Scott and his luggage have arrived in Hong Kong. He's sleeping now and is looking forward to good times with our grands.
Sunday's Prayer Requests:
1. Grace for Scott as his body adjusts through jet lag; great health for him throughout this trip. 2. Healing for the sick members of Jess' family, and the healthy ones to stay healthy! 3. All the prep work Wilson and Angelica are doing for Scott's ministry in the Philippines to be Spirit-directed and move forward smoothly.
Sunday's Details:
International travel is rarely boring.
Scott hates long layovers and so was very pleased that he only had "less than two hours in Houston and less than two hours in San Francisco." His short time in Houston went fine. The flight from there to San Francisco (SF) also went fine, but when they landed, there was no gate available, so they sat in the plane on the tarmac waiting. And waiting. And waiting.
Scott texted our prayer liaisons that they were still sitting in the inbound plane waiting for a gate, his outbound flight to Hong Kong (HK) was scheduled to leave in 35 minutes, and to please pray for him and his luggage to be able to make the connection. If he didn't make the flight, it would mean a mess of re-booking, possibly spending a night in SF, and missing out on a day with Jess' family. If he made it but his luggage didn't get on the outbound plane, it would mean a half day in HK spent traveling back to the airport to retrieve it.
We prayed.
A little while later, he said it would be 10 minutes before the incoming gate would be available, but he was sure it would all work out. It seems there were some 20 people on the incoming flight who all were booked on that same outgoing flight to HK, so hopefully the airline would hold the flight for them.
They did, and here's the proof!
Hero is finally on a plane to Hong Kong!
In other family-related news, Nate and Ellie have been sick with fever, congestion, and cough. Yesterday, Nate was improving, Ellie was in the worst of it, Ezekiel "didn't feel well," and Matthias had a cough.
We are praying for their family to be healthy and enjoy their time with Grandpa, and for Scott to stay healthy both while in Hong Kong and then in the Philippines. We know our enemy is not happy about this mission trip, so please join your faith with ours for NOTHING to adversely affect these three days of good family time and NOTHING to hinder what God wants to do during Scott's upcoming ministry time in the Philippines.
I just dropped Scott at the airport for the first of his three flights toward Asia for a powerful Raising Disciple-Makers mission trip in the Philippines! We've had a number of new partners join our email list - WELCOME! - so, if this next paragraph is old news, you're welcome to skip to today's bottom line.
We are truly grateful for our partners' prayers, especially during a mission trip, so I'll be sending emails (usually daily) to update you on what's going on with Scott and our friends in the Philippines. I'll give you the day's "bottom line" and prayer requests first, so please do read that part. Following those two sections, I'll give more detailed information for those who have time and interest to read on.
Saturday's Bottom Line:
It's been a wild week, and we almost overslept, but Scott has now completed the first leg of his journey and will soon depart Houston for San Francisco. Then, it's on to Hong Kong for a three-day visit with our family there before traveling on to the Philippines.
Saturday's Prayer Requests:
1. Safety and comfort for Scott as he travels; specifically, no back pain and good seating on his 15-hour SF to HK flight. 2. Scott and all his luggage arrive intact and on time in Hong Kong. This time, he has two checked bags instead of his usual one. 3. A great visit Monday-Wednesday with Jessica (our daughter), Matthias, and their three wonderful children.Saturday's Details:
Scott usually travels directly to the country or countries he will be ministering in, but since he's headed to the Philippines (which is only a hop, a skip, and a two-hour flight from Hong Kong), he added three days in Hong Kong to the front of his trip to spend time with our grandkids—well, with their parents, too! I will try to resist my grandmotherly temptation to tell you all about those three, but it is the nature of grandmas to share pictures, right? The whole family in December (L to R: Ezekiel, Matthias, Ellie, Jess, Nate) Ezekiel (almost five), ring-bearer in a wedding today Ellie (three-and-a-half) "She's a diva!"
Nate (eight months), mellow fellow? Okay, I'm done with pictures of our grands. = )
We left our house at 4:31 AM Saturday, and Scott will arrive at their house around 8:00 PM Sunday (local time), which is 7:00 AM Sunday our time. So, his total travel time is expected to take about 26.5 hours. I know he appreciates your prayers very much, and so do I!
The last three months have seen the impact of Take The Challenge ministry continue to grow. Even though I have not been able to travel, we have been able to send out national pastors to pioneer new areas. I am in awe of all God is doing through His faithful servants.
Expansion across East Africa
The disciple-maker groups birthed following my August 2023 trip to East Africa have come of age. Fifteen of those who have been trained a
re now stepping up to train others, resulting in twenty new disciple-makers groups, training over 100 new pastors.
