In this sermon transcript, the speaker discusses their recent trip to various countries, including Egypt and Spain, to spread the word of God. They mention filming sections for a super eight film about the Muslim world and the challenges faced in spiritual warfare. The speaker also highlights the importance of unity and the need for the Holy Spirit's guidance. They mention specific individuals and churches they visited, emphasizing the importance of reaching every person with the gospel. The sermon concludes with a call to action for believers to deny themselves, take up their cross, and advance God's kingdom.

I'm sitting here in the little office-cum-bedroom in the back of the bus, and in a couple of hours we'll be headed down to get on the ferry over to Syria. Let me go back, however, to the beginning of the trip and just share some items of praise and prayer for the various places that we have visited. Don't hesitate to stop this tape at any time and just pray for some of these countries. The first place we visited, of course, was Paris. We arrived there in the evening and just had a short meeting with the team. I think the key prayer request for Paris is that they may have a few more workers in their office and that we may see more French people raised up for the summer and the year program. It was great to see Dave Milligan and Francie. They had been married a few months before, in preparation for North Africa. And we would ask you to pray for that work there in Montpellier as they give people language training and other preparation to go out into the Arab world, especially to North Africa. Brothers from Campus Crusade for Christ just stopped in and visited me and gave me a copy of the Jesus film in Arabic on videocassette, which we'll be carrying over to Syria. We moved on to Spain and had meetings on that Friday evening in Girona. Remember Bill Rupp, who really wants to move into Malilla, the Spanish enclave in North Africa. Malilla and Ceuta are both Spanish parts of North Africa. Try to find them on the map and remember the ministry there in prayer because it's here that Spaniards have a lot of close contact with North Africans and could be involved in reaching them with the gospel. They're praying about some kind of summer teams there. Victor Pierce and other OMR will, of course, remain on in Girona in the little church that's been born there. It was encouraging to minister there and to have sort of a small prayer meeting after the meeting with them. That ministry needs prayer as they're trying to follow up also in surrounding villages and towns to ultimately see other little assemblies started. Spain is a very exciting country for the gospel at this time and I believe a lot could really happen there as we pray. We, of course, met up with our own small team. Two from Argentina and a girl from Spain and then later on in Barcelona we met up with Pedro and Antonia. Three of the Spaniards stayed with us for the next four or five days. The weekend meetings were all in Barcelona and it was encouraging again to meet ex-OMRs. Pray for David Berg who's the pastor of a very important Baptist church there where we had the meeting on the Saturday night and quite a good crowd and encouragement at the book table. And then Sunday morning I was in one church and Sunday evening I was in a church that OMRs helped to start about 13 or 14 years ago. It's now a flourishing evangelical church, sort of a very open, brethren-type assembly and Danielle is really the leading elder there. The little church he was trying to start in the back of the correspondence school office has really amalgamated now with that church. It was good to be in the correspondence school and I had a good time of fellowship with Danielle and Vicente Galan together. Vicente, who worked in Turkey for a while, is now going back to Germany to continue working among Turks with eyes perhaps eventually toward Turkey. Vicente also has worked among the Muslims in North Africa, I think perhaps in Malilla, and he's a key brother to uphold in prayer. We especially would ask you to continue to uphold Danielle. I think most of you know that his wife died of leukemia a couple of months ago. He now has three daughters to rear. It was a great encouragement to see how he's standing firm in the faith. The next night, Monday night, we were in Valencia for a small meeting. Had some good contact with the Christian Literature Crusade worker there, who has a bookshop. And then the next night, on the Tuesday night, we were in Malaga. Again, a small meeting in an attempt to follow up on the ship visit there. Somehow the word had not been very widely circulated about the meeting, but it was still a good time and quite a few of the missionaries with the Gospel Missionary Union based in Malaga for their radio ministry and literature ministry came to the meeting, and then we spent the night there and ministered at their devotions the next morning. Remember Fred Plasto, who used to be in Brussels, as he now has an important responsibility in that ministry in Malaga. That evening we crossed over and spent the night in the bus in Ceuta before crossing over the next morning into Morocco. We went to Tangier, and there we met with Brother Brown and his wife, who retired some years ago from active missionary work. Took on a pastorate in London, and I spoke at his church not so long ago. Didn't realize he was now back as a retired person in Morocco, but of course carrying on really the witness there. He and two single women, he and his wife and two single women. And I think maybe one other sister who wasn't in the country at this time are the main witness in Tangier. There was one older man, who knows the Lord, who came to the meeting, and there are other scattered believers. The enemy has caused havoc in the work there, dating quite a few years back now, and some of the believers have turned away, others are bitter, and that is a real challenge for prayer, that there somehow eventually could come together a worshiping group there. They're also visiting Tetouan, and there are some believers in Tetouan down the road. There's some real possibilities there to see perhaps the establishment of some kind of a worshiping group eventually. We drove on to Rabat, which was one of the key stops in Morocco. Here we were with Gordon McCrosty, Jim Geisler, Mr. Hildebrand. We'd ask you to pray as the group in Rabat, after long periods of tension and differences on quite a few doctrinal and other issues, have divided into two groups, two worshiping groups. It's been somewhat of a friendly division, and they came together for the special meeting that I had there, that we had, and it was an encouragement to meet these national believers. There's just a couple of dozen at the most between both groups, and they need our, of course, fervent prayers. We went back to Rabat on the Sunday morning to minister at the International Church, and here we had a real bonanza on our English books, which was a great help as we were so very, very short of finance. Pray for that International Church, because though these people are expatriates, they have contact with Moroccans, and people think of them as Christians, and the Southern Baptist pastor of that church has a real burden for that part of the world. On the Saturday before that, however, we went to Casablanca. We were with Wendell Evans, the field leader for that area. Unfortunately, we were just speaking at the prayer meeting of the church, and hardly anyone showed up, apart from the overseas workers. So in Casablanca, it was the only place we didn't really get to meet many of the believers. We heard there were a couple of dozen that perhaps come together the next day on the Sunday, but we had to move on because they had booked for us those meetings in Rabat. It was encouraging to meet some exoemers like Jinx Shamosaki and others, and it's just so obvious that quite an interesting number of people who are working in this part of the world got their original vision and some of their training during their time with OM. But I think there should be, of course, many, many more. The total number of workers in this area really is very, very small, and that's a major item for prayer. We then visited Fez, and it was great to be with Robert McNaughton, Tim Lewis, sort of seconded to work in Morocco from the U.S. Center of World Missions. His father's Norm Lewis. He's married to Ralph Winter's daughter. And one other brother, Willie Easterly, who used to be on OM there, laboring