Pray for us as we go to Peru

Here is the Peru team ready to go on the plane and get to Lima!! Thank you so much for all your prayers and support! God is good!

aprayed4city march prayer guide

i apologize that i have no words of wisdom for you this month. i just got back from poverty simulation and am leaving town for spring break. But i promise that next month i will share some things i learned from the time i spent in south Dallas. click the link below to get to aprayed4city website. Then scroll down to find the prayer guide section and open the current prayer guide for this Thursday, March 7. http://www.ap4c.org/

Update from the Jessens

In addition to their work with evangelism, church planting and training church leaders, VRBC-supported missionaries Kelly and Jenni Jessen of e3 Partners have started an incredible ministry in Thailand to provide rescue and restoration to girls who have become young mothers through sexual exploitation. They returned to Colorado for furlough almost a year ago and are continuing the ministry from there until they return to Thailand. See below for an update on how they are seeing captives find freedom in Christ, and be sure to check out the links at the bottom to learn more about them and their ministry. As with any of our missionaries, you can also learn more and watch a brief video greeting made especially for our congregation at www.vrbc.net/missionaries.

 

 

Dearest Warriors and Friends,

It has been wildly difficult to be away from our Compass 31 girls for the past 11 months.  Even so, God is continuing to do amazing things on the girls' behalf.  You might remember stories of challenges and victories from our girls:  Anna, Mali, Hosanna and Peem?  Here is a snapshot of where they are now.

• Anna has finished professional sewing school and is now working in a Christian-run dress shop.  Her daughter, Chompuu, is in 1st grade and both are doing well.  
• Mali will complete her high school degree in March and is looking forward to going on to Bible school so that she can pursue her dream of being a missionary to China.  Her daughter, Ponsawan, is a healthy happy one year old who loves to laugh and to explore.  
• Hosanna is studying for her high school degree while also attending sewing school and english classes.  She is thriving with the busy schedule and loving support of her foster family.  Her daughter, Hadessa Moon just turned three and will begin preschool in a few months.  
• Peem struggled with family pressure and cultural expectations after we left Thailand but has now returned safely to her village with her daughter.  She is living and working near her mother.

The upcoming opportunities for our C31 project are expanding beyond our wildest hopes and dreams. We are excited about the possibility of developing job opportunities for rescued girls.  This potential opportunity will further our reach into fighting slavery and making disciples.  We look forward to sharing more about these developments in the upcoming months.

Thank you for your prayers, your love and your support.  Because of you we are seeing captives find freedom in Christ.

In His Grip,
Jenni for the family
www.compass31.org
www.e3partners.org/jessen



link to aprayed4city

click the link below to get to aprayed4city website. Then scroll down to find the prayer guide section and open the current prayer guide for this Thursday, Feb. 6. http://www.ap4c.org/

Aprayed4city

Our church family has been invited by a group called Aprayed4city to join with over 65 other churches and organizations to pray for the Dallas metroplex.  Our VRBC family has been asked to pray together one day each month using a prayer guide they will send to us.  Our first day of prayer together will be  Feb. 7, which is this Thursday. 
 Let me know that you are going to join us in praying by emailing me at pam.woller@gmail.com  or join the missions blog to receive updates. If you choose to receive the email directly from me, i will send you a reminder each month to let  you know  the day we are praying and the focus of our prayers together.   The hurting, lonely, broken, unemployed, mentally ill, crime-ridden, poor, struggling, lost people in the Dallas metroplex are in need.  Please pray with us.  Pam Woller

Stickney Update

Here is an update from the Stickneys on their ministry, safety and other prayer requests as they serve in Nairobi, Kenya.

ACO Partners,

  We covet your prayers and THANK YOU for lifting us up daily. This week we had a few more instances in our area of burglary and one car jacking, but block around the ACO compound was quiet. We know you are bathing the Stickney's and ACO staff in prayers and thank you.

  Last night Tom put his mother Alice on the plane back to Dallas after 45 amazing days with her. Sydney & Raegan's cup runith over with Grandmother time, such a blessing to have her around for the holidays and getting back to school. Alice got to spend time in both of their classes, see Raegan's class play for chapel and climb an extinct volcano with Sydney's class. She is 73 and still going strong!

 Traveling back with her was an amazing young couple we hosted for the past month, Chris and Whitney Landers of Dallas, Texas. We had a great time showing them Kenya and getting to connect them to what ACO is doing in here.

