I was reading and update of a friend and it had the marvelous quotation of Kramer from the sitcom Seinfeld? ”Do you ever yearn?”  I do think that question sometimes about my yearnings. I sometimes fear that I am moments away from slipping into “comfortable Christianity”. It would make life alot easier if everything was just about going to church on Sundays and Wednesdays and appearing at the men’s fellowships that the church offers and the rest of the days of the week, I just focused on my hobbies (i.e. cooking, reading) and in the other open times just watch tv.    I am taking a limited sabbatical right now and the fear of “comfortable christianity” is one of the things that I am every now and then get anxious about. “Am I slipping?” Then I have to remember that I am on a sabbatical right now and I am supposed to rest. One of the great things about resting is there isn’t any anxious-hurried-drive that motivates me to “advance the kingdom as fast as possible” as if “it all depends on me”. It is a good reminder that the world still spins when I am not active in creating ministry opportunities and that Jesus is still on the throne and salvations are still happening. Then I am reminded that these seasons of rest are for dreaming and feeling and hoping and praying and drawing closer to Him. I have learned a lot about patience and grace and effecitive service just in sitting and waiting and resting. It is pretty nice!  I recognize that though I am not promised tomorrow, or the next five minutes for that matter, yet right now I am able to stand back enjoy God’s panarama of what He is doing, praise Him for His marvelous works and just dream. As I stand back and view His dealings I ask “Where does God have me in this panarama?” Is it in the villages, is it in the city, is it among the homeless, or the prisons or the hospitals, is it with kids, is it with muslims or buddhist, or christians? Many questions, many yearnings, and somehow I rest in the confident hope of the bigness of God and His plans and realize that all my seemingly different desires are all wrapped wholly into His ultimate purpose for Me, and as I rest in His soverigntly, and obey His voice, I will be able to look back upon what used to be my dreams and find out they have become realities.

Well I got married on November 10 and everyday my life has been improving more and more. Marriage is great!!!  When I tried to write another blog post, I went to my book marked page for this blog only to find that it wanted me to type in a username and password. I haven’t had to do that in over a year and so anyways I forgot what that stuff was. It wasn’t until skimming through my emails that I stumbled across a hint and BAM! back in business.  

I read two articles recently that really impacted me. One of them was a non-scientific study conducted by a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary show that the number one influence for a Muslim to start following Jesus is a Christian’s lifestyle.  The other article that I read stated that 8 out of 10 non-Christians do not have a personal relationship with a Christian. When it comes to Muslims on a global scale 9 out of 10 Muslims don’t have a personal relationship with a Christian. If a personal relationship with a Christian is the number one way to lead Muslims into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, than shouldn’t this be our primary objective, and that is to befriend a Muslim.

I do want to say in America we are not doing that bad. 7 out of 10 Muslims in North America know a Christian personally. This is good news, however when it comes to other nations, outside of Latin America, it is 1 to 2 Muslims have a relationship with a Christian. No wonder why their perception of Christianity is so messed up. My challenge to you is to find the other 3 out of 10 Muslims to don’t know a Christian and befriend them. My next challenge is to pray for the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into His harvest field to reach and befriend those in Asia.

I read another statistic that was pretty scary. There is estimated that there is only one missionary for every five million Muslims in India!. Please pray for the Muslims of India.  

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.