Training pastors in Himalaya villages
Pastor Samuel has opened a disciple-maker group for five mountain pastors.
They each pastor in remote areas in the Himalayan mountains and have received little training. They are not able to attend online meetings due network challenges, so they each travel six to ten hours once a month for the training. After two meetings, they began taking the discipleship material, which has been translated into Nepali[1], and training their own leaders. As of last month, there are eleven leaders and future pastors being trained to go into the world and make disciples.
Sending forth more laborers
In the last three months, our three core leaders in Kenya have
personally heeded the call to “Go into all the world and make disciples.” Hellen held a DM vision-casting seminar in the border town of Busia. Pastor James traveled four hours to launched new g
roups in Makindu, and Pastor Hillary traveled eight hours by bus to launch a new group in Arusha, Tanzania. One of six new locations he opened during 1Q 2024.
Story Testimony – The Ministry of Reconciliation
The twenty-six pastors and leaders at the Makindu DM seminar came from three different pastors' fellowships. After they learned the difference between believers and disciples, they all humbly confessed they had been living as believers, not as disciples. Although the pastors had not met together for the past three years due to differences and offenses, they shook hands and vowed to work together to raise disciple-makers across their region. Pastor Steve, who was trained by one of Pastor James’ disciples, has begun leading fifteen of the pastors in two different disciple-makers groups. As the meeting closed, they laid hands on Rev. James and asked God to expand the influence of Take The Challenge in Makueni County and across the nation of Kenya.
A Word of Thanks
Thank you for your prayers and gifts that have enabled us to equip these national pastors to raise disciple-makers across their nations. We are expecting God to continue to go before us to impact nations in the months and years to come.
[1] Over 50% of Nepalis have never heard the good news of salvation through Christ. Because the need is so great, many who receive the Lord become evangelists, yet have little to no Biblical training.
I hope you are doing well and have enjoyed PI Day (π). It has a special significance to me. We have had a few challenges since our last update, but God’s has again proven faithful!
First, let me update you on myself. I have been having some back pain on and off since last July, and in late January, when visiting my mom out of state, I had a major setback. For about two weeks, I was in severe pain in my back and left leg, but through prayer, physical therapy, and medicine, it finally broke in mid-February. An MRI showed a herniated disc, and so at the advice of the TTC Board, I decided to postpone my Asia trip by three weeks. I saw a neurosurgeon today and, praise God, she said it looks like the issue should resolve on its own. We are so relieved!
And now, here are a few updates on our team members around the world.
First, Pastor Rajan and his church in India were able to secure a new meeting place, thanks to the generous giving of two of our partners. They will hold their first service there this coming Sunday.
Second, Pastor Samuel in Nepal is training five mountain-area pastors who are in turn training 11 of their leaders using the Nepali version of Pressing Toward the Mark. These pastors are from very remote regions and are so excited to have this tool to make disciples.
Mountain pastors in Nepal
Third, the new church in the Philippines continues to grow, and they were very excited to be able to purchase a large flat-screen TV to display the words during worship and to use during sermons. Also, one of our partners committed to cover six months of Pastor Wilson’s salary to give the church time to grow to a point of supporting his family. Praise the Lord!
Fourth, the biggest news is the growth of the disciple-making movement in Kenya and East Africa. In February, three of our Kenya pastors launched a mission work in neighboring Tanzania. Every week one of these dedicated pastors travels 8 hours by bus to train a handful of pastors in the disciple-making process.
In the western part of Kenya, another one of our team members has raised up a group of disciple-makers who will be introducing pastors from a neighboring city to the DM process tomorrow!
One of 32 pastors graduating from the DM process
In several other parts of Kenya, the pastors who began the training following my trip there last fall are also starting new DM groups.
It is so exciting to see these national pastors grabbing the vision, and I am especially blessed to see those I have personally trained becoming missionaries. They no longer wait for me to come; they are taking what they have been taught, holding their own seminars, and raising up their own new groups. Truly the number of disciples is multiplying greatly!
Today's Praise Reports 1. Graduation of over 30 pastors in Kenya, 15 of which have started new DM groups. 2. Disciples being made in the shadow of the Himalayas. 3. Good report on Scott’s back.
Today's Prayer Requests: 1. Wisdom and favor as Wilson and Angelica prepare for Scott’s ministry in the Philippines. 2. Continued growth in the new DM groups in Kenya. 3. God to raise up more missionaries to be sent out by Take The Challenge.
Making Disciples among the nations, Scott and the TTC team
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
pastors.
Mountain pastors in Nepal
One of 32 pastors graduating from the DM process