Join Us in Africa through Prayer!

Friends and Family,
As we leave today for South Africa, I’ve been reflecting on two 

Thanks & goodbye to our stateside friends!  

practices of my Malawi brothers and sisters in the Lord. First my African friends have taught me something of the ‘power of a story’.  The Bible is 75% stories so I’ve been learning to internalize these stories in order to tell them to others. Over the past year we have developed a set of over 30 orally reproducible Biblical stories (see https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1WIe-jToI7fechE7-auVrQ). It’s been fun weaving these Biblical stories into the sermons I’ve preached here in the states (See http://www.redeemer-redmond.org/?wpfc_preacher=rev-jay-stoms). But now it’s time to use our stories to start story groups that can grow into a Church for African students attending the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa.

We’re ready to tell the Biblical Story through the Bible’s own stories but we realize that our hopes and dreams are empty pursuits without the second lesson I’ve learned from my Malawian friends. Psalm 127:1 “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.”

Early in the morning and into the night our students would walk the football pitch (‘soccer field’) and pray out loud. While I now enjoy walking and praying, the real lesson has to do with the ‘power of prayer’. Without prayer we minister in vain and our vision is mere presumption. James 4:2 “You do not have, because you do not ask God.”

Yet, through persistent prayer we can see the will of God being done on the earth more and more like it is in heaven. I want to encourage you to pray regularly for the ministry God has given us in Southern Africa. The more we pray the more we will see God actively working. Jesus taught his disciples to pray that the Father’s name be honoured and that His will be done on the earth as it is in heaven. Then Jesus motivated them by saying, “everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened (Luke 11:10).” We invite you to join us in Africa through regular persistent prayer!

Zikomo kwambiri (thanks very much),
Jay, Laura, Clara (9), Katherine (7) and Lauren (5) Stoms

Other Prayer Requests:
1) That God would provide three (3) new churches to partner with us.  
2) To travel well and arrive in South Africa safely with all our luggage.
3) For the overall health of our family as we transition to South Africa.

Contact: jaystoms@hotmail.com (Befriend Jay and or Laura Stoms on FACEBOOK).
PLEASE SEND ANY GIFTS AND OR MONTHLY SUPPORT TO:
Africa Christian Training Institute (Stoms Family Ministry Fund)
P.O. Box 15621; Panama City FL 32406-5621.