Weekly Update: October 30th, 2012

Weekly Update: Tuesday 10/30/2012

Hello everyone,

It’s winter time in the Netherlands!

Well, not winter time, yet, as in the season, but rather winter time as the time that they set all the clocks an hour backwards. We are all still getting used to that…

We are glad to say that we are using the time that we do have quite well! My wife and I are helping my father-in-law with his garden and home, building relationships with our friends, and getting our visa process sorted out. We are thankful for the time to rest, give our son lots of attention, and for being able to do plenty of studying in my father-in-law’s study.

We are not staying here indefinitely, of course, but I am glad to be with our family before heading out of the Netherlands again while we wait for our visa process to finish.

I will need to leave for some amount of time, depending on when our interview is due with the US embassy in Amsterdam, but we are still searching out the options God has for us. Please be praying for our family to receive everything that God has for us!

Thanks for partnering with our family!

 

Other Updates:

– We had a small delay in our visa process last week; we needed a few more signed papers, get a couple new documents, and send it all to our lawyer. Thanks to everyone who helped and thanks to our lawyer who made it a very quick procedure!

– In order to use my time well in the Netherlands, I’ve begun pioneering a prayer team for the various ministries in Enschede. There’s just a couple of us so far, but we get together every month to talk and pray about the various ministry opportunities we’re finding in Enschede. We are also able to show support for each other by praying for each other throughout the week.

My wife and I were able to meet the leader of similar organization today, XiE (Christ in Enschede).

It was an encouraging visit and we are praying that some fruit will come out of it! They will mention us in their meeting the Thursday.

 

Scripture:

Well, by now I’m out of Isaiah and into the book of Jeremiah!

The two books have a lot of similar content, but they are very different in the way that they are written.

Isaiah can feel like a collection of prophecies over various nations, as well as, Israel and Judah, the two kingdom’s of the Israelites. Jeremiah, on the other hand, feels a lot more like a journal of what God told him to say, what to do, and how the people responded to it.

The book of Jeremiah feels more emotional too; it includes many of his prayers and is known for the fact that God tells Jeremiah in the very beginning that nobody will listen to him. It is probably one of the most readable books of the Bible too.

It can be comforting for me to know that even though there are times when our lives are difficult, though not as much as Jeremiah’s in most cases, God has already been through this sort of stuff with others who have followed Him. Seeing Jeremiah’s struggles to keep going help me have the courage to keep going when I feel struggles coming too.

I hope that you find this encouraging!

 

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our time in the Netherlands!

– Please continue praying for my wife’s visa application!

– Please pray for our family’s finances and continued support!

– Please pray that our family would receive everything God has for us during these months together in the Netherlands!

 

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: October 12th, 2012

Weekly Update: Friday 10/12/2012

Hello everyone,

Sorry that it has taken so long to bring back the weekly updates!

I do realize that I’ve skipped the whole month of September and the first week of October. Hopefully, I’ll be able to send these updates every week again.

The last month in South Africa, partnering with the School Of Apostolic Pioneering, went by really fast! As all of the student’s projects came to end we all had a lot of grading work to do and my wife did a lot of coaching with the students too.

As the school came to an end our son was able to grow in popularity even more. Several new schools arrived and with them lots of new students who quickly grew fond of our little youngster.

All said and done, we had 17 graduating students, 3 participating students, and 10 staff who all worked together start the first SOAP on the African continent. We are looking forward to see the new things that our students will pioneer in the coming years!

Thanks for partnering with our family!

Other Updates:

– We have some news about my wife’s visa process! As of last week, our lawyer forwarded our application to the U.S.C.I.S. who will then forward it on to the U.S. Embassy in Amsterdam. After they receive it they will make an appointment with us for an interview.

Before the interview we will have to do a few things, like gather more relationship evidence and visit a doctor, but we are finished with most things.

The greatest prayer concerns are, one, everything will go smoothly, and, two, everything will proceed in God’s timing. The interview could be anywhere from 2 to 6 months from now. If we cannot have the interview within the very early part of that time frame, I will need to spend some time outside of the Netherlands again. We will be praying for whatever God has for us!

Please be praying for us too!

Scripture:

Over the last couple days I’ve been reading through the book of Isaiah.

