Just the other day in church I heard the Holy Spirit whisper in my ear, “Don’t beg them. Ask Me.” Wow. What a concept.

A few days later as I was praying and asking God for more laborers for Asia, I saw this picture in my mind of Jesus standing on a mountain. He was looking down at a massive group of people and yelling, “COME.” All of a sudden, I saw what looked like wind flowing out of His mouth and sweeping over the people, and they were being compelled to go up the mountain, past Jesus, and into the harvest field of lost souls. Powerful, right? Then I saw a megaphone with the message “COME” flowing out of it, and Jesus made it clear that as a mobilizer, I am the megaphone. The message of calling people to Asia is from His heart but coming from my mouth. The people are not responding to me, but to their Savior. Pretty humbling.

My heart is growing more and more for young adults in America. No worries, it’s also growing for Asian people! I have been struggling a lot with being in America because in my mind, the “real” mission field is a foreign mission field. I feel like I’m not making as much of a difference here in America, and I would rather be in Asia sharing the gospel with people that have never heard the name of Jesus. More and more, though, God is showing me that I am here for a purpose, and it’s greater than what I can even imagine. I still struggle with not being in Asia, but as a believer, the third greatest thing I can do is challenge people to live in the reality that there is a Great Commission, and we have not fulfilled it yet. The first thing, of course, is loving Jesus, and the second thing is sharing His love with others.

As I am growing in my love for my job as a mobilizer, I am learning that prayer is what changes everything. Remember how we would learn that in Sunday School? Well, I guess it took me a little bit longer. In Luke 10:2 it says, “…the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore to send out workers into His harvest field.” I’m learning the best move I can make as a mobilizer is praying. I ask, He calls them to go, and we are closer to fulfilling the Great Commission!

A few weeks ago I was reading the story in Matthew 20 where Jesus tells the parable of the workers paid equally. Something struck me this time that I had never seen before. The landowner kept sending people into the vineyard all the way up to the eleventh hour. “About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’” (Matthew 20:6-7) That really hit me. There are still some of us standing around not joining in the labor of the harvest. And this is the season God has me in: He has me traveling around speaking to young adults about the Great Commission that He has already commanded us to take part in and the great harvest that is waiting in Asia. Please pray for me as I continue to mobilize students. Pray that I am able to stay the course and continue to challenge my peers as well as those younger than me to “COME” to Asia.

Right now we have 9 applicants and are praying for at least 14 more. Please join in praying with me for more laborers for Asia! This month I’ll be traveling in 5 states and participating in over 15 events sharing about Asia and Campus Target! Please pray that the Holy Spirit goes before me and that I will continually be reminded that it is Him doing the calling and I’m just a vessel!

Thank you for your prayers and financial support!

As we sat and talked on the bus she began to tell me of her deep interest in the Middle East. I was shocked to see that she was so interested in it, and told her that I too have a deep interest in the Middle East as well. I told her one day I would like to go somewhere in the Middle East and share with them the truth about God. That turned the topic to Him. She began to tell Viv and I that she has always believed there is a God and even had “God is always with me” written in her phone. She said that she wanted to become a Christian, but there were 2 churches (registered ones) in Chengdu and she did not know how to enroll.  I got to tell her how easy it was to believe. She thought it was incredible! (Which it is).  What an answer to prayer! She began to tell us that she was not planning on going back to her home that night, but that she had been sitting in her dorm and all of a sudden decided she needed to go home… “God must have wanted us to meet” she said.  I told her that I totally agreed and then told her what Priend and I had prayed that very morning. She was astonished. We continued to talk about Him, “I really want to dig into the Bible,” she said determinedly.  Priend and I are super excited!! Please pray for us as we get back together with her next week and decide a time to start a Book Study with her!!

Also please pray for my Muslim friend Delnur. I got to spend last Saturday with her looking for books. She never found the one she wanted so we came back to my house so she could choose from my library. She chose: “A Love Worth Giving” by Max Lucado. and “Passion and Purity” by Elisabeth Elliot.  I explained to her that the God they are referring to is the God I worship.  Earlier that day she had asked me to tell her the story of Jesus. I got a text from her the other night that said she loves “Passion and Purity”, but was reading it slowly so that she could write down all the important things! Please pray that Jesus meets her while she is reading these two books!!

