November was a crazy month of transition, travel and sickness! The first week was spent setting up our new house in Linxia, the major Muslim city which will be our permanent residence for the next few years. Our heat was not working all week, so we moved and unpacked and cleaned and organized without hardly ever taking off our coats!
Then, on November 9th, I left with Gabriel and Abby to make the trek up to the China-Mongolian border to renew their visas. Its an exhausting 1,000+ mile trip by car and train even when you are healthy, but on the first full day of the journey, I came down with the flu. The rest of the trip was miserable (its a couple of days each way to the border, with multiple nights spent sleeping on tiny, hard train bunks), but there was no turning back since the kids current visas would expire if they did not leave and re-enter by November 12th! So on we plodded (more like slipped and slided on the ice and snow) through train stations and immigration lines and more train stations. God was merciful and the kids were great- Abby was my human foot-warmer as she would "bear hug" my feet during her nap time while I laid there with fever trying to rest. Praise God, we survived!
We are now hosting a large team who will be serving with us through Christmas. Most will work with unevangelized college students, while others will teach English to young children in unreached Muslim areas. Please pray for safety and guidance for these teams and that the Gospel of Truth would penetrate the darkness of the Chinese university campuses as well as the forgotten communities of the Chinese Muslim world!
We are also awaiting the arrival next month of Jimmy and Gladys, and their daughter Milagros, who are long-time friends and Gospel workers from Peru! They are finally coming to serve on the China-Tibet mission field long-term after many years of dedicated service in their home country. Jimmy first felt the call to China when he heard me speak at his little church in the hillside slums of northern Lima back in the Spring of 2004!
Pray for Jimmy and his family as they begin the long process of language study and cultural adaptation, which will be the foundation for future fruit among the unreached!
Merry Christmas!
Ben, Deysi, Gabriel, Ariel, & Abby
PS. For those who'd like to know, here is the link where you can make a one-time ministry gift and/or set up a recurring donation. Thank you!