there with a couple of others in Fez. We met with the national believers, perhaps around a dozen or, I think, a few more, and there's another key prayer target. They want to see, of course, a moving out to other main centers. There's a couple of other centers in Morocco where there are worshiping groups that we were not able to visit, but then that's it. We drove through Oujda, a place that we need to pray, that there may eventually be some believers and some workers there. Keep in mind that many of the people in Morocco are Berbers, and that's the vision of Tim Lewis, and he feels there's great possibilities for people to come in to Morocco now, and there are various ways you can stay in the country, and then not only to work among people of Arab background, but the Berbers, that means, of course, learning other languages. We then went on to Algeria, and in some ways the meetings in Algeria were a little more exciting, but perhaps that's just an outward impression. Certainly the largest group anywhere in North Africa, especially of any people of Muslim background, worships there in Algiers. I've heard up to 80. I guess in our meeting there must have been 20 or 30. They really went at the French books, and what was left they decided to keep, and will send us the money later on. But before that we were in Oran. I'm not sure this should go into print anywhere, but believers recently there have suffered. Some were beaten, I believe, by the police, and they tried to force these people into signing a confession sort of against their Christian faith. We heard that one or two sort of under pressure did that. We don't know the full story, but we do know that city, huge city of Oran, and the small number of believers there needs prayer. There were stories about one or two other places around Algeria where there's been some response, an encouraging response to the gospel lately. Again, I just want to emphasize how much French can be used in these countries. In fact, the believers in Algiers have their meetings almost more in French than Arabic. The meeting we had was just English and French, and I think we should spread the word around about this because it's a great challenge. On the way out of Algeria and into Tunisia, I did a special letter which has been circulated quite widely to the OM leaders, and if you haven't seen that letter but would like to, I'm sure you can get a hold of a copy from an OM leader. It was decided because of the pressure and some difficulties they've had in Tunis lately that we should not have a meeting there, so we moved right on to Sicily. That worked out because there was only one ferry a week, and quite an ordeal getting the bus on the ferry there, but eventually it worked out. The next morning, which was a Saturday morning, a missionary met us as we arrived in Palermo, a city of one million, and really encouraged us to try to bring the Lagos to that city. Lagos had been to Sicily before, but to Messina, where we went that evening, we had a small meeting. We met the workers with Christian Literature Crusade and a couple of ex-OMers, like Sister Coggy, I think it's Vreni Coggy, her parents, people came to that meeting from a couple of other cities, and it was an encouraging time, of course quite different after being in North Africa. Pray for the Christian Literature Crusade bookshop there. We were led to pick up a lot of books, and I thought, wow, we'll never use all these, but the next day was a bonanza, as we had the largest meetings on the trip so far in Foggia, southern Italy, 300 or so at a breaking of bread. Also Peter Lofthouse came from Naples with more books, so we had two great literature tables, and then in the afternoon we had another meeting, which an equal number of people came together in an even more enthusiastic way. Our friend there, Aliseo Santangelo, operates a radio station from his own home. He was on 10 ON Summer Crusades, very linked with us, and I'd ask you to pray for him, and for the churches, not only in Foggia, but Foggia province and that whole area, because there's a lot of potential. Among other things, we shared about the challenge of North Africa, which is very, very new to the people of Italy, even though it's very, very close, especially to Sicily, perhaps only 150 miles or kilometers from Sicily, and I believe perhaps eventually something could be done by Italians in North Italy, but at least they can be praying and knowledgeable, and it was exciting to be able to share something of that vision. We had somewhat of a free day the next day before crossing that evening over to Greece, and then we got to our friends at Youth with a Mission. They gave us a very, very wonderful welcome late that evening, and we ministered with them the next morning. I spoke for about two and a half hours, and they just were very, very responsive. Again, bought a lot of books, gave us a very encouraging gift, and we went out and were able to tour the ship. I spent some time with Don Stevens, some time with their captain, and I would really ask that we pray more fervently for their ship. They're trying to get it registered now as a freighter by March to take it to California, where they still have to do some major alterations and changes in order to get their various certificates. They are really up against the impossible, but they seem to be enthused. They seem to be very humble about some of the problems, some of the difficulties, and I would request special prayer for them. I think just before we got there, they had an interesting experience in which thousands of fish jumped out of the sea right behind the place where they stayed. They're not allowed on their ship any longer because of various problems, except for, say, 20 and maybe increased to 40 people working. The rest live in a hotel which was hit by the earthquake, and so they're able to rent rooms there and more or less the whole place, very, very cheap. And right behind that, thousands of fish came out of the sea, and they're going to be eating a lot of these fish as they've packaged them up. We had some ourselves. I'm not exaggerating that. So that was sort of an interesting type of encouragement for them. We had five meetings on that day because after turning the ship, we went into Athens and had a meeting with, an interdenominational meeting with believers, and then in the church that night we had a meeting plus a little extended time of prayer. The pastor of this particular church was very, very cordial, and it does seem that there's a definite open door in Greece in terms of the ship Lagos perhaps visiting there. The Greek literature situation, I think, is somewhat desperate, and we need to see a lot more coming off the press in the Greek language. Of course, the meetings were lined up more or less by Linda McIntyre, who I think was very encouraged by the visit. And again, we saw a lot of activity on the book table, even though we mainly had English books. It's the old story that wherever you go, people are interested in English books, and more people read English, even in a place like Greece, than you'd ever imagine. We then moved on the next day after BG had a meeting in a Bible school, and I ran around trying to get things organized on the tickets, we sailed for Cyprus. That was a two-day trip on the ship, which was very relaxing, especially after the intensive days in Greece and Italy. And we had a couple of meetings in Cyprus when we arrived, met some of the people here, and quickly left for Egypt by air. Only some of us went to Egypt. By then we were joined by Paul Stilling, Roger Molstead, and Neil Brinkley, especially to give some thought to Arabic literature needs and to see some more things put into Arabic. I guess in some ways, Egypt has been the highlight of the trip, though it would be close competition with Algeria and Morocco, of course a very different situation. And again, I was just overwhelmed at the number of believers in Egypt. I had one youth meeting, actually just two nights ago, with probably close to 300 young people, mainly believers, just in that one meeting. Very large church, Presbyterian, I think they call them the Evangelical Church of Egypt, and there are a number of other churches like that just in Cairo. Several more in Alexandria, and then in Upper Egypt there are more as well. We would love someday to get a month touring Egypt, ministering to the believers, sharing the challenge of North Africa, for certainly we need to be praying that some of these Egyptians will catch