Friends of Internationals................
We had the welcome dinner for all of the international students at USF last Saturday. Lucy, Mark and I were able to make contacts with several students. We were able to sit down and talk to them and hopefully this one conversation will turn into many more. Mark already has met with a guy from India, his name is Abi, and he's planning to meet with him more. Abi wants to help Mark with Friends of Internationals so Mark will start meeting with him to plan things but his ultimate goal is to share the gospel with Abi. We see great opportunities with this ministry. We are here to be a family to them and in the process share Christ with them and trust God with their salvation so later, these students can go back to their countries and reach their own people. I have to share a short testimony that the previous director of Friends of Internationals shared with us. One of the international students that had come to USF to study a couple of years ago accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior. His comment to the director was "I came to get my masters but instead I met my Master". Now he is back in India leading his own people to Christ. This is the reason why we are here, we want to make disciples that will go and make disciples all over the world!!!.Mark and I started discipleship with Jaime and Nora a couple of weeks ago. They have a heart for the Lord and to grow in their walk with God. We are building our relationship with them and we are trying to spend as much time as we can with them. We are enjoying our time to sit down and open the word of God and just share life and the things that God has taught us. I also started meeting with Danielle, she is a student at USF. It's her first time away from home so it's been challenging for her but God has given her already some open doors to share her faith.:) Lucy is continuing to meet with Mallory and she is continuing to grow in her walk with God.
Tuesday prayer night...........
It was so exciting and encouraging a couple of weeks ago because we had Mallory and Danielle join us for prayer. We want to see this group grow. We enjoy our time of getting together in the middle of the week to pray for each other's needs and for others. This tuesday I was praying with Nykki and asking God to give me an opportunity to share the gospel with a lost person. We are here to reach the lost and I hadn't had an opportunity lately. The next day I went to work at the courthouse and one of the other interpreters started asking me questions about our church plant and how we got here. I was able to share our story with her and also share the gospel with her and explain to her that it's not about a religion but about a relationship with God. She has a bad taste of "religion" due to her upbringing. The seed has been planted and I will continue to invest in her so please be praying for her heart to be soften and her eyes to see and understand the Truth, her name is Mary. God answers prayer! We just need to ask and be ready to speak when he opens the doors.
Family and Kids..............
Our family has been very busy with all the changes that we've had and with the remodeling of the house. The kids are loving their school and making friends. This has been one of our prayers for them, that they would make friends. Due to all the moving around in the last three years they haven't been able to do that very well. Now, it's a different challenge for Mark and I, that is, parenting teenagers. We have worked with teenagers for many years but we've never being parents of teenagers. It is for sure very different.:) Mark has to be dad and sometimes he has to put on the youth pastor cap on and play the role of their youth pastor. We want Godly kids not just good kids. We constantly need the Lord to give us wisdom to lead them and that our kids will have a heart of obedience to God and to us. I do have to say that we are blessed of the relationship that we have with our kids. We talk about everything and they even ask us the hard questions like, "Daddy, how many girls did you date? and so on....... It is a new stage in their lives but we are enjoying it too!!!Mark is still juggling all of his responsibilities and trusting that God will raise the financial support that we need so that he can fully focused on the church plant and friends of internationals ministry. Those two ministries are his passion! I'm still working as much as I can as an interpreter. God has been faithful to provide through it and we are thankful for that. But my heart is still to be able to be home more to be more available for my kids and ministry things. I know this is my season for this and I believe God will take care of it in His timing. He knows my heart and I believe he has a perfect plan for me.:)
Lucy........
We love Lucy!!!!!! We have missed seeing Lucy as often as we did before, so we are praying diligently that God will provide her a home near her job and our house. She is actually looking at a very good option this weekend so please pray that everything will work out with that house. Her job is going well and she's enjoying it! The trouble maker has been Brooks, her dog, she had a couple of stressful days dealing with Brooks's naughtiness but I believe she's doing better now. Good thing she's a cute puppy!!!
Our first fellowship gathering with others.........
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| Labor day get together |
Labor day was an exciting day for us. We had a cookout at our house and we had guests. We had some friends from Ocala, Jaime and Nora, a couple of international students, Mallory and Lucy. It was exciting to see a house full of people eating, playing games and sharing life together. We want more times like that!!!
Things ahead.............
We are planning a get together with our teen group that we left at the apartments. We would like to have them over to our house to spend time with them and love on them. We miss that group and we pray for them. :)
We are also planning to go around our neighborhood and meet our neighbors and hopefully find teenagers that we can invite to our house and start another bible study. Just like God did all the work for the bible study we started at the apartments, we are trusting that He will do His work to get this one off the ground too.
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| Taking in a little extra sugar to get us through the day..haha:) |
I want to reach people and make disciples. I need you to be praying for our ministry and for our team! We also know that we need more people to join our team to help us reach Tampa and the nations.
Prayer requests:
Discipleship relationships - Jaime, Nora, Danielle and Mallory
New teen bible study in our house
Connections with the lost and international students- Mary (my co-worker)
Financial support to be raised for our family
A home to rent for Lucy near her job and our house
Syera, Dylan and Nykki - keep them away from evil and be willing to take a stand for God
More team members to join us in Tampa
We praise God for how he has led our way. Providing us a home, a school for the kids, a ministry that we can make a difference in many nations, connections with different people, our jobs, prayer team, family and friends. It is so awesome to be children of the King!!!
Thank you for your prayers and support! Continue to pray, I can't wait to see what God will do in the hearts of people in the next year!!
We love you!
Mark, Astrid, Syera, Dylan, Nykki and Lucy.
In case you don't have our contact info here it is:
jmarkschaffer@yahoo.com
astridschaffer@ymail.com
lucyrakins@gmail.com
If you would like to support us financially:
Midtown Baptist Temple
3953 Walnut St.
Kansas City, MO 64111
C/O Tampa missions
(816)398-8171
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