Several days after sending our last letter we successfully submitted our visa applications to the immigration office! This was an exciting step that required much prayer to be able to accomplish. Although we are now in a “holding pattern” while we wait to hear from immigration, we are grateful and indebted for the timeline God has given us. We praise Him that we are just now approaching the two year anniversary from when we began deputation!
In late July we coordinated an effort to advertise a gospel message video on Facebook throughout New Zealand. The ability to target specific cities or regions as desired is a powerful tool to get the gospel into geographical areas that we currently cannot access. This first campaign is a testing of the waters to gauge the response across the country. There have been hundreds of individuals saved through this video in various other countries. Please pray with us that people will be drawn to watch and the Holy Spirit would have freedom to work in hearts as we seek various opportunities to get the gospel to New Zealand.
We were blessed to see several people saved recently, one of those was a man in his fifties, Kurt. Having grown up in Lutheran churches, but now for several decades has attended a non-denominational church, his response to the gospel was a serious, deep consideration that he had all of the knowledge of Christ’s sacrifice without ever personally accepting Him.
In August, I had opportunities to preach at Filipino and teen Bible studies, our addictions program, and nursing homes. We also traveled a short distance to assist Alyse’s home church with their VBS. Many hours have been spent at our church and other connected ministries with various projects and soul winning.
The final steps in preparation to move are taking place, such as ordering discipleship and Sunday School materials and packing up the select items we are taking with us, such as our single pallet of belongings which shipped out August 23rd!
We appreciate your prayers as we await our visa approval and transition to the field!
God Bless,
Josh, Alyse, and Bentlee Szwarga