There are a good number of cool things to be said of Isaiah’s prophecies and visions, but a lot of them can seem gloomy to say the least. I guess it makes it very easy to see what is terrible and what is good – the terrible is always attributed to sin, the good is always attributed to turning to God and what good He promises to do in the nations.

I think that chapter 19 of Isaiah is a good example of this; through the beginning of the chapter you see a lot of gloom for the nation of Egypt, but in the end you see that God has great hopes for the nation as well. In almost every case that I can remember this is the way the prophetic writings in the Bible work themselves out. Before I learned to start seeing the prophecies this way they were a lot harder to understand.

The other thing that made a difference was to not look at them verse by verse, but rather look at them in the context of the whole book.

The book of Hosea was the first book I tried this with. You can try it too; simply ask God to show you what He means by the book and then read the whole thing right there.

It helped me understand God a lot when I did it!

 

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our time and opportunity to partner with the SOAP in South Africa!

– Praise God for the growth that we were able to see the growth in ourselves and in our students during the school!

– Please continue praying for my wife’s visa application!

– Please pray that our family would be able to use our time wisely in the Netherlands and wherever else God brings us during this time!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: August 22nd, 2012

Weekly Update: Monday, 8/20/12

Hello everyone,

Wow, the time has really been flying by!

Since our last update we’ve had four different speakers come and teach on the School Of Apostolic Pioneering. By now we’ve covered principles of communication, teamwork, networking, spiritual warfare, and fundraising.

Last week has being taught by Tim Svoboda, of YWAM San Francisco, on the importance of reaching cities. He also showed us ways of researching our cities in order to find the different groups of people who we want to reach out to. For example, in San Francisco there are over 40,000 Afghani people, around 4,000 Vietnamese, and many others beside these!

The next speaker at the SOAP school will be Dave Stone, from First Rate. He will be teaching on Business As Mission.

As for news about our family, our son is growing really, really fast! Over the past two weeks he has figured out how to crawl, sit on his own, pick things up with his fingers, how to climb up sturdy things so that he can stand, and he’s just starting to shuffle along the side of our bed!

Oh, he is starting to stop when we tell him to stop too!

Thanks for partnering with our family!

Other Updates:

– In Tuindorp, the community next to the YWAM Worcester base, we’ve been able to start coming into a couple more houses. In both of the new houses are people who do not follow Jesus and at times they stop to listen in on what we are talking about.

– A friend of mine has just started working with a Business As Mission that imports goods made by women brought out of prostitution in India and other countries. You can find out more at Better Way Imports or by reading her blog post at Epic Granola.

Scripture:

Since coming to YWAM Worcester to work with the SOAP I can confidently say that my love for God has grown. In many ways my love for God has faltered when I couldn’t understand what He was doing while we were in the Netherlands, but looking back I do see His love.

What was a shadow of love several months ago is now made beautiful in the light of His goodness and grace towards us.

Psalm 145: 8-9

8 The Lord is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

9 The Lord is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.

While there are a lot of good memories from our time in the Netherlands, I can’t really shake the feeling that while I was there I considered it only a second best from God. Wouldn’t it have been better if God simply answered all of our prayers as we prayed them?

It affected my heart towards God and in turn it affected how much I was willing to be alive around other people and even by myself. I regret that very much, though, God still did many miracles for us during that time. Many of those miracles were spent on keeping us together as a family!

God has certainly been with us over the past months!

Thank you for the years of miracles that you have given us, Lord! May we still praise You more and receive even more goodness and grace from your hands!

 

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our time here in Worcester, it has been very life giving to our family!

– Pray that my wife’s visa process will continue moving smoothly and that we would receive everything that God has for us during this process!

– Pray that God would reveal Himself to the people that we meet in the communities around the Worcester YWAM base on our outreach days!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: July 26th, 2012

Weekly Update: Tuesday, 7/26/12

Hello everyone,

I pray that your week has been getting to a good start!

We didn’t have a specific speaker at the SOAP last week, so, our school leader and several others filled in the time sharing about StrengthFinders, finding our identity, vocation, and other practical ways of figuring out what we are good at. We also covered topics like SMART goals and making budgets for our ministries and personal lives.

Our family is still learning how to balance all the different responsibilities we have, but we feel like we are getting better at it with every week.

Our son has just figured out that it can be fun to sit too… he’s almost been refusing to learn since he’s started to stand with our help. He hasn’t really taken any first steps yet, which is good since he also can’t crawl in a straight line either. We are enjoying where he is at very much.

