How will you be involved??

NOVEMBER 11th @7pm Simpson Univeristy YAKS

Come talk to us! Come Pray with us! How will YOU be involved in the Stirring Mission!!!

Car Accident

Please pray for Larry and the kids. They got into a car accident today with our new Russian Van. From what I hear from the kids, a taxi ran a red light and T-boned Larry, which then turned the van on it's side while Averi and Eli were in the backseat. Eli is fine, Averi has a big knot on her head, and Larry says he is okay but his back is sore. Right now, Larry is at the police station sorting things out. (I haven't seen him yet). The van will be impounded for an uncertain amount of time, which may make transportation difficult back and forth to the ger we just moved into last night. (Praise the Lord for a good move! We set up the ger on Saturday and moved in on Sunday. We had a good first night (and today the sleeping bags we ordered came in so tonight should be toasty warm with a fire and cozy blankets :) Thank you so much for your prayers! We love you all!
Love Krista

A&M

At the end of August we had a visit from A&M! We had a wonderful time of encouraging and praying with them.

Please continue to pray for the many people who have been displaced during a time of flooding in their area.

One at a time

THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2009

I've always told people I want to change the world. I guess I never understood what that exactly meant when I said it. Sure I've had dreams, aspirations, goals, but I never would call myself a visionary. When I say I want to change the world, I mean it, but I'm still trying to figure out what that looks like. Jesus changed his world and he wasn't even in it that long. Jesus caused waves in his world. I want my life to cause waves, to cause a reaction, to stir people to question the life they currently lead.
But is that what I mean when I say I want to change to the world? Perhaps. But sometimes my blood boils and stirs and I wish that I could snap my fingers and change things just like that. Change things because they're not supposed to be that way...they just aren't!

When a nanny calls in sick to work today saying she can't come in. The woman answering the phone feels in her gut that something wasn't right and goes over to the house to find this woman lying in a pool of blood beaten almost to death by her husband.

When a woman gets up every morning and willingly walks to work...a bar down the street where she tries to make enough money to feed her kids by selling herself.

When an eight year old child is forced by her mother to sell flowers on the street to make enough money for her family knowing full well that in a couple of years her "cuteness" will run out and she'll be selling other things by then.

When the woman with a well established food stand at the corner, hardened to life by her husband cheating and leaving her, cries as she talks about her daughter, not knowing what will become of both of them when her house sells.

I wonder at the choices these women have made, but what if they didn't know there were other choices to choose from? I wonder at the life that was given to them, at the life they have carved out for themselves or that others have carved for them. God can redeem, heal, and restore anything, I believe that to the core of being because it's what he did for me. It's what he continues to do for me. I can't hear these stories and NOT believe that the Lord couldn't do the same for them.

I don't know if I'll change the world...if the Lord chooses to use me in such a crazy way...I'd be honored. Perhaps I've done things, impacted people, that will in time do just that. But I'm content right now with it being one. To see the Lord bring love, a chance for education, renewed hope, and provision to ONE eight year old or ONE twenty five year old woman.

One at a time...it's how the waves start.

-Sarah Schepens

Thank you for your prayers

Thanks for praying!!! Our flight went well and we made it to UB on Sunday evening and the Fields arrived on Tuesday night! We are all staying together in UB (the capital city) until our Field Forum beginning on Saturday. Thank you for your prayers for Larry and Jeremy as they meet with Leadership about next steps to help with the flood efforts. Most likely they will be spending a lot of time in the capital this month. Thank you!!!

Powered by the love of our Magnificent Obsession!!!
Larry and Krista Lain

Sarah is going back to Thailand

So it's official. I bought my plane ticket to Thailand last week. An amazing ticket landed in my lap that was half the price of anything else I was looking at. The ticket was such an answer to prayer, so thank you to all who were praying.

Here are the details so far of my trip:

I will be leaving August 3rd flying from Sacramento, CA to Bangkok. I arrive in Chiang Mai on August 5th and will be there until August 22nd.

Once there, I will be spending time with old friends, visiting past places of ministry, and am currently setting up interviews and appointments with various organizations working with women. I am so excited to be in Thailand again! In many ways this is a mini vision trip and I cannot wait to see what the Lord does during this time

I've been so encouraged by all the positive responses I've received since sending my last email out. Thank you to you all who have been praying for clarity and wisdom as I pursue this endeavor. So many of you have asked how you can help financially and prayerfully so here's how:

I will need $1500 for this trip. The majority of this amount is my plane ticket. Once I'm there I have very few expenses. I have a couple of domestic flights within Thailand that are also included in this amount.

