Merry Christmas brothers and sisters in Chr*st J*sus. We hope that you all are having a wonderful holiday season. Our family is rejoicing as we w0rship our great Father. During the Christmas season we find ourselves thinking of loved ones and family. We also find ourselves thinking of our supporting ch*rches. We would like to express our appreciation to all of you for the awesome ways in which you support us. It is truly a blessing to know that we have a family who thinks about us and pr@ys for us. We are reminded of the L0ttie M00n Christmas 0ffering that is collected every year during the Christmas season. Thank you to all who participated in this offering this year. Your giving makes it possible for us and others around the world to be faithful to our calling.

The past few months have been eventful. We have been working with two local house fellowships. Many of our members have been fighting through various hardships. Several of our families have found themselves struggling financially. Others have had serious health concerns. In the midst of these challenges, we have been focusing on the greatness of the Father. It has been a blessing to watch our people grow in their trust and dependance. Lena and I found ourselves in a situation where we had to demonstrate our own dependance upon the Father. Our landlord told us that we had to move out of our home recently. This news hit us hard because it is difficult to find affordable housing that is suitable in our city. The housing market here is incredibly competitive and expensive. Our local family was troubled by the news that we were being asked to move. At first, we were feeling a bit anxious. However, the Father gave us peace. He reminded us that he is in control of our circumstances. He is faithful and can be trusted to work all thing together for the good of those who love Him. It was a joy to express this confidence in the Father to our local family. They could see that our encouragements to them to trust in the Father were not just lip service. It is important to not only preach the truth of Scr*pture, but our lives must also reflect the things we claim to believe. We all took our burdens and concerns to the Father. Every Friday night we meet together to pr@y. We have seen many of our pr@yers answered. One of our members received the good news that his cancer is in remission. Another person was given a significant amount of money for his mortgage while he was being threatened with foreclosure. Lena and I found an incredible new property that is perfect for our family. We have been teaching them that it is important to trust in the Father even when things seem bleak. Sometimes He brings difficult circumstances into our lives to teach us vital lessons.

The Father continues to open up doors for us to share our f@ith with others. This past week we threw a Christmas party and invited everyone from the community to attend. We had around 60 people in attendance. We sang songs, read Scr*pture, played games, and ate a meal. We also had a South Asian lady share her story of how she came to know the Father. I have imbedded a video in this post of a program we host at our local community center called Mirror of Truth. Mirror of Truth is a Christi@n/Musl*m dialogue in which we consider what the B*ble and the Qur@n have to say about various topics. This program gives us the opportunity to share our faith with those in attendance. In this particular audio clip, I am giving a presentation to two South Asian men about idolatry/shirk. My friend, who formerly was a follower of Isl@m, is helping me in this endeavor. Both of the men we are talking to are lawyers by profession. One of them is a Musl*m. The other man used to be a Musl*m but has since rejected the faith of his family and is searching for truth. Hopefully this clip will give you a small glimpse into the types of conversations we have with people.

The boys are doing well. Simeon has stopped nursing. Silas is super excited about Christmas. The Father has been good to our family. We trust that you all are experiencing the Father’s love and comfort during this holiday season.

Pr@yer Requests:
Pr@y for us as we move to our new home. Pr@y that the transition would go well.
Pr@y for our house fellowships. Pr@y that we would grow spiritually and numerically.
Pr@y for our community. Pr@y that the Father would do a might work in the hearts of those who live here.
Pr@y for us as we move into a new year of possibilities.                   