This week, we’ve invited the old base director from Worcester to teach on “Principles of Pioneering.” He is doing a very good job.

I’ll share more about that in the next update though!

Thanks for partnering with us!

Other Updates:

– In Tuindorp, the community next to the YWAM Worcester base, we had our first small group meeting last week. We had one family participate. Since we are meeting in their home, we asked if we could help them invite more people to come and they said that would be fine.

We are hoping to see more families at our next meeting this Friday. Please be praying for us and the people we will be fellowshipping with!

Scripture:

The other night, I was challenged by Psalms 100.

The day had already been long and I wasn’t really looking forward to reading more, but as I read this short Psalm I was fairly convicted by it. It talks about making a joyful noise to Him, serving Him with gladness, and singing to Him because He is God and that He never fails us.

It was God who made it possible to come here and this psalm encouraged me to remember that. The Psalm also reminded me how thankful we are have been brought here for this time.

Praise God for what He is doing in South Africa!

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our wonderful students!

– Pray that God would help our students imagine the vision that God has given them and develop it to give Him glory, honor, and praise!

– Pray that God would reveal Himself to the people that we meet in the communities around the Worcester YWAM base on our outreach days!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: July 16th, 2012

Weekly Update: Friday, 7/16/12

Hello everyone,

I pray that this message finds you well!

Our family is adjusting to life on the Worcester base pretty well! My wife does most of the taking care of Jay Edward, though, today is my morning to take care of him.

Earlier this morning the entire base had an hour and a half of worship to start off the week. It was a very good time! When I arrived all the chairs were stacked up and there was a really big open area for everyone to meet up in. The first song was sung in Swahili and everyone was challenged to use the space to dance!

I will say, I usually don’t do that sort of thing… but I have been thinking that it would happen… and so I danced with everyone too.

It was a lot of fun and God spoke to everyone in a really powerful way!

For me, it was a chance to worship and pray in a way that I have never had the courage to do. During the time God gave me a lot of pictures about what our future may look like and continued to encourage me to pursue the future He has for us. It is really encouraging to take a new step toward God and receive such a powerful response!

Thanks for partnering with us!

Other Updates:

– The SOAP School here in Worcester, South Africa, has a couple new students! We just accepted a couple late comers last night after we prayed over their applications. That brings our total up to eighteen students! The nations represented through the students in this school are South Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Angola, Brazil, and the U.S.

– Last week we had our base leader from Idaho speak on “Faith & Pioneering”. He challenged all the students to pray about and imagine the dreams that God has put on their hearts.

– Quote of the Week: “The big vision that God has for us is mixed up in the circumstances He has brought us through and the passions that He has placed inside us.”

Scripture:

The psalm I read this morning was Psalm 96.

God used the psalm to remind me of who He is and what He is doing in the world. I realize this even more as I try to write about it!

In this psalm God is calling us to worship Him and remember what He has brought us through. Each day God saves us and holds us up. He doesn’t want to stop there, though, God wants every person from nation on earth to experience His love.

“Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.”
– NIV

It is safe to say that there are places on the earth where God is opposed from reaching this goal. It is also safe to say that in each of our hearts we oppose God from reaching this goal too, both in the nations and in our own hearts. The more we give our hearts to Him the more we will see this goal accomplished.

This psalm calls us worship God, declare who He is to every person of every nation! Let’s do this together with God!

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our wonderful students!

– Pray that God would help our students imagine the vision that God has given them and develop it to give Him glory, honor, and praise!

– Pray that God would reveal Himself to the people that we meet in the communities around the Worcester YWAM base on our outreach days!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: July 8th, 2012

Weekly Update: Friday, 7/8/12 

Hello everyone,

I pray that your week has been good!

Our travels have gone very well and we are now in Worcester, South Africa.

Worcester is a very beautiful place! From our rooms window we can see some high hills in the distance, but outside you can see more of the red-black mountains that stand between us and Cape Town. Most of the people here speak Afrikaans, though, here at the base, English is used the most. There are also a lot of people who speak Portuguese and Korean on the base too.

Most of our time has been spent taking care of our son and sitting in on meetings. We’ve discussed the school’s curriculum (what the written curriculum looks like and how we model the curriculum as staff), history and values of the SOAP, and praying through how we should practice evangelism in the community of Worcester.