the vision to move out to North Africa. That's perhaps one of the most important prayer requests I could share with you in this report. We had a small pastor's luncheon in Alexandria, where Clint and Vivian are, and we had a similar pastor's Christian workers' tea in Cairo the next day. Very enthusiastic response, lots of action on the book table, I think they sold more Arabic and English books at those meetings than any previous meeting they've ever had. And we discovered a lot of other books in Arabic that are not very well known, especially some produced by a particular publisher, Soul Saving Society, or something along that line. And we ended up buying 400 of those books, very inexpensive, I think they're subsidized, to bring with us on this trip through the other Arab countries, knowing that in many of these countries, many of the believers would not have even known of these books. A lot by F.B. Myers, Andrew Murray, books on prayer by Bounds, a few key books by Spurgeon, really good books for believers. One of the prayer requests is that we may be able to flood out these books to the believers all across the Arab world, and that these books will be used by the Holy Spirit to bring believers into a deeper walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, so that they'll be more equipped to reach their neighbors with the message of the gospel. Egypt is certainly a very, very key country as far as OM is concerned. I think we need to see more workers thrust out there, the mobilization and the training of more Egyptians, and of course at the same time have some among the workers who are giving their greater attention to sharing the message of Christ with Muslims, which is extremely difficult, and of course I could fill a whole tape just talking about that challenge. Let's make this a fervent matter of prayer. We had an excellent meeting with ex-OMers in the home of George Husney, his wife Janelle, Joy, and it was good to meet some people who I hadn't seen for many years, including Grant Henning. His wife was on OM years ago, but we knew him mainly when he worked very closely with us in Iran. He is with the WEC. It was good to see Bill Musk, who is sort of like assistant pastor curate of the English church, the Anglican church in Cairo, and then some of the friends from Middle East media. I was amazed at the number of ex-OMers. It must be somewhere around 20 who are laboring in Egypt, and they need our prayers because the challenge is great. Yet, who knows what's going to happen in Egypt now. The situation is tense. We've heard of one or two Christians who are in prison, seemingly one of them at least for his faith, though there's some controversy about that. Here again, this means a spirit of fear easily comes in. No, I did not sense that in an open way among the pastors and among the Christian leaders that I fellowship with and spoke with personally. Even one of the leaders of the Brethren, which is mainly exclusive Brethren movement in Egypt, came to our meeting and has invited me to speak there next time I return. That's quite unusual. They have 300 people in their assembly in Cairo. They have 200 assemblies around Egypt. Of course, the Presbyterian or Evangelical Church of Egypt is much larger than that. I think most people don't realize how many believers they are in Egypt, even though some are very much down extremist roads or dead-end streets or some form of exclusivism, and their impact upon Muslims is probably negligible. Mr. Zachariah of the Orthodox Church, often referred to as the Coptic Church, is in detention. He was a man that brought some degree of revival to that church. He was then defrocked, he was then reinstated, and now for some reason his center has been closed. I think he closed it himself, and he is in some form of detention by the government. How these people need our prayers, and I hope this feeble report of these different countries will enable you to pray more effectively for these lands. We're now back here in Cyprus, where we had an encouraging meeting again yesterday with the staff of Open Doors and our own OM team. We had a good meeting on a Sunday night before we went to Egypt with the main local church for the Greek Cypriots here in Limassol. Pray for that church, that there may be unity. We spoke at mainly the only other Greek or Greek Cypriot Evangelical Church in the city in the morning, a very, very small group. There's actually less witness for Jesus Christ here among the Greek Cypriots than there would be almost in a place like Egypt. So I believe God has put our team here in Cyprus for a purpose. It is a key launching base. We just go overnight tonight on that ferry, and we're in Syria. And in part two of this report, which I'll probably give in about a month's time, I will share more about those countries. It does seem that the door is open for us to get a transit visa through Saudi Arabia. We've done a lot of work on the bus during these four days. Alan remained behind to do that in preparation for the coming trip. And we trust that if you hear this report in the very near future, that you'll remember places like Jordan and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Dubai. I'm not sure if we'll get to all those places, but we're going to try to. We have almost a full month ahead of us, and we sense the Lord's presence. We're an interesting team. I think we need to see the Holy Spirit uniting us in a deeper way as we move forward in the spiritual warfare during these coming days. We've been able to make a number of films, or should we say sections, that will make up a challenging Super 8 film about this part of the world, mainly for prayer meetings. Especially got some good shots in Egypt at the place where Sadat was killed, and then across the street where he was buried. And then a challenge about the Muslim world in general, given at the foot of the pyramids. And BG, of course, will be doing some more films during the next week or two before he heads back. During the latter part of the trip, we're praying that someone from Jordan who knows Arabic may join with us as BG and Maywey return. Thanks for your prayers. We feel that many of you are just so vitally linked with us, and so many of you who have worked on the bus and who did other things to make this trip possible are really, really involved with us. And then, of course, everyone who prays. I believe only eternity will tell the full results of what's happening through the prayer that has been mobilized as a result of this trip. And again, I would ask you to especially pray that the Holy Spirit will use the many books as well as the cassette tapes and the spoken word that has gone out to so many people over these past weeks. Praise the Lord for His mercy. Every day is a new challenge. There are new problems, new victories to be won. But we sense the Lord is great. Let's just pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what you have done over this past month. We think of how each day has been a new challenge. We think of also the way you've given so much grace here in this very compartment in this bus to catch up on correspondence, perhaps more than almost any other month in the entire year. And Lord, you know, this has been such a blessing to my own heart. Use those letters and memos as they go out all over the world. We thank you for answers to prayer. Thank you, Lord, for strengthening each team member. My wife, Kathy, Hans Strom, B.G., Ben, Alan Witt, Mei Wei. Thank you, Lord, for the many, many XOMers and friends we've been able to renew fellowship with and the recommitments that have taken place in people's lives. And we believe, Lord, as we continue to pray, even greater things will take place according to your purposes. For we ask in Jesus' name, amen. This actually is going to be part two of that report from this Middle East trip. And some of you have already heard, if you haven't. Copies are quite abundant. And you can easily get one. We've certainly seen the mercy of the Lord on this trip and traveling many thousands of miles in that old coach over treacherous roads. Especially the last six days we weren't in the coach, but in our OM vans in Pakistan, where the driving is just beyond description. And yet, in God's mercy, last night, one mile from our home, we almost had a head-on collision with a very fast-speeding car that went out of control. Headed right for us, unfortunately crossed in front of us and smashed into the fence of a golf course. But that is a reminder that