Ro returned home earlier this evening after spending a few days in the hospital.

While there, she had an MRI done and the results weren’t good.

Because of the size of the brain tumor, radiation is no longer an option. To add to it, she can’t walk anymore.

In a conversation in early spring, she told me she is just waiting to die.

Please pray for her. She needs physical healing, but more so, she needs eternal salvation. She has had the Gospel shared with her multiple times. Pray that she takes it seriously and gives her life to God through Jesus before it’s too late.

Pray for her family as they wrestle with their oldest child being in pain and the realization that she is dying while also caring for their younger 2 children.

Pray for us and the others who minister to Ro and her family. Pray for perseverance, boldness, and abundant compassion. Pray for all of our emotional health as she has come to mean so much to each of us.

Since coming home from a weekend visiting family in Tennessee, we wanted to share a few prayer requests with you regarding housing.

The day we got home, we heard what sounded like gun shots from a semi-automatic weapon at 4:15 in the afternoon. This is becoming more regular, both in the time of day and sound of gunfire.

In addition to safety in that regard, we have known that our apartment has a mold problem and that our air vents are very dirty. The complex has been resistant to fixing these issues in the past, so Jay took a day off from work to care for our home. He has cleaned the vents and is working on clearing out water build-up in the inside of the AC unit.

Please pray for our emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical health.

We are actively looking for a house to rent. Please pray for us to find one that keeps us close to our ministry areas and fits our budget.

Speaking of budget, pray that God would guide us to people who will partner with us monthly. We have waited as long as we believe we can to focus on support raising, but we really need to get to a healthier place financially so that we can move and be healthier mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically in order to be the best servants we can be in the work God has for us.

As we walked out of our unit, I saw the Burmese mom of a 1 year old slowly dragging a bag of trash down the street to the dumpster. When she looked back towards her unit in the next building, she saw her son crawling backwards down the steps to follow her.

She asked me to watch him from where I was; I asked to take the trash bag for her. She said it was heavy and dripping, but I didn’t care. She thanked me and ran back to keep her son out of the road.

Once we got to the pop-up market at the bottom of the hill, we ran into a Nepali mom who had bags full of food. She asked Raven to watch her bags as her special needs kids were being dropped off from school. She couldn’t find her money on her person or outside. She ran back to her apartment to look, but her money was gone.

She was unable to buy the groceries and had to get home to her kids. By God’s grace, I  had extra cash in my pocket, which I used to buy the bags of food. She was very surprised and grateful when we knocked on her door!

We are thankful for opportunities to serve our community by meeting felt needs in addition to Gospel Truth proclamation! Thank you so much for partnering and praying for our mininstry.

While we were in Florida, several people in our complex thought we had moved because maintenance was in and out of our apartment replacing the shower.

One afternoon, as Raven and I played outside, a 4th grade girl ran up to me screaming my name and gave me a hug. She has never hugged me before, but she said she and her friends missed us and were happy we were back.

Another day, again outside, I saw two elementary aged boys throwing football. Some of you may remember that I enjoy throwing football and this is a way I can build bridges and trust with the boys in our complex.

I could see that one boy was better than the other and wanted to practice. I called his name and told him to throw it to me. He was unsure, but did it anyways. When I threw it back, he was encouraged and so we continued for almost 20 minutes.

He asked if I could throw it higher so he could practice catching while jumping… so I did. We added another boy to the group and I transitioned over to the little girls.

When I came inside, I said to Jay, “I got to throw football today!” It was good for my spirits as much as for the boys, I believe.

The past few months of streaming just a couple hours day a couple times of weeks has slowly been growing an audience. People I have known for years have been tuning in and hanging out while we are gaming. It’s been a really unique experience to stay the least.

One guy in particular named Ben from the U.K. has become a very important part of our community. He is a believer from the UK and I have shared a few things about him before in some of my recent posts. He recently felt like God was wanting him to purchase a new bible and start reading it again. That’s exactly what he did.

When his new Bible arrived everyone in the household took interest in the book and started reading it and asking questions. In fact his girlfriend/partner wanted her own. He bought her one. Within the first two weeks she had read through the entire book of John. Ben was asking me , “What should she read next?” Before you knew it she read through Acts and James as well.

