This week I (Brian) experienced one of the highs that come with doing the ministry. A young couple from Northern Vietnam in their 2nd year of studies asked me to start meeting with them to play for their church planting strategy after they graduate in one more year. I asked them to share with me some of their vision. They told me, “In our region of Vietnam there are 32 unreached people groups in high security and high persecution areas. We want to reach all of them. We want them to be able to read the Bible in their own dialects and be released from their spiritual blindness and captivity. This is the vision God has given us.”

We spent the next couple hours talking through how they can begin planning for their future research, strategy, and partnerships they will need for the vision to be realized. They told me, “We are nobodies in the Church and we don’t really know where to start, but we know that because God has called us that He will provide what we need.”

Now the reality is – this husband and wife team are a couple of the sharpest minds out of all our students, but they are as pure in heart as they are smart!  They have asked me to meet with them every couple of months prior to their graduation so please pray that God gives them clarity and focus as they move forward in faith. These types of connections with these types of students are why we are here and are truly the highs of being at IGSL!
THE LOWS

Unfortunately, our last month at IGSL has been full of sadness, grieving, and disappointments. Here’s a few of we and some of our community have been facing this past month as you pray for us and IGSL….

• Shortly after the start of this term, a young baby boy of a couple of our students passed away unexpectedly as a result of pneumonia. It has been devastating for the community. Please pray for the parents as they grieve.

  In God’s wisdom – each is in a small group with other parents who have lost children unexpectedly. There’s an Indian family we shared about a couple years ago that God is using to bring comfort to them now. But for many in South and SE Asia, events like this bring out old worldview assumptions driven by karma and echoes of animism. Please pray we disciple people well as they process pain and tragedy through a Christian worldview.

• A few weeks ago, our student affairs team determined that a couple in their third year of study needed to have their studies put on hold while they attend to urgent and severe marital and family issues. The husband never fully repented, though the process of discipline finally broke through. Please pray for them as we all care for them. They are going to be undergoing more counseling and mentoring in their home country and prayerfully they will return to IGSL in a year to finish their final year. These things are painful, but we’re grateful to serve in a ministry and school that cares more about marriages and families than degrees and certificates.
• And finally, the couple from Nepal we asked you to pray about a few months ago because they were in danger of having to go home because they never could pass the English Proficiency Test receiving the news that they will not be graduating from IGSL and need to return to Nepal. Christine and I have mentored this couple for quite a while now and have walked through so much.

  We love them and it’s so hard for them to return to their churches in Nepal without a degree because of cultural expectations and shame. But God has done so much and the experience has taken them into a deeper experience of their identity in Christ than they ever would have experienced otherwise. We are so proud of them, but it is a great sadness to send them home. We are meeting with them as well right now to prepare them as much as we can for their future ministry of church planting among mountain peoples in the shadows of Mt. Everest.

Ministry is full of highs and lows, but God is good and faithful. Please pray for IGSL as we go through some of these lows right now together and that God continues to raise up men and women after his own heart to reach the nations. Thank you for journeying with us and supporting us through these highs and lows as we all follow God’s leading together!

In Christ,
Brian & Christine