August 12, 2007

We are thanking you for your prayers and support as the Lord continues to provide abundantly for this ministry. There are so many prayer requests and praise reports!!! God is good all the time!

Prayer and Praise!
Apex

• Thank you Jesus for the three children/preteens who accepted Jesus Sunday through the Backyard Bible club. Each child was given prayer journal and a cross. A youth Spanish Bible would be another gift to give, please pray and see if this is something one would like to donate. There are photos from one BBC in July on the blog http://least-of-these.blogspot.com/
• The Lord heard your prayers! There were so many adult leaders Sunday, thank you Jesus! Please pray for more children missionaries. A missionary has volunteered to lead the August 19th Backyard Bible Club. Please pray for someone to continue it for the weeks following. The families are getting more receptive each week to hear about Jesus.
• Thank You Jesus for the doctor, nurse, and translator who visited the paralyzed lamb today. He is still in need of a donut cushion and volunteer registered nurses for home care. He is also in need of a plastic surgeon. Please contact Anne Willet at willskai@bellsouth.net .
• Praise God for the church that has volunteered to build this family a wheel chair ramp. Someone also offered to donate a toilet chair and tub transfer seat. God is so amazing!
  Thank you for your prayers for the lamb with the slow healing foot. He is doing better each week. Please continue to pray for the Lord’s complete healing, physically and spiritually.
• Thank you Jesus for the translator. He was such a gift today through prayer. As the missionary team met a rival gang in the neighborhood, he took the young men’s hands asked them to circle up and pray. The boys were obedient. The each received their physical manna (bagged lunches) and their spiritual manna (prayers). Please ask the Lord to bring His light to these 5 young men, soften their hearts, and come to Jesus.
  The Wednesday outreach was such a blessing two of the homes were so excited to receive phone numbers with assistance they took off from their hourly jobs to be their. One was so blessed (that missionaries followed through) she took the missionaries to other homes to spread the Lord’s bounty.
• The lamb who had the stroke accepted a bagged lunch today, pray next week he accepts Jesus.
• Thank you Jesus for the mighty provision of food, physical and Spiritual. There was so much physical food the leftovers can be used for the Tuesday mission. As for the Spiritual, Spanish Bibles are needed, as are people to pray with lambs.
• The first medical mission is August 26th. Susan Heineman is the contact person. Her phone number is 787-3434. Glucometer strips are needed as well as medical volunteers.
• Humanitarian aid is being brought to the Apex mission Sunday and Wednesdays, along with prayer. Please pray that these lambs will see and feel the love of Jesus. This may be the only church they attend.

Cary

• When missionaries left a low rent efficiency complex, taking another missionary, a new lamb was found. He was lying on an abandoned porch, escaping the heat. It was interesting that the temperature was into the 100’s but the porch, surrounded by trees, was almost cool with a gentle breeze. This new lamb has the opportunity to go to a nearby church for showers. A missionary is taking him to SMILES Tuesday for the removal of an abscessed tooth. Keep the lamb in your prayers for pain and healing.
• One of the lambs is doing so well, he asked for a bank account this week and assistance with money management. Praise the Lord!!!
• Friends of the deceased lamb are extremely upset. The woman also lost another friend from the retirement home where she works. Please keep her in your prayers, as she learns to lean on Jesus instead of going to old coping skills.
• A couple had their children visiting last week and was so sad to see them leave. The Lord and His perfect timing, the day the children left the mother was taken to a Womenade event and blessed by the fellowship and testimonies. She was encouraged to move forward in Christ and not back to old coping mechanisms. Please continue to pray for full-time employment for both. He has a couple of employers who hire him a few days a week.
• Please keep a lamb in your prayers as he feels satan tapping him on his shoulder inviting him back to his old life. Pray that he makes Christian fellowship a priority this week.
  A department manager from a local donating store was Muslim. A team of people have been praying for him to see Jesus as the only way for quite sometime. Yesterday he introduced a missionary to the new manager because he was going home for a month. In the conversation he told her that he was going to Europe and Northern Africa to see family. She asked if it was for the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. He said he was no longer Muslim, he had married a few month prior and wants to bring Jesus to his family prior to Ramadan and wants them to meet his new bride. Please pray for the Lord’s protection for this couple, safe travel, and the Lord to make a path for him and his bride to bring others to Christ.
• Humanitarian aid is being brought to an area of poverty in Cary Mondays and Thursdays, along with prayer. Please pray that these lambs will see and feel the love of Jesus. This may be the only church they attend.

