We’re moving…again!

Pray:

1. A quick and easy move and for no more back problems to arrise from moving.
2. Peace regarding our church planting application and future support raising work.
3. For God’s guidence in connecting with churches who sincerely desire to disciple their international neighbors.
4. For opportunities to equip others to do the work we’re doing through the Peoples Next Door ministry at West Cabarrus Baptist Church next Sunday.
5. Complete healing for my back.

Praise:

1. For God’s provision in giving us a place to move into.
2. For the new community of brothers and sisters in Christ that we’ve found since beginning the church planting application.
3. The understanding that my superiors have shown me in altering my work load due to my back pain.
4. The commited support that I see forming in the leadership of Treasuring Christ Church for our future church planting work.

Thank you so much for praying!

Now, for those who want to know more about those prayer requests and praise reports…

We’re moving to a lovely house in Knightdale, NC, to house/dog sit for an incredible family  from Treasuring Christ Church who are tent-maker missionaries in Germany. We’ll be here no longer than March 2017, and then we’ll move again. We have another very temporary place lined up that will give us the flexibility needed to find a long term abode.

For the last 3 months, we’ve been prayerfully seeking the Lord regarding how we might best use these next two years here in the States before returning overseas. As an answer to that prayer, the Lord has directed us to apply with the Baptist State Convention of NC to be international church planters here in North Carolina! We haven’t been appointed yet, but if everything works out we’ll have a bunch of work to do in raising support.

Despite not yet being appointed, we’ve already connected with a number of amazing families who are already church planters and the edification we’ve received from these brothers and sisters in Christ has been heavenly. We can hardly wait to begin harvesting beside them in those white fields that Christ mentions in Luke 10:2.

May God bless you all for your earnest prayers and biblical encouragement!

in Love,

the linvilles

fantastic truths about failure

Please ask the Father to:

1. provide a job for my new South Asian friend, Sanji (name changed).
2. restore to me the joy of His salvation. I’ve been too lazy in my personal daily devotions.
3. guide me in the best way to do international ministry beside my full-time job.
4. bless my efforts to raise prayer and financial support through video journaling.
5. help my family & I work around having only one vehicle.

Please join me in praising the Father for:

1. the lovely missionary house of Cary First Baptist Church that we’ve got until November 1st.
2. a higher starting salary at my new full-time job than I expected.
3. the increasing organization and efficiency of the Peoples Next Door NC ministry.
4. the sweet blessing of high-speed internet in our new home.

I’m well aware of the inadequacies of my videos thus far, but inadequacy is best alleviated through trial & error; a process that highlights the benefits of failure.

So, despite their lack of scene cohesion, High-Def audio/video, or correct event staging, I must keep making and uploading these videos if I have any aspirations of … adequacy, which I do have; but my aspirations go higher.

When I see how YouTube crosses over international borders around the world, I see an indispensably strategic tool for reaching the nations. When I see how a video can be viewed over 2.5 billion times, I see the ability to stand on a stage before billions and preach the gospel without ever needing to rest, eat, or take a bathroom break. Right now, my videos are abysmal, but so was my ability to run when I was three months old. With time, training, and consistency, I know I’ll get better. With God’s intervention, your prayers, and helpful constructive criticism, I believe I could really change the world for good through this platform.

But first, I must fail, and fail often. A few fantastic truths about failure are:

1. Theoretically, failure provides more helpful information for consistently achieving success. A person who failed 100 times before succeeding will know abundantly more than the guy who got it right the first time.
2. Failure is humbling. There are few things in life more difficult than getting back up and pressing on after failure has thrown you down. Those who manage it seldom do so alone, gaining the deepest appreciation for compassion and often becoming the most gracious to offer that compassion to others.
3. Failure is one of life’s few sure-fire paths to wisdom. Proverbs 9:10 says that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…” in the sense that it’s utter foolishness to intentionally anger an all knowing, all present, all powerful being.

Every time I knowingly fail, I have the opportunity to gripe or grow. Growth comes from understanding that the manifestation of my inadequacies is the perfect opportunity to turn those inadequacies into adequacies.

Come! Let’s fail and grow together!

in Love,

the linvilles

linvilles in Love…with…

Right off the bat, ask the Father:

• for a way to work my full time job and keep doing outreach for the Baptist State Convention.
• for His help in making these daily YouTube videos. I’m making them so that you all will remember us and pray for us. Please watch them and tell me what I need to do to make them easier to watch.
• to provide us with another vehicle. I’ve arranged a temporary car-pool situation with another co-worker, but I don’t think it will work for more than a month.

