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.