Peter's Family Update December 2011

Gail and Rick
One amazing answer to prayer is that Rick and I were able to talk to the pastor we've been working with about getting married! Yes, after several weeks here we discovered that hardly anybody is married in the church, they live together as "partners", have kids and everything!!!! So we prayed and prayed and felt God leading us to talk to them. We had mentioned something to the pastors "wife" ....turns out they are open to getting married and understand that God hasn't given the church power because of this area of disobedience! They said they will have a group wedding in December. We told them we want to be there for that, because I have formed nice friendships with a few of the women in that category, so maybe we can come up here again to be at that wedding. This is a huge answer to prayer! God is good! Anyway, that is why I got off so fast last night, a very exhausting day. Another amazing thing is we have been participating in many church services and offered to pray for people, and last night since it is our last Sunday service here, we invited people to come up for prayer either for salvation or for struggles in following God, but when people came up, we just waited, and a few women in the church went and prayed for people! We had been realizing the need for that since we are on our way out, the church needs to rise up and meet those needs. A topic for prayer, though is that no men went to pray for a man, so one of our team members had to pray for him. Anyway, that is just one day of what God is doing. 

Please cut and paste this and share it as praise and prayer for anyone interested, as I haven't been able to keep up with detailed communication...

Another prayer request...we have 6 days left here and we had wanted to visit every house to share the gospel tract we developed, but when we've gone out, it has been very slow going and is taking a long time, so we need a strategy to get it out there. Maybe God wants us to be more selective about which houses we visit? We are asking, but if you can pray too, that would be great...Thanks! When we leave on Sunday morning, we will take 3-4 days to drive back, one of those days will be a day off to visit some amazing National Park with camping...when we get to Perth Maddie will be there! No Cam, though. I still haven't heard from him since he went to Burma, the brat! Well, that's all for now, Gail

The following day Cameron posted the following; (keeping in mind that Cameron is quite capable of yanking our chains!) I think he’s serious though.

Cameron Luke Peters Yea we are! And yes it's crazy. I've never been so scared for my life. We've had to run from secret police so many times already. It reminds me of Sacramento in that respect. But I'm really scared of getting caught cuz I heard Burmese prisons are really intense. But hopefully god continues to protect us! See ya soon ;)

Maddie Peters – Here is the link to her blog if you haven’t seen it. http://camperkong.tumblr.com/

Boling Update December 2011

Happy Thanksgiving! What a wonderful time of the year to celebrate all that the Lord has done and continues to do in our lives!

It was a tragedy of titanic proportions! At first only a small amount of icy water began to trickle in. As the opening enlarged, water began to gush into the room. Some jumped out of the escape hatch into the cold air. Others ran to one side of the room as the water rose higher. Others tried to climb atop wooden structures. The still air was filled with the cacophony of their pleas for help. No one heard them in their death throes. Finally, the dim morning light revealed the macabre scene: water pouring out of a previously frozen pipe, 26 chickens in rigor mortis, and 63 others in a rather excited state!

Our students also remain in a rather excited state with somewhat of a sinking feeling as they realize E-TRAX (the ESL program) is coming to an end in only a few short weeks. It has been a joy to see not only their improvement in speaking English, but also the spiritual growth in their lives.

One of our students, Luis Diego, is the Costa Rican national director for the mission International Teams. One of his goals was to improve his listening ability so he could understand more on skype calls with other international leaders. He excitedly began to tell me about one of these recent calls. “So you understood every word?” I interrupted. “Actually,” he answered, “this is the first time that I could really follow the conversation at all!” Luis also shared that God has been changing the direction of his life through the time he has been at Gateway. We rejoice to see how God is preparing leaders like Luis to be more effective.

PRAISE! For Laurie’s parents’ help in the transport of the rest of our furniture and household goods from southern California. For the spiritual growth of our students and their increasing ability to speak English. For completion of a seminar on Christian coaching. This will help us be more effective as we work
with our students to help them reach their goals and fulfill the plan God has for their lives.

PLEASE PRAY:
For our visa application to be approved before the current expiration of our visa in January.
For our continued transition into the role of directors. We continue to take on increased responsibilities.
For the successful conclusion of our ESL program. We officially finish December 16, but will have a graduation on the ninth for some students who will be leaving early. For the many preparations necessary for the missiology program in the spring.
For good health. Several staff and students have been ill this winter. Laurie has some major dental work that needs to be done.

We thank God for the privilege of training students to successfully live and minister overseas! We are thankful to you who have joined with us in prayer and support of our ministry! May your heart be full of joy in this season!

On pilgrimage,
Mike and Laurie