It’s funny how the hardest times to decide what to eat are when
you’re really hungry. I think to myself, “I don’t want to waste
this hunger on anything less than the perfect meal right now!”
That’s just me though. So I continued my walk of indecision around
the block, passing noodle-shops, restaurants, dumpling stands,
street barbecue vendors, and about every other meal option you
could think of. Options-a-plenty I couldn’t decide on one! O, the
torment!

Coming back around to the vicinity of the front gate of my
apartment, I gave in and just forced a decision. Feet tired, I
traipsed into a tiny shao kao fried rice restaurant. Barbecued meat
and vegetables spiced up in local custom, then thrown on a skillet
and tossed together with some rice and other seasonings. Take my
word, it’s pretty delicious.

After over an hour walk of hungry hunting, I sat in the shop and
waited for my take-out. On the sidewalk in front of the shop sat a
couple other patrons, huddled over a small table on little pink
plastic stools. Looking out, I noticed a light rain beginning to
fall. Picking up their plate of food, the man and woman seated
outside came in for shelter and sat at a table in the back.

A minute or two passed, and the man––mid-thirties maybe––came and sat across from me. “Hi,” he said, “where are you from?” Surprised
by his english I began to chat with him while I waited for my food.
After a couple of minutes of the usual questions––Where are you
from? Are you a student? How long have you been in China? Do you
like the food?––the conversation got very interesting.

“Do you believe. . . in Jesus?” he asked quietly. I replied, of
course, that I do. “Do you?” I asked. “Yes, I do!” he exclaimed.

For the next several minutes he shared how he would really like to
study the Bible with me and about his experience with the
difficulties of finding other christians to, in his words, “enjoy
the Bible with”. Thoroughly enjoying his eagerness and hunger, I
felt a little sad that I’d be leaving to go back to the States
soon. Sharing this with him, his response was, “That’s okay, we can
when you come back!”

Exchanging numbers, I realized I hadn’t got his name as I went to
enter it into my contacts. “My name is Moxi [pronounced muo-shee;
chinese for Moses],” he said.

“You’re name is Moses?” I laughed.

“Yes, Moses.”

“My name is Aaron!” We both burst out in laughter in the tiny shop.
“Hello, my brother!” he chuckled.

This was a fun moment. For one thing, I wandered all around my
neighborhood for a long time looking trying to decide on a place to
eat. Of all the places I saw, the Lord led me to this one. Also, if
it hadn’t started to rain, he doesn’t come in the shop and meet me.
I believe this was a divine appointment and that God has a plan for
it! The sovereignty of God amazes me!

I was also humbled by this. Getting back to my apartment, the Lord
put something on my heart. Sometimes, when things like this happen
we thank God that it’s an answer to our prayers. Yes that may be
the case, most of the time and even in this time. But what God put
on my heart as I took off my shoes was that this wasn’t an answer
to my prayer. This was an answer to Moses’.

In my heart, I was like, “Wow, God. That’s so true. You don’t just
listen to me. You’re not just interested in my prayers alone.
There’s other people. There’s Moses, whose probably been asking you
for somebody to study the Bible with.” It’s true, sometimes I
forget. It’s not just about me and what I want. Sometimes I forget
that. Sometimes I forget God doesn’t just want to bless me, but He
also wants me to be a blessing. Sometimes I think I need to stop
asking God for blessing, and remember to ask that He’d use me to
bless! God let me be a blessing! Use me, God!

This was a reminder for me and let me encourage you with it as
well. It’s good to ask God for things and He desires for us to do
that. Let’s walk knowing that we can go to God and receive from
Him. But, let’s also walk with a heart that says, “Okay, Lord, how
can I be a blessing today? Help me to be a blessing! Can I bless
someone today, God?!” Be encouraged! Be a blessing!

In Him,

Acorn

Believe with me,

Acorn

PRAYER REQUESTS:

• Please be lifting up our Sunday meetings, that God would continue
to move in mighty ways in our midst and that we’d continue to see
fruit unto His glory!

• Please be lifting up our new believers, that they’d be
strengthened in their faith, and hungry, passionate to know Jesus!

• Please be lifting up my team, that we’d be able to maintain unity
and love for one another as we progress in what God is doing in our
midst!

