ERIC MURPHY UPDATE OCTOBER 2015

                        WHAT'S HAPPENING BEHIND THE SCENES RIGHT NOW?

Articles:
—Teaching the Book of Hebrews
--Eric and Stephanie: How Are We Doing?
—What does your staff do when there is no youth camp?


TEACHING THE BOOK OF HEBREWS

Stephanie and I will travel on October 31 to Costa Rica where I will teach the Book of Hebrews at the Bible Institute Strom near Artenas, Costa Rica. You may recall that I spoke at Camp Britney in Costa Rica during January this year and last year. The director, Alonso Angulo, leads both the camp and the Bible Institute where the students serve as counselors at the camp. Pray for God’s blessing as I teach the great Book of Hebrews to these students. Can’t wait!

During that time I will meet with LIFE Costa Rica director, Cristian Vidaechea, as we make plans for our youth camp to be held this coming January. We will minister in three churches in San Jose, the capital, while we are there. God is at work putting together the final details. Pray that God will give us wisdom and guidance as we prepare for this exciting new youth camp.


ERIC AND STEPHANIE: HOW ARE WE DOING?

Great! Absolutely great! Fantastic! By the time you will be reading this we will have been married for about four and one-half months. I was sharing with some friends that we have been focusing on building our relationship with a focus on prayer together and good communication. Stephanie loves to pray and she loves to listen to me pray. 

We have traveled to some of our supporting churches and have met with some of the individuals who support our ministry. She has been well received and people seem to be so happy with how happy we are. People are blessed with our story how that both of us suffered so much with the loss of our mates and how God put us together. This is great! 

We desire to encourage people with our example. So many marriages are struggling because of one reason or another. God is putting smiles on faces through our marriage because people love a good story, a happy story. Both of our mates suffered so much before their deaths. It was hard for both of us to watch this and we both suffered grief. Yet, God, in His supreme goodness, has given us to each other to build each other up. We have a deep respect for each other as we know what we both have been through. Both of us give praise to God for helping us through the difficult times and we happily tell others how good God has been to us through the hard times. Now, we are gladly sharing the good hand of God how happy we are with each other and in Him. It’s a great story and God receives the glory. 

Some people ask Stephanie how she is handling this change in her life joining me in the mission to disadvantaged young people. She admits that it is a big change, but, that she enjoys this very much and she is finding her place in various ways. Her experience as a counselor is being utilized and she loves to share with small groups or one on one. Her role as an encourager to me is highly esteemed by me. I am grateful to God for her encouragement. Yes, she is truly “with me” in what God has placed upon my heart to reach out to young people. 


WHAT DOES YOUR STAFF DO WHEN THERE IS NO YOUTH CAMP?

Good question and thanks for asking. Iulian Avramescu is building up young adults which include his staff, camp counselors and others. He does this through sessions at a new training program that he started called MIA University. I spoke of this last month in the Update. He is preparing for Champions Weekend in November where he brings together a sizable group of young men, teens and guys in their 20s and 30s, for a special weekend meeting using sports, speaking sessions and group discussions. These young men eat this up! Men sharing with younger men.

Not only this, but, he and his team organize Sports Tournaments in various cities in Romania to re-connect with campers as well as do evangelism. In fact, two were held in Romania this month in Sighisoara [two decisions] and another one near the Black Sea where some Turkish refugees live [30 decisions]. All of his team are involved with follow-up and I can tell you that they are making much progress in this area. They are having great results doing discipleship with the campers who received Christ during the youth camps. Oh yes, they are gearing up for their Winter Camp, December 28-January 2. There is much to do “behind the scenes” to prepare for such events and to follow-up with those who make decisions.

In Montenegro we now have the Niksic Youth Center [NYC] in a partnership with Danijel Petkovski who serves with Inter Varsity Ministries. Danijel, 32, is intimately involved with Camp Monty and our staff member, Sasa Olah, 22, is helping Danijel with the university student meetings that are held at the NYC and Danijel helps Sasa with the teen meetings with campers who have attended Camp Monty. This partnership is working quite well and we are seeing great results in the lives of these campers. Several of them are becoming leaders at Camp Monty and will be building blocks for the future. 

My point is that there is a lot happening right now in both countries. Thrills my heart! Hope it thrills your heart as well! Join us in prayer for God to work mightily in the lives of these young men as they lead these ministries. My task is to mentor them as well as encourage them. Yes, I love what I am doing and Stephanie is right with me in all of these ventures! It is quite an adventure for both of us. Thank you for praying for us.


Eric Murphy
Executive Director


www.lifeimpactforeternity.org


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