I've got so many new students to tell you about that it can't wait 'till next Tuesday. My first year class Monday was packed out beyond desks, and it is such a joy to see God sending men and women out of the corners of Haiti to our doors for equipping and training. They are young men and women, they (and we) believe they are called men and women, and we are thankful to have them and to give them back to Him.
Twenty first year students doesn't only mean 20 men and women working and serving and studying and going out...it also means we need more help equipping them!
I AM SO BLESSED to be able to look at our second year class and have men and women around the world lifting them up, praying for them, supporting them, knowing them, writing them, loving them. Every single one of them. Keep on, friends.
Matt and I know you by name, pray for you, speak of you, and thank our God for you! Every single one of you.
It is my same dream for first year...that they would have many holding their ropes, stuffing their envelopes, sacrificially giving and loving, generously praying and urgently lifting them up. Every single one of them.
Each of these students represent so many men and women and children--learning and growing in the Gospel these students are learning and growing in. They are greatly loved by Him, every single one of them.
So, I'm going to do the best I can to get and share their stories every week or so. If their stories resonate, move, touch, put someone on your heart...do something. Tell someone. Share it. Get creative (remember the roof lady?). Stretch. Obey...whether that means praying or giving, sharing or going, bake sale-ing, begging, doing something crazy with crazy love.
Thank you, from every single one of our hearts.
Meet Anderson.
I didn’t grow up
in a Christian family, but when I was 8 years old my mom and dad converted to
follow Jesus. I am the eighth of 8
children, and now we all started going to church. As a child then, I began to understand that
God was the One to serve, that it was God who was the way and the truth. I saw that I needed to be faithful to Him and
saw that He was to be the one whom I would follow.
It wasn’t long
before I converted, too, and when I was nineteen I asked to be baptized, and I
was baptized in the church.
When I was in
high school during the time of this conversion, I started to have a lot of
difficulties. In Haiti, when people see
that you have a chance to be in school, and see that you are doing well, there
is a lot of pressure on you to DO really big things with your education
(because so few have the opportunity.) I
did better than most of my brothers and sisters in school, so I was put all the
way through school when they weren’t. There
was a lot of jealously in my family and among my friends.
In November 2008 my dad died. Then in 2010, my mom died, and now I felt truly thrown at the feet of God and became far more serious about my faith.
During the end of my high school, there was so much pressure coming from my family that I become a doctor, so that I could support my siblings. I told the Lord that I had to go into medicine and asked him what He thought about that. Right away, I felt that God kept telling me that he wanted me in the Gospel, not in medicine.
My family was very frustrated by this decision, but I'm trusting the Lord and stepping out on that trust.
During the end of my high school, there was so much pressure coming from my family that I become a doctor, so that I could support my siblings. I told the Lord that I had to go into medicine and asked him what He thought about that. Right away, I felt that God kept telling me that he wanted me in the Gospel, not in medicine.
My family was very frustrated by this decision, but I'm trusting the Lord and stepping out on that trust.
Someone told me
about Emmaus, and when I visited a few places, I knew that this was where God
would have me be.
I’ve taught
Sunday school, I’ve preached in different churches, I’ve worked with kids, I’ve
done all kinds of work, but I want to become more equipped to do them. The Bible says that our big work is to be
preaching the Gospel, and that is what I want to be able to do in any kind of
work or ministry God calls me to.
Please pray with
me for as one who has no mom and dad, that God would be in control of me, that God would care for my family. I see that due to my circumstances, I am truly ready and able to go
anywhere and do anything for Him. Pray that He
will always be walking in and through my life, consecrating me for Him and
drawing me where He wants me.
If you have any problems or questions or need help, please email and we'll get right back to you!
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