• Please be lifting up my finances, that I’d be strengthened in
trust and in perfect peace of God’s provision!

Here’s a quick rundown of what I’ve been up to! . . .

Winter Break.

While our friends headed home for their Spring Festival holiday
(the chinese celebration of their lunar new year) all of us CT-ers
headed to Thailand for our annual ministry retreat! This is always
a refreshing and powerful time for us to be ministered to by some
guest speakers, and one another.  We had a powerful minister from
Singapore come and impart a fresh fire in our spirits and I’m we
all left hungrier than ever to see God move in us and through us!

This year’s highlight for me was my day in the canopy of the Thai
jungle. While I didn’t have any run-ins with any monkeys as I zip-
lined through a cable course with a bunch of other CT-ers, I did
have a run in with something close: Mr. Boston. He was our “Jungle
Flight” tour guide with a mohawk and a taste for crazy. Throughout
the day he would shirk his Thai accent and attempt his best
Bostonian accent allowing us to critique his “Pahk the cah in tha
pahkin laht.” Then he would zip away hanging upside down like
spiderman.

After Thailand, I returned back to the Du with the rest of the team
here. With a couple weeks before our friends would return to the
campuses, we had some speakers come in and minister to us for our
second annual “Winter-session”. This was a time in which the Lord
brought a word of grace and sonship. It was powerful! I’m still
chewing on it to this day. As we’re over here to make disciples,
this is the foundation that MUST be built upon–God’s grace and
love! I know in some ways I still just don’t fully get it. Teach
me, Lord!

Picking Back Up.

A few weeks ago our friends said farewell to their family and
hometowns and flooded back to the campus. One after another, we
began to receive text messages from friends wanting to let us know
they were back in town. We were ready for them! Especially our new
brothers and sisters.

Before they came back I had an exciting meeting with my team during which we strategized together to plant a church! Finishing up the previous semester with a handful of new-believers we really felt
like we could see a baby church formed and gathering together by
the end of this semester!

So for the past two Sundays we’ve been gathering together to share
testimonies, worship, and pray together. During our last meeting,
Autumn and Skittles along with another chinese new-believer, led
their friend Amy to Christ! Praise God! We also saw our friend
Peter receive Christ a few weeks ago as well!

We’re starting simple, but we’re believing that this baby-church is
going to continue to multiply and grow and become a thriving
student-led body of believers! I believe that the vision that we
came here with––to see a multiplying church planted on our
campus––is being realized! Right now it’s a mustard seed, but such
is the kingdom of God! I can’t wait to see what the Lord does as he
continues to breath on what is happening here!

The afternoon my team and I had the strategy meeting to plant the
church, I was praying in my room about it and dreaming with the
Lord about it. I was half-joking with myself things like what we
could call it, “What would we name this church?” It was just light-
hearted until the Lord actually dropped a word in my heart
concerning that: Prevail. The dictionary on my computer gives this
definition: “Prevail – (v.) Prove more powerful than opposing
forces; be victorious.” Whoa!!! That’s good, Lord! I like it!
Prevail!

Adversity.

In the midst of what God is doing, we have seen some adversity. Our
friends Li Yang and Yang Zhi Hao (Boanerges from a previous blog of
mine) have come back from break with a discouraging report. As they shared their new-found faith with their families, both were met
with strong disapproval. We had some dinner with them to catch up
on things and they shared about how their families had received
them.

My heart was broken as they shared how they are not going to
continue to pursue the Lord or study the Bible. Li Yang has decided
that he feels he needs more “life experience” before he can make a
decision to follow Jesus. Yang Zhi Hao shared that his father has
forbidden him from studying the Bible and he’s going to honor
father in that.

They’re still open to hanging out and spending time with us, but
they won’t be coming to any meetings that we’ll have or study the
Bible with us.

Please be praying for these two! I know God has a plan for these
two, and the opposition only convinces me more of that! Continue to
believe with me for God’s will for them to be done and that they’d
be powerful tools in His hand for His kingdom!

I think that about catches you all up on the major goings on here
on the other side of the world! Thank you guys again so much for
your faithful prayers and support! Please be praying for us, the
church, and our friends!

