Barbecue Day

It has been so very cold here these day and somehow that's just the right weather for a barbecue. A few nights ago we had a barbecue and our neighbors below also had one the same evening. If you look carefully, in one of the pictures you will see 7-8 chickens tied together. I was surprised when I crossed one of our neighbors carrying a bundle of flapping chickens down the stairs. They had built a big fire and were preparing for the feast. I watched them for a while from our balcony.

Every single one of our Northeast friends really loves meat, of many kinds, and barbecues are a time for telling stories. My friend Tovi was telling me that they don't throw anything away. He loves telling foreigners all of his stories because our eyes get real big and surprised every time. He told us that his family is killing a pig as soon as he comes home. The first curry that they make is with the blood and and they just simply stir it and add a few spices and some pork fat. He loves telling us about how he likes to eat the eyeball and ear and tail and everything. One time his friend had caught a deer and the family had cooked everything and had given him half of the full deer head (brains, eyeball, everything), he loves this sort of stuff. But he told me that his family doesn't eat duck because the ducks eat a lot of earth worms.

Prayer

After such a long time, it's hard to know where to begin. I am deeply sorry for the great lapse in communication. I was having problems with my computer and the internet connection and someone had borrowed our camera cord as well, so it wasn't possible to post pictures. I know that many people were worried that something had happened to us, but we are doing well.

For the past couple of months we have been involved with a School of Intercessory Prayer that has been mostly a prayer assignment focused on asking God to release people from North East India into the surrounding nations. The local people in this region are connected to at least 23 countries of the 10/40 window ethnically, linguistically, culturally and or geographically. This means they have a natural link, and a closer tie to the unreached peoples in these countries.
Actually we have prayed for many nations, and many different things, but we really believe in the Church in the North East and believe that they have a great inheritance in the nations. We have so many stories and testimonies of answered prayers and we are encouraged more than ever that prayer is essential in all that we do. We can do nothing apart from Him.

There are around 50 people here during this time of prayer from several different nations: Germany, South Korea, Switzerland, America, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, and obviously the majority are Northeasterners. There are such quality people in our midst and it has been an incredible time.

We spend a lot of time in prayer and worship, as well as classes, and practical activities. One of these pictures is of Houser in the prayer room that everyone is encouraged to spend at least two hours in a week. One of the major weeks here was a Prayer Summit here in Shillong that Houser was highly involved in planning and it was open to everyone. North East India Summit 2006 went off with a great bang Oct 31 - Nov 4 here in our home city! More than 350 attended the 4 day conference from 15 countries, 19 states of India (including all 8 NE states), 50 different people groups spread across more than 43 different denominations, missions and church groups! It was an amazing time as we prayed for every country in the 10/40 window and people committed their lives to serving God in the surrounding regions.

This next week we are going to be doing some outreach as we go and pray for some different churches and leaders in Shillong, go to some hospitals and minister to people there, as well as a longer outreach, about three hours away. After this school, there are two teams going on longer outreaches, but we will be heading home for the holidays. Hooray!

Houser has been especially busy these days with his normal leadership roles as well as helping with the summit and the new responsibilities that this school has brought. These days have gone by so quickly and they have been very full and rich.

Oh, there is so much to say and so many stories to tell, maybe we can catch up face to face in the next few weeks.

SOFM Graduation

In the beginning of October we had the SOFM Commissioning to celebrate the graduation of the students. We had a time of worship and encouragement and some of the students sang songs and performed different cultural dances. There were many tears and more laughs as we shared stories and remembered the previous three months. That's one of the hardest things to get used to, constantly saying goodbye to people that we have built deep relationships with and have come to love.

Several of the students have a heart for Bhutan, and the majority of the rest have a heart for China. It was a true pleasure to get to know and love these precious people and we are excited to see what the next years will unfold in their lives.