Update / Support Letter

Hey Everyone,

Here is my long overdue update letter! Every once in a while I will be posting my update/support letters on my blog as this is much easier than sending it to everyone individually. So here we go...

Life in New Zealand is going AWESOME! Life at Gideon's Fields (the base where I'm staying) continues to be a huge blessing! As I type this I'm sitting in the living room surrounded by the sound of happy voices, a beautiful french conversation between one of the students and her friend back home and the sound and warmth of the fire in the fire place. I am so blessed!

This past week has been incredible. Dave Cole was our speaker during our lectures and it was amazing! Every speaker we've had for our lectures has been incredible! The Lord has moved in power and many people have been set free, healed and some have re-committed their lives to Christ. It's such a privilege being here! The Lord has really been highlighting some issues in my heart that He wants to heal and I'm so excited for all that He's going to do! He is faithful to complete the work that He has started in me.

This Friday I had the most amazing honour of being a part of leading two young men to Jesus. I have done a fair bit of evangelism outreaches but I've never actually been there when someone who has not believed in God turns to God and accepts Jesus as their personal Savior. What a privilege! We did an outreach with Street Help - a mission organization that hands out meat pies and Milo (like hot chocolate) to young people on the streets on Friday nights. We had stopped to ask three young ladies if they wanted some meat pies when 6 young guys approached our our vehicle in hopes of getting their hands on some meat pies :) We ended up speaking to them for about an hour! Part way through our conversation I really felt the Lord speak to me about one of the young guys named Jordan. He said he had been turning to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain from his childhood. As I was praying silently that the Lord would speak to me about His heart for Jordan, I felt like He gave me the passage in Isaiah 61. I really felt the Lord's desire to give Jordan beauty for his ashes and joy for his mourning. In exchange for his pain the Lord wanted to give Jordan joy, hope and beauty. In a moment of boldness I stepped towards Jordan and told him that I believed the Lord wanted to heal His heart from the pain of the past and asked him if he wanted to accept Jesus into his heart. He said YES! His intoxicated buddy also wanted to accept Jesus into his heart even after I explained to him that this was a commitment that was going to change his life. What an amazing blessing it was leading these two young men in a prayer of repentance. They repented for their sin and accepted Jesus as their Savior! I felt so weak and I honestly did not know what to say and yet the Holy Spirit moved in power and two young men became a part of the family of God! THANK YOU JESUS! We ended up running into these young men about half an hour later and they were beaming with joy! I am believing for many, many more salvation's while in New Zealand and while I'm on outreach!

Speaking of outreach... I will be going to Tahiti, the Cook Islands and different parts of New Zealand for my outreach! My team and I leave in the middle of October to go to these Islands and minister to the people there. We don't have a specific agenda or plan of what we'll be doing but we've got some ideas. We're hoping to minister to the poor, to children in orphanages and to prostitutes. Our heart is to preach the gospel and see many people set free! I am so excited about all that God is going to do on outreach. I am so excited to squish some brown babies!! I had originally thought I would be going to South East Asia but when I arrived in Tauranga I found out that some of our outreach locations had changed. As I prayed about where I was to go I really felt like the Lord told me to stay in the South Pacific. At first I was a little disappointed but now I am so excited to see all that the Lord is going to do! I feel so much peace about being on this team!

Well, this update/support letter is getting long and I'm running out of time before "lights out" so I'm gonna wrap this up with some thank you's, prayer requests and praise reports!

THANK YOU!!
*THANK YOU to everyone who has supported me in prayer! I have felt your prayers and there has been SO MUCH grace in this transition! I am forever thankful for all of your prayers!
*THANK YOU to everyone who has supported me financially! This mission's opportunity would not have been possible without your support! May the Lord bless you abundantly for your generous hearts!
*THANK YOU for your friendship! I am so blessed to know such amazing people! The Lord has used you all powerfully in my life and I am so thankful!

Praise Reports:
*I was able to pay off all of my lecture and outreach fees today!! This is HUGE!
*Our team took an "extravagant offering" on Friday and between 30 poor 18-32 year old's (most of whom are 18-20) we gave almost $10,000.00!! All of us asked the Lord what we should give and then we gave :) We took up an offering for the people who are in the DTS but don't have all of their finances yet. We had 3 buckets to give to: General, Staff and Individuals. We also took up an offering for the poor. It was fantastic! We gave $950.00 to the poor and about $8500.00 to each other. What an amazing way to support each other and to loosen our hold on money.

Here are some prayer requests:
*Continued grace for living in community. It's been amazing so far!
*Continued growth in the friendships I am making in and out of the DTS.
*Continued grace to be away from friends and family. I have some intense moments of missing my friends and family back home and yet there has been a lot of grace!
*Continued financial provision as I live by faith. The Lord has miraculously provided the money for my outreach and I am SO BLESSED! I still need continued financial provision and I am confident the Lord will provide. If you are interested in partnering with me financially, please email me at steph.reimer@gmail.com.

Many blessings & love to all of you!
Stephanie