Hope you all are doing well!! See some of you in 5 weeks!!!

Our session on church planting went fantastic. The Holy Spirit showed up and really began to pour new vision into my heart for my school and the 30,000 lost students walking around there every day. I began to think, “how on earth could we reach 30,000 people with only a little over 100 believers?

Multiplication.

Multiplication is the only way we will be able to reach all 30,000 students…and because our God is so majestic, He has given us just the plan to carry out!

A New Work.

Last Thursday I sat down with the leaders of my fellowship and began to tell them the vision we felt like God was giving us. Within this vision we would be leaving their fellowship, not because we do not love them, but because we want to see hundreds and hundreds of small churches all over their college. They understood completely and wanted to support us through prayer as we ventured out to start new fellowships. They were so encouraging and really caught the vision that the only way for the Gospel to spread all over Asia we have got to use the vision of multiplication.

So what does that look like? Well, the Lord has given us 2 really special Chinese people to help us carry out this vision. This week we sat down with Martin and Bob and began to tell them the strategy God has given us: We are looking for groups of friends who are interested in the Bible and starting a study with them about the 7 miracles of Jesus Christ recorded in the Bible of John. Through this, we are hoping they will come to know Jesus. After coming to know Jesus, right off the bat we began telling them that they too can start a church and that is exactly what the Lord is wanting them to do. As it turns out EVERY single believer is a potential new church. We will be challenging them to start a Bible study with other friends that they have in hopes that they too will come to know the Lord. Then those will start others…and they will start more…and as it goes
more and
more
and more
and more
churches will be started. And then when they graduate they will go out to their new cities and their new jobs and they will be starting more and more churches because the idea is so simple. Martin and Bob really grabbed a hold of the idea and this week we have already started our Bible studies.

Please join in prayer for my team and I as we start these Bible studies. We are shadow “pastoring” Martin and Bob so that these studies and new fellowships can be completely Chinese run…we don’t want to be in the picture. We feel like Chinese people reaching Chinese people is the best way to do it. We feel like God has given us this vision, but we want to make sure that we are doing it according to His plan! Please pray for strength and energy as we are starting this new work. Please, please, please pray that we rest in God’s plan and not our own. Please pray for a girl to step up and help us with these. Sometimes it is hard to rest in the Lord, but I know that He has a plan in store!

Ling’s mother and father began to tell me that I was their daughter and that I had brought so much joy to their home and could not bear to see me go. Through Ling I told them that all of the good they saw in me was directly from my heavenly Father. That opened the door for Ling and I to talk more directly about the Love of our Father to her parents. Please pray that they come to a saving knowledge…they are so close!! My trip there was good, but I was so happy to get back to the Du! After being gone for three weeks it was so good to be back home!

These past two weeks we have been having our Winter Session classes for CT. It’s been quite amazing! The first week we did Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. It was fantastic! I feel so money smart now! He talked about debt snowball which is totally going to help me with paying back my school loans…turns out there is a smarter way to go about paying them back then they way I have been! This past week we have had a city focused prayer time. It has been incredible. The Holy Spirit showed up in a POWERFUL way. We prayed for our families, for each other, for America, for our friends, for healing…for so many things! One night I was extremely sick and the girls prayed over me and God healed me!! It was an amazing time of unity for our city. I am so thankful for the work Jesus did in my heart this past week! He spoke to me in such a real and powerful and intimate way. This week we will have classes on church planting. Please pray that God would give us CLEAR direction for our fellowship.

I trust that you are all doing well. I miss you so much. Be blessed and encouraged, the Father loves you each so much!

Later that night at the party, after it was all over and people were in their groups hearing the full Gospel, I turned around and saw an unfamiliar face. I asked Grace if she knew the girl and she did not recognize her either. Granted there were 300 people at the party, but I felt like there was something special about this girl. A few minutes later, one of our sisters Sophia came and got me and pointed to the unfamiliar girl and said that she had told Sophia that I had invited her. I felt pretty lame for not remembering her! It turns out that she was the girl that I had met that afternoon on snack street. Sophia and I got to lead her to the Lord that night!!! Isn’t that awesome! Her English name is Tina…so keep her in your prayers! The Holy Spirit is always leading and guiding. I’m learning more and more just to obey because you never know the outcome…but we do know that obedience blesses His heart!

