Making Disciples of All Nations

Pray for our Mid-Termers (Summer 2013) – Day 2

May 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Each year The Church at Brook Hills sends individuals and families called Mid-Termers to serve in different parts of the world.  Mid-Termers are those who serve anywhere from 2 months – 2 years.  It is a key element to the Global strategy at The Church at Brook Hills.  These individuals and families serve with strategic partners to strengthen the Long-Term Disciple-Making efforts of the church around the world.  Below are a few of those we are sending out this summer.  Join us as we pray for them this week.

 

 Jordan M. – Jordan grew up in Birmingham Alabama and has been a member of The Church at Brook Hills his whole life.  He and his family have been a vital part of this faith family since the beginning.  Jordan will graduate this month from Mississippi College with a degree in journalism and will leave at the beginning of June to serve a year in Haiti.  Jordan has served at the New Life Children’s Home in Port-Au-Prince for a week at a time for the past few years.  But an opportunity to serve for longer came about this past year.  Jordan will be living and serving at the Children’s Home taking care of the everyday needs of the children and the staff.

 Ways to Pray

-  Pray for Jordan to be fully content in Christ.  Pray for God to sustain him in times of hardship.

-  Pray for God to open up windows of opportunities for Jordan to share the gospel while he serves the people he is ministering to.

-  Pray for boldness.  Pray for Jordan to have the boldness to share the Gospel no matter the circumstance.

 

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Pray for our Mid-Termers (Summer 2013) – Day 1

May 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Each year The Church at Brook Hills sends individuals and families called Mid-Termers to serve in different parts of the world.  Mid-Termers are those who serve anywhere from 2 months – 2 years.  It is a key element to the Global strategy at The Church at Brook Hills.  These individuals and families serve with strategic partners to strengthen the Long-Term Disciple-Making efforts of the church around the world.  Below are a few of those we are sending out this summer.  Join us as we pray for them this week.

 

Amanda G. – Amanda grew up in Birmingham, Alabama.  She is currently an 8th grade language arts teacher at a local Middle School.  She has been a member of the Brook Hills faith family for almost two years.  Last year she began to pray about going Mid-Term and using her skills in language arts in a Spanish speaking area.  After talking to her small group community, her leader put her in touch with the Director of Mid-Term at Brook Hills who pointed her in the direction of an opportunity in Ecuador.  Amanda will leave in June and be serving at a local school at the Davis Foundation in Ecuador.  There she will be supporting the full-time teachers at the school by teaching English to their classes.  Amanda will also have the opportunity to build relationships and engage both students and teachers with the gospel.  Amanda praises God for this opportunity and is excited to be spending her summer serving in this way.

  Ways to Pray

- Pray for a smooth transition into the culture and school.  Pray for God to allow Amanda to be totally immersed in language and be able to communicate easily.

- Pray for the Davis Foundation where Amanda will be serving.  Pray for the students who are not Christ followers to believe and trust in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

- Pray that for Amanda to develop relationships and show that Jesus is the Lord of her life in all her  interactions with her students.

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The Time is Now

March 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Tonight we gather at Secret Church.  Tonight as we opened the service we prayed.  We prayed for a people group that not many know about.

The Hui.

A people of over 13 million living in China.  They are Muslim.  They are unreached.  And up until a few years ago there was no church established among them.

We pray tonight that as we gather at Secret Church that believers living in China and throughout East Asia would be emboldened by the Spirit and have their eyes opened to the Hui that live in their neighborhoods and own the noodle shops they eat at.

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Persecution

March 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. (James 1:2-3 ESV)

 

Xiao Wang grew up in the village where her father is the Ahong (Imam). God orchestrated the circumstances of her life to prepare her heart so that when she heard the gospel she readily accepted it. She became a Christian in the city away from her family but as soon as they heard the news they called her home. Her Bible was confiscated and she had to stay at home under the supervision of her family for six months. After that her family let her go, saying that they did not mind her being a Christian. However, the other villagers disapproved of her release and kidnapped her. She was forced to attend Islamic classes at the Mosque and made to veil, but after four months she escaped to the city again. The Hui network, which operated even in the city, found her and kidnapped her again. This time they took her out of the province and made her get a job. God is faithful and has now given her a ministry right where she is.

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I Believe Now…

March 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Throughout the rest of March, we will be posting daily on Chinese Muslims, our prayer highlight at the next Secret Church gathering on March 29th.  Join us as we learn more about who these people are and begin to pray for God to make His name known among this people group.

