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