Starting on Tuesday and going through Saturday, we’ve been able to share the gospel with 13 people this week.  Some of our friends are very open, but not ready, like our friend Xin whom we shared with Tuesday morning, and some are ready, like our friend Ann.

We went to the vegetarian restaurant near us for lunch with Xin, and I felt like I should share the good news with her, even though Chloe already has before.  So during that time of sharing Xin was listening and she was able to explain it back to me.  But when it came time to choose about whether she believed in this or not, she said she needed more time, and maybe needed to experience something about Dad first, and then she would believe it.  So she was open, but not ready.

Then that same night we went to a Korean restaurant on that same street to meet with my friend Ann that we’ve shared with at a Girl’s Night awhile ago.  I felt like I’d be re-sharing the story with her, so during the time I brought up J and began to share again the good news about J.  She was listening, understood, and explained it back to us so well.  And then at the end we asked if she wanted to follow, and she said yes!  It was so awesome and we were able to pray with her and teach her how to share with her friends, and in this past week she said she’s already shared with 1 of her friends.  So awesome!

So what was the point of sharing that?  That there are friends who are ready.  We have shared at a Girl’s Night with 30+ people and of them, only 1 has said yes.  Or even this Saturday afternoon we shared with 9 girls altogether, and none of whom were ready or interested in following Him right then.  They may understand completely and be able to explain it back to us, but there’s a difference in someone who’s interested in knowing facts about J, and who’s ready for a relationship with Him.

I’ve found this week that while many friends like Jesus, they understand what the cost of following Him is, and they aren’t ready to surrender their lives to follow Him. Are you ready to follow Jesus?

To begin our relationship with Jesus, we must first admit our fallen state.  We have all done terrible things that separate us from God (Rom 3 part 23) and the punishment for them is death (Rom 6 part 23).  I’ve realized this is the hardest place to start, because most people don’t like admitting they’re bad people.  It’s hard to say that we deserve that punishment, but unless we do, we don’t have a need for a Savior.

A relationship with God says that what we deserve is death, punishment, for what every bad thing we’ve ever done, are doing, or will do, deserves. If I drive a car and run someone over, would it be fair for a judge to say “Oh Hope, that’s fine that you ran over someone… just try better next time, alright?”.  And then if that happens, I can go run over someone again.

What’s fair is when the judge says—you know the law, Hope.  You know the law says you deserve to pay a fine… let’s say $500,000, or you go to jail.  That’s fair, because I deserve that.  And it is the same with Dad.  He already told us what our bad things deserve, so we as humans, people that do bad things all the time, deserve that.

When we realize this, that we’re hopeless, maybe we’ll try and do things to get back into a relationship with Him.  Maybe we’ll try to go to church, or read the Book more times, or give to charity or something.  But those good things we do don’t put us any closer to Papa.  It’s like we have a wall between us, with the wall representing our bad things, and we can’t see or feel or hear God.  So what can we do?  What can bring us back into a relationship with God?  Only Jesus.

He was sent by His Father to live a perfect life among sinful people.  Although trials and tempt@tions came His way, He stayed true and perfect.  And when those same sinful people saw Him as a threat to their own positions, because He was just doing too many good things (John 12:45-57), they decided to get rid of Him.  And J silently went before His accusers, knowing that He alone, the perfect sinless God and Man, could pay our punishment for us.  There was no one before Him or after Him who could, so He went forward and was punished for us, like He was paying my $500,000 fine.

He was whipped, beat, and they put a sharp crown of thorns on His head to pierce it, and then nailed sharp giant nails into His ankles and wrists, and put Him on the giant wooden cr0ss.  And then this Easter we’ll celebrate that gl0rious day when He was raised and came back to life.  All this, for people.  For people, since the fall of man in Eden, had a separate relationship with God.  It was broken, and nothing could fix it.  So Jesus decided to pay for our punishment, and provide the way to get back to Papa.

Do you understand what Jesus did for you?  How He was punished for your sin?

The last part of this, in starting the relationship, is making a decision to follow Jesus.  Once we’ve realized that we’re so bad, we can’t get to God by ourselves, and that Jesus paid the way for us, we can say we want to follow Him.  Following requires our giving up of control.  Like if I was driving the car of my life and I say “I want to go to school!”, and I drive myself there, or “I want to go to the grocery store!”, so I take myself there.  But when we follow Jesus, we move over from the driver’s seat into the passenger’s seat and let Papa drive us.  His plans and paths for us are best, and better than anything we can think of.  We can ask Him to go certain places, but we let Him have control, for He is our Way now!