Praise the Father:

• for providing us with a new place to live! Wow, wow, wow!
• for Lexi’s improving health (allergy wise)!
• for providing every father on earth with the perfect model of fatherhood (it’s father’s day).

It’s a little hard to write about anything since I made a video for every day last week!

Regarding the blog, one thing I’m tired of is feeling constrained to start every blog with “linvilles in Love with…” so I’m not doing that anymore. Yay! Sweet freedom!

Regarding everything else, here’s some thoughts: I love my new job. I’m not 100% certain, but it’s definitely beginning to look like the ministry job that I thought could only be found via a para-church organization (like Cru, World Vision, Save the Children, etc). My heart is so full of gratitude as I drive off in the morning to provide for my family. Thank you Lord!

Learning to edit videos WELL is going to take some work, but once I put in the time, I can see how the process will go faster. The video above is the longest I’ve made so far, and I was up until 3am editing it…but I also thought I had to drive around to find a 24 hour place with WiFi. This turned out to be false. I was a sad panda when that fact DAWNED on me, haha!

Something that I’m now concerned about is my part time job. My concern is not that I’ll lose the job, my concern is that if I do everything I’ve signed up for, there won’t be any time left for family. The solution to this might be to get my family involved in the South Asian outreach work, in which case we’d all go out together in the evenings, but I don’t know how to get that in around dinner time and bed time. Please please please, pray that the Lord teaches me how and/0r what I should do here.

Thank you all so much!

in Love,

the linvilles

linvilles in Love with vlogging

First things first. Answers to your prayers:

1. the Lord provided me with a full-time job! I’m now the delivery driver for Voss Lighting!*
2. the Lord provided a place for my family and me to move to…and we can move in asap! Pros: it’s closer to our church; closer to my new job; it’s spacious! Cons: it’s only ours until November…so please keep praying for our next long term home.

Prayer requests:

1. (keep praying for) the Lord to lead me to teachable South Asian Christians who will be brave enough to shelter and disciple new South Asian converts.
2. (keep praying for) Salam’s salvation.**
3. pray that I figure out how to honor my commitment to doing local missions while rightly honoring my 7:30am to 5pm commitment to be the best delivery driver that I can be. In short, pray I plan out my days better.
4. pray that I relentlessly make time for family.
5. pray that I keep blogging and vlogging, and that I keep doing both better and better.

 

*It’s my hope that this job will aid in my existing work with the Peoples Next Door ministry because part of that job is exploring Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill for South Asians. This is the perfect job for learning my way around these cities and hopefully learning where our South Asians are hanging out.

**The answer is no. No, I did not return to the North Raleigh Masjid this past Friday to see how Salam is doing and hang out with him. Mosques during Ramadan are like churches during Easter. The crowds from last Friday intimidated me and I didn’t go back. Nevertheless, I’m optimistic that I’ll see him this Friday.

And now for the blog…about vlogging!

So, what did you think? Would you like to see the fun and mundane things in our daily lives? Maybe I should just keep it to one video a week that compresses all the best things into 7 minutes? Please, let me know in the comments below!

Tomorrow is my first day as a driver and I’m SO excited! I’m all in for the vlog now so I’m going to be taking the plunge. For me, the plunge is meeting new people with my camera (iPhone) rolling. First impressions are SO important; it terrifies me to bring something like a camera into that special space of life.

“Then why do it, Levi? Why be terrified? Why stress yourself out?”

Excellent question. Here’s why:

We need your prayers. Everything else is second to this. My hope is that by being silly and giving you a bit of our day that you’ll remember us and pray for the ministry we’re doing here in Raleigh. This is paramount, but there are some other reasons too.

Extra money. That’s an honest reason for doing this. It won’t be much money, but y’all watching our videos will put some coins in our pocket, and every coin counts!

Finally, I love telling stories and Life is the best story to tell. Meeting people is a part of life, so I’m going to have to learn how to capture that too. I love making videos and I want to get better at telling stories, so I hope this works. I think videos provide a more intimate experience than other story-telling mediums. I want to make connections with others and teach others through these video stories how to make the MOST IMPORTANT connection, namely, our connection to God!

That’s why.