the spiritual warfare is not just out in Pakistan, but right here. And to be constantly praying... In fact, as I came on the plane, I thought, wouldn't it be ironic if between here and the house we had the real test of what it's all about. Let's just pray and commit this tape and this time together to the Lord. Our Father, we thank you that you are merciful. And those of us who went on this team across to North Africa and the Middle East and Pakistan sense very much that we went together with the body here. And that without those who worked here on the coach and in the typing of the letters and in every other aspect of the ministry that this trip would not have been possible. And Lord, we don't want to focus in on man this morning, but we want to focus in on yourself. We're not interested in glamorizing travel because there is no great blessing or special reward for those who travel. But we do give you the praise that you are working in these different countries and that you have thrust out a host of workers who are laboring, often totally unknown, to reach so many with the word, your holy word. Lord, I pray for that Muslim on the plane that I was so extensively able to share with. Muslim missionary from Pakistan to the United States. Lord, as he goes back to America, now a U.S. citizen, somehow that you could show him the absolute following of that which he is spreading. Lord, guide us now together in this time of worship and this time of report. Even though we will not be outwardly, verbally worshipping, may we worship in our hearts as we hear what you are doing, as we hear the challenge. Guide us now. In Jesus' name, amen. I think most of you know one of my favorite texts is when one rejoices, we all need to rejoice. And we have come back from this trip very, very much rejoicing. I've made many trips, but I think next to the first time that I went to India which revolutionized my life, this has proven to be one of the most challenging and stimulating journeys that I've ever taken. Of course, that which you've just finished always seems to be more important than that which was 15 years ago. The Lord knows. Unfortunately, the moment I finish, let's go through that door, as I'm trying to get to Worthing by 11 o'clock, which will not be easy today, to attend the funeral of a very dear friend, Dennis Clark, who went recently to be with the Lord. We prayed for him. We haven't seen him much over the years, but he always quietly and in a very practical way has supported this work in his praying. And it was the summer before last, we had perhaps the best time of fellowship we've had in years as we got together in Worthing and walked up and down the beach sharing many areas where perhaps we never saw eye to eye, but other areas where God had made us at one heart. Pray for his wife, his family. Some of his children I know are away from the Lord, Jesus said. It would be wonderful to remember them in prayer. Well, part two of our little report, if you've heard it, left us in Cyprus just before I left Cyprus, getting the old coach on the ferry. I shared with you the challenge of North Africa. That still very much burns on my heart, and I hope that prayer is increasing for that part of the world. We sail, however, on this ferry to the most difficult country that we were in this entire trip, the land of Syria. Syria is controlled by a minority of people who are a break off from the Shiite Muslim movement. Here you have a large country, well, it's not large in comparison to places of India, but compared to say some of these gulf countries, controlled by a minority group, which is an extreme Ba'athist government, and so the land is in unbelievable tension. The Sunni Muslims who make up the majority of people there are opposed to the present regime. They just blew two of the major buildings, killing I don't know how many, just before we got there. And it seems that one of the main right arms of the president of the country has hired a whole army of thugs to control Damascus. They wander through the streets dressed just like villagers. The only mark is that they carry submachine guns and they are under strict orders to shoot anything that in any way looks irregular. So when we drove into Damascus in our bus, it's good that we didn't know too much about this. We knew the place was tense. And we're glad we came in in the daylight. Some friends were going to put us up for the night and they just shared that one bus driver recently had just made one wrong turn and got shot right out of the driver's seat. You might want to remember Alan Witt as in a lot of Witt's time he drives back through Damascus. I told him to make sure he doesn't make any wrong turns and also to go through daytime. It's a miracle we ever got into Syria. That was the only country where it really seemed it was finished as far as taking this vehicle. Could have been a small vehicle. But they saw the word Bedford on this document and they thought this was a Ford. And Fords are blacklisted in Syria because of the Ford Motor Company dealing with Israelis. And they just said in no way would we take this coach through Syria. Already Syria to get off that ferry is enough red tape to bottle the imagination. And we just committed this to the Lord. We walked from the port. It was quite a long walk into town and back three or four times praying, crying out to the Lord. It seemed that maybe Plan B was going to go into effect right there. Would have cost a lot of money to put it back on the ferry. And somehow even though they never did understand that this was a Bedford and in the documents they were passing back and forth the words Israel were written the top man somehow made a special concession and let us drive this Bedford through Syria. We went to Aleppo first which is one of the few places where the believers are willing to take the risk of having any foreigners. There are hardly any overseas personnel ministering in Syria at all. It's so tense. And anybody in contact with overseas people immediately the police are on them. But in Aleppo these very bold believers who had some kind of relationship with the police there and have told them openly about the foreigners who come not only wanted us to come they insisted we stay several days. That's when this trip started to get extended. And insisted that we park the coach right next to the church plug in our electricity thanks to the mains unit installed in the coach because it always helps to get free electricity. And I think one of the highlights of the trip was the fact that we were able to take into Syria over 600 powerful Arabic books. I think it would have been worth taking the coach alone on this trip just for that one delivery. They weren't smuggled. They were just so caught up with all this Bedford business they never bothered to look under the seats of the dining room which can handle about a thousand books. And the believers wanted all of these books. Some of them we picked up in Egypt. Books that just cannot get into Syria. Outstanding books and many good books in Arabic. Unbelievably low distribution. And I would ask you to specifically pray for one of the main purposes of this report I hope some of you will write a few things down. I know it's a cold morning you just made it through the heavy snow storm and you probably lost your pen along the road. But if you can write some of these things down that is the idea of giving this report. But pray for those Arabic books. Pray for Maim Rousa the XO, I've heard from his fathers the key man of the Bible society in Syria as they really had a vision. We ministered there for three nights to just a small group and I shared about Syria last year because we were there last year so I won't go into great detail now. But the church is alive. Small but alive in Syria. One of the itinerant ministers was there the same night I arrived. Really seemed to be an anointed man. He goes around and visits a number of small assemblies and churches and yet has a full time secular job which is often necessary in these countries. We then after Damascus came after Aleppo by the way we drove down into Jordan. Though we wouldn't want this put into print there is the Christian book shop there that has a new location and I was really impressed with that ministry. I think our brother Habib is more fulfilled than he's ever been. In Jordan we just have a couple of nationals. We have a number of ex-alemers there but there's no international team at present. Situation is still very sensitive. But brother