The last few days of our gospel trip were spent distributing, door-knocking, and following up on the warmest doors and contacts who requested for small group fellowship. Despite the cold and rain, many saints still came to help labor together with the full-time team and trainees. Though our fingers were numb and our toes wet, our spirits were burning and it was a glorious time of going out with the Lord in the nearby neighborhoods.

Our last seminar on Saturday had the lowest attendance of all our seminars, yet the Lord still brought some solid seeking ones, as well as one who saw our table just before we were about to close. He was seeking a group to meet with while visiting the area for the next two months. He attended the table meeting the next morning and said it was “awesome”.

On Saturday evening, we concluded with a wonderful overflow meeting where saints from all the surrounding churches came to listen and testify of what the Lord had done these past two weeks. Many of those who participated shared concerning the hunger and dissatisfaction of many believers whom we met and their openness to meet and fellowship.

It seemed that the Lord had specifically prepared some who were ready to be contacted by us to be shepherded and to be fed. Many praised and thanked the Lord for the privilege of laboring in coordination with Him to be one with Him in His move. Some of the local saints expressed their desire to help with the follow-up after the overflow meeting concluded.

We praise the Lord for what He has done, is doing, and will do in the Fraser Valley area. We look to the Lord in how to go on after these past two weeks of labor. Our prophesying meeting on Lord’s day ended fittingly with prayers that the Lord would duplicate His heart in us to be His Samuels caring for His interest, move, and enlarged expression for the temple church life.

Prayer burdens:

• The Lord would encourage and strengthen the local saints to rise up to function according to their measure in following-up and caring for the 40 contacts who were the most open.
• A regular appointment would be established with the 6 contacts who have already had a second appointment with the saints.
• The Lord would gain young, local Canadians as remaining fruit for His proper testimony here in Abbotsford, as well as the entire Canada.

It has been a corporate labor with the saints for the past week in Vallejo. In total, we gave out 1,300+ tracts and 180+ Bibles. Of the 206 contact cards we received from Bible recipients, a whopping 92% have shown interest to be contacted; 33 of the 206 have been identified as being very open to be contacted again. Praise the Lord for such a rich sowing!

Every morning, we gathered together to pray and touch the Lord. One item we prayed for is that the Lord would gain five solid families in Vallejo. Even though we have not yet seen this as we depart from Vallejo, we are full of faith that the Lord is answering this prayer.

On Saturday, one team went out but no one received a Bible. However, a young man at one of the houses asked the team to come back in the afternoon, saying that his wife might be interested. Not expecting much, the team returned to the house that afternoon. When they met the wife, she turned out to be a very seeking Catholic. This young couple had recently moved from San Francisco to Vallejo and the wife was desirous for a Bible study in her neighborhood!

Another team knocked on the door of a house that was a home care center. At the beginning, the one who answered the door didn’t show any interest in receiving a Recovery Version. But after a sister persistently shared with him some footnotes, his countenance changed and he was willing to receive a gospel tract! Continuing to chat with him, they found out that he was the owner of several home care houses in the neighborhood. Even though he didn’t receive a Bible, we believed that the Lord was expressed and testified through the conversation!

That night, we had a Bible study meeting at a sister’s home. The topic was consecration. One newly saved sister shared that we must first allow the Lord to work in us before we can work for Him. At the end, many spontaneously sang the hymn, “I love my master, and I would not go out free.” Our love for the lord was rekindled and our consecration was renewed! It was such a sweet time and we were shepherded by the Lord. We realized that as we were laboring for the Lord outwardly, He was gaining us inwardly.

It has been a wonderful experience blending with and laboring with the saints in Vallejo. This city has been inscribed on our hearts and we will intercede for the Lord’s testimony here in our prayers. We will pray that the Lord would gather men like a flock for His testimony in Vallejo!

Prayer burdens:

• Please pray that many of the open contacts will be brought into Bible studies in their neighborhoods and will even be brought into the church life.
• Please pray that five solid families will be gained for the church in Vallejo this year.

We concluded our gospel trip today with all the saints here by giving thanks, praises, and glory to the Lord for all He has done in the North Bay. We were full of joy with the saints to witness the first Lord’s Table of the church in Rohnert Park.

At Sonoma State University (SSU) and Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) where we labored this past two weeks, 3,806 tracts and flyers were distributed, 403 Bible Sets were passed out, 178 people left their contact information, 10 people were led to pray and receive the Lord, 38 appointments and Bible studies were held with the contacts, and 6 regular appointments were set up. We have 107 students from SSU on the Bible Club’s email list; and even though there was the restriction of passing out tracts at SRJC, the Lord still brought many students to the table and 53 of them left their contact information.

