Its been way too long since I’ve posted on my blog (apologies to the few of you who actually enjoy reading what I write!), so here’s a short update that I wrote last week, including some important prayer requests 🙂
Happy Chinese New Year
We are in the process of traversing China by train (I’m writing from a train passing through rural China’s famous pointy mountain peaks) during the infamous Chinese travel week leading up to Chinese New Year. This year’s Chinese Lunar New Year falls on February 19th (it’s a different day each year, depending on the lunar calendar), and nearly a billion people will travel somewhere in the coming week to spend China’s biggest holiday with their families. We’re going to spend the New Year with old friends in a big central Chinese city that we’re visiting for the first time. Please pray that our fellowship would be sweet and that the New Year would usher in more Gospel preaching and spreading of the knowledge of Christ into China than ever before!
Special Mid-Winter Team
We were blessed to host a team of hard-working, God-honoring, fearless individuals during the first couple of weeks of January. This team came to serve our vision of reaching every home in every town and village of our target region with at least a portion of God’s Word. This is not an easy task. The larger towns number in the hundreds; the smaller villages into the thousands. In 10 days (mostly nights!) spent out on in the highways and byways and alleyways, we were able to distribute tens of thousands of Scripture Booklets in more than 80 locations ranging from big cities down to the smallest villages imaginable and individual homesteads on snow-covered mountainsides. Pray for the fruit that will come through the reading of God’s Word and for strength and wisdom as we continue this daunting project!
More Teams Coming
The middle of March will begin an intense season of ministry that will last until the early Fall. We will be hosting teams ranging from just a few people up to a few dozen people in late March, late April, late May, all of June, all of July, and September. Most of these teams will be helping us with our Literature Project, which will be exhausting for everyone involved (many sleepless nights canvassing Muslim and Tibetan towns). Please pray for the safety of all these teams, and for me to have wisdom to know how to best use all of my own gifts, and the talents of the team members as we strive to make Christ known in these unreached lands!
March Trip
In conclusion, I want to ask that you pray for our family as I travel to the States in early March. I have the opportunity to share more than a dozen times in churches and missions events in a short span of time, but my family will not be able to join me. I will be in Oklahoma City (March 5-10), Knoxville, TN (March 11), Georgia (March 12-13), and Virginia/W. Virginia (March 14-18). If you live in any of these areas and want to try to meet at one of the missions events I’ll be attending, e-mail me and I’ll give you the relevant information. Please pray for my family as they hold down the Chinese fort without me, and for me to have a fruitful time of ministry and also to *raise the support we need for our Latino missionary families here in China!
*One of the primary reasons for traveling to the States now is due to the recent loss of some key support for our two Latino (Peru, Mexico) missionary families who work with us here in China. If you feel led to support them, please use this link to give to a special fund we have created.
