Villages, Hula Hoops, Jesus

Hi friends! We are almost 2 weeks into our outreach here in Georgia. We are staying in a little Muslim village just on the edge of Tbilisi; where the paved road, gas, and city water end. It is a very interesting to see the village life. We have been doing many different ministries. Here we have helped with the Kids club that our hosts run each week for the village kids. I was thrilled to find supplies to make hula hoops here and I got to share them with the kids Friday! I used red, black and white on the hoops to explain our sin, Jesus blood that covers our sin and makes us white as snow. Then we played games,  they loved it and so did I! It was so sweet to finally see my vision for hula hoops happening, praise God! I can't wait to see how He continues to use this ministry.

We visited a family in an isolated village who take care of their little fields, animals, and of course with traditional hospitality served us homemade bread, cheese, cake and coffee. One of the girls got to share her testimony and we sang Jesus songs with the kids. There is no church in that town. We also did a program with a preschool there. Our team has also visited some churches and been able to share testimonies and Evan does worship. One church we visited was in a Muslim village and the church was so full of joy! We were encouraged, but even cooler God gave us words and vision for the church that was confirmation and encouragement for them. We also visited another YWAM ministry house in a YWAM village and met the YWAM outreach team from Azerbaijan. We hiked up to an ancient church (no longer used and no other churches here) overlooking many miles all around. Together we praised God and proclaimed God's kingdom over the land. It was really neat. We had fellowship with the team there and Evan finally had guys to play soccer with!

A really ancient church foundation

I am thankful that we're also doing ministry in the city. We're helping a street kids ministry with Muslim children. Their families send them out to beg everyday. This ministry brings the kids in every afternoon and plays, does a Bible story, teaches them reading, writing, math, and feeds them. We are also doing street evangelism. Yesterday we had a good lesson. Our team missed one of our scheduled ministries and we had no other plan. We started to pray and Evan had the idea to make a sign that said Come for Prayer. We went to a bus stop, Evan played guitar and we held the sign. Some people came and we got to share about Jesus and pray. It was so encouraging that the Lord still had a plan for us even when we messed up and He gave us so much joy after that! Here is an ancient castle overlooking Tbilisi where we prayed for the city.

 
Our team has also been focused a lot on getting visas for Israel. Two of the girls applied for their visas today. Our team has faced a lot of struggle and attack regarding this and some other things. It really feels like we've been on the front line of attack here. We are praying for the impossible to be possible. We need your prayers during this time and are so grateful for them! God has been speaking to us and giving us His strength each day to move forward. There are challenges, but we are learning so much and know it is preparing us for the future. It is most important to keep our focus always on Him and His purpose: to know and glorify Him. We will be back to Indiana/Charleston in June and we look forward to seeing many of you then! We love you all.

Blessings,
Alicia

What's next for the Adams?

Wow where can I start!? Its been a busy few weeks around here! Last weekend we went to a celebration to end the month long Women's month here. We enjoyed traditional Armenian dancing. And Sunday our team did a program at the church for Easter. Monday we celebrated my birthday, 25!! It was a really joyful day with the team eating delicious grilled chicken (a treat) and homemade brownies. God gave me 2 special gifts, the tulips bloomed and He multiplied the brownies! :) Thank you Jesus and thank you to my wonderful hubby for planning a special day! Our teacher and his family came from YWAM Georgia to teach us about studying the Bible. Our team has been praying and meeting, working through some difficult issues, and preparing for our time of outreach. Really praying for unity, passion, and God's great love to fill the 5 of us during this time! Oh and Evan will be assistant staff to our leader so pray for his wisdom and discernment. One student will stay in Armenia for outreach, and one student went to Africa for hers!

We will stay in Georgia for 3 weeks in a Muslim village on the edge of the capital. We will work with street kids in the city, do a kids club for the village kids, and see where else God leads us! We plan to go to Israel from there! We are still working on making contacts and plans there. We are expecting a miracle soon because our team only has enough money for Georgia, none for plane tickets or anything; and 2 girls need visas. Please join us in praying that once again God will make the impossible possible! We are so excited to see what He will do, He is so big and mighty and His ways are much higher than ours! I think we're off to a good start; on our jam packed bus ride to Yerevan today we were able to share about Jesus with one woman and pray for her, then the 3 women next to her also wanted us to pray for healing! Sooo cool :)

Now here is another big UPDATE: We have decide our post DTS plans. We will return to Chicago June 10 then to Charleston a little later. We will spend all of July in Charleston! August we will return to Armenia for the 2 week YWAM DNA conference, led by the founders of YWAM. In September we will begin the YWAM School of Frontier Missions for 3 months. This will teach us about how to go into places where the Gospel has not been preached and there is no church. To reach the unreached. And there are billions of people around the world who have never heard about Jesus! We will learn how to study language, plant churches, study about Islam, etc. An outreach time follows where we can discern where God wants us to go. God's adventures are so much cooler than anything we could come up with!

So I just want to do a little recap of our time in Kapan. After I last wrote we had a wonderful joyful team from Norway/Latvia join us and teach about church planting/evangelism. It was such a good time of fellowship for us. Their radical faith and holistic strategy are inspiring. It brought back many joyful memories of my River Church family! The next week we learned about worldview and Old Testament. Our views of the world can be so inaccurate its important to be teachable and always thinking for ourselves, seek the Truth, not just what a professor or pastor tells you. So we could both say so many things we have learned during this time and many things Jesus has changed in our lives. Maybe I will save that for another blog post. But I will say that our lives have been changed, we have more freedom in Christ, our identity in Him and His authority has grown, our hearts have been healed from wounds and sin, and we have a desire to see Him more and more everywhere! It has not all been easy, but it is all so worth it!

We love you all so much. We could not be here without you. Your prayers and support make you as much a part of this team as we are! Truly this is the body of Christ in action, working together to reach the world with His great Name! It is all such a huge blessing to us and we are so grateful for you all! Again please join us with your prayers for our outreach. Our team thanks you!

Much love and blessings,
Alicia
My birthday tulips!

 My birthday lunch :)

 Homemade brownies yum

 Our Armenian church on Easter

 Armenia Easter food