So are you ready to enter into a relationship with Papa?  Are you ready to follow, and surrender to His leading?  Then let’s pray together.

“Papa… I’ve done so many terrible things.  I deserve punishment.  But God, I believe You sent Your Son Jesus to this earth, and that He died and was risen again for me, to have life.  I want to follow You, to surrender to You, and follow You all of my days.  I love you.  Amen.”

Jesus  I hope we have many new brothers and sisters out there, and that many of you decide to follow Jesus if you haven’t already.  If you have, do you know friends that need to hear this message?

As Jesus was sent into this world, Jesus sends out His followers in the end of Matthew saying “Go!”, for us to go out and to share with our friends and families, to make more followers of Him.  And He says ‘of all nations’, which means everyone!  So we can’t pick and choose which friends we share with, ‘cause everyone needs to have this opportunity to follow Jesus!  And Jesus says ‘teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”, which means that you become a teacher to your new ‘students’, to train them to become ‘teachers’ for their new ‘students, so each generation is being taught by the previous generation.

So if you’re ready to say yes to Jesus, I hope you pray and join His welcoming family, and tell me about it, I’d love to know!  If you’re already committed or freshly re-committed, let’s answer Jesus’s call for our life, to be ‘fishers of men’, and making discisples!

And , before I share prayer request for this week, I’d like to share this verse with you all.  “as you help us with your prayer.  Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many” (2 Cor 1:11).  So firstly, thank you so much for your continued lifting up of our times here.  We have seen so much fruit and are so thankful for all of your lift-ups for us to Papa.

As for what you can pray for this week:

1.  More G2 and G1 salvations!  Our sister Sarah shared with her old friend from high school this week who said yes!  PTL!  And we need more friends just like her to save the generations!
2.  For Dad to continue to rise up the leaders of our friends, to grow in faith in Papa every day, and to be strengthened to lead boldly among their brethren.
3. For safe travels!  The whole gang is headed on a 3-day Visa run to HK and staying with our friends in GZ, so pray for strength and Papa’s protection over that whole time!

Besides that, we’ve had a really great week this week!  God has been moving powerfully in and among us!  We’ve had 2 salvations through us three this week!  The two girls are called Cao Xin and Li Si.  Although I was not present for the first one, I started the day lifting up all our friends and people in the city asking for 2-5 salvations that day, and even though I was napping while the other 2 were out, waking up with a text of a new sister was certainly worth it.  J Then when we all went to the medical campus, making friends individually, I made some who knew little English so I had to communicate mainly in their language.  But while I was doing this, Chloe was making another friend who was ready!  So PTL for His working in our friends’ hearts!

In addition, this week was our first group d-ship meeting!  It went so well!  Although only 2 of our 4 friends who said they could come were able to make it, we were really able to enter in to God’s presence together as a family, and they really got a understood the lesson Time with J and how much He wants to spend time with us even more than we do with Him!  All in all, a great Holy-Spirit led time of fellowshipping, worshipping, and learning about God together as a family.  Wonderful stuff!

And then, to top it all off, we had a great Girl’s Night tonight!  As we were praying we each felt our parts.  Mine was games so I prepared us to play the ever-popular game ‘ninja’ (otherwise known as ‘kung fu’) and another game, while Lucia and the rest of us felt strongly she should share the gospel tonight with our friends.  And it was the best presentation I have ever heard her say!  The HS was all over her and she was talking more slowly, clearly, and explaining everything better than she ever has!  It was so awesome and such a smooth transition from game time to sharing.  And while we got to talk to our friends we found out the two girls I met at the medical campus were actually already Christians, and it was so encouraging to hear their stories about how they met God.

The one girl, Yan Nan, her grandma was going to have surgery on her eyes because she couldn’t see and she was very scared for her grandma.  Then during this time one of her friends told her about Jesus and she believed in Him and she started talking to God and found strength from God that she didn’t have before.

Then she wanted to tell her grandma too so her grandma could have strength during the surgery.  The other girl, You Yi, came to know J the same year that Yan Nan did, and she was having hard times too.  Her best friend was no longer hanging out with her as much and she really wanted a best friend.  Then another friend shared Jesus with her, and now she has many earthly best friends, and a best friend she can *always* talk to!  It was so super encouraging to hear how both of them already knew God.

