This past week we met a handful of new people and shared the gospel with them. We stood outside the Mosque and talked with Yakob for almost an hour. He had several really good questions regarding the authenticity of scripture , the trinity, and about Jesus dying. We did our best to talk each of the questions and point the young guy back towards Jesus.

Later we met this young couple pictured above out walking. They had some religious background in Christianity, but weren’t actively following Jesus, connected with a church, or reading a bible. We spent some time talking with them, sharing the gospel, and praying over them.

This week was really exciting. We have added in the new guy pictured here to our Gospel Sharing Team.
We took the time to listen to him share the gospel, offer feedback, and help sharpen one another.

Pray that God will indeed draw all men to himself.
Pray that God will continue to helping us be clear, confident, and concise in our proclamation.

This week has been fairly typical and rhythmic week as far as the schedule goes. We have been helping improve things around the church regarding sound equipment. We are also actively re-engaging in teaching English. This week we will be reaching out to setup another time to meet with a potential student.

We had a Team Meeting early this week to discuss our mission, vision, and strategy as a family for 2024/2025. We are in need of raising about $500 in monthly support this year.

In order to accomplish this goal we need 5 new people to join our team at $100 month.

This week we went out on Wednesday to share the gospel. We walked the street for about an hour and did not run into anyone that could speak English. In fact we only met one or two people while out. It was really quite this week. We have met a few people over the last few weeks that are interested in studying the Bible and are working hard to get those times officially going.

We are heading out soon to share the good news of Jesus with those on the streets. Today one of the newer guys joining us will be taking point on most of the conversations. We are hoping to find ways to build him up and encourage him to share more confidently, concisely, and clearly with those we meet.

Please pray for us today as we go out and share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Please pray that people would be willing to respond to this message, repent, believe, and gather together to grow into disciples of Christ.

Thank you for your prayers and support,
Jay

A few months ago, while out sharing the gospel we met an Afghan guy that almost literally walked right up to us and said, “I love learning about Jesus”. Maybe you remember me sharing about him? We are now inviting him to start studying the word of God together in a regular meeting. We are asking the Lord that this young guy would repent of his sins and false worship of the Quran. We pray that he would submit under the word of God and believe in Jesus Christ. Please pray that he would remain faithful to meet up and study.

Last week was really exciting.

I have also started working alongside another missionary in our city. Clarkston is known for attracting lots of people seeking long-term missions work. We have been talking with them through vision, calling, biblical training, family preparedness, and financial planning. God has been graciously using us to help build a solid foundation for missionaries to last on the field. We praise God for the fruit and friendship He is bringing into our lives.

Another way we are actively working to prepare missionaries is through Gospel Proclamation Training. As you know we have been actively involved in direct evangelism and taking men with us into the harvest field. My goal for the individuals that go with us to build confidence, establish a clear gospel proclamation, and to know how to be concise without compromising the truth of Gods word.

By Gods grace we are now adding a new individual to our gospel proclamation ministry.

Pray that the Lord would allow us to continue growing our ministry and work here in Clarkston.
Pray for us as we are considering overseas opportunities this year that could expand our gospel proclamation ministry.

On January 17th we shared with you about a missing teen girl, R, who is part of a family we work closely with.

R planned with one of her cousins to stay at her house, but didn’t talk with her aunt and uncle or her own parents. On January 19th, the cousin let R in quietly, but grandma saw her and called R’s parents who also notified the police as they had been instructed to.

No charges were pressed and R was allowed to stay with her cousin’s family under the agreement that she would get back to school and stay under their home rules.

Yesterday, 1/31, I saw R being dropped off by the aunt and uncle along with her mom and mom’s sister. This aunt was not pleased and marched R to her apartment instead of letting her go home.

I learned that R had run away from her cousin’s house and was spotted on the local high school property, though they alleged that she hadn’t attended classes that day.

I am not sure what the new arrangements are, but it seems that R is unwilling to leave the trouble.

Please continue to pray for this family. Please also ray for us to be a support for them as they endure this trial.

The mother of an Afghan family we know passed away in December after a multi-year battle with cancer that took the family to multiple countries for care.

We met them when they were resettled in our complex around 2 years ago. The dad, his mom, his wife, and their 2 elementary aged children had been adjusting well.

