2004-01-29
January 29, 2004
Jackie & Fran Bell
With the IMB in Taipei, Taiwan
“That All Peoples May Know Him???
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Thanks so much for your prayers these last few weeks. We (and our luggage) arrived safely in Taiwan on Jan 4th and then we departed on Jan 10th for our 17-day work assignment in Thailand. The AGM (a general meeting) is an annual gathering for all our personnel in the East Asia region. Although Jackie and I serve on the planning team (about 50 of us) who organize this meeting, we do get to participate in some of the meetings. Corporate worship with a room full of m’s is truly a blessing. This year, Concord Baptist Church from Concord TN. brought a team of 170 volunteers – all who come to serve m’s and families for a full week. One team led the praise and worship music, and several other teams served the youth, pre-school, and school age children. As you can imagine, it takes a lot of folks to successfully pull together a weeklong gathering of over a thousand folks. The teaching from the book of Philippians encouraged us all. The theme this year was “We Press On???.
We were all encouraged as we listened to testimonies of our co-workers about their work in the region and how the people they work among are being reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We heard statistics of increase over these past few years, but those statistics came alive as we viewed a video of numerous (un-traditional) baptisms, in bathtubs, swimming pools, rivers, and lakes. Of course the rivers and lakes are biblical – but our folks are creative as they see God provide venues for the Chinese to have the opportunity to proclaim publicly among fellow believers concerning their newfound faith in Christ. We heard testimonies of opposition, and persecutions – some even among friends who we had met during our initial training in July 2000.
We appreciate so much your prayers for our energy during this intense time. We both are aware of God’s strength as Jackie administrated and organized the rooms and equipment for over 100 events. I also experienced God’s faithfulness to me to teach a ladies bible study. Again, we could not have survived without your prayer support.
A few things to pray for:
Safe travel for our crate – due to arrive in Taiwan Feb 10th. It will then be in customs about 10 days.
Stamina and creativity as we continue to live out of a suitcase until we can set up our new nest.
Smooth re-entry into our discipleship ministry & its time demands
Pray for our Taiwanese friend Alex, as he begins a new leadership roll.
Please let us know how we can pray for you too.
Please send us a digital photo of you/your family. We are building a prayer-warrior bulletin board.
Send photo to: pic@thebellsite.com
We hope to get back into a routine soon and to send our newsletter more regularly.
In His Service together,
Jackie & Fran Bell
jandf@thebellsite.com
To view Thailand pics, go to our web site:
www.thebellsite.com