Telling others about the Father at Holiday Club

Ev@ngelism Training

Waiting in line for henna

Telling M*slims about the Father through henna

Henna Design

Simeon's Boo Boo

Fun at Leeds Castle

Praise the Father for his many blessings this summer. We trust that you all have had an eventful summer. Our summer has brought many new lessons and insights. We continue to grow in our new role here as we take on new responsibilities and as we meet new people. I have taken on the new role of director of our community center. I have also become a part of the leadership team here in our local fellowship. These two developments have kept me busy. The past two months have been filled with trainings and outre@ch. I have led 3 ev@ngelism trainings. Altogether, I trained around 60 people how to share their f@ith this summer. Several of these were South Asian bel*evers. We coupled these trainings with outre@ch activities. These activities have included parties at the park and a Holiday Club. Lena and I participated in 4 parties at the park over the past 2 months. These parties consist of various activities for the people of the community. Soccer, cricket, games, face painting, balloons, and henna drawings are among the types of activities that are offered during these parties. These events have been great for connecting with new people. Meeting new people in our city is not always easy. People are not accustomed to chatting with strangers for no apparent reason. It is easy enough to talk to new people, but to have a meaningful conversation without a basis for that conversation is rare. However, I have learned that these parties open up doors for conversations. People are attracted to the fun and friendliness. They open up and are more willing to talk about their personal lives. Such an environment is perfect for telling others about the good news. Lena has done a wonderful job of using her artistic gifts during these parties. She has been setting up henna drawing booths. She draws South Asian inspired art onto the hands and lower arms of women. These drawings have spiritual significance and are used to tell others about our Father. The ladies of the community have been going crazy over these drawings. There have even been heated arguments between women as they fuss over who gets to go next. One day, Lena gave henna drawings to around 60 women. Lena has utilized the popularity of these drawings to attract women to our community center. She is running a weekly activity for women called Tea Time. Most recently she made it known that henna drawings will be offered during Tea Time. There were 11 women who showed up the first week after making this announcement. This increase has been encouraging for us considering perviously there were only 2-3 women attending each week. Our expectation is that Tea Time will continue to grow and will open up doors to make connections so that the good news might be proclaimed. Our team also hosted a Holiday Club last week. This club took place over five days. We offered games, crafts, dramas, snacks, and sports to the children of our community. The end of each day was capped off with a B*ble story. On the final day we hosted a closing program. During the final program their was a talent show for the children and a meal. At the end of the closing program the p@stor of our fellowship stood and told our guests the g0spel. In total, we had around 65 children/teens attend and approximately 20 adults. This is incredible when you consider that 95% of those in attendance were M*slim. 

On a personal note, the Brown household is doing well. There were a few things that happened to us over the summer that is worth mentioning. First, Silas is officially potty trained. Needless to say, his parents are very proud of him. Second, Simeon took a bad fall at the park. He was running around near a park bench and tripped. On his way down he hit his forehead on a sharp corner of the bench. Blood gushed out everywhere. There were several M*slim women around us at the park that day. They were very caring as we attended to this crisis. We took him to the local urgent care clinic and they patched him up. It seems that Simeon’s accident has not slowed him down any. He is still just as silly as ever. Third, we were able to take some vacation time. We got to visit Oxford and Leeds Castle. We plan on going to Paris in the near future.

Pr@yer Requests:

Pr@y for those who have received ev@ngelism training over the past two months. Our hope is that they will use what they have been taught to more actively share the good news.

Pr@y for those who have heard the g0spel recently through our team’s efforts. Many seeds were planted over the summer. Our desire is that we would see the fruit of our labor.

Pr@y for Lena’s Tea Time. We think that this m*nistry could open the door for many women to come to know the Father.

We have several people who will be leaving our team in the near future. One of our key families will be going back to the States to raise funds. They will be gone for six months. Our p@stor will be moving on to a ch*rch plant elsewhere in our country. Losing these key people will make staffing events more difficult. Please pr@y for us as we learn to press on without them.                          

We will be applying for a new visa soon. If granted we will have another 3 years in our city. Pr@y that the visa process would proceed smoothly.

We found out the other day that when our 12 month lease expires in Feb that we will have to find a new place to live. Pr@y that a suitable place for our f@mily and ministry would open up for us.

*Picture of E@ster Party

Greetings from Europe! We hope everyone is enjoying the wonderful Spring weather. The Father has been blessing us with some great days filled with sunshine. He has also been blessing us with some wonderful opportunities. I got to attend a workshop recently on how to train and d*sciple new bel*evers. The workshop was led by a man who had worked for years in East Asian and who had seen an unbelievable amount of fruit. It was a wonderful time of being reminded of the Father’s love for the lost. At the center of his m*nistry was the importance of making d*sciples. His approach for making d*sciples was focusing on training that was obedience based. This obedience based training led to action which led to an unbelievable amount of reproduction. These reports are especially incredible when one considers the hostile environment that this movement took place in. I plan on implementing many of the principles that I learned from this training in our work here in our city.

There was a university student that came over from the States this past month to help our team out. He is finishing up his degree at school which requires some overseas cultural exposure. He chose to meet this requirement for his degree by coming to our city and working among the South Asian peoples here. Although he had received training on how to talk to people about the f@ith, I was able to train him in a specific approach on talking to people of various religi0us backgrounds that has been practiced successfully and fruitfully in a number of hostile environments around the world. I was greatly encouraged by how easily he picked up the training and how successfully he implemented it in our community. He got into a number of great conversations with several young M*slim men. I am going to be training a small group of men in this exact ev@ngelistic approach at the beginning of next month. If my friend’s success with this approach is any indication of how well others will respond to it then I am extremely optimistic about next month’s training.

