new semester, new friends, last year

The students will all be on their way back to town in the next week or two.  We are so excited to see our friends again and so eager to get back into the swing of hard and heavy language study.

My husband has begun studying Uyghur with a new tutor and in discussing language study materials, he just mentioned that he'd like to study the Bible.  What a wonderful surprise that this new friend, was eager to get to read a U Bible and study it with my man.  Please pray that he would be opened, awakened from the dead just like Lazarus.   Oh that Jesus would call to this friend and bring him to new life, new hope, faith in Him!

For me, I am hopeful for a new year:  because of family responsibilities, this will be my last full-time year in language study.  I struggle so much to be diligent in these studies because I have very few people to speak/practice with I am very distracted with lots of responsibilities (sweet children!) at home.  But this year is crucial!  May the Lord enable me to apply my mind to these studies, to persevere through the infant stage (feeling soooo dumb!) and may I too be able to study Scripture and proclaim at least some of the truth and greatness, the glory of Christ, by next summer!  It will be a miracle.  This is a Very Difficult Language. But miracles are just His line of business and I am boldly asking for just that.... miraculous grace to study well and have my mind and tongue and ears and heart receive and hold onto this language!

This past month especially, I have felt very weak in language skills.  Discouragement is hard.  One local friend here told me that my Chinese has regressed lately and I haven't been studying Uyghur since my tutors have been gone!   No doubt, I'm loosing two languages then!    Everyday our lives are in Chinese and I so want to proclaim Christ in Chinese.... but even more so in Uyghur, this language that has had Christ named and explained oh so little!   Oh for grace!  Enable me Jesus, for your glory!  Help me be diligent!  I really don't want to settle, to excuse myself for any lazy reason.  By the grace of God, I can be a mom to our precious children and diligent to apply my mind to language study with the slim hours I have while they sleep.   May it be Lord Jesus, for your glory, by your strength!

summer dream

We enjoyed a sweet visit to the land that we love this summer and we returned very encouraged with future possibilities- a particular dream- for our family continuing to serve in ministry there.  Would you pray that the Lord would lead us with wisdom as he unfolds HIS plan for us both here and there (same country but hundreds of miles apart)?

Security is tense out there:  local believers are often watched and interrogated and foreigners have been forced to leave.  We want to be able to minister there for as long as possible, as the Lord wills and we yearn to be able to live there for stretches of time at least, maybe after a few more years of language study and business development here.  (Would that the Lord give strength to this business here that it would continue as a work we could do there, and give us a reason, a visa, that would allow us to be there.)

Ramadan

We are in the midst of this....  the most holy season in Islam, a time when many (most of our friends here) are simply upholding a cultural-familial norm, but when others are earnestly hoping to find truth.   Our Muslim friends fast from sun-up to sun-down, all food and water (they're not supposed to even swallow their spit).

Since Friday is the day most Muslim men pray at the mosque (like Christians attending church on Sundays), we are trying to set aside every Friday for focused prayer for our Muslim friends... most especially during this month.

This link is very informative for what Ramadan is about for Muslims.

This link is a helpful prayer guide for praying for Muslims around the world this month.

Oh that the Holy Spirit would come in power, awakening Muslims around the world to the deadness of Islam and the Life found in the rescue, forgiveness of the cross!