Tag Archives: featured

They need you

These new international students need you, so keep doing your work.

Summer English Class
Summer English Class

Our friend said this to MK at the new international student yard sale, the place where we started the 2013 season 3 years ago. We met her soon afterwards in an English class, and our church friends took her to a local festival, and then to our church. I later discipled her husband until he became a Christian, about two years later. Recently her husband and her were baptized. She wrote:

For the last three years we continued to receive so many blessings from you. The very best one is your guidance for us to God.

Those were three years that you, our supporters made possible, by allowing us to work full time with so many students. We usually only see part of the process, as students leave so quickly. But this was a great blessing of encouragement as we add new students to our existing Bible studies.

Thank you for ‘being there’ in prayers and gifts for these beautiful new Children of God from China!

We want to be baptized!

“We want to be baptized!”  What joyous words, we have waited for months to hear them! An international friend and his wife are making their faith more public tomorrow in the cold New River!

river baptism
river baptism

We got to know the wife through an outing, then the husband also wanted to study. We started with Genesis, then skipped to Matthew, then Acts.  They started attending church with us, and one day the wife asked for prayer that her mother would become a Christian! We didn’t know if she was a Christian at the time!

The husband also studied the Bible with two other internationals that wanted to learn about baptism, because one of them has a relative who is a Christian. They are so close too. And they consider it an honor to come to the baptism! Pray for a good testimony and for them to be encouraged to surrender to Jesus too!

How would I pray?

“Can you …? Can I …? I mean, how would I pray?” –These are the words from a near Christian, an international friend, you can call him Ray, who has a health problem that he really wants to overcome. He has been with us for three years; he attended a retreat, and church once. I (Fred) found out that God was still calling him!

healingPrayer

I shared with him the Lord’s Prayer, that Jesus’ teaching assistants also wanted to know how to pray. He said he had little faith, I told how a man took his sick son to Jesus, and he had little faith too, but he asked Jesus to help him. We had just read of the three men in the fiery furnace in Daniel. He said he didn’t have their type of faith (of following God no matter what), but that if God would only get him out of this problem, then he would follow Him forever.

“Faith comes from hearing”

I shared, and that best comes from reading the Bible, just as he had studied the Daniel story with us. I did pray for him, and I encouraged him to keep reading in order to have more faith, and to keep praying the Lord’s Prayer in principle, for example, that God’s kingdom would be here on earth just as it is in Heaven.

Keep praying for Ray, that God’s kingdom would live in him!

Do only special people get to go to heaven?

“I look forward to seeing Abraham in heaven some day” was my response to one of my students.  She then asked me the question, “Do only special people get to go to heaven?”  Oh what a joy to share with her that heaven was a place for her too as she read for the first time John 3:16:

God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die.

This is a student that wants to meet together twice a week — as she is so hungry to learn!

Indian invasion

indiansWe just finished with a short Saturday trip to a recreated Indian village in Virginia, a real novelty for internationals who have heard so much of their culture. (Actually we had Indians who invaded a deserted Native American village!)

One Korean wrote afterwards:

I really enjoyed the trip today. 
And I want to say thank you for you and Mary Kay 
for this wonderful trip!
I feel lucky to meet such a great teacher like you and Mary Kay. 
Thank you again! And have a wonderful weekend! 

We know that she is not lucky, but God is working through us to give her something she doesn’t even know she needs.

Please keep us in your prayers!

Explosion!

Yes, yes, yes and yes!

mossyTreewere the answers to my question about a Bible study!

We have gotten to know four guys over the last year (or years), and after coming to Charleston, they were all interested in learning about the Bible!

We had a great time in Charleston, but we didn’t have the quality time with many of them that we desired. But we have been praying and they are eager!

bibleNot only that, but a young Christian has joined our advanced English Bible study, a second person (non-Christian) said they want to start in April, and a third young woman ‘found out’ that Mary Kay teaches the Bible, so she asked for Mary Kay to teach her!

We have never had so many opportunities at once! Your prayers are being fruitful beyond our belief!

Spring!

May the seeds blossom…

At the last minute our motel reservations had to be switched  to a new place and the rooming situation had to be rearranged. It meant that Fred and I would not be together but we roomed with the students.  I was with a girl from Hong Kong and a girl from Iran.  As we got ready for bed the Iranian girl pulled out her prayer rug and compass to make sure she was praying in the right direction.prayerRug After she prayed, she hopped up on the bed to chat with me asking me questions of whether Christians pray.  I was able to tell her that yes, yes, we pray and not just at special times but all day long… that it is a relationship with God and I speak to Him often.  She was so open and eager to understand.  Later on after hearing of the death of a grandfather of a student, she asked me if Christians believe in the after -life.  I was able to share with her how I did not have a fear of death as Jesus has given me a hope and assurance of heaven because of Jesus.

On the other side of me was my new friend from Hong Kong.  She has been attending a Bible study and was so excited about all that she was learning about God.  She openly told me of challenges that she was having.  Her friend back home had told her about how God can answer prayer and she was so amazed by that.  We ended our night be praying together wanting them to see how real God can be.

We have come to love these students and desire that they would love our Lord and know of His depth of love for them.  Pray that these seeds will not be snatched away… but blossomMay Spring time remind you to pray for them.

They canceled our reservation!

Arranging a spring break trip for nearly 30 people is hard enough, but then the hotel CANCELS on us four days before! Due to renovations!!

Some of our previous group in Tennessee
Some of our previous group in Tennessee

How great that God DOES NOT CANCEL on us, and heaven needs no renovation!

Please pray for our spring break outreach trip this week. I could say pray for safety, good conversations, and a good time, but let me defer to Acts 4, what the first Christians prayed for in a time of persecution:

Lord, help us be courageous in boldly speaking the word!

Pray for the 8 adult leaders and the lone two Christian students. Pray that we might go deeper in our friendships, and start Bible studies, and that souls will be thirsty.

To see the trip details, see  www.fredandmarykay.org, look on the bottom left side for Events, then select the Spring Break Charleston SC trip.

You can even see who is going and pick someone to pray for! Send us an email, and we can give more specific details. We want to carry you there in our hearts!

As well as our presence being in your prayers.

Together with Christ,

Fred and Mary Kay

PS: We did find an even better hotel, after much prayer!

Who needs more room?

At our Christmas party we trained nonChristians in how to sing Christmas Carols, and then we sent them out next door. If there aren’t enough Christians singing His praises, then let’s train the nonChristians!

nameGame

We had to stop on the second song. “Let every heart prepare him room.” “WHO is the person it is talking about?” came the question. After sharing more about what it means to have Jesus in your heart, we continued. We all really enjoyed the songs, the Christmas story video, and the reason for the season. 

Want to listen to us? Maybe not a good idea.