The rest of the girls at our party did not accept that night, but of the 6 who didn’t know God, at least 3 were pretty interested, and one girl, Nancy was asked Lucia all sorts of questions and was really searching out the truth in what she was saying.  And even Nancy said that she thought Lucia was a quiet and shy person, but when Lucia started sharing, she said, her face lit up and she could tell Lucia really see the joy and love of God in her.  So praise the Lord of evidence of the Holy Spirit among us tonight!

It was definitely an amazing week and we’re so *so* thankful for Dad moving this week.  Your inheritance is in this too for Dad working, so count yourself also as blessed as we are!

And something we’d really appreciate is more lift-ups for this next week:

1.  Firstly, in physical health.  For all of us to be well enough to be out and doing Dad’s work and not worrying about that stuff.

1.  Secondly, please be praying as we hope to continue to have this discipleship group we had this week meet every week.  In addition we hope to make a second group with some more sisters.  We wanna see this happen, so let’s do it!

1. And thirdly, salvations!  We want some 2^nd gen up in this place (as well as more 1^st gen), so be lifting up our sisters that Dad will give them grace to share as they go out and share with their friends!  Light the fire in their hearts for the passion to share your Word, Papa!

Thank you all *so* so much for all your lift-ups and how much you encourage me as you write me little emails to let me know you’re thinking of me and the group and lifting us up.  Sooo much appreciate it.

This week was also really long and difficult at times too, but good because we know our Dad is in control.  I got over being sick the day before HK, and Lucia starting hurting the day after and was hardly able to move.  So that was hard for both of us again not being able to do things together for another week.  But Dad started healing her just last night, so she’s almost completely better again!  PTL!

Another hard thing was our friend Tulip feeling Dad leading her to be with her family right now.  It was hard to send her off, and we’re going to miss her a lot.  But… we know that she’s following Dad’s calling on her life, and we’re proud to send her to this new location, still being a part of our family.  I love you Tulip!

In addition to those things, Dad did a lot in and through us this week.  We had a Thanksgiving party with our friends Sunday night, which was really good.  We had them color Thanksgiving Day pictures and make hand-turkeys on paper and say what they’re thankful for, and ate really yummy food.  Then we played for them a song of thankfulness, and shared with them the Story with colored pictures of the Story; one of creation, one of Eve and the snake, another of J on the crss, and another of the crss and John part 14 section 6 of Him being the Way, Truth, and Life.  It was a great time and Dad made the transitions very smooth, and they asked really good questions like “What do you think about other religions?” or “What is hvn like?”.

And although no one accepted that very night amidst all 6 parties that were going on, over 120 people heard the news, half of which for the first time! And just last night 2 of the people that came to some of the other parties that our friends followed up with accepted!  So we have 2 new C’s just from those parties, PTL!  Thank you Lrd!  And we’re yarping and trusting for many more from all the follow-up we do with them.  So please yarp for us as we go out and make friends, but also following up with these friends who just heard this weekend for their hearts to be ready and open for accepting!

Dad was so good to us this past week, and we’re so happy for all the friends we were able to share with, how He gave us strength and energy every day to do what He wanted, and most of all just teaching us to be more like Him.  Dad’s really placed it on all of our team’s heart this past week to lay down our burdens.  I definitely felt like that message rang with my heart, as I had been feeling weighed down by everything I wanted to and needed to do, rather than just doing one thing at a time as Dad led.  So if you can please just yarp for me to lay down my burdens and take up His easy yoke, which is light.

So thank you so much for sending your support, love, and emails to me, and staying updated and yarping for the harvest in C-town.  Love you guys!  TTFN!  Ta-ta-for-now!

~Hope

So, while we had a lot of resting time this past week for Thanksgiving, we also had 2 days before Turkey-Day of sharing and following up with our friends from our various parties, which I shared a little of last time, but want to go a little more in detail with this time.

So, we had 4 people accept in the two days before Turkey-Day, which means 2 a day, which as we are seeing, is like a double-portion and blssing from Dad, whereas normally we’d have 1 person, or so, accept in a day.  But 4 in that short time in just our city was awesome!  All 4 of the new brothers and sisters are all already or eager to share with their friends and get together with our other American friends so they can fellowship together (aka have chrch together, awesomeness).

So, yes lots of awesome stuff, and we’re asking Dad for many more slvtions in this next week as we’re going out and sharing with people and having another Girl’s Night this coming Saturday (which I’ll be writing about next time, so stay tuned!).

And now, what you’ve been waiting for, how Dad’s working in my life!  Not that I don’t consider slvtions or other things important, but Dad’s just been rocking my boat this week and I’m eager to share that with y’all.

