Change is a normal part of life, but there is an added layer when transition means moving from one country to another. Whether it’s leaving your passport country, or returning to it, the mix of emotions is real and paradoxical. Feeling sad to leave but excited to return sounds simple enough, but for the heart and soul, it can be a disconcerting tension. Add a global pandemic and closed borders, and well, it’s just hard.

Please pray for two of our team families–one leaving GM for home assignment and one returning to GM from HA as they traverse this familiar yet all new terrain. Please wait and pray with us for Peace, Grace, Wisdom, open borders, protection from the virus, and overall travel mercies. Thank you!

During our first cherry season, a dear friend explained to me that fresh cherries needed to be soaked in salt water, so that you don’t eat any worms. (Don’t ask how many cherries we had eaten prior to this advice!) Sure enough, as the cherries sat in the warm, salt bath little worms began to make their way out of the fruit. YIKES!

It’s cherry season once again, and it feels like this season of lockdown has been a time of soaking for my heart and soul. God has shown me things that He wants to redeem and restore, areas of confession and repentance, and He’s even sewn seeds of things to come. I love that though the process is painful at times, He never leaves our side. We can soak in His love and grace and find healing.

Here in GM virus-related regulations are slowly being lifted. We are still waiting to reopen our center doors, as we have not been authorized to do so yet. Please pray for the ability to clearly understand the laws to know when we can open and for wisdom as a team as we move forward.

A new believer recently explained, “In the past I was struggling with anger, fear and worry, but since I have become a follower of Jesus, I don’t know how to explain it, I have peace.” Praise God that in Him we are a new creation.  
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

Though this time of quarantine has been difficult to say the least, we have seen good things happening in the midst of it! Over a month ago a group called Words of Hope began. Three women from our team, along with two local believing women share the word of God and discuss it’s meaning in our lives. Various women have been attending — from former students we hardly see anymore to students who have been seeking for quite some time & keep joining us to hear more. It has been a blessing to gather & share His words of hope with these women— pray with us that it will lead to hearts being transformed by His grace!

“This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.” – Ezekiel 37:5

May God bring restoration to the hearts of the people who enter these doors, even as they work to restore the outside walls.