The last two weeks have been very fruitful in making new contact. Your prayers have really mattered as God has blessed us with a few new and important friendships in just the last two weeks. This Saturday and Sunday are very important prayer days.

Roy was a part of the Big Howdy Rides to Walmart, the Used Item (Garage) Sale and the Airport rides the last two weeks. God really blessed with some people of peace like relationships with several people. Roy connected well with a student from Bangladesh and Korea through airport pickup and a couple of Indian students through the rides to Walmart. That is just a microcosm of what is going on all over. This year it seems like the volunteers and Americans are being much more focused on the task and there seems to be more POP’s being found. In addition, one HUGE addition was a concert of prayer related to all this. We’ve also had more students than ever volunteering and helping. It’s almost every day that people like Mark from China or Bethany from Columbia are helping with something. Praise that Lord for all he is doing.

We connected with one of the first students we worked with, Jane from Taiwan who became a follower of Jesus while here through her helping us out with music. She is now married and she visited with her husband and young son from Indiana. We also saw Joyce (also from Taiwan and a Jesus follower from her time at UTA) and her husband Culley who were great friends with Jane. It was good to reconnect with both families and encourage one another in the Lord.

Pray hard all day today (on Saturday, August 27) as we have the Big Howdy Party at UTA. This has been an unusual Big Howdy in that there has been some push back by some students from certain communities which is spread easily on facebook. The plus side of that is that POP’s are much more obvious as they are the one who are coming. Pray for our volunteers, students and staff teams of the different groups and ministries there that they can identify POP’s and route them where they can build on what God is already doing in their lives. Pray also for enough food, safety, and a good aroma among those who go. Pray as our students also go out and pass out cards about Friday night as the party is the main place we allow people to share about their ministries, etc. (www.utabighowdy.com)