(Editor's note: Last August, just over a year ago, BCF sent Moe and Marla Hirschy out to share the love of God in Southeast Asia. In the following article, Marla describes how God has ministered as they have networked with others in ministry for Christ.)

One of the things I have learned about networking with our company is the need for security. For this article to be distributed in print and published on the Web, I cannot tell you exactly who or even where your support reaches. What I can tell you is that without your prayers and giving, we could not minister in six countries in Southeast Asia. Moe and I hold the net by helping to provide member care for workers from twelve different countries. Your prayers and support extend to these workers and the communities they serve.

The net you help hold for us reaches to villages where children are taught not only academic lessons but also about their Creator and Savior. In one jungle village, the people will receive running water for the first time since they were forced to leave their homes. They have also received living water, and almost thirty of them have been baptized in the last year. In another village where we have a school, more than twenty youth are waiting to be baptized as an expression of their faith. Authorities have recently threatened the work in both of these places, but because of your prayers and the prayers of many others, God’s Word continues to go forth.

And this same net extends to clinics where refugees and villagers can have their medical and dental needs met. The love of God you share reaches into remote places where patients are prayed for even if the law says that prayers cannot be said out loud.

This week we leave for a country that has recently experienced a natural disaster. Our local worker has seen a group of over two hundred believers worship Jesus for the first time in their lives after she gave them rice and preached. Now, the people continue to come even when there is no rice, and they share visions of the Savior with our worker! In addition, over one hundred children are meeting weekly to hear stories and sing songs about this same Jesus. We will help train twenty-one teachers in the city since we cannot travel to the villages where our schools are. We will also meet with the new believers, but we are not allowed to preach or share in this setting. Just like you, we will be praying that God’s Word can continue to be proclaimed.

Thank you for being our sending church. Thank you for loving and supporting and praying for us. We would love to share specific stories, and we can do that if they are not publicly distributed. We would love to hear your stories of grace as well. We continue to receive news on the prayer chain, and we pray for you and your networks.

Paul’s stories of missionary life have taken on a new meaning for us. He also wrote about his networks with individuals and churches. Speaking to the church in Corinth, he said, “On [God] we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us as you help us by your prayers” (2 Corinthians 1:10b-11a). Thank you, dear Bethel family, for your help to us.