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Do you remember the city of Balige?
A few months ago we did a large youth outreach there…The city has one of the highest drug and crime rates. It is a student city.. but only about 1% of them are following Jesus! Our event was the one and only youth outreach ever done in the city!
It was a huge success:
A week after the event I had returned to the city to help train the youth believers how to do the follow-up and discipleship work after the event.
Now.. a few months after the event I returned again to help them continue on. We had scheduled a Seminar for the Youth Leaders of the churches there. I was surprised when about 50 young leaders were in attendance and their excitement had not diminished.. but had grown immensely!
They have for the first time set up a committee of all young people that has joined the youth groups all together and started to already put together plans of how they can bring a huge change to the young people there!
They started singing to start off our day and within minutes the whole place was jumping and dancing! And in worship the were truly singing with everything they had!!
We had a few sessions.. I taught them on the basics of what the gospel is and what message we want to bring to the world. And then in the second session we discussed God’s calling and how He wants to use us, no matter what our age is! The result in the youth was incredible! We began to pray and God’s presence was so amazing as He spoke to each heart!
While we were praying and worshipping I caught a glimpse of a vision. 1,000’s and 1,000’s of people.. and I knew they were going into heaven. I felt God tell me that these young people in front of me were a part of why all these people were going into heaven! I shared it with the youth and we all rejoiced.. It was such a beautiful time!
It is truly awesome to be able to encourage them to step out and by what God has called them to be… History Makers!
After we were done praying some testified about how God had spoken to them, some even directly about what countries they would go to as missionaries! And even though the electricity went out they still gathered themselves together to discuss what would be their next moves to take over the city! They made plans for the very next day to go to the hospital and pray for the sick!!
Our picture together before the went home (which they didn’t want to do! Haha)
It is truly such a joy to see this taking place.. these young people are on fire!! Our event was just the beginning.. just the spark they needed to really set that city alive!
And there was another beautiful testimony from that day…
On that same morning I was preaching at a village church. While we were praying at the end I felt like there was a few people God was speaking to to simply receive His healing. One of them was someone struggling with issues in the brain. After the service one of the mothers there explained this was her daughter, Marianna. But her daughter was scared and didn’t want to talk about it. I definitely didn’t want to force anything. But I was happy to see that Marianna joined the Seminar for the Youth Leaders that afternoon! While we were praying, like I spoke of earlier earlier, I noticed her face change. It became joyful and radiant! After the seminar Marinna and I had a good chat. I explained her mother wanted me to pray for her. “It’s ok..” She told me “You don’t have to pray for me. God already spoke to me and touched me earlier when we were praying.” I was so happy to hear it! God is so great!
This is me and Marianna.. (not the best picture of either of us.. but I wanted you to meet her somehow). She is such a special girl. Please keep her and her family in prayer.
Thank you so much!
You are not only investing in missions through me.. but though work like this..we are training up the next generation to take the gospel even further! And ultimately together we are bringing those 1,000’s and 1,0000’s of people to eternity!!
Segala Pujian hanya bagi Yesus! (All the Praise only goes to Jesus!)
Susan Joy Hoover
P. S. Please continue for us and all the plans we have here. There are many decisions to make about the Bible College, our next Outreaches, Building a Youth Centre, etc, etc! Your prayers and support are needed and appreciated!!!