So maybe that shower issue doesn’t really express the point I want to make, but it is a humorous story. Showers are a necessity though! Rain showers are essential to the growth of the beautiful patches of flowers we so enjoy gazing at. Without precipitation from above the soil wouldn’t receive the complete nutrients and material needed to grow each seed or bulb. We wouldn’t receive the benefit of our hard work in planting, fertilizing, and take pleasure in the rich and vibrant colors, the luscious aromas. In the same way the seeds we have planted this year have been in need of showers from above. Showers of encouraging words and prayer, of truth, grace, love; all are essential elements in growth.

The showers of April, as well as the past eight months, have undoubtedly brought beautiful May flowers. This week I have been able to see the growth and the blooming of “flowers” in a special way. God is making our friendships so much more precious and real, bittersweet as it may be with the end approaching. At our last girl’s night I led the discussion with the help of my friends Cathy and Tracy. As this next girl’s night approaches I am handing the reins over to my friends. I have seen them take it with hands slightly shaking and confidence unsure, but as they stepped out last Saturday, God used them to speak and share His word of encouragement and truth with other friends. I am confident that He who began a good work in them will be faithful to complete it! I am just thrilled that He is giving me the chance to see the fruit of the labor, the blooming of His beautiful flowers. They have shown me through this process that they are grasping His confidence in them and that they can indeed be used by Him and in a mighty way if they let Him!

I appreciate your thoughts as we continue to invest in our friends during the last three weeks. Three weeks?!?! It doesn’t seem possible! Your prayers are definitely appreciated! Our heart is to take this time in continuing to share a vision for leadership over the Bible study and the family party as well as taking time to just be friends! We will have an incredibly busy schedule as we fill it with final shopping trips, parties, studies, numerous appointments, and eventually packing. Specifically be asking God to give our friends vision for themselves and their role in the church; that He would raise up the leaders and others to help them so they don’t carry the weight of the party on their shoulders alone. And for us that we would hear what God’s vision is for these last weeks, to continue to be His vessel to share with those who still haven’t made a decision for Him. Our friends Charry, Susan, Cherie, Amanda, and Sophia are so close, but it must be in His timing and by His conviction. But please lift those girls up to Him, that they would have a sincere and personal revelation of His love and their need for Him.

Thank you so much for your thoughts! I am saddened as I realize the end is so incredibly soon, especially with friendships becoming so much more precious, but I admit I am also very excited about coming home. I look forward to sharing stories in person and hearing about what God is doing with all of you! Till then!

The definition of a boot camp is “a camp for training recruits”. In a way then our time of teaching our Christian friends was in fact a time of training – training up those who are in the army of the Lord! We had four of our girls show up last Sunday and stay for 4 hours of teaching and training about what it means to be a Christian and listen to us share about several core things we want to impart to them before we return home. They gave us their full attention and participation and we saw God ministering to their hearts, and ours as well. Even June, who told us that she would have to leave early, stayed the whole time convicted in her heart that the Lord wanted her to stay and was obedient to His voice. God strengthened our relationship with our friends during this time and I believe He also imparted vision and understanding of His love and our need for Him into their hearts as well. It is so exciting to see Him moving and to know that the things they were sharing with us were coming from the Holy Spirit’s working in their hearts and were not just them regurgitating our words. As the word says, “neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth”. The Lord certainly is growing in these girls!

He is also growing things in me as well, particularly a need for His strength and a greater reliance on Him. As the end comes closer into sight and I see my own struggles with becoming weak and looking more towards home, I’ve been convicted by the words of Paul to the Corinthians. Although in the second letter Paul is talking to them about their financial giving, I feel like it applies to me as well in finishing this year strong. He says in 8:10-12, “you who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. So now finish doing it as well, so that by your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.” It reminds me that God has indeed given me everything I need to finish what has been started. When He gave His call to come to Asia He also gave everything I would need to finish the year. And I know too that when I ask Him for a fresh impartation of His vision for the next 7 weeks ahead, that He is faithful to answer. I appreciate your prayers for me on this!

Part of the vision for these next few weeks is starting our family party! By the time you receive this email we would have had our very first family party-how exciting is that?!?!?!! Ask the Lord that our friends would truly understand the importance of meeting together as a family and take ownership for this group. We truly want them to get a vision for themselves and be able to share it with friends. As our time in Asia is coming to an end, we can tell them only so many times how special and important it is that they meet together and share that they too can lead a family party, but it has to be the Holy Spirit who makes it personal for them! I know it is God’s will that Christian’s have fellowship together so I know He will be faithful to speak to them. Thank you though for partnering with me in these things!! As I said earlier God IS doing the growing!!

