Kayla Balangue

After the longest flight of our summer teams, the Central Asia team has made it back home! They are ready for good showers, fresh fruits & veggies, and some well deserved rest! Please pray that the team would remain healthy or regain health as they come back to the US and that they would be able to seek out and apply all that God has to teach them about their experience in Central Asia.

Make sure to ask a team member about their experience and how you can be praying for them specifically!

Hola! (From Cass)

We started off our Tuesday with a great team Devo led by our very own Josh and then we had a time of worship together. As we wrapped up our much needed morning team time together, our field worker came over and briefed us on our schedule for the week. While he was talking to us he let us know that there were a few absolute musts for us to try before going home at the end of the week. One of those things was having lunch at a beautiful restaurant called Tartin. So, after our briefing we all headed to Tartin to have a team brunch. Our field worker was right! It was absolutely stunning and the food was beautiful and delicious.

After our brunch, Tabitha, Emily, Hannah, and Alyssa headed to the Dushanbe mall where they were able to make another contact that they will hopefully be able to follow up with before the end of the week! While they were doing this, Josh and Dom had a meeting with another fieldworker to learn the ins and outs of business in the context of the ministry here. Cass and Deb headed to a Museum of Antiquities and saw some really cool artifacts before going to a prayer set where they interceded for University Students here and around the world.

After that prayer set was done we began prepping for the next prayer set to intercede for Afghans and it began to thunder and rain hard and the power went out with a pop! Just then, the rest of the team arrived to the prayer room and we proceeded to do the prayer set with just the lighting from the windows. Emily, Alyssa, and Josh had prepped a worship set for the third session in prayer and worship. And the power being out called for a quick change of plans. Instead of playing the bass, Josh played the cajón, the two girls lead the vocals and our field worker helped out by playing the acoustic guitar. It was a beautiful time of worship and a good reminder that nothing can get in the way of offering our worship to the Lord.

After the set we headed out to have a team dinner at Bella’s which is an amazing pizzeria owned by M’s serving here. We had delicious food and great conversation. Then to end the night, our field worker invited us over for a bonfire. We all sat by the fire, laughed and shared stories, the kids of other field workers that were there loved playing with Tabitha and Hannah, and it was just an overall great time of fellowship.

Please keep us in prayer as we aim to finish out this final week strong and we can wait to see and hug our loved ones back home!

To didan!

If you would like to share your prayer support with this team, please feel free to use THIS FORM and we will share your encouragement with them.

Assalom! *w/ right hand over heart*

We hope all is well back home!!! We’ve started our last week here strong 🙂 Yesterday (Monday) our day began with a Devo by Dominic and a time a worship led by Emily. We then headed to our fieldworker’s gathering place to worship with locals and everyone there shared highs and low from last week. Next, we had another language lesson and learned fruits, animals, and shopping lingo. It was a funny time with word games to help us learn. We all had a laugh attack when I (Deb) wasn’t able to say Lablabu, beet in this language… it’s pronounced Lah-blah-boo, instead, La-blah-blue kept coming out.

Thankfully, Tabitha and Hannah had the chance to visit a local school. They toured this international school with one of our fieldworkers and even pet a hedge hog, a favorite in the classrooms. While they had fun at school, the rest of us hit up one of our favorite coffee shops where Josh met up with a fieldworker to talk about the business side of this organization. And he was able to make friends with a local waiter.

Most of the gals headed to their last fitting for their Kurtas, done by a local business woman. They can’t wait to see the final product!! Later that evening, Josh, Alyssa, and Emily were able to go practice for their worship set today at a secured spot in the city where Christians gather for prayer and worship. Such an honor!

And unfortunately, we had another team member fall victim to a stomach bug. Poor Cass had a rough day trying to hold back from getting sick, even to the point of actively swallowing her own vomit Yuck!! Should we give her an award or what?

Praise the Lord for all He’s doing here and the work He’s so proud of! We’re very thankful to see a small piece of what’s in the works.