 This past week some of our ACO staff and interns spent time on the coast helping to get second semester of ministry going at Pwani University. We are very excited for Nic, who graduated early from Egerton University, who will join ACO's intern staff year long training program that kicks off in Nairobi with Tom and Kerry in July. Between now and then he will help Jonathan, ACO's Kenya Coastal Staff, and get a little different perspective on campus ministry.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY:

1. For safety in and around Runda where the Stickney's live and attend school
2. Wisdom on how to approach the upcoming elections in regards to evacuating the country or riding out the possible increase in violence on the ACO compound. (Tom attends a US Embassy security briefing Monday afternoon)
3. A quick start to ministry on campuses across the country as students have completed exams and are beginning classes. Campuses will be shut down for March elections, so our staff must connect and work quickly to get students re-energized in their daily walk with the Lord.
4. A peaceful lead up to Elections

Thank You for Your continued support of ACO!

The ACO Board of Directors
ACO National Staff
and
Tom Stickney
Executive Director
African Christian Outreach
stickneytk@mac.com
www.acokenya.org

 

Pray for the Stickneys in Africa

Please read below for an update and prayer request from Tom and Kerry Stickney, directors of African Christian Outreach (ACO):

ACO Partners,

  We would ask you to stop today and over the next few weeks/months to pray specifically for the Stickney's & ACO Staff. Praying for safety, wisdom, and God's hand to be upon their lives as violence in Kenya is on the rise due to upcoming Presidential elections.

 For the Stickney's:

  Tom received a text this morning at 2:45am from a fellow parents, who's daughter is in Sydney's class. The two fathers had just spent the day together as chaperones for a 4th grade field trip. They live a two blocks away and had thieves enter their house around 2am armed with guns, machetes & a steel pipe. We thank God that they woke up Sydney's friend by shinning a flashlight in her room, but left her alone and moved onto the father room to wake him with a gun in his face. They repeatedly beat him with the pipe until he could open the safe and give them the money he had. The families night guard jumped the fence when he saw the men come over the wall and only returned when the incident was over. We praise God that they are all alive and safe, but the incident brings the escalating violence into the neighborhood that is the safest in Nairobi. 

  Incidents have been happening in and around the neighborhood the Stickney's live in and have become for frequent as election come closer. The criminals know that the Police are stretched very thin due to 2007 post election violence that occurred in the country. Their "show of force" keeps them undermanned in areas that are normally staffed. Tom received tweets today from the Red Cross reporting that gangs were throwing rocks at passing cars in an area where he visits regularly and road blocks set up by tribal gangs on roads leading to a shopping center the Stickney's frequently use.

   First, pray for safety. Safety for the Stickney's as they sleep at night and come and go during the day. The compound has several lines of defense with a wall, electric wire, metal and wooden doors into the house, and two night guards with a backup silent alarm that can be triggered. With all the precautions in place, instances still happen like the family mentioned above. 

 Second, pray for wisdom. The Stickney's must decide with the help of the ACO Board of Directors if they should evacuate the country before and during the elections the first week of March. Several other mission and aid agency's are requiring their personal to leave, some for an entire months of March and April, but the Stickney's don't want Sydney and Raegan to miss too much school and to be away for the ACO staff team for too long. (The school is closed Monday-Wednesday of election week). They would not evacuate due to the violence expected between tribes, but because of the increased risk of home innovations, carjackings and violence in typically safer neighborhoods due to the lack of police presence. 

 For ACO Staff:

  Staff are spread across the country on their campus ministry sites. The areas they live in are filled with all different tribes and are hot spots for tribal post election violence to erupt. In 2007 families were pulled from their homes and beaten because of their tribe. So many Kenyans had to flee their generational homes and have never returned.

First, pray for safety as staff continue to work with students up until campuses close just prior to elections. Staff will stay put, stock up and lay low in the weeks following the elections. Pray that the Lord will put His angels around their houses and apartments. Pray that other families of different tribes will choose to live in peace and harmony when violence erupts in their areas. 

 Second, pray for wisdom as staff decide when to leave their homes to run to the store for groceries or to collect wood for cooking. The country is expected to have water, electrical, fuel and sugar shortages post election. 

For Virginia Home Orphanage:

  Pray for these beautiful, innocent souls as one of ACO partner ministries decides how best to protect the children that live in the home. ACO staff that work at the orphanage will be unable to stay because of their tribe.

Thank You for Your Prayers! We will try to keep you updated as much as possible.

Tom Stickney

Executive Director

African Christian Outreach

stickneytk@mac.com

For More Information:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19948429