“Last Sunday, R from Vehtovo was in the hospital for routine pain management, and was allowed to come to our church service. While there she asked us to pray for three ladies in the hospital. Sevdi led the group in prayer. One of the ladies, who had been having trouble breathing, later told R that she felt a warm sensation in her chest around the time we would have been praying. R gave her a gospel of Luke and encouraged her to read it.
A few days ago the lady called R and told me that on Sunday (today) she wanted us to come to her village, which is in the northern-most section of the Shumen Province. She said she would gather around ten people to come and hear what I have to say about this book. So today at 1PM our time, we will leave Shumen and head towards the village of Vulnari. While there, we will have a simple Bible study and I will invite them to do a 13-week Bible study that introduces Jesus and explains what it means to follow Him.
This is not how I had planned it…
We have been praying for a while for a second village, in which we can have a Bible study. There are two strategies that I envisioned working: The first strategy is going to a village and doing some sort of outreach event (i.e. OCC) and if there is interest, we come back and continue studying.
The second strategy is this: 1. Visit a village. 2. Walk around 3. Look for somebody to talk to. 4. Attempt to steer the conversation to the gospel. 5. Invite the person to host us and we will read the Bible and discuss it together. This simple five-step plan worked in Vehtovo, and in my mind it could work elsewhere.
But this, this is different. Even though we have visited over 50 villages, we will drive through seven new villages ON THE WAY to Vulnari. It is way off the beaten path. Besides that, I have never met the woman who will be hosting. I don’t know the ten people she said would join us. I don’t know their ethnicity (the host has a Turkish-sounding name). I don’t know what language I should speak in.
As you can imagine, I am a mix of excited and nervous. I think I am prepared, but we have learned to expect the unexpected! If you happen to read this around 6 or 7 CST, please stop and pray for us, as exactly at that time we will be sharing the gospel in a new place.
There are several other things that happened this week and several other things that we are excited about this upcoming week, but more on that later. For now, thank you for sacrificially giving and for constantly holding us up in prayer. God is on the move!
-Josh”
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