Home Church:
AFM’s summer training is a mission “simulator.”  They are trying to expose us to experiences and skills that will be useful in the field.  Berrien Springs and the surrounding area have many Adventist churches to choose from, but when we’re in the field it will just be us and our teammates (at least to start with).  As part of our “simulator” experience AFM asked the missionary families that are in training to have a sort of home church instead of visiting surrounding churches.  As you can imagine it really isn’t possible to follow a traditional format and it stretches us as we figure out how to worship God in a meaningful, yet different way.

The first Sabbath we actually had a special group of missionaries come who are reaching out to Muslims.  We placed the chairs in a circle facing each other and as we sang hymns we would pause between songs to comment on what the verses meant to us.  It was such a powerful worship time!  We ended up having a very long worship time!

This last Sabbath it was just the three AFM training families and we enjoyed experiencing a small group similar to what it will be like in the field.  We had music, special time for the children, and an engaging group Bible study.

New Classes:
We’ve also been blessed with some amazing teachers here.  We have been exploring all kinds of topics.  Some of our recent classes have had a focus on mental/emotional health in the field.  As you can imagine, moving into a new culture is a rewarding yet stressful experience and AFM is helping to prepare us for that.

Durian:
We also tried our first Durian!  The lady at the Asian store talked us into it!  Everybody except for Jayson loved it!  Durians are notorious for being a fruit that people either absolutely LOVE or strongly HATE.  It’s also notorious for being very stinky although it didn’t bother us.  Here is a video of Bo opening it. 😉

Prayer Requests:
Please pray that God would mold us into the missionaries that He needs us to be.

Also, we want to lift up the Palawan Project in the Philippines as they are experiencing some discouragements and oppression.  They could really use some special prayers.

Also, a friend of ours confided in Bo that he had been thinking about killing himself!  Bo was able to give him some encouragement and hope and was even able to use some of the skills we’ve been learning here.  What he really needs is a “family” that could help to mentor and care for him.  He’s in his early 20’s.  He’s such a sweet boy that has never really been loved in his life.  Pray that we can help connect him with someone.

Inspiring Quote:
“I make it my ambition to preach Christ where he has not been named” –– Paul the Missionary

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