SPEAKER_01 0:00

I am super excited to uh to tell you about something that's that's uh happening today. Um and I'm gonna invite a friend of mine, Ethan. It's a he's a new friend. If you come on up, Ethan. Um so I don't know how many of you were with us last Easter here at Point Communion Church. Some of you may be new, um, but if you were here last Easter, uh this is a guy named Ethan, uh, who none of you know, uh, I'm assuming. Uh, but let me tell you a little backstory. So at Easter, uh, we felt, as we were prayerfully preparing for last Easter, we felt like God was uh stirring in us, I felt like God was stirring in me uh to do something significant uh to just say, God, we believe that the resurrection is the greatest day in history. The day you came out of the grave, the day that you didn't just go to the cross and die, but you came out of the grave, you conquered sin and death. And so we want to give an offering, just a financial offering of thanksgiving and of praise and of worship to you, and bless somebody with that. And what I felt compelled, and the elders as we prayed, we felt compelled to do was to give money uh to help pay for a translation of scripture, specifically translation of the Bible into the new uh into a language for a people group uh in the world. And so I went on a website, the Seed Company, and uh some friends that I have have that that serve there, work there with this translation company, where they take the Bible and they translate it into different languages for people groups all over the world. People who don't have the language, uh don't have the scripture in their language. I was drawn to Southeast Asia because of my time in Indonesia, and specifically drawn to a people group called the Rakali people group. Now, the Rakali people group is it's a pseudonym that's actually um representative of a people group called the Karini people group. Am I saying that right? Now, here's what's what happened. This is amazing. You guys responded, and we graciously as a family generously gave to support the work of that New Testament translation, which by the way has been completed. Yeah, yeah, praise God. This right here is the Bible in this language, okay? Uh I got to sit at a coffee shop in North Austin, Summer Moon, because that's the Christian coffee shop, and and I got to um to look at a Bible app with the language, the Kareini language, the scripture in the Kareini language, and it just so happens that right after we gave that offering, you guys responded. I received an email from one of the leaders at the seed company. He said, I gotta tell you something that's crazy. But a group of people from this Kareini tribe, they moved to Austin. They're in Austin. And so totally random, like he said, this doesn't happen. But inevitably, like we had finally had the opportunity to meet and talk, and and now we are sitting here talking to some of the people who benefited from the work that we did. We had no idea we'd ever see him. We didn't know if we'd ever visit any of those things, and yet God has brought this about by his grace and his goodness to show us again how he is working miraculously supernaturally all over the world. So isn't that awesome? Um so I want to just really quickly ask, I told Ethan I wouldn't keep him long. His English is really amazing. He's a little bit conscious, self-conscious about it, but it's amazing. He does great. Uh but I want to just ask him a couple of questions and then we want to pray for them. Can we do that? So, Ethan, tell us just briefly a little bit about your people group um and how you uh got here to Austin.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

So uh Kurny Peaper, we came to America in 2010 uh without not knowing the language, the culture, uh anything. So we used to live in darkness. We did not know anything, we did not know who Jesus was, we didn't know who God is, we didn't know uh anything. So we came here, uh we were depressed because we we we have no hope, you know. We did we just live the way we wanted to live. And we thought that one day when we die, we would just you know go to the sky or go other the knee, uh other the water. That's all we know. We have no no future, we did not know our destination. But because because by the grace of God, because of your support, today we have fought ourselves, we have fought our destiny, destination. Whether you help, I don't know. Today we today we might live still live in the darkness. Today we might not know the truth. Because of your help. Now I can read the Bible in my native language so I can understand. Every so right now, every week we just meet from house to house to worship the Lord, uh, to come gathering together and to praise God. Uh at this moment we do not really have a place to worship. So I would like to ask you deeply ask you a prayer request. May you please pray for Korean people because God brought us here for a purpose. We we are not here by accidentally. I strongly believe that He has a purpose, He has a plan for me, and He has a plan for each of you in here. So my goal is one day I would like to go back to Korean state and share the gospel. I would like to help to to spread the word of God. But I I really I really need your help because there are thousands and thousands of Korean people out there who still live in the darkness and who have never ever heard the word the gospel. Even I myself and my my friend in here, when we first came to Austin, we didn't know anything. We heard the word of church, but we didn't know what church meant to us. But today Jesus rescues us. And today uh by the grace of God, I became I became to I came to know Jesus and I believe Jesus as my personal savior.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Well, we want to pray for these guys this morning. Uh I when I asked Ethan if he would be willing to come, he said, yes. Uh, can I bring some other people? And so on the left side of the room here, I'm not gonna make them stand, but uh there's there's a large group of of them here this morning, and would you just commit to praying for them? Um, that God would continue to use them. And very emotional about the thought. There's a whole group of people that live in a refugee camp on the Thai Burma border that have never heard the gospel, and that that God might raise them up to be able to go, that we can participate in supporting and encouraging them as they go back to tell those people the good news of Jesus. That's what this is all about. So let's pray. Father, I just um thank you so much for Ethan. I thank you for this Karini people group, and I thank you that you are a mirac miracle-working God who rescues people that brings them from darkness to light. Thank you that you saved Ethan, and you've saved so many of this crew here in Austin, and that you're working in them. Thank you so much that we even get to just see a glimpse of heaven today. We're reminded that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, as the nations of the world, people from every tribe and tongue, will gather around the throne of Jesus and say, You are worthy, Jesus, of everything. You are holy, you are awesome. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all eternity. Just we we thank you, God, for again the ways that you're working in Ethan's life. May you encourage him, may you strengthen him, and may you bless this people group even as they look for a place to gather with more uh believers. May uh you provide for them and may you show us how we can support them in the coming days. We pray us in your name, Jesus, amen.