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Hello Friends!
We hope your summer is going well. Ours is quickly coming to an end. It has been fast and furious, but good. After conquering our School of the Bible at the end of June,
we began our outreach by teaching at our local church
here in Tyler, Crossroads Community Church.
It was great to be able to share with our family
in Christ here and get to know them better.
We spoke mostly on living the victorious
Christian life: walking
in our identity in Christ, taking our thoughts captive
to Him, the power of intercession, living within our
created design, and experiencing intimacy with Him.
We then headed up to Durant,
Oklahoma for four days where we ministered at a
Christian ministry for men with chemical dependence
called Joshua House.
Jason’s friend from Christ for the Nations,
Larry Ham, is the director of the program.
We shared devotions in the mornings
and Bible studies with the men in the evenings and
helped out by painting the deck and cleaning their
church. It
was awesome to see how many of the men were really
growing in the Lord and welcomed our messages.
Many wanted to be challenged and were serious
about surrendering their lives to Christ.
The sign on the wall proclaimed the heart of the
ministry, “If there is no spiritual change, there is
no change at all.”
The success of Christian ministries like Joshua
House over secular programs shows the absolute necessity
of a surrendered life to Christ.
We taught about God's character,
walking in friendship with Him, and His Father heart.
The Lord was powerfully working the last evening
when Glenie (one of our teammates) spoke on the Father
Heart of God. We
sensed the Holy Spirit ministering to each man
individually as tears flowed.
Larry read a letter to them from the Lord filled
with Scripture and God's promises and then spoke over
each of them that the cycle of broken relationships ends
now. Many of the men having no father or poor father figures in
their own lives now have children, and we could see God
ministering to them.
Our prayer is that they may know the heart of
Father God and live that out for their own children.
The pastor of River of
Life Church in Durant let us ride his horses while we
were there!
After getting back from Durant, we
helped paint our friends’ apartment here on the campus
in Tyler and moved from our efficiency apartment into
our trailer...yeah!
It is so nice to have much more space and a
washer and dryer! Many friends helped us move.
We celebrated our anniversary as we unpacked :)
Isn't that exotic?
This
room alone is about as big as
our
former efficiency!
Then, we were off to Houston where
we ministered with the YWAM Houston team.
We stayed in the Fifth Ward, close
to the University of Houston. For nine days, we ministered in the mornings at Harbor
Lights, a men’s ministry of Salvation Army dealing
with chemical dependence.
Not knowing exactly what to expect,
the first morning we arrived for our Bible study was a
head-first dive into ministry.
We had a full room of approximately sixty men
ready for our message.
With no formal introduction, Jason broke the ice!
It was awesome to see how hungry
most of the men there were for Truth.
God encouraged Beth that Truth is Truth, and she
could minister to the men even if she hadn’t
experienced similar struggles as them.
They loved her
teaching on overcoming sin
in the power
of the Holy Spirit!
We spoke on the character of God,
knowing Him personally, receiving His love, forgiveness,
and joining with God as He advances His kingdom on
earth. Many
men spoke to us after our messages and were truly
encouraged by our testimonies, teachings, and worship.
It was a blessing to be there with them.
Several shared their testimonies
with us about God’s powerful transformation in their
lives, and we were blessed to hear (and sing with :) the
Harbor Lights gospel choir.
In addition to working with Harbor
Lights, we helped with Street Church in the Montrose
area, a worship service for homeless people on Wednesday
nights where several churches serve.
We also worshipped and prayed in
the Montrose area (which is notorious for street kids,
drugs, homosexual clubs, and cross dressers). On Friday nights, we talked and prayed with people on the
streets in the area, passing out snacks and drinks.
It was awesome to pray with one young man who was
living the homosexual lifestyle in Montrose but knew he
didn’t want to keep heading the direction of the
streets. His
name is Arthur, and we would appreciate your prayers for
him that God would reveal Himself to him, giving him
hope for the future and power to break free from
homosexuality.
We were also blessed to share with
a local Korean youth group who came to minister in the
area as well. We taught about intercession and trusting God with your life.
It was a blessing to partner with the full time
missionaries in Houston.
Please be praying for God’s provision and
protection for them as their fifteen-passenger ministry
van was stolen (and later returned but seemingly
unusable) just a few days after our trip.
We enjoyed visiting several
churches in the area:
a charismatic (Holy Spirit filled) Catholic
church, Lakewood Church where Joel Osteen preaches, and
Ecclesia which is specifically focused on young adults
with a coffee shop and art gallery in it.
After coming home from outreach, it
was great to rest, relax, and enjoy solitude!
Outreach is a very social time :)
We were blessed to visit family and friends in
San Marcos and Waxahachie. It was great catching up with everyone and spending time with
our home church family, too.
Beth was able to share at the Wesley Foundation,
the Methodist campus ministry at the University of Texas
in Austin where she was involved in college.
It was such a joy to challenge the students to
fully surrender to Christ, and trust God for their
future, knowing that He has a much bigger plan for their
lives than they could even imagine.
We are now back in Tyler, Texas and
school preparations have started for Beth’s Reading
Class (kindergarten). She has been unpacking the classroom with the help of several
lovely ladies, and Jason has been painting and
organizing at home.
Children come on August the 21st, and
that is Jason’s first day with staff of School of the
Bible.
We truly appreciate your prayers
and financial support!
We would love to hear from you.
We love you with all of our hearts
and pray for His presence in abundance in your lives,
Jason and Beth
P.S. Some shots of the Water
Wall in Houston
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