Our team’s house fellowships continue to show promise. We continue to have unbel*evers and new people attend. There has been an Asian M*slim couple who has attended our meeting on several occasions. We had a S*kh brother and sister attend. Everyone seems to really be enjoying our time in the W0rd, in w0rship, and in pr@yer. Every week the Father is blessing our meetings. We also saw one H*ndu man (Sanjay-pseudonym) make a profession of f@ith recently. One of my m*nistry partners here has been sharing the g0spel with Sanjay for over ten years. A few weeks ago, Sanjay was having a very bad day. My partner was able to help him work through his issues and lead him to the Father. We are hoping to get Sanjay plugged into our weekly meetings.    

We threw an E@ster Party at our local community center on E@ster Sunday. We had over 50 people attend from the local community. Most of those who attended were from an Isl@mic background. During the party we played games, socialized, sang pr@ise songs, pr@yed, and ate a meal. There was also a g0spel message delivered. I have to admit I was shocked that so many people showed up for this party. Many of these attend because of our team’s children’s m*nstry. Once a month our team organizes a “Fun Day” for the kids in our community. We organize games and activities and then invite everyone to come participate. Many are familiar with us because of our presence in the community. People then attend our special events because they respect what we do throughout the year. We praise our Father who is able to do above and beyond what we might expect.  

We also led and facilitated several successful Christi@n/M*slim dialogues. Twice a month we invite the people of our community to meet together for a discussion about the Father. A speaker selects a topic and then presents it to the group. The past two subjects have been “Sh@ria Law in Europe” and “G0d’s Unchanging W0rd.” Both topics provided for fierce discussion. These meetings can get intense. So much so that I have a difficult time sleeping at night after these meetings. I was the presenter during our last meeting. I pointed out that both the B*ble and the Qur@n teach that G0d’s W0rd cannot be changed. This truth is problematic for the M*slim because their book teaches that the teachings of J*sus are G0d’s W0rd. However, they do not believe in J*sus‘ W0rds in the B*bile because they claim that His W0rd has been changed by Christi@ns. I proposed that they cannot hold to this position because their book teaches that the W0rd cannot be changed. If the W0rd cannot be changed then J*sus‘ W0rds cannot be changed either because they are considered to be G0d’s W0rds. Therefore, the B*ble must contain the actual W0rds of J*sus. Those in attendance were given the opportunity to ask me questions and challenge my view after my presentation. The M*slims in our city can be very intellectual. They can ask some very difficult questions. They like to make bel*evers appear to be foolish. When I was studying b*bilical criticism in semin@ry I did not think that I was going to have to deal with it very often. To my surprise, I find myself constantly answering objections to our f@ith that have been borne out of b*blical criticism here working with M*slims. The Father gave me a sharp mind and a quick tongue that evening. I felt like the Father gave me the ability to answer all of their objections in a loving and accurate fashion.            

On a personal note, everyone in the Brown household is doing well. The boys are keeping Jennifer extremely busy. Silas and Simeon are happy and healthy.

Pr@yer Requests:
1. For the ev@ngelism training that I will be leading next month. Pr@y that those who participate will pick up the training and get excited about sharing their f@ith.
2. For those who have heard and for those who will hear the g0spel through our team’s efforts. Pr@y that the Father would use His W0rd and Spirit to transform those who hear.
3. For Sanjay. Pr@y that he would walk with the Father.
4. For our house fellowships. Pr@y that we would see the Father establish some powerful fellowships in the midst of our community.

We had a great meeting last month with our supervisors and with our partners. Our Father blessed us and gave us a spirit of unity as we all considered what our Father would have us do during our first year in our city. We have two major projects that we are working on. First, we have started a fellowship in our home. We are meeting in our home every other week. So far, we have only met twice. We are looking to establish several house fellowships in our community. At the present moment, there are two different groups meeting. One group meets at our house, and the other group meets in a house on the other side of the community. The house meetings that we have led and have attended have been a blessing. The meetings are very simple but incredibly powerful. We pr@y, w0rship, study the Word, and fellowship. A South Asian family attended last week and brought a friend with them who was visiting from South Asia. There was also a middle eastern couple who attended. We are excited to see what our Father is going to do in this community through these house meetings. One of the reasons why these house fellowships are apart of our outreach strategy is because those in our community are told not to go to ch*rch. If it was discovered that they had been to ch*rch then they would face ridicule. However, it is less risky to go to a house meeting because they are not going to a formal service. Rather, they are simply coming to my house. I tell those who I invite that we meet together to pr@y, to study the Word of our Father, and to enjoy each others’ company. My hope is that the Spirit would move in the hearts of those who attend our meetings. Our second major project will be offering training with the intention of mobilizing those who want to make an impact. These trainings will consist of weekly meetings in which strategies for ev@ngelism are taught, modeled, and encouraged. Each week, participants of these trainings will set goals for themselves and will report their weekly ev@ngelistic activities.

