Preschool Team in Africa/Student Team in Tucson

Please be praying this week for Angela Spencer, Sumer Yates, and Alicia Jordan as they go to minister to orphans in Ethiopia and Uganda. One of the many organizations they will be working with over the next week and a half includes Amazima Ministries and Katie Davis. Katie Davis is a 21 year old Brentwood girl and started Amazima Ministries just a couple years ago. I'm attaching a link to her blog because it's just a good read when you have some time...

http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/2009/08/it-is-my-16th-birthday-and-i-am-eating.html

Please also be praying for our Tucson Team led by Pastor TJ and Pastor Jason. TJ and Jason will be working with Grace Fellowship in Tucson this week to put together several outreach opportunities centered around reaching students in the Vail, AZ area. Please pray especially for TJ as he gets to share in the open air in Tucson on New Year's Eve at a block party being put together by our team!

Updates hopefully coming on both of these teams this week!

Update from the Other Side...

An article from Branden and Annie...

As the fall semester is coming to an end here in (our city) we are remembering all the conversations and new students we have met. This past semester our team held seven classes a week ranging from twenty to thirty students in each class; so just this semester alone our team met about two hundred new students. Looking forward into next semester, we have examined what did or didn’t work well as we tried to get deeper into the lives of the students. One thing we are very thankful for today is that the Korean couple on our team saw a (national) university girl make a decision to follow Christ. It has encouraged us greatly that the Lord is moving here; we
need to just keep proclaiming and leave the results up to him.

Also, about two months ago I met a (national) guy and spent a few days getting to know
him. What made our friendship so unique is even in this far away land his sister is doing a workstudy abroad in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, of all places. During those days I spent with him he was very interested in what I was doing here and why I seemed so happy. This opened a door
for me to share my personal testimony about how God met me and changed my life on those
railroad tracks one summer in Iowa. He works at an internet club where lots of students go because they don’t have computers in their homes like we do. I stopped by there one Friday to see if I could take him to lunch, unfortunately, he could not leave because there was no one to watch the store. In this culture anytime you leave someone they always walk you out, though, and as we were departing on the street he looked at me and said, “Branden, I have been thinking a lot about what you said about your life and I think I might want to accept this Jesus.” I stood shocked and filled with excitement, but not surprised. I told him I wanted to talk more about this with him and that what he was considering is very important. Even though Annie and I's primary focus right now is to learn language so we can explain things clearly in their native tongue when given the opportunity, it is exciting to know that we are and will
be used when we yield ourselves to investing in
peoples’ lives.

Brandon and Annie,

Central Asia

Update from new Church Plant in Vail, AZ

Greetings from Sunny Vail, AZ!

Its another beautiful day in Southern AZ! The weather is optimal for me! Cool brisk days (upper 50's...low 60's) and crisp cold nights! When you go outside and look to the Northeast, you can see the snow which is now covering the top of Mt Lemmon....beautiful! God's creation shouts His praise here in the desert. Everywhere I look around I'm reminded of Psalm 65: 8, "They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs; You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy."

The sad reality is that many in my city see the wonder and beauty in creation and worship the creation instead of the Creator to which it points. But God is good! And He is granting His favor to us. We continue to see lives changing for His glory. Last Sunday we had just around 90 in attendance at Grace Fellowship...many of which were brand new faces...we continue to see new people every Sunday....its very exciting!

We will be hosting our second "Discovering Grace" class this Sunday for prospective members. Please pray the God would grant direction in the lives of many who are contemplating and praying about making Grace Fellowship their home.

I have to share w/ you what God is doing in J.T.'s life and ministry through Grace Fellowship. As most of you know, Jonathan Taylor (J.T.) has joined us as our worship leader. He is also involved in working with our youth. The Lord has opened a door for J.T. to volunteer coach Freshman Basketball at Cienega H.S., where I coach Freshman football. The other day, they had to travel two hours to Phoenix for a game. After the Freshman game, while watching the varsity, J.T. was looking through some of his discipleship material. A player on the Jr. Varsity was sitting nearby and began to inquire.....Long story short - J.T. had the chance to share the gospel, not only w/ that student, but, with many sitting around listening. There was a group of people in the stands totally oblivious to the game going on - they were honed in on J.T. The following day, upon the request of the player J.T. witnessed to, J.T. gave a Bible, a copy of the Passion Of Christ, and some other materials for the student to read. I believe that God is starting something among the b'ball team...they are beginning to see something in J.T....wouldn't it be awesome to see a move of God happen in Vail that begins in the local public school? Please pray for this b'ball player who is really eager to hear more about Jesus!

Speaking of J.T., we are rejoicing w/ J.T. who today received in the mail from an anonymous friend a brand new lap top computer. It was a real need and it is so cool to watch God do His thing! Whoever you are...if you get this...Thank You!

God is good! He is worthy to be praised! Please pray for the hearts of the people of Tucson/Vail, AZ, that there may be more praise given to His name here!

Blessings,

Steve Chamblee

http://www.gracefellowshipaz.org/

TSC Christmas Missions Offering

Please let everyone know that through the month of December we will be collecting our annual Christmas Missions Offering for the International Mission Board, the organization we support that facilitates the work of over 5,000 missionaries around the globe! Their main purpose is to reach those who have never heard, engaging unreached people groups around the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Every penny given to this offering will be used to support Southern Baptist missionaries as they share the Gospel overseas. This one-time offering represents over 50 percent of the International Mission Board’s total income.

One such missionary that is supported by this offering is Pete Thoni, who is currently serving a two-year term in South Asia. Pete gave his life to Jesus through the TSC student ministry, surrendered to ministry here at TSC, and is now working to reach unreached people groups in South Asia with the love of Jesus Christ. This annual Christmas offering is what supports Pete’s ministry. Another missionary family that is supported is my sister’s family, who have been serving among an unreached people group in Southeast Asia for over a year and a half now. I watched my sister, her husband, and their two precious kids sell their home, give up everything they had, and move to the other side of the world with the clothes on their backs and three suitcases a piece. TSC will partner with them this next year on three mission trips, but it is also our financial giving that makes their ministry to the unreached possible.

It is IMB missionaries just like these all over the world today that started 24,650 brand new churches in 2009, and baptized over 500,000 new believers. That’s an average of 100 new believers per missionary! Sadly, in 2009, a net loss of 300 missionaries had to come home without being replaced because churches like ours did not help the International Mission Board reach its financial goals last year. For the first time in the history of this offering, there are now more missionaries waiting to go than there have been funds to send them.

This Christmas, what will you give so that our missionaries can stay in place to reach those who are missing out on knowing Jesus? It is our mission at Thompson Station Church to reach one more people group with the Gospel of Jesus through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. As many of us budget to buy gifts for friends and family this Christmas, what gift will you give that others may know the love of Jesus in 2010? May we learn to give to the world as God has so richly blessed us, as TSC gives outside of itself for this great cause, that one day all nations might come to know Him!

For more information about this worldwide missions organization and offering, go to: http://www.imb.org/