House of Prayer Update: June, 2014

Just To Catch Up…

Dionne and I have been working for a number of years here in Korea as teaching missionaries. For the first five years we helped to establish a private Christian school for Korean students. Many gave their lives to Jesus and are following Him today. I am now teaching at a small regional university here in Korea and Dionne is teaching at a private Christian high school for girls.

In addition, we have led house church communities, helped to found K-1 House of Prayer in Seoul, and done some itinerant ministry around the country. For the past couple of years we have also been working with a group called Iris Ministries helping them set up a missions center here in Korea. We have been working on this with a young couple who have become dear friends, Norberto and Monica Sango. We have helped at Iris Korea in leadership, hosting weekly meetings, putting on big conferences… Whew! it has been quite a job in addition to our regular full-time work! Now Iris Korea has grown to two services a week and two-to-three conferences a year serving hundreds of Korean Pastors and leaders primarily. Please pray for God’s continued blessing on Iris Korea.

We have met another missionary couple in our own town of Geyonggi-Gwangju whom we have become particular friends with. They came here straight from doing missions work, and she is now working at Dionne’s school. They have quite a passion for friendship-based missions work. They speak multiple languages fluently, and have turned up a sizable population of foreign workers here in our own town in Korea. They have worked hard helping to develop a foreign workers center here, where they do regular outreach to foreign workers. They have amazing hearts, and have been urging us to start something new here in Gwangju.

On another note:

I am almost finished work on a new book. This book is about seven aspects that form a personal progression, that make up the foundations of God’s intended pattern of living and growth — as well as effective human learning and change. These are the “Seven Aspects of the Kingdom” as I put it in the book. This structure can be applied to spiritual growth, learning, education, organizational leadership; even to business management. It is definitely a new kind of framework intended to support personal growth, or transformational leadership in any organization. It is an especially important leadership resource for the House of Prayer. I am submitting it as a project in completion of my Doctoral degree. It is being evaluated, there will undoubtedly be revisions and changes; I’ll probably publish when the work is finished, and then graduate next fall.

Dionne and I have also started an additional new book project, one about the importance of Christians celebrating the biblical feasts. It’s about living the lifestyle that God has always intended for His people, which is especially important to the life of any House of Prayer community. It will be a handbook for celebrating on God’s calendar, honoring the biblical times and seasons: daily, weekly, monthly and throughout the year. This will be another community resource for the Houses of Prayer that we have helped to build, and the ones we will establish in the future.

If you don’t already know…

Jonah, our son, is training with an international NGO in Canada. He is doing a ministry school and professional support training with a group called Be a Hero. Their mission is to take in orphans in poverty-stricken and war-torn nations, and rescue children from the sex trade. Their care model is cutting-edge. Instead of building a big orphanage, they choose a village in an area that needs their help. They build relationship with the local people while they are building homes in the local style which house six children and a foster couple. A cluster of these homes are built, the foster couples work with the children, and also together as a team. They establish a church as a center for community as well as economic projects which benefit the orphans and the whole community. The foster couples are mainly foreign volunteers who go as missionaries to make a difference on the local level. They have communities like this in many nations in the world at this point. Of course, Jonah is thriving, but he does need a student visa to stay. Please pray.

The house of prayer project in Fiji

The project in Fiji continues moving slowly forward. Our partners in Fiji tell us that there has been some significant progress, although the land use applications remain bogged down in slow bureaucratic process. The land use on the mountain depends on a colonial legacy of government land ownership. The tribe on the mountain has applied to the government to lease what should be their own tribal lands in order to try to cut through government red tape, but even the lease hasn’t gone through. Yet there is movement. Our partners in Fiji recently wrote to me: “We finally got historical recognition of two of our tribal historical sites. This is really a big step forward, because now our two sites are recognized by the government and protected by law. We also have hosted the Land Tribunal, three judges who came to our village and heard the land case of our tribe. Just their coming was an answer to prayer. Now we are waiting for their judgement. They could turn it all around and give the tribe all of our ancestral land back. We see Gods favor through all of this, and we are praying for a breakthrough!!” Dionne and I are praying with the tribe for this very important land judgement. It could represent an important precedent for all of the native tribes of Fiji.

We also have work to do that we can’t get done… The groups in Fiji that we are working with keep asking us to come back. I would really like to go and begin teaching on the grassroots level, building up the foundations of the House of Prayer. There is also a group in India that has planted a House of Prayer (based on my resources!), and they have been asking me to come to teach since December. We’ve also been asked to come and begin teaching in Nigeria, setting up the foundation for a house of prayer plant there. Right now I am just about to begin my summer break at the university, and I really hope that I get a chance to go during this time. The problem is that international airfares have become absurdly expensive. Some routes in and out of Korea have tripled in price just since we’ve been here. This severely limits our travel until we come up with some solutions. When I have the opportunity to travel it often comes down to: do I want to fund ongoing efforts here and abroad, or do I want to blow my entire budget to travel? I didn’t get to go anywhere during my recent winter break — I am hoping and praying that I can go this summer.

Please Pray:

• Pray for our ongoing work in education. Our students are often profoundly touched by the love of God.
• Pray for my PhD progress and for the release of my upcoming book: “The Seven Spirits of God”
• Pray for Jonah, his work and training, and his next steps.
• Pray for Iris Ministries Korea, and for God’s continued outpouring.
• Pray that God would bless the outreach here in Gyeonggi-Gwangju South Korea, and that God would break out with His love over this entire city.
• Pray for our new book project about the Hebrew Feasts: pray that God will bless us in the writing phase.
• Pray for the Fiji project, for the Navitini tribe and the official land judgement. Pray for Jubilee! Pray that God will return all of their tribal lands!
• Pray for the house of prayer plant in India.
• Pray for financial blessings, particularly for travel — that Dionne and I will be able to go wherever God will send us.

Prayers and Blessings to you all the way from around the world!

Scott, Dionne & Jonah Husted