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Home Past Newsletters June 2, 2006 "A Miracle"
June 2, 2006 "A Miracle"
Hello friends,
First, the prayer requests.
- Urgent: We are headed to our last seminar tomorrow morning, but this morning I woke up at two feeling pretty sick and wasn't able to go back to sleep. I have been lying down most of the day but am not feeling any better. Please pray for my health that God would heal me and that we would be able to have an amazing final week of teaching as a team. We have a four hour bus ride in the morning that I am not looking forward to and I am not in a condition to be teaching all day or traveling for that matter. We will be teaching on a Bible school next week and it will be fun to teach students who have previous training because we can go a lot deeper.
- Please pray that God would move powerfully in this final week in the lives of the students.
- This is our last week of the Titus Project, then we hae a few days of debriefing. I still don't have plans for the following weeks. I might have something coming together for Vietnam, but nothing remotely concrete. Please pray that God would show me what I should be doing for my extra month here. I have about a week and a half to figure it out.
- Please pray for whatever else the Lord lays on your heart.

As for last week, it was pretty crazy. We were told everything was set up and ready to go for us to teach about forty pastors and leaders out in the province, but when we met our contact we realized there was a serious problem. I spent about twenty minutes trying to talk with him through extremely broken English and eventually got around to asking who our translator would be for the week. It took us a while for him to understand the question, and then I was horrified by his response, "I'm your translator!" I almost panicked. But I was sure he was mistaken, but as we were getting in the truck to go to the seminar, I learned that there were no other options. I frantically made some phone calls to try and find a translator at the last minute, but to no avail. Me and Mitch spent time in prayer pleading with God to do a miracle. As I began to teach on the first day of the seminar I stepped up and starting speaking, expecting that the seminar would be useless because of the translation. To my shock, the translator translated every word! I was stunned. I kept going an so did he. I couldn't carry a conversation with him, but here he was translating every word I said. Afterwards I asked him what happened. He said that he had been praying that God would open his ears to hear. We had been praying the same thing and God answered our prayers. It is the first miracle of the type I have ever seen with my own eyes (or ears). He gave all the glory to God and did not even think it was a big deal. He just said that he expects God's Spirit to enable him when necessary. I was confronted with how weak my faith was. I knew God could do it, I prayed that He would, but I did not honestly expect Him to do it. Yet another amazing learning experience and another chance to give God the glory! <!-- D(["mb","<br><br>The week went well and we even were able to have one of the students translate part-time too. It was so awesome to see the students understanding the teaching, and more importantly, actually doing it. So many of them said that they will go back to their churches and teach this to the rest of their own leaders. It was pretty exciting. It had its difficult moments as well and I became painfully aware of the weaknesses in my own faith. \n<br><br>I just have to say it is such a privilege to work with these pastors and leaders who are modern heroes of the faith. While teaching it is sometimes easy to forget who the Lord has put in our care for that week and the amazing responsibility that we have. These men and women are turning the nation of Cambodia upside down. They all lead numerous cell groups, many are pastors of churches, and they are all sacrificing everything they have for the kingdom of God. I was amazed to learn that two of the students, two young women, were studying even though their father had just died less than two weeks ago. He was the pastor of a church and coordinator in the area for many ministries and led many house churches. He put all the house churches under the care of these two young women, both less than twenty years old. I couldn\'t believe it. One girl is only seventeen and is now leading house churches! \n<br><br>I\'ll finish with one awesome story from this morning. In Phnom Penh today I met a Philippino woman who asked me what\nI was doing here. I mentioned that I was with Titus project. She said, "I\'ve heard about that, what a wonderful group." I was shocked. We are a small ministry in only a few countries, how could she know anything about us?\n<span> </span>I asked how she knew? She said, "there is a team here now, two guys named Mitch and James are here with Titus Project." "Do you know those two men?" she asked me. I couldn\'t believe it! When I asked her how she knew she told me that her friend\nwas at one our seminars out in the province 200 miles away, and when she met up\nwith her last week her friend kept raving about this amazing teaching they\nhad had. Her friend brought her a book that we had given out filled with our teaching materials and told her that she had to make a copy of it and study it. This woman said that her friend could\nnot stop talking about how amazing the teaching was and how it opened people\'s eyes, broke down cultural barriers, and brought new life to the Bible to all the pastors and leaders who were there. This was such an encouragement to hear. We don\'t often get to hear this kind of feedback, so I am extremely thankful for this amazing gift from God of letting us see just a little bit of the fruit He has been planting while we are here. \n",1] ); //-->

The week went well and we even were able to have one of the students translate part-time too. It was so awesome to see the students understanding the teaching, and more importantly, actually doing it. So many of them said that they will go back to their churches and teach this to the rest of their own leaders. It was pretty exciting. It had its difficult moments as well and I became painfully aware of the weaknesses in my own faith.

I just have to say it is such a privilege to work with these pastors and leaders who are modern heroes of the faith. While teaching it is sometimes easy to forget who the Lord has put in our care for that week and the amazing responsibility that we have. These men and women are turning the nation of Cambodia upside down. They all lead numerous cell groups, many are pastors of churches, and they are all sacrificing everything they have for the kingdom of God. I was amazed to learn that two of the students, two young women, were studying even though their father had just died less than two weeks ago. He was the pastor of a church and coordinator in the area for many ministries and led many house churches. He put all the house churches under the care of these two young women, both less than twenty years old. I couldn't believe it. One girl is only seventeen and is now leading house churches!

I'll finish with one awesome story from this morning. In Phnom Penh today I met a Philippino woman who asked me what I was doing here. I mentioned that I was with Titus project. She said, "I've heard about that, what a wonderful group." I was shocked. We are a small ministry in only a few countries, how could she know anything about us? I asked how she knew? She said, "there is a team here now, two guys named Mitch and James are here with Titus Project." "Do you know those two men?" she asked me. I couldn't believe it! When I asked her how she knew she told me that her friend was at one our seminars out in the province 200 miles away, and when she met up with her last week her friend kept raving about this amazing teaching they had had. Her friend brought her a book that we had given out filled with our teaching materials and told her that she had to make a copy of it and study it. This woman said that her friend could not stop talking about how amazing the teaching was and how it opened people's eyes, broke down cultural barriers, and brought new life to the Bible to all the pastors and leaders who were there. This was such an encouragement to hear. We don't often get to hear this kind of feedback, so I am extremely thankful for this amazing gift from God of letting us see just a little bit of the fruit He has been planting while we are here. Thank you again for all your prayers, God is definitely answering them.

Sincerely,


Thank you again for all your prayers, God is definitely answering them.

Sincerely,
James
Last Updated ( Thursday, 27 July 2006 02:42 )