Habib some of you know him by another name is really fulfilled and encouraged in that shop. They have a wide range of powerful books in Arabic and English. An excellent location. Sales have doubled since they changed location. And that's a key prayer target. Another key prayer target for Jordan is the new modern version of the Arabic New Testament put out by the Bible Society. It had a mistake in Philippians when it first came out and brought down the entire raft upon the church. There was even unbelievable things were planned for the Bible Society. This is always a great tension in these areas. Now they've changed that Philippians passage and we feel, some of us, it's not an official O.M. feeling but some of us feel this is a valuable New Testament because Muslims can understand it more than the old Arabic New Testament. But it's an unbelievable controversy. And I in one meeting didn't know anything that much about it. I was not even thinking about it. I was giving one of my normal messages about extremism and talked about these people in America who get carried away. The main thing becomes defending one translation of the Bible. One of the arch enemies of this translation was in the meeting. Boy did he come at me the next day. So I do sometimes leave my ripples. They're not always they're not always for the sake of the basic message. That's a big thing there. Wilf Longmaker, a white brother, a very close friend of ours is the head of the Bible Society temporarily in Jordan. And our brother Jamal Hushway is now out of O.M. and in the Bible Society. They are doing a great work. Many ex-O.M.ers all over the world are in the Bible Society. God has given us a unique relationship. They had just come back from Lebanon, a country we were unable to fit into this tour, where they were working with a few from YWAM going into schools distributing the Scriptures. By the way, we were in this part of the world when they blew up was it the Syrian Embassy? In fact, the brothers on that distribution team including Jamal had just come back from a village north of Lebanon. And they were in all the streets. They were very, very quiet. That was the day that terrible car bomb blew that Embassy up. What a volatile, intensive time of the world it is. Of course, as we started to read in the Jordanian newspapers about the annexation of the Golan Heights, we thought we are certainly in an interesting part of the world. One of the Jordanian believers said to me, and he convinced me without much argument, Brother, this is where you need to be. This is where the action is. Laughter That brother, by the way, is a very key believer there. He is the first Jordanian to come out of YWAM way back in 1963. He tells this story wherever he goes. He is a key layman. He is an architect. He really wanted to meet this George Verwer. This is way back in 1963, a few years ago. Of course, he had this image, you know, dynamic, large, older, mature, sophisticated, well-dressed Christian leader. He had just finished shaking hands with some skinny, poorly dressed character who had welcomed him from Jordan. He turned to Antoine Deeb, who was with him, one of the most well-known evangelists in that area. He said, When are we going to meet George Verwer? Laughter Deeb said, There he goes. Laughter I don't think we ever had a conversation again until some years later when I visited Lebanon or Jordan. Pray for him and other believers in Jordan who really do want to reach out to their non-Christian neighbors. Traveling through this area, you just realize how difficult that is. How complex and how difficult that is. In fact, in one of the house fellowships that I met in, I had a burden not to give the kind of messages I usually give, but I had this burden to just give this message on the ten basic doctrines of the Christian faith. I felt so strong that this was the message for that night. And I started right off with God and the Trinity. Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And again, I was in trouble. Because this particular house fellowship will not use the word Trinity, and they will not talk about three persons. They will only talk about three manifestations. And this is a group we're very linked with. And I'm not saying, I'm in no way condemning them, but it shows the terrific problem believers have in speaking about God in three persons. They have trouble even speaking in three manifestations. As I was witnessing extensively to a Muslim on the plane yesterday, that's the thing. Just, when you get to Jesus as the Son of God. By the way, this man was from the Daya movement. They're not even allowed to do Hajj to Mecca because they're considered extremists. They have their own prophet came after Muhammad. They're the ones that teach that Jesus Christ never died on the cross, went to Kashmir and his tomb is in Kashmir. And they are the strongest. They're like the Jehovah Witnesses of the Muslim world. They're all over the world, even in Israel. That causes even more hate to come from some of their own people. They believe all the prophets, something I learned about Islam, at least their variety yesterday, all the prophets were perfect. None of them ever sinned. Including that one from the prophet but we got into interesting discussion. What a challenge it is, and I just want to insert this here, that every one of us, wherever we are in the world today, there are opportunities to speak to Muslims about Jesus Christ. You don't have to go to the countries I went to. In fact, if you go to some of the countries I went to, like Saudi Arabia, you probably won't speak to any, to any great degree. One ex-member there, who's been trying to witness to his students, I dare not mention his name, shortly after giving any kind of witness, called to the carpet by the head of the university and said, any more of that and in 12 days you're out. And these people in Saudi Arabia who have gone there to witness, many of them are very, very frustrated. Pray. Because some of them really want to just pack it in. It's so hard to make contact and to be able to share, if you're trying to hold down a job. Which is something, of course, that most of them are doing. That's why they're there. These countries are very difficult to get into. In fact, one of the reasons, again our trip was extended, is instead of 4 or 5 days in Jordan, we were 8 days in Jordan, just trying to get visas. One of the key visas, fortunately we already, thanks to Mayway, had our United Arab Emirates visa. We wanted to get our Kuwait visa. Now here's Kuwait, here's the road that we took, along the pipeline, an excellent road, littered with tires, old cars, and pop cans. The entire road looks like you're driving through a dump. Because the Saudis have so much money, and it's so hard to get your vehicle helped out in the desert. If you have an accident, they just leave. And sometimes they pile up like little monuments, one car on top of the other. Tires on top, looks like little altars to the automobile industry. But we really wanted to go to Kuwait. It was a key Arab assembly. We knew we could have contact with many believers. A.G. Philip, who led the work in Kerala for some years, is there. But to get a Kuwait visa is just out of the question. People wait there, going into that office every day for a month to get a visa, to see their own child. See their own child for three days. Somehow the war, I had to sit in that office hours, hours and hours. I delegate most things, this kind of thing is not so easy to delegate. Fortunately I was reading Martin Lloyd Jones' book through again on spiritual depression, its cause and cure. And I was heavily in the chapter when I was just about ready to tackle this man. I was in that chapter about not panicking. And I will tell you, that was a beautiful crucifixion experience. Two, three, four days. And when we walked out with those visas, the people in the outer office they thought, what in the world? How did these people get the visa to Kuwait? And when we got to Kuwait, our key contact there, one of them who works in the Pakistan Embassy walked into the top office to one of the top men and got us a seven day extension, boom, just like that on a transit visa. So the Lord again heard our prayers to get us into Kuwait where we spent Christmas. It was a five hour ordeal to get into Saudi Arabia. They look for liquor, they believe that almost, they believe all Christians are drunkards. One of the greatest problems we have in communicating to Muslims is to break down and