I pray this update finds you well and encourages you as your prayers and words of encouragement have greatly encouraged me.  I update again from Arizona. about halfway through my summer here and it's been a hot, tiring summer, but God has been faithful consistently to grow me even through uncomfortable and challenging circumstances.

For an update on church stuff, it's going well.  There were a few things I wanted to get involved in this summer and the Lord has been extremely faithful to provide me with many opportunities in my church.  I've been going to a small group on Thursday nights with adults and we're studying through 1st Peter along with the sermons on Sundays.  It's been really encouraging to hang out with other believers and dig into the Word.  I really wanted to be invested in by others this summer while home and I have really enjoyed the fellowship with other believers and have them invest in my life.  I also joined a college-age small group on Tuesday nights and that's been sweet too.  There's a couple people from high school that came in there after they graduated from the high school ministry and it's just been encouraging to talk with others the same age as me about our love for the Lord.  There's a couple people that I've talked to about New Tribes and about coming to school so please pray for Kyle and Lorraine.  They're a young married couple who love the Lord and I got to share about New Tribes with them and they said they were going to look it up.  I've also been serving on Saturday mornings, helping clean the church campus.  It's nice to be able to give back to the church that is walking alongside me as I move towards full-time church planting among unreached people groups.

As for my construction job, that's going great! That's the hot and tiring part of my summer as it was 117 degrees yesterday!  The picture below is of the first house I built with these guys back in the last week of May, it's had some work done preparing it to be stuccoed.

 Also yesterday I had a funny thing happen.  One of the guys went to work on another house and got pulled over by the cops and had his car impounded because he doesn't have a US license.  So my foreman asked me to go pick him up.  Except he forgot to tell me that the guy had tools and a ladder so I'm in a Cadillac Sedan picking him up.  This is what we looked like driving 5 miles down the road.  I told the guys it's what I learned in Tijuana haha.

 

Along with all the things I'm involved in, God has been teaching me incredibly through my work with my co-workers.  It has been incredibly frustrating and humbling to say the least.  I've been encountering a Catholic worldview mixed with apathy.  I'm desiring to see the gospel come to bear in these guys life but as I speak truth or consistently share the gospel I'll get responses such as "I know I'm going to go to Hell, and I'm okay with that" to "The holy water in the church saves right?"  And these responses are sad and every day I'm pleading with God to please open their hearts to the grace of God that meets man's depravity.  So please pray for them, their names are Victor, Cesar, Luis, Carlos, Sergio, Jaime, and Geros.  But one morning before I went to work I read this is 1st Cor. 15:58 "Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."  In the context, Paul is responding to the idea that there will be no bodily resurrection for believers.  Paul answers this question thoroughly and in essence says that because Christ rose from the dead bodily, we all will experience a bodily resurrection and receive our glorified body.  We have a future hope that far exceeds this world's.  I read that and was SO encouraged that all God is asking me to do is to remain faithful with the ministry of reconciliation that he has given me, He will do the rest.  He is control and has simply asked me to be a faithful steward.  Because I have the hope of eternal life in Heaven and others do not, I need to remain steadfast and immovable, knowing that my position is in Christ not in my earthly circumstances and therefore continue to abound in the work of the Lord, knowing full well that it will not be in vain.  How encouraging is our God?

Prayer Requests:

1.  Please pray that I would be daily seeking the Lord, seeking His wisdom, and seeking to know Him more.

2.  Prayer for my co-workers, that in my life they would see the life of Christ and that they would have ears to hear the good news of Christ.

3.  I have a meeting on July 6th with my missions pastor so please pray for a fruitful meeting, where our relationship continues to grow and deepen as we discuss future partnerships, finances, and missions.

4. Pray for my small groups that strong partnerships would continue to develop and that by being in those groups, I would be encouraged, challenged, and stretched.

5.  The world:  over 2 billion people that have never heard of Christ and won't hear if the Church continues to remain unfaithful with reaching them.