Dear Friends,

I'm taking a few minutes to write during the World Mission Offering emphasis:

Be surprised by God.Pray. Give. Be amazed!

This is a wonderful theme!As Christians we have access to the amazing power of God, although we sometimes forget this truth.

I began teaching New Testament Greek to third year seminary students a few weeks ago. I'm sure this course has been a matter of prayer for them, as they struggle with a different alphabet, a complicated grammar and lots of vocabulary. For the first day of class, inspired by God and my daughter singing the ABC song, I "composed" a Greek alphabet song, replete with a positive psychology message at the end "Now we've learned the Greek alphabet, since we're very smart students."(It rhymes in Spanish, what can I say?)There are 13 students in this class, including a medical doctor, a Haitian student, and three women (somewhat unusual in the last few years at the seminary). I am continually trying different techniques to make this language easier to "get", since everyone learns differently. I also enjoy the chance to get to know these students better and continue relationships with those from last year.

One of the students is a young woman that I've known for six years, someone trained in a special curriculum writers course. Alibeth is a trooper, willing to do what it takes to make the gospel known. She became a lay missionary in a small town in the province of Guántanamo and firmly established the mission there. She applied to the seminary, had a great interview, but because of the biased comments of one person, was not accepted. I was angry at the unfairness of it and she was devastated. During that time I was able to share with her that God knew who she was, although her reputation had suffered from these comments.

Yet she is an example of God's surprises. After struggling with this whole situation, the Ministry of the Laity opened a program where some of the lay missionaries could be interviewed and accepted as seminary students. Alibeth was one of those called to interview and was accepted!She has received nothing but high marks and respect from the seminary and churches where she has worked, showing that the original judgment of her was unfounded. In fact, because of her great work in her first mission, she was placed back there to help them out of a crisis.

• Pray for Alibeth as she feels called as a foreign missionary (as in the type of person who goes into a totally unreached area and starts up a church from scratch).
• Also please pray for the Sunday School Editorial Group as we meet to revise lessons this week for 2007.

Again, God has done amazing things. One of our newer members, Jorge (I´ll call him) is faithful in ministry but was a soldier. In Cuban society, most churches believe that anyone serving in the armed forces or police force cannot be Christian (serving two masters). Jorge had become a Christian after choosing this career, but finally decided to take the risk of asking for a discharge. This is a complicated process and he was told that it might take up to nine years. In the meantime, one of his buddies who applied for a discharge was disciplined for an infraction so he knew that he had to tread very carefully. This was a matter of prayer which God dramatically answered by having Jorge's discharge approved in mid-September. He is now free to seek another career and we are trusting that it will be helping administrate meetings and the printing process of the editorial group!Please pray with us about this matter.

Another praise that we have is that October 8 we celebrated our church's second anniversary with four baptisms. I was privileged to help interview the candidates with my pastor husband, Ramon. It has been wonderful to see how these four have grown in their faith over the past few years.

We thank God so much for your prayers and your support which permits us to serve God in Cuba. Sometimes ministry can be discouraging, but then we are surprised by God with blessings from above – and you are part of those wonderful blessings. We realize that we are not alone. Please feel free to contact my MPT (Missionary Partner Team) for more information or to become part of my "Network":Beverlee Everett – Beverlee28@earthlink.net.

In Christ,

Sue Hegarty