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