It's 6:00 A.M. Malaysia time on Sunday, and we have a full day ahead! Let me back up though and tell you what has happened so far and how God is working.
Jenny and Sophia arrived safe and sound around 8:30 Friday evening, and were driven by our "Vietnamese Family" friends the 1 1/2 hour trip from Singapore airport to the ministry center (home of Pastor Duc and Nang) here in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Jennifer, Janet, and I arrived in Singapore at 20 minutes past midnight Saturday morning, and Pastor Duc drove us to the center. All of us had no issues with luggage or with immigration and customs in Singapore or Malaysia. The trip was relatively uneventful as well. For all of this we thank the Lord, our protector and provider! We are a little jet-lagged and travel-weary, but otherwise intact and ready to serve the Lord.
On Saturday morning we had a wonderful breakfast, with a little help from the hotel worker who followed us to the restaurant and assisted us with ordering. Then we used the restaurant's wifi for internet video-phone (Skype) calls to our families at home. Technology is indeed a wonderful thing! It was a great blessing to meet with our Vietnamese Family (name for the family of churches here) Saturday morning, tell our personal stories and listen to them tell theirs. Now we feel like part of the family, and a few of our friends are even calling us "Mom" and "Dad". After a wonderful Vietnamese lunch and a meeting to plan the week, we rested a bit in the afternoon and prepared for the evening church service. After some worship time, Jennifer conducted a one-hour training session on the Old Testament for a group of 40 Vietnamese workers, who will be the ones to receive each of the training topics throughout the week. Jenny Du followed Jennifer, and gave her one-hour training on evangelism. Both of these went very well, with Nuyen-Thy translating from English into Vietnamese. There were some good questions at the end of Jenn's session which showed the students were engaged and interested.
Today (Sunday) is a full day with church services and training sessions. Bruce will teach on preparing and giving a sermon, and Janet will give her training on family relationships. In addition to the training, we will split the team in two groups, attend three church services, and share our testimonies. Bruce will also preach in the morning service and assist Pastor Duc in baptisms of eight new believers. The day will end at 11:00 P.M. after the final church service.
We have experienced a few surprises already. One is that we will have a total of seven hours of training sessions during the week, which is less total time than we had anticipated. All training sessions will be conducted for a group of 40 believers who will return to Vietnam as potential church planters and ministry leaders. The rest of our time will be spent in visiting a prison, visiting the homes of the Vietnamese workers, preaching and leading worship at the churches each night, speaking at the Christmas Rallies, and other activities. We will be coaches, encouragers, prayer-partners, and teachers.
Please continue to pray for our physical and emotional stamina, and Spiritual strength. Also please pray for those who will hear the sermons, training, coaching, and testimonies. Above all, praise the Lord of the harvest for the fruit He is bearing already on this trip! 11 decisions for Christ yesterday! Praise the Lord of the Harvest!!!
