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

3. Persecution and Peace

This week was a bit different from the rest! Our morning outreach times were the same but our afternoons were completely different. Let me tell you about the mornings first.

Persecution

During my morning time at the garden I got to visit several families, tell Bible stories, and lead a Bible study. One morning was a little more sobering than the others though. A few weeks ago I had made a connection with a Burmese refugee family that comes from the Rohingya people group. We've been able to visit this family several times and this week the father, Nor, opened up to us a lot about what his family has faced. If you type "Rohingya" into Google you will find an array of news and political articles about the extreme persecution these people are facing. The Rohingya are a primarily Muslim people group living in the Buddhist nation of Burma. Because of this religious difference, the Burmese government refuses to grant the Rohingya citizenship or basic human rights. Murder and other acts of violence against them have forced many to flee to other nations for safety, this was the case for my friend Nor and his family. They were forced to leave their home and live in a Malaysian refugee camp for ten years while seeking resettlement. Many of their family members who could not leave Burma have been forced to change their names to hide their identity.

During our visit Nor showed us a video of the U.S. Congress passing legislation to pressure the Burmese government to grant citizenship and rights to the Rohingya and to stop the crimes against humanity. An impacting statement made during the video was this; "The things we are witnessing being done to the Rohingya people right now are the same signs that we saw before the Rwandan and Cambodian genocides. If something isn't done soon, we will have a similar situation on our hands." It was an eye opening day. Pray that the persecution against the Rohingya people with stop and that laborers may reach them with the Gospel. Pray for Nor and his family that they may have their eyes opened to Jesus as well.

Peace

Our afternoon time this week has been focused on one apartment complex called Woodside Village. A local church has a heart to reach the families in this area but needed more man power to find the best contacts and People of Peace in the area. The People of Peace concept is based off of Luke 10. We are seeking believers or potential believers who are welcoming to us and the Gospel and with a network of friends and family that they would be able and willing to reach. After much prayer, we broke up into teams and began meeting people in the community and praying for them. Our teams had doors slammed in our faces, plates of food put in our hands, and a remarkable amount of moments where Jesus showed up. Our goal was to find 5 people or families of Peace that the church could follow up with to begin sharing the Gospel with the hopes of planting house churches. We surpassed that number in four days and are confident that the Lord is starting something great in Woodside Village and revealing Himself to the people there in extraordinary ways. Please pray for the continued ministry in Woodside Village.

Emad

Because of our special afternoon events this week. ESL classes could not meet. A teammate of mine, Chris, and I were able to visit our ESL student Emad twice though and both visits were full of laughter and friendship. Emad recently had a surgery and has not been able to work because of it. It was his second surgery to fix the same problem, the first surgery was unsuccessful. We had been praying every day with Emad that when he has his check up the doctor will give him good news and that he may be able to work soon. Chris and I visited him Thursday after his check up and the doctor said all is well! He should not have to have another surgery and he is able to work again starting next week! Praise God for those answered prayers! We got to celebrate with Emad and share in his joy. We are going to continue ESL with him this coming week. Please pray that there is no difficulty in Emad starting work this week and that he can continue to learn about Jesus through his relationship with Chris and I.


We are now preparing to have our third short term team come in this week. A team of 22 from Virginia is coming down so it should be a busy but fun time! I'm expecting God to do awesome things with this week that I get to share with you next time!

God bless!

Jake

2. Teams, Tours, and Teaching

I apologize for the delay in getting another post up, from touring Hindu temples to making late night home visits, things have been busy! I'd like to share just a few things from this last week.

Team One: Living Hope Church

Our first short term team came in last week. Teams will be coming in for a week at a time throughout the summer to come alongside us and see the work we are doing. We hope to educate them, train them, and let the see first hand what God is doing amoung refugees so that they can enact similar ministry in their home towns as well as explore a potential calling to missions or even Clarkston! The team was a huge encouragement to the staff and interns and it was obvious many of them had experiences that refocused their hearts on Jesus and the task of reaching the nations. Two of the short termers, a young couple named Brian and Lea, have already planned to apply and participate in this internship next summer. The two have a huge heart for missions and plan to pursue full-time mission work! I ask that you pray for Brian and Lea in their journey!

ESL: English as a Second Language

As I mentioned last time, I work in the community garden in the mornings. In the afternoons, all the interns participate in ESL teaching. We traveled out into the community during the first week to find families and individuals that would be interested in learning and studying English. Last week we began classes! My student is a 34 year old single man from Iraq named Emad. He was a taxi driver in his home country and left because of the continual bombings and shootings. Since the first time I met Emad I knew that I wanted to work with him and it has been extremely rewarding, he is very welcoming and eager to learn! We meet for two and half hours a day and practice English, in that time we have gotten to know a lot about each other. 

During one afternoon session it was myself and two short termers, Brian and Jimmy (Jimmy is a missionary and missionary mobilizer and one of the wisest guys around). After a while Emad asked Jimmy and Brian why they were there and Jimmy said that they were volunteers but Emad didn't understand this word so Jimmy got the idea to tell Emad the parable of the Good Samaritan. As we were explaining to Emad that we were going to tell him a story from the Bible and asked if he had heard of Isa in the Quaran, and immediately he said "Jesus, yes! I love Jesus!" He had read about Jesus in the Quaran and it was obvious he wanted to know more. Jimmy read him the parable as Brian and I acted it out to make it more clear. Then we explained that just like the Good Samaritan that loved his neighbor, Jesus calls us to love our neighbor and that Emad is our neighbor. Emad smiled and said "this is a very good teaching!" Emad had to have surgery last week and can't work until he is better so I ask that you pray for healing and that he would be able to find a job soon. We pray in Jesus' name with Emad every day and he is always very open and appreciative of it.

This is Jimmy showing Emad the Bible on his phone.

I ask that you continue to pray for the team as a whole as many have gotten sick and worn out this week.

God bless,
Jake

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.”