CHINA KAT

Ni hao from Beijing!

Well, this coming Saturday will have been a month since our arrival in Beijing. My how time flies! It has been a crazy and busy time as we begin our ministry and continue to learn what life looks like here. We have been blessed to witness five baptisms since arriving, and there was one more last night. The church seems to be flourishing, as last week there were over 60 people in attendance! There was an LST team here from California for 2 weeks, and we currently have an LST team from Texas who are doing great things. They held a Texas themed party on Sunday, which was a lot of fun, and we were able to make even more connections! We are very excited about the possibilities and the opportunity to build relationships with the people of China. It is amazing how many opportunities God continues to provide which reiterates what we already know: God is moving in China and the harvest is ripe!

We have been in language school for about 2 weeks now, and though our brain feels like mush, we are excited about this opportunity to learn Mandarin, which we hope will go even farther in communicating with the wonderful people here. We have also begun our own “seekers” group study on Monday nights, which includes several of our readers from our last trip, along with others who are interested in seeking to grow in their faith. We had 8 people show up for our first time of study (picture below), and were excited about that! We will also be adding a Saturday night study eventually for those who are more available on the weekends. We are setting these up as intentionally safe gatherings where they can ask honest and often challenging questions, and we can seek to answer them together. Along with this, we are studying individually with several people, and are constantly meeting new people in which we hope to have the opportunity to build relationships with and share the Gospel with.

I do have a few prayer requests:

I am still in search of an apartment and have to find one very soon since we are about to receive our new visa, when I will have to register again with permanent housing. I think I may have found one last night that would be great, but still need to work out the details. I have an extremely friendly and helpful person who helped the Cooper’s find their apartment and is now helping me. He is so happy to help us and has become a good friend! We are excited about the relationship that is forming with him, and would like to ask your prayers for him and that seeds will be planted in his sweet heart.

I am still in need of more financial support, though I am so thankful that more has come in lately. Please pray it continues to come in as I want to be able to focus as much of my time as possible on the ministry here, as opportunities continue to abound!! Thank you again to those who have already given financially and for your prayers for us.

I went through my first round of culture shock/homesickness this past weekend, and it was pretty rough. But, with the help of good friends and our Father, it only lasted a few days. We know we will face these times and they will be challenging, and we pray we can remember why He called us here and can support each other along the way.

I apologize that I have not written more since we have been here. Now that we are getting a bit more settled, I plan on updating more and sending out an e-mail once a week to keep you all informed of what God is doing here in Beijing and in our lives. If you are not currently on my e-mail list or you know of anyone who you believe would like to be added to this list or would be interested in helping our ministry out financially-please let me know their contact information, or feel free to pass this along!

I pray you are all being blessed immensely!! I am so thankful for each of you, and love you with the great love of our Father!!

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