Ravi Zacharias, the Bishop, and Faith

Yep, that's us with Ravi Zacharias! Friday evening was our seminary's "Friends of Evangelical Banquet," and the guest speaker was internationally renown apologist, author and teacher Ravi Zacharias. Just as he was getting ready to leave with our president, Dr. Hollinger, our friend Tomo (the Japanese fellow above with his wife Jessica) stopped them and graciously asked for a quick photo! So, long story short, I'm never going to wash my jacket again because Ravi touched it...well, maybe I won't go that far. For more on Ravi's ministry, check out http://www.rzim.org/.

Also at the banquet was our church's bishop, Rev. Mike Sigman (above), and we had the opportunity to catch up with him a bit. As we were talking about the busyness of life, we realized that our fall speaking schedule is busier than the bishop's! That's not official, but he was surprised when he saw how full our schedule is. We're halfway through, so please pray for stamina and periods of rest!

We joined Faith E.C. Church in the village of Bair (near York, PA) for worship today, and they were so kind in receiving us, allowing us to lead worship, and inviting us to share our Spain presentation during the sermon time. A classmate of mine, Mike Campbell, is the assistant pastor there, so it was great to catch up after the worship service and during lunch. We are quite grateful for the way they welcomed and encouraged us today, and we look forward to partnering with them as we prepare to serve in Spain.

$23.65!

We had a very full weekend with E.C. WorldFest on Saturday and Lawn E.C. Church on Sunday. WorldFest was a great opportunity to connect and reconnect with many people, as well as to share about our heart and vision for reaching Spaniards with the Good News of Jesus. Rachel had more "I knew you when you were just a little girl" experiences with some older folks there who remember her as a child, and one woman even had (in hand) her family's prayer cards from when she was just a baby! We were hugely encouraged by the folks at WorldFest, and we hope they were encouraged by us as well.

We spent Sunday morning and early afternoon at Lawn E.C. Church, and we enjoyed our time of worshiping and sharing with the congregation. However, the highlight of our Sunday morning occurred when the children of the church (about 5 of them) sang a few songs and afterwards gave us a Skippy peanut butter jar (minus the peanut butter) filled with coins and dollar bills that they had been collecting for us over the past couple months. All the pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollar bills totaled $23.65, as you can see in the picture above. We were touched by these children's efforts on our behalf, but, moreover, we hope they can begin to understand that because of them, Spaniards are going to know the true life found in Jesus Christ alone.

Reading First E.C. Church

This weekend we spoke at Reading First E.C. Church, giving our Spain presentation during the Sunday School hour and sharing in a brief interview during the worship service. Our denomination's former director of Global Ministries, Dr. John Ragsdale, is the associate pastor there, and it was great to gain some wisdom from him and his wife Shirley's extensive experience in missions (they're with us in the photo above). We're looking forward to the E.C. WorldFest this weekend. So, the adventure continues...

Western PA Worldfest & Countryside E.C.

Last weekend (Sept. 29-30) we were out "west"--really just northwestern Pennsylvania. We spent Saturday at our denomination's WorldFest at Grace E.C. in Knox; WorldFest is a day meant for motivating local churches to be involved in what God is doing around the world (above you can see us with Jim Ehrman, the E.C. Director of Global Ministries, and Shannon Beam, his assistant). During the afternoon, Rachel and I, along with the Lakatoses (E.C. missionaries preparing to serve in Mexico City in the picture below), had the opportunity to share about the ministry God has called us to. We were greatly encouraged by how the pastors and church leaders at WorldFest were so receptive that we received several invitations on Saturday to speak in churches in that region!

On Sunday we spoke at Countryside E.C. Church in the tiny village of Clarks Mills, PA. The area and the church reminded us a bit of my (B.J.'s) hometown and church in Buffalo, IL. The folks at Countryside were very friendly, and we had our necks hugged by several older women who were so excited by the fact that "kids" like us want to serve Christ wherever He's calling us to go.