are a people group located mostly in Burma. The ages ranged from 15-18 and the their English was pretty good as most of them have been in America for a year or more. For the sake of brevity, I will just say that there is a varying degree of desire to follow Jesus among them, some very interested and pursuing, and some not. We decided to study Acts 8:26-40, Phillip and the Ethiopian. We carefully read through the story together and did what is called a Discovery Bible Study (DBS) which emphasizes specific questions that require the listener to discover God's truth for themselves. The study started off slow but the boys became more comfortable talking and sharing as we went. The highlight was towards the end of the study when we asked the question "What is something that this story tells us to do?" After a second, one of the boys who is not a follower of Jesus read straight from verse 35 "share the good news about Jesus." It was a very, very encouraging time. We will continue meeting with the boys every Thursday for more DBS. Please pray that all the boys would grow closer to God and decide to follow Jesus if they haven't already. Their names are Trowrae, Arreae, Darrae, young Trowrae, Carrae, and Sharrae.

Trowrae, Sharrae, and young Trowrae praying after the Bible study.

Emad and Malakoyo

Malakoyo and Chris during ESL

Because of Emad's new job and because of Ramadan (a time of prayer and fasting for Muslims), I haven't been able to see him as much this week. He's been very tired and busy but we are praying that we will get to spend some time with him this coming week. Since we weren't able to do ESL with Emad this week, my partner Chris and I began ESL with a new student, Malakoyo! He is from the Central African Republic and he, his wife, and his three children have been in America for 7 months. He is very welcoming and eager to learn and we are excited to see where our conversations will lead! We are unsure about his beliefs but hopefully can learn more about him and his family this week! Please pray that we can reconnect with Emad this week and that if Malakoyo and his family aren't believers, we can be a light to them and share God's truth.

Thirra and Home

A few weeks ago I met a Hindu man named Thirra in the garden. Our first encounter went like this.

Thirra: Hi. I'm Thirra.

Me: I'm Jake.

(handshake)

Thirra: Garden. Come.

(starts walking towards garden)

Me: Ok.

Our friendship was to the point. We arrived at his garden plot and started exchanging Nepali and English words for plants. After a few more similar visits and slowing getting to know each other I decided to visit his apartment. A few friends and I talked with him at his house for quite a while about their story, family, and current life happenings. Luckily his youngest son named Home was there to translate anything Thirra couldn't understand. We were able to have some great conversations with Home as well and found out that he does not believe in the Hindu gods, he simply agrees with the teachings of Hinduism and attends Hindu functions for the cultural and social aspect. Later that week we visited again and Thirra was not there but we stayed and spent time with Home. He showed us family videos of birthdays and celebrations from Nepal as well as pictures and videos of their refugee camp. It was a great time of connecting and learning. Please pray for Thirra, Home, and the rest of the family, that they may come to know Jesus and that God will provide someone to continue ministering to them after the interns leave for the summer.

I hope to post my next update very soon, I have a lot more to share already to check back soon, it will definitely be before Thursday afternoon!

Thank you for the continued prayers and support!

Jake

"May the Lord bless you and keep you; 

the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."

Numbers 6:24-26