This time of year is big winter break for all the college students so I don’t have any class and almost none of my friends are around because they all go back to their hometowns to spend the holiday with their extended family. Because of this we have our annual conference / retreat at this time and take the opportunity to do some training for everybody. Also this is the time when we, as CT, start talking as a group about what next year will look like and discuss any changes we want to make.

It was this time last year that I made the decision to be here long term and it was at that time that I decided to study the language this year. Last year was the first year that CT had long term workers. We knew that it was a good idea for them to learn the language and to not have to come back every summer but we didn’t really have any specific training for long term people. We also realized that a lot of people need more time to raise support. Also, we as on organization have come to realize that to see the reproducing house party movements (CPM) grow, we need a teams of people who are committed to seeing it happen in specific places.

Out of this realization the leadership has created a 6 month internship in that states that would go from the summer through the fall with people coming back to Asia in time for our annual retreat in January.  The internship would include leadership training, time for support raising, Bible training, personal vision time, and various practical trainings sessions. Also, it would serve as a time for teams to coalesce for a campus or city.

For me, going to this Internship is optional. That being said, I am seriously considering going to it. I think that to have more of a specific vision for a city or individual campus and to be with a team of people who are also committed to seeing a Church Planting Movement started there is exactly what I need. As you may know I have struggled some this year with motivation and I believe that having a specific vision would really help with that. Also, I think that having more training in general would be good as I never went to Bible school and, while I have been doing a video based international Bible training school, I still feel I could use more specific ministry training and the personal interaction that comes with being in a class versus watching a teaching video.

With all that being said I am still not decided on what I should do. I know that when I left last summer that I told all you that I would be staying here for 3 years before going back so I am sure this comes as a surprise as it does to me too. Please pray for me while I make this decision and I would love to hear your input and thoughts about this.

With love in Him

-Rocky

            What I began to realize is just how easy it is to lose sight of why we celebrate Christmas and also how different people’s view of Christmas is here. Most of the people in my city have heard of Christmas but they don’t understand why it is important, as many view it as a Western holiday and tradition that has no meaning to them. The believers here know why we celebrate Christmas and they have special services on Christmas Eve and have parties, but still it is not the same as ours. I come to realize the local believers view on Christmas is more pure in a sense because they don’t have our busyness and gift exchange and commercialism mixed in as much, but, on the other hand, it is also less of a big deal to them.

            I think I can learn from the local Christians here, and I think I appreciate our country’s roots in Christianity more than I did before. I know I need to keep my reason for celebrating Christmas more pure and about what God did for us by sending his Son, that it isn’t about doing things because it is Christmas, but rather sharing God’s love with others and thanking him for what he has done for us and giving him glory.  In the end, I still miss Christmas back home, and miss my family and friends and having time of rest but I know I am where God wants me and that I learning more about the people he has called me to bring the good news to.

            In other news things are going good here. My first semester of school is almost over and I have exams next week, which I am not worried about at all because they have no effect on my further study or why I an here. We are also getting ready to head to our annual retreat in Thailand next month and  I am going to visit the capital on my there. It will be my first time to the capital so I am really exited.

            This time will also be a time of reflecting back on how going to school has been and of planning for the future- both for us here and for all in my organization, so I would like you all to pray and ask God to give us wisdom about the future and what his plans are for each one of us and also for the organization as a whole. 

Thank you all for you prayers and support!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

-Rocky

My teacher and I talk only a little that day, but we meet up a few days later for lunch and talk about his belief and about the “party” he goes to. That weekend he came to a small get together at my house and cooked some delicious food. Over the next few weeks we got to become friends. This weekend I went to his “party” to see what it was like and got to experience a local house church that was established by local Christians.

I had a great time at the party! I was surprised at just how much I understood of what they where singing and what was being talked about. I was really encouraged by going there and experiencing God with this group of local Christians. Also, it has been encouraging to become friends with my teacher and to build that relationship. These things relate back to two of my biggest goals this year: (1) learning the language (in particular words related to sharing about God) and (2) establishing a few deeper relationships with local guys.

Overall, things have been going fairly well. I have had my struggles as God has been working on my personal relationship with Him a lot and growing me so much! Language study is going well, and I am learning tons and feeling a lot more comfortable in using the language. This past month we celebrated  Thanksgiving, which was a lot of fun! We are all looking forward to Christmas!