Prevailing in Christ,

Acorn

            We weren’t there to play ma-jiang. Several days had passed since Li Yang had accepted Jesus. Busy with studies and preparing for final exams, aside from a quick dinner, this was the first opportunity we had to meet up with Li Yang since he had become a Christian and we wanted to talk with him about being baptized. He brought along his friend and roommate Yang Zhi Hao, who had also been coming to our weekly Bible study.

            Huddled around the table, Rocky, Hans, and I taught Li Yang about baptism. As we sipped our tea in the drab unheated room, the words of renewal, redemption, life and salvation seemed all the brighter.

            In this dingy, cold room eternal life was about to spring forth. After discussing baptism with Li Yang for about an hour while Yang Zhi Hao listened in we were sitting around and talking about when he would have time to do it. Yang Zhi Hao then chimed in, “So what do we need to bring?” “We?”, I thought to myself. At that point, Rocky, across the table from me, perked up and asked Yang Zhi Hao if he had ever prayed and asked Jesus to be his Lord and Savior. “No,” he replied. 

            After a brief discussion confirming his faith, Hans lead Yang Zhi Hao in a prayer to receive Jesus! Praise the Lord! “I believe the Bible and I believe in Jesus. . . God is my guide for the rest of my life,” he confessed after praying! Hallelujah!

            Wow, this is really exciting! These guys are roommates, best friends, and freshman. Not only for the obvious reason of their salvation is this exciting, but for them to get saved pretty much at the same time, to get baptized together, to live together, and already have good relationship with one another this is an ideal situation for them to grow together strengthen one another in their faith! In a place where there aren’t many Christians, for them to be able experience this together is a really big deal. They are both so genuine and ready to follow Jesus, and they can do it together! God is good and has an incredible plan for these two!

            Personally, I just have great faith for what God wants to do with these two in the place he has them. The potential in their dorm and in their campus is so huge! I remember even just a couple months ago praying that the Lord would save these two and raise them up together as “sons of thunder” as Jesus calls James and John. I just believe that these two guys will be a powerful witness and will have a thunderous impact on to those around them!

Praise Him!

 Acorn

My point is that sometimes things are already prepared for you. All
you have to do is take it that last step to make it into a delicious breakfast.

My chinese friend Ken, a student at the university, reminds me a
lot of instant oatmeal. Rocky, Hans and I have only met with him a
few times. Rocky and Hans met him at an english corner before
Christmas and invited him to our party. I met him for the first
time at that party and was able to chat with him for a bit. What I
found was a package of instant oatmeal.

In short, he had lived in the States as an exchange student and
lived with a family of believers. He would go to church with them
every Sunday but had never made a decision to receive Christ. Upon
coming back to China, he realized how much he missed going to
church. He felt God close then, but not since being back. He wanted
to know God. Time to add the water!

Due to a busy time of studies and exams, he was pretty much
unavailable until the day before he left to go home for beak. I was
away for the afternoon but came home in time to greet my new
brother in Christ. Rocky and Hans spent the afternoon with him and
shared the Good News with him again and answered some questions he
had. In the end, Ken got saved! That’s some good oatmeal!

It’s been quite a finish to the semester over here! Our friends are
trickling back to there hometowns and every day the campus grows
more and more quiet. But that hasn’t stopped God from continuing to
move! Last Sunday we had a baptism party for some of our new
believers. A few days ago Ken got saved. We’ve even had some new
friends decide they’d like to come to our Bible studies when they
get back! God is on the move and I can’t wait to see what lies
ahead!

Acorn

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. Please be praying for the new believers! They’ll be home until
the end of February on break for Spring Festival. We’ll be in
contact with them as much as we can, but we’re believing for the
Holy Spirit to be teaching, guiding, strengthening, edifying, and
preserving their faith!
Guys:
Li Yang
Yang Zhi Hao
Ken

Girls:
Yvonne
Yang Zai Jing
Helen
Sophia

2. Please pray for wisdom for me! As the team leader, I’ll be
responsible for making the decisions as far as planting a church on
the campus. Turns out, I’ve never done that before! I’m trusting in
God to lead and provide wisdom in that.

3. Please be praying for our unsaved friends as well!
Guys:
King
David
Wen Bing
Jack
Gary
Yang Ming
Peter Huang

Bless you guys! Much love in Christ!

