Hey everybody!  Sorry, we are slacking a little bit.  It has been a week and a half since our last post.  There is good reason, though.  A week and a half ago the 8 FYM's arrived. (First Year Missionaries- 18-22 yr old Americans)  This past week and a half has been filled with getting them settled into their houses, orienting them to the culture, and to the town.  Last week we were also privileged to have guest speakers come and teach on Hermaneutics (how to study the Bible).  Our guests were two seminary students and their wives, from Akron, Ohio.  For three hours every morning this past week they taught us about the Bible.  They taught us about the history and gave us a basic overview of every book.  More importantly they taught us how to study it more in-depth, to get the most out of God's Word.  It was a time of great intellectual stimulation as well as encouragement in our journey of faith.

Our desire for the "FYM's" is that they be grounded in The Word and in prayer before they go out in the streets, to minister to people. Mark 14:7 states, "For the poor you always have with you, and whenever you wish, you can do them good; but you do not always have Me."  God calls us to serve the poor, but He calls us to Himself first and foremost.  John 15:5, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing."

Pray that the FYM's would abide in Christ and that through that they would bear much fruit in this community.

                                                                                                                                              -Jonathan