Praise the Lord for all that He has done in St. Louis! On Friday, we saw a glorious consummation for our trip. After the morning coordination, the team went to Saint Louis University (SLU) for the Bible distribution. In addition to the tabling at SLU, there were four follow-up appointments. One of the follow-up appointments was particularly noteworthy: Elijah met with a student named H, who is very open but is thoroughly preoccupied by his own concepts of what the meaning of human life is. Such a one seemed “impossible” to save and “impossible to baptize,” but through the fervent, deeply anointed prayer of the saints during morning coordination, we were able to enter into the realm of the impossible and H was thoroughly subdued and immediately consented to be baptized.

Two trainees also had a follow-up appointment with a freshman at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, who is very guarded but seeking. After about 30 minutes of conversation, she opened up about her fear of her weakened faith in the Lord, given recent personal experiences and observations of Christians around her. We spoke to her about how Christ has increasingly become our reality and how that is exactly what He is after, to become so real to us that we live with and to Him in all we do. At the end of the appointment, she expressed the desire to be surrounded by genuine believers who are sincerely pursuing the Lord. We will continue to shepherd her until she is open enough to be connected to the local saints.

In the evening, we had the college meeting and four students from the Washington University in St. Louis attended. The students had a morning revival program, where each student paired with another student or a trainee to have the morning revival together over the phone for one week. During the college meeting, there was the overflow from the experience of having the morning revival program, and the students overall had a positive experience.

We also had another in-reaping meeting at sister Shuyi’s home for the brand new ones, seven of which came. The time was very warm, many connections and handoffs were made to the local saints, and H was baptized there. Praise the Lord! One of the new ones brought her younger sister who is a junior in high school. Although they were both shy, they genuinely enjoyed the time, especially when they were able to spend some time with two young local sisters close to their age. These two new ones are currently seeking a group of genuine believers to call their family. May the Lord build them into the Church in St. Louis!

On Saturday, morning, we gathered with the GTCA team and local saints for our final coordination. We had much prayer and fellowship about how to care for the most open new ones long-term. Afterward more local saints joined for an overflow meeting, which was full of precious overflow from the saints of their experience from these two weeks and how it affected them. One local saint mentioned this time has given her the desire to attend the middle-age training in the future. It was clear that both the trainees, visiting and local saints experienced a sweet time of blending, service and coordination. The trainees were encouraged to come back to visit or migrate and encourage our fellow trainees and saints across the country to come blend in St. Louis.

There was a definite theme to our gospel trip: mutuality. We were mutually shepherded by the saints; the gospel labor was one in mutuality; the cherishing was mutual; the building up of the Body in love was mutual. Praise Him! We love all the dear saints in St. Louis! May the Lord strengthen His testimony in the gateway to the West!

Prayer Burdens:

• The desperate need for job dropping full-time serving ones to labor on the local college campuses
• More migration of solid young couples to St. Louis to strengthen the church and care for new ones
• Five remaining fruit through the contacts gathered during the GTCA trip
• Raising up of many saints in St. Louis with a burden for the follow-up and to care for the new ones
• Effective follow-up with the open and seeking contacts made during the GTCA trip

Source: http://www.gtca.us/midwest/st-louis/2019/02/04/st-louis-mo-gospel-trip-report-6.html