Prayer & Preparation
Prayer & Preparation
Hello dear
friends and family,
Our
support team continues to grow—day by day and person by person, and our hearts
feel so full. God is faithful in His provision and kind in His generosity. You
all, our support family, are such a gift to us.
THANK YOU for your prayers and encouragement as we launch onto the
mission field! As we continue to build
our team this fall, we also will be attending a month-long training in Palmer
Lake, CO from October 27th—November 22nd. Would you pray
for us, that our hearts would be ready and engaged in learning?
We
will be spending four weeks living at a conference center and attending Mission
Training International (MTI). MTI focuses
on cross-cultural preparation. “Missionaries need practical tools to help them
thrive long term. The tools MTI provides are language acquisition, cultural
adaptation, communication, and leadership.Cross-cultural living creates unique
challenges for families. MTI training addresses these challenges and
gives each participant tools to thrive where they will serve.” Zach and I will
be in classes from 8-5 each day, and Adelaide will either be with us or playing
in the nursery. We will be in community and training alongside other
missionaries from a wide variety of agencies. Would you pray that this time
will be rich and fruitful? We cannot wait to tell you all about it!
Check out the video on this page to learn more: www.mti.org
Adelaide’s Addition
Adelaide
is now 8 months old and as spunky as ever! She enjoys her sippy cup (and Mama’s
water bottle), loves toys with a new fervor (especially toothbrushes, ribbon,
and anything plushy), and she giggles ALL the time. Addy gets into giggle fits
over seemingly nothing, and it is the most joyous thing to watch! Our girl
enjoys the playground swing and has discovered grass and leaves…she still loves
to taste test everything.
Impact Story
In
addition to our family update, we want to share another inspiring story of a
BFA family spreading the gospel to Muslims. We have received permission from
them and the school to share their story, but we will keep their names anonymous.
BFA is aiding missionaries all over the world with their God-given calls. We
hope you feel moved like we have by this family’s faithfulness.
--
God has given us a great heart for
Muslims. In 2005, our family moved to Syria to do evangelism and church
planting. For six years we labored among the community. But in March of 2011
the Syrian Revolution began and we were evacuated to Jordan. Many Syrians
flooded over the border to escape the violence, so we continued to care for
them and share Jesus as much as we could. Things once again quickly
changed when Angela Merkel, former Chancellor of Germany, announced the Open
Door Policy allowing thousands of Syrians to come to Germany in August of 2015.
It was then that the Refugee Highway, as it is called, was created. As I
was working as a photojournalist in Jordan, I was able to travel this Refugee
Highway along with thousands of Muslims seeking a better, safer life in
Germany. We traveled for 3 weeks and over 3000 km to arrive in Germany.
Like most Syrians, we did not know
anyone in Germany when we arrived. Our group landed in Chemnitz, in eastern
Germany. While I was traveling, I received a phone call from a local pastor. He
told me he had 20 Syrians at his church and asked us to come help
him. Once we arrived I couldn’t help it; I started preaching. I had the
cross behind me and these people I dearly loved in front of me. I told them the
Truth that they were fleeing for freedom from the war but God was wanting to
give them freedom in Christ! I shared about the gift of Jesus to them. It
was a wonderful experience and when I returned to Jordan I kept thinking of how
much freedom I could have sharing about Jesus to Syrians in Germany. This
nagging thought prompted us to ask our organization for permission to relocate
from Jordan to Germany so we could more openly share the gospel with our dearly
loved Syrians. The request was approved and we specifically chose this
area of Germany because of BFA.
We quickly began working with a
church in Rheinfelden that was eager to allow us the opportunity to use the
church to minister to these new neighbors. The pastor basically gave us the
keys and told us to do what we needed to do. It was a very large blessing to
us. We also quickly began visiting refugee camps in the area. There were 13
different camps and one camp had over 500 people in it!!! Because I could speak
Syrian Arabic I had many opportunities to be involved in ministry. It was
overwhelming at times but such a blessing.
Then Covid hit. While this was a time
when most things stopped around the world, the Lord did something amazing with
our ministry. The church we were helping with went online. This meant Syrians
all over Germany now had access to preaching and teaching in Syrian Arabic!
News spread among those we shared the gospel with in Rheinfelden and now many
Syrians all over Germany started attending church online. We began doing
evangelistic campaigns, visiting Syrians all over Germany that were learning
about Jesus through online church. I traveled 7 days at a time, visiting many
places baptizing and visiting refugees. We went to 11 different cities all
around Germany. The pandemic was the busiest time of ministry we have ever had!
It was a tremendously fruitful time. While we were away on special
assignment to different countries during our year out of Germany for
totalization, we had a friend continue the online church but ultimately when
the lockdowns were finished, we encouraged all the Syrians from the online church
to begin attending local churches.
We now do onboarding,
mobilization and training for people in our organization. The workers we train
minister to diaspora populations mostly from North Africa and the Middle East
who now live all around the world. We are so blessed to have the opportunity to
partner with BFA all of these years. We truly see it as a partnership. Thank
you for ministering to our family so we can freely minister to others. We will
miss Kandern and the BFA Community as we move on next year. We will most likely
be in the US helping churches minister to their diaspora neighbors,
strengthening the church and reaching the nations for Jesus.
--
Thank
you, family and friends, for your investment in the kingdom of God. As always,
we would love to connect with you one-on-one and hear what is going on in your
life. Feel free to reach out anytime. And if you have a friend in your life who
would be interested in the ministry of BFA, please contact us!
With much love and gratitude,
Zachary & Emma
If you would prayerfully consider joining us by supporting the mission please hit this link:
www.OneChallenge.org/give and find us in the drop down menu: Sanford, Zach
& Emma 110405.