The students of this School Of Apostolic Pioneering are coming from many different places; some of our students are coming from South Africa, Brazil, the United States, and several other African nations, though, I don’t know them all yet. We have eighteen possible students in total.

Please, keep these students and us in your prayers!

We are very excited to be here and we look forward to all things God has in mind to do during our next three months in South Africa!

Other Updates:

– Traveling with our son went really good! We spent around 36 hours traveling and he really made the best of it. There were very few people who could resist his cuteness as he made grumpy people and airport guards all the way from Germany to South Africa smile!

Scripture:

“Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.” – KJV

This verse comes from Psalm 82. Like last week, the psalmist is speaking about the injustice in the world and he is calling on God to do something about it. This time it is less personal, but the psalmist is still looking to God for the answers.

At the school, here in South Africa, we are starting to notice the injustices that the town and communities around us are known for. There are drug addictions and robbery, both of these are connected to each other. The place is known for its crime. These are found among people who Jesus came to see have life.

Please be praying with as we share Jesus’ light with the people in these communities.

He is the answer to all injustice.

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our safe travels to South Africa!

– Pray that God would help us stay focused and use our time well at the SOAP!

– Pray for our family’s health!

– Pray that God would reveal Himself to the people that we meet in the communities around the Worcester YWAM base on our outreach days!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: June 29th, 2012

Weekly Update: Friday, 6/29/12

Hello everyone,

I pray this update finds you all well!

In less than one week from today our family will be in South Africa! We leave for the airport this Sunday evening. Monday will be a long day of traveling for us; two airplanes and then a long drive to Worcester!

Getting back into the lifestyle of living at a YWAM base will be an interesting change for us. In many ways The Netherlands has become a bit homey for me and for my wife it’s become her home again. We have very good friends and family here and I am sure their company will be missed as we travel to a new place to live.

Still, we will be back for a bit after the School Of Apostolic Pioneering is over in South Africa. We will need to be here to finish up my wife’s visa before traveling back to the US.

In South Africa we will be joining five others to staff the School Of Apostolic Pioneering; in that group there are two other couples with youngsters too. For all of us it will be the time staffing the school with our own children! We will see how things get divided up when we get there, but I’m sure that it will be a good chance for all of us to learn how to be leaders and parents at the same time!

I’m not sure how getting internet looks like down there yet, but I’ll continue to try to get the weekly updates sent out as weekly as possible!

Thanks for your attention!

Other Updates:

– My wife’s visa process is still moving along; we’re working with our lawyer right now to get copies and paperwork together for the second step that should be finished before we get back to the Netherlands.

– Both my wife and I are pretty tired and a little sick, well, my wife is certainly a bit more sick than I am right now. Finishing unfinished projects have been sapping most of our energy. Please pray for our health as we travel to South Africa!

Scripture:

This morning the Psalm I read was Psalm 70.

At first glance, I suppose a person could argue that this is just another one of those psalms that is asking God for revenge. There are a number of psalms that could sound like that, but I don’t think that’s what we’re reading about.

In the life of King David, who wrote this psalm, we see story after story of injustices taking place; at times people are trying to kill him unjustly, other times he sees injustice in others, and other times he is the one at the center of the injustice. When he writes about others doing injustice he is severe, when he writes about the injustices done by his own hands he begs God for forgiveness.

What is the take away for us?

We live in a world full of injustices just like King David. Today, in Syria, people are going to be killed because they’ve defied a government who hasn’t spared its hand in committing injustices against men, women, and children. Wherever the life in people, which God has created in them, is not respected injustices will follow. What should we do? What does David do?

David, when injustice was before him, turned to God.

We could imagine trying to right all the wrongs in the world, but this is an impossible task for us; that, in fact, was one of the things God asks Job in Job 40:6-14.

In our day, which isn’t much different from David’s day, we need to turn to God and ask Him what to do. We are poor and in desperate need of God to change our hearts to oppose injustice. Only when the hearts of people will change will injustice cease.

God has sent Jesus Christ into the world to do this.

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God for our time in The Netherlands!

– Pray that God would help us remember the lessons that He has taught us while being here!

– Pray for our health!

– Pray that everything will go well in our travels, we fly out of Germany on the 2nd of July and arrive in Cape Town, South Africa, later that night.

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: June 15th, 2012

Weekly Update: Friday, 6/15/12

Hello everyone,

The past couple weeks have been very special for our family!