A few days after Ch*stmas….

Twelve people stuffed on the couches in our living room…each with their own stories…all of which are now in the family. We called together a few of our sisters (and two brothers) over to meet with our 4 new sisters last week. We wanted to talk to them about getting water baptized and also becoming a part of a discipleship group over the holiday. It was such a powerful time, I had them go around and each share their journey to becoming a Christian. It was all in Chinese, but it was SO powerful, the Holy Spirit showed up. It was so fun to see them starting to connect with each other as they realized that through Jesus Christ they have so much in common!!! After they shared their stories Cathy talked to them about baptized and Anna and Tina decided that they wanted to get water baptized right then!! We also got all of our new sisters and brothers (and some older ones) set up in some discipleship groups for over the holiday. Everyone will be home for about a month and we just keep asking that the Holy Spirit would keep them wrapped up in His Arms.

We are leaving for Thailand tomorrow for our yearly conference!!! I am so excited to finally get warm…the truth is we can see our breath in our apartments it’s so cold! It will be so nice to actually see the sun for a change! We will be there for about 12 days and then I will be heading to Wuhan to stay with my sister Ling! I am so excited!! Please pray that while we are there we will be able to talk to her parents about God and that they would be open. Ling is so special to me…I can’t believe that I am being blessed to stay a week with her and her family over Chinese New Year!

Things here have been going really good! We have been incredibly busy meeting with our friends and sharing the Christmas story! It has been so much fun to share the story with our friends…many of who are just hearing it for the first time! Please keep asking the Lord that He would move in our friends hearts!!

We will be having some really key parties this weekend and into next week. Ask that as we share with our friends that the Holy Spirit would move in POWERFUL ways! Ask for wisdom on our part as well!

I am thinking about y’all during this season and am so thankful to have y’all in my life! I hope that you take time during this season to remember why we really celebrate it!!! Remember the cross and who you were before it…think about the joy, peace, love, kindness that has been placed in your heart along with the freedom that came through a small baby being born in the humblest of ways! Be blessed and Merry Christmas!!!!!

My dear friend Ling came over to get water baptized in the water. After she came up she began to pray in Chinese and then was so overwhelmed with joy began to splash the water around, then with a loud voice yelled, “I love you Jesus!!!!” It was so precious. Then Grace and I came to my room to pray some more for her. Y’all, she started singing in another language!!! It was beautiful!! The Holy Spirit showed up and kicked it Acts style!! It was amazing!!! She could not stop singing in the prayer language to our Daddy…she was so filled with the Spirit.

Two boys at our fellowship got saved, one of which had decided that he wanted to first do some things in the world before joining our family, but then after some time decided that his day of salvation was in fact right then. He came over to get water baptized tonight at our house and then started speaking in a prayer language as well.

We had a HUGE thanksgiving party with all of our Chinese friends this week and had close to 100 people here! It was out of control! Sha Sha came which was so good to see her! While talking with Atlas, Sha Sha’s boyfriend asked him if he had a Chinese name. Before Atlas could answer, Sha Sha said, “Yes, it’s Sun Da Li.” Atlas was astonished that she knew his name and even got all of the tones right! He proceeded to ask her how she knew…her response, “God told me.” God is speaking things to our friends about things that they don’t even know about…words of knowledge are coming. Even though it was “small”, it’s still amazing! Atlas asked Grace and I if we had ever told Sha Sha his name and none of us had!

The Lord is doing some awesome things in our lives as well as a team. He is building our faith and we are ready to see Him continue to move in the lives of our friends! At the new campus this week 6 people asked to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and they also began to speak a new language. God is doing something in the hearts of the Chinese brothers and sisters here that is building their faith for something great that is about to come. God is bringing people “randomly” into our lives that are SO hungry for Him!!! We are seeing baby brothers and sisters on fire for Him and can’t help but tell their friends about His grace, love, mercy and hope!!! It’s so astonishing!

We will continue to ask for the Holy Spirit to show up in power, we are asking because we want to see people fall at His feet, His heart beats for the lost. Oh how I pray that ours beats for the same.

