summer stuff...

Thank you for checking in here and praying with us for the U people.  Ramadan finished- and we're always glad for that.  We've been meeting with several local friends regularly recently...  a few believers and many more who have not yet trusted Christ.  There's been one particularly encouraging friend who seems to be seeing Jesus for Who He Is... though he's still very timid about telling anyone else that he probably doesn't count as a Muslim anymore.  And there have been hard things, like one friend who explain that she doesn't want to meet with us because she feels certain that we would influence her...  and another friend flat out rejected Christ and later explained that she must do this because of her ethnicity (in other words, not at all because of the issue of TRUTH.)  Sigh....(Self, release your heart and lift your eyes, remember the promise, the promises we're here for!)  

Other friends have moved away and new friends have come....

And the Father has graciously opened sweet new connections for the two of us to partner with a few more outstanding workers here.  There's been more spurring-sharpening-accountability fruit to show in our own hearts and lives and we pray that our joint efforts will result in much praise to our Father's glory in this place!  We praise God for these precious, dearly loved friends!

We have a new little buddy we call Asher, that we met on a walk through a neighborhood near us.  His mom explained that Asher has no dad, she raises him alone... his dad is in prison.  Right away I asked her to show me to her shop and we bought her fruit.  More fruit than we could eat.  And we stayed as long as we could, talking under the street lights, to hear more of her story... He's been in prison since the riots in our city in 2009, when she was pregnant with Asher.  He's never seen his dad.  Five more years til he gets out.  She hopes.  

And this very poor, beautiful, kind woman seems to me to be acutely wise and open to talk about Jesus, more so than most every other Uyghur I've met.  Please join us to pray that she would trust and follow Christ, that she would know His great love for her, that she would become an ambassador of Christ in her neighborhood...

Please also pray for "A"....  I said about him a year ago "when I think about how far he's come in understanding the Gospel and in beginning to love Jesus and in seeing  Christianity as good, it seems like he must have already decided to follow Christ.  But he hasn't.  He's just come really really far from where he started."  I said that a year ago?  And it's even more, much more, true of him now.  Please ask that the Lord would work in him through His Word and through others so that he wouldn't confuse his commitment to relationship with us with his need for commitment to the Lord.

Thank you for praying with us dear friends!!

Divine Help needed for the Uyghur Church

We listened to a sermon from John Piper on Hebrews 13: 17-19 recently and my notes perfectly shape a list of prayer requests for the Uyghur church.  Would you please join us in lifting up these requests to the throne of grace?

The aim of leadership is that leaders/elders/servants should “profit" and “advance" the congregation.  There should be much profit (in marriages, families, financial management, social justice…) but primarily there should be soul profit among the people from the work of leaders in the church.  

Leadership must be watchful…   

1.  Watchful of The Word:  Know it.  Hold fast to it.  Teach each it.  Model it.  Correct with it.  Sing it.  Comfort with It.  

2.  Watch Christ in the Word.  Hebrews 2:1.  It’s not just words on a page…  He is our Living Lord.  We aim to know His heart and live in fruitful relationship with him individually and in community.  

3.  Watch our Conduct.  “All Christians are supposed to be godly.  Yet scripture says to ordinary saints “watch your elders… consider the outcome of their way of life…”.  There are higher standards for leadership than for membership.  If an elder falls, it should be much harder to restore him as a leader than to restore a member to community.”  

4.  Watch over our flock, the congregation

The current situation, as we know and see it (though certainly, we do not know or see all!) is in dire need of God’s specific grace….  Hebrews 13 earlier says, “it is good for our hearts to be strengthened in grace.”

Right now, of the three small gatherings of believers that we have any knowledge of in our area, there is deep concern over doctrine (upholding the divinity of Christ and triunity of God), there are deep marital struggles, and there is also great concern over possibly too-heavy-handed leadership with extreme requirements for his flock, so much that one dear brother was understood as not allowing members of his church to fellowship with any believers outside their church.   How much better if believers would fellowship together, strengthen each other in the Lord and spur each other on in prayer, in the Word and in bold sharing.     

There is painful discord between these brothers over some issues as well… one specific area of difficulty is in knowing how to relate to a few other Uyghur Christians who are following some extreme charismatic- prosperity Gospel teaching.  

Please ask for the Holy Spirit to be drawing these men, showing the truth of His Word, empowering them in relationships, and making humble and gentle their hearts as shepherds over the flocks.  Would you also ask for us, that we would have wisdom and unity with others working here as we are, for how to speak into these needs in the local church.   We do not want to roll over local leaders, we want them to be the leaders of the church here!  And yet if they need help or encouragement or accountability, we want to bless and serve and love and share with them the best ways that God intends....  We need his wisdom and guidance and unity among the foreign workers for these discussions and decisions too!

Thank you!

The Lord has graciously answered our prayers!

We are grateful to share with you that Mary (who was written about a few posts below) has returned to the flock!  She sat in our home and shared with me that the Lord used a video clip than an unbelieving Chinese friend sent to her on social media to stir her heart to repent of sin.  (She chose last fall to cling to one particular sin that she knew the Lord did not want for her and she avoided church since that time.)

Thank you for continuing to pray for her that she would grow in the Word, grow in grace to be strengthened in Christ and with the power of the Holy Spirit in her.   Ask that the Father would protect her from discouragement, provide for her and her daughter, and give her local fellowship within her little fellowship of believers and possibly with others outside of her particular church as well.  

Also... The friends that we asked for prayer for last fall/ early winter... the ones who were facing severe discouragement?  The Lord has seemed to build them up with strength and has given them new vision for the work here.  We rejoice for two families that not long ago were questioning their role here...  for both of these dear ones to now be confident in the Lord's grace sustaining and providing for them and using them here for his glory.  

And it's fitting to share just one request after I've reminded myself here, publicly :), of the Lord's goodness, faithfulness and power to answer our prayers.  As we've asked for before, would you pray for our family, for wisdom in parenting and for grace for our children?  It shouldn't shock anyone, and it's oh-so-true:  we are sinners, as are our children.  Would you ask the Lord to bless us and help us in training up our kids in His ways, to model humble hearts of loving authority who seek first to know and love and walk with God?   Thank you dear friends!