Prayer request update

I'm now only 4 short weeks away from finishing up language school and moving on to Ecuador. I'm hoping and praying that these last weeks will prove to bear fruit of all the work we've put in in the past 8 weeks here.

1. There is a girl named Cecilie, a Norweigian language student who has been studying with us, who is definitely seeking. I and others have had the opportunity to share testimonies, salvation, and just about every major or controversial subject in Christianity and the Bible. She still clings to the humanist European view that's very trendy these days that inspires the false hope that humanity is good at heart and can accomplish good things if you really put your mind to it. However, I think after seeing the way our beliefs are not just a tradition but a way of life for us has caused her to rethink the traditional, liturgical, forced Christianity she experienced as a child. But with only 4 weeks left there's not too much time for us to see the fruit of all our conversations. It doesn't have to happen while we're still here...but it'd be real nice to see a salvation experience before leaving.

2. Our Wednesday night Bible study has been going quite well. I haven't been in several weeks but they tell me that our national leader (the father of the host family one of the fellow missionaries here is staying with) is really stepping up and leading it. He's starting to see the possibility of the group continuing after we leave and even turning into a church. He's slowly been letting go of one Catholic tradition after another and just reading the Bible and doing what it says. Pray that this would not fall apart after we leave and that he would truly step up to the plate and accept the role of shepherd that God has clearly put him in the unique postition to fulfill. He's not 100% doctrinally sound...but I think when we reach Heaven we'll all have some corrections made too. The most important part is that he's making steady progress and has the big things right and is clearly experiencing God moving in his life.

3. The IMB has a film they produced called "La Esperanza", or "The Hope". It's mainly narrated with CGI graphics in the background, so there's no hokey, low-budget actors to interfere with the message. I'm hoping that we could show it here in our town just before Christmas. At the very least we would invite our host families and teachers and all their friends and family...at best we could promote it to the entire town and show it in the town square. I found out yesterday that we have access to a projector and screen and one of the Guatemala missionaries is gonna come up from the City to talk and see what we can do. Pray that we could get him and some of the other career missionaries behind it as it will be tough to pull off on our own. It's hard to get them out of the work they're already busy enough with and into things that must seem like them to be quite small in the scheme of things. So pray that this would all work out logistically and that many Catholics where we live would here the true Gospel that isn't preached by the Catholic church. As an ironic side not, the town square where we would show the film happens to be right in front of the Catholic church...hahaha what irony.

Thanks so much for your prayers and if I don't update this sooner then I will once I reach Ecuador!