Lena and I had a lot of wonderful opportunities to share the g0spel last month. I would like for you all to lift up one man in particular. I led a Christi@n/M*slim dialogue in a local community center last month. The topic I chose to present to the group was the necessity of sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin. One of the M*slims in this group has taken a liking to me. I will refer to him by the name Khan. Khan invited me over to his house for dinner and discussion. While I was at his house, I spent well over two hours answering all his objections to Christi@nity. Khan is an educated man, so his objections were well informed. Please pr@y that the Father would open up Khan’s heart to the truth that is right in front of him.

Our family is doing great. Silas and Simeon are happy and growing. Simeon started walking last month. He seems to be very content now that he can walk around and get into trouble. Overall, we feel tremendously blessed to be here and we are excited about what the Father is teaching us and about what He is going to do in this community.

Pr@yer Requests:
Pr@yer that our house fellowships would grow and that the Father would bless our meetings.
Pr@y that the father would raise up bel*evers who would desire training from us so that we could help people to become more proficient at sharing the g0spel.
Pr@y for those who we come into contact with on a weekly basis. May the Father open up their hearts as we share the truth with them.
Pr@y that the Father would open up doors for us to build positive relationships with those in the community in which we live.
Lena has started a “Mum’s and Tot’s” group. This group provides mothers with young children the opportunity to socialize with others like them. Pr@y that the community would be responsive to this new group.                   

Our Second Term Begins

We are back in our city and are looking forward to serving our Father for another term overseas. Our time in the USA was refreshing. We got to spend a lot of quality time with our families and with our churches. Right before we were scheduled to return for our second term, I received an invitation to become a staff member from a fellowship in the midwest. I initially accepted the position after much pr@yer, but after a few weeks in the new position my calling became evident. The Father pricked my heart and I knew that our place was in our city overseas. This sense of calling was further confirmed by the thoughts and feelings of Lena. Our second term has begun and we are looking forward to what our Father has in store. If fact, we have already seen Him move in a mighty way as we were looking for housing. Upon arrival, our first task and most pressing concern was finding housing. Finding property to rent in our city can be challenging. The market is very competitive and properties turn over very quickly. Everyone is looking for a good deal. To make matters more challenging, I had to find housing within a very specific area. I registered with multiple estate agents in the local area in hopes that something decent would open up. During the first few days, I was having a hard time even getting agents to show me property. I was starting to think that it was going to take several weeks for something to open up. Then I received a phone call from one of the estate agents that I had contacted. He told me there was a house for rent within our desired area but that it was outside of our price range. He took me to the house for a viewing where I met the property owner. I learned that the owner has been preparing herself to move to South Asia. I told her that I used to live in SA with my family. We then had a very pleasant conversation about traveling and tips for living in SA. Upon returning to the estate agent’s office I was asked to make an offer. The offer that I made was significantly less than what the property owner was asking for. I really did not think that she would even considerate it. To my surprise, she was willing to take the offer. She said that she liked the idea of our family staying at her house and she was willing to accept less money. PTL! We will be moving into our new house at the beginning of February. Now we can begin to turn our attention to our main task. Over the next several weeks we will be formulating a vision for the future. Please be in pr@yer for us during this time. Our desire is that we would be effective and that the activities that we involve ourselves in would make an impact. Having a solid vision is a key component to being effective. May the Father lead, guide, and direct all our future plans.

On a personal note, we look forward to celebrating Simeon’s first birthday soon. It is hard to believe that Simeon is already one year old. Silas‘ third birthday is also just right around the corner. The Father has blessed our family with these two little ones. Please pr@y that our children would adjust well to their new environment and that the Father would bless them and cause them to excel.      

Pr@yer Requests:

1. For a solid vision inspired by the Father as we set out to work with the needy people in our city.
2. That our children would adjust well to their new environment.
3. That we would work well with our new team.
4. That we would be able to forge strong relationships with the South Asians in our community.
5. That we would share the good news with boldness and power.