Making a difference across the border

Our work on the border is all about collaboration and partnership! Students at the BSM at University of Houston put these food packets together for us. We delivered to Cynthia Aulds with our partner the Coalition to Combat Human Trafficking in Texas. She included information about human trafficking in each bag and delivered them to Laredo. Our friends at Pastor Lorenzo’s church will deliver to displaced peoples on the other side of the border.

Later, Cynthia wrote us to tell us how the food packets were making a difference!

She received a text from one of Pastor Lorenzo's helpers: "We took some snack bags to the children and families on the bridge of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. There are families from Uzbekistan, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Thank you and everyone for these snack bags. The children were so hungry. Thank you again. We truly appreciate these bags."

Displaced people are vulnerable to human traffickers. Each food packet has a list of questions that recipients can read and perhaps self identify as a victim. Later this month, we will be meeting with first responders in San Antonio to talk about tools that can help them identify victims. We also are working on a video that can be played on a loop in areas where displaced people may be, such as homeless shelters, care facilities and detention centers. And all of this is in partnership with others.

Butch and Nell Green, CBF field personnel in Houston, Texas

True Life

Sonat had been a 13 year old boy when CBF field personnel came to his village to learn his language. Later, a Korean CBF partner church provided scholarship funds for Sonat and some of his friends to become some of the first college graduates from the “B" people group.

While in college, Sonat and those friends helped with the Bible translation, although he did not fully trust Christ until after the New Testament was printed in 2015. The New Testament, pictured above, is titled "True Life," since there are no words for "Bible" or "New Testament" in the B language.

More recently, the tiny B church decided to dub the Jesus Film into their language. Sonat was very excited. In a recent text to CBF field personnel, he wrote:

“Over the past few days I’ve helped with the Jesus Film recording. I’ve been amazed, feeling the power of God at work during the recording. God has helped us to read our lines with emotion, like real actors. That’s hard for us, since none of us have done anything like this before. But God has been with us all the way.”

Please pray for Sonat and the other B people, both Christians and pre-Christians, as they finish the Jesus Film recording.

- Field personnel serving in Southeast Asia

Beloved community in an unexpected place

Mentoring inmates through art-making is one of the ways I live out the presence of Christ in community. I assist programs in both the men's and women’s prisons. The women are inspirational and a delight to work with. Simply delivering new art supplies for them to use is met with delight and gratefulness.

Even though life is not easy, they try to make the best of their time and are so thankful. I truly love mentoring them. As Jesus said, "When I was in prison you visited me...when you did it to the least of these you did it to me."

We create beloved community in many ways. For me this is the heart of what it means to be the presence of Christ: presence, time, and energy given out of love. A beloved community in an unexpected place.

At the request of the warden I initiated a beautification effort in the prison through creating large wall murals. The first was completed in early October. Four of the Narwastu Art Community students who are from Serbia joined in and taught the women how to properly create a large-scale mural. Currently the women are painting murals in the visit area.

- Tina Bailey, field personnel in Bali, Indonesia

Cuba Meeting after Church this Sunday

There will be a Cuba meeting this coming Sunday right after church in the gathering room. At this meeting, we plan to select a new date for going to Cuba and complete the VISA applications. Please, bring your passport.

Opening Doors

God has been nudging my heart with statements and questions that I have heard from refugees over the years of ministry to internationals. Statements such as: “I have been in the United States for 17 years and this is the first time I have been in an American home,” and questions like “Can you find me one American friend?”

I have been calling on my network of friends and asking them to host new immigrants in their homes. The degree of hosting varies: for tea, for dinner, overnight. I personally have been hosting and been hosted by Iranians, Afghan and Tajik for many years.

The blessings are many and the relationships are enriching. I am opening the door as wide as possible to help others experience this blessing. God is calling us to this work. The Bible says, “I was a stranger and you invited me in….” Matthew 25:35b. Pray for Christians who will open their doors!

