Wednesday, December 15, 2010

UNITED STATES 2010 - Trip to Heritage Church in Ra1nier

Rainier, Oregon
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
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Sharing About our Travels at Heritage Church
Jesse had forwarded me a few emails of a guy named David Devine who had known his family when he was in school many years ago. I think that the Devines have been able to keep up with our journeys in Mozambique through Jesse and Tanya's email updates. Anyway, we had received an invitation to come and share about our missionary journeys at the Devines' church and we accepted the invitation.
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First we drove to Deer Island to have dinner with the Devine family at their home. Being the honest guy that I am, I'll tell you that we were already running about 20 minutes behind to dinner, and I had never driven those roads before. As I was trying to read our GPS to stay on the right roads, I wasn't paying attention to the speed limits and as I looked up saw the lights of a police car flashing in the rear view mirror. You have to know, I haven't had a speeding ticket for over 15 years now. But the very nice officer said that I was going 17 mph over the speed limit. He asked where we were going. I told him that we were missionaries and going to speak at a church. He took my information to his car. When he came back he asked if I wanted tithe to the city of Rainier. I chuckled and said, "no." He just gave me a warning and let us go. I think he was probably a believer. We thanked God for His favor in spite of my carelessness and made it 30 minutes late to dinner.
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After dinner, we headed back to Rainier and made it to Heritage Church. It is a small church that rents a building from a Russian Pentecostal Church. We already knew going into this that it was a more traiditional church than we are used to. The people were so warm and gracious. I played and sang, "Thanks To You," as I felt it was the way the Spirit of God was leading. We showed the edited version of "The Road To Tanzania." Then Jesse, Tanya and I shared about our missionary journeys. We could see the faith being stirred up in the hearers as we shared about all the miracles we saw God do in Mozambique. There was a question and answer time. Jesse prayed for the congregation. Then we had a time of fellowship afterwards where we continued to elaborate on our experiences and encourage the local believers. We also received some financial support from the church, which we never ask for; yet God provides for us.
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As we were leaving, David asked if we could pray for his sons; one of which was suffering with diabetes and rheumetoid arthritis, the other who wanted prayer for God's direction in his life. Jesse, Tanya and I laid hands on the boys and prayed for them. I believe that God had stirred up faith in David to ask us to pray for them. I haven't heard from them, but I am believing for a complete healing in their son. God is so good. It is so much fun to testify of the marvelous things we continue to see God do in and through our lives as missionaries.
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Christian Young

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