Good news from Taiwan

The following is from the newsletter of Linda Phillips, who is celebrating 30 years as a missionary in Taiwan.

"One of the most memorable events in my life this year was a mission trip with my church to northern Thailand the last week of July. We went to work at a church in Le Mon, close to the Myanmar (Burma) border. Most of the people in that village are of the Akka people group. However, most of the young people understand Chinese, so we did not have any major language problems. We worked with children, visited in homes and held a revival meeting and conducted the Sunday worship. We prepared for 100 Children but had over 150. Our schedule changed daily but we had a wonderful week. Some of the young people brought their mothers to visit us one evening and four women accepted Christ that night. What a joy it was to be there.

Our pastor had to leave early so I ended up being the speaker for the revival meeting on Saturday night. I used Chinese and the pastor’s wife translated into Akka for me. Then on Sunday morning two of us went to another village where I had been asked to speak in English for their worship service. A different people group lived there and their pastor translated for me into the La Hu language.

This service was a very special time for me. One of the women from this congregation has slipped away from fellowship with Christ. She had been drinking and living a godless life. That Saturday the pastor and some church members went to visit her because she was ill. During their visit the woman repented and returned to Christ in tears. This tern in her life encouraged everyone, but during the night she died. Because of her death and the custom of that people to go to the home of the deceased, the church decided to move their worship service to a field next to her home. They put up a tent and we held the service there. I had prepared to speak from Psalm 23, because the theme for our mission team was, “Jesus the Good Shepherd.” How appropriate that scripture was for the family and friends, of this woman, who joined the church people for that service.

I left Thailand with a wonderful sense of joy in having experienced God working in the lives of these people. Working everything for the good of those who love and follow Him. That week in north Thailand was a highlight of my missionary career. How wonderful our Lord is"

Eye on China

The Old
China's seniors aged 65 and older have exceeded 100 million, making up 7.7 percent of the population.
China's oldest learning institution recently celebrated the 1030th year of its founding. Now affiliated with Hunan University, Yuelu Academy was established in 976!
China's 2,000 year-old Terra Cotta Warriors in Xian are being eaten away by mold caused by the millions of visitors who view the ancient relics each year.


The New
Beijing residents have recently been banned from owning more than one dog.
A skyscraper under construction in Shanghai will arguably become the world's tallest building when completed in early 2008.
Forty-two new airports will be constructed in China in the next five years.

Quotes from the Front Lines
"All my towels are soaked, my tub is messy, my bathroom floor is slick from the dripping clothes of the newly rinsed. What a beautiful sight that is!" (A Christian worker after the baptism of new believers in their home.)
"It is not just telling someone about Jesus. It is making sure that they tell others!" (A new Chinese believer determined to make sure that those he leads to Christ get started on the right foot.)
"It is truly for a greater reason that we plan to return overseas. We know that He is really doing amazing things there, and we can choose to be a part of it, or choose to stay in comfortable surroundings. While we were away this summer, some of our local friends baptized more than 450 new believers. We just have to trust that God will provide for every need of our kids, and that His grace is sufficient." (Christian workers preparing to return to China after stateside assignment.)

(IMB's East Asia Update)

East Asia Update

It's About Him, Not Us
An Extraordinary God Working through Ordinary People
A Christian worker had spent the day coughing and clearing his throat. Hardly able to speak, he was nevertheless determined to share a gospel message with those visiting in his home. As he concluded his short presentation, a particularly resistant seeker opened her heart to receive Christ. He was keenly aware that in his weakness, God's strength had been perfected.
Another worker felt that his well laid plans had been thwarted. The lost man whom he had traveled far to visit was not at home. After engaging in what could best be described as a pity party, he once again submitted his hopes to the Father. A short time later, he had opportunity to share, not only with the man he had come to see, but with several of the man's friends.
Yet another worker showed up to lead a training group on behalf of his student who had fallen ill. As he struggled to teach the session in Chinese, he realized that the student's mother was very familiar with the material. Although the mother had only been a Christian for four months, she had already read through the Bible three times! He moved out of the way and listened with amazement as the new believer, empowered by the Holy Spirit, presented the lesson with clarity and understanding.
Those who have committed to making Christ known in China are constantly reminded that they are simply called to make themselves available and give their best to Him. He is the one with the power and the plan.
To read more stories from East Asia, please go to: https://my.newsletter4fun.com/index.cfm/fa/ct.go/LID/12007/m/2276/sID/6802JA445A4E6450A0A060441.cfm





(Left) The holidays provide some of the best opportunities to share the love of Christ with the peoples of East Asia. Happy Thanksgiving!

