2008-01-23

Greetings from Taiwan!                                                  Jan 2008

“X?n nián kuài le” means Happy New Year in Chinese!

We hope you all had a wonderful time with your families as you celebrated Christmas and another New Year! We were able to visit with family over the phone on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Our daughter Paige and her husband Chris are enjoying the married life & our son Travis will be moving to the UK soon on a 6 month assignment with his company. We are blessed that they are all doing well.

It’s hard to believe we have lived in Taiwan over 7 years. This May we will have been employed by the IMB a full 8 years. Thank you all for your financial support through Lottie Moon Christmas offering! It is through the generosity of SB churches and your support that enables us to serve freely without the burden of raising financial support. God provides all our needs through you!

During Christmas break from BSF, Jackie and I volunteered to serve on a debriefing team in Hong Kong. Every year, a large group of college students come through HK on their way into and out of China to share the true story of Christmas to mainlanders. We heard some wonderful testimonies and got a glimpse of how the field truly is “white unto harvest” in some areas across the “Taiwan Strait”. We also tacked on a couple of days of vacation to take in some site seeing. One day we rode the ferry over to Macau. It is famous for its rich history (and now casinos). We hit the sidewalks in search of a few of the famous sites, including a church and cemetery, which is steeped in early Christianity. It was a full day! Then, on the last day, we rode on the top deck of a double-decker bus on Hong Kong Island through some very high places on the way to the famous “Stanley Market”.

Upon our return from HK, we returned to our normal routine with BSF plus we are in the final preparations for our annual m’ meeting that we attend each year. That’s the main reason we are writing, to ask you to specifically pray for this event. We will be in Thailand for 3 weeks (Jan 26- Feb 14). On arrival we’ll make final preparations and get everything ready, then we help with the actual event, and finally some people stay afterwards for some extra training. When it is all over we will take few days of vacation in Bangkok, hopefully to unwind and relax a little.

Here are some practical ways to pray for this very special event:

• Pray that all the m’s will have travel safety and good health for the event.
• Pray for the host Church (from Arkansas) as they come to lead us in corporate worship and to care for all the MK’s while parents attend seminars and daily training sessions.
• Pray for our regional leaders as they use this time to reunite with the people to encourage, correct, and equip all those that serve in our region.
• Also, we have a new regional leader, so please pray that everyone will be attentive as he cast his vision for how to reach the people of East Asia for Christ.

Personally:

• Please pray for Jackie as he oversees the room arrangements and equipment for over 150 seminars.
• Please pray for Fran as she helps with registration, assists Jackie with LCD projector distribution for the seminars, and prepares a ladies bible study for 3 seminars.

In closing we have a request to make. We have finally rounded up materials to construct a photo board and we are ready to follow through with an idea that has been brewing for a long time. We want to mount your photo on this board as a reminder of all those that pray for us as we serve the Lord in Taiwan. Would you please either mail us a photo or send a digital one in email? Some of you sent photos in your Christmas cards – so we are off to a great start!

God’s blessings to you and your loved ones as you begin 2008.

PLEASE Don’t forget to send us a photo!

Our mailing address has not changed in these 7 years – email and ask if you need it.