Please leave your thoughts on our first vlog in the comments below. Thanks!

in Love,

the linvilles

linvilles in Love with rocks

So, to keep the emphasis on prayer, I’m going to put at the beginning what usually goes at the end: the prayer requests. Pray with me for:

1. the Lord to lead me to teachable South Asian Christians who will be brave enough to shelter and disciple new South Asian converts.
2. the Lord to provide me with a full time job doing work that is complementary to my missional work with the Baptist State Convention.
3. the Lord to provide my family with a place to live before our current lease runs out in July.
4. the Lord to use me to show Salam (name changed) Christ’s love in such a way that leads him to follow Jesus.

Thanks so much! If you have time, keep reading to see how the Lord brought Salam into my life.

The Hilliard family and us after mining and eating lunch at Scotty’s Hometown Grill!

Yes! The linvilles went mining and it was so much fun! We met my brother (from another mother) Kenny and his lovely family at the Emerald Hollow Mine in Hiddenite, NC to fellowship and catch up on each other’s lives.

Kenny Hilliard is the pastor of New Horizon Baptist Fellowship and he’s been my friend since 1999 (poor guy). FACT: the Hilliards are amazing. When we returned from Bangladesh, this family completely opened their home to us and gave us a place to stay while we prayed and planned what our next steps would be. Beyond all the love and hospitality that the Hilliards exude, they’re also simply hilarious to be around. If Kenny’s not making us laugh by just being…Kenny, then Claire is making us laugh as she laughs at herself while she shares one of her many crazy/funny/cute toddler stories. Most refreshing of all is that this family is centered on the Gospel. Laughter and joy are never far from those who know what matters, and the Hilliards laugh a lot. I’m so thankful that I got to laugh with them on Saturday while digging for gem stones!

Work this week was exciting. I was able to get out a lot, meet some pastors and a few of my supervisors. The Lord led a South Asian family across my path in downtown Raleigh, and it was so encouraging to meet them. Unfortunately, it started to rain before cell numbers were exchanged, so the Lord will have to cross our paths again.

Friday was definitely the most exciting day for me. For the first time since coming back from Bangladesh, I was able to attend the North Raleigh Masjid’s Jumu’ah. Here’s the crazy part: the second guy I met there I already knew…from church! We’ll call him Salam and four years ago my church (Treasuring Christ Church) met in the Kid’s Marble Museum…during this guy’s shift, and he would often step in and get coffee and listen to the sermon. On friday I find myself sitting beside him listening to the Islamic equivalent of a Sunday sermon (the khutbah).

Unfortunately, I didn’t fully recall who he was until it smacked me in the face as I pulled up to my apartment. We both recognized each other, but we didn’t know from where. I hope I see him again next week so I can tell him how we recognized each other. Until then, please keep praying!

in Love,

the linvilles

linvilles in Love with poetic prayers

I am not a blogger. I love to write as a means of reflection, but I’ve yet to master the art of writing as a means of reporting.

I am a poet. When I write to reflect, I relish in how the confines of meter & rhyme squeeze my thoughts and experiences into the concentrated expressions of poetry.

What’s Prayer? (by C. L. Linville; 02/25/14; Dhaka, Bangladesh)

Prayer is the pulse of the new heart beating, a new start to take part in God’s plan to change man so all reflect Him: – YHWY – the tetragrammaton translated as just “I AM.” That’s it! He’s it! the only legit creator of light and all things lit! Every atom of every hair to every universe everywhere: He’s conducting and instructing and invites us to join in! How? Through prayer!

Yes! Christ’s blood paid the pri¢e that broke the vocal chord vice on our voice to scream to paradise our prayers for His choice~~~to make or break or free or bind, to convict of sin, heal eyes gone blind. We pray for it as He’s decreed; and that’s how the Saints get what they NEED. May I pray everyday that everyday I would pray to the Father in the Spirit through the Son who paid my way. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray ~Amen~

We need people to pray for us, but people can’t pray for us specifically if they don’t know what to pray for, so I started this blog. As simple as that may seem, I’ve seriously overcomplicated it.

I cannot write without feeling exposed. Maybe this is a common feeling amongst bloggers, but with so many blogs out there, It’s hard to believe that that’s the case. Writing opens my heart up for all to see…and judge! Thus, I stressed and procrastinated from writing blog posts like I used to stress and procrastinate from writing term papers in college. As a perfectionist, nothing I wrote up ever felt…perfect.