I want to thank you also for your thoughts for me as I’ve been making a decision about the next year. The Lord has showed me many things concerning the heart and the call that He has given me as I’ve brought this year before Him and asked Him what is will for me is. A few weeks ago I spent a week asking God specifically what HIS vision was, where He saw me. By the end of that time I felt my confidence growing in a decision to remain at home and not return to Asia. There are things that I want to be involved in and believe He has given me a vision for that, so I am excited, although slightly nervous about some of the unknowns that still exist such as needing a job, etc. But I know just as He has been faithful here, His faithfulness will not end when I return home! I believe this year was an important part of the journey of my life and know He has taught me so many things and I am so thankful for the opportunity He gave me.

Thanks to the One who is faithful to provide guidance, growth, and vision!

Last week Pinky and I hopped on a plane and landed in the Du where we rushed off in a taxi to meet our friends! It was so exciting to see CT friends in the Du and get to laugh and hang out with them! I enjoyed getting to know them more and sharing special moments, exploring shopping streets and community parks with Chinese women dancing and men singing, eating REAL Sichuan food in all its splendor and delicious glory, and eating Dairy Queen while playing charades outside the said establishment attracting the attention of numerous shoppers passing by. It was great to catch up with friends from home (Atlas and Vash) and meet some of Pinky’s friends from her time in the Du last year.

I really loved the Du and do hope that someday I will be able to visit again, maybe even to visit some other friends there next year?! We shall see! The very next day after our late return back to GZ we had an early awakening, terribly early, and once again rushed out the door to hop on a bus this time headed for Macao because we had to do another visa trip. Macao is a growing tourist spot similar to Hong Kong in that it is technically not Asia, but a “Special Administrative Region”, (to quote one website). Previously a Portuguese colony, it has been described by one of my team mates as “if Asia and Europe had a baby”. Surprisingly, that description is pretty accurate. I enjoyed a day of exploring historical landmarks of seventeen hundred ruins of churches, an old fortress, and a Protestant Cemetery from the eighteen and nineteen hundreds. The day also included a humorous encounter with a mime, no lies. It was a fun day but we were all exhausted by the time we returned home and have gladly taken some time for rest and recuperation.

Please be praying about health issues here in GZ. Ginger has had to visit a doctor to find out she has a serious sinus infection and though now on medication she’s still really not feeling well. Pray that the Lord would continue to heal and strengthen her! Several other people in the city are also worn out and dealing with sickness. I also am personally dealing with sickness as well, but am thankful to know He will continue to heal. We could really use your thoughts and words of protective covering as we go into our last months. We know sickness is not from the Father and we want to cast out any attempt by the enemy to weaken the work God wants to do!! Thank you for joining with us in this! I know Ginger and I have been personally blessed by the prayers of our Chinese Christian friends who visited us yesterday and took the time ask the Lord for our healing. It is so precious to see them growing in their faith!

Also this weekend we will be holding our afternoon of teaching with all our Christian friends! We are looking forward to this, but leaning completely on God’s guidance and strength to carry it out! Please lift up this time as we share with our Christian friends about living lives following after God, having a revelation of His love, of repentance, lives of worship, the importance of a devotional life, and the Great Commission! We are asking the Lord to make it a powerful time that our friends really hear from Him and experience Him! We will also be talking to them about starting a party the following week and working out the details for that so we also ask for your thoughts concerning this! He’s doing awesome things and I’m excited for the time I’ll get to share more!!

This story is such a testament to me about how open the campuses are here! I am continually amazed by the number of friends, friends the Lord has brought into our paths all with varied amounts of interest, and He is using us to plant seeds of His Truth in their lives. And now He’s also using our friends to help spread His love too! At our most recent girls’ night we welcomed a new sister into the family!! Grace was a girl we met through our friend Carol who came into the family earlier in the year and it was our friend Tracy who came into the family about 2 months ago who helped share the Gospel with Grace. Tracy shared not only with her but with our small group of girls about how important this decision is and one that should not be taken lightly! I listened to this girl and saw such a powerhouse-God is using her and will continue to use her so mightily!

It is so exciting to see our sisters growing in the Lord. Our weekly schedule has contained more appointments focused around these girls as we continue to stress the importance of meeting together with other family members, of sharing about God with friends, and growing in the disciplines of a life with the Lord. The past two weeks Ginger and I have been meeting with Tracy to talk about the Bible we read that week, about what God showed us and what we think He wants us to do about it, as well as keeping each other accountable and praying for our lost friends. I have seen this girl flourishing as she works hard to grasp the Word and makes it an important thing in her life. Her intelligence and diligence and honest seeking of God is building her up to be such a strong follower!

