Returning to the Harvest Fields

In East Africa, our International Bridges Trainer traveled in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Kenya, assisting with Bridges trainings, meeting with five indigenous partners, and interacting with people from eight unreached, unengaged people groups! Our trainer and local partners traveled to remote areas to visit with their networks of leaders and churches. This gave opportunity for coaching and mentoring, and visits to house churches, Bible story fellowships where incredible men and woman continue to mature, equip, and disciple through oral Scripture engagement.

Another Bridges training team traveled to central India in South Asia, spending time with a talented group of women training our “Bridges for Women” (BFW) curriculum. The unique cultural issues women in this part of the world face were addressed as they chose, memorized, and dialogued some of the 120 Bible stories included in the BFW training.

HE is Faithful

Many faithful brothers and sisters lifted our teams up in prayer throughout these travels. Our teams encountered all types of daily difficulties, such as delayed travel visas, hostile groups in areas we were planning to train, false positive Covid tests, broken down buses and delayed flights…AND our God showed up every time at just the right time. HE showed up in each travel connection, training event, and church gathering as we had hoped and prayed for, with NO cancellations. We were able to meet all the goals and objectives we had set for these two trips. We serve a BIG God!

“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19 NIV

“Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress.”
Psalm 107:6 NIV

“Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and He will help you.”
Psalm 37:5 NLT

God, Please Help

One of our East Africa partners recently told the story of answered prayer as he was traveling by bicycle during the rainy season. As he rode from village to village to coach and mentor fellow believers, he encountered so much mud the buildup on his tires prevented him from turning the pedals and continuing forward. He could not even push the bike any further. Sticks from the ground around him were no match for the caked mud and proved useless. He stopped and prayed a simple prayer, “God, please help.” He did not receive an answer of the rainstorm ending, the clearing and drying of the roads, or alternate transportation. The answer came in the form of a “broken metal spoon” that he saw next to him when he opened his eyes. He was able to use the spoon to clear away the mud and continue on his way. Our Lord is faithful, always shows up, and often does so in ways we do not expect.

As we know from God’s stories, HE often shows up in unexpected places and in unexpected ways: Balaam – in a donkey, Moses – in a shrub, Daniel – in a lion’s den, Gideon – in a wool fleece, Jacob – in a wrestling match, Ruth – in a foreign land, Samuel – in the middle of the night…and our SIU partner with a “broken metal spoon.”

Thankful

We thank God for His faithfulness in allowing us to return to see our partners and look forward to reporting on more of our training adventures in the harvest fields around the globe. If you would like to read more stories of impact in the harvest fields across the globe, request our recently released 2021 Annual Report by contacting us at: www.scripturesinuse.org/contact/

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