But now there are 35 missionaries in Asia! Living 4 different cities, with 13 people focused on becoming fluent this year in the language so they can reach people in their heart language. I was able to help them make it, and it was all so worth it!

This weekend I get to travel with my Mom and sister to meet my brand-new nephew, Miles Dylan! He was born just two days before training started. I’m praying that this weekend away will help to finalize recovery and closure for me at the end of the busy summer and training.

Then it’s right into support raising for me! You may not know that in order to see Campus Target succeed this summer I set aside my personal support raising until the teams left the country. Now I need to work hard to about triple my current monthly support in order to be financially healthy living here in America. It’s a big goal, but I feel completely peaceful that with God as my provider (literally), the way to reaching the end is prepared for me.

Some highlights of TrainingCamp ’10:
The pre-Training RETREAT: Turns out after weeks on end of pushing myself, I needed a little down time to relax with 35 of my most-wonderful co-workers and friends. This was a special retreat for only those who have committed to at least 3 years of working with Campus Target, which allowed for powerful times of re-focusing on our mission.

Getting to Teach: I had the privilege of teach a session on Flexibility (no, not like yoga), to the new incoming workers. I shared with them about making a choice in advance of hard situations to trust people and God, and remain flexible. I had a lot of great feedback, and I really feel like it upped my confidence to speak more in the future.

Building Closer Relationships: In an organization that’s constantly growing, changing, and lives around the world, it can be tough to feel like you really know everyone. So in the midst of managing training I tried to purposely build closer friendships with people that I didn’t know that well. It was so rewarding becoming good friends with them!

Right Now in Asia:
Currently about 60% of the team in Asia has their apartments. On Monday the newest city team, H-town, is starting full-time University language study. So it is especially pressing for them to find good housing fast. Please keep them and K-town teams in your prayers, as neither of them have any apartments yet.

Right now I’m attending the EF Leadership Conference, which is one of my favorite conferences of the year. Its been a bit wild going from my small “parties” in Asia of about 15 people to the 1000+ here at the conference, but I’ve been learning a lot.

I wanted to share some amazing news. Do you remember way back in the fall I wrote an email about my Asian friend Ling who’s brother had cancer? I mentioned her again more recently too, how she’s stepped up as one of the leaders of the fellowship we planted this year. Well, right before I left Asia she had to unexpectedly return home because her brother’s health was declining. In addition to the cancer, Ling’s brother is also mentally handicapped, and she had worried all year that even if she tried to share the gospel with him he wouldn’t understand it.

I was with her when she found out she needed to go home, and we had an awesome time saying our final (unexpected) goodbyes. I was able to encourage her that the gospel is simple, and if she was faithful to share it with him God would be faithful to help him understand it and work in his heart to help him believe. As we said our teary goodbyes she assured me, “I know now I can tell my brother the truth. Dad will help me, and Dad will help my brother understand. I’m not afraid to tell him about Dad now.”

Early Sunday morning I got the email letting me know that Ling’s brother is now my brother too! He became a Christian!

This is why I do what I do. This is why I’m proud, happy and honored to be a missionary. Because haven’t been able to just impact Ling’s life, but also her whole family and all the students she’s going to reach at the campus I served on. Wow, I am so blessed!

Please pray for her brother that he would grow closer to God, and that he would be healed. Also pray for Ling’s parents, grandparents, oldest brother and sister-in-law and their baby to be born at the end of June. I know God desires that all of them would be part of the family as well.

Both Ling and I thank you!

You know what!?!? This last week not one, but TWO of our girls made the choice to believe! One of the girls we’ve only known for about 5 weeks, and the other hardly spoke any English! I’ve never felt so fulfilled by something that I feel like I did so little for. I mean really, God just handed these two to us. We didn’t say awesome words, or do inspirational acts. AND, we also had one of our guy friends believe as well! Two of those decisions were made at consecutive Saturday “book studies” which were led by our 4 month old new brother Brian. Wow! I mean, WOW!

You know the saying, “All it takes for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing”? I feel like I’d sum up our ending here as, “All it takes to great things to happen is for average people to do something!” God knew 6 weeks ago that these to girls would be ready now, and the Holy Spirit prompted me to ask for something I deemed “too big.”

So, as I hope on an airplane and come home after spending 9 months in the Orient, I’d ask you – What are you being nudged to ask for that you think is “too big?” Cause after this week I’d say, “Go for it!”

Please lift us all up, we leave here on Thursday afternoon (our time), and arrive in Rochester on Friday around dinner time.

I’m leavin’ on a jet plane…..

I’m really excited to say that even if I were getting on the plane tonight, I would know for sure that there is lasting change on my campus because of my time here. Just 2 weeks ago our small believers study began to transition into becoming a church! About 8 of our friends come every Sunday morning, and they love it! Week-by-week you can see each individual growing and maturing in their faith.