Firstly, this week was really awesome in a lot of ways.  Thanksgiving as a city with our friends from up north and the two TM families was really an awesome time, and I loved being with everyone, and it may have been the most… comforting and relaxing Thanksgiving I can think of.  Just a really great time being together as a city and eating some *delicious* food.

Secondly, the week was hard in a lot of ways.  This has probably been my most sprtl-difficult week yet.  Mainly because, among other things, I couldn’t feel Dad’s presence like I could every other day for the most part.  Not that I only listen to Dad as He speaks to my heart, but I do tend to rely on that, relying on Him moving my heart, speaking into my sprt, and when heart and sprt aren’t quite at peace, it’s hard for me to be confident in Dad.  But as I was having this ‘silence’, He was also teaching me more than I can think of for quite a while.

And so what I want to talk about for the remainder of my blog is what Dad’s been teaching me, which has been a lot, so buckle up for the ride.  *takes a breath*

I’ve been reading in this book called Dscplshp by Gr@ce by Derek Levendusky, a book my roommate read and is borrowing from one of our L’s.  And almost every chapter, every page, has been speaking to me and Dad has been growing me so much.  About the difference between imputed and imparted rightesness—that we are frgvn and hly in Dad’s eyes and chosen children, princes and princesses in His K-dom, no matter what we do.  And then that also we have His power working inside of us to perfect us and make us more like His Son.  But no matter how we feel, we are *always* Dad’s children, and He *always* loves us, and He’s *always* here with us.

And just reading about the power of gr@ce, how it’s not something wishy-washy for ‘them snnrs’, but how this gr@ce is so much more!  It’s what svd us, His gr@ce svd us!  It’s what empowers us to fight against sn, it’s what makes us hly and rightes in His sight, it’s what has redeemed us!  Because of gr@ce, we have no fear, because there is no condemnation for those who are in CJ, nor either pride, for we are all equally snnrs svd by Dad’s wonderful and glorious gr@ce, and equally chosen as His children, so we can’t look down on others.  And as Chris Tomlin is currently singing in my background—Love is the answer!  Because gr@ce is our teacher, and not law, we love!  Because of how much *He* loves *us*, we want to love Him all the more!  Love fulfills the law!  Gr@ce and love are freeing because we’re no longer law, but under gr@ce!  Nema!  Isn’t that just wonderful, His marvelous gr@ce?  It’s just something I can’t wait to learn more about, and am so glad I have 20 more chapters to read about.

As for what you can be yarping for:

-        Firstly, for slvtions.  Ask Papa, seek Papa, and knock on Papa’s door for some slvtions up in here!  He promises to open the door when we ask, so keep asking!

-        Secondly, for rest in Papa every single day.  That each of us individually, but also as pairs, grows to rest in Dad, making our relationship with Him prioritized over everything and growing in Him every single day

-        And lastly, but not least, for CPMs to cruise through here!  Not just our friends, but our friends sharing with their friends, and for this whirlwind of Dad’s Sprt to just rock S-town University forever!

So thanks again, my friends, for reading these blogs and staying connected with the work Dad’s doing here in C-town!  I hope to hear from many more of you of how Dad is rocking your boat too and the fruit Dad’s growing in your life! Until next time!

Your friend and sis in C-town,

~Hope

Since our dear friend Tulip moved back to the states to be with her family, we’ve had 2 2-girl teams and 1 team of 1, that being our dear friend Chloe.  And as our Leaders and our city has been praying about it, they felt led to move us in together!  So as of now I share a room with Lucia and we all share one happy house.  And our friend Rocky who’s a long-term here now has taken up our residence, so that’s a nice switch-a-roo for us.

So, now that you’re up to date on living situations, I can share some awesome and hard stuff from this week and how you can continue to be lifting up our group!

Firstly, salvations!  We’ve had 3 that I know of in our city this week of 1^st Gen’s that we’ve shared with that have said yes, and another at least 2 in GZ.

And for our own threesome we’ve had an awesome time uniting and sharing as a group this week.  I had the awesome experience of attending an actual English class on a campus when one of the friends I was walking with invited me to sit in on her class!  It was quite fast-paced and amusing to hear how other students are taught to think of American and British culture.  But it was really cool, and in that hour and a half of class, I met another student named Shirley, who actually came right up to me and asked if we could hang out sometime.  Conveniently I was free right after her class so I asked her to tea and she said yes.