Please be praying for Tracy specifically this week. When she made the decision to come into the family she did realizing she needed someone else to help her, that she could not get through life on her own strength, but now she is really searching about His love. Ask the Lord that she would have a realization of His love and grace for her. She is so honest and real with us and with God in her realizing she needs to grasp this and I know He is going to show her! Also please be praying about a meeting we are trying to organize to talk about specific subjects with our family members. We are really exciting about this time and the chance to impart more vision and share God’s heart for them, but are currently having some trouble getting a day together. We want to have one of our Chinese friends translate but haven’t been able to work a time out with her.

“You’re the God of this city,
You’re the King of these people,
You’re the Lord of this nation,
You are.
You’re the light in the darkness,
You’re the hope to the hopeless,
You’re the peace to the restless,
You are.
There is no one like our God.”

Greater things have yet to come, Greater things are still to be done in this city.”
This song not only speaks to me about Asia but about home, about my friends at home, people I know who walk in darkness. It declares His faithfulness over these people, over the towns we come from, over the nation I call home. I rejoice with the words that there is no one like Him! Greater things have yet to come, a word we are holding onto as a promise for our friends, for our church planting, and for this nation. And HE is God of my friends, over Susan, CC, Michelle, Maggie, Charry, Iris, Vera, Rita, Becky, Cherrie, and Joey, the girls we are still praying for. As we are faithful to plant seeds and share His love we know He is going to do the work and we will see even greater things happen before our return home.

Thank you for joining with me in praying for my friends and for the time ahead. As classes start again and our friends return to their campuses our schedule is already starting to fill up! We are specifically seeking His heart on who of our friends who haven’t made the decision to follow Him we should meet with during the week and also focusing on our friends already in the family and encouraging growth in their lives. This week we are starting to meeting with our Chinese Christian friends in small groups and discuss what we’ve been reading in the Word, to hold each other accountable, and to talk to the Lord about our friends not yet in the family. We have also set up appointments to visit with friends who have returned from home and are excited to see them again and praying that they would see God’s hand in their lives! It’s going to be a crazy road ahead, overflowing with crazy humidity and appointments. I want to remain faithful as well in the work, so please be praying for me too for the focus and strength to finish strong.

So I apologize for not having a big or interesting story to share, but this is what He has put on my heart today and want to share. He IS faithful! He IS God of our cities! There is no one like Him!

Looking forward to sharing just what greater things are to come!

This is one of the most…interesting…experiences I’ve had over the past few weeks. Since Christmas I’ve been running around with friends, friends from home, retreating in Thailand, traveling to my friend’s hometown, and participating in almost three weeks of CT Winter Session, a series of thematically focused classes and prayer times. It’s been quite the whirlwind of humorous, precious, educational (haha), and God-focused moments.

One very special moment, besides the one I’ve already shared, was a huge celebration we had for our Chinese friends before the end of their school year. This particular celebration was focused on 7 girls and one guy who made the decision to be water baptized! That night we joined together, sang a few wirship songs, prayed together, and witnessed faith strengthened through baptism. Sitting on our bathroom floor, lodged between our toilet and sink, was a blow up pool in which our friends took turns sitting in, confessing their decision to follow Jesus Christ, and be baptized in His name. We cheered, laughed, and smiled, as our friends came out from the water, new creations by His grace! This celebration truly did strengthen the faith of our friends which we witnessed while visiting a few friends over the Chinese New Year. Pinky got the chance to visit our friend Eva where she saw her share with her parents how she had made the personal decision to become a Christian and how strong her conviction was. We’re excited for our friends to return to GZ and continue to share God’s love, see growth in our friends, and more decisions made too!

One of the sessions during the past few weeks was about party planting. I got so excited talking with my team and making plans for starting a party and encouraging our Chinese friends to seek God and see them growing by leaps and bounds. It was a time of getting vision for the next four months ahead, which I really needed. I’ve been struggling a lot lately with the decision about coming back next year. If you could pray for me on that matter, I would so appreciate it. Honestly, I caught the excitement about the vision for church planting this year, in a way that surprised me because I didn’t have that excitement a few weeks ago. But I’ve still not come to any conclusions about next year, besides the fact that I know God has given me a heart and love for ministry, whether or not that means a ministry that remains in Asia another year…well that’s something I desperately want to hear from Him.

