Anticipating China

I have hesitated posting how we are preparing for China lately, and believe that I was allowing satan to make me believe that no one was interested and/or folks were tired of hearing about us going to China.  We want people to be engaged in our preparation, we desire our friends and family to please pray for us.  We want to share all that God has been doing and have the honor of giving Him glory in all of this!  How can we do that if all the folks we love don't know what's going on?  So I want to share with you what God has been doing.

Last month when Glenn and I went to the Chinese New Year celebration in Slippery Rock, we met a man named Xiangdong.  Dr. Sue and Jackson, a Chinese couple from our church, told Xiangdong about us and he already knew who we were.  Well God connected us with him in friendship right away and it happened that he lived right up the hill from us in a student apartment.  He had been here since October as a researching professor from Chengzhou, China.  We invited him to our home, took him shopping, went out to eat some, learned some Chinese and took him to church with us.  We also had the opportunity to share Jesus with him through a video explaining that God (Shang Di) was/is the God of ancient China, 2000 years before Buddhism, Confucianism or Daoism.  It truly spoke to his heart.  Xiangdong began introducing Glenn and I to other Chinese friends and some that we met were already believers.  They have shared with us what God is doing in China and we are really excited.

God has been confirming over and over again His desire for us to go to China to teach and to share Jesus with the students.  He has ignited a passion within us to obey and to go, but this doesn't mean that we don't have days that we are temporarily frozen with fear and doubt.  I am, almost everyday at some point, I am.  But since we serve a mighty and loving God who knows just how I feel at every moment, He encourages my heart either by His Voice, His Word, a song or another encouraging believer.  He does it, He does it when I need it.  He knows how comfortable I can feel here in the states, in Pennsylvania, in Slippery Rock, in this home.  He knows for 51 years how I have lived in ease, basically.  He knows that I have never been out of comfort too long.  He knows all of this, yet He also knows the future and knows through His strength what I am capable of.  What I can handle, what I can do...and at that moment that I need something that I don't naturally have, He will supply for me!  I believe that, I know that, I am counting on that!

So right now, we are continuing to learn the Chinese language.  Obviously, we will most never be fluent, but our desire is to be able to communicate in some conversation.  We are beginning to make our lists of "what to give away", "what to sell", "what our kids want", "what to store", and "what to take to China".  This is difficult, you don't think you have too much until you begin a task such as this.  


As we prepare and lean on our Savior for His greatness, His strength and His wisdom...we bathe in His Word, drawing from Him the ability to move forward.  His Word is living, it is priceless, it is able to do in us that which we cannot on our own.  We are dependent upon it and long to saturate out souls in it.  We BELIEVE IT! We BELIEVE HIM!  We love Psalm 63:3...The steadfast love of the LORD is better than life.  And Hebrews 11:25 ...The pleasures in this life are fleeting, 2 Cor. 4:17 and the afflictions are light and momentary.  But the steadfast love of the LORD is forever.  HIS WORD IS ALIVE and HE is ALIVE in us!  PRAISE GOD, our STRONG TOWER, OUR TREASURE!!

Please pray for us...please pray that we will have a growing compassion for the lost.  Please pray that we will be obedient to Christ in His strength.

Declare His glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! Ps. 96:3



In Christ alone.