    (Scribble scribble)… Li Yang. (Scribble scribble)… Sophia.
(Scribble scribble)… Yvonne. (Scribble scribble)… Yang Zai
Jing. (Scribble scribble)… Helen. An Almighty hand carefully
inscribes five new names in the Book of Life. All of heaven
rejoices. All of heaven praises. Today is the day of salvation!
    God is so good! In these past couple of weeks, my team and I saw
five of our friends accept Jesus! We’re now reaping the first-
fruits of what we believe will be many more salvations. There are
so many so close to making a decision to follow Jesus. It’s all
been an incredible work of God and I’m excited we can all be a part
of it! Our friends’ lives are being changed… for ETERNITY! Let’s
pray in some more!
    Li Yang is a friend of mine that I met back in September. My team
and I were on a prayer walk on the campus. That day, as it turned
out was also orientation day for incoming freshman. Sitting near
the main entrance to the campus, we watched group after group of
new students pass by to begin touring the campus. Li Yang and his
friend approached us, gladly ditching his tour group to say hello
to the foreigners. He was so excited to meet us! Now, a few months
later, I call this 19 year old college freshman my brother in
Christ!
    The day after Christmas, our usual Saturday afternoon Bble study
turned into a viewing of “The Nativity”. Just a couple of guys were
able to make it, as many of our friends are now bearing down for
exams. In the glow of Christmas lights Rocky, Hans, and I watched
the movie with Li Yang and our other friend Yang Ming.
    After watching, we began to reflect on the movie with our two
chinise friends. Then the Holy Spirit began to move, stirring a faith
in me to see the two of them come to know Jesus that night. As I
spoke the  Holy Spirit anointed my words.
    “You ever wonder what life is all about? What the meaning of it
is? Why we’re here? Why YOU’RE here?” I asked.
    In the middle of my asking, Li Yang perked up and leaned forward.
“Yes! I always ask myself these questions!”
    Picking up my Bible off the coffee table in front of me I said,
“It starts here. It starts with God!”
    “Yes! Yes, I believe it! I think I will read the Bible for the
rest of my life.”
     Amazingly, Li Yang then shared with us that he’s been praying. He
shared that in the morning he will pray, and confessed feelings of
peace and joy while he does and afterwards.
    In short, moments later I was leading him in a prayer to receive
Christ as his lord and savior. Li Yang has found the Way, confessed
the Truth, and received the Life.
    After leading him in prayer, I invited him to pray on his own in
chinese. Afterwards I asked him how he felt.
    “It’s so amazing! I feel so peaceful,” he replied.
    Hallelujah!

    Praise Him,

    Acorn

    Hallelujah! What a Christmas season!
    These next couple of weeks we’ll be following up with our friends.
My team had a great  Christmas party with about thirty of our
friends at our apartment. We played games, sang Christmas carols,
shared the Christmas story, and had a ch*nese believer share her
testimony and present the g*spel in chinese!
    While we didn’t see anyone respond to the invitation to receive
J*sus then, we’re excited to be able to follow up and see what G*d
did beneath the surface in the hearts of our friends! He is drawing
them to himself! G*d is responding to our pr*yers and your pr*yers
and moving on the hearts of our friends.

PR@YER REQUESTS:

> Continue to pr*y that the veil would be lifted and that Chr*st
would be revealed to them! (2 Cor. 4:3–6)

> Pr*y for the new believers, that they would be built up and
strengthened in their faith! (Col 1:9–12)

> Pr*y that G*d would continue to stir in our friends hearts while
they are away for their winter break. They’ll be leaving in these
next few weeks and will be away for about a month in between
semesters.

> Please continue to stand with me and pr*y in financial provision.
If you’d be interested in sowing into my work over here, please
contact me at: acorn.in.asia07@gmail.com. Thank you!

Thank you all so much for your faithfulness to pr*y and stand with
me in this incredible m*ssion to see the college campuses in Ch*na
lit up for J*sus!

God bless,

Acorn

            We took a day trip to Hong Kong to renew our visas. Aside from that, we were able to meet up with the rest of the CT team for the first time since we’d left the States. So what did we do with but a few hours of time? We stuffed our faces. There was an Outback Steakhouse involved for some, and a TGI-Friday’s involved for others. Still others indulged in some sushi and then, of course a round of Starbucks. After being fully steak-ified and caffeinated, the Du-team had a bus to catch to take us back to the mainland. So we quickly said our goodbyes to the other CT-ers and headed to our meeting spot… so we thought.

