John and Lorraine Young

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Prayer Letter/Ministry Update

August 2009

It seems just a short while ago, at the middle of June, when we couldn’t wait for the summer vacation to begin, so we could take the girls out on our visitation rounds. Well, it is now the end of August and only one day left in this vacation, and we can’t wait for them to head back to school! How ironic! How conflicting of thoughts!

We’ve done some visitation, but certainly not enough. This summer has been different: even though church has matured in many ways, people nevertheless seem unusually distracted and discouraged. A palpable sense of spiritual apathy permeates; attendances are low; and conversations never stray far from jobs, business, and legal residence. Yet even as people can’t come to the church, the Lord impresses upon us that it’d be our service to bring the church out to them. After all, this is a community of believing saints.

Our first VBS went off successfully, meeting our expectations, albeit with some very tired workers at the end of the week. An average of 9 kids participated with half a dozen adult and teenage helpers. The kids did games and crafts, saw movies, studied Bible and even some Chinese, and painted t-shirts. The high light had to be learning to dance to the music of “One Way, Jesus!” (Yes, all in English! Did we say this was an international group?), We might have been too ambitious (or inexperienced), daily activities lasted from 9:00 to 4:00, which made for pretty long hours, and exhausted workers. But we do have some cool and awesome teens who helped out; and are glad that the church took this first step in ministering to the families. Young immigrant families face a lot of pressure especially during the summer. Their kids either stay home alone or are brought to their parents’ shops, allowed to run wild. We hope that, in time and with greater maturity, the church would become more active in meeting their needs.

Another baby step we took was a two-day, one-night all church retreat. Great majority of the folks here had never heard of a retreat, let alone attending one. Doing it over a national holiday when stores were supposed to be closed was essentially asking them to close shop for half a day. It was still a big challenge. But we believed that the Lord would do great things. About 40 adults, a dozen youths, and 10 children went. He would bring revival, but it must start with repentance. Aside from the teaching, a special time was set aside for sharing, it became the most memorable part of the retreat, folks were given a time for in-depth reflection, allowing the Holy Spirit to move.

What made it especially memorable was that an STM team from Northern Virginia CAC joined us. The team is led by their pastor and wife, who arrived on the day the retreat started; then turned around to head to the campground, jetlagged and luggage all in tow. Pastor Tay taught us from the Scripture, Mrs. Tay and others led the workshop. Who’s said that we didn’t know how to take advantage of the visiting STM’s?

Pastor Tay and his team stayed another week after the retreat. We are so grateful for their tirelessly visiting and caring for the folks. Their positive attitude gave us all a role model of living in the Lord and serving Him joyfully.

Prayer Requests/Answers to Prayer

Please continue praying for us, that we’d live out His intimate life in us. We are thankful to know that you are behind us, all the time, praying for us and sustaining us. Two sets of ears are fully tuned to the words of our news updates: yours and the Lord’s. Thank you! And thanks for your faithfully support of the GCF.

You encouragement keeps us going. Thanks for the partnership!

For the glory of Jesus in Spain,
John, Lorraine, Sarah & Abby

Spain

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