"For nothing will be impossible with God."[Luke 1:37 NASB]
PRAISES:
Marriage Ceremonies
Two volunteer Nazarene missionaries were deployed to a suburb of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (DR). Couples began attending the church the missionaries are involved in and came to know Christ. None of the couples were married. The missionaries, with the help of an Indiana church that provided wedding gowns, have helped the couples to have full Biblical marriage ceremonies.
Africa Region Anti-Human Trafficking Coordinator
The Africa Region for the Church of the Nazarene has hired an anti-human trafficking coordinator. Almost one fifth of the world’s human trafficking victims live in Africa.
Lisa Lehman
Praise God! Missionary Lisa Lehman is doing better. Her fever returned to a normal range, her flu symptoms subsided; she was released from the hospital, and is recovering at home. Thank you for your prayers. Continue to pray for Lisa's full recovery. She serves in Thailand. Read more about Lisa and her work as a missionary in the Engagemagazine profile.
Missionary profile: Lisa Lehman
Engage: How did you first recognize God’s call to be involved in missions?
Lisa: I was 7 years old, listening to my mission-minded pastor, James O. Deal, when I first recognized God was calling me to be His missionary. Others had said I was too young to go on a Work & Witness trip, so I told God I would be His missionary by the year 2000, a year I was sure I’d be old enough to serve Him! My childhood years were filled with missionary stories and encounters during Junior Missionary Society mission lessons and children’s camp mission speakers like Armand and Pauline Doll, Harmon Schmelzenbach, and others.
During my youth and college years I went on three Work & Witness trips to Mexico. During college, God confirmed His call with Isaiah 49:6, “. . .I will also make you to be a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” I began to believe God was calling me to Asia. Following several years of teaching in a local school I began to feel disillusioned about missions and began thinking God had changed His mind. But He ordered a very unique turn of events between 1998 and 2000 that led me to Thailand, and I began serving in Bangkok on January 5, 2001.
Lisa: I really enjoy teaching others to applyGod’s Word in any context. A few years ago I was teaching the course, History of World Missions, to a group of hilltribe pastors in training. I gave them world maps to locate the nations where the Church of the Nazarene has ministry. Some of them had never seen the world map before and were excited to realize they are part of something so large!
While explaining the need of unreached people in other parts of the 10/40 Window during the same course in another location, one of the students stopped me and commented, “Well, we could go to that part of the world easily! We could take the Gospel to others!”
In another local church a young adult sensed God’s call to a nation currently closed to the gospel. She began sharing her growing passion with other youth in her church. They began to pray, and God provided them with time and resources to take their first mission trip outside of their homeland. Since then this local church has ministered annually to assist other struggling churches, including churches in two other nations. After their first trip they returned to report to the congregation, “God provided for our needs! He answered our prayers!”
Engage: What are some of the challenges that you face in carrying out your work? Share any relevant stories to illustrate this.
Lisa: Sometimes others see me as an English teacher and don’t really want to hear anything about God or His Word. Once I was invited to teach English in a Buddhist community. For several weeks I met and taught whoever was interested in the language class. One week I realized, however, that it seemed impossible to build conversation topics that would give opportunity to share Christ or any part of the Gospel message. So I prayed and asked God to open a topic of conversation through which I could share Him with this group.
The lesson went along as usual, but without a bridge to Christ. At the conclusion of the lesson I asked if anyone had any questions, or other words they would like to ask about. Immediately one of the women volunteered, “What is the difference between ‘excuse’ and ‘forgive’?" God had answered my prayer, and I gladly introduced the concept of God’s forgiveness given to us in Christ, and that it is really only through Christ that we can forgive others. But two weeks later the English class was canceled by the community director, due to not having enough interested students.
Engage: Please share a story of a significant event or moment that has happened in your current assignment.
Lisa: Several years ago I assisted in the work of using English teaching to plant a church in an unreached community. Our national team and I soon discovered that while youth and adults were nominally interested in English classes, only the children were eager to learn about Jesus during our Sunday morning bilingual lessons. One of these children was a boy who at age 6 was so full of rage that he often became a danger to the other children in the center.
I soon had opportunity to meet his family and discovered he was a victim of regular physical abuse. During our initial visit God gave calmness and allowed me to share the Gospel with his family. They allowed me to pray for them but they did not accept Christ in faith. Trust began to be built that day, and for most of 10 years they welcomed me and a Thai national to advise, pray with them, and model positive behavior management strategies for them. The boy gave his heart to the Lord after understanding how much Jesus willingly suffered for him.
Then one Sunday the boy’s aunt, his guardian, willingly attended church with him and also accepted Christ as her Savior. Anger subsided to tears of repentance, and the boy’s home life was transformed. Within months, however, this aunt died, leaving the boy as a ward of the state. He was placed in a government home for boys about two years ago. The visits with him since then have been mixed. But I remain hopeful that God has His hand on this young man who is now nearly 16 years old. The young man wants to be a pastor someday. Engage: How do you maintain a close relationship with God in the midst of the demands of missionary service?
