Hey Everyone!
Things have been happening so fast since I’ve gotten back to the US that you may or may not know this: I’m headed to the Middle East this Thursday!! (Yes, again…but this time for an organized m’trip to the ME.) When I got home from my world travels, my church in East TN already planned a m’trip. They asked me and my parents to come give them some advice since we’d been there… and well… the Lord worked it out so that I could go along with the 7 others on the team from church, and that the trip is fully funded, thanks to the generosity of my amazing teammates & church members.
What I would love & really need from you is PRAYER! You’ve been so amazing at this in the past. May I ask for your prayers again? Thank you 🙂 We are leaving Thursday September 4 and returning late on Saturday September 13. Our focus will largely be to encourage the long-term m’s in the Middle East. The country is “closed” so I’m not going to disclose the location.
Ways we will do this: 1) Paint (and more paint), light construction, and massive cleaning of a “beach house” (a house in the desert used to host short-term teams.) 2) Be a light to the community around the house and in the area. 3) Pray! (If anyone doubts the power of praying on site, ask me about China and how God literally has shaken up the country from prayers, just months after we were there). 4) Bring little treats / needed items to the long-term’ers.
Things that you can pray for our team: 1) Safety of the team (physically, emotionally, spiritually) 2) Unity of the team & our ME contacts 3) Smoothness in getting necessities 4) That we’d be encouraging to the long-term’ers. 5) Encouragement for us when things don’t go as we planned (yes, I said “when”… remember, I lived overseas for a year…but note, I also said “as we planned”… God’s better plan often differs)
Please, please also pray for the people in the ME: It’s Ramadan beginning this week. In case you haven’t heard of it, I’m attaching some great links down below. Check them out if you have time. But basically, it’s a month that Muslims fast–no eating or drinking during the day. At night, Muslims often excessively gorge to make up for the lack of food/water during the day, which means they don’t get enough sleep at night, making for some grumpy people walking around during the day and loud partiers at night.
Pray for the Muslims that: 1) Hearts will be softened. 2) They’ll see The Light in us. 3) satan’s powers will be bound (it’s a dark time) 4) God’s power revealed. There are some really cool stories about God revealing Himself to Muslims. They pray for Allah to reveal himself to them on the 26th day of the fast. There are many documented true stories about Jesus revealing Himself through visions and dreams directly to the Muslims. Remember, most Muslims never know who Jesus truly is. It’s our privilege to pray for them to know the Truth.
Thank you SO MUCH for your prayers. Yal are my warriors. You know from previous stories that God works amazingly through your prayers. I know He will continue to work through yal. So thank you. Love & blessings –
—
Esther
