PIU Yap Ministry Team Update

Here is another update from PIU Yap team student leader Josh Ladd. He uploaded this one to Facebook this morning.  The pictures I snatched from team member Grace Neth’s Yap picture album on her Facebook page….

 

Hello everyone. Just to give another update from our trip: We have now finished the youth retreat and are doing the Vacation Bible school now in three different villages each day from 9:00AM to noon.

  Tonight was an awesome night for our team. We got to have a fellowship with the youth from the youth retreat last week who made recommitments to follow Christ as well as those who committed for the first time. We broke up into small groups after Pastor Asael shared for a bit. These small groups were amazing. I did not get to experience all of the groups, but in our 18 and older guys group we had some amazing testimonies of guys who are trying to follow Christ, but are already have struggles from temptations and friends and family. It was awesome to see guys open up and share despite being from different villages, classes, and islands. This is a huge step for these guys and something truly amazing to see.

It is very hard to think that our team will be in Guam in only one week from today. These past 4 weeks have flown by so fast. We are really going to miss the youth who are growing so much right in front of our eyes. However, our ministry is far from over here in Yap. We will still continue VBS until Saturday this week. We will also be sharing at Tomil Bible study again tomorrow as well as possibly having a village outreach ministry this Saturday night to the outer islanders in Yap.

Please continue to pray for our team:

1. Continue to pray for unity for our team and strength so that we can finish out our trip strong. We are very drained and tired from the week long youth retreat and have not been able to get much rest lately.
2. Please also pray for the youth here. They need to help each other. Here's what I mean - the youth leaders here can only do so much. When the youth are in the villages under peer pressure and struggles they are going to need to come together as God's people outside of only youth group to support each other. Pray that the Holy Spirit will raise up leaders among the youth themselves so that they will bring "youth group" everywhere they go. It is so hard for the young people here to live for Christ.
3. Pray for Ransome as he will be leading the Tomil Bible study tomorrow night. Pray for Davy as he will be speaking Saturday morning to wrap up VBS.
And pray for Leeman who will be preaching Sunday at our final church service.

4. This final prayer request is both a request as well as an invitation for anyone who would be interested in helping: There are two guys from youth here in Yap who greatly desire to come to PIU in the fall. Their tuition and living expenses should be completely covered with FAFSA and Yap scholarships if they are able to come. The only problem is their passport and plane ticket. The minimum wage here in Yap is a mere $1.25, which makes it extremely difficult to support oneself. Both of these guys are hardworking and one of them is a leader in youth. We have known them for over a year now and have continued to build relationships with them. All they need is a little help to get to Guam where their life will be completely changed as they learn about Jesus in a loving community. If you might be interested in helping these guys out please send me a message. If not, please continue to pray for them as well as the many interested youth here in Yap who are planning to come to PIU.