Time to let go and trust God

The ENMU team is at the end of the project, and we just want to review on the amazing ways we've seen God work in the past 6 weeks. We've been so blessed to be a part of sharing Christ with 26 Readers who've come from such backgrounds as Buddhism, Chinese ancestral worship, and "free thinkers" who are still searching for what they want to believe in. In sum, we've read for 125 hours from Luke with our Readers. We know that God had his hand in this project, as we've seen many grow in their knowledge and faith of Jesus as the Son of God. It is very difficult to summarize all the amazing ways we've witnessed Him transforming our Readers, but we'll try to give you a small glimpse. David Brown said that:

"Some of our readers came with a knowledge of Jesus, but did not understand his purpose like my reader, Douglas. Other readers had never seen a Bible, heard of Jesus, or new of God's love for them like Michael. These were two of my most interesting readers because they have grown so much! Looking at how far these two have come, its not surprising that the song, 'Our God is an Awesome God' has been stuck in my head for the past 3-4 weeks. Our God has shown us his power here in Singapore, we've broken new ground here and I pray that God will continue to work in these readers and that just because we are gone, doesn't mean that they stop studying. To God be the glory, the great things he has done!"

I, Rachelle Self, have also witnessed growth in my Readers. One in particular was Yakun who is a "free thinker" and at the beginning of our reading sessions doubted even the existence of Jesus. After talking about all the evidence for Jesus' life, she agreed that he must have lived, but even then thought the stories from the Bible were fairy tales and that Jesus was not really the son of God. Through reading the scriptures, Yakun began to realize the purpose of Jesus' life. She said on one occasion, "I think Jesus was an agent between God and man." Another time she said, "Yes, I think it is possible that Jesus is both God and man." After reading about the crucifixion story and talking about who Jesus was, I said:

Ok, there are three options we have to decide between...Either; 1) Jesus told the truth and is the Son of God; 2) He lied and is not the Son of God, or; 3) He was crazy. He really believed he was the Son of God, but was not. After considering these options, she said, 'Well, it's not number 3. It's not number 2. I think it is number 1...Does that make me a Christian?'

Though Yakun has not become a Christian yet, she believes Jesus told the truth, and is the Son of God! Praise God!

Aside from the victory stories, we also need to share some logistics...We had our end meeting yesterday and talked about each Reader with a host from the Church who will be involved in following up with the Readers. We also had our last party with 7Readers in attendence (On average we had 8 readers at each party). We also had 4 Readers in attendence at church today!

We can't thank you all enough for your prayers and encouragement in making this project successful. We continue to ask for your prayers in the transition period as we leave and the church members pick up where we left off with the Readers. We have full confidence that God's word "will not return empty, but will accomplish what He desires and achieve the purpose for which He sent it." To God be the Glory!


Love in Christ,

ENMU team; David, Shelagh, and Rachelle

Yanan

I just finished reading with Yanan a few minutes ago and wanted to share about it. This girl is a free thinker who at the beginning of our reading sessions was uncertain whether Jesus even existed. After reading with her she has taken many steps of faith and has grown to genuinely like Jesus' teachings. For example, when we read about Jesus being a friend to Levi and the tax collectors, she said, "I like Jesus. If I have a friend I want him to be like Jesus." after reading about the wise and foolish builders I asked her, "What makes a strong foundation?" She replied, "I think Jesus is a strong pillar... he is very good." When I asked her if she was interested in Jesus being her foundation, she said "Yes, I am interested." She expressed that she does not have a strong foundation, and that her "spirit is empty." I shared with Yanan that she could have a strong foundation by believing in Jesus, but she was not ready to make that decision. Though she has not accepted Christ as her personal savior yet, she is growing so much. We will continue reading about the death, burial and resurection story in our last week, so please keep her in your prayers.
Love,
Rachelle

For your info...

Here are some stats we've been keeping track of the last couple weeks:

Readers: 28

Readers who attended
American Party: 5
Cowboy party: 10
Oscar Night: 7
Luau......
Talent show.....

We'll keep you posted!

Larintluangi

Yesterday (6/19), I just had my last reading session with a 24 girl by the name of larintluangi. This young lady is from Myanmar, and is currently working in Singapore as a housekeeper. Though her English was very poor, we were able to complete the "Friends Speak- In the Beginning book", which contains very basic English stories about Jesus. Though the langusge barrier was very difficult to gauge where she was at spiritually, we read about miracles of Jesus, how people were amazed at His teachings, and Heaven. I also encouraged her to read John 3:16-17. Though we won't be reading together anymore, I am thankful that she already has some connections with the church as she attends CitiVision with her employers. Please pray that Larintluangi will continue to study the Bible and grow to know more about Christ.
Love,
Rachelle

New Slide show at the bottom

Hey! There is a slide show at the bottom...Check it out!

My Reader, Michael

Hey everyone! I (David) wanted to come and report about my most interesting reader, Michael. I've told a few things about him to some of you, but not all. This guy came in and was my hardest reader to communicate with because of a strong language barrier. He was, without a doubt, going to be a challenge for me. He signed up for everyday and we've been progressing along every smoothly. The beautiful thing about this guy’s story is that he is very interested in the story of Jesus. With no prior knowledge of Jesus, God, or Christianity, we’ve had to start from scratch learning the basic things about Christianity. As we have moved along, things have progressed during every reading session. Things started out at Michael saying things like, this is a nice story, but a virgin birth can’t happen to now he has told me that he believes these stories are true, that Jesus really lived, was the Son of God, and that God and Jesus are powerful enough to perform these miraculous things. We’ve also gone through some parables of Jesus and at one of my recent reading sessions, things were particularly challenging. Michael seemed lost throughout my questions about the story. He said that he didn’t understand certain words that I didn’t have to teach him in our very first lesson. When we finally got through the story, I finally realized why we were having such a hard time. You see, in the couple of reading sessions prior to that, Michael was able to pick up on the true meaning of the story and because of that, words and ideas came very easy to him. In this reading session, it was not the case. Michael was not able to pick up on the true meaning of the story and so instead of focusing on my questions, he was mentally trying to figure out the true meaning of the story that Jesus told. When he walked out of that reading session, I just smiled and laughed a little because I just saw his innocence with these stories. It was a reminder to me that he was still very new to all of this and even though we were progressing so smoothly and quickly, I still needed to maintain an understanding of where he is on a spiritual level, an infant. From then to now, we talked about the resurrection and Jesus going back up into Heaven. After running through the Resurrection and Jesus being taken back up into Heaven, Michael was absolutely enthralled at the idea that Jesus is still alive to this day and that he is going to come back again! We’ve gotten into some very detailed and deep discussions about God and how that relates to our lives. I really can’t say enough about this young man and the growth I’ve seen right in front of my eyes. I praise God every time I think about it. To God be the Glory in this wonderful story from Singapore! God Bless, everyone!

Great Quotes by our Readers:

"I think Jesus is an agent between God and man." "I want to experience Jesus like that." "Yes, I think it is possible that Jesus was both God and man"-Yakun

"Jesus is a strong pillar." "I am interested in Jesus being my foundation." "I like Jesus very much."-Yanan

"The Good news is believing in Jesus."- Yanlin

Shelagh-"Do you believe that a virgin birth is possible?" Eileen-"Why not believe?"

Rachelle-"How is it possible for the virgin birth to have happened?" SiYan-"Because God can do anything."