Greetings. We apologize for the delay in updating the blog. The last few months have been extremely busy.
Our time in New Zealand for this term has come to an end. We returned to the United States in mid-January. Before coming here, we had no idea all the people that we would meet and the doors the Lord would open for us. We have made friends that we will keep for a lifetime. God has truly been faithful to us, He has sustained us financially and in our health. There have been some difficult days, but He has always come through.
This is our Hindu neighbors Lalita and Surundren who we have mentioned in previous posts. One day Reitha went by their house to visit Lalita, but she had gone to the hospital with heart issues. Later, we stopped by and visited with them and talked to them further about salvation.
Someone mentioned a book titled *Jesus Among Other Gods*, which is good for reaching out to people from different religions. We thought it would be a good idea to get this book for her. Since she is 80 years old, we decided that an audiobook would be a better option. Shawn purchased the audiobook and copied it onto CDs for her. Please help us pray they will listen to them and the Holy Spirit will deal with their hearts.
Update: Our hearts are heavy; we received word that Lalita passed away this week. We pray that she accepted Christ before she passed away. We are also praying that some of her family will find the CDs and listen to them and will have an encounter with Christ.
We met Giang and Ha through a friend. Giang is Buddhist, but she was willing to allow their two children to come to Bible class. One evening, we had them over for dinner, and we were able to share the salvation message with them. They listened very well. We gave Ha some tracts and a Bible. Later, we gave Giang the book, Jesus Among Other Gods. Hopefully, she will read it and come to know the truth.
Jose and Cindy came to a couple of our home church services. We had them over for dinner as well and were able to share the Gospel with them . Later, Jose told us he really enjoyed the conversation. He said it reminded him that he needed to pray more to re-establish a personal connection with God. They took a Bible and recently he messaged Shawn and told him that he had finished reading Genesis and was now reading Matthew
In previous blog posts we mentioned our neighbor, Roy. During a medical procedure, he was paralyzed from the waist down. During a visit Shawn had with him, Shawn asked him about his
spiritual well-being and if he was ready for Heaven. He responded that he wasn’t. At that point, he was not ready to take that step. However, later Roy was hospitalized and almost died because of an infection in his body. When we visited him in the hospital, he wanted to pray a prayer of repentance with us. Truly, this is an answer to prayer!
Street Ministry
In downtown Auckland, so many people refuse to take a tract. However, we are thankful for those who do take the tracts. One evening, we were able to pass out over 200 tracts in 2 hours. Another evening, we were able to pass out over 175 tracts in about 30 minutes.
We try to give out tracts when we go to stores, and one day, Reitha was able to give tracts to three Muslim ladies. Praise the Lord, they received God’s Word through a tract!
Kids Bible Class
For the October Bible Class, we told the story of Blind Bartimaeus. We discussed how Bartimaeus was physically blind, but there are people who are also spiritually blind. At the end of the class we asked those who wanted to be saved to raise their hands; 4 children and 1 adult raised their hands. Praise the Lord they responded!
At the November Bible Class we covered the Christmas Story as well as the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. We covered this in November since we were planning on doing a Christmas program in December. More people raised their hands for salvation than in the previous month. We rejoice at what the Lord has done!
Youth Night
Clouie, one of the youth who has faithfully come to our Bible classes, told us about a friend at school who was interested in becoming a Christian. She loaned her Bible to her. Later, Clouie asked if we had a Bible to give her. We gave her one, and we are happy to say she is still reading it. However, it sounds like her parents are discouraging her from becoming a Christian. Please pray with us for her and her parents. We have tried to plant seeds in these young peoples lives, and now they are planting seeds. Praise the Lord for this!!
Reitha was talking to Andrea and Shikinah’s mother, telling her how proud she was of the spiritual growth we have seen in her daughters. Cristy said, Sometimes I will go into their room, and Shikinah will be reading the Bible. She said we are leaving a legacy. Thank the Lord for what He has done and the spiritual growth we have seen in them.
At one youth night Shikinah said she has a Muslim friend who, it seems, wants to know about the Bible. However, she does not know how to start talking to her about the Lord. We were able to give her some ideas about how to share the Gospel with her.
Christmas Program
The children and youth performed in a Christmas program for their parents. There were 35 who attended, not counting our family. At the end of the program, Shawn gave an invitation for salvation. Several raised their hands. Praise the Lord for those who responded!
After the program was finished, our neighbors who had just returned home from work came over and helped us clean up. This was a huge blessing to us!
Reitha has problems when she is on her feet a lot, due to an autoimmune disease she has. The Lord helped her through the program, and she did not have any issues. We praise the Lord for this!
Adult Bible Study
God is moving in the lives of the families that are coming to Bible study. Five of the people who have been coming are Catholic. Jon and his wife, Rhica, would allow their girls to come to Bible class, but they did not come to the Bible study for several months. We have seen the Lord do a work in their lives since they started coming. After one of the Bible Studies, Jon commented and said, “He could tell there is a difference in the religions (Catholicism and Pentecostal), and I like it.”Rhica has invited several of her friends to the study. When we left in January, they volunteered to have the Bible studies on their deck.
Now that it is getting cold in New Zealand, the people who have taken over the Bible studies for us were praying about a place to hold them indoors. God answered their prayer, and a church is allowing them to use their church hall for free.
Baptism
Praise the Lord Shawn was able to baptize two of the people who raised their hands for salvation at the Christmas program, along with a couple of others from the Bible study.
Christmas Caroling
Reitha had the kids come over and bake Christmas goodies to hand out as we caroled to our neighbors. We also included some tracts and a salvation letter. We trust hearts were stirred to accept Christ as their Savior.
Ethiopian Church
Over the last couple of months, six of the young people raised their hands for salvation in the youth Sunday School class.
In December, the youth choir was able to sing at a community Christmas party as well as in one of the church services. They did a great job!
Food Bank
Nursing Home Ministry
We had the opportunity to visit the nursing homes one last time and say goodbye. We have enjoyed ministering to these precious people!
Saying Goodbye
It was a bittersweet time as we were at the airport preparing to leave. We were excited to come back to the States and see our family we had not seen for two and a half years, but it was sad leaving our friends behind. Around 30 of our friends came to the airport to see us off.