Each week I spend anywhere from 7 to 10 hours pouring over scriptures with two girls who are so hungry to mature I can barely keep up with them. Lately on Wednesday afternoons I spend from lunch until dinner digging into every ounce of truth I can extract from Romans with a 19 year old girl. Recently she said to me, “I don’t think it matters much if I get to go to heaven, maybe what matters more is if I can share the truth with others. If many people can go to heaven because of what I can tell them, it doesn’t matter too much for me if I can go.”

As a freshman this girl, and my other best-friend (a senior continuing as a grad student), will be my legacy here. They’re both catching the vision for impacting not just one or two roommates, but as many people as they can. Despite our less-than-perfectness our team has seen our prayers answered this year.

We just started a large-group study for friends, and friends-of-friends, who are curious about God or want to learn more. Our first meeting we had 11 people show up (plus 3 saved friends who wanted to help)! And this week we’re expecting more!

I also want to let you know that this next year I will be returning to work stateside in our main office. By the mid-point of this year I was fully ready to commit to staying here in Asia for several years or more, but let the leadership know that I was up for whatever would make the most use of my personal skills and strengths. After a LOT of thought and prayer we all agreed that I could have the greatest impact by renewing my role as Events Coordinator, and adding the role of Assistant to the Director.

So, I will be leaving Asia, for at least a little while, in 4 short weeks. It hardly seems real. I am really excited about my upcoming role. They way I love planning and details would sicken some, but for me it really is a thrill. After a short period in June of raising additional support to cover my increase in living expenses stateside, I hope to jump into my job with all the additional passion I’ve gained by living here.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support! Please continue to lift me, our church, our unbelievers-study, and our friends up over these left 4 weeks. I’m fully expecting that God is going to do things we didn’t expect before we leave!

“We read it every day,” I said as I nodded yes.

“Wow. Have you read the whole thing?”

“No, I haven’t.” My roommate Elf answered as she opened up to the end of the book.

Our friend Sheny looked up at me, surprised. “How can you read a book everyday and not finish it?”

I had to laugh. But quickly our conversation turned serious as she asked more questions about what we believe. And as we walked I was able to share the whole gospel with her!

That was my last meeting the first half of the year. Our friends have now all gone home for the New Year’s holiday, and for the next month I’ll be spending a lot of time learning and getting ready for the last 3 months here. It is so crazy to think that when the next term starts we’ll only have 12 more weeks before its time for us to come home.

I really believe that those 12 weeks will bring what we’ve been working hard and asking for since we arrived. Right away we’ll lined up starting about 5 new studies with friends who aren’t part of the family yet! Please join with me in asking God to prepare them for what we’ll be telling them and they’ll be reading.

Some other requests:
- That our brothers and sisters would have the opportunity to share with their families, and would seem some of them also join the family.
- That our friends who have bibles would take the time to read them, and that God would be working in them while they’re home.
- That this time would be both restful and renewing for all of us who have been working almost non-stop for the past 5 months.
- And that we would learn all that we’re going to be taught, and launch into the next term passionate and ready to finish strong!

Today I was finally able, after delays of trips home and final exams, to sit down with one of our friends who 3 weeks ago responded to the gospel at one of the Christmas parties we attended at a local fellowship. After a quick lunch of something similar to wonton soup, we walked down to the local mall and found a quite table in the food court.

At the Christmas party she had enthusiastically agreed to study the bible with me, but I was nervous that either her decision had not been genuine, or that time would weaken her resolve. I was delighted to hear her describe her new relationship with God.

“Many Asian believe in…. (Here was an extensive tangent to work out translating the belief she was trying to describe) the Buddha. But I never believe in this. I can be close to Yesu (their name for Jesus), but people who believe in Buddha cannot be close to him. I can talk to Yesu, and know about him from the Bible. People who tell the Buddha about their problems, he is not close to them. But Yesu is close to me and loves me.”

As she spoke the weight of her choice was evident on her face. She knows that she is choosing to be the ideological minority. But her heart is set.

She asked me, “What have you learned since you became a Christian?” After internally chuckling over the idea of summarizing all God has taught me, I shared some of the key truths that have changed my life. As she listened her face reflected her effort to understand both my words and their implication in her life. Then she said, “Maybe I should read the Bible more.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Last week we traveled to Hong Kong to renew our tourist visas. It was a lot of fun to see Hong Kong. What an amazing city! It is built on a series of islands, and each island has its own cluster of skyscrapers back-dropped by South Pacific Island hills. So beautiful! It felt great, even though we were only there for a few hours, to feel the freedom we take for granted back home. Plus we were able to see a number of our friends from the other cities here!

