Mission Partner Update - Paul & Amy Mayer, April 2024

As you may remember from previous Mayer Minutes, one of the things Amy does with her disciples is brainstorm their "Top 5" - five friends who are far from God that they want to pray for. They write their friends' names on index cards and add specific Bible verses to pray for them. The heart behind. this is to remember that it's the Holy Spirit who draws people to Jesus, and we want to intentionally ask Him to do that. For two years, Amy and Daisie (one of her disciples) prayed for Daisia's friend Bri. Daisia also asked God for opportunities to talk with Bri about Him. He provided many. And after two years of prayer and encouragement from Daisia, last spring Bri gave her life to Jesus! She joined Amy's small group the fall and in January asked if Amy would begin discipling her.

The story continues ...
Bri decided to join KSU Cru's spring break trip, even though she knew they'd spend time initiating spiritual conversations with people on the beach, which sounded scary to her. When the afternoon arrived, Bri and Amy paired up. Little did they know they were about to experience a conversation that was OBVIOUSLY orchestrated by God ... As they scanned the beach, they decided to initiate with the only person they saw sitting by herself -a 26-year-old named Havva. Three years ago Havva moved to Panama City Beach from her hometown in Turkey. Her English was perfect. They asked if they could do a five-question spiritual interest survey with her. "Yes, Yes! I think about God all the time! Please sit down! Before Bri even started asking the survey questions, Hawa said, "I think God brought you to me!" We couldn't agree more. They had a great conversation while going through the survey. When they got to the last question, "On a scale from 1-10, how interested are you in knowing God personally?" Havva answered, "10 ... no, 100!" From there, they walked through the Gospel using the Knowing God Personally booklet, pausing along the way to answer Havva's questions and to point out key differences between Christianity and Islam. She was a nominal Muslim and had already had some good exposure to Christianity. When Amy asked if she'd like to give her life to Jesus, Havva said "Yes! Christianity makes the most sense."  It was so moving to hear Havva's heartfelt prayer. Afterward, she gave Amy and Bri a huge hug. When they talked about God being their common Father, she grabbed their hands and said, "Yes, we are sisters!" What a blessing that Bri, a young disciple in Jesus, could be a part of watching Him bring New Life to another sister!

They exchanged contact information and let Hawa know about a great church in the
area that she could visit. Please pray with us that Havva would quickly get connected to a community of believers and continue to grow in her faith!