            So there we were. The designated meeting time had come and gone and still no sign of our leaders. I remember thinking to myself, “I feel like we’re gonna have to sprint very fast very very soon.” Looking around I imagined the sight of the seventeen of us, sprinting through the busy sidewalks of Hong Kong, weaving in and out of people who, startled, would stop and watch the parade of panicked heavy breathing young americans rush by clutching their back packs. That would be funny, I thought.

            Moments later that image became reality as our city-leader’s wife appeared through a crowd of people waving her hands and shouting, “The bus is about to leave! Hurry up, this way!” Apparently, we met up in the wrong spot… Now we sprint. Hold on to your back-packs! Feet don’t fail me now!

            And they didn’t. Nor did anyone else’s. Through the crowded Hong Kong streets and even passing by a cheering group of our laughing, cheering, clapping CT brothers and sisters, to whom we had just a short time ago said farewell, we made it. Praise the Lord!

            These past couple of weeks have been exciting and encouraging. Since the last time I wrote, my team has been focusing on starting Evangelistic Bible Studies, or EBS’s. EBS’s are part of our ministry strategy to “feed the hungry”. As we’ve been meeting with our friends we’ve been seeking out those who are spiritually hungry with a genuine interest in learning about God and who want to study the Bible. We’re believing for our friends to be encountering God through his Word! We’re believing for our friends to be receiving revelation unto salvation through direct contact with the Word of God. His Word is powerful, and our friends are going to be eating it up!

            Right now, the girls on my team, Autumn and Skittles, have started three EBS’s with their friends, with a possible fourth! Each one is a gathering of three to four of their friends. The guys on my team, Rocky and Hans, have one up and running, and one up and coming!

            During these times we’ll be discussing a certain passage of scripture and then leading our friends in a discussion to draw out what the passage is saying about who Jesus is. We’ve decided to go through the miracles of Jesus in the book of John.

            Thank you all so much for standing with me in prayer and believing with me for God to do great things in the lives of our friends!

Acorn

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. Please be praying for our EBS’s! As we’re going through the miracles of Jesus, ask that our friends would receive a revelation of the divinity of Christ.

2. Please be praying for the men on our campus. There’s much more resistance in them to believe in God, much more to follow God. Ask that the hearts of the guys we know and the guys we meet would be softened and open to Jesus.

3. Please be praying for me for wisdom and direction in leading my team, ministry strategies, and grace in growing as a leader.

Thank you! God bless you and keep you and cause his face to shine upon you!

Last weekend, I met with my friend Gary. He’s a really great friend
of mine who I’ve known since last year. My partners and I began to
meet with him midway through the year last year. In order to feed
an interest in him to study and learn the Bible we began to meet
with him every Saturday afternoon for lunch. Afterwards, we’d go to
a tea-house and drink tea and talk about stories from the Bible.
Okay, sometimes we’d play some mahjiang too, but we never gambled.

These were some of my favorite meetings from all of last year and
we’ve continued on with Gary this year, meeting with him every week
with the purpose of talaking about the Bible. Last year, we went
through the miracles of Jesus in the gospel of John. This year,
we’ve been reading through the book of Acts with him. We’ll meet
with him and ask him questions about what he read: “What did you
like about what you read? What didn’t you like? Was there anything
you didn’t understand?. . .”

This week Gary, shared with us about a recent trip he’d taken to
another province for some experiments he’d be performing as a part
of his post-grad studies. The trip included a long train ride of
over 20 hours, in which he said he spent pretty much the whole time
reading the Bible. He shared with Rocky and I, “As I was reading I
felt so peaceful. The more I read the more I believed the stories in the
Bible.”

Gary shared with us that prior to this trip, because he was at
school and generally pretty busy and didn’t have enough time to get
into the Bible, he would read it but not really believe it was
true. Further he shared that he would usually just read to
practice his english and because he enjoyed the stories. He
actually went on to apologize to Rocky and I for this.

