R&M

The situation here is very difficult for some refugees and displaced people, to the point that they are unable to provide an opportunity for their children to be educated. We have children who have reached the age of 15 and they are still unable to write their names. M met with and helped of Et, with Ni and Ga (two new disciples of Christ), started an educational class for young children who do not go to school. They teach them Arabic and English and also get to know Jesus. The beautiful thing is that it started with 5 children and has reached more than 15 now. Through this idea, we have started to get to know new families with whom we can share the gospel with them .

Mu is a K*rd**h disciple with us and he met another Kurdish person named At who recently came from Syria. Mu participated with him in the three circles and a dialogue took time between them. Mu told to me what was happening between them, he asked him: Do you accept Christ as the Savior of your life? At said: I accept Christ as a Savior, but I accept him as a prophet who gave us God’s message. Mu told him: A prophet cannot save you, a prophet cannot rise from the dead, a prophet cannot be a king in your life, you cannot pray to a prophet, you cannot ask for the help of a prophet, there is no living prophet until now, there is no prophet without sin. If Christ is just a prophet for you, then do not ask for his salvation. Then At said to him: What is all this? I believe in Jesus as the Savior and King of my life.

Two days ago, I trained 80 believers from the K*rdish church of different ages on using the three circles. It was a very fruitful time. We trained them and distributed the stickers, and they all stuck them and went out to talking about Christ simply. After that, one of them, named Id, shared with me that he gathered 3 of his brothers and their families inside his house (about 15 people) to share with them the message of Christ with the three circles, and they responded to him. He does not know how to read or write, and he was very happy because he found something to share with them.

I trained K*rdish church leaders on discipleship, 27 leaders and assistants of discipleship groups to lead 13 K*rdish discipleship groups in the Middle East. We also trained them before and I will continue to training them.

M and I went to the city of A in the Middle East to train a group on how to set specific goals to share the Gospel message with others, in other words, how to be purposeful in evangelism. We trained this group in the four fields before. We love them and love training them. Twenty people attended and we spent a whole day with them. It was blessed.

We arranged for a training course at the center on how to share the Gospel, especially for M*slims, in partnership with one of the specialized institutes. 38 people attended from different churches for four days. I participated in the simple methods that we should use, and others participated in very important lectures about M*slims.

25 children regularly attended for 15 days for 4 hours and we saw with them the hand of God in this summer activity through:The Lord arranged 3 ministries from Egypt who came especially for them. They did not cost us much, but they were very suitable for them and were able to convey the love of Jesus to the children. The quality of the children was difficult because of the way they were raised and the beliefs of many of their parents who had an Isl*mic background. There was severe abuse and sometimes beating and constant threats, to the point that the children, in the first few days, were quickly clashing with each other by beating for very trivial reasons.But we thank God very much because at the end of the activity they became kinder because they discovered how much Jesus loved them and how others loved them. The children were filled with true love. The children got to know Jesus more closely, he became their companion and their God. The children learned to thank God and others, and this is a language that did not exist before. For example, S is a boy who has a hearing problem, and yet when we asked him what he could thank Jesus for, he said he thanked him because I can hear sometimes, and this is a great blessing. The families came to thank us because of a noticeable change they found in the children. Mohamed shares that he realized that Jesus loves him.Violence has decreased significantly among them and in their dealings with their brothers. We trust that Jesus changes the children and renews their hearts. - This activity was an opportunity to attract a new number of families whom we can serve in the coming time. One last thing is also important, the ministers who came from E were serving children from a M*slim background for the first time, their eyes were all opened to serving the majority and they returned to Egypt with a vision and a passionate heart to move for M*slims, also one of them asked to be baptized and M and I helped her with that.

Pray with us (R&M) for the disciples conference that begins TODAY. 30 disciples will spend two nights together just talking about abiding through obedience and sharing the Gospel.

We have 27 enthusiastic children come every day to the center (this is the building that WBC supported). They come to the center to sing, play, memorize verses, and learn more about Jesus. Today we were praying as a team that these children would love Jesus and abide in Him for the rest of their lives. There are an amazing amount of testimonies and stories from parents and children.

Read this story from R about a family experiencing the Gospel for the first time: “Today a God story happened with me. Today, I was with a man named Mahmoud. His wife is attending with us, and her life is changing quickly with Jesus. He asked to sit with me and said, "I want to be like her. I am jealous of her, and I want to know the secret of her change." His wife told him the story of Peter, the fishing miracle, and how Peter followed Christ and left everything. I shared with him the full message that Peter decided to follow after realizing that he was a sinful man who needed Christ. He told me that he would think seriously on the matter.” Families who have walked in unbelief of the one true God for generations are learning to love and follow him. Missions is church planting. Continue to pray for our relationship to deepen with our Acts 1:8 partners, for everything to continue smoothly with the conference, and for Wynne Baptist Church to commit to ALL God has for us.

The state of fear still dominates most of the disciples. We are spending time with them to discuss and pray against the spirit of fear that surrounds them.   I believe God uses these difficult times they are going through for the glory of His name and the growth of His kingdom, He is working!!! We see this clearly.

