2001-09-25

September 25, 2001

A Somber Greeting from Taiwan –

We are grieving with you over the tragedies in our homeland, yet take solace in the truth that God is sovereign and is bringing good out of these marked days in history. It appears that America is running back home to God in such a time as this. May the Lord use this around the world to bring many to a saving grace in Christ that will bring us closer to the fulfillment of the great commission.

It’s been way too long since we last wrote you about our trip to Hong Kong and China. August consisted of returning to the mission office routine for Jackie and I was busy making doctor appointments, etc after booking a flight home for a brief trip to the U.S.

Many of you have prayed for my eyes and have continued to ask me about them when you write. Thanks so much. After 3 cancellations with doctors (one of them while mid-flight), I finally secured an appointment the first full day home (albeit jet lag had the best of me). The doctor confirmed a condition that one of the other 5 doctors diagnosed, however he put me on a different treatment plan that should help bring consistent relief to my discomfort. All other appointments, such as dental, mammogram, etc proved to be normal. I had four days with Paige and Travis and that did my heart good. It was great to visit with family and to be reassured that everyone gets along just fine without our being nearby. Many of you also prayed for a different place to be available to store our personal belongs and God was faithful to confirm His provision. Praise God for his provision through Stephanie and Raymond Stone’s family business storage. We are very thankful for my sister, brother in law and brother who actually got those things moved for us. Although I was able to worship at our home church, and attend BSF while home, I miss not having the time to visit with everyone who is so dear to me. I was home in Garland during the Sept 11th attack and I know it was difficult for Jackie to be on the other side of the world from all of us as uncertainty took us all by surprise. The incident adjusted my travels, but I was able to smoothly return to Jackie in Taiwan on Sept 20th.

While away, Taiwan was struck by a typhoon that left much of Taipei flooded and without water and electricity. It made a major impact upon the city – shutting down the mass transit subway system, thus creating an even greater traffic problem to the already crowded streets. Jackie was unable to go into the office for 4 days – too bad I wasn’t home to pick on him! We are concerned how the transportation problem will impact the three BSF classes here in Taipei. Each of the classes is strategically located near subway stations that are no longer serviceable. Please pray that class members (many who travel from far away) will see God part the sea for them to attend class each week on time – by use of other means of transportation.

We are both looking forward to the Moses study this year and pray that it will be used among the Chinese to purify their faith in Christ, and remove idolatry in this land. Although I have yet to be assigned to a group, Jackie has accepted the new responsibility of class secretary for the men’s class.
Traveling again – we need prayer.

We will travel to Singapore Sept 28th to attend the BSF leaders Retreat through Sept 30th. We will remain in Singapore for a week to serve the mission office there and then on Oct 5th we will travel to Thailand to attend a planning session with our regional leadership team. We will return to Taiwan on Oct 8th. Please pray the Lord will use the BSF retreat to strengthen Asian leadership, that we will prove helpful to the Singapore mission office and that we will learn quickly our responsibilities for the making of an efficient team for the upcoming AGM (Annual General Meeting) with our mission in Feb.

We have to laugh … when we see a dog walking down the street wrapped in a plastic shopping bag (as a raincoat) – we guess the rain was just too much for him. We can’t help but chuckle while listening to the pastor ask “do any of these owe you money before we baptize them???? We do praise God for the 26 Chinese baptized Sunday evening, and one among them is a spiritually hungry young man named Andrew from our EBF class (English Bible Fellowship) that Jackie teaches at the church next door.

We discover that if we don’t write regularly, we don’t hear from you either – and keeping in touch is important to us. Please keep in touch and update us in ways we can pray for you. You are important to us.

It’s hard to believe that we have been in Taiwan a year now. We hope that this next year will prove to be spiritually fruitful and revealing to our future placement of service with the Lord.

Resting In Him,
Jackie & Fran

jackiebell@pobox.com
afranbell@yahoo.com

http://communities.msn.com/jackfran