Missions Update - Forest and Emily
We are the Renner family
Forrest, Emily, Luke, Olivia, Maggie, and Callie. We are so excited for what God is doing in the Muslim country in West Asia that we have the privilege to serve. We are equally excited and blessed to be partnering with you to take the Gospel and see the Great Commission fulfilled here through planting disciple making churches.
This past year has been a challenging one to say the least. There has been a lockdown here for most of the past year. In spite of this we have seen God work in many ways both in our lives and in expanding His kingdom here. We would like to share with you 3 main things that God has both taught us and share how He is working.
1. The power of the Holy Spirit.
God has taught us how to rely on HImi in new and fresh ways. As a result of this we have seen those we are discipling begin to live this out. A new believer named “Max” came to faith right when the pandemic started. Through this year seeing him move from trusting in himself to understanding how to live in the power of the Spirit has been so encouraging. As a result of this He has shared with his entire extended family and we are seeing some of them begin to seek the Lord. He has shared he feels the Lord leading him to move back to his village in the east of the country so he can see multiplying churches begin there.
2. The power of God’s Word.
When you cannot meet people face to face about the only thing you can do is meet with them online and look at God’s Word. Then encourage them to obey it and share it. This has been our main strategy this year. As a result of this a partner of ours got connected with a man that said he was a believer in the most religious city in the country. The only thing he could do was send him an app that helps to take people through a discovery Bible study from creation to ChrThe man began doing this with a couple of his friends. Within a month this group has grown to 20 people discovering the God of the Bible. All this is through the Spirit teaching and drawing through God’s Word.
3. The power of prayer
We have had much time to focus on prayer. We have sought to focus on hearing from the Lord and interceding on behalf of the people of this land. As a result of this our faith has greatly increased, as well as our connection with the Lord. We have seen God speak to people through dreams and open up many doors through this.
We are so grateful for your partnership with us in this work. Please pray with us that God continues to teach us and draw us to ourselves. That we would be people that experience God’s grace just a little bit more each day and help others to help others to experience God’s grace more. Through this pray with us that God would begin a disciple making church planting movement in this country.
