I have lived in Asia for over three years now, so I am used to the attention I get while doing the most mundane, average of activities such as walking down the street, or buying a cup of coffee.  I can’t tell you how many times an Asian stranger has asked to take their picture with me…I mean, I do like wearing tinted sunglasses, but I am not a famous movie star or anything like that .  I sometimes chuckle when I think of the number of photo albums I have ended up in over the years…photo albums of people who don’t even know my name. 

So last week when a group of girls came up to me at the night market across from my university, I thought it was for yet another photo op.  I could tell they were really nervous when they approached me…they probably had not spoken to many foreigners in the past…but they definitely relaxed a bit when they discovered that I could speak the local language and that I am a nice person .

McDoogle

Last week I was getting all my finances in order.  I had my money and passport set aside so that I can renew my visa.  I also had money set aside for the cost of my dental bills.  I had it all neatly arranged in different parts of my wallet so that I would be sure to not spend it.  And then, last Saturday, I took it all and threw it on my desk. 

Sunday morning, while riding the bus, my wallet got stolen. Rather than loosing all my money, I only lost about $12, my bank card, and an almost empty eyeliner.  I have no doubt in my mind that the Holy Spirit prompted me to take out most of the money in my wallet the very night before. 

Two days after my wallet was stolen, I met up with a friend that I haven’t seen in over a month (Ivy – I’ve mentioned her in previous blogs).  She had no idea about me loosing my wallet. I mentioned to her what happened and how I felt God prompted me to put all my money on my desk.  Then, as we sit down and eat, she pulls out a gift that she bought me last month while vacationing in another city. A brand new wallet!!! 

At that time, I was hit by the love of God.  I saw how He led me to remove my money the night before, and then how after my wallet was taken from me, He showed me His love and provision for me!  It wasn’t a “yeah…..I know God loves me” moment; it was more than that-so deep and so personal.  It was beautiful!  And I love the way He used my friend, Ivy, to show me His love.

As I think about it, almost a week after everything happened, I’m still amazed by Him.  And, I feel like, daily, I am more aware of the way God loves me.  Often, it’s through the love of a close friend.  Sometime, through a complete stranger.  Or when I’m walking late at night and I look up into the stars and am hit by His glory and His love. It’s enjoying Him through the gifts He has given us. It’s unique and so much deeper than we can even begin to imagine.

So with all of that being said, I challenge you this week to be more open to God’s love.  Be looking for it! 

Amilah

His name is Shi WeiGuo.  Right now, I believe he is 31 years old.  He says that his family sees him as a failure.  Each time his parents call, the first thing they ask is when will he get married and provide for them.  They tell him he is different.  That he has a problem.  He talked about how the stress and pressure are too much to handle.  This past weekend, he and his new girlfriend got into a silly fight and now he is really starting to believe that he is a failure.  So many lies are invading his mind.  He is broken and lost and looking for answers.

There were about 12 of us in the class.  We all listened and occasionally asked questions. For the most part, I sat silently and prayed.  A classmate raised his hand and suggested that my teacher let class out early so he can go get drunk.  My teacher said that he’d only feel worse afterwords.  I’ve never seen anything like this before.  My teacher was completely unable to teach us.  He sat down and confided in a bunch of foreigners from a handful of different countries.  He wants answers.  He wants hope.  And the majority of the responses he got from the class was to “drink away the pain” or go hook up with someone.  Praise God that he rejected these suggestions. 

As I think about it now, I wish I could go back to yesterday and say more.  Right now, my heart truly hurts for him.  Not because he got into a fight.  Not even because he feels different.  My heart hurts because he (like so many other people in this broken nation) are looking for answers and hope, but have never heard of the Truth that I know.  Even in my most lonely moments, I am never alone.  But to him, when he is surrounded by all that life has to offer him, he feels hopeless.   Please pray for him.  Pray that, as he searches for answers, that he would be led to the feet of Jesus.  And, as I have another month of class before finals, pray that God would use me to share and testify.  Pray that I would have boldness to speak of the Truth that I know.