Regardless of that, He has called me here for now and I’m excited about continuing the work, continuing to sow the seed and seeing the Harvest come in! Thank you SO much for your thoughts over the last five months. There’s less than four months until our return home-amazing isn’t it?! Please keep talking to the Lord for these next months and weeks ahead as we seek to run with endurance the race that is before us! We’ve got a lot to do in the next four months and still a lot of planning to do. Please keep us in your thoughts as we get back into our regular schedule as students return in the next week or so and start to implement strategies for one (or more!) parties being planted on our campuses. Pray about our Chinese friends as we challenge them to share with their friends and take part in leading churches!

This past weekend we had our cookie party. It was a delightful time where I heard more than once from my friend Tracy, “it’s like a dream come true, I’ve always dreamt about doing this!” Who knew making sugar cookies would be the fulfillment of a Chinese girls’ dream? The real special time began for me when we moved into our living room and Ginger started to share about Mary’s visit from Gabriel. Before Ginger was even able to finish telling a story from her life, the questions started bouncing off the walls! It was one of the first times our friends have voiced so many good, deep, personal, questions in a large group. Ginger, Pinky, and I strongly felt God’s presence as answers, stories, scripture, easily flowed back and forth. Even our Chinese friend Sweety joined in, so excited to be able to encourage the girls around her too!

Arriving late, our friend Sally sat next to me and whispered a question about asking for forgiveness. As I sat holding Sally’s hand and rested against her chair, I looked around at the girls and felt such camaraderie and sisterhood like never before. These truly are my sisters, whether or not they’ve made the decision to be in the family yet. Being able to share with them and see the power of the Christmas story capture their hearts, to pray with my friends Tracy and Amanda and encourage them to talk to God and ask him to reveal himself to them, to hear my friend Amanda tell me afterwards “I saw Jesus Christ smiling at me! I don’t know what he’s supposed to look like, but I know he was smiling at me!” These are things that are transforming my Christmas. And these are the best presents of all.

We are seeing such awesome and amazing things happening during this season! This past weekend alone 12 brothers and sisters, friends of other GZ teams, made the decision to follow God!! We are believing for even more friends as the power of God continues to unfold during this season. Will you join with me in lifting up our friends who don’t know him? Lift up Sally, Joey, Tracy, Amanda, Becky, Rita, Charry, Iris, and Vera, just to name a few! At our next girls night we will show “The Nativity Story” and are praying for a powerful night of connections with the Lord. We are also preparing for a large party with all of our friends and the guys’ friends and are so excited about a night of celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ and sharing this with our friends! Pray about preparations for the party and about God ministering to our friends that night are appreciated! Thank you for joining with me in this season as the greatest Christmas gift of all-God’s love, is transforming lives!

To us a child is given, to us a child is born! May He bless your Christmas season!

First of all I am thankful for Apple, Eva, June, and our newest sister Carol! In only three months Dad has given us the opportunity to see four dear friends come into the family and witness many other friends grow in their understanding of God. I’m so awed by the work He is doing and so excited to see more to come!

I’m so thankful for friends and family and their prayers! I’m so encouraged knowing I have the love and support of people from home, and not just to be cheesy either! It’s something that builds me up when things seem difficult or tiring, to know that people are praying for me and for Asia.

I’m thankful for the chance to be in Asia, to see the Lord move in our team, in our city, in my life. I was recently asked the question “how have you grown since stepping out into the field?” and my first thought was “how haven’t I grown?” But even with this humorous response, it’s true. God has used my being here to teach me and grow me in His word, in talking to Him, in ministering like I never have before, in surrendering. And it’s not all easy, no, but it’s all good, and I’m so thankful for it. It’s amazing to realize, like Elisabeth Elliot wrote, “I know of no more staggering and humbling truth than that a sovereign God has ordained my participation.”

And I’m thankful for the incredibly wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving celebration we had last week. I was so excited for Thanksgiving I could have been a five year old on Christmas morning. Our day was quite full of food, fun, and laughter, and the first ever GZ Thanksgiving football game. We even had our very own turkey, and didn’t skimp on any of the yummy side dishes either. Our evening ended with excited anticipation as we started “A Muppet’s Christmas Carol” and joyously welcomed the Christmas season!

I’m just as excited, if not more, about Christmas too! I know the Lord is going to do some awesome things this month…I’m just also amazed by how fast this month is going to go too! We’re making exciting plans for Christmas parties and book study nights. I’m excited about sharing with my friends this weekend at our book study about answered prayers and starting to talk about the Christmas story! Please continue to pray about our Bible study nights as we dig into the Christmas story and share the real reason to celebrate. We are praying that we would see more of our friends choose to follow God during this season. Also, continued thoughts about water baptisms would be so appreciated. One of our hopes for this month is that we would see our sisters baptized and fired up about the mission of sharing God with their friends! The last three months have been fast, full, and exciting, but there is even more incredible things to look forward to, including the celebration of the Son coming to earth!