This Christmas season we want to share about God with our friends, but this year will be different then previous years, as all of us just have a few friends and won’t have the huge parties that we’ve had in the past. Plus, a main difference is that we’ll be doing it all in the local language. However, I expect to still be a powerful time where we can share about God and what he has done for the whole world.

Love in Him who can do immeasurably more then we could ask or imagine, 

-Rocky

Once I arrive at the university campus, I sit in the lobby and use the program on my I-Touch to quiz my self on writing the words for the morning  vocabulary quiz.  I also say hello to my cohorts when they come in and chat for a bit in the local language, as we usually only speak English for about an hour or so around dinner time and on Sundays- and even then we only use it with each other or to accomplish very important things like getting our visa in order. Soon I head to class and am in class for the next 4 hours till lunch. Then I usually eat lunch with some classmates or my cohorts and then go home. Rest and then do my home work / study for several hours and be in bed by 10 to wake up by 6 the next morning.

This is my usual daily schedule. During the past few weeks classes, getting the apartment set up, and getting my visa in order took all my time. However, now that I am adjusting to class, it’s becoming easier to read the language, the visa and apartment stuff have been taken care of,  I have a little free time for other things during the week.

Also there was a holiday here for the last few days, which has been a refreshing break. Our group took the opportunity to visit some of the top campuses in the area. We plan to have teams working on them in the next year or two; I plan to write more about these next time. We also have taken some time to visit the local sites and relax and have fun together.

Overall things are going well, and I am learning a lot. Over the next week or two I hope to make some local friends to practice speaking and to share dad with them. This year because of my focus on the language, I haven’t done much hanging out with local friends, but I am excited to start and to practice / learn the words to share about Dad with people here. Please ask Dad to provide people I can practice with who have good, standard Chinese, are willing to help me learn, and are also open to hearing about Dad.

With love in Him,

-Rocky J

I heard a knock on my door, and Clive called my name, so I got up. Still not really knowing what was going on, I put my feet down off the bed and stepped into a puddle. Then it hit me. Our apartment was at least partly flooded. I quickly opened the door to figure out what happened and started helping clean up the water.

The next morning only 3 or so hours later, I was informed of what happened. The water supply hose for our new washer had come off in the middle of the night, and our neighbor from downstairs had heard the water rushing and woke us up and help clean it up. I don’t know what would have happened if he hadn’t come. I am sure it would have been worse.

This story, which happen last night, is an example of sorts of how things have been going so far. We have had our struggles, but we have also had favor and help. We have decided that the phrase “It could have been worse” has come to be our motto. It’s not so much that we have had a lot of bad things happen, but rather that we have had God’s favor with us, which has made things that would have otherwise been very bad a lot better.

We have gotten a lot done in the 2 ½ weeks we been here. We are all moved into our apartment, have started classes, and have done all of the complicated procedures for living off campus and getting our residence permits. My classes are very hard; I have about 4 hours of classes each weekday, and every bit of is in the local language, which is very hard for me. I’m very busy! Overall, things have been harder than what I had expected. Getting all of our stuff taken care of has taken a long time, and I feel things are just now settling down, and I have time to write to you all.

Regardless of everything that I have told you and what I haven’t, I am glad I have gone to this new city and am studying full time. I have already seen a lot of progress in my language ability, and I know that this city has massive potential for God’s kingdom.

I am excited for the road ahead. I know it will probably still be rocky, as we are still learning this new place and trying to understand our teachers, but I know it will still be good, as God has us here for a reason.

 -Rocky

What would the 3 of us, who where on the plane,  do while we waited for them the next day if they missed it the flight? It occurred to me that I should be worried about this, but as I thought about it, I felt a peace about it because I knew that God was in control.

A few moments later they came walking on the plane, and I knew that our God was still in control and was taking care of things for us! The rest of our trip from the States back to Asia was just a continued testimony of Him being with us and helping us out along the way.

Many things have happened for me to tell you about, but right now I am writing because I want you all to lift us up. We have arrived here safe and sound, but now we are going to register as students with the university, and we need their permission in order to live off campus and want things to go smoothly with all of the rules and procedures we need to follow and do.

Thanks for praying!