I live in a nation filled with lost people.  The majority of Asian people have never held a Bible in their hands, never heard the name of Jesus, never understood the concept of salvation and grace.  These people pray to idols built by human hands.  They say they believe in themselves, and at the end of the day, feel like failures. 

But praise God! Salvation is near!  He is at work in this nation!  He is at work on my university!  At church on Sunday, there were 3 or 4 students from my university that attended for the first time ever!! Each week there are more and more new people!  On Wednesdays, a bunch of us meet in one of the small parks on campus for worship – it’s an outdoor worship/ church meeting, where hundreds of students are given the opportunity to join with us in praising God.  Each Thursday, our ID Art Club meets, where we dive into the gift of creativity given to us by God himself. This is just a small part of what is going on at my university; there is so much that I don’t even know of.  God will not relent!  His Kingdom is advancing!  Pray that God would continue to build His church in Asia!.

~Amilah

Yesterday we had dinner with our close friend Qing Qing and afterward we met with some more friends. It was incredible just to
share our hearts with them and explain how each of their friendships have impacted us. We took communion together and then
prophesied over each of them (my favorite!). Afterward many of them shared about their own heart for God. At first I felt pretty okay, but by the end of the night it was hard not to cry! I knew God had done something powerful in each of His children, and I knew He was going to continue to sharpen and transform each of them. I was really grateful to end this year having the opportunity to pray over our friends.

This year has been hard and amazing all at once, and I have learned to be real with God and to trust in Him. In all honesty at times it
has been challenging as I experienced a time of refining. I have endured different trials, times of confusion, doubt, anger and
frustration. But I have also experienced times of great excitement, joy, and awe of how God has moved on behalf of my friends. I can
truly say that these times outweigh the bad. Seeing God move this year has made me so excited for what He has in store for the future.

Prayer  Requests:
Safe travel as we depart for the States, favor that my suitcase will stay together-it ripped when I arrived in Asia and I had to
have it sewn haha

Smooth transition back to the States, that we would be processing this experience in a positive way

Against spiritual attack

Finances-because of the added expense of medical supplies, I may be indebted to CT. Also the finances to attend CTF School of Ministry (For those who don’t know, I feel like God is leading me to this school and I’m really interested in the courses).

Do you remember when the police showed up to our apartment during our Bible study, and we had pudding all over our hands? That night, Sylvia brought a friend to the study named Sarah. After the meeting, Sarah asked if I knew Target Ministries (our parent organization), named the leaders, and said that she had been involved in Bible studies with Campus Target (our organization) here in K-town a few years ago. I was floored! I knew I was supposed to protect my cover, for my sake and everyone else. I had to say that I didn’t know what she was talking about, but it was an extremely difficult situation. I talked with one of the long-term missionaries working with Target later that night, and he said that Sarah’s brother is one of the Chinese house church pastors working with Target. Sarah is one of the few Chinese that actually knows about what we do and who we are! Out of the millions of Chinese students in all of China, we “happen” to meet her, and she “happens” to be Sylvia’s roommate. I just shook my head and said, “What are the odds…”

Since then, Sylvia has been eager to learn more, comes regularly to our Bible studies, and has been the most interested out of all our friends. She studies the Bible in her dormitory with her roommates, and they talk about questions together. She essentially leads a Bible study in her room! I had been encouraging her to check out Sarah’s house church so she could have something more permanent to hook into when we leave, as well as answer her questions regarding culture and how it works to be Chinese and a Christian. She has gone for the last few weeks, and she loves it!

This morning, Sylvia and I met over rice noodles for breakfast. In that two-hour time period, we discussed again what it meant to be a Christian, and she decided that she wanted to become a Christian! There, in that noodle shop, I prayed with her to join the Family, and we talked about finding a pool to baptize her in before we leave in two weeks. We were both crying tears of joy, and I am incredibly excited for her new journey in Christ!!

Please be praying for her. Since she is connected to the Chinese house church, I am not worried about leaving her without any resources. However, she will be telling her friends and family, and I know she is worried if they will support her in her decision.