On our way to the tea place I got into sharing the gospel with her, and she seemed very interested and understood it all and said she would read some books about Jesus later that night.  And if I had forgotten, when she came with me to the bus stop and I introduced her to Chloe and Lucia, she said to them she would be reading some books on Jesus that night.  He’s so good!  Can’t wait to hear this interested gal turn into a sister!

But yes, many awesome times like that, altogether sharing with 18 new and old friends, with none saying yes of them, but very many opportunities to share and see where are friend’s hearts are, and the Word went out this week, woot!

Also, along with that, this week has had many hard times.  Nights of not sleeping well, nightmares, colds, stomach bugs… we’ve faced it all, even by myself I’ve faced all of those just this week.  The enemy is attacking because we’re making ground and got a plan of action!  We need covering of friends and families who are yarping over us this week that we can go out and share Dad’s Word faithfully and also share with and encourage our sisters to do the same! Will you please lift us up this week for these various things?

Requests for this week:

1.  Please be lifting up for a hedge of protection around our whole group for illness, sleep deprivation, nightmares, and general thoughts of anxiety from the enemy

1. Lift us up as we go and share that we are given words to say to our friends and their hearts would be opened the gospel of Jesus Christ!

1. That as we have a Girl’s Night on Saturday that many would be able to come and hear the gospel and arrange their schedules to meet with us!

1. That as we meet with our sisters, we can find time for them all to meet and have 1 big group on Friday!  We know that it’ll be best for them all to be together and mutually encouraging one another, so please lift up that this thing is possible!

And that’s pretty much it for this update!  I hope to share with you some new pictures next time, as these few are a little dated, since we’ll be living with Chloe and she has a well-working camera.  Can’t wait to hear from you all again soon about your lives and how can I be lifting you up to Papa!

So last week we had 3 salvtions, and shared the gospel with countless others.  This week, at first, I was easily frustrated when it seemed God was giving us so many people to spend time with, but so few could contact us back, or see us at all.  All of our saved friends were gone or busy this week, one of our saved friends’ Dad texted us saying she wasn’t going to meet with us again and he didn’t want us teaching her any more lessons, and one that was going to come tonight to our Girl’s Night suddenly got busy, and like our friend Jo, said maybe next month we could meet with her again.  So to start, slightly discouraging.  Also, there were many times this week where I just felt distant from God.  I’m here doing His work, but still felt like I wasn’t close to Him.  But after some discussions this week, reading a chapter about it in Experiencing Dad, and prayer, I recognized I wasn’t completely listening to God’s voice.

For some reason, I was being really caught up in non-spiritual things. I felt like which shirt I wore each day, or what I ate, or where I went, were all very spiritual and caught myself up not knowing what I should do.  When I typed out these questions, it seemed evident to me my problem.

“Where does it talk about in the Bible about stupid things like clothes?”

In Experiencing Dad, the chapter talked very little about what God’s voice doesn’t sound like, because in the analogy he gave he said that people who handle money in banks don’t study frauds to know what one looks like, they just memorize every exact detail of the real thing.  So in the same way, we should study God’s Word so we know His voice completely.  In my head I was worrying about what clothes to wear, where I should go, what time I should get up.  But in Matthew Jesus says that we shouldn’t worry about these things, because the pagans do.  From there I recognized I hadn’t been listening to God’s voice, but the enemy’s, and realized I needed to say “No” to what wasn’t based in Scripture regardless of how I feel, because God’s Word is true.

God’s certainly been able to show me what He’s been doing this week—firstly seeing where I needed to listen better and know His voice, but secondly to see where He’s been working.  Where last week we saw the immediate results—3 friends saved on the spot, this week has been more of sharing and seeing people open.  No one this week that we shared with has said no!  There are no rejections of the Father, just inquiries to know Him more!  So we’ve shared, at the end of tonight as Amanda and I were talking, I felt His work was just beginning and I needed to pray for our friends—so I asked for God’s Word not to return void, as He promised, and just go out and work in their hearts.

In a devotional that a friend sent me this past week written from a man who lived over 150 years ago, it talked about the disciples going out and fishing one night.  They had cast their lines out all night—they persevered, they kept going, even though they got nothing the entire time.  But as soon as Jesus came, He just spoke and all the fish came.  So we’re trusting God to water the seeds we planted and to grow them, because as the disciples were fishers of men, so we are, and we’ll tirelessly share the gospel, but we need God to come and ask the fish to go into the net.

