Key verse: 2 Chronicles 31: 21
"In everything that he undertook in the service of God's temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered."
This verse was my 2008 key verse. I choose it again as my 2009 key verse because I did not seek the Lord faithful in the past year. I repent my sins, my weakness and laziness. I pray to struggle to seek God and the gospel work wholeheartedly in the new year.
First of all I thank God who gave me a privilege to attend 2008 Purdue international conference. By his grace, I was used to be a MBF messenger in that conference. It was a blessing for me to be trained to grow to be an excellent Bible messenger. I thank God for blessing me to help some Egyptian sheep with the Bible study in the past year. I also thank God for blessing me to have Ph.D study in the past year.
I struggled to raise 20 1:1 and Sunday worship attendants in the year 2008. I invited students to my small apartment for the Bible study and Sunday worship service. In Sunday worship service and Bible study times, we use to sing hymns quietly so that no noise to go out. Otherwise we would lose the apartment because the owner of the building and all our neighbors are Muslims. I invited many students to join our Sunday worship service and 1:1 Bible study. They accepted my invitation in the beginning, but they changed their minds when they knew that we do it in my apartment. People of Egypt feel secure and free if the Sunday worship service is done in a public places. They were afraid to come to my apartment and finally refuse to come. So I prayed to get a suitable place for the Bible study and Sunday worship service during the past year.
By God’s answer, we rent a hall in the compound of the Baptize Church every Friday this month. Since then we could have Friday worship service with freely singing hymn and invite sheep. Egyptian brother M. provides his apartment to be use for one to one Bible study. By doing so, many of his relatives joyfully join the Bible study every week. I learn that God loves Egyptian gospel mission through these God’s answers.
Egyptian brother M. and N. are growing in the sense of ownership and responsibility for UBF during the past year. Egyptian brother M. is always busy because he was invited to many Christian programs due to his musical skill, praying guitar and singing. I pray that he has clear identity as an UBF shepherd candidate and concentrates the Bible training. For this we pray to send him to Sudan for some months in the near future for shepherd’s training. I pray for him to grow as a Bible teacher and an ancestor of faith for the Egyptian gospel mission.
I pray that God may help me to seek Him more and more through faithful early Morning Prayer, daily bread, reading the Bible and Bible study. Also, may God help me to work faithfully by visiting campus, looking for new sheep, preparing message, Bible study, and helping M. and N. to grow as excellent Bible teachers and shepherds who feed at least one sheep in the new year.
I also pray that God may provide me with a good supervisor to take over the position of my late supervisor who passed away this month for my Ph.D study.
Prayer Topics for 2009:
1. To get a bigger apartment in order to make a separation for Bible house
2. 20 1:1 and 30 worship service attendants
3. M. and N. to feed at least one sheep a week
4. M. to have a clear identity to be Abraham of Faith
5. N. to have a world mission vision
6. To successfully complete my research project
One word: Seek God.