Lisa: This does require careful discipline as it is so easy to become busy and to give myself the excuse that I am “doing God’s work” as proof that I am living in close communion with Him. But God has taught me through some long and meaningful lessons that my first priority is my time with Him each day. He and I enjoy both daily and extended times of prayer each day and week. We also take a prayer retreat about once every 2 to 3 months just so I can be sure I’m really hearing His heart and focused on His priorities. Relationships with others are equally important and keeping the balance is sometimes a challenge. But God is giving me more wisdom the more I rely on Him and seek meaningful fellowship with others in His Body, whether here on the field or in my homeland.
Engage: What are the rewards of what you do?
Lisa: Changed lives, increased fellowship with others in Christ, unhindered by language or cultural differences. Each time God unites my heart with His and someone else for whom Christ died, I feel very rich and full of joy! In quiet moments when fruit from relationships or other ministry seems meager and obscure, God often reminds me of Genesis 15:1, “I am your shield, your very great reward.”
Lisa: Thai worship singing! Thai people’s gracious ways, hospitality; willingness to listen; Thai food with all its flavorful varieties; Thai language with its melodic cadence and beautiful flowing script.
Engage: What do you like to do for fun?
Lisa: I like to sing, swim, go to a park, or take a trip to the beach. I also enjoy playing board games, word games, or checking up on others’ Facebook pictures.
Engage: What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?
Lisa: I’m allergic to chocolate and avoid all types of caffeine. Despite years of piano lessons and loving music I’ve never been able to play the instrument well enough to accompany anyone. Despite several years of Spanish in high school and college I never became a fluent speaker, but my fluency in Thai is a help to God’s work here.
Engage: What advice would you have for others exploring a possible call to missions, or embarking on their first missionary assignment?
Lisa: Persevere! Fill your mind and heart with God’s Word! Whether in the process of really embracing God’s call yourself or exploring how to live it out through the Church or even para-church ministry, keep listening to God’s heart and obeying His Word and direction at every turn. Trust Him to be faithful to fulfill HIS purpose for your life no matter what it takes (Ps. 138:8). Be creative and let God open doors or close doors. Then when you are with people, whether or not you can speak their language just love them. Pray for them. Ask God to open their hearts to Him. Walk on with Him and them in joy!
PRAY FOR:
GLOBAL MINISTRY REQUESTS
Injured JESUS Film Team Member
This week a JESUS Film team member in India named Biprosh fell off a roof while he was setting up equipment so the team could screen the film that evening. He is hospitalized in critical condition. The ministry leaders would like to move him to a better hospital, however, it is not certain this can happen, and also Biprosh may not have the finances necessary for treatment.
Please pray for Biprosh’s full recovery, for the medical team treating him, and for his wife and one-year-old son, who must carry on while he is hospitalized. Pray also for God to provide full support for his treatment costs.
February Missionary Prayer Focus
Thank you for praying for these requests received by missionaries who are part of the February prayer focus.
Stephen and Jaclyn Tarrant, serving in Australia
Pray for Stephen as he shares Jesus in a coffee shop setting.
Jaclyn's about to start back to classes at Nazarene Theological College in Brisbane next week. Pray for her as she is studying while being far along in her pregnancy.
Jaclyn's parents will be coming to visit soon after baby arrives.
Pray also for Jaclyn's community involvement through a couple of different organizations. Pray God will use her in these organizations to challenge and inspire people about Jesus.
Pray also for our fund raising and our peace while we wait for necessary support to be given by friends, family and perhaps strangers.
Grant and Aisling Zweigle, serving in the Philippines
Prayers for the social, spiritual, physical, and leadership development of the students at Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary in Manila, and for wisdom for Grant in his work as Dean of Students.
Prayers for Graiden (13) and Abram (11). Pray that they would continue to thrive in their education at Faith Academy with fellow students and staff.
Pray for Lucinda (Luz) Tamayo who is Aisling's ministry mentor. Pray that Aisling would find meaningful ways to contribute to the outreach sites where Pastor Luz ministers to children-at-risk.
Pray that Aisling would be able to encourage, pray for, and support those at Taytay First Church of the Nazarene, and on the district, who are already doing this great work.
Pray that Aisling's graduate studies would reflect what God is doing, in a way that builds up and strengthens the global church.
Board of General Superintendents
Please pray for the ministry and safety of the general superintendents as they travel this month:
Jerry D. Porter
J. K. Warrick
Eugénio Duarte
David W. Graves
David A. Busic
Gustavo A. Crocker
HEALTH-RELATED REQUESTS
Wendy Lopez
Missionary Wendy Lopez is two-weeks away from giving birth to a son, Jeremy. She is a type 2 diabetic and says, “While through most of the pregnancy the glucose levels have been ok, the past few weeks, they have been harder to control. We are praying for a control of the glucose levels for myself and the baby when he is born.” Wendy and her family serve on the Mesoamerica Region.
Thank you for praying.
I continue to dream and pray about a revival of holiness in our day that moves forth in mission and creates authentic community in which each person can be unleashed through the empowerment of the Spirit to fulfill God's creational intentions.[John Wesley, How To Pray: The Best of John Wesley on Prayer John Wesley was an 18th century Anglican evangelist and founder of the Wesleyan Tradition.]
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