If you want to give towards my vision trip please make your checks payable to my church:
The Stirring and write 507-007 in the memo portion.
In order to deposit your check and make it tax-deductible please do not write my name anywhere on the check.
Send to:
The Stirring
1348 Market St #201
Redding, CA 96001

Things to pray for:

Please pray for continued wisdom and clarity as I follow the Lord's leading.
Pray for the Lord's guidance as I set up appointments and contacts with people and organizations.
Pray against fear, doubt, anxiety, and anything else the enemy will use to deter me from going forward.
The Lord is continually shaping this trip. Pray I will be open to the things He shows me before, during and after.

Prayer support is so very important and I cannot do this without you! I would love to have a specific team of prayer warriors with me while I'm over in Thailand. If you feel called to come alongside me in prayer during this time, please let me know.

Thank you again for all your prayers and encouragement. Your support is very much appreciated!

In His Hands,

Sarah Schepens

p.s. For more updated information on my life and this trip please check out my blog at http://strongatthebrokenplaces.blogspot.com/

Leah Rush is HOME!!

Leah Rush will be with us at the Stirring on May 31st. Come and here about her ministry and how you can be involved in supporting her on going ministry in South Africa.

We will have lunch with Leah at noon at Puerto Vallarta 2315 Eureka Way Redding, CA 96001
Please come and spend time with Leah and ask any follow up questions you may have for her.

Please RSVP for lunch in a comment on this blog.

Jamacia May18 - June 8

From Left to Right: Christina Hutchinson, Megan Furze, Sara Jackson, Laura Rainsberry

In partnership with Simpson University and Jamaica Link Ministries, the Stirring with be commissioning this team to minister in Jamaica. We will pray for the team on May 17 during the morning service at 10am.

The team will be working at the Robin's Nest (an orphanage/school) helping out with the kids, helping in the classroom, playing games with them and going to the ocean with them.
The Jamaica Christian School for Deaf- gardening projects & assisting in the classroom
SOS- (School/Home) assist in the basic school, and providing craft projects for the children
through out the stay we will be leading Bible studies and working with an all girls home.

You can follow the team on their blog

New York team update

After six hours on the plane, three hours on the subway, (Oops... takes a while to learn to take the EXPRESS... oh my,) and twenty four hours without sleep...we stepped out into the chilling cold of Brooklyn New York. As we walked the streets to the church where we would be staying, I attempted to take in my surroundings. Wow, I was in for an awakening.

I remember praying that night in the dark. (Lights out at 11pm which would be 8pm here in California... I wasn't exactly ready to sleep) I felt the presence of God so heavily that night, and my heart ached in anticipation to what God was going to do in the short week that God had brought us to serve.

That week, I observed myself take emotional highs and lows that I never deemed possible. We served in pantries, soup kitchens, the "relief bus", and after school programs. Even in this short amount of time I felt huge God encounters... I felt the Spirit heavily upon us and the people that we encountered. God was using us as vessels, and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever witnessed.

Tuesday was incredible. We took a prayer tour around the entire city. We went into three of the five burroughs... Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx... We went into huge ethnic centers, Little Italy, China Town, and Harlem... Every face that I saw, every person... God loves them all, and I saw God in all of them... and I prayed for God's Kingdom to come upon each of God's people in this city.

Throughout the prayer tour we had several divine appointments that just blew me away.

There was Deborah, who overheard us praying for Little Italy, and China Town and came over and said "Amen!" We encouraged her through prayer...She had an amazing heart for God, and I will never forget her eyes.

There was Tyrone, who overheard us praying in the Bronx, and came up to us asking for prayer, for healing. Amazing.

But the one encounter that God put upon us is something that I can never forget. It took place in Times Square of all places. We were trying to hear what people thought of homelessness in NYC. Our team was split into two groups and sent out into Times square to have conversations with the people. The first person that Travis, Schnae, Megan, and I came across was a some sort of a guard for the red stairs. We tried to ask him about homelessness and he simply stated that he had no opinion on the matter. That is when we turned and I saw him, smack dab in the middle of Times Square.

"Reality"(this was is show name, we won't use his actual name for privacy reasons) was holding a "liquidation sale" sign right in the center. When I saw him I said to the others in my group, "Lets talk to him," as I pointed in his direction. The others nodded in agreement and we started walking towards him.

God had led us to a Jamaican man who used to be homeless himself in NYC. "Reality" shared his testimony with us, and shared how tremendous homelessness is there. He was absolutely blown away by us coming to talk to him and I could see tears in his eyes after he shared his story, I reminded him of something that he already knew. I said, "You are a blessing to all of the people around you." He was so taken aback, and said "Me? A blessing?" and I said back to him, "Of course, you." A man that was once homeless himself, who had been taken in and had been radically touched by God. A man once homeless himself is now trying to help the homeless. In awe we all hugged him, and reminded him that he was being prayed for, and he told us he would be praying for us as well. Beautiful.