The Sunday before last, my wife’s brother had his public profession of faith at our home church here in the Netherlands. The profession of faith service is a response to the family baptism service that I’ve written about earlier. The baptism service gives honor to God for taking the first steps toward the child, the profession of faith service gives honor to God for continuing that relationship and our response back to God.

It was a very beautiful service and I am excited to see my brother-in-law and the other young people choose to show their love for God.

The other big thing that has happened over the last week is that God has provided us with all the money that we needed to buy our plane tickets! We certainly weren’t expecting it, but when my wife called her insurance company to see if we would need to pay anything extra this year, they told us that we would be receiving money back for the months we were in the Netherlands!

So, between that and the rest of the support we will receive over the following months, we should have our costs for South Africa covered!

Even though God has been very faithful to us in the area of finances, this last time of waiting has been really nerve-racking for us. I remember talking to my wife about it and feeling like if God would just provide for us then we could have rest. However, that hasn’t been what God has been teaching us. He’s used this experience to teach us, again, that He wants us to rest in who He is – not in how we want or expect Him to act.

God desires to do us good and to help us grow. Sometimes, these two things can seem to contradict each other, but we can trust that God has His best for us at heart.

We are both very thankful that God has taught us this again!

Other Updates:

– Just the other day I wrote an article about the heart of being an apostolic pioneer. I realize, though, that this doesn’t really explain what the School Of Apostolic Pioneering looks like. If you would like to know what the school looks like in detail I recommend checking out YWAM Worcester’s page describing it.

The page is very informative and it has a video on it too. You can check both of these out by clicking the link here, SOAP – YWAM Worcester.

Scripture:

I think the Psalm that has hit me the most this week has been Psalm 127.

I’ve already written about it some in the article I wrote just the other day, but I think I want to focus on the second verse in the psalm. It says this:

“It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.”

During the last couple weeks I cannot say that I have found myself that joyful, or restful for that matter. I have been quite frustrated at times when the topic of support would come up or how we would pay for our tickets to South Africa. This is quite unlike the other times I’ve waited on God for the money that I would need to do something.

I think that this verse sheds some light on how I’ve felt.

I’ve thought about what I need too much and who I know God to be too little. He has been very good to me and my family. Never have we been in a need that He hasn’t provided for. I’ve spent too much time thinking and worrying.

In my heart I know that God desires the best for us. He desires to be the one whom we can rest in. He desires to be the one we know will provide for us.

Somehow, I forgot this.

However, learning it again makes me glad and I praise God for it!

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Praise God that my wife and I have our tickets for South Africa!

– Pray that God will help us learn even more about Him and His provision for us!

– Pray that everything will go well in our travels, we fly out of Germany on the 2nd of July and arrive in Cape Town, South Africa, later that night.

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: June, 1st 2012

Weekly Update: Thursday, 6/1/12

Hello everyone,

Yesterday was my wife’s 23^rd birthday!

We all had a good time and there are plenty of snacks left lying around, but I think most of you reading this are bit far away to stop by and help eat them. I made a banana cream pie, my wife and her father bought lots of these chocolate covered whip cream ball things, and we ate a really good dinner.

I found out that it is actually rather simple to make a banana cream pie from scratch.

Half way through the process I realized that I just made my own vanilla pudding and after that I tried to make a meringue top for it. If you’d like to try your hand at it here are the links to the recipes that I used: Banana Cream Pie, Meringue Topping, and Pie Crust.

If you dare, have fun cooking!

Other Updates:

– During the past couple weeks it has been fun to be in the Netherlands. Last Sunday we’ve celebrated Pentecost and ten days before that we celebrated Jesus’ Ascension. They are both national holidays here in the Netherlands.

– While support raising this past week I’ve had the chance to pray with most of the people I’ve called this past week. It has been very encouraging and I look forward to keeping everyone in our prayers!

– Concerning the SOAP in South Africa: we still need to raise $2,350 dollars for our plane tickets as soon as possible, we should be able to cover the costs of staffing the school ($1000 dollars) with our current monthly support, and we still need to raise $400 in case of extra expenses.

If you wish to support us in this, you can contact our Home Front Committee for more instructions at: “hfc@zaaier.com”.

 

Scripture:

Reading Psalm 46 has been really important for me this week.