But we needed prayer and I knew that nothing I did could ever be perfect, so blog I did…occasionally. This struggle is what inspired this website’s tag line: confessions of faith and failure. I wanted my inadequacies and imperfections to enable me to do something for once, so why not make my failures the starting place for the stories of God’s perfect love in this life? Done!…kinda…Good in theory, still difficult in practice.

We need your support, and I need your accountability. If you leave a comment below, I’ll send you a $100 check for every Sunday (after this one), that I don’t post a blog. I’m just kidding, of course, but only about the money (unless anyone agrees to pay me $100 for every blog I do post. You pay me or I’ll pay you. Yeah, that’d totally work!)

I need all of you to pray for me to send out these updates. Seriously folks. Read the poem above again! Prayer is how we BE the body of Christ; how we plow, plant, and harvest the kingdom of God! I’m totally investing in this with you. As of last Sunday, God started me on a 40 day fast*! I’m fasting and praying for the Lord’s guidance and provision in my family’s life. I’m praying for:

• God’s grace and mercy over Bangladesh, and the missionaries who serve there.
• God’s enabling and directing as I fulfill my responsibilities as the South Asian Engagement Catalyst for the Baptist State Convention of NC.
• God’s provision of faithful prayer warriors who’ll bring before the Father my prayer requests.
• God’s provision of a long term career for me & my family in making disciples cross-culturally and internationally.

Please support all that the Lord is doing through the linville family and let me know in the comments below that you’ll pray for us. Thank you so much!

in Love

the linvilles

Walking to the bus stop near our apartment. Riding the bus is Wake Forest is free and fun, so we do it to get out as a family and meet people.

*For health purposes, I’m only fasting through breakfast and dinner. I must drink 64oz of water and have at least a 600 calorie lunch everyday to avoid kidney stones. This week the lunch has been baby spinach salads with grilled chicken and balsamic vinaigrette.

linvilles in Love with traditions

I got to wear a funny hat on Friday! Oh, the power of tradition…

After starting this International Church Planting M. Div. 9 years ago, in July of 2007, I finally got my receipt!

9 years! To be fair, I didn’t take any classes from 2012 to 2015. I could’ve also graduated in absentia in May of 2015 while in Bangladesh, but I’m glad I didn’t. Being there and walking across the stage was well worth the wait. Our culture has so few rights of passage as it is, far be it from me to fail to participate in one of my own culturally celebrated traditions.

Praise the Lord I graduated with a relevant job. Well, half a job, anyway. I’m currently a part time religious contractor in the Baptist State Convention of NC as a South Asian Engagement Catalyst for the Peoples Next Door ministry. What does that mean? Simply put, it means I’m a teacher. I teach Christians, churches, networks, and associations how to engage South Asians in the gospel. The hardest thing about this work is knowing how to stop! I mean, what I’m doing is how I live my life. I’m only compensated for 25 hours of work per week and these last two weeks I’m sure I’ve hit 80 hours, easy! How? Well, if you’ve ever tried to work with Baptist churches, you’d know. ooOOOooohh no he didn’t!

Jokes aside, I need another job. I must provide for my family. I’m hoping that if you’re still reading this then you like us crazy linvilles and you know how much we need Jesus. Please pray for God’s provision for this family and I’ll let you know how he answers your prayer. Thank you so much!

in Love

the linvilles

 

linvilles in Love with culture shock

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been back in America for 5 months. I kept waiting for the reverse culture shock to hit, but I can’t say that it has yet, and I’m tempted to believe that if it hasn’t happened yet, then it simply won’t. Time will tell.

Honestly, I didn’t experience culture shock in Bangladesh either. I’d like to think that this is a helpful personality quirk that I’ve been blessed with in order to serve Christ as a more flexible missionary, but it’s probably just a result of some unconscious process of “letting go” that I developed as a result of constantly thinking and praying about leaving everything behind.

I was surprised to discover how naive the assumption was that I’d have to say goodbye to friends and family, like it’s suddenly the 19th century again. I quickly learned that in today’s technological age, I had brought everything – or rather everyone – with me! Email, Facebook, Skype, etc. brought America before our faces daily, whether we liked it or not.

Perhaps that’s another reason why I don’t recall any culture shock. Home never disappeared beyond the horizon. The faces and voices of loved ones never suffered forgetfulness.