Thank you for your prayers!! Please continue praying for health, safety, and peace.

To didan!!! <3

If you would like to share your prayer support with this team, please feel free to use THIS FORM and we will share your encouragement with them.

Hi! From the other half of the team! We started our weekend with worship with the rest of the team then split off. We took taxis and some of our fieldworkers cars and rode 2 1/2 hrs on a lot of scary roads to a parking lot in the middle of nowhere. Emily was in a taxi where the driver was used to the crazy roads so he drove fast. In Emily’s words “he was zooming!” We then had to walk from the parking lot to our campsite with our heavy backpacking bags on. It was a challenge and some of us definitely took a few breaks to finally get there. We then set up tents and ate instant ramen.

The next day 3 of us (Josh, Emily, and Tabitha) went on a challenging hike up to the lake. It was a 2,500 ft altitude increase from our previous 8,500 altitude. So we were struggling!! The view was totally worth it though and we got to see the snow and frozen lake at the top!

While we did this Cass and Alyssa went on a “walk” that ended up being more of a hike around the lake then soaked their feet in the lake after. It was during this time they sadly got really crispy. Some of our team stayed up late enough that night to enjoy the beautiful clear sky of stars that night!

Then we headed out the next morning. Alyssa was very happy about all the goats, sheep, donkey and cows we saw on our way back. She even tried to pet them through the car window. We were happy to be reunited with our shower and our team when we got back!!

To close the weekend we had a movie night tonight with some of our field workers and another short term team. It was a very intentional film about the underground church in Iran and how they’re growing amidst the persecution they face. It was very eye opening seeing the things they’re doing in Iran and how it’s connecting to the things that our field workers are doing here in country. After the movie we had good time to debrief what we watched and prayed over the ministry in Iran and the other Persian countries.
Called: Sheep Among Wolves 10/10 recommend it’s free on YouTube!

If you would like to share your prayer support with this team, please feel free to use THIS FORM and we will share your encouragement with them.

Thursday:
We started the morning off with worship and prayer time in a place called the Upper Room in the city. The Upper Room’s service was done local style (everyone sitting on ground) and included worship and praying scripture over the city and villages around the area.

Next, the team split up to go around the city to meet people. Josh and Dominic met a young local man, walked four miles and spoke two hours with him, eventually leading to a deep conversation about Jesus and the gospel. After that, the two boys became friends with their taxi driver and got invited to eat a national local dish with him.
Girls had lunch at the Moose Coffee (a local favorite) Then went shopping for the back packing trip and items for the house and met some great people along the way.

Lastly, for dinner we decided to make a simple dish of Chicken Nuggets and Rice and debrief with our fieldworker.

Friday:
This morning Deb, Dominic and Hannah were not feeling 100%. As advised by their field workers, they decided to stay back from the Friday activities and backpacking weekend. They had a restful day and are in full recovery.

The rest team went back to the upper room for more prayer and worship. After that, they pulled into cars and headed up the mountains for a full backpacking experience. We will be giving a full update once they return back.

Saturday:
Us in the city had a restful morning and went to grab bread from the local “bread hovel” that makes the best “non” in the neighborhood.

We were then invited to a local house church service by one of the field workers. This house church was filled with prayer, worship through music, reading of the scripture, and small group discussions.

After church, we went to a popular cafe recommended by our fieldworkers. Dom and Hannah order a “burrito” that was definitely just a wrap they served with sour cream and salsa.

Finally, we needed to make a trip to the grocery store for a few items and the workers there were the most helpful people we have encountered yet. Through the use of broken English and lots of Google Translate, we were able to get almost everything on the list! ( a really hard challenge so far) they even bagged our groceries, haled a taxi for us, and wanted to take us to a second store to help us find the rest of the items on our list.

We are taking the evening to rest, but are all in good health and excited to hear about the adventure the rest of our team has been on.

If you would like to share your prayer support with this team, please feel free to use THIS FORM and we will share your encouragement with them.