Asia Trip Report Part 2 and New Discipleship Group, Easter, God is at work

ryabuki April 25, 2014

(See pictures) It’s been a fair number of weeks from the Asia trip. I am still kind of living with the consequences in terms of catching up… but also the memories and the remembrance of what God did. Here are some more “journal/prayer” entries from the trip:

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From March 31:Howie was in Arlington for a long time and I’ll never forget the first time we met, when we all went to see Yao Ming and the Houston Rockets play the Dallas Mavericks. Ever since that trip, Howie was always a passionate advocate for ISI. Even after he left Arlington, in Portland he was involved with the ISI team there. Yet, while he brought many friends to experience ISI and even God, and he heard the gospel many times, he never made a choice to follow Him. Today, as we were sitting out watching Hong Kong harbor, we had a very revealing discussion. He shared with me about a time when he was with a unbelieving Chinese friend who was grieving the loss of her grandmother, asking questions like, “why?” and what will happen to her grandmother because she never had the chance to be baptized even though she just believed. The Chinese friend’s grandmother was a follower of Jesus.. Knowing this, Howie shared with this girl the hope that the grandmother had for an afterlife and the joy she believes she will feel when she crosses over to be in the presence of God. He really was basically sharing the hope which is the Gospel. She was encouraged as he comforted her. I told him I was amazed how accurate he was and I asked him why he doesn’t believe. He told me that while he agrees with many things from the Bible but other not, including an afterlife…He was thinking very deeply. Still, I was sad that my dear friend that God has shown me to love is having such a hard time believing…

From April 3: Honestly, yesterday morning after the difficult night before, where my new translator who was doing it for the first time was struggling, I was at my wits end. I did my best the night before. All the things that worked before seemed useless in this situation. I was forced to recognize that I really had nothing to offer here at the training. I was talking to teammate Valeria who was working with Steve to lead the beginners class and she had the same sense. It was about God and it was always about God. I gave it all to God and send the message asking for prayer I have not doubt that when you all were called to, you prayed and God answered. After you all prayed, yesterday, the second day of the training went well. God provided a couple of excellent and experienced interpreters and things actually went much smoother. You all are amazing. Or certainly I should say God is amazing… and He used your persistent prayers to do amazing things. I knew I could depend on you for prayer…

Yesterday, was a day of review. The night before, the group shared their experiences with M:28 both the things they liked, but also the things that were difficult and brought questions to mind. As we reviewed the material, each of the issues were answered and that group was truly appreciative. The people that seemed the most skeptical the night before became the very people who shared their testimony the next night. It also became clear that this young group of 40 have not be just dabbling with M:28 but they were using it rather extensively, though I had never met many of them which means they were trained by our protege’s from years past.

One church in the Eastern part of a country in Eastern Asia had over 10,000 members of which 6000 were young adults. They had several teams present, including a young volunteer (who came with his 6 secretaries) who was responsible for a 1000 of the young adults who planned on doing M:28 with his sphere or influence, a person who was definitely going to use M:28 in her sub team, Another who was in charge of 1/3 of the youth group said she was in the process of getting buy in from the youth department. It was a good fit because it worked well to work alongside explosive growth. Another church in the Western part of a country in Eastern Asia grew from 6-300 in 3 short years (90% young). They also have a vibrant ministry to university students where they bless them by financially sponsoring 40 very poor ones of them including many Mus1ims. M:28 as a way They have a truly kingdom related vision as the majority of these students would never consider living in their city long term. Another church was in the capital and existed in several neighborhoods throughout the northern part of the city. They too planned on using M:28. There was a ministry that reached out to a small island in Southern part of a country in Eastern Asia who ministered to the 10 universities there and thought M:28 would allow them to reach the whole population. There were several churches and ministries from two more cities from the South part of a country in Eastern Asia who just moved into a very fast growing part of town. I can only estimate how many groups there were already started through these people: 10, maybe 20? That was just my class. Steve and Valeria no doubt could add to that total with their 50 or so attendees. The time was just such a blessing. It was cool too, by the end, there really was a sense of unity among the group.

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That is just a small “raw” glimpse of the time out there. I really felt God’s presence throughout the trip and I hope you got a taste of what God is doing around the world with the work that ISI and specifically our team’s been a part of over the last few years. God is moving.

So back in Texas… God has been blessing the last few weeks. The students have had a lot of end of the year assignments and exams and so the time together has been more sporadic than normal. The home groups have been full to overflowing though. Praise God for the community we have there. Here are some more praises and prayer needs.

The M:28 Bible study Ting, Ricardo and I started at the beginning of the semester is kind of petering out. Schedules have changed significantly in the last few weeks. Still, today, Ricky, Tra and I met for the first time since I got back and the study went well.
Sylvan (India) and Sharro (Eastern Asia, originally a part of the NYC ministry) have been regularly going to church with us, even when I was away. God is working in Sylvan’s life though I got the sense he is trying to figure everything out and he is giving God a serious chance through he is not fully committed yet. Sharro is clearly following Jesus. She will be leading the Bible discovery group this Friday. (Pray for her).
Jonathan won a couple of awards at school and a fairly large scholarship at UTA. It seems like he is leaning towards going there.
This last Friday we had a most remarkable Bible study. I think there may be a couple of people of peace as they are open to us, open to spiritual things and each brought 3-4 friends. One young Arab student was looking at the Bible for the very first time. Several others who don’t know Jesus were among the most involved in the study. God is moving.
Easter and good Friday were wonderful times to have spiritual conversations with students and we had many as we hosted a couple of students for Easter lunch and we had Good Friday at our home groups. The Planetarium group showed a video about the crucifixion of Christ and the Starbucks group did resurrection eggs. Praise God for the questions and discussion that resulted.