Among all the student contacts, we identified 36 students from SSU and about 15 students from SRJC as the most positive contacts to labor on. There were 16 students from SSU and SRJC who attended the college meeting on Friday nights, and two of them returned for the second meeting. Also, on Saturday, more than 60 saints from the Bay Area participated in the sowing trip in Rohnert Park. They gave out 35 Bibles and got 20 contact cards, and 928 packets were given out through door-hanging. May the Lord keep growing in all the contacts through proper follow up and shepherding to gain what He is after.

During these two weeks, we were so shepherded and encouraged by all the saints’ care to us, and by their faithful labor and outpouring to the Lord. We pray that the Lord will richly bless all the saints here with His bountiful supply to keep going on and that the lampstand here will shine brighter and brighter for the Lord’s strong testimony!

Statistics (As of 02/07/2106):

Tracts Distributed: 3806
Bibles: 403
Persons Contacted (more than 30 seconds): 178
Persons who were led to pray: 10
Persons who had a 2nd appointment: 38
Regular appointments established:6

Prayer burdens:

• Please pray for the follow up of contacts, the 51 key student contacts, the Bible studies, college meetings, and appointments at SSU and SRJC, and that from these the Lord will produce many genuine seekers.
• Please pray for the core students to keep enjoying the church life, growing in life to be normal, functioning members in the Body.
• Please pray that the saints here will be richly supplied and strengthened to shepherd the student contacts.

God had surely answered our prayers and exceed even our prayers. The students themselves saw the importance of the College Meeting and picked up the charge to continue it, as some of the brothers starting to reserve the necessary room and food for the event. Praise the Lord for what You have done already, but Lord, bring many more sinners to the College Meeting on Monday that You can make them sons of God, to be the members of the Body of Christ, who are the materials to build up Your temple!

This was also an immediate result of the vital groups. Through visitations and praying together, the burden for the campus work was released to the students. Furthermore, the Lord’s Table was filled with more saints, and all the chairs available at the meeting hall were used(~32 seats). Hallelujah, we have not even seen the long-term effect yet, so pray that the vital groups be continued!

Following the last day of the trip, most of the members have safely returned from the trip, but a sister consecrated herself to stay five more days to follow-up on student contacts. Pray that her labor in the vine will yield many remaining fruits in Salt Lake City.

In addition, please pray for church in Salt Lake City in the view that it will be a strategic location for God to further His move in the localities in the surrounding mountain states:

• The student brothers and sisters would have the burden to gather once a week to coordinate with the local saints for the Lord’s work on University of Utah
• Through the vital groups, the saints will be vitalized and filled with Christ to shepherd the dormant ones back into the church life
• A full-time serving one would be able to serve there

Today marks the final day of our gospel trip. We finished our trip with a wonderful conference in Missoula. I was informed that this was the very first blending conference to ever occur in Montana ever since the Lord’s recovery came here about 40 years ago. The Lord really blessed this time with approximately 140-150 visiting saints representing about 12 localities from Montana and the northwest! Our brother Mark Raabe shared three messages from the previous Thanksgiving Day conference. The burden for this conference was to encourage the saints in Montana with more blending and also to let the saints in the northwest know the needs of increase and migration to the churches in Montana.

I really enjoyed from the messages that the Lord Himself is aspiring within us to go on to gain a more strengthened and stabilized church and for the saints to have a renewed and greatly enlarged experience of Christ. If we spend time in the Lord’s presence and allow Him to duplicate His heart in us, we will receive this same aspiration. But He doesn’t need us to necessarily do anything for Him. The materials of God’s building are just the Triune God Himself (1 Cor. 3:12) worked into our being. All God needs us to do is allow Him to make His home in our heart, giving Him permission to remove all negative things in our being and to build Himself into us. This will never happen if we don’t let Him grow in us. The growth equals the building, and God wants to grow! But this isn’t just for the local churches, this is for the universal Body of Christ. This is the view that we must have: our growth is not just for ourselves or even for our locality, but for the building of the entire Body of Christ. We can simply pray, “Lord, today I allow You to spread a little more into my being today. I let You make Your home more in my heart. Build Yourself into my being, not for my own spirituality or gain, but for Your universal Body, for Your dwelling place!”

We really hope and pray that the Lord was pleased with all the activities, prayers, gospel preaching, coordination, and blending that took place these last two weeks. We aren’t satisfied with just an outward work or increase; we believe the Lord built Himself more into the FTTA team and all the saints we visited. May the Lord gain His universal Body through Cheney, Missoula, all the localities that were at the conference, and even the whole earth! Come, Lord Jesus! Praise You, Lord!

A huge thank you to all the saints from Cheney, WA and Missoula, MT. Your hospitality was more than we could’ve asked for. We were shepherded in every single way: through your care, through our times of prayer together, and even by your living. You have all been inscribed on our hearts, and not in a superficial way. We were very privileged to have been more joined together with you in love and in the divine life. Thank you and may the Lord go on in all the saints.