- CBF field personnel ministering to Persian speakers worldwide (Afghan, Iranian and Tajik)

Celebrating the Unsung Heroes

During the recent season that is known for giving, our middle and high school students had a greater focus on Civic Engagement with a civic engagement initiative called “Celebrating the Unsung Heroes.”

Our first event focused on Mrs. Gloria, our housekeeper at our Overtown Site. The Touching Miami with Love youth worked hard and threw her a surprise “Appreciation Party.” In a very simple way our students learned the power of selfless giving and the beauty of loving others in proximity. They learned that you don’t have to go far to show love and there are always people around you who deserve appreciation.

Our second initiative was to honor our local firefighters. Our students baked and decorated cookies and delivered them to two local stations near our Overtown Site. The Miami firefighters from Stations 1 and 3 were grateful for their treats! The firefighters even took time to show us around their homes away from home. Making the time even more fun, they put some of our students to work a bit. It was a wonderful exchange of love in the community.

- Gary Francis, Touching Miami with Love, Overtown Youth Coordinator

Charlie's Challenge

Around the Table

One of the great ironies of living in Tokyo is that so many feel lonely, while at the same time being surrounded by people in the largest metropolitan area on the planet.

When we chose to attend The Naganuma School for Japanese language studies, we knew that for a few years we would be committing nearly every day to language acquisition efforts for long-term work with churches in Japan. We have tried our best to be present and connect with those who God brings into our lives. Over the last year and a half, we have enjoyed getting to know our classmates who come from nations around the world.

We’ve had lunches and dinners with individual classmates, but the vision of hosting the whole class in our home finally became a reality. While classmates brought along desserts and drinks, we provided a burrito bar for the main course. We enjoyed sharing our American version of burritos with our classmates, some of whom were eating burritos for the first time and requested burrito rolling instruction.

Over our meal, we sat around the living room and in a strange mix of Japanese and English (common among internationals in Japan), we shared stories from our time studying together, spoke of our future goals in Japan or in our home countries, and celebrated recent successes with one another.

With all of our differences in nationality, backgrounds, and life experiences, we came together in our commonality of studying Japanese and living life as internationals in Japan, and it felt like beloved community. We've been so thankful for our classmates who have become friends and have been the presence of Christ to us, and we are grateful for the opportunity to open our home and be the hands and feet of Christ to them.

- Carson and Laura Foushee, CBF field personnel in Japan

Abundant Grace

In the year 2011, I started a women's meeting at a refugee woman's apartment. We began with 16 women and have grown to a group of more than 500. We praise the Lord for His abundant grace!

At one particular Tuesday meeting, Amina asked me to pray for her father during the time when I ask the women to share their prayer requests openly. Amina urged us to pray for he father because he had disappeared, and the last time this happened he was kidnapped for more than 5 months.

More than 150 women prayed together, and God is awesome. Two days later, her father was released and went back home.

We praise God for the amazing work we see among this community of women!
- Maha Boulos, field personnel serving in Beirut, Lebanon

Evidence of God's powerful work

These are 13 shelter graduates who are a part of a leadership cohort, a follow-up program of the shelter, which offers further mentoring and development opportunities. These women have emerged as leaders in their families and communities.

Grace is one of the members of this cohort. When she was 18 years old, she and her 7-year-old sister were homeless and without a place to go. Though they tried for many months to survive, they continued to struggle and came to the verge of suicide. Her sister asked her if they could try going to an organization one more time. This organization referred her to us and she and her sister immediately entered our shelter.

Today, Grace is now 22 years old and is working full time, which allows her to provide for herself and young sister. She has also just completed her first year of university in Business Administration.

Grace, like many graduates, has developed a passion for sharing what God has done in her life with her community. She is now a translator and leader in her church choir. She has also developed an outreach program through her church to minister among other vulnerable and homeless refugee women. Her life is one of many powerful testimonies of God's powerful work through our shelter program.

- Missy Ward-Angalla, CBF field personnel in Kampala, Uganda