Overview |
Jim & Betty Brown
Biblical Ministries Worldwide Prayer Letter
_ Weekly Update
This week Betty and I attended the annual Biblical Ministries Worldwide area directors and administrators’ working retreat. All individuals, who oversee the Mission work in different areas of the world, gather to share, evaluate, plan, and encourage one another. One of the significant take-a-ways is seeing the larger picture of what God is doing around the globe. It was a week of evaluation, planning, and fellowship. One of my disciples is a teacher preparing people from South and Central American countries who plan to serve as missionaries around the world. They learn English (because they will be working alongside English speaking colleagues), and while in the States learn how to adjust and live in a different culture. He texted me this note: “My summer grad classes are keeping me busy. This next week is going to be an adventure. I have quite a few things all coming together (research paper, two presentations for class, new missionaries arriving and getting settled, along with orientation, to a name a few). My prayer starting this week has been that I will be more like Christ at the end of these studious and work-filled weeks.” Will you join me in upholding him in prayer? It is absolutely amazing that God is plunging me into long distance discipleship. These disciples are located in Austin (TX), New York City, Louisiana, Miami, New Delhi (India), and others. The next paragraph will show you another one on the horizon. A missionary and I connected over coffee. He teaches at a school in the northern Iraq among the Kurds. (These people in Bible times were called the Medes. And this whole area in Iraq today is called Kurdistan by the Kurds.) He and his family live about an hour’s drive east of Mosul and lives in a relatively safe area. It’s so safe he doesn’t lock his house at night. His purpose in meeting with me was to see if I would disciple him. He doesn’t have anyone available to do that. So we have begun to walk together and probably will Skype when he returns to Iraq to minister among the Kurdish people. The disciple in NYC and I connect by phone early in the morning before he catches the subway for work. This week he was wrestling with was how to juggle everything in his day so that he could be a godly man not only at work but at home as well. This call was like teaching him “Spiritual Life 101”. He relished the truth and treasured every aspect of it. It was evident that God had prepared him for this time, because he was so hungry for truth. A call came yesterday from a guy who said he couldn’t connect with his wife. They both got angry, and he knew they were drifting apart. Our hour-long conversation exposed some of his carnal behavior and his need to confess his sin to God and to his wife. While it was a painful call, he expressed his gratitude for having a friend to help him. But he was especially grateful to have someone in his life willing to confront him the hard truth. The guy, whose brother was recently killed in a car accident, and I have been texting but his texting has stopped. I'm sure for him that it’s hard to take this first step with a complete stranger. He may have gotten cold feet about meeting. Pray with me and ask God to bring this to pass, if it’s His will. Betty and I really need your prayers. Jim & Betty Jim & Betty Brown Biblical Ministries Worldwide 1595 Herrington Road Lawrenceville, GA 30043 |