I will write more about an adventure I had the day after I returned in the next few days. Look forward to crime, drama, and hope!

I wanted to write you quickly today though because Ling (one of our sisters), who joined the family last year here needs our prayers. She found out that her brother has a tumor, and has been home for the past several weeks trying to support her family. Her brother has been hospitalized for weeks now, but the situation is very grave. His tumor is inoperable, and from the way it sounds he may be dying.

Ling’s faith is being shaken. Her brother is mildly disabled, and she is struggling with how a God she calls Dad can let this happen to her brother. None of her family members are believers, and she is very discouraged and depressed. We’ve been studying the Book together and our focus just before she left was 1 Peter. Its all about how we will still face suffering, but that God has a purpose in all things and there is hope. Please pray that this truth will come alive for her, that her brother would be healed, and that no bitterness or anger would take hold in her life no matter the outcome.

Please also pray for us here. Many have felt discouraged or disheartened in the past few weeks, including me. God is so faithful, and we’ve heard so much truth to come against this, but the attack on our moral is very real. Pray that our hope would be fixed, we would be rooted and grounded in God’s love, and that our joy would be full so that we know strength.

Thank you so much! Your prayers are absolutely necessary and powerful.

“I too believe there is a God,” stated my brand new friend, Neria. “I am very interest in spiritual things. I have heard there is a place in India where they can tell your future, just by looking at your finger prints. I would like to go there and experience this….”

I wondered, “Are we even talking about the same God? Oh dear…”

“Why do you want to know your future?” asked my roommate Elf.

“Because I believe that if they tell me my future, and it comes true, then I will know there is a God.”

“Oooh,” I said, as the Holy Spirit was flooding my mind with the possibilities. “Well I believe that God is real…. If you really want to know if He is real, I think you just need to ask Him to show you for sure, and He will do it.”

Just a few nights ago I received this text from her, “I think I heard the answer because just now a sign has been brought to me. Now I am certain about the way I should go. Now I have figured out, and I need to make a choice by asking my heart and live as an independent person in this world…. I will be a person like you. God bless you.”

I haven’t seen her since she sent it, but I am so excited to hear about what the sign was! Please pray for her this week.

On a personal note, we are pretty much completely settled in a beautiful apartment—on the 33rd floor! I’ve been trying to do little things to make it feel more homey, like getting pictures of friends and family printed and hanging them all over my room. Just this afternoon a bought two small potted plants, and keeping them alive has been added to my goals for the year.

My health has been getting better, thank you so much for your prayers. Some mornings I am still having difficulties, but it is much better than it was.

“God, I am wiped out. You said in my weakness you would be strong—so I’m assuming you’re going to be pretty strong in this meeting, because I just don’t have anything tonight,” I muttered in my mind as I walked against the flow of hundreds of students as the flowed off of campus to eat dinner at various local shops.

“You are a Christian, yes? I have been wanting to ask this question, do you think that God created the earth?”

Less than 30 minutes later the reality of the opportunity to share about my faith floods my mind, and adrenaline starts to flow. I start with Adam and Eve, and encouraged by the girls on either side leaning in to catch each detail, I share the entire gospel over the course of our dinner. Caroline on my left, is hanging on every word. You can read the heaviness on her face as I describe the heartbreak of the first sin and our separation from God. As I describe Jesus’ death as he paid our debt her eyes moisten. My heart is pounding as I describe his return to life, and a smile breaks across her face. “Ooh,” softly escapes her lips as I tell her that now we are able to once again be in close relationship with God if we will choose to believe in Him.

I had heard the stories, but now I have lived it. The people here are hungry for truth. Please pray for my friends as we continue to share truth and hope with them.

Their names* are: Tina, Nancy, Caroline, Sally, June, Leah, Elaine, Casey, Shining, Kayla, Jubilee, and Sheny. And also the “sisters” who believed last year: Nancy, Julie, Ling, and NumberTwo.

Please also pray for me, as my asthma has been aggravated by a cold and the air here.

Thank you so much for your “thoughts,”
Marian

*Actual names not given for security reasons.

As I was working through the difficulties of goodbyes, God very gently reminded me that maybe my definition of home was not accurate. As a Christian my home is no longer defined by Maplewood Ave, Elim Gospel Church. My home is Jesus’ love for me.

Wherever I am I can feel safe, because he is with me. Whenever I feel alone, I am not.

So today I’ll pull my suitcases up to the check-in table of Campus Target: TrainingCamp 09 with joy. I get to be a part of bringing the wonder, peace and hope of Jesus’ love to hundreds of young people.

Your fathering heart is so great to me
For your hand on my life, covers me with peace…
Father, my home is you, forever
(Darrell Evans – My Home is You)