New Permanent Members

We have started to pray for more permanent members for our Sunday church family. I have a lot of student friends and they sometimes come to our Sunday worship. The students offer a great energy but most of them are only here for a year or two then move away. We have friends in our neighborhood, but they are busy with family on Sundays. Just when I was beginning to doubt where permanent members would come from…
Filly has been coming back to our Sunday worship. Two years ago when our student study was investigated, she was probably the first and most questioned student. Now Filly has graduated and works for a bank in Hangzhou. Filly still lives close by, but thankfully the university is no longer in charge of her spiritual protection.
Sam lives on the second floor in our building and a teacher at one of the nearby universities. He studied in Wisconsin for two years. Sam told me he attended a church every Sunday for a year and a half while in America. Sam and his wife are expecting a baby in a few months.
David came to us as a friend of a friend of the Hardin family. David’s family lives in America and he is away on business a lot. In September David’s wife was visiting Hangzhou. Our group was praying about a new meeting place and David’s wife spoke up, “You can use my husband’s office space.” On another week David led the singing and made some good short comments in between songs.
I could choose to doubtfully think, “They will move away soon or be too busy to come to church.” Instead, I will choose to focus on God showing again how He will always provide. Our church family is one way God is providing His love to these new permanent members.

New Meeting Places

God was faithful to answer our prayer for a Sunday meeting place. We were eating dinner with ChongChong’s family. GaoYan mentioned that our Sunday group is looking for a new place to worship. Jane spoke up, “You can use my husband’s office space.” And her husband thought, “That would probably be ok.” Jane was baptized about a year ago in Elaine’s home. Jane’s husband, in the past, donated a lot for building a new church in his mom’s hometown, which happens to be Tongling, GaoYan’s hometown.
We met in the new office space for the first time Sunday. There is a carpet and lots of soft couches where we circle up for worship. Extra rooms are available if we are able to get a children’s Bible class started. The office is not too far from the Hardin’s apartment complex. Some people were out of town for the October holiday, but the new place feels exciting filled with possibility. Our church family volunteered many different ways to serve in our new meeting place. We are really amazed to see how God answers our prayers.

Also for our neighborhood ladies and children study we were praying for a more suitable place to meet. We had been meeting in Grace’s home. Every time Grace went out of town or her little boy got sick we had to cancel or reschedule.
Caleb has taken some art classes at the Happy Fish after school center. GaoYan talked with the Happy Fish owner about renting her space for 600 yuan/month to month basis on Saturday nights. It is really great. There is a room for the ladies to study. There is a big room for the children to have a Bible story and play. The Happy Fish owner is a friend and neighbor to most of the group, so we were grateful to encourage her business.
The first meeting Grace led a Bible study with Linda, XiLe MaMa, XiaoChuan MaMa, and CoCo MaMa. GaoYan and I taught XiLe, XiaoChuan, Caleb, and Joy the days of creation.

prayer for our meeting

Tomorrow is Sunday and this could be our last time meeting for worship in our apt.  This year one of our goals was to move the Sunday meeting out of our apartment.  We feel this would help them become more independent from us foreigners.  The goal was to meeting somewhere else by the end of the calender year.  So far we are ahead of schedule.

Friends of our group have offered to let us use their office space for our meeting on Sunday.  We are excited about this.  Of course as with any type of change, anything could happen.  Please pray for our group and this transition.  Pray that it will be exciting and a chance to grow even more.  

This week is a holiday weekend, so we expect that attendance will be way down because many people are traveling or having family get togethers.


Next week should be the first Sunday in the new meeting place.  I am sure someone will blog about this first meeting in the next few weeks.

Touching

A common complaint among mothers-to-be (aka pregnant ladies) is that once they start showing, their belly seems to be public property.  I have heard many stories of total strangers laying hands on their bellies.  I don’t guess I ever had that problem, or else I have blocked it from my memory.  And before anyone asks, no I am not pregnant.

But I do wonder what it is about my children that makes people here think it is ok to touch them.  

Sometimes we walk down the street and random people try to stop the kids and they grab at their arms.  And they often touch their faces and hair.  Some days it can be hard to deal with. For the kids and parents!

It is hard to know what to do.  I don't want the kids to be rude, and I don't to be rude, but what do you do when a total stranger touches your face?

I understand that I am dealing with a  very  different culture, and that my kids look very  different than most kids around here but it still seems very rude to me.  

I don't mean to be negative.  Most of the time, things are fine when we go out.  We just run into some "touchy" people every once in a while.  And they are always friendly and usually are unaware, that their actions are strange to us.

It is just one of those things that we deal with living as an outsider in this culture.

Two new swimmers.

Shelly told us that one of her roommates (Shu Xiu)  and her boy friend (Zhang Yan Xing) wanted to get baptized.  We were really excited.  Shelly has been studying with her roommate for a while and I assume that Shu Xiu shared the Good News with her boyfriend.  Jon met him once, but then he moved to Shanghai to work.  I am so excited for them and what this could mean in their lives!

Jon and Hallie went to witness their baptism.

Sui from Singapore helped.  Hallie took pictures (she did not quite have the timing down).  Please pray for Shu Xiu and Zhang Yan Xing as they begin their Christian walk.

Answered Prayers

During the past few months several of you asked for names of people to pray for in our ministry and we told you stories about some of them in our newsletter. We're happy to tell you that God has already been answering some of those prayers!

Shirley was just baptized at the end of last semester. We talked about her at Clear Creek and asked for special prayers as she deals with resistance from her parents. Well, during the summer Shirley and her parents had lots of conversations about her faith (which was a great chance for her to share and grow her faith!), but her parents kept up the pressure. In the end, they agreed that she can do whatever she wants to at school, but she can't "bring her faith home". That's obviously not the ideal long-term solution, but it's a great start and shows a thawing of their hearts. Also, Shirley is building closer relationships with some of the other Christians that we meet with. She went to the Salt & Light student group last Sunday and loved it. Then this last Thursday, she caught a bike ride to our weekly meeting with a sister from another group. We're thankful to see her growing!

We have also mentioned the girl Sunday many times in the past. Sunday has lots of emotional and interpersonal issues, but she's pretty open to Jesus and his story. We've prayed a lot for her and tried to love her, but we were never too sure of how things were going. Then just this last week Sunday told Lisa that she had gone to a different local Christian group with one of her classmates who is a Christian. We were super happy and surprised to hear the news! Even more, we were thankful to see God drawing Sunday to himself without us being the ones pushing her or telling her to go to meetings. It's great to see people respond positively when we encourage them to do something, but it's even better to see God work in people's hearts totally independently of our work!

Join us in thanking God for these answered prayers and thank you all for praying!

Vineyard Talk

On a beautiful Sunday morning in September, we went with our friends Maggie and Jason, their baby Yangyang, and Maggie's father to a nearby vineyard to pick grapes. Strange place for Christians to be on a Sunday morning, huh? Yes, but our meeting isn't until the afternoon these days, and while in the vineyard our Jason had a chance, which we had prayed for, to explain to Maggie the significance for Christians of the vine and the branches. The vine is Jesus, he explained, and Christians are the branches, and the grapes are the fruit that God Himself produces in our lives. Maggie listened, and we were thankful for the opportunity. The grapes were the best we had ever tasted, but that one sacred moment was the real reason for going to the vineyard that day. Remember Maggie and her family in your prayers.