Also, just as I was able to bring America with me overseas, I’ve likewise brought Bangladesh back home to America! The world wide web really does keep us all stuck together! For now, suffice it to say that the Linville family has found a moment to rest.

What’s next for us? Well, through prayer, fasting, and the counsel of fellow believers, I know that we are to stay in Raleigh and remain faithful members of our local body, Treasuring Christ Church. My hope is that after a year, TCC will be able to affirm my calling to full time vocational ministry and ordain me as a Minister of the Gospel. Also, through the same means mentioned above, I know that the the Lord is leading me to work for the church through a Baptist para-church ministry.  I don’t know what that job is yet, which stresses me out at times, but as I strive to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7), I find that being His is better than seeing tomorrow. After all, my King is sovereign over yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

in Love,

the linvilles

This is where I asked Lexi to marry me seven years ago!

 

linvilles in Love with Mr. Bishwas

[UPDATED as of Sept. 17th, 07:50am EST]

Dearest prayer warriors,

On September 17th, at 4:41am EST, Mr. Bishwas’ old and broken body lost it’s mortal grip, releasing him to behold his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, finally and forever.

We’re so humbled and thankful for all of your love, prayers, and support.

Please pray for my national partner, Jacob (Mr. Bishwas’ son). Jacob was out getting one of his dad’s medications when Mr. Bishwas passed away. Jacob is thankful that his dad is now with Jesus, but he’s very disturbed that his dad died alone, calling out: “Where’s my son? Where’s Jacob?” as heard by Jacob’s wife who found Mr. Bishwas deceased when she checked on him a few minutes later.

Please leave encouragements and Scriptures in the comments and we’ll be sure to write them all out on cards and give them to the Bishwas family.

in Love

the linvilles

linvilles in Love with minecraft

Dearest prayer warriors,

We safely arrived back in our village on the 22nd of July. To deal with the stress and depression, we decided to forego our typical weekly schedule of ministry, homeschooling, strict dieting, and daily exercise, in favor of resting, praying, and avoiding insanity. Even so, the last five days have been hard.

God is so gracious in helping us follow him. After deciding to stay inside and rest instead of going out, there was some temptation to feel guilty – but God serendipitously washed that away…with monsoon season.

Monsoon season always brings flooding, but people always act surprised by it.

Schools are closed so kids walk to high ground to socialize.

Pedal Rickshaws exchanged for Paddle Nokahs (boats).

Serious flooding happens every year when the rivers swell over their banks. This is simultaneously a blessing and a curse. A blessing because this one way that Bangladesh grows rice. The farmers prepare their rice fields in anticipation of flooding, carving out land pockets that will catch and hold the flood waters so they can plant rice when the flood recedes.

Flooding is more obviously a curse, washing away precious crop land and damaging roads and buildings. This is a serious problem that I will address more specifically in my next blog. Of course we’ll have a ton of work to do in disaster relief after the waters recede, but unfortunately there’s nothing that we can do while the flood is happening…and, like every year, it will be happening for the next 5 to 6 weeks, a.k.a, monsoon season.

What does all this mean for us right now? Well, it means we’ll be doing a lot of waiting. Ironically, even if we had come back ready to return to the villages and share the gospel and disciple believers, we wouldn’t have been able to do so. Roads are underwater and boats are few and far between. But that didn’t stop me and my national partners last year. Last year we paid five times the normal cost to travel down to the villages by nokah (which took 3x as long to do) only to find that most of the villages were empty. To be fair, I had been warned of this possibility by my national partners, but I couldn’t imagine waiting 6 weeks to continue discipling our new believers. In the end, that’s what we had to do.

That time has come again, but now we need the rest and I’m very thankful for the opportunity to just live in community here with our villagers, sipping hot tea, watching as the torrential rain relentlessly falls from heaven, and playing Minecraft.

Now, being stuck inside, there’s no way I can blog about the previous five days and fail to mention Minecraft.

For those of you who know me, you know that I hate being stuck inside, because this can really exacerbate my depression. Well, Minecraft is what God used to reset my emotional stability. Mrs. Linville likes it (she built The Gray Havens), Little J likes it (he flies around spawning legions upon legions of creatures until his server crashes), and the villagers like it (they mostly just blow stuff up with the TNT).

I’ve never played Minecraft before, but I’ve certainly been exposed to the Minecraft culture via YouTube, and, after watching a crazy video about it, I decided to download it (with my wife’s permission, of course) and give it a whirl.

