Preparing for the Christmas season

Update Afghan mom &daughter

Here’s a praise report from ’name hidden’:

“Hello brother I hope you and your beautiful family are doing well😊 You know, a very good thing happened yesterday, brother. Today this family asked me why you don't pray? Are you in any other religion? I said I am a Christian, I love Jesus. I said that if you want to destroy me, I am ready to give my life for Jesus, but I will not deny it. Navid's friend told me, sister, you can stay in any religion you want, we will never accuse you, you can have a choice, they said Navid was my best friend and you are Navid's trust. They said that no one will ever know about this, you can easily pray and be whatever you are comfortable with And she made a wooden cross for me🥰 And he said, sister can pray here with your daughter after this.”

It seems to me God is truly softening their hearts and is reaching out to this family as well and in this waiting period God isn’t wasting anything. For a muslim family in Afghanistan this is very uncommon! I pray Vida’s time there will be a testimony to this family and God would pierce their hearts and we’d be able to welcome another family as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Here’s a picture of the wooden cross, and on the left with added Christmas lights.

Here’s another message and prayer ’name hidden’ sent me a few days ago:

I'm proud I'm a Christian ✝️❤️🔥
"My name is ’name hidden’ and I am an Afghan Christian. I am proud that I lost my husband Navid in the way of Jesus. We suffered a lot. We suffered but never broke because we had the Holy Spirit with us. They killed my husband but this is the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ to me. I am proud. I will never give up. Navid, He lost himself but found eternal life, Amen.. Muslims want us to deny, they destroy us with their swords and guns and force Islam on us.. but they don't know that we have a God who is the ruler of the whole world. I am not afraid, I am still proud to be a Christian and one day this world will witness the miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ. My life, my daughter's life, sacrifice in the name of Jesus. We will win here. Amen Amen my Lord 🙏🙏🙏✝️✝️✝️❤️❤️

I believe, Jesus, you will open the way for us, I pray today, protect me and my daughter and reduce my pain, save us from here. I thank you, God, that I walk with you and learn from you, hear and act. I thank you, kind heavenly father, that my words and actions are the same. I thank you, God, I am thankful and grateful with all my heart. I thank you that all the events, which are not few in number every day, are beyond my human capacity, and there are so many great things that only come from the power of Almighty God and ability like you, and I can only bow before your amazing greatness. Amen❤️🙏

In the mean times, her father is aware of her whereabouts through her sister-in-law. So we are not sure when and if her father will show up one day and take her away. There are a lot of unknowns… and in the mean time we are waiting for an update from the passports. It seems all is in God’s hands and we’ll continue to pray for His will to be done.

If you would like to send her a prayer or message of encouragement, please send it to me and I will forward it to her. I know she will appreciate it greatly!

Update Pakistan

Brick yard families

We are connecting with christian families from a brick yard family in Sheikhupura. The very short version is that these are modern day slaves where the families, kids included have to work long days in horrible conditions under the owner of the brick factory, under the misleading narrative of paying back debt.

Here’s a short video that will give you an idea of what’s going on there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAOypGQdzGU

I have big future plans to help these families (which I will share in another email), but to start I want to bless these families this Christmas with a Christmas dinner and gifts for the children.

Sunday School & Youth Programs

For Christmas we will be handing out a package with gifts for every child that is connected to one of our connected Sunday Schools.

We want to better support and encourage the Sunday School teachers we are connected with. Sunday Schools is a big focus of our ministry in Pakistan. For this Christmas we are organizing a fellowship event for the teachers and giving them a ministry hoodie as a gift.

We will also be organizing a youth event with a soccer match and prayer and fellowship meeting with our boys youth group.

Breakdown of Christmas projects

Hoodies: 35,000 PKR
Christmas Gift 70 kids : 120,000 PKR
Bricks yard factory Fellowship: 25,000 PKR
Banner: 4,000 PKR
Fellowship with Teachers of Sunday School: 15,000 PKR
Youth Event in Narang :15,000 PKR
Total travelling and transport: 50,000 PKR
Extra funds: 15,000 PKR

Total: 279,000 PKR or 1316 CAD

Prayer Requests

Please pray for:

• Protection for ’name hidden’

• Salvation of the family she’s staying with.

• Christmas projects in Pakistan.

Stay in Touch

If you want to talk more or ask more questions about all this, I’m available to talk in person or over the phone. My phone number is 250 280 6155.

If you want to chat or talk with Adish in Pakistan, no problem, just let me know and I can give his contact info as well.

Donations

Options:

· E-tranfer to “[email protected]”.

· For convenient monthly donations or one-time donation: https://pages.donately.com/yellowhouseministry/donate

· Cheque: Steven Bauwens, PO BOX 1515, Merritt, V1K 1B8

Other Help

If you want to help in any other way or you come across connections that could help in any way, please let me know as well.

In Christ,

Steven
Yellow House Ministry