have unbelievable idea of what a Christian is. So they searched our bus for liquor, drugs, of course they think that's another one of our big things. And of course they were looking for weapons and pornography. Five hours, inch by inch unscrewing little things around the bus. This was something you wouldn't believe. And when I marched my wife off into a little room to give her a personal search, I thought that was going to be not the end of my wife, but emotionally the end of the journey. Because she had just read this book, some book about what happened to women when they got searched in Algeria. There was more than a search. There was more than a search involved. But actually the Saudis are quite polite. They're quite polite. They served us a full chicken dinner during this ordeal free. And the thrilling thing is they were so looking for alcohol. And the funniest thing, this will be one of the funniest stories in history and my wife's not going to like me for telling it, but someone in France, now the Brewer family is absolute, at least the older ones, myself and my wife, absolute team, totally. But somehow somebody in France, some missionary gave us a bottle of wine. Cooking wine. Lo and behold, the Saudis found the cooking wine. You have never seen anything so funny as five people trying to get this cork, which was absolutely stuck out of this bottle of cooking wine. Finally, one man, the Saudi inspector, kept sniffing, sniffing, and he said, oh, it's nothing and he put it back. The second time through Saudi Arabia, they found out it was the real stuff and they took it away. An interesting experience. But the thing is they were so excited about these other things, they didn't seem to worry about several hundred Christian books and the Arabic books were wrapped in a poncho, they actually handled them and put them back. The second time through Saudi Arabia, when the Arabic books got discovered, we had quite a fanfare. The Bible was illegal in Saudi Arabia, it's become illegal now in Doha. What a contradiction because many Muslims are saying that the Bible, including the New Testament, is a book that should be read and respected by Muslims, but certain countries don't agree with that. So they took all these Arabic books, there were only about 15 or 20, put them in a suitcase, wrapped them with a customs wire and sealed it. We had almost a ceremony. I was able to give a complimentary copy to the head custodies man. A revolution of love and balance in Arabic. A revolution of love in Arabic. But we got through and most of those English books, of course we kept selling out of English books. Oh, how I wish I'd thrown in a few suitcases. Those of you who were here in the last minutes, we were loading the buses. We put in a lot of English books. I wish we had put in more. We ran out almost by Cyprus, we got quite a few out of there. Praise God, their stocks increased a little bit. Never to have a few extra books. We got a few more out of the Saab, but his stock is not very good. And again, shortly after Kuwait, everything got I was selling personal cassettes, music cassettes, anything I could find by the end of the journey. We had thousands of dollars in book sales and tape sales on this trip. In Kuwait, there's one especially live Arabic assembly, led mainly by Palestinians. And I believe it was in God's province that we had Christmas with these people. You know, those of us in this part of the world, especially with certain types of people around and their particular belief in eschatology, we get a very heavy dose of pro-Jewish material. And of course, we love the Jews. We want to reach that nation for Christ. We love all people. But it was good to get the other side of the story among these people who once had their home in their lands, everything right there in what they call Palestine and are now refugees in many different parts of the world. I'm not here to make any more comment on that except that we need to pray for the Palestinian refugees. Christmas Eve, one of the Arab brothers in the assembly in Kuwait came and said, you know, there are actually some books here because we had hardly any Arabic books. And at our book table, people were wanting Arabic books. When they came it was Christmas Eve. He says, you know, an OM team, I think, 10 years ago had left some Arabic books here. I said, oh. He said, oh, I sold some of them, but we had a few left. Christmas morning, Ben, my son, and I spent part of the morning going through six huge boxes of Arabic books. Hundreds! Books that now are selling for three times the price back in Lebanon. How were we going to sell these books? Because we knew we'd never get them through Saudi. So we had a really big book bonanza. Sunday night, we gave five books for one dinar, which is about a pound and a half. And to our utter amazement, almost every single book was sold that night as people took the vision of getting these, selling them to others, giving them to others, and using them, whatever way possible. Here's books that have been sitting for a decade. And, you know, it just confirms a theory I've always had. That it's better to have too many than too few. And those books are worth three times as much. Of course, they were there by the Iran team. The Iran team used to go to Kuwait all the time. They probably just had to leave these books. A lot of Deir ut-Tan's books, filigree books, other books, pray for those books. Something else was shared to me in Kuwait that I pass on to you for prayer. Some group has been sending Christian literature through the post, good literature, in Arabic, through the post. This is a controversy. I heard about it in North Africa. Some agree, some don't agree. But the believers, some of whom in Kuwait are quite bold, they were quite excited about this. And they said the Kuwait authorities wrote an article in the newspaper against these tracts, warning people not to take them and read them, and republish the full text of the tract in the main newspaper in Kuwait. Including the address right here. And you know the Lord has his way of getting his word out. As we pray, even though when we pray for some of these countries we feel so hopeless or helpless, God works. In Syria, one of the most anti-foreign and tight countries in the world. Somehow in God's providence, Charles Colson's film, Born Again, was being shown in the government cinema in Damascus. And I remember ten months ago when we left Syria, we were crying out to God for a film ministry in Syria. And you know how our film ministry is going. It's got one leg broken and the other one's temporarily been operated on. So you know, we haven't got any films in Syria. They like them. And we made a number of Arabic teaching films on this trip with one of the best interpreters we could find in Jordan. That's another story. And we made a lot of other films along the way which we hope to put into a film we can use in prairie, especially some exciting shots in Pakistan. But God has his films. And here, I think the government brought that film in to show what a terrible government America is. They're very anti-American. And here it is, a testimony of salvation in the main government sponsored cinema in the middle of Damascus. I don't think these things are accidental. I believe God answers prayer and these things happen. We got another Saudi transit visa and we drove through this part of Saudi Arabia and we spent just a brief time with an Exoamer in Saudi Arabia. Again, I don't want to mention any names. And I'll just share that there are many, many expatriate believers in Saudi Arabia and a majority of them have very little contact with the Saudis. I think the best place to reach Saudis for Christ is London. And my burden and vision for the Arab world team is greatly increased. Now of course I'm sure there are things also happening there that I could not see on my short trip. But it is a very very extremist and fanatical place with very tight control on everything. We move down to the United Arab Emirates. It's a very different story. There are still missionaries in the United Arab Emirates in medical work, pastoring expatriate churches like one excellent brother who's a pastor of the church in Abu Dhabi. Right here. We visited Abu Dhabi at a very encouraging meeting there. Arabs came to that meeting. Then we went to El Ayn down here on the border, very close to Oman. Here it is. An encouraging meeting there of both Arabs and expatriates. Again, ex-O-N-ers in all of these places pressing on and were