Over the next hour I got to tell her about God and why He wants to have her heart…it was such a cool experience. While Cathy was translating I turned to Bear and said, “If she comes into the family today we are totally water baptizing her…go fill up the tub!” Sha Sha totally came into the family and then after explaining baptizing, Grace got to baptize her! It was such a special day! That morning my team and I had been asking for Acts like experiences in our part of the city. Later that night at the fellowship 3 people came into the family!!! God is starting a great work here! Even though we are not results based but faith based it is still so awesome to see peoples’ hearts be turned back to the Father!

Please keep asking that the Lord moves in the hearts of our friends as we are faithful to talk about Him! This next week we are having a Thanksgiving party with all of our friends which should be fun. Ask that we are able to spread some truth while they are at our house! Also, our fellowship will be having a Christmas party and they have asked that we all begin praying from here on out that many people will be added to the family. Please join in praying with us that that would be the case!!

I had the awesome opportunity to speak to our fellowship this week and encourage them that God has placed specific people in their lives to tell them about Him. After the teaching I encouraged each Christian to write down five names that they felt like the Lord was asking to share with and then get together with a friend and pray over the names. A few days later I had lunch with my friend Ivy and she brought her roommate. Ivy began to tell me that she has been sharing about Jesus with her roommate for years and she has never wanted anything to do with it. Her roommate had woken up that morning having decided that she wanted to know more about God!!! Isn’t that amazing!! Ivy had put her on the list! Also, another person she had put on the list had woken up the next morning and gone to the library to read the Bible!!! God is up to something!! Also, one of my best Chinese friends Ling (she became a sister about a month ago) came up to me after the teaching and said, “Cherie, this whole time I have been trying to receive God’s love and just soak it in from Him, but you have helped me realize that I must tell others about Him and share about His love with others.” WOW! She gets it.

God is up to some really cool stuff! Still shocked that He continues to use us, but He does! Praise Him! Our new believers class was awesome this week. We had 17 people attend! Then after it was over one of the girls Connie who became a sister 2 months ago told me that her professor had asked her to talk about the Bible the next day and had given her an hour and a half to do it!!!! So for the next 45 min. we sat down and did an outline of the Bible and I helped her come up with some stuff to talk to her class about! Isn’t that awesome!!! The Lord is moving!!! She said that she was confident that the Holy Spirit was going to speak through her.

We all know that when God is moving Satan feels threatened. We received word last night that the new campus fellowship might be in danger. The night before someone had gone around and put tracts around in peoples dorms from a cult. Security is up on the school now and the new campus fellowship feels like they might be in danger. Please pray that they stay safe and that the wrong people would not be able to see what is actually going on out there. This campus is special in that it is about an hour and half away from the city and so they are far enough away that typically there is a little more freedom there. God has been doing some amazing things out there and I am really glad that we could be a part of it. We are going to lay low this week and stay around here, but please pray that we would be able to encourage them from where we are. And please pray for wisdom and discernment and what are next steps should be!!

Other things to be praying for is our girls and guys nights, please pray that we could use these times to speak into our friends lives and lead them to Him! Also, please pray for my allergies, they are getting worse and sometimes I just sneeze the entire day and it is quite annoying!
Thank you for joining with me in this work that the Spirit is doing! I miss and love you all especially in the start of this holiday season!

So the next week came and I was really not feeling up to meeting with them again, but the Father moved me to go and I am SO glad that I did! As we met at the noodle shop again we began to talk about our lives and school. Then it got time to tell the story of Rebecca. As I began telling them the story of Abraham I told them that the Father was taking him and his family to a new place. I looked at Rebecca’s eyes light up as she said, “The Promised land”? I was shocked! “Why yes” I said, “it is the promised land!” Then Rebecca turned around and pulled out the Bible! She told me that every time she is in a low temper (that’s chinglish for sad) she reads this Bible and it helps her!! God has already been moving in her heart!! The Lord has promised to bring us into the promised land as we continue to be faithful to Him!
Isn’t that awesome! God is moving! I have a lot of exciting things to tell you guys about what else is all going on here but internet time is far and few between so it will have to wait till next time!

Please lift me up as I am meeting with the house church leaders and moving forward on things in our fellowship as well as the new one that has been started on our new campus. This week has been encouraging at times, but very discouraging at others. Please lift me up as I battle these things and stay faithful to killing the flesh and let the Holy Spirit stay in control!