God has been moving this year and you've played a huge part in that see how...

Tanzania

In Tanzania we worked in a town outside of Dar es Salaam speaking at churches and schools, working with kids and preaching at crusades nearly every day. We saw over 30 people get saved and many others renew their life in Christ!

Uganda

We went into the outskirts of Uganda on Mt. Elgon and spent the month living in a mud house spending many days going door to door to share the gospel as well as speaking in many churches and schools around the area. About 20 people gave their lives to Christ, including some Muslims and amazing elderly people and we met and prayed with many dozens more.

Ukraine
In Ukraine we largely returned to physical labor and helped paint, landscape, build and renovate for a large ministry that includes a church and a retreat center for Christians who need to recover spiritual or physical health. We spoke and led worship at a few churches and spent a lot of time teaching English and sharing the gospel through our lessons.

Romania
We worked for a ministry called The Potter's House in Timisoara Romania, working with children affected by poverty and we spent a lot of time teaching and helping them build character and biblical ideas. We also spoke and connected with teens and did physical labor for a few other ministries.

Moldova
We are currently working with a pastor who I believe is going to play a big part in helping bring some badly needed change to the body of Christ in Moldova! His community is mostly comprised of the younger generation (which is almost nonexistent in most of Eastern Europe) and is focused on raising up disciples to keep that change going strong! God is moving and people's lives are being changed!

Because of you these lives were touched by the loving power of God...Thank you!

While David and I are still fundraising we wanted to give a small update on what your finances helped accomplish for the Kingdom this year:

New Zealand

We interceded for the nations - facilitated two Christian conferences and helped do repairs on a local church that is impacting the nation of New Zealand...

Australia

 

Philippines

 

Malaysia

 

Thailand

 

 Kenya

Our first country in Africa! We spent constructing an education/office building for a local church that has a huge impact in that community. We also had our first introduction to going door to door and sharing the gospel with people we had never met. Over 20 people made decisions for Christ that month and many also came to church the following Sundays! The great thing was even if they didn't come to church they would be visited by a church member in the following days!

 

Yep! We've made it to Moldova. I'm not really sure where in Moldova but we're here. Our team, along with Team Malachi are working with Pastor Vitali in a small community about an hour and a half outside of the capital city. Vitali is a young visionary and it's amazing to see what obedience to God and driven vision will get you in just a few years.

 This small church of about 25 members weekly ministers to street kids, the poor, and have a program to help prevent human trafficking of which Moldova is the largest producer in Eastern Europe.  This church also takes orphans in as their own and raises the children to be followers of Christ as well as give them good education and training for the future. In addition, they teach sewing and computer skills to anyone in the community who wants to learn. This church is also farming beavers so the people who are unemployed may be self sufficient. It may be the most amazing ministry I've seen out on the field this year as they are very effective in their efforts. 

Now the reason why this is so interesting is because Christianity in this part of the world is nearly nonexistent and because of the difficult economic situation no one really wants to stay in Moldova. The people who do stay belong to the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church primarily does not preach relationship with Jesus but instead tells their members that if you confess to the priest or pay money to the church then you can go to heaven.

When Pastor Vitali first came to this community the Orthodox Church was very against all Christians, so much so, that several churches of different denominations tried to start a church here and did not succeed. When Vitali came to this village he went to rent some space for the church to meet, the priest purchased the land from the original landlord and boarded up the building just so Vitali and his members could not meet in the space. The Orthodox Church held so much power in this community that when Vitali went to the authorities nothing was done. So finally an older lady in the church told Vitali that God would bring justice and within a few weeks the priest died in a car accident.

Maybe it's just that time of year but more than any other country I've been to, Moldova is gray and gloomy. Hopelessness covers the faces of many who walk along the streets but I see hope here. Hearing the story of Vitali coming to this village and how God just opened doors for him it is clear that God desperately wants to meet with the people of this village and from there change the country of Moldova.

"...I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living..."

I can't wait to get involved in the work happening here but I have been asked to completely step out of ministry until we are fully funded. Please help be a part of what God is doing in Moldova by helping me get back on the field. You may donate by clicking the "Support Us" button on the side of the screen or by clicking this link: http://tinyurl.com/reyesworldrace

Well as they say in Africa, "Karibou!"or "Welcome!". We are in our eleventh month and our last month of ministry. Somewhere in the middle of month 10 our team started to have what I call birthing pains for the season we are about to enter. We're not finished with the race but we need to start thinking about what has to come next in our lives, we are not home yet either so we need to stay fully engaged in what God's doing here, in the moment. We're different people than we were a year ago but we're not with the people we normally associate with and so we wonder if we'll still be different when we go home. Our bodies have taken a beating for the last eleven months, for some of us that includes a few extra inches from the WAY too many chapatti we've eaten or the billion times we've been told to finish our plates aka "clear ALL the evidence". Some of us have been sick on this race more times than we can count sometimes hospitalized and all of us are beyond exhausted from the sleepless nights and early mornings that at least come with our monthly travel days if not more frequently. I don't think I've ever been able to relate with Paul when he wrote this, like I can now: "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed...Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day... For our fight and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2Cor 4:8-9, 16-18

Last month was beautiful, challenging, educational, and fun. When we arrived we found ourselves in a beautiful campus overlooking the Black Sea, and after Africa we were prepared to sleep in tents or on a concrete floor somewhere. We were teaching English, speaking at churches, and doing a lot of construction work for the church there, which also runs a sort of retreat/resort center for ministers and their families who need to rest or recover their health.

The workers there seemed to have a lot of the detailed construction covered and the girls were tasked with a lot of painting and landscaping work so I was asked to chop wood every day. It was exhausting at first and after the first two days of wood chopping I began to ask in the mornings, "So what can I do today?" hoping for a different answer. Every day my Ukrainian boss answered the same way, "chop wood!"

After a few days of breaking my back on the work I actually started growing to like it.I got to listen to about 4-5 sermons on the ipod during the day and got some good prayer time in. The only difficulty was when the workers would see me make a mistake. Many times they'd walk by and watch what I was doing and the instant I failed to get a log quickly and cleanly one of them would come over with a smile, take the axe and show me "how it's done". It got irritating really quickly because I like to learn things and I knew there was no way I was going to be as good at log chopping as men who had done it for years. It got to where I would find other little things to do to look like I was working when they came around and I'd start chopping wood once they started walking away. I kept feeling like someone was watching over my shoulder, waiting for me to fail.

So often in the church it can feel similar. We look at others, or they look at us, and we're always aware of this line, this standard that Christians are supposed to look like, live by and stick to. But none of us really hits that perfect standard, and when we make a mistake big enough there's usually somebody there to let us know how things should have gone. There's a myth of perfection in the church that is largely based on image. That's the spirit I acted out of when I tried to hide my inadequacy in axe swinging. If nobody saw it, I didn't really mess up. That's also why so many leaders seem so inhuman in their togetherness. We don't get to see them in theirfrailty but we feel like our own is so easily exposed. We need to stop trying to live by the law, trying to look as if we can make it all perfect and "right" and start being real with each other. I need men in my life to be real with me and show me how to fail and stand back up again. Even seasoned log cutters miss a swing occasionally. Show me how it's done, and then love me enough to let me fail and still be accepted.