 

Growing up in a Hui family can be challenging at times… especially for an inquisitive, adventurous girl like me. I’m sure my parents were forever tired of hearing me ask why?  Why could I not go to my non-Muslim friend’s house for dinner? Why did my mom have to wear a head covering when she left the house? Why did we have to pray so many times a day when we always said the same thing? Why did we have to listen to the Ahong (Imam) on Fridays when we couldn’t understand what he was saying?

As I grew older, my uncertainty only grew more intense. I had so many friends who believed in so many different things — how could I know which one was really true? Somewhere along the way I decided that I couldn’t know and I began to pay my dues to all of them just to make sure I had my basis covered.

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What am I really afraid of?

March 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment


 

When I was in college, I heard about a girl who had decided to follow the Way. I knew that her family was Hui, and it must have been hard for them to accept her choice. I couldn’t help but wonder, what must her family have thought when they heard? Were the consequences as serious as other people said? But I was so excited for her! She was so brave! To follow what she believed to be true no matter what the consequences — that was truly courageous!

Wait, she hasn’t told them? How could that be? I thought she was so confident. How, after all this time, has she never told her family?

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The Man Of My Dream

March 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment


 

As a child I had the most wonderful dreams — dreams of sweet-smelling flowers and grassy fields, of heaven and angels and the laughter of children. I knew that Allah sent these sweet dreams because he was pleased with me. After all, my mom and I prayed faithfully toward Mecca five times a day.

But when I went away to college, life was full of new things to experience. Before long, I began to feel so guilty because of the things I had done. My heart grieved because Allah had not sent me one of his sweet dreams in a long time. I knew that he wasn’t pleased with me anymore, and as each day passed, the shame of who I had become grew deeper and deeper.

One night I had a new dream. I saw a man — a man I had never met before, but my heart knew His name. Jesus. I watched as He picked up a nail and hammered it into the middle of the wood floor. He glanced at me, but I couldn’t figure out what He was doing. When I awoke, I was afraid and confused.

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The Legend of the Salar

March 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment


 

How did the Salar people get from their homeland in present-day Uzbekistan to China? Every Salar knows that story — it’s passed down from generation to generation. Here are the basics:

During the Ming dynasty in 1370, one of two brothers followed a camel, searching for a new homeland. The brothers carried a bag of their native soil, a bottle of native water, and a copy of the Qur’an with them.  They stopped only when the camel drank from a certain pool — the current location of the village of Jiezi in Xunhua County. Today, there is a park at the exact spot and a stone camel next to the famous pool.

But as for the details, that’s where the stories differ.

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Aaron’s Story

March 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Throughout the rest of March, we will be posting daily on Chinese Muslims, our prayer highlight at the next Secret Church gathering on March 29th.  Join us as we learn more about who these people are and begin to pray for God to make His name known among this people group.

 

Once I was lost, but now I am found!

My name is Aaron and I want share my life with you. I was born in northwest China in a Muslim city to a Muslim family. But I didn’t know much about the Islamic culture until I left home. When I started college, I had two Muslim roommates in my dormitory. They asked me to be a real Muslim guy, so we went to the mosque on Fridays.

After college, I went back to my hometown. Sometimes when I felt down and sad, I went to the mosque to do the ritual prayers, but it didn’t help. I still felt sad because it was just a rite, a ceremony.

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Who are the Dongxiang?

March 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Throughout the rest of March, we will be posting daily on Chinese Muslims, our prayer highlight at the next Secret Church gathering on March 29th.  Join us as we learn more about who these people are and begin to pray for God to make His name known among this people group.

The Basics:  The Dongxiang people, with a population of 621,500, are the fourth largest of China’s 10 Muslim people groups. Their origin dates back to the 13th century when China was subdued by the Mongols, and Genghis Khan moved some of his garrisons into northwest China to control the land he had taken. Soldiers intermarried with local women and gradually developed their own distinct ethnic group, now known as the Dongxiang people. The largest concentration of the Dongxiang people is in the rugged, dry mountains of Gansu Province. Dongxiang County is a narrow, desolate and arid valley, bordered by rivers on three sides.

Their Beliefs:  Islam is the dominant religion of the Dongxiang, with one mosque for every 30 homes and one paid Muslim worker for every 18 families. [Read more...]

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