By the end of reading through these books she began to identify herself as a believer and was asking , “What do we do next?”

Ben then exclaimed… We should probably repent of our sins, trust in Jesus, and get married.

I believe that God is doing something amazing in this household.
Keep praying that He would get them involved in a local church that is loving and willing to walk alongside them growing in their faith.

Thank you for being a part of this prayer and journey with us as well.
Blessings – Jay

Many of the kids know that we try to keep our complex clean. Often I, Patti, am picking up glass near the playground and on/near sidewalks. I always explain that I don’t want anyone to get hurt and that it’s not good for anyone to leave their trash on the ground. When I see the kids throw their trash on the ground, I remind them and ask them to go throw it in their trash can.

Sometimes, kids will knock on our door with pieces of glass in their hands. While this is not the safest or my favorite, I always thank them. When we aren’t home, they leave it on our back windowsill.

When there is a lot of glass from bottles or busted windows, I take a doubled bag outside and get to work. Last week, 7 kids wanted to help! Raven ran inside and got them all bags. We worked hard in the sun for almost an hour picking up trash and glass.

At the end, each kid gave me their bag so I could make sure it was safely disposed of and thanked them for all of their hard work cleaning up where we live.

I, Patti, had a great opportunity recently to spend more time with Ro than I have in about a month. She was more energetic and came outside to sit on the playground and talk with me.

She asked questions about how I know one of her teachers. I shared that I go to church with her teacher. I also told her that I asked our church to pray for her to have a miracle in healing. She seemed shocked and thankful.

She shared that because her cancer is recurring and is stage 4, the doctors are not providing treatment to cure it, only medicine to help with the pain she has.

She is 16 years old and is waiting to die.

Representatives from the Make-A-Wish Foundation were at her home that day. She shared that they are going to help her family with rent. Y’all, this sweet young woman is thinking of her family and wanting to help take care of them.

Ro is looking forward to a family fishing trip to Florida at the end of Ramadan (March 29-30th). She was unable to go on some of the trips last year because of her health.

Please, please do not stop praying for God to cure Ro’s cancer. Literally, this is a matter of life and death… and not just physically here on earth but for all eternity for Ro.

Pray for her family. Those of us who have been impacted by cancer personally or through a family member or friend know how hard this time can be for the people who love Ro deeply.

Pray for spiritual awakening to God’s Truth and for them to receive Jesus, especially during the last 10 nights of Ramadan which is when Muslims are typically more open to spiritual matters.

In the last post from Jay, you read about Ben and how God is bringing Ben’s family closer to himself.

Recently, on a call with Ben, Jay muted his mic to share with us that Ben’s wife is reading the Bible with intense hunger. Ben shared that he is drawing closer to God as well. He and his partner are in serious talks of getting married so that they are no longer living in sin.

Raven said, “That’s so good! Jesus is giving him a good heart so he doesn’t have a hard heart anymore.”

She paused and was deep in thought before adding, “If he keeps believing in Jesus and stays close to Him, that means Baba can meet him in person one day heaven!!”

I love the way God has been growing our sweet girl. She cares so deeply for people and wants them to know Jesus so we can all celebrate Him together forever in heaven!

My friend Ben in the UK has been walking in stagnant faith for a few years. He has shared with me that God blessed him many years ago sending a missionary in his life to share the gospel and disciple him. That missionary has left and gone back to the states.

In the past few months I have been able to continue challenging his faith and calling him into action. Through the hard work of God chiseling away at him he has recently purchased a new bible. His partner was curious about the bible when it arrived and she saw him reading it. She has now expressed interest in wanting one and they are now reading the bible together.

He has recently started looking for a church and his older missionary friend knows the area really well. He has been helping him from long-distance to identify a place for their family to call home for a church.

God has really been moving in their house and drawing everyone unto himself. Including the step-daughter.

They live in a small Chapel that has been redesigned into a home.
Pray for their small little Chapel. That God would continue to pour out his blessings upon the place.

Most of you guys know about my British friend(s) and that I engage in sharing the gospel with them pretty regularly. A few weeks ago they asked me to record and share some of our conversations on Youtube.

I have uploaded some of the videos and wanted to post them for you to watch as well. They are about 1 minute each video.

Suffering & Gospel

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