greatly encouraged seemingly by our visit and then up to Dubai. Again, many ex-O-N-Indians in Dubai. Again, the same situation. Hard for them to reach in among the national people. Pray for Irving Sylvia. He is in El Ayn. He was in Saudi Arabia. His wife found it very difficult there. His great burden is the Baluchi people. He's working on the gospel of Baluchi. We had supper with him. He sends his greetings. There are many Baluchi people in the United Arab Emirates. The minority, of course, are the Baluchi people from Emirates itself. Somebody asked why we didn't get back to England before now or why did we end up going to Pakistan when ultimately we decided to go to Pakistan later on. One of the reasons was that our brothers and sisters in Oman, another impossible country to get into in some ways. I wrote to one missionary friend. He wrote me back from my own parents' church. Don't come. But the Indians are a little more aggressive than perhaps Americans. They not only asked us to come. They insisted. They sent not only air tickets to Muscat because we could take the bus there to Oman. They sent air tickets for Dubai to Muscat and Karachi. That's $700 worth of air tickets. On this trip we weren't exactly flush with finance. We were trying to identify with the movement and its situation around the world. So we were encouraged by that gift. They were not going to take no for an answer. We talked to them on the phone and that's when we said if we're going to Oman we are not going to miss Pakistan. Here's Pakistan right here. We just spent a couple days there. Again very encouraging meetings. In all these places we've seen well certainly in total a couple thousand dollars in their money come in and answer prayer and gifts most of which will help Also Alan's trip back. Alan left three or four days ago and is somewhere here. I can only just add that the bus proved to be a greater help than I think we'd ever envisaged when we took that step of faith to go by coach. In fact I've been able to at least during the first early part of the second part of the journey probably do more letters than I've done in any one single period in maybe even in a couple of years. I don't know. I can't keep track. But that was lifted a great burden off my heart, mind. I know I'm not supposed to carry those burdens. You have hundreds of letters some of which are very important and people that are very meaningful to you. You're carrying them around and by the way I've never had any trouble with customs and security with my correspondence. There was so much, so many files, so many letters. They just didn't know where to begin. They rumbled through looking for pornography. That was very, very encouraging. I was a little concerned. When I discovered later some of the papers that I had in there I especially got concerned. But we left the coach, flew to Oman and had two days there. I spent New Year's Eve and New Year's Day there and I'm convinced that God has put some of these exoemers in these countries in his providence. Not just to work among the local people but they're very, very growing churches among the expatriates in some of these countries. And they are reaching out. But also to support the work in India. We had tremendous gifts from the Indian brothers and sisters there. I used to judge these people pretty heavily that went to the Gulf. I thought about my own father left the Netherlands as a lad probably for similar reasons which has meant a lot in God's providence in my own life. But I believe that the Lord wants to use these Indians in the Gulf. And some of them really, really are going on for the Lord. This one we stayed with is an ex-engineer from the ship. Very, very committed to the work of Oman and the ship. Started his own business, linked up with Sheikh. Guy is really prospering in. Well, without any question, Pakistan was the highlight I believe of both months. I think it would have been really a subtle trick of the enemy if I hadn't gone there. We flew into Karachi. We were really running out of time. I have a non meeting that can't easily be cancelled on Sunday. I was hoping to see my son which I have been able to before he goes back to university. And I've done a whole separate memo on Pakistan already. It's on it's on tape. Just gave it to May. By the way if you can pray in any type these days contact May. But after going through so many of these countries where there are so many restrictions and so many things you cannot do and everybody is still going around and to come into a Muslim country 90% Muslim country where there is just unbelievable freedom. There is no total freedom. Can't do everything. We have to be very careful. Cities in Pakistan where you can't really go yet. Wide scale literature distribution. The believers are very sensitive. Not so much just the believers but nominal Christians. It's a complex country. But to just go out in the streets and start selling gospel packets the day I arrived and books and get out tracks was just like coming into some kind of a cool shower from a 100 degree desert. And I have just been motivated beyond words about Pakistan. Actually for a couple of years I have been speaking to my wife about moving there at least a couple of months a year. It was great to get back and use my Urdu. Everybody was very impressed. I had six phrases. to be able to travel on that train. A real slow train. They told me when I got there I would have to fly. That was $250. Just Karachi to Lahore. It's not a small country. And they said they have been to the top man of the station. No way can anybody get on the train. Well I learned from India that doesn't mean so much having that part of the world. I got a contact. He got a contact. We got seat reservations on the train Sunday morning. Got there Saturday. Had time with the team. We had a meeting in the Baptist church. Preached at the cathedral at 8 o'clock. Seats 800 people. 25 in the meeting. Broke bread with them or took communion. Got on the train at 10. 24 hours to Lahore. But you know if you went out to the other continent just to get the train experience it would be worth it. A little expensive. Because going through those towns and seeing the homes and seeing the people in mass of course because I've been in India traveling in the trains for several years memories came back like a Niagara. But what a challenge. And these people are so friendly. They're so willing to talk about Christ or anything. The man who sat next to us on the train assumed that he was a brother. Kept referring to my wife as a sister. And you know gave us from his food. Just a tremendous wide open door for ministry. I was impressed very much with the teams in Pakistan. The most female dominated field in all of operation mobilization. And the most Asian dominated field in all of operation mobilization. And I tell you we've got some lessons to learn from some of these women from Malaysia and Singapore. There are people there from other countries as well. But they are crying out for common wealth people. Now they have some Americans. Some of them have gotten this interesting Urdu course in the law. They're the only ones in the class. They come in different times so that the teacher doesn't exactly know what it's all about. That's giving them visas. There are ways to get visas. In fact I remember one of the things that Tim Lewis, son of Norman Lewis is with us this morning back in Morocco if you remember him. He shared and I never forgot it the whole trip. You know the issue is not the problem of getting in these countries. The problem is people don't want to come. That's the bigger problem. There are ways to get in. And that's certainly true of course about Pakistan. Our common wealth people are far better. We had a good time in Lahore. We had a meeting in which a number of key Pakistani believers came. They now have a book almost a book shop in the base there. They're advertising it. We sold about $100 worth of books that night. And it's just unbelievable the dearth of Christian literature distribution in Pakistan. Hardly any real book shops in the country. CLC has a little tiny shop second floor way out of the way in Karachi. Very little in the way of what you would call a proper book shop like 9 London Road. It doesn't exist. And here's the land. What's the population there? 