PIU Yap Team Day 12

Yap Day 12

This is the latest update written by Josh Ladd of the PIU Yap Summer Ministry Team

Our team finished up a busy stretch of 3 days and we are ready for our Monday day of rest tomorrow. Friday our team had the blessing of hanging out with three different youth groups here on Yap. We spent time with the outer island youth, the Colonia Youth, as well as the Palauan youth. All three of these youth groups will be a part of the youth retreat next week that will have over a 100 local youth from around the island. Our team has also been asked to lead the outer island youth this Friday.

While attending the Palauan youth I was asked to share an encouragement to them. This gave me an opportunity to share about the life of my Grandpa who passed away last week. I shared about how although I miss him, I know that his work was not in vain because he spent his life serving Jesus. Through the resurrection, Jesus has made it possible for us to spend our life doing work that is not useless, but will count for all of eternity. My Grandpa used his life for Jesus and His kingdom, and his work was certainly not in vain. After sharing this, Mac Alfonzo (the Palauan youth leader and a graduate of PIU) asked me to come back Tuesday night and share the same thing with their young adults. I’m so thankful that the Lord is giving me opportunities to share about my Grandpa in a way that will continue to build the kingdom.

On Saturday our team enjoyed doing another sports ministry, but this time with the village of Tomil. Our guys scrimmaged against the Tomil basketball team that will be competing in the upcoming Yap games. During half time we were able to present a song and skit that tells about Jesus as the answer to one’s purpose in life. All 5 of our guys had a part in the skit while the ladies helped us to sing our team song. Unfortunately there was no volleyball for the girls this time, but hopefully there will be an opportunity this upcoming week. After the game was over we were able to pass out some gospel of John booklets, PIU materials, and some cold sodas. It is really cool that Pastor Asael already has a bible study every week in the village of Tomil that provides a place for these guys to hear the word of God if interested.

After finishing Saturday by giving a lot of free time for working on sermons and other activities, our team finally reached our busiest day of the trip so far. Today (Sunday) our team performed in 4 different church services. Davie Welle spoke in 3 out of 4 services on the topic of loving God and loving your neighbor. I spoke in one service concerning Jesus being the perfect Chief of the world. Our team also did a skit in each program presenting an “island version” of the Good Samaritan. Leeman and Grace also did an awesome job giving testimonies. All in all it was a tiring, yet awesome day. We definitely are excited to have a nice day of rest tomorrow.

Here are some prayer requests for our team:

1. Pray for a restful day that will be refreshing for all of our team so that we can start another busy week of ministry.
2. Pray for wisdom this week as our team spends a lot of time planning our programs for the upcoming youth retreat. Pray also for wisdom as to who will be giving the messages over the retreat. We will have at least 2 or 3 people preaching with 6 of our team members leading morning devotions.
3. While on the subject of the youth retreat, please pray also that God will be preparing the hearts of all of the youth. This retreat is quite amazing with over 100 local youth from different cultures all staying together for an entire week. What an amazing opportunity to proclaim Jesus (especially since we already know most of the youth from last year and have relationships established!)
4. Please pray also for me as I share once again on Tuesday night about the life of my Grandpa and how we should spend our lives doing work for Jesus that is not in vain.
5. Please continue to pray for unity for our team. Jonie really made an awesome comment one night this week and pointed out how our team is much closer now then when we were at school together in Guam. This is true. We have already been through a lot together and are much closer. But we still need prayers of protection against the enemy. We also need prayers that we will continue to be patient with one another and love one another. Our most intense week of ministry is coming soon and we will need the love of Jesus more than ever.
6. Finally, please pray that our team will specifically have confidence and peace in Jesus over any other power. Some of the weird stuff that has happened to our team that I shared about earlier has been new to a lot of us. Some of us are still struggling with getting good sleep at night because of some weird stuff that continues to happen. So please just pray that nothing will keep us from proclaiming our Lord Jesus. Pray that we will truly have no fear, and trust that God alone is in control.