Praise the Lord for the church in Merced! We arrived on Saturday, January 24 and right when we arrived, we joined a welcome-back dinner for the Merced College and UC Merced Bible study. This time was intimate and sweet with about 18 students. Many of them were very new and some were even there for the first time, but they were open to fellowship and were extremely receptive to God’s economy. We ended the night by calling on the Lord in five different languages! It was the first time many of them called on the Lord audibly with others and in their native tongue!

Today, we set up two BfA distribution tables at the Merced Mall, one with English materials and another with Spanish materials. It was encouraging to see that almost all of the saints from the church participated in the distribution of the Bible and various tracts. There were many local contacts of all different ages and stages. Many appreciated the interpretation of the Word with the footnotes and were very open to further contact with the saints. Near the end of our distribution, we ran out of English Bibles so there were even several ones who said that they would be coming back the next week to pick up their own Bible!

Prayer burdens:

• We will be contacting the ones who have given us their contact information this week. Pray that the church would rise up and adequately follow-up with all of these positive ones.
• Pray for UC Merced and Merced College and the receptiveness of the students to the gospel, Bible studies, and BfA distribution.
• Pray for the health of the trainees and laboring saints.