Dear Family and Friends:

In March, we learned that Emily, like Luke, has asthma. Thankfully, it’s under control with a daily dose of an inhaler. But in June we learned she also has an eye condition called amblyopia. If a child has a significant difference in vision quality from one eye to the next, the brain has a tendency to essentially ignore input from that eye and develop abnormally in the visual system because of it.

We recently took a quick trip to Aiken to visit Dr. Jonathan Tsai, a dedicated Christian ophthalmologist there who recommended a program of treatment for her. We greatly appreciate your prayers for her, as it will require her to patiently endure extended periods of time with a patch over her good eye. This practice stimulates the visual center corresponding to the affected eye. Emily is very mature for her age, (7), but of course this will be quite a test. As I write this, she has worn a patch for her first full day.

Declaring our willingness to follow God’s call on our life placed us in the position of relying completely on Him. And He is faithful! It has been quite some time since we calculated our budgetary requirements at our New Staff Training. Housing in the Orlando Metro area has probably nearly doubled in that time, unexpected medical expenses for Luke and Emily have both surfaced for the first time during that time, gasoline and insurance costs have also sharply increased, (as they have for you), and several of the ministry partners we gained over the past year have unexpectedly left our team since we reported in February. Yet the Lord has continued to meet our needs through the faithfulness of those He has called to our team. It’s a wonderful example of God’s providence to us and our children. Thank you for allowing yourself being used by the Lord in this way. It so illustrates the Church as His body to us.

Please continue to pray for us! Just as following God’s call was a free-fall into His provision, it was also an overt act of aggression against a very real enemy. Our team’s Thursday staff devotional described it as being similar to “showing up at the al-Qaeda training camp with an ‘I love the USA’ t-shirt.” We wouldn’t flatter ourselves that we would even show up on the radar—but we have joined a division of Campus Crusade for Christ that God has been pleased to use in incredible ways. That puts us right in the crosshairs; so we need your committed prayers just as we need your committed support, and we thank you for both!

In addition to continued development on an updated mini-CD-ROM project I mentioned last time, (which has ballooned from 27 to 34 languages), we are involved in an exciting small group chat discipleship we asked you to pray for last month. Natalie from New York, one of the new Christians in the group, led her mom and sister to Christ last week! Your prayers and support helped make that possible! Our ministry response center also registered an unprecedented 2,000 decisions for Christ each day during the release of the “Da Vinci Code” film

Here are some responses from individuals I counseled in the Response Center recently:

From the United Arab Emirates: “I cannot thank you enough for your prayers for my niece early recovery. [From Dengue Fever] I thank & praise God for not letting us down, My niece is out of danger now. I Praise the Lord for his love and mercy.

From Syria: “I’m iraqi but i living in syria i need your help im moslem but i want be christian can you help me i will thanks God bless you my Email (he enclosed) i will waitting for your message” After hearing the Gospel from me, he writes back, “if [I] become christian can i get refuge?”

From Arkansas: “I just prayed to receive Christ. I need to know how to continue. Prayer, I think, is a good place to start…”

From India: “Who is Yasu? [Jesus]”

From the Philippines: ”I am a sinner, I repent all my mistakes, I asked forgiveness to God through my personal prayers, could it be forgiven by God?”

Love, in Christ

Mike and Cindy

”One Day Closer” (Romans 13:11)
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