We’re back! And exhausted! Our team spent a packed in just over 8 days in Houston, including one very early morning on our way out of Texas. The team worked diligently 8-12 hours a day going door to door, interacting with Muslims at shopping malls and restaurants, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with unreached people groups from Egypt, Turkey, India, Pakistan, and Burma. The team also spent hours interacting with Chinese and Vietnamese around Chinatown and Little Saigon. And it all began as soon as we arrived.
We arrived on Friday in Houston around 1:00pm and immediately headed to two mosques. The ladies in our group, covered from head to toe, and the men, headed to separate entrances in one mosque. As we all sat in the prayer rooms, our hearts felt heavy for each person present who was methodically praying, some using the only Arabic words they could speak. We prayed for the Lord of the Universe, Jesus, who created all of them in His image, asking Him to obliterate the grip this religion had on them, so they could be free and open to the Gospel.
Our time at the mosque was sobering and set the stage for the entire week as we knocked on some 350 doors to pray for and share the truth with people who had never heard it before. Some of our favorite interactions included astonished reactions from people as they heard for the first time, one man died and conquered death to pay for their sins. It was amazing to see God work transforming their hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. He authored new life in four people while we were there—one person being a Muslim! What a blessing it was to carry the truth to the lost unreached people of Houston.
In this endeavor, we witnessed God’s sovereignty first hand as He showed who was actually in control of the weather. Despite weather forecasts of rain, some days with predictions of 100%, God provided dry days throughout! He is so good! The one afternoon when it did rain hard, we ended up at a local bookstore with all of us able to share the gospel with someone. At the end of the night, two people passed from darkness to light at that bookstore! God is so good!
He is good and provided us with encouragement through many prayers offered up by our supporters back home. Through this, God revealed Joshua chapter one and the phrase “be strong and courageous” and it buoyed us in our low times. That chapter along with the Holy Spirit, provided us with the strength we needed to complete the goals of our trip: be obedient to the command of Jesus to go, make disciples and to teach them everything he taught us.
Completion of our goals was such a great experience! We experienced God’s power in a very dark place and it changed, not only those who heard the gospel for the first time, but all of us as we spoke the words that bring life. The team was thrilled to be a part of what God is doing in Southwest Houston and are excited to not only go back, but to use what we learned on this trip here in West Michigan.
Thank you again to our friends, family and donors for supporting us through this amazing experience.