We trust that you had a blessed Christmas holiday season. Thank you for all of the kind emails, Christmas gifts, and money you gave to us for Christmas, birthdays, anniversary, and a vehicle. We appreciate your thoughtfulness very much! We are so blessed and thankful for each of you and your giving to Jesus!
Thank you again to each of you who prayed for our visa situation. The visas have been granted until this summer. Your prayers made a difference!
S___, the Muslim, came to one of our midweek services and has already finished the New Testament twice. He told me that he wants to read the Old Testament now. Please keep praying for him. Interestingly enough, his “Christian” roommate came over to our house for an appointment and is not even saved himself— he’s trusting in works for salvation. So please pray that both of them would believe—in Jesus ONLY.
During the Fall Program at our morning meeting, I started teaching the junior group in Chinese. After a lesson on salvation, I was able to confirm that one of the kids understood the Gospel that day and received Christ. Praise the Lord!
Awhile back, I felt the Lord would have us start a weekly open house of sorts in our home. We had tried it before, and it never really took off; but after deciding to try another time, the LORD really made it happen. The first week we had it, there were 7 kids and 7 adults there—and this doesn’t include 7 foreign kids on top of that. Let’s just say our house was quite, as the Chinese would say, re nao (“exciting”)! When it came time for our Christmas party, we held it at the same time as our weekly open house/English Corner and told them to invite others. We also invited some neighbors.
I want to thank especially my wife and our teammate Bro. J___ for all their help. Bro. R___ was there as well, pitching in. It is great to have a disciple in on giving the Gospel to others! He has finished discipleship, and we began the next phase of discipleship.
I had prayed for God to get the glory from the Christmas party, and He certainly did! Let me give you some background. While at a conference, I asked a knowledgeable man involved throughout the world, and he said to become a master of the people group culture that you wish to reach. In other words, be able to tell them why they do the things they do that they don’t even know why. Chinese words (called characters) are an example of this. A little while back, we had been invited to our next-door neighbor’s house for lunch, and I tried to steer the conversation to spiritual things. I went on to explain that contained in some Chinese characters are Bible stories, which prove that the early Chinese people believed in the Creator God long before Confucius and others ever came along. It was interesting to have Chinese men gathered around my phone as I tried to explain. Afterwards, the neighbor’s wife, a Chinese teacher herself, asked me to explain it again. Remember that I still have so much to learn still—God gets all the glory!
So fast forward to our Christmas party—things are crazy! There are not enough places for people to sit and kids sitting on the floor, even more lively than before! We get through the games, songs, etc.; and then I began the lesson by telling them that we would try to answer three questions tonight: (1) What did YOUR ancient forefathers believe in, (2) Who is Jesus Christ, and (3) and what do those two things have to do with me? If you can get the picture of the foreigner (I am smiling as I type this) explaining to a group of Chinese—on my computer in a slideshow—what stories their characters tell. At least twice, it was like a holy hush fell; you could SO tell that God was there and flowing. And please remember my Chinese level! I had asked Bro. J___ to come up at the end and also witness to clarify any misunderstandings and also to have the power of two.
Praise the Lord! At least 5 people raised their hands and said that this was the night they received Christ as their Saviour! It was amazing! Thank you to each of you who prayed! Praise the Lord again! “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest . . . .”
Thank you again for your faithful prayers and support! Keep up the great work in your places of service! You’re the best! We are on the winning side!
In His service,
M6011
Note: May I please ask that you do not post anything about us on the internet. Please help us with that. Please feel free to post our letters in your church but not outside. Regarding email, please use discretion to whom you forward. We appreciate your help in these matters.
Also, please do not attempt to send anything to us directly on the field without contacting us first. It has taken certain items up to 12 months to arrive, and sometimes things appear to have been kindly “pre-opened” for us.