Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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I’ve been told from childhood that God hears our prayers and answers them, but not always in the affirmative. Throughout this month, I have come to believe that God will answer in the affirmative if our prayers are aligned with the will of God. I am excited to see how God has taken care of this small church plant in rural Transylvania, a place unknown to most of the rest of the world and reached only by the faithful obedience of a few. Every day of ministry, team triumph and team fuel devoted an hour of prayer for the people of the town of Arcalia. This month, we have actively witnessed God at work answering our earnest prayers and relentlessly pursuing His people.

 
In particular, we were praying for God to raise up leaders for the church and specifically for Ilia, our host father, to commit to this church plant and lead the community of believers in meeting together. After leading church service in worship music, preaching, testimony, and prayer, for two weeks, we began to encourage members of the church to step up and into leading the church. We demonstrated worship without guitars. And due to some unfortunate circumstances, God showed this church plant that they are the Church, the body of Christ independent of the pastors that gave birth to the vision of this church plant. Our final Sunday, Ilia stepped up and committed the church to the Lord, declaring that they would continue to meet regularly to do community together Austin and Ilia                                                                                               with or without the visionary pastor and missionary with
                                                                                                                  whom God entrusted this Kingdom dream.
 
Monica, my teammate who is full of joy and worship, rarely has a day when she’s not jumping up and down and excitedly proclaiming how good God is, but this past week, she experienced a high fever that only got higher throughout the night. We prayed. She had chills and felt as though she needed to vomit, but couldn’t. That morning, our team nursed her with fluids and a few saltine-like crackers while she stayed in bed. Again, we prayed. We left our host home for ministry time leaving Monica behind to rest. Austin arrived home around 3:30p.m. and found Monica with a fever of 103.4 and became frightened not knowing what to do, so he conveyed to our host mom, Claudia, who only speaks Romanian, that Monica was sick. She kindly gave Monica some aspirin and told Austin that they would take Monica to the hospital if needed. We prayed some more. By 5:00p.m., Monica’s fever had broken. She no longer had chills. By 5:30 p.m. she was jumping around rejoicing again. There was no lingering sickness or discomfort. We firmly believe that God healed her.
 
Dana, our host sister, was also in the hospital for three days following an episode that we’ve been told is related to a Calcium deficiency and has been explained to us in broken English and gestures as dizziness leading to fainting and hitting her head. It took us a day to figure out what had happened, but praise the Lord she was relieved of her pain and she was made whole again. The day she returned from the hospital, we laid hands and covered her with our prayers for healing and wholeness with her dad and sisters.    
                                                                                                                                                  Dana
 
A miracle also happened early in the month when we met a gypsy family of children ages 4-19 whose parents have been working in Spain for the last two years and sending home funds to support the family. The youngest, Gabi, had the stature of a two year old and was lifeless and unresponsive, as though he had shut out the world. Hope and Brittany held and prayed over this little boy speaking “Jesus loves you” and life all over him for two days. At every mention of Jesus’ name, Gabi would nod his head. The next day, God breathed life into this little boy. Gabi was running around, smiling broadly, chasing chickens, and playing with the other children. Today, Gabi brings smiles to the people of Arcalia as he demonstrates the power of God’s life giving breath, giving joy and
 Brittany, Gabi, and Geoff                                                                    hope where once there was none.

Our God is a God who shows up when we pray. John 10:3-5 “The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” When we begin to follow His voice, He will go ahead of us and lead us to answered prayer.