The kids, in their grief, don’t want to spend time with family members or eat food family makes for them; they say the food isn’t as good as their mom’s and they only want her.

Please pray as they all adjust to being without her.

We are thankful that in their culture, the extended family comes over weekly and makes large batches of food.

Raven and I (Patti) recently took them a meal and some treats for the kids. We met an older cousin who was happy to have help watching the younger children for a little bit. I also made sure they have my phone number and told them I am happy to drive them if they need to go anywhere during the day while dad is at work.

Pray for the Truth of Jesus to penetrate their hearts and lives and for the hope in Christ to meet them in their grief. Pray as we and other Christians who know them to walk in, display, and share God’s love and peace with them.

When I tell people I live in the United States and do cross-cultural ministry I think many don’t really get the full picture. It’s hard to grasp without being here.

Clarkston is known for being incredibly diverse.
Rich in culture. Diverse in faith.

You easily have access to 10,000 people within a 10 minute walk.

This photo illustrates so many layers of diversity and cross-cultural ministry in one shot.

On more than one occasion we have talked to the gentleman pictured here.

He is a very devout Muslim who takes a firm stance on the Bible being corrupt, Jesus being only a prophet, Jesus never died, people should prostrate before God, and many more issues.

He doesn’t like that Christians believe the bible is authoritative.

He doesn’t like that Christians call Jesus – God.

Our first interaction was very combative over these issues. By Gods grace we saw him again and had the opportunity to continue our discussion on faith in Christ.

One thing we found really helpful was talking about how sin gets paid for. Most religions in the world believe that you can be “good”. Christians believe they are not good. We are all sinners. We all have sinned and continue to fall short before a Holy God. Through Christ Jesus we are forgiven for our sins and allowed to enter into Gods Kingdom.

Most religions don’t believe that eternal life can be known for certain. Most believe that you have to do enough good to out weigh the bad. This idea is typically referred to as “works based salvation”.

These discussions have been fairly fruitful and lead to wrestling through topics that prepare the way for the salvation of Christ. However, the enemy of this world has convinced so many that Christ is not King. He has convinced them that Christ is not a redeemer and Gods word is not trustworthy.

Pray with us that we will continue to run into this guy on the streets.
Pray that he will remain open to discussions about sin, payment, and trust in Jesus.
Pray that he will repent and believe in Jesus.

We learned yesterday that a 14 year old girl has run away from home. We are very close with this family. She is with her 19 year old boyfriend who is known for being in a gang.

She ran away for 2 weeks in December, came home for 2-3 days to get supplies, and and has been missing since Christmas. She hasn’t attended school in 2 months.

R told a friend that she is living in a house with her own room, that she works at a restaurant, and showed him a stack of cash she has. It’s unknown to the parents exactly where she is living and what type of work she is doing.

R stole her parents’ car… it is now totaled, leaving them without a vehicle.

Her family has notified the proper authorities and are actively looking for her.

Specific Ways to Pray

Pray that God would get through to her, that she would come to true repentance before anything else happens.

Pray for her parents, younger sister, and extended family as they are reeling with grief, disbelief, and anger.

Pray that we would have wisdom and grace as we walk with them through this in love.

Pray for them financially as they now have to get a car and dad (the sole provider financially) has been unable to work for many days due to searching for his daughter, grief, and meeting with authorities.

When we are out sharing the gospel its not often we meet someone so honest about their sin. I won’t go into details about this mans confession over his own sin ,but lets just say that there was room to be nervous. I am glad we didn’t coward down, but rather remained firm and preached a God whose forgiveness runs deep for all to be saved.

As I flip through the many pages of my teacher handbook, I am thankful for a student who is hungry to learn. I am thankful for a curriculum that starts each day off with a song, weekly memory verse, and time in the Bible.

We are on week 18 of 32 in our “Voyage of Discovery” Pre-K adventure. It has brought so much fun to our routines and intimate times with God together.

Raven has asked more and more recently if it’s almost time to start kindergarten. I am soaking up her excitement and the “get to” attitude for school.

Pray with us as we finish our first year of homeschool in April/May.

Pray that we would continue with excitement.

Pray for wisdom as we look into curricula for next year and extra-curricular activities to give us both the social time we need.