I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. — John 15:5

So often we look at the task in front of us and wonder, how are we going to do this? and where do we start? I don’t have the most concrete answers to those questions, but there is so much peace in remembering these verses and committing to the part we can control: remaining in the Vine.

Pray for the people here, from the wealthiest to those who have so little. Pray for the children. Pray for the elderly. Pray for those with jobs and without. Pray for the broken-hearted. Pray for the searching. Pray for a hunger to know Christ. Pray for revival in the local church. Pray that the Lord will open the eyes of the priests to His truth. Pray for boldness of local believers to share Christ with those around them.

God is not done here; pray for this city.

Over the last 2 weeks we have gotten 3 opportunities to go out to a nearby village to help refugee children learn a bit of English. The experience has gone a little like this:

Day 1: we discovered they know the alphabet song but the phrase “Hello, my name is ___.” was too much for them. Then, they all just… left the room? We decided to revamp our ideas for the next time.

Day 2: we called this game plan: games. Specifically, we chose “What Time is it, Mr. Fox?” to practice numbers and a game of catch to practice various categories of vocabulary. This eventually dissolved into a game of tag.

Day 3: that is today! It’s the final time we will head to the village for this group of children. We are going to try a few ideas with colors and shapes. Pray that the Lord will help us be creative. Most of all pray that these children will experience God’s through us in this short time we have with them.