Merry Christmas 2019
We pray and hope that you and your family are as blessed as ours! We are spending our first holidays together as a married couple, and for the last few months we have been traveling to churches every weekend. God deserves all the glory, because He continues to prove to us that He is Jehovah Rapha (Your Healer). Anna and I did our first co-op teaching for our local church’s prayer team on the topic of Jesus as our Healer. We’ve also completed a Facebook campaign that went very well, and we are nearly ready to head back to the field in 2020.
Our time together on the road and speaking at churches has been challenging and rewarding. The challenge has mostly come from my still taking a full load of college classes, which takes up my time, including our time on the road between destinations. Thankfully, our time with the pastors and churches has been very refreshing.
Anna and I have both learned how we complement each other in ministry. Of course, we are still learning more about each other’s strengths and weaknesses, but being together has really benefited us both in many ways. We’re grateful for the years we were both missionaries as singles, but now we’re able to minister together.
Our first co-op teaching was a success. We spoke to the altar team of about 50 people about faith and healing and about our experiences with miracles and hindrances. It was a great time of teaching, and we were privileged to be invited. At the end of the service, the love of Christ was displayed in all of us as we prayed for each other. We witnessed God set people free from life’s struggles and physical ailments. To God be the glory!
In our travels, we have met many people who weren’t told that Jesus loved them until they became adults, even here in the Bible Belt. The Lord began to bring people from high school to Anna’s mind whom she had never shared the story of Jesus with. She had invited people to church and prayed with them, but she had never presented the gospel to them simply or invited them to know Jesus for themselves.
Anna was convicted and felt she needed to make this right. She recently invited an old high school friend over and apologized. Soon after, she shared the story of Jesus with them and began discipling her friend. Praise God for His conviction and His willingness to keep pursuing the people around us. I pray God blesses you the same way, with someone to share with who maybe hasn’t heard the story of a wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ.
Because they haven’t heard,
Justin & Anna Gilpin