-Rocky

This was after our second meeting of the house church we started. It was cool just to see us break out in to spontaneous worship but what was even more awesome was how well the meeting flowed, to see in double in size from last week, and to have a new girl, Amy, become a Christian afterwards! I mean our first week wasn’t that great, we had 2 people at it one was leaving the city for work in less then a week and the other didn’t speak English and lot of the transitions where awkward, and this person became a family member! It is just so encouraging and exciting to see God working and this new group taking root and growing.

God has continued to do great things in our midst the next week we where out numbered by the locals and we had two baptisms! However, there has also been discouragement and sadness along the way. Over these past few weeks we have had three of the guys that had become family members back away. For two of them it was because their earthly parents and family where against them believing. The other one has doubts about God and is afraid of persecution and what his friends will think of him. Also, over these last two weeks my coworkers, myself included, have all felt different kinds of attacks from the enemy. In spite of all this God has been moving through us and doing great things I believe that there is more to come but we need you thoughts even more because as we continue to establish a foothold in the enemy’s territory he is going to oppose us with everything he can. We all ready now the victory is ours for the good book tell us so, but we need his strength to do it and that is way I ask for your prayers so that we can walk filled with the Holy Spirit and finish out this school year in strength.

Requests:

• For my coworkers and I, that we would be strengthened and encouraged by God to finish out the year strong.
• For the house church that it would continue to grow and that the local leaders would emerge and by the time we leave in May they would be ready to run it.
• For the guys who have done some backtracking that they would be convicted by the Holy Spirit and would choose to follow God regardless of any opposition.

In Love,

Rocky

We haven’t had any meetings of our newly thought up Church yet but we plan to have the first meeting in about a week and I am really looking forwarded to it. We have 4 guys now who have come in to the family, the latest of which was just a few days ago, and we have about 4 girls who will be in the Church too. I have high hopes for this group that we are starting. I think that it will be the beginning of a movement across my campus.

Really the credit for this goes to the man upstairs but I would also like to thank all of you for you thoughts, encouragements and support for the work that I do. I know that I am not always the most consistent at keeping in touch but you all have stuck with me and I do love getting email from all of you. Without all your support I would have never made it here and I certainly would not have lasted long, so thanks so much! God has truly used you as well as me in bring theses things to come to pass.

Besides thinking about the new Church these past 2 months or so while my friends have been on winter vacation we have used this time as a time of refreshing and teaching. I feel like I have learned a lot about me and about how to do what I do, but also just been reminded of the basics of the faith. Which is what I talk about all the time but it is still easy to lose sight of them and get caught up in all the doing of life and work, and forget the being of what it means to be a Son of our God.

I also did some traveling this during this time I went to Thailand again and to my group’s annual retreat. I also got to take a trip to a city in the north east. It was very, very cold there but it was a lot of fun and I got to see giant ice sculptures and other fun things but also had the chance to scout out several campuses up there where we will eventually be sending teams.

Anyways that has been my past two months or so, sorry for not writing sooner and I love to hear from you. Please think of the requests below in your prayers to God.

-Rocky,

Requests:

1. For the Church that we are starting: that it would be centered on God and that our friends would be committed to it.
2. For the new family members that their faith would be strong and grow. That they would fully understand fully what it means to be a part of God’s family.
3. For me as I will be traveling again to see some minority people here and will be going to the country side for really the first time. Just ask that God would keep me safe and guide me.

John was one of those people who I didn’t really set out to meet but rather God put in my path. I first met John after my first prayer walk on his campus. He was freshmen on a tour of campus and he spotted my and my roommates sitting on a bench nearby and he had to come meet us. He gave Acorn his number but we didn’t fallow up right way but we ran in to him again randomly a few weeks later. After that we got the message that this was someone God wanted us to meet with. He joined our Bible study when we started it and now he is a Christian!

Christmas time was great here; John becoming a Christian was just one of the awesome things that happened. We have had 4 girls become Christians these past few weeks and just today John’s roommate also became a Christian! I have also been able to plant lots of good seeds in many of my other friends and I think more fruit will come in the next semester.

These next 2 weeks or so mark the end of the semester here so all of my friends are taking tests and are very busy. Then after their tests they will all go back to their hometowns spread out across the country. We want to finish off the semester with our friends excited about studying next semester and with our new family members strong in their Faith. Please talk to God about these things and ask him to guide the baptisms we will be doing in a few days for the new believers

-Rocky