Teamwork with a capital T!
"A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."
Ecclesiastes 4:12
Since our last update, it seems like teamwork has become the name of the game. Teamwork and networking have dominated the last couple of months!
Example 1
The photo at the top of the newsletter shows Marsha and I with an Afghan woman after she and her family had served us a tremendous Afghan dinner! But this picture only tells a small portion of the story! Teamwork is the story!
We met this sweet family at the end of October 2021 not long after their arrival in DFW. The family got somewhat lost in the refugee relief system, but fortunately they had relatives who had been in the US for 8 years and lived in the area. The family of 4 went to live with them in a very small apartment for a couple of months.
Here is where teamwork came into place:
- We worked with our home church, Providence Church Frisco, who provided weekly food deliveries for about 5 weeks to help defray some of the cost burdens of the hosting relatives (also Afghans).
- This church also helped by providing winter coats for the family.
- We worked with a good friend who provided a well-paying job for the father when he got his worker's permit and social security card.
- We have other friends who had networked with people who provided donations and a storage unit for furniture, kitchen items, etc. So, when the Afghan family was ready to move in mid-January 2022, we were able to completely furnish their apartment!
- Since the relief agencies were not going to be able to supply much aid, we worked with generous donors who provided funds to pay for three months' rent to help the family and allow them to save funds toward the purchase of a car.
- And throughout the process, the family heard the gospel and salvation testimonies and received a parallel gospel of Luke in English and Dari (their language).
Example 2 - Trauma Healing Training
On January 8, 2022, Fearless Love hosted a Trauma Healing Training at Providence Church. We teamed up with e3 staff members Steffoni Sharp and Lauri Rogers to conduct the all-day training. The training was well attended by 23 people in person with another 25 or so watching via live stream.
The great part was to see what took place afterwards. We received testimonies from some who had already begun using the training to open doors to the gospel. Still others have begun groups and created training opportunities with the materials to get more people equipped to reach out to the Afghan community. There are so many hurting Afghans - particularly the women and children. This is a great tool to heal hearts and bring them to Jesus!
Example 3 - Storytelling
Fearless Love team member, Gretchen Palmquist, hosted a breakfast with a small group from Trinity Bible Church on Feb. 19 where she had Jay come and share storytelling experiences over the years with local Muslim refugees.and Afghans abroad. Gretchen has a keen interest in Bible storytelling and had planted seeds of storytelling with the church prior to Jay's sharing. It was a wonderful time of fellowship - full of laughs, lots of questions and of course many stories. They are now excited about storytelling as a means of sharing the gospel and discipleship. Praise God that some of the church members now want to join the Fearless Love team for outreaches too!
Example 4 - Team Member Networking
Valued Fearless Love team member, Lucy Allen, who epitomizes teamwork and networking better than almost anyone we know connected with some friends from a local Christian school and their American Heritage girls.
So, what happened? This group went a couple of times last week after school to visit with the children and moms. Along the way, they brought clothing, all kinds of games (jump ropes, chalk for sidewalk art, etc.), bikes, kites and some food too. The pictures below really tell the story! What a joy to see the smiles on the kids' faces and to see Jesus' followers reaching out in love to our Afghan neighbors!
Update - Afghan Jesus Followers
We continue to work with the Afghan Jesus followers both within Afghanistan and in a humanitarian center outside the country. The original 5 families are still being ministered to via secure networks, and one additional family has recently been added to that list! Please pray for them, as some of them are moving about to stay away from the Taliban, and some family members have been suffering from malnutrition too. A huge praise is that our original Afghan Jesus follower has led 12 more Afghans to Jesus, as Afghan Muslims continue to leave Islam.
We also have been using funds provided by generous donors set aside specifically for Afghan relief to help some families with food. It is complicated, but we are able to get funds to them. The winter in Afghanistan has been most difficult for the whole country. Some of these people are not Jesus followers yet, but they are hearing about Him along the way!
We so value your financial support to this ministry to Muslims locally and abroad. We are incredibly grateful! Thank you! And as you can see after reading this newsletter, prayers are critically needed! Please pray for the local work and the work abroad in Afghanistan too.
Dream so big only Jesus can make it happen!
Jay & Marsha Crenshaw
e3 Partners
Strategy Coordinators MECANA/USA
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