Rejoice, Pray and Give Thanks

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV

Happy Autumn everyone! We are settled in here, back in southern California. We had a good trip from Montana to Seattle to Yorba Linda, but are glad to not have to drive for a while. Here is what has happened since our last update. We had the opportunity to meet Pastor Rob Douglass in Seattle in early September. We interviewed a pastor and former missionary to Belize for Missions Equip. It was a great experience and we learned a lot as a ministry on how our on-location video shoots will look in the future.

Recording an interview with Pastor Joel Meyer of Calvary Chapel Edmunds (WA).

We then drove down the west coast making a stop in Portland to see family and arrived in Orange County mid-September. We were praying about a place to stay and a job for Alishia before we arrived and the Lord answered our prayers perfectly. We were blessed to stay with friends until a place became available to us, and it checks all the boxes that we were looking for. Every time that we have returned to California the Lord has provided for us with housing and employment, it has built our faith and allowed us to focus more on our training and less on the cares of the world.

Alishia giving tours of the Missions Equip studio.

On September 18 we celebrated twenty-five years of ministry for Rob and Heidi Douglass as well as hosting an open house for the new Ends of the Earth office/Missions Equip studio. It was a night of worship as we thanked the Lord for all that we had seem Him do, over the last quarter century for those who have been here from the beginning and the last few years for us. Less than a year ago we would be looking at a racquetball court used for storage. Today it is a fully functioning office, recording studio and fellowship café, and it was done for less than a tenth of the expected budget. What a work of God this project has been!

The female interns are in a discipleship group with some ladies from the church.

We have also started our third year of training as interns at Saving Grace World Missions. We have cross cultural studies and specific outreach to the people groups we’re called to this year as well as the homiletics and church planting classes and book study groups we had last year. We’re also getting opportunities to lead midweek small groups for the church as well as three-to-four-person growth groups, which help us develop our discipleship skills. I’ll be sharing more about what we’re doing in the internship in the coming months.

Part of our small group enjoying a meal together.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. We love you and would love to connect with you if you’d like. Please reach out with any prayer requests or just to chat.

Prayer Requests:

  • For wisdom in the timing of our vision trip to Japan, and that the current Japanese regulations (they don’t currently require vaccinations) would remain in place.
  • For Alishia to have the Lord’s supernatural strength and energy as she balances work, the internship and a bible study that she teaches on Saturday morning.
  • For continued provision for the Root family.