“I am inspired by you guys. Thank you for opening up my eyes about how many people need to know Jesus.”
This was a note we received from a student at Saint Joseph Christian School.
Last month Matt was invited to speak at his old school, a K-12 Christian school in Missouri, for their missions week. It was an incredible privilege to get to share with students about God’s heart for missions and challenge them to get involved. Matt shared with them that, as John Piper says, when it comes to missions, God gives Christians three options, “Go, Send, or Disobey.” We were very encouraged by students’ interest in what we are doing and how God might have them be involved in missions. Many high schoolers came up to us with questions such as, “I want to be a missionary. How should I start pursuing that? What should I do next?” and “I want to be a missionary, but my parents aren’t supportive. What do I do?” Many elementary schoolers had questions as well, such as, “What are people in Papua New Guinea’s favorite color?” (Umm, I don’t know), and “What are you going to do if you are camping in the jungle and a wild animal comes to attack you?” (Thanks a lot, kid. I hadn’t thought about that! 🙂 ).
We were also blown away when we walked into a classroom and saw tons of forms hanging up that said, “I tithed in prayer for Matt and Karissa Long,” with students’ names signed on them. The class had been talking about Papua New Guinea, and figured out the number of miles from St. Joseph, MO to Papua New Guinea, and divided that by the number of students in the class. They came up with 7, and so each student prayed for us for 7 minutes, about various topics, such as safety, ministry, health, and travel. They then took the time to pray for us while we were there, and I was blown away by these students’ hearts for the Lord and passion for what He is doing in the world. I can’t wait to see what God will do in leading this next generation of Christians onto the mission field.
Till all know,
Matt, Karissa, and Ty Long
Please Pray:
– That God will use us to be an encouragement and witness to others during this time of support raising
-That God will lay on people’s hearts to want to meet with us to hear about our vision
– That God will encourage students at St. Joe Christian to pursue missions
Praise God:
– For what He is doing in the hearts of students at St. Joe Christian
– For increasing our support level by 3%
– God has been challenging and encouraging us spiritually lately