Happy belated Thanksgiving, and wishing a warm welcome of the Christmas season!

The next week starts and Pinky and I are running out the door, saying a quick prayer on our way to our first appointment. Pinky, almost jokingly asks that we see sisters made that night. My new friend Eva sits down in front of me and instantly I feel God's presence. I looked at her and a still small voice said “this is Eva's night.” We hadn't even started talking yet but when I looked at her I could just SEE it all over her-this was a girl who was seeking and tonight she would see God in her own life.

Pinky prays for our dinner and immediately Eva tells me how she had gone to a family church that very Sunday in search of peace and there had witnessed God's peace and wanted that in her life, always. I'm practically flabbergasted. We hadn't really planned for this to happen tonight, it was our first meeting with these girls ever. We figured it would be a nice chance to get to know them; I didn't have any message prepared or memorized any prayer to share with my friends when they wanted to become a Christian. Yet it was this exact moment that the Lord divinely orchestrated. That evening, then, while sitting outside beneath the low glow of a streetlight, Eva talked to Jesus and asked Him into her life. I talked with her and she repeated words after me and when we finished I looked into her misty eyes and softly said “Eva, you are now a Christian, you are saved and He is now in your heart.” She looked at Pinky and I and with wonder and awe whispered “Really?!”

The night we did the craft I wrote at the bottom of my paper “The Harvest is ready” and it is so true. Like James says, “be patient, therefore brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.” Our harvest started with Apple and now Eva and we're trusting the Lord for the harvest to multiply! But like the farmer, it requires planting seeds, watering them, encouraging growth, and ultimately trusting God and His Spirit to minister. And He is so faithful to do what He has promised! It may not happen on the nights we expect when we have a Gospel message planned, or have made the apartment comfy and welcoming; it may be while sitting in a crowded cafeteria ringing with the voices of students making it a little difficult to hear each other, but God knows best. The leaves may not be changing colors here in GZ, the weather may still be warm (though it is getting cooler to the point of being able to wear a light sweater), and the air may not have quite the same crispness of fall, but the harvest is in season nonetheless!

Hong Kong is quite a city. These words are severely lacking in description, but I honestly don’t know how to describe the enormity, the vast coastline of sky scrapers, and the massive roving population. And to think that I have seen this amazing spectacle, one that I never in my wildest dreams would have thought about seeing, nor ever intended to see! It’s funny to me how these words have changed in my mind. I never thought I’d come to Asia. These words before were maybe filled with doubt or unbelief, but yet here I am, in my Father’s hands, as he’s brought me to new places and I say with wonder, “to think I may never have seen this!”

I feel like I’ve been able to put a positive feeling in all my updates, as I did just then, but I can’t deny that some days been filled with doubts, frustration, homesickness, all common feelings for one on a journey. Yet I continually come to the conclusion that despite the many lessons God is teaching me and the sometimes difficult convictions and discipline, He is in control. I hold on to the fact that he brought me here, He wanted me here, so that I could learn his heart for me and for others, when it’s easy and when it’s difficult. We’ve entered upon our third month in G-town and I can’t help but fluctuate between feelings of homesickness or excitement when I think about the fact there are still 7 months to go. But as I was journaling this morning and thinking about this I realized that my emotions are so fickle, so unpredictable, and unsteady, yet my Father holds me in his hand, and He is the same yesterday, tomorrow, today and forever!

Someone, during our first days of training, said “We don’t know what this next year holds, but we know who holds this next year.” I certainly didn’t expect so many things that have happened to happen, such as our trip to Hong Kong and seeing a city of such grandeur, but I know He has everything in His control. And now, like Tolkien wrote, “the road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the road has gone, and I must follow, if I can, pursuing it with eager feet, until it joins some larger way where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say”….

Please pray to the Lord about our ongoing journey here. We are seeking Him for continual wisdom with our friends, with new friends, with our book study. Tonight we have our second book study but are changing our layout of it in hopes of better sharing his love for our friends. Like Paul said, we press on and move forward to what lies ahead, and we continue to lift our friends to him, that they would know him personally. And if you would think of me too and missing home. It’s common and expected, I know, and I also know my God is with me, but I want to stay focused on the goal and reason for being here.

To the ongoing journey!