It’s been pretty easy for me to start feeling down over the past couple of days. I start thinking about things more than I experience them and before long I can’t concentrate anymore or have any reason to feel good. The only answer that I have found during times like these has been to turn to Jesus and ask Him to help me.

Yesterday was like that, it was also the day that I read Psalm 46.

In there it says to “be still and know that I am God” and right after that “I will be worshipped in all the earth.”

Far too often I get focused on trying to do the right things and I forget to be still. I remember that my first responsibility is to love God and love the others around me, but I forget to be still and let God prepare me for that. He reminded me of that yesterday. Whenever He calls us to do something, He will be the source of our strength to do that thing. He has called all of us to be the church and tell the nations about Him, but we forget to rely on Him for the strength to do so.

As followers of Christ (and as a follower of Christ) we need to learn how to rely on Jesus for our strength – for everything that we will need to do what He calls us to do.

Yesterday, God helped me learn that again.

Praise & Prayer Report:

– In the next few days we will have a better idea of where we are at in raising money to go to South Africa for the SOAP. Please be praying with us that God will continue showing us the direction He has for us and that He will confirm what He wants to do through us!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom

Weekly Update: May 25th, 2012

Weekly Update: Thursday, 5/25/12

Hello everyone,

I hope this update finds you all very well!

My wife and I have been busy support raising this week. Since we are not in America right now, I’ve tried to email just about everyone who’s supported us and I’ve started calling those people too. It’s also prompted us to work on our family budget, pray about our finances more, and given us the opportunity to talk with more people.

It has become quite warm here, not as warm as Northern South-East Asia while I was there, but still quite warm. We’ve started to go out on evening walks with our son before putting him to bed. He, of course, is only 4 and a half months old and is riding on me in his baby carrier.

We were able talk with a man sitting along the path we were taking one evening because of our little son too. My wife already felt led to talk with him, but she was a little nervous and didn’t know how to start the conversation. Our son was not nervous, and proceeded to stare at the man as we came past the rock he was sitting on. The man looked back, smiled wide, and proceeded to compliment our son on his cuteness or something.

He was a local guy who had tattoos on his arms of all the things he loved in his house: two parrots, two cats, two ferrets, and a Suzuki car. My wife did most of the talking (my Dutch isn’t that great yet), but I was able to tell that the conversation was about his life, the beauty of the park we were in, and that we were staying nearby too.

It was an encouraging reminder too my wife that she is quite good at having conversations with strangers.

For me, looking back on it makes me anxious to start telling people about Jesus. My heart is getting more riled up for Christ. A lot of what I’ve been reading here has been focused on telling people about Jesus or helping me learn how to disciple people to follow him. God has been drawing us closer together and closer to Him; I can tell He is getting us ready for what He has for us and I am excited for us to take hold of it!

Stay tuned with us for more of what God is doing!

 

Other Updates:

– After talking with the school leader of the SOAP, my wife and I have decided to both staff the school instead of one of us staffing and the other being a student.

– We’ve also been able to get more clear on our costs for going to South Africa. At this point, we will need $2,350 dollars for plane tickets, $1000 dollars for our stay, and $400 dollars in any extra costs on top of those. If you wish to support us in this, you can contact our Home Front Committee for more instructions at: “hfc@zaaier.com”.

Scripture:

My wife and I had a really important time reading through Psalm 32!

As we had been talking about our relationship we began to realize there was something missing in our forgiveness. We had both been saying sorry to each other, but the memories were still there in us and we kept feeling that we had to prove that it wouldn’t happen again.

Through reading the Psalm and praying together God started healing us and teaching us that we don’t have to be driven by our bad memories, hurts, or disappointments! When we forgive each other those are disregarded and we do not hold them against ourselves or each other!

The same can be true for all of us who follow Jesus because He has truly forgiven us and He teaches us how to truly forgive others!

Go read through Psalm 32 on your own, or with your spouse, and ask God if there “forgiven things” still driving your relationship with Him or other people! Through God’s forgiveness we can have the freedom to live without the hurts and disappointments that have driven our lives!

Praise & Prayer Report:

– Please pray that God would continue teaching us about what He wants for our relationship and for our ministry together in Him! Praise Him that He has already been teaching us so much about both these areas!

– Please pray that God would increase our support so that we will be able to go to South Africa together!

Thanks for all your prayers!

In Christ,
The Abiding Kingdom