May I ask if you’ll join us in prayer this week for the fish to go into the net?  We don’t know who God’s going to lead us to talk to this upcoming week, who will call or text us asking us questions… but we do know God does.  So will you asks Him to show us where He’s working—the fish who are ready to jump into the net and get svd, and for the seed we’ve planted to be watered throughout this week, every seed we planted since we got here, for God to water them?  Then also—for our sister Xiao Ying who’s facing oppression from her father, and our other 3 sisters whom we haven’t met with again yet to free their schedules for us this week so we can share water bptsm and the baptism of the Holy Spirit with them?

And thanks so much, Brothers and Sisters, for joining in with us, in the harvest in the Du. We spread the seed, but God waters and grows them.  So thank you for being here with us and for us through your support and love.

PS-  There’s a new sister as of tonight, and 6 more open people, in addition to mine and Amanda’s 5!  And we haven’t even heard from the boys yet!  So we’re rejoicing– in total these week I know of 3 new family members, 1 brother in GZ, and a sister and a brother here!

PPS-  I also forgot to share with you that our brother Philip got baptized this week by our friends Matt and Drew, and our sister Phoebe got baptized by Karen and Natalie this past 2 weeks ago.  And Karen and Natalie met with Phoebe again today to share about the Holy Spirit!  So even if our friends aren’t receiving these things yet, they’re still going out here in the Du, and I’m sure in GZ as well!

It’s a traditional holiday about a great famous warrior who strikes down 9 of the 10 suns that were in the sky.  After he does so, he’s rewarded with a pill that can turn him into a god or an angel, but he doesn’t want to leave his wife, so he doesn’t take it. But because people are trying to steal the pill from them, the wife takes it and becomes a god or angel.  The story varies and you may never hear the same story twice.  No one seems to believe in it anyways, but it’s a reason for families to come together and share a meal and for everyone to give mooncakes to their friends.  What’s a mooncake you might ask?  It’s a small, or sometimes larger pastry-looking thing that is always filled with something different.  When our friends have given us some, we’re never quite sure what to expect.  Sometimes they’re filled with something sweet, like a sweet cream.  Other time they’re filled with meat, sometimes fruit, sometimes something else.  This has opened my eyes and taught me a lot about our friends and what their lives are filled with.

Many of our friends, before we get to know them, we truly have no idea what their lives are filled with.  We find out that some are filled with ancestor worship, some with Buddhism, some with Confucianism, some Daoism, some with believing in themselves, others with nothing.  But some of our friends, like the sweet cream, we find out are already filled with God, like our friends Joana and Zhan!  And such a blessing it is for us to find out we have some Sisters already in the city.  Some of our friends are filled with just a little of God, like our friend Jo.  When we shared the gospel with her yesterday, she realized she didn’t know half as much as she thought she did, and after sharing with us for sometime, wanted to go home and give it some serious thought.  She’s so ready to become a believer!

But most of our friends are all filled with longing.  So many of our friends, like the 14 we had over last night for our first weekly Girl’s Night party, had never even heard of Jesus before.

When we asked if anyone had decided right then they wanted to follow Jesus, one of them spoke up and said that they were all hearing about this for the first time and want to learn some more before they decide to follow it.  Friends like Maggie, Emma, Sophie, and Vivien, are all very eager to know more, and we hope to meet with them in weeks to come and share more from the Bible with them, like the parable of the lost sheep.

Already in our city we’ve had 2 salvations, from our time here in the city, and we’re looking forward to that burning flame to ignite across the entire  campus, for our friends who accept Christ to then set their school ablaze with the gospel and the story of their salvation.  Keep in prayer for the campus and for our friends who are beginning to grasp the gospel, that God will water the seeds we’ve sown and the harvest will come.

So, with that exciting news, clearly God has a plan for us here in the Du.  Already Amanda and I have hung out with 2 other girls who don’t have beliefs, Qin and Chen (keep them in your reyarps as well), and we don’t even have a place we can call home yet.  Such praises.

Using a different kind of toilet, buying bottled water, eating black pepper that makes your mouth go numb… they’re all just part of life here.  You eat different foods your friends buy for you because part of their custom is treating others.  They’re all so sweet, so kind.  Whenever I try and buy one of my friends something they say “No, no no…” and we go back and forth trying to pay for the other person.  Bus tickets, tea, full meals… they want to pay for everything.  So sweet, such kind people.  Traveling the city has been so fun… seeing so many different places, not being able to read many characters and not knowing where I am… it’s so fun.  And this is just the first week of being here in C-land.  I cannot wait to see all the amazing things God’s going to do during this year!