Update from Ocean City, MD
Greetings from Ocean City, MD. I (Steve) arrived on Tuesday 28 May and have been busy working in the house and connecting with International Students and those we partner with. Most of the free meals started this week and students keep arriving daily. Thus far we are a team of 4 - Mariya, Petar, Debbie & Steve.
Normally during the summers in OC we get a clear glimpse or two of why GOD has us here. This summer it started almost immediately.
the first glimpse Last Friday 31 May, our Bulgarian Student Volunteer Mariya and I met 4 girls from Kazakhstan during lunch at Atlantic UM Church. Since they had just arrived and were in need of food & supplies, we took them to Walmart later that afternoon. They live in a multi-story building at the end of our block. The next day (Saturday) they contacted us and asked if we could take them to the hospital in Salisbury, MD to visit their classmate DARINA who had suffered a mini stroke several days prior and who was recovering in ICU. So on Sunday 2 June, I took Saule & Amina to visit DARINA. She perked up immediately upon seeing her friends and even allowed me to pray for her. DARINA was released on Wednesday 5 June and returned to OC but she is still experiencing some paralysis and walking with a limp. Thursday evening our team of 4 took DARINA & several of her friends to Son'Spot for supper. Afterwards, we all went to our student condo to play games; Uno with Steve's rules.
the second glimpse Our team of 4 attended lunch at St Peter's Lutheran Church on Wednesday 5 June. While standing in line, one of the church volunteers who was serving food told me that there are 3 boys who have no housing. So we met Nu, Sultan & Doss (all from Kazakhstan) and invited them to stay in our student condo for a few nights until they could obtain more permanent housing. We went to retrieve their big suitcases, made some rearrangements in our student condo and got them settled. Thursday Mariya cooked breakfast for them and they headed off looking for housing and additional work. They returned to our student condo just as we were starting to play games with Darina and her friends so we ALL played Uno and talked and had a great time together.
Yesterday (Friday 7 June) was DOSS's 20th birthday. Mariya & Petar made him a Bulgarian birthday cake and Darina and the KZ girls brought him a carrot cake. During our celebration together, in accordance with Kazakh tradition, each person had a chance to express "birthday wishes" for DOSS in their own language. Throughout the day I had been asking GOD for an appropriate opportunity to pray for DOSS. My turn came last. I made a few comments and then prayed asking GOD to bless DOSS on his birthday, provide housing and additional work for he, Nu & Sultan, and to provide complete healing for DARINA in the Name of Jesus.
Will you join me in asking that GOD will unleash HIS healing power in Darina's body, and that GOD will provide Doss, Nu & Sultan with housing and additional work so that they will experience the love of Jesus in a personal way. By the way, most (if not all) of these Kazakh students are Muslim.
Yesterday a team of 3 cleaners working together for 5.5 hours transformed the interior of the house we are renting here in OC. Today Stanley Steemer cleaned all the carpets. So please pray that we can get settled in and that GOD will use this facility as an oasis for us and many others.
with love & appreciation,
Steve & Shelia
for the team