Each year over 100,000 people in New York experience homelessness. This is a growing epidemic. This city has invaded my heart, and God wants this city. The people there are in need of love.

Family, my family. Thank you for your support through prayer and other means. No matter how small, God has used this past week to glorify His name and I truly believe that. Tears were shed, prayers were prayed, and love was shared. Please continue to pray for this city. Thank you.

Tessa Renae Ratner

Praise from Leah

After our time of Prayer at all gatherings last week, Leah experienced an answer to one of our prayers!!!

She wrote: I woke up Monday morning feeling GREAT! thanks so much for your prayers. -Leah

Prayer request from the Lains

WARRIORS,
Please pray for God's will.
We had been planning a trip out west leaving tomorrow, but many factors are leaving us unsure of what to do. One being that I am really sick.
Please Pray as God Leads,
Larry

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE LAINS~
1. Pray for BREAKTHROUGH in Language Study and Prayer
2. Pray for continued Identity in Christ in the midst of role deprivation
3. Pray for Boldness and Confidence to share the gospel and enter into the throne room of grace
4. Pray for renewal of our minds ( and a nice break from school) during Spring Break (April 3-12)
5. Pray for health during the changing seasons and perseverance to face many dust storms.
6. Pray for us as we move to Tosgon later this month to watch over the Fields house while they are gone on furlough until July
7. Pray for Larry's first trip to Western Mongolia with Jeremy Fields during Spring Break...(We will be moving to Western Mongolia in 2010)
Pray for relationship building with the Fields
Pray for Krista as she stays home with Averi and Eli (and spends lots of time with Krista Fields and kiddos)

Pray for connections to be made with the Kazakh people
Pray that God will give us His heart for the people
Pray that the Holy Spirit will guide them, house them, and feed them :)
Pray for safe and comfortable travel (40 hrs each way of very bumpy roads...more like trails...in a very crammed bus or van!)
PRAISE GOD FOR HIS RESURRECTION POWER AND NEW LIFE IN HIM!
May His Salvation be known among all nations...May all the peoples praise Him! Psalm 67

Short term team in New York

Two members of the Stirring have joined the Simpson University /Spring Break missions trip to New York City. We are honored to support Tessa Ratner and Megan Fitzgerald in ministry this week.

Please keep this team in pray this week as they ministry in New York.

Thank you from the Lains

BIG news from Leah!

I've made a big decision in the past week. I've decided to stay in South Africa. I will be coming home for about 5 weeks between May and June, but will be moving my whole life over here indefinitely. I can't believe it, but I'm so excited! Everything has been falling into place so well, it's definitely God's hand over everything.

-Leah Rush

Thank you from A&M

I just wanted to let you know that we received the care package from you all in Redding this last week. We are so so appreciative of it. The arrival was very timely as both M and I have been super busy and emotionally worn down. It was such a joy to open the letters from friends back home. And of course, we loved all the stuff that we can't get here!

Thank you so much for everything. We appreciate the love and support from the Stirring. We definitely feel the support we are given by everyone there. Thank you for thinking of us.

Many blessings,
A & M

A Message from Leah Rush - South Africa

Stirring family,

Greetings from half-way around the world! I think about you often and wish I could be there to see how the church must be growing!

I am finding South Africa to be my home more and more each day. If you aren't aware, my original team of 50 split into smaller teams in the beginning of January. Myself and 14 others are currently in Port Elizabeth, SA about an hour from where I started my time here.

Port Elizabeth is ripe for ministry. We commonly refer to it as "uncharted waters" as there haven't been many missionaries come through. There are a lot of genuine hurts in this city and my team and I continuing to discover what those are. Racism, poverty, drugs, cutting, and safety are at the top of our prayer lists. It is very interesting to see that the segregation of three races very much still exists seeing that the Apartheid ended only 15 years ago.

Our team is partnering with a Baptist (very charismatic Baptist) church in the area and is helping out wherever we can. A few of us are very active in the youth group and are even beginning to walk closely with a few of the students as they face typical high school struggles. This is my favorite ministry that I am involved in here in P.E. During the week, I help with homework and teach swimming lessons to kids in a Children's Home just down the street. I am training them for the South African "Iron Kids" competition! The Home houses 4-18 year olds who have been abandoned, orphaned, or displaced. The Home isn't necessarily Christian, so it is a good opportunity to bring the hope and love of Christ. I also help out with toddlers one morning a week in the local township (black poor area).

My internship officially ends the middle of May, but I still haven't decided if I'll be on that plane. I have been searching for a place to serve overseas for many years now, and finally feel like I've found a place that fits. I'm still praying relentlessly that the Lord will clearly open or shut doors for me to stay.

Pray for my team as we desire unity and discover how to love one another. Pray also for me as I am desperate for more of God's presence in my life, and that He alone will direct my steps.