Garner

• Please pray for a lamb who is facing assault charges in a fight with another lamb. Both were charged, but the first lamb says she was defending herself and has gotten affidavits from witnesses to help her case.
• Please pray for many of the Garner lambs who are drinking liquor lately instead of beer. Some are becoming dangerously intoxicated and could be hurt.
• Praise the Lord a second hairstylist will begin haircuts August 18th. The two hairstylists would like to prayerfully work together or perhaps alternating months.
• A couple has moved into an apartment near N.C. State and the man has been offered part-time work. Please pray that he find transportation to work and that he begins to appreciate having something constructive to do.
• A lamb recently released from jail needs prayer as he is going back to old friends and addictions. Please pray that he find healthy replacements for the demons he is trying to escape.
• A lamb’s camp was burned down this week. A Garner youth pastor and family has invited him to stay with them for a few days.
• Please keep one lamb in your prayers as she is slandering a missionary from the showers. Pray for the missionary as well.
• Praise God for the continued progress by a lamb who has moved into a halfway house. He continues to work every day, attends AA meetings regularly and is helping other lambs find work!
• Please pray for a Hispanic lamb who is in the hospital with stab wounds from an attack by another lamb. Also please pray for the angry lamb who is in jail for assault.
  Please pray for a lamb who is trying to get his life together after nine years in prison. He has begun working and hopes to have an apartment soon, but his heart yearns to rebuild his relationship with his daughter.
• Please keep the Garner camps in your prayers. Several camps have been burned down, some even while people were sleeping in them. Please pray for protection around the victims and the fire department is able to catch the firebug before she harms someone.
• The Thursday night Bible study was cancelled last week due to a virus sweeping through missionaries’ home. Thank you Jesus so many lambs have cell phones. A missionary called to ask why no one was there. Once told, he took the handful of lambs, who hadn’t been told, to Wendy’s for dinner. Thank you Jesus!
• The Lord answered your prayers this week. The lamb received his paperwork for his Arkansas property this week. Please pray he feels comfortable with opening himself up to a total reliance on Jesus.
• The next Medical mission is August 25th from 3:00-4:30. Anne Willet is the contact person. Her phone number is 461- 9737.
• One of the Garner lambs died August 1st. His memorial will be Thursday, Aug 23rd at Ernest Myatt Presbyterian Church, 4926 Fayetteville Rd beginning at 7 PM.

General

• Please keep lambs in prayer as they are asked to make decisions of walking away from their addictions and walking toward Jesus.
• The Lord’s hand is being seen in all things such as prayers for finding items, court dates and relationships with others and Christ. Please continue the prayers that each lamb relies on Jesus for all things.
• Thank you Jesus for a lamb who is continuing to be substance free and involved with a support group through AA.
• A family has donated funds for lambs to travel home. The family was so blessed to spend time with their loved one before his passing, they want to bless other families in a similar fashion. Thank you Jesus!
• Please continue to pray for support circles as these lambs readjust to society and are welcomed into the Body of Christ.
• Praise God for the existing support circle as the Body of Christ encircles a lamb with the love of Jesus!
• Please keep a missionary family in your prayers this week as their twins leave for college Saturday. Please pray for this transitional time in the family’s life.
  Thank you Lord for being scheduler of all Christians’ time.

Missionary Testimonials
In just a few short hours, the Lord can do so much! On Sunday, a missionary delivering food to camps found a dozen dogs on the loose – including one that is usually very aggressive. At the same time, police were surrounding the missionary’s car, which held two lambs waiting to go to church. Ten minutes later, the missionary was back in his car. The police were satisfied with his explanations and two dogs, including the scary one, were sitting IN the car licking his hands!
The missionary received a guitar from a lamb who had been holding it since its owner died this month. Musicians at an Apex church volunteered to have the guitar repaired before sending it to the lamb’s family. Another man at church offered jobs to four lambs, and, when that fell through, said he would keep them in mind in the future.

During lunch, missionaries heard that a lamb had been stabbed and was in the hospital. One missionary went to the hospital, dropping off the lambs from lunch on the way. He ran into a lamb who had been good friends with the lamb who died and was able to personally invite him to a memorial service Aug. 23.

At the hospital, two of the injured lambs friends were there giving him support. The missionary was able to pray with all three, then provide a ride back for one and update others in Garner on the lamb’s condition.

God’s Provision – Donations of Time & Finances

• Thank the Lord for the showers each week from the Garner church Thank You Jesus for serving hearts!
• Thank you Jesus for all the food donated by area grocery stores, churches, individuals, and caterers! Thank you Lord for all the donations of clothing, storage places, and toiletries donated this week.
• The Lord has provided so many towels. Missionaries had no idea why. They contacted two groups and both were so blessed by the abundance of towels. The Lord and His perfect timing.
• Someone has offered free video services. Please pray for how these services will be best used to glorify the Lord!
• We thank you, Jesus, for those who have donated time showing the love of Jesus through relationships and support circles, especially as new ones are developing across Cary and Apex. Praise God!

Community Awareness – Meetings and missions

• CitW Medical missions will now be hosting two medical missions per month. The medical mission team has a glucometer. The brand is the TheraSense "FreeStyle". The mission team needs strips, lancets and lancet pen. If you, your church, pharmacy or doctor’s office would like to donate these items please contact Anne or Susan.
  
• Garner Medical mission will be at the Garner Methodist Church from 3 PM and 4:30PM. If you feel the Lord asking you to serve, Anne Willet is the contact person. Her phone number is 461- 9737.The dates are as following for 2007:
  August 25th
  October 6th
  November 3rd
  December 1st
• The Apex Medical Mission will be under the trees at Thriftwood Dr. in Apex from 5 PM and 7 PM. If you feel the Lord asking you to serve, Susan Heineman is the contact person. Her phone number is 787-3434.The dates are as following for 2007:
  August 26th
  October 7th
  November 4th
  December 2nd
• The Backyard Bible Club will be conducted on Sundays only from 5:00 PM- 6:30 PM through August 19th with set-up beginning at 4:30. The address is Thriftwood Dr, Apex (under the trees). Blankets will be needed to serve as classrooms, as well as craft items, and serving hands and hearts. If the Lord is nudging you to serve these children, please contact Talli Sailer at 325-2669 or babybell@scahome.net.
• Please pray for the prayer team as they walk Peach Rd, Martin St, and Bragg St Monday the 13th beginning at 5:30.
• The Cary/Apex area pastors are invited to attend a Pastor’s meeting for Church in the Woods at the White Oak Baptist Church in Apex beginning at 11 AM. Please contact Alice McGee, 772-7050, if you are interested in attending.

More and more people are being drawn into communion with one another through the least of these, whether homeless, poverty stricken, prostitutes, drug dealers, or gang members, and so many blessings are being shared!