Shaken & Stirred

Back in the U.S.

It has been a while since we posted a new blog.  We have lots of stories and we will begin to get them up, but today I had to share this.

We are back in the U.S. now.  I received an email today while I was working at our office at Panera Bread (I can’t send from my laptop at the Chi Alpha office!).  It was from one of our precious Muslim students in Kyrgyzstan.  She served as one of our interpreters for the summer Little League and she lived with all of our students for 2 months.  Her mother is very ill and needs to go to the hospital for her kidneys.  Her father, sister, and brother are all out of the country now and she is there alone with her mother.  She is scared.

She emailed Crystal and I and asked us to pray.  Let me tell you why.  This summer she had a profuse nose bleed while out on the baseball field.  It was bad enough that they considered taking her to the hospital.  They brought it to my attention and by faith I went to her, laid hands on her, and commanded the blood to stop in Jesus name and she was instantaneously healed.  It really freaked her out and she kept going back to that all summer long when she was conflicted.  That is why she is asking us to pray.  I will be back in Kyrgyzstan on September 20^th and I told her I will personally lay hands on her mother to pray for her.   

While I was emailing her the Spirit of the Lord fell on me right in Panera Bread.  I began to shake and to weep.  Oh I miss them all.  I can’t wait to get home and pray for them.  I had to rush out. 

I believe God is going to do something great.

Tukey Time

 We are in Antalya, Turkey today.  Our family, along with 11 of our Chialphastan team is at the annual Central Eurasia/Middle East North Africa AGWM retreat.  It has been awesome seeing so many of our dear friends serving in countries near us.  I would estimate at least one third (and this is conservative) ofthe workers here come from Chi Alpha.  Crystal and I are very proud.

While here I had the privilege of sharing in detail to the entire group on what happened this year in Kyrgyzstan amongst the university students.  Entire countries were only given 3 minutes to report and I was given 30 MINUTES, so you can see it was a huge privilege.  Everyone was greatly encouraged and inspired hearing the wonderful reports.  Crystal was one of only 3 speakers who spoke in the morning.  She hit a home run and spoke on finishing strong.  I also had the unique opportunity to lead in prayer for Turkmenistan as they said I had probably been in contact with more Turkmen people and any o ne else in AGWM.

Team Chialphastan served the youth and the children and worked with them throughout the conference.  I spoke on evening to the youth MKs on the need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  Some were baptized in the Holy Spirit which was real cool and the parents were pumped as well.

We are right next to the ancient city of Perga which we find in the bible in Acts 13.  It was real cool for two boys and Chialphastan. 

Two of our UA Chi Alpha alumni serve in this area and it was awesome to be with them.

We are very encouraged and love all of these people.  AGWM ROCKS.

Little League Update:  this week the Wildcats won (2-0), the Bulldogs won (2-0), and the Trojans won (1-1).  Marcus went 2 for 3 in his first game and Dude has an on base % of .500.  They are Wildcats.  Mercer also pitched the final inning of game one and closed it out with a save as Tuesey made a double play to end the game.  Do you think I am proud!

Every day we serve here is a privilege.

The Baptism

When a person is baptized here in Central Eurasia it is a big deal; a real big deal.  They have the perspective that when they do this they are making a “no turning back” public declaration, and in a Muslim world this can have severe implications.

We have baptized 6 students this semester.  We are going to baptize some more prior to our departure.  It is a powerful thing to see these students from Muslim countries stand publically and declare their commitment to Jesus and then step into the cold Central Asian water to follow through in obedience to Christ.

Our first student to lead the way in baptism was our precious girl from a closed Muslim country who was the very first to also make her commitment to Jesus and to One More Friend.  I cannot tell you the privilege I felt to baptize her.  I was so proud and so full of joy and happiness.

One of our students from a Muslim background who we baptized was pretty nervous and kept looking over her shoulder.  She asked if we could move further down where there were no people.  She understood the implications to her life if she was found out by family or betrayed by family contacts.  She boldly declared her faith and went under.

Every day we have served here has been a privilege.

Play Ball!

Two and a half years ago Crystal and I were sitting with some friends of ours in a small café in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.  We discussed our coming here for a year and planting One More Friend amongst the university students.  I began to dialogue about the summer following the academic school year and it was at that moment I had the idea of bringing in Little League baseball for the children.

Thursday, June 7, 2007 we launched the historic baseball league.  We planned for 90 kids on 6 teams for this inaugural year.  Our opening evening we had right at 90 children registered and many parents in attendance.  We are implementing the Little League in cooperation with our church, Blagavest (Good News).   In May we had a construction team from Brighton Highway AG who worked on bringing in water and lights to the field, building backstops, building batting cages, and many other pertinent jobs to prepare for opening day. 

We have 20 students from the U. S. here for 2 months this summer to run the Little League program.  They hail from Arizona, Texas, Ohio, and Arkansas.  We also have our fulltime Chialphastan team implementing as well.  Our One More Friend students come out and assist as interpreters.  It is a full time operation.  We hold practice 4 times a week and play on Friday.  We also hold special pitching clinics.

Many people have helped to make this a reality.  Our Arizona District WMs have pledged significant funding to assist with the field and equipment.  We are so grateful as this could not happen without their generous support.  Many others have assisted with uniforms, gloves, bats, balls, etc.  We cannot secure any equipment in-country; it all has to be shipped over.

This is a historic and energizing time.  We play our first games on Friday, June 15^th.  Who would have believed it?  ME!!!!!!

Saying Goodbyes

The past 3 weeks we have faced the inevitable.  We have had to say goodbye to many of our university students as they depart to their home countries.  At each Gathering for the past three, we have brought forward those students who will be departing and we have publically blessed them (which is part of the authority of the Church) and then the entire One More Friend group has come and loved on them, cried with them, and said their farewells.

In all our years of campus ministry I don’t think it has affected me as much as this time.  These students are going back to complex situations in their “stan” countries.  Some are returning to areas where there is NO church.  Others will be returning to regions where their very lives may be in jeopardy.  Crystal and I have made many long trips to airport in the twilight of the morning these past few weeks.  We wanted to be the last familiar faces our students saw prior to boarding their plane.

We have had many hugs and many tears.  We know God is going to use these students and this is just the beginning of their journey.

We said goodbye to our precious Lida.  Lida was the first student here to make her commitment to Christ and to the One More Friend group.  We have no church to send her to when she returns to her country.  Would you pray for Lida?

By the way, we had over 100 at our last Gathering.

E. Scott