Dear Epaphras,
Thanks for standing with our PIONEERS leaders as we sought the Lord, worshiped, prayed and planned in Manila last week. He met with us in a powerful way, giving us unity and strengthening our relationships – I’ve come to see that strong and healthy relationships are paramount in getting ministry done. And strong relationships require humility, being others focused and there is no substitute for time spent together.
We sought the Lord on how to strengthen our commitment to starting Church Planting Movements worldwide. Colleagues shared reports of God moving powerfully in Egypt, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Hundreds of church planters are ready to launch into ministry from Brazil, Ghana, Togo, China and North Africa. Since many of these qualified ministers are held back by a lack of finances and visa restrictions, we discussed ways of creating employment opportunities to creatively generate funding.
A huge answer to prayer was meeting Mike. Mike and his wife Suzanne moved to the Philippines 6 years ago with a heart and passion to see the Filipino church send out missionaries. Mike is only 30 years old, yet he has raised up a PIONEERS mobilisation base and started a movement. We had the joy of meeting “Rudy,” a young Filipino believer being sent to a very dangerous part of southeast Asia – as I write she is on her way.
The beauty of this is that Mike is turning over leadership of PIONEERS Philippines to Buddy (pictured next to Mike in black) and senses the Lord’s call to join us in Europe to help relaunch the PIONEERS Europe mobilization base – something we’ve asked you to pray over for nearly a year now. Mike and Suzanne will move to Europe in 2015 and work closely with my team as they serve the already 39 workers sent out from Europe. More on PI Europe in the coming weeks and months.
Thanks for praying for Sara and the girls back home. They had an awesome week with our teammate Janet visiting from Hungary. Pray for us as we lead the Teens Team youth bible study this Sunday – which has grown fast to 15 kids! The theme this week is “religion or relationship.” Pray God would be drawing each of these precious kids personally to Himself.
Blessings in Jesus
Steve and Sara
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