75 million people. And many many Christians. I don't know if you would have that figure but we estimate a couple thousand Christian leaders. Now many of them are not necessarily converted people. They come largely from the sweeper caste. That creates a barrier to reach Muslims beyond anything we can understand. But they're there. Pakistani church is there. They cannot be totally bypassed in that situation. They have a strategy there in which a large part of all their effort is directly to Muslims. Of every background and every group in the nation. But at the same time they want to see revival in the Pakistani church. So that's a key prayer request. They have very good linking with some of the key Pakistani church leaders who so need our prayers. We're praying out, sending some mailings of some key books. Mike Wakely is one of the most aggressive enthusiastic leaders when it comes to literature. He just moves. And I just have a burden that in the future. Here in STL that we include Pakistan. I haven't had a chance to talk to Jerry yet. But that we include Pakistan in the vision for India as far as the little prophet we see from the sale of books here. Channeling out not just to India but to Pakistan. I think personally in the next 10 years we should include Pakistan an equal priority with India. It's the same continent. Very similar people. And yet with our burden for the Muslim world we have to acknowledge that Pakistan in one sense should be more important. We have plowed 17 years into India. India is a land where though we need more foreigners, the work is in the hands of nationals. Whereas Pakistan is at present the way our strategy is for a number of reasons just such a wide open door for international personnel which we often at times have difficulty deciding where we're going to put people. People who want to get involved in Muslim evangelism. Because some of the fields like Turkey do not want people in Turkey during the first year. You're dealing with far more complicated in-depth situations where people need more training before they go. Pakistan is a much more OM-ish situation if you know the terminology. Somebody can go out there maybe even in their first year if they've had some basic training and they can find a real ministry. Gospel packets. Mike Wakely has the most powerful gospel packet I've ever seen. I counted the number of pieces of literature. It sells for a rupee. What do they sell for in India? 30 paise? He's got 12 pieces of literature in this gospel packet. A number of pieces geared for Muslims. A lot of scriptures. And one Bible Society piece broke into 12 other pieces. 24 separate pieces of paper in this bombshell gospel packet. He has also just produced in cooperation with the World Home Bible League 25,000 copies of Great Truths. What's the name of that? Great Truths of the Bible. Great Bible Truths. This is just like a New Testament. It sells at a super subsidized price of 2 rupees. We got out in the streets with them when we were there. And it goes not as fast as a 1 rupee packet. A rupee by the way is 5 paise. You get 10 rupees to a dollar. That was encouraging. And this includes key selections from the Old Testament. So in fact in some ways you're selling a man a book that's really a little better almost than the New Testament. It's a combination of the old and the new and geared toward the mentality of some of those people. 25,000 copies. Mass distribution the way we do it in India is not so easy in Pakistan. We have to be very cautious about standing on the corner road in one day like Bombay. There it's got to go a lot slower. The believers and the nominal Christians and others they seem to be happy about the selling. Carefully door to door. The girls go more door to door. The men go in the streets. But blitzing is not yet on in Pakistan. We then went to Pindi where we have just a women's team. Very enthusiastic, smiling women's team. Praise the Lord for them. We got a little interview with Molly whom which we'll be showing you on film sometime later on. They had many many contacts. They had quite a few Muslim women in. For the little Christmas thing they had right there in their apartment which is a beehive of activity. People showed up very late for that meeting. The most intensive five days of the whole trip by the way was in Pakistan. You can imagine what it is traveling. After that we shipped to Oman. And we wanted desperately. We were running out of days. No reservation on the airplane. We desperately wanted to get to Peshawar. And we made it. And again this was another highlight. To be there among the Afghan refugees. In fact just the day before yesterday mid-afternoon we were sitting in the tent of some of these Afghans in a refugee camp along the mountains of Afghanistan. They were actually inviting us to join the army. I'd go back into Afghanistan to fight. I explained that I wasn't really much of a fighter of that type and probably would be a hindrance. He countered that. We did all this through Gordon who speaks a language. He countered that by saying well I wouldn't have to shoot. I could just come along and help. So I was quite flattered. But I don't think that's my present ministry. I think this was especially made a real impact on my son Ben who's been with us all this time. Doing a lot of the driving. And has stayed on in Pakistan. Will be going on into India for a couple of months. Volunteer service. We had a meeting that night with the team. We had to leave at about 10 o'clock and get back to Rawalpindi about 1 or 2 in the morning. And then the Lord, even though we had no reservation, got us on that plane yesterday morning. What a privilege. This is what I thought on the plane. I spent a lot of my time in prayer. What a privilege to be a part of what these young men and women are doing out there. Not just the ones on OM. All of them. XOMers, whatever group. In our meeting in Lahore, many different groups came to the meeting. Out in these countries, it doesn't matter so much what group you're in. It's not like back in some of our countries where everybody's pushing his own thing. Everybody's pushing his own magazine. When you get out in these countries you got to forget your silly little label. And get on with the work. It's of no value in many of these countries for them to even know you're with some group, Operation Mobilization or whatever. And I thought as I came back, because sometimes I get a little down on Operation Mobilization which I feel so often is limping. And then I have other struggles. And the warfare is very intense intellectually when you're in some of these countries. But I thought what a privilege to be a part of what these people are doing. And what a privilege to be able to send them literature. Mike Wakely is one of the best literature stocks of English literature which is a great need in Pakistan. Any team I've ever visited. It's available. And it's available because of the ministry of some degree STL and also the international coordinating team. And of course it's part of the whole thing worldwide. Let's just close in prayer. Lord we thank you for the privilege of being part of your work. And we want to give you all the glory for what you're doing. And we just thank you for the wide open door especially there in Pakistan. And pray that we may know what new steps we can take to see that whole nation reach with your word. Lord we need to see a release of finance. We need to see a release of literature. We need to see a release of workers. We need to see your church moved. Lord I thank you for those that went on this team. I thank you especially for my own wife who's been through some pretty heavy days to keep on this schedule. I thank you for Ben, for Alan. Thank you for those who were on the earlier part of the trip. For Meg, Paul Stillion, Roger, Hans Strom and Neil Brinkley and others. We believe Lord that this journey was in your profits. And that your mercy was our main foundation everyday. As you delivered us from endless possible accidents and problems. Not that you always do that because often we can learn much through not being instantly delivered. And we did have to face some setbacks and some difficulties. And Lord we pray that each one of us who has a responsibility of spreading this vision and of sounding the alarm and of giving the Macedonian call may somehow be willing to daily deny self, take up the cross and to do it. For your glory we ask this. Lord don't allow us just to be hearers of these things. May each one of us this very day search our hearts and know what we should be doing and where we should be going to advance your cause of reaching every person, every individual in this world with the gospel of your son.