Please Pray For Me

As many of you know, I was recently accepted into Houghton College, the school of my choice (see the posting on Monday, Feb. 11). Along with sending me my acceptance letter, I also received a letter informing me that I was eligible to join the school’s First Year Honors Program, which offers trips to both London and the Balkans during the first year of school.

I have a friend who is currently participating in the Honors Program right now, and who is studying in London. She’s told me about what a great experience it has been, and how amazing it is being there and learning in that environment.

Going to Europe is something that I have always wanted to do, and this program provides an opportunity to do this while in college and studying.

The people at Houghton College will be calling me Thursday night, for an interview determining whether or not they should accept me into the program. I feel I’m ready, but could still use all of your prayers. Please ask God for wisdom for me, and that I will be able to answer all of the questions to the fullest of my abilities.

Whether I am accepted or not is entirely up to Him, and I trust that whatever happens, it works out for His glory.

The Zuojiang

The UPG for this week are the Zuojiang. They live in Guangxi, China, and 0.14% of their population know Christ. There are 1.64 million Zuojiang, and they are being worked with. Please join us in prayer for the Zuojiang, and that they would be receptive to God’s word and come to know His everlasting love.

Blessed Through Visitors

In the past couple of weeks God had blessed us by bringing guests to our home.

Just last week Pastors Jan and Leslie Drayer came to stay with us while they were in Chiang Mai from Sunday to Wednesday after their conference. On returning to the Philippines they would begin the process of packing to move to the States. We were able to pray for their safe travel and for an easy transition back, and felt that they left almost as soon as they’d come.

Also last weekend we met friends of friends, a Canadian couple, Ross and Janet Kennedy. They were in Thailand on vacation, but are now seriously praying about moving here to teach at Grace International School. We were also able to pray for this couple and for their children, who had all already left home. We were able to enjoy a much shorter time with them, but felt equally blessed.

With every visitor that God brings to us He blesses us too by letting us be a blessing to them. I know that He works through us to refresh and restore the people who come here, and I am proud to be His instrument.

The Lianshan

This week’s Unreached People Group is the Lianshan. There are considerably less of them than most people groups, numbering only 40,000. It is currently unknown whether there are any believers among them, and there are no workers where they reside in Guangdong, China. Please pray for the Lianshan, and for God’s word to spread through them as a people, and to reach out to the surrounding nations.

At Long Last

At long last, my wait is over. Ever since the beginning of this school year I have been waiting for a reply from one of the five colleges that I applied to.

Four days ago, on February 7^th I received an email from Houghton College, telling me that they had accepted me into their school. It was an unbelievable feeling, and I had to read over the acceptance letter twice before telling my mother what had happened.

“The Committee has carefully considered your entire application and believes that you will gain an outstanding education at Houghton, while making meaningful contributions to the campus.”

This was just part of the letter that they sent me, and reading through, I was struck by how personal it was. They had obviously taken care in reading through my essays, and this surprised me.

We have decided as a family that this is the school for me. It is amazing how they accepted me despite the fact that my parents wrote that God would provide, when asked how money would be sent to pay my tuition. As of this moment we have only one third of how much it will cost to send me there for a year.

However, we take faith in the fact that God provides. Please pray that we will continue to trust in Him, and for us not to fall into doubt or unbelief. The Lord is always with us, and He will always help us through whatever we face.

The Qiubei (and the blog)

The Qiubei live in Yunnan, China, and number 200,000, or 0.2 million. There are very few believers, with less than one percent of the population who know about God. The Qiubei are not being worked with at this time.

Please pray for the Qiubei, and for their salvation.

Also, praise God that the blog is back up and running! Since our main computer has been fixed, I have just gone back and reformatted all of the cluttered posts that were without spaces of any kind before. We will now be returning to our regular schedule of posting.

Provision in Answer to Prayer

Most Christians know that God answers prayer. However, it never ceases to amaze us when we are audience to His great power.

As some of you know I will be graduating in June of this year, and will then be going to North America where I will be studying in either Canada or the States. This has become a very large part of our lives, thinking about scholarships and schools and, most importantly, how to pay for said schools.

The application for Houghton College, the school that I most want to go to, required an affidavit of financial support indicating that my parents could send money to send me to school; the amount paid would have to be almost $29,000 a year. Knowing that we did not have the money my parents wrote down that the Lord God Almighty would provide the money.

Just last week my mother went on a silent one-week retreat to get away from it all. On the third day of the retreat, a Monday, she shared our predicament with a woman who was attending the retreat with her, a missionary. The next day the woman she has just met told her that she would give $10,000 US to help send me to college.

That Wednesday, as we sat around the table before heading off to school, my father told me about what had happened. I was speechless. It took a good two minutes before I could wrap my head around what had happened.

We are all told that God will provide for our every need, but to see it actually happen, to hear about it when it applies directly to your life, that is something entirely different.

I urge all of you to place your faith in God, because I know that He is always there for you, always listening. God will always be there, ready to give, ready to bless.