Monday evening, I have a men’s discipleship group. It is a difficult group because it brings together 10 men, almost all of them from an Islamic background. Today (Hassan*)shared with us that for 3 days he has been sleeping well and thinking a lot, and the voice inside him says one thing, “Oh Hassan, if you decide to follow me, follow me with all your might and your heart and leave everything related to Islam behind!”   You cannot come to hear the words of the Bible and pray and stay at home reading the Qur’an.   I shared the gospel with him today again and Hassan decided to make the decision to follow Christ.”❤️  Hallelujah

Our newest follower of Christ, Namae*, often comes with her husband to the ministry center. Their circumstances are difficult because of her husband's inability to continue finding work. She told us last week she had a vision of herself walking in a forest alone, and she was afraid. Jesus appeared to her and said, “Do not be afraid. Just give me your life.” Yesterday she was very active in distributing New Testaments with boldness and courage from Jesus.

In celebration of the "Resurrection of Jesus", a number of new believers distributed the New Testament in the street in front of our ministry center. They gave out 77 New Testaments.

[Yesterday 4:32 PM] Matt DunavantThe month of Ramadan has begun: We need prayer because the spiritual war, especially at this time, is intense. We also need prayer because these days we are reaping the fruits of the service of the past two months. We will have several sessions with people who have decided to walk with Christ, one session to make sure they understand this decision.Pray Eph. 3:14-19

Today a God story happened with me. Today I was with a person named a man named Mahmoud. His wife is attending with us and her life is changing quickly with Jesus. He asked to sit with me (R) and said "I want to be like her, I am jealous of her, I want to know the secret of her change." His wife shared with him before the story of Peter and the fishing miracle and how Peter followed Christ and left everything. I shared with him the full message and that Peter decided to follow after he realized that he was a sinful man who needed Christ. He told me that he would think seriously about the matter. Will you begin praying that Jesus would reveal himself to Mahmoud and he would follow Jesus?- R

Current Prayer Requests:- We pray that our ME country will not enter into the confusion of an ongoing war. - Pray for some of the Syrians disciples who serve with us as they are experiencing heavy persecution from their neighbors, trying to drive them from their current homes. Pray for peace and favor for them.- Pray that our small group leaders wold have courage and strength in the "spiritual war” coming against them and may God raise up new multiplied small group leaders. -Pray for the new center and how God will use it to advance his kingdom.

Gaza War: Since the outbreak of the fighting in the Middle East, a spirit of fear has dominated the area! The area has been in a state of economic collapse for years… so it will be hard if this war spreads. So far, things are quiet in our city, but some villages have been evacuated to flee the fighting, some schools have closed, and many people have left their homes for now. Also many foreigners have left the country, and all Christian conferences have been cancelled.We pray that the situation will not worsen and that God will bring peace to the region.

The Joy of multiplying:For some time, we have been trying to encourage believers to multiply and start a new groups. They are afraid of being rejected or being unable to explain everything in the Bible to new disciples. We have decided the best way for them to overcome this fear is to just have them “jump into the deep end of the pool.” We selected 3 more mature disciples and gave them each some help! We gave each of them some new people to join the group, and we trained the leader to use the 3/3rds discipleship process. Now… some of them have invited new women from their relatives to join their group, and we are encouraging them to share the good news with people they know (okios), so that they can develop new disciples. They still feel some fear, but are begining to feel a sense of responsibility to make disciples ❤️. Et*, Fo*, and Ba* are the new leaders… Sa*, We*, and Eb* are their assistant leaders… Please Pray that these assistants will become leaders of new groups in time and more disciples are made!

“Yesterday, we did training on multiplication for the Syrian Kurdish Church. Twenty ministers attended. The beautiful thing here is that everyone is enthusiastic about adopting the idea of discipleship groups. This was the second training for leaders and servants, and there will be two more trainings in the month of October. The goal is to start a church based on groups by the beginning of next year, in order to multiply and reach lost people. The twenty ministers that attended will start ten new discipleship groups!”

Hello guys! We miss you all!😍Since arriving back home we’ve made some visits to people who attend with us to see whether they are believers or seekers. We have felt some disappointed that some women from our groups went another ministry.We would like to share with you one story of a home visit that I made today. Aml is a women from a Muslim background that attended with me during a Bible study group as she wanted to know more about Jesus. Yesterday I told her that I would visit her. When I saw her today she shared with me her dream from last night. She saw some people from ISIS that wanted to kill her and her husband, but she told her husband that Jesus will save us as she saw Jesus’ face in the sky and she can escape from them in her dream. Today she told me her decision that she will follow only Jesus from this moment, and without living a double life.

How are our dear Friends at WBC? We are in Middle East and we want to ask you to continue praying with us for two things this week :
- That we would find a suitable house for us live in after returning to our ME target county.
- That we would find an appropriate space to rent for the new ministry center for our gathering groups and local H4F trainings. 
Blessings, R&M

“We miss WBC so much, but we are trying to enjoy being here in Egypt for a few more days before returning to our ministry home. We are very excited to begin with a training tomorrow!!! We will have the opportunity to train 24 leaders from Egypt on (multiplying) in 3 lectures. “Pray for R and M to have wisdom and power from the Holy Spirit as they begin refreshed and excited for what God has before them.

R and M have made it back to Egypt to reunite with their kids and visit with their families for a couple of weeks before heading back to Middle East. They were so encouraged by their time with WBC! R sent a text after leaving that said , “I cannot find words to describe how much we thank the Lord and you. We enjoyed and were blessed and took real power from the Holy Spirit. I thank you because you are spiritual people and we love you.” Pray for them to rest and redeem quality time with aging parents before heading back to work among Syrians! ❤️