This year, we were faithful to sow seeds of truth and talk about the Gospel with our friends. We might see fruit like we did with Sylvia today. With other friends, we might never know what will happen. We are just to stay faithful to the task God has given us, and He does the rest. It has been an honor to be here, serving Him in this way!

That all might know,

Joy

P.S. Lots of new pictures are up on my Shutterfly site! We’ve had Easter parties, book studies, a makeup modeling gig, and lots of other strange happenings since I last wrote. Check it out! ]]> http://www.campustarget.org/blogs/joy/2011/05/what-are-the-odds/feed/ 0 http://www.campustarget.org/blogs/clive/2011/04/who-is-god-who-are-we/ http://www.campustarget.org/blogs/clive/2011/04/who-is-god-who-are-we/#comments Sat, 16 Apr 2011 17:49:55 +0000 laura http://www.campustarget.org/?p=3432 These are the questions that our ID Arts club is concerned with. We’ve been holding it weekly now for the last month plus, and every week there are people, whether local church leaders, Americans who are passing through Asia as part of their work in 11 countries in 11 months – Keep Going, Racers!,  someone like Ivy, a college student and good friend who comes in every week practically bouncing with excitement at the chance to express herself with art, or Tree, another young Asian woman who hasn’t painted in 20 years, but recently created a beautiful watercolor!

   I want to give praise to God for all He’s doing to reveal Himself as Creator and Father of each of those who come and for speaking to us about what it means to be children created in His glorious image (imago dei — ID ). The atmosphere at our gatherings is one of worship, freedom, and mutual encouragement where we expect to encounter the Living God – and He does not disappoint!

Praise Him also for providing a place to host this event. After being on campus for a few weeks, we are not able to meet in the arts building anymore and could not find a suitable space anywhere. But last Thursday, Thomas and Levi, two Asian leaders of a local fellowship that we sometimes attend, said we could have it at their place every week if we need to! Its great for now, but I’m believing that we’ll outgrow it soon and have to expand, so please be lifting this up – whether that means renting a new place, having more meetings, or taking it to the streets!

Love in the One,

Clive

This weekend three of my teammates and myself utilized some well-needed vacation time to travel to a city 3 hours to the northwest. In addition to getting out of HB for a few days, we also journeyed with the intention of meeting another worker and his family on the recommendation of the leader of our organization. One of my teammates, Clive, had been in contact with the worker “Jason” and let him know we were coming….but apparently we weren’t what he expected at all!

We got off the train about 1:00 pm and walked out of the station. Now this city only has about 1,000,000 people, a drop in the bucket for this country; the number of westerners can be counted on two hands. So we see this white guy standing outside of the train station, and I think “well, that has to be Jason, right? I mean how many westerners can there be in this city?” But as we walked closer, he didn’t seem to acknowledge us. We were about to walk away when Clive turned around and asked him: “Hey, are you Jason? I’m Clive.” Jason’s eyes flashed confusion and disbelief: “Clive? I thought you were going to be Chinese!” All the communication that Clive and Jason had done was in the local language via text message and one short, hurried phone call, so Jason was under the impression that there were four Asian guys, not two American guys and two American girls coming to his city to meet him!
After we all laughed and introduced ourselves we spent the rest of the day with him walking around his city and hearing the call God has placed on his life for and the people there. We later met his wife and their four children. The next day we were able to go to the small fellowship that meets at their apartment once a week. The entire weekend was a wonderful experience for us, but I also feel it was great for this family as well. The fact of the matter is that they don’t really get to interact with foreigners very often, they are pretty much up there all alone. It was great to be able to bless them just by being there and letting them know that they are not alone. I feel really encouraged knowing that sometimes we don’t even have to do anything or be anything special, but when we follow God’s leading, He blesses our steps, and the lives of people we encounter.

McDoogle

A few days ago, Sheldon and I were on campus and met an Asian
Christian who said that he goes to a house church near campus, so I
am praying that this will be a good opportunity for Amy to meet
other sisters and brothers.

Autumn

Please join me in believing Him for more opportunities like this! 

Triumphing in His Victory!

Simba

May Jesus be worshiped by every tribe, nation, and tongue!

-Simba