ABANDONED TO JESUS | Encouragement and Funny Story

In my job I get blessed with the greatest stories. Some sad, others encouraging, then some are just plain funny. Last month was the Holy Month of Ramadan for the 1.7 billion Muslims in the world. They fasted from sun up to sun down for 30 days. Many Christians around the world prayed that God would reveal Himself to Muslims. The first story is about an answer to those prayers. The second story is from one from one of our missionaries working in South East Asia.

Middle East News Update - Recently, several local believers were approached by a bearded Mus. and several armed guards after a ch. service. The believers were told they must go with these men to an unknown place. They resisted and said “no, you can’t just make us go with you,” but there was nothing that they could really do, seeing that the guards were armed. The believers were blindfolded and put into a van and driven away. When the van stopped, the believers were led into a mosque where a circle of 30 sheiks (mus.leaders) sat waiting for them. One of the believers later shared that he was thinking, “Ok Lord, this is it, I have lived my life for you, I am ready to meet you.” Soon one of the Mus. leaders spoke and said something like, “We know you must be scared as to why you are here. But we need you to help us. All 30 us sitting here have had a dream of J, and we want you to explain Him to us!!!” They sat for 5 hours in that mosque and shared the good news with them. This is one of many stories of the increase in awakening of hearts that God is doing at this time. We have not experienced anything like this personally yet, the road is still hard and there are millions still to be reached. But God is on the move!

SE Asia News Update – “I was watching the news a couple of weeks ago and up in X City there is a bakery. It’s bread and cakes must have had a really strong aroma and the people who lived around it got mad and sued them for polluting the air with the aroma of their breads…and they won. The bakery was fined and told to find a way to not smell so strong. I watch this and thought, “I don’t get it”. This is the land of open sewers, stinky tofu, durian fruit, temples burning incense and spirit money, pig farms and I could go on and on…but they complained about the smell of a bakery. I guess you know you’re still a foreigner when you prefer the smell of baking bread to stinky tofu”.

RESCUING THE UNREACHED | The day of his gladness of heart… SGS 3:11

BFBC Class 12 graduates November 17th at 6:00 on campus here at Heart of God Ministries. You are invited to come see it.

Wedding preparations for my day of my gladness of heart is on November 10th at Eastland Hills Baptist Church, and you are invited to come as well. You can RSVP by emailing me or going to http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/janicepreuninger&jasonweigand

COMMITTED FOR LIFE | Prayer and Action

Before college classes started up again I worked ahead two weeks as well as tried to meet with different individuals about joining our financial support team. I got to meet with a few families, but then school started and I was sick for two weeks. So much for being ahead. Since then I haven’t had the chance to continue my portion of support raising here at HGM. My budget goal I have is $2,000 a month and right now I am around $1,000 in monthly commitments still. Please pray for God to raise up those who are supposed to support me in this endeavor.

Prayer

1) That I would experience Jesus’ nearness and immediate, continual presence (Col 1:9-14) & that I would look more like Jesus this year then I did last year. A way to do this is to be praying for me to have a greater amount of integrity. I would like to say I am the same person when no one is around, apart from learning more about this through God’s grace my heart seems so far away from this reality.

2) Wedding Planning would go smooth and those who are lost would come to know Jesus.

3) Pray for my witness in my classes as well as my efforts to get good grades.

4) For 100% full Financial Support, through new supporters, increased giving.

Stripes that wound scour away evil, and strokes reach the innermost parts. Prov 20:30

All the people said, “His blood shal be on us and on our children!” Then he released Barabbas for them; but after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified. Matt 27:25-26

It is interesting to note that Israel declared His blood shall be on them and their children. Of course they are talking about the blame associated with punishing Him. However, one can’t help, but think how it is by this very blood that we gain forgiveness of sin. Then on another note, the murderer in this story is released and goes free, while the innocent man takes the punishment the murderer deserved. I would like to think of myself as Barabbas in this story. I have murdered many timees in my heart and have led many rebellions against God, and instead of my being punished, I scream along with the Jews “Crucify Him!” not knowing what it is I am wishing upon myself. Assuming in my rebellious heart I am getting away with murder, and getting what I want and that is this “holy man” being sentenced to death, so I don’t have to deal with him anymore, only to find the scourging and the crucifixion only led to His secret plot to capture my heart back for Him. What a marvelous Savior!!! May His wounds continue to scour away evil in me, and reach the innermost parts, and along with Paul may I take it upon myself to see to it that I may fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. That every tongue, tribe, and nation will come to the throne of grace and mercy, begging also that His blood would be on their hands and cover them, for the redemption and forgiveness of their sins.

Children were crowded together sitting and squirming on the floor. Girls playing with each other’s hair, boys wrestled a little, all the while a Sunday school class was going on. The smiling teacher patiently walks through John 3:16, asking questions like “Who is God?”, to which the sound of unsynchronized tiny voices, depending on the child, shout or whisper, “God the Father!” or “Jesus”.

The teacher affirmed them that they were correct because the Father and Jesus are one. The word father, triggered some children to even talk about their dads. The teacher talked about the cross and how God “gave” His Son. At this moment some of the children started saying things like “Jesus died for our sins!”, “Jesus died for you!” “God loves me!” With these words I almost started crying.

These children were saying truth, an incredibly weighty truth! They were innocently saying this statement without any knowledge that they are the privileged 5% of children in the world that even have access to this kind of information. They don’t yet understand have obtained the knowledge of a mysterious treasure that is hidden from the eyes of many yet is plainly spoken to them. The obtaining of this treasure is greater then the finest gold, silver or diamonds in all the world. Sometimes I don’t understand the weight of the knowledge of that truth.

“Although only about 30% of South Korea’s 49 million citizens are Christian, the country is second only to the U.S. in the number of missionaries it sends abroad. As of last year, 16,600 Korean missionaries were stationed in 173 countries.” Wall Street Journal Article

God is moving friends. Americans and Europeans are not the only ones going to the nations. Check out this written by the Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118611077167387122.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Pleaes pray for these missionaries from countries that don’t have the same reputation as the United States. If a citizen of the United States gets captured and imprisoned in other countries, they are usually sent home to America and their visa revoked, but when someone from a smaller country that doesn’t have a lot of power is captured prison could be a pretty bad situation.