Having only been really into two other games in my entire life (Jet Motto [1996] & Skyrim [2011] ), I’m by no means an expert, but I think Minecraft is the most perfect game ever created. Perhaps there are other games out there with no levels, objectives, rewards, or missions, but this is the first one I’ve been exposed to, and I love it.

I love it because I can turn it on, dig a digital (nonexistent) hole for five minutes, turn it off, and be done. In that way it’s somehow efficiently unproductive. Did I just waste five minutes of my life?

Absolutely.

Is that okay?

Yes. In moderation.

Why? Because having the ability to “waste life” is at the pinnacle of human experience. Of course, one could argue that any moment spent in the enjoyment of pursuing happiness could hardly be a waste of life, and I would agree. In this way, I believe that I can honestly say that I play Minecraft for Jesus.

How can I say this?

Because Minecraft is not why I’m happy to play Minecraft, Jesus is why I’m happy to play Minecraft. And the same should be true for everything else, but it’s not.

Over the past two years, I’ve struggled against developing the “savior complex.” This is what happens when I start believing that helping people is why I came here. Philanthropy is good, but when it results in receiving uninhibited thanksgiving and celebration – in my name – it can quickly become an idol. After all, who doesn’t like to be appreciated for hard work? But…

“Idolatry is taking a good thing, making it a god thing, and that’s a very bad thing.” – Mark Driscoll, from the sermon Resisting Idols Like Jesus, preached April 13, 2013 at Mars Hill Church

Note: Smiles are considered inappropriate for pictures here. They looked happy until the cameras came out.

Going into a majority-world jungle village as a wealthy white male is as close to feeling like a god as any mortal could ever feel. There’s no shedding of blood, but there’s definitely sacrifices being made, and while it’s incredibly awkward, it’s also a little intoxicating. Of course I desperately do everything I can to vocally redirect this praise towards Jesus, but my wicked sinful heart is ever eager to believe that I am worthy of praise.

So I confess that sometimes philanthropy has been why I’ve been happy to live overseas, and not because of Jesus.

Likewise, I confess that sometimes:

• receiving respect & honor has been why I’ve been happy to live overseas, and not because of Jesus.
• getting paid to travel the world has been why I’ve been happy to live overseas, and not because of Jesus.
• immersing my kids in a multi-lingual cross-cultural environment has been why I’ve been happy to live overseas, and not because of Jesus.
• et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Somehow I’m a new creation in Christ Jesus that still struggles with my old creation’s wicked idol making heart. It is the ambition of the devil to turn a few good things into the main things when I’m struggling with hating having to live here. The great deception is accomplished when I believe that by focusing on the positive instead of the negative, I’m doing well. Wrong. Focusing on anything other than Christ results in idolatry, and of this I am extremely guilty.

Thus, I am overwhelming humbled by Isaiah 42:3:

“A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.”

And I encourage all of you to read Alexander MacLaren’s (1826-1910) insightful comments regarding this beautiful verse and join me in the bliss of our inheritance in Christ right here.

God grows us in mysterious ways, and right now he’s growing me through Minecraft, allowing me during this monsoon season to enjoy something good while protecting me from my propensity to idolize. What has God used to grow you in this way? Gardening? Sailing? Fishing? Sewing? Hunting? Reading? Writing? Cooking? A different video game? Please share that with us in the comments below! Also, don’t hesitate to call me out on this if you think I’m wrong or want me to clarify something. All criticism is welcome!

Regarding my depression, please pray that I learn the lesson God is teaching me: to focus on Christ amidst all my subjective positive and negative feelings, which can change as quickly as a monsoon wind.

For those who prayed for us last week:

1. Praise! Our personal quiet times have been more consistent. Keep praying for us in this!
2. Praise! I blogged again!
3. Request: I’m hoping to make some flood related videos for the next blog. Pray I can do this.
4. Request: We have not done anything more to challenge our disciple Jell to grow and make a disciple of his own. Continue praying for him and for us to do this.
5. Request: Pray the Lord shows us the best way to continue studying Bangla.

Preview for the next blog:

Living in a flood. What we deal with, what they deal with, and how you can help.

To all of you who’ve been so loving and encouraging in leaving us comments, please continue. What ways has the Lord given you to enjoy living life for Jesus? Football? Dinner clubs? Pinterest? Also, we’d love any Scriptures that the Lord has recently used to encourage you. Thanks!

in Love

the linvilles