I believe that as we’ve been praying and asking God that our
friends would encounter Him, that God would meet with our friends,
God’s been faithful and answering our prayers! I believe that God
met with Gary in a special way on that train ride as a direct
answer to prayer! As Gary immersed himself in the Word of God, God
met him in that place. I believe that God even deposited a measure
of faith into Gary’s heart during that time and that seed is
incorruptable! “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of
God” Paul says in the book of Romans.

God is doing such a work in Gary! He has led him to a place in
which he is no longer reading the Bible to improve his english,
he’s reading becuase there is a confessed faith that is stirring in
him to believe. He wants to believe and said the more he reads, the
more he believes. Praise God!

“I will read this book for the rest of my life,” Gary said. Amen,
my friend.

Aaron

PRAISE REPORT:

One of the things my team and I have been praying for has been that
our friends would hear the Word of God, that they would seek truth
and not be blinded to the truth. We’ve had quite a few friends seek
out and buy their own Bibles! Just this past week, the girls on my
team had a friend tell them that another student on the campus
“randomly” walked up to them on the campus and handed them a Bible
saying, “You can’t buy this in a store. Read it.” Wow! Another
friend of ours found a Bible from a man who was selling books out
of the back of his truck and bought it! Not only are our friends
seeking out the Word and finding it, God is just putting it in
their laps! Praise Him!

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. Wisdom and guidance for us in leading our friends who are
interested in God to make a decision to follow Jesus.

2. Ask for more friends for us. We want as many as we can! We’re
looking specifically for “people pockets”–groups of friends who
hang together. We’re also looking to be meeting friends who will
eventually be a “pillar” to build the church on our campus. Bring
us the Peter’s, Lord!

3. Pray for wisdom and direction for us in establishing a
fellowship of believers on our campus. Remember our vision: To
establish a multiplying church on our campus. In order to do this
we must: 1) Make friends. 2) Share the gospel with friends /
evangelize. 3) Discple friends. 4) Gather them all together
together. We’re always making friends, but right now we’re
focusing on the 2nd part.

    >>    Pray for open hearts! That stronghold’s and veils would be
lifted! Pray for salvations!

We got to share with King about God’s love, His desire for a
relationship with us, why He desires that, what He did to make that
possible for us and how we can enter into that with Him. For about
40 minutes Hans and I preached the gospel to this first year post-
grad student at our university. He was with us every step of the
way! By the looks of his countenance, he was hearing and
understanding what we were sharing with him and soaking it in!

At one point Hans was sharing about forgiveness and being made
right with God. At a pause in the conversation, King perked up and
in his own words vollied back to us, “So Jesus is kind of like a
bridge back to God.” Amen, brother! He speaketh the Truth, indeed!

This was really exciting because one of the greatest challenges of
our ministry over here is making the things of God understandable
to our friends. Some of the obstacles are very apparent and take
work to get around. Most often, even with our most fluent english
speaking friends, the language barrier is a challenge. Words like
sanctification, or atonement, don’t really come up in their english
classes. They just don’t have the language to be able to understand
so we do our best to just explain the idea as simply and as
basically as we can.

However some of the obstacles we face are hidden in the spiritual
realm and are our most significant barriers. Paul, in 2nd
Corinthians 4:4 says that “the god of this age has blinded the
minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the
gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” The truth
is, laying language, cultural, all physical, natural barriers
aside, there is still a veil over the minds of unbelievers blinding
them from the truth of the gospel.

The good news is that as believers–in the authority granted us by
Christ, and through the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us–
we can ask for this veil to be removed!

Before going into any friend meeting, my partners and I get
together and pray for a bit before leaving the house. The
prevailing prayer of my heart recently for our lost friends, and
this night in particular for King,  has been for that veil to be
removed that our friends would see and know Christ. For King, just
after our first meeting, that light is beginning to shine through!
Praise the Lord!

PRAYER REQUESTS:

> Ask for that veil to be removed! from the minds of our friends as
we minister the gospel to them, that they would see the “light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ.” (2 Cor 4:4).

> I’ve been a little under the weather these past couple of days.
Please be lifting up my health.

> My team and I. That we would be strengthened in the Lord, in our
faith, in our calling, and walking in unity.

> Friends to made and friends to be saved!

Thank you! God bless you guys!

Acorn