News from China Prayer Letter

China Prayer 14 Nov 06

Pray for the thousands of new converts turning to Christ every day (in both house-churches and TSPM churches). Pray they will be spiritually fed and grow in their faith.

Famous physicist (and atheist) Stephen Hawking visited China recently and sparked great debate on the origin of the universe. FEBC broadcast 'The Source of Life- There is a God' in July. Pray many seekers will see there is no contradiction between true science and the Bible and will find Christ - the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Henan province has at least 60 local officially-registered Protestant Christian training centres at municipal or county level in addition to the provincial seminary at Zhengzhou according to information received in September. This means upwards of 2000 Henan believers are receiving basic Bible training. Pray for them and their teachers.

'I never knew God personally. One day I accidentally got onto a website and started communicating with believers. Their love attracted me and made me a true Christian. I seldom go to church, but many people there warn me of the dangers of the cults on the Internet.' (Miss Sun in Jiangsu to FEBC) Pray the Internet will be used as a tool for evangelism, but not as a substitute for true Christian fellowship.

Note--FEBC refers to Far Eastern Broadcasting Corporation, a Christian broadcasting group based in Hong Kong with daily broadcasts into Mainland China. Milton

Wonderful report from the IMB

News from the International Mission Board, by Erich Bridges ST. LOUIS, Mo. (BP)-Southern Baptist missionaries and their international Baptist partners baptized more than 475,000 new believers last year, started nearly 23,500 churches and began church planting among 104 people groups for the first time. They also planted churches among 19 people groups where no Baptist churches previously existed - including 13 peoples with no evangelical churches of any kind. "For these 13 people groups, for the first time in their history there is a church representing our Lord and Savior to an unreached people that have never heard the Gospel, don't have a Bible in their language and have never known what church looks like," said Gordon Fort, International Mission Board vice president for overseas operations. These numbers come from the board's 2006 Annual Statistical Report, compiled from statistics reported by more than 2,000 separate entities - including hundreds of mission teams assigned to reach ethnic people groups, cities and other population segments. The report, covering calendar year 2005, was received by IMB trustees during their Oct. 30-Nov. 1 meeting in St. Louis, Mo. "In 1986 we received 108 (statistical) reports" from missionaries and overseas Baptist conventions, said Scott Holste, IMB associate vice president for research and strategic services. "By 1996, that had grown to 215, reflecting the new emphasis on people groups. By 2006, we were up to over 2,000 specific reports. While this has increased the complexity of doing this statistical report, it gives us a clearer picture of the world in which we're working than ever before." The report focuses on three "key result areas": engagement of unreached people groups and urban centers; advance toward church-planting movements around the world; and progress of overseas Baptist partners in engaging people groups and starting church-planting movements. "Engaging" a people group means more than sending missionaries or even winning people to Christ. It means applying church-planting methods that enable local believers to begin finishing the task of evangelizing their own cultures. TOP RESULTS Among the most significant results for 2005, Southern Baptist missionaries and their partners:-- engaged a total of 1,170 people groups worldwide, three-quarters of whom are classified by mission researchers as unreached (less than 2 percent of the population claiming evangelical Christian faith). -- engaged for the first time 104 people groups, 73 of whom are unreached, with a combined population of nearly 100 million. The Jahanka of West Africa, for instance, number only about 60,000, with fewer than 20 known followers of Jesus. But they are one of the "pivotal peoples" of the area, according to IMB regional leader Randy Arnett, because they are the Muslim religious teachers who send imams to the villages of many other peoples. "They are the missionaries; they are the solid Islamic people of West Africa," Arnett told IMB trustees. But a Southern Baptist missionary couple living in a Jahanka village are winning friends. One Jahanka villager told a visitor, "They could have gone to any (people), but they came to the Jahanka. They could have gone to any village, but they chose our village. They have come with a message from God, and we're waiting for them to be able to speak our language so we can hear this message that they have brought to us." -- engaged 120 unreached urban centers, including 12 for the first time.-- started 23,486 churches and more than 10,600 "outreach groups" (potential future churches). That brought total partner churches worldwide to 135,252, with a combined membership of 8.8 million, and outreach groups to 55,723. In the rock-hard spiritual ground of Northern Africa and the Middle East, fewer than 100 Baptist churches were begun over the past six decades. "I'm here to tell you that last year we saw 101 new churches," reported regional leader John Brady. "These 101 churches came in the hardest of fights anywhere on the face of the earth for Satan to release people from darkness and allow them to come to light." One area in northern Africa saw three churches multiply to nine, with 122 baptisms. All of those who were baptized experienced persecution, Brady said. "But did they stand back? No, they didn't stand back. They were energized" â"€ even though some were driven out of their homes.-- baptized 475,072 new believers - about 1,300 each day or one each minute. -- involved nearly 510,000 new believers in discipleship training, in addition to more than 1.1 million existing church members in discipleship groups. Those are "solid indicators showing the excitement and hunger for the Word of God," Holste said. "As people are introduced to the Bible and come to know Christ, they are baptized and nearly all are discipled in their first year of Christian growth. For the first time in our reporting history, the number of church members in discipleship training has risen above the 1 million mark." -- trained more than 150,000 Christian leaders in nonresidential settings (extension and correspondence course, short-term courses, on-the-job training) and more than 20,000 in residential pastoral programs. -- worked with 1,772 international missionaries sent out by overseas Baptist partners to other people groups and 3,400 home missionaries reaching out to people groups within their own countries. "We have a significant part to play (as Southern Baptists), but the real hope comes from partners around the world that catch a vision of being a part of the Great Commission, and there's a lot of them out there," said Dickie Nelson, IMB regional leader for South America. Nelson described Brazilian Baptists' "Radical Africa" initiative, which sends two-year missionaries to challenging parts of Muslim West Africa. He also highlighted the work of "Marie," a South American medical mission worker serving in North Africa and the Middle East. "Local government officials actually ask her to go into some mountain areas there to do medical work," Nelson said. "A wonderful door has been opened in a place where there is no church and no witness to share the good news of Jesus. The folks who know Marie say that if you show her a mountain, her next question is, 'How do I climb it?'"

Great News from Vermont

The following is from Terry Dorsett's weekly newsletter.

I thank the Lord for each of you and how your words of encouragement stir our hearts and remind us of your concern for us as we serve the Lord on the mission field.

As you may recall, I have been teaching a seminary extension class with 9 students. They are each learning so much and this week at class I could see the “lights” coming on in their eyes as we discussed proper methods of interpreting the Bible so that we can teach it to others. Training others to rightly teach the word is an exciting experience and several of my students will be preaching in some of our churches over the next few weeks, be praying for them!

I am also still learning myself as I continue to pursue my Doctor’s degree at Golden Gate Seminary. I am currently reading a book and have two more papers to write in preparation for my last class after Christmas. Pray for me as I try to fit all this reading and writing in with a schedule that is often a “little” overfilled.

I attended a men’s breakfast over the weekend, every man there (other than me) was a native Vermont and every one of them grew up in a non-churched home. Our focus was how we can be godly men if our fathers were not godly and we did not have a good example to follow. It was a lively and at times tense discussion, but it was good for the men to wade through these challenges. Next month the men will meet again and bring their sons and the focus will be “how can I pass my faith on to my son.” Pray for these first generation believers as they seek to create a new generation in VT that knows the Lord and follows Him from their youth.

I spent one day in New York this past week, speaking at Mid-America seminary. What a wonderful group of people they are and how blessed I was to see all those students preparing for ministry in the Northeast. Pray for the Lord of the Harvest to raise us laborers for His vineyard, which is white unto the harvest.

CHINA UPDATE November 10, 2006

PreachablesVolume 76 - November 15, 2006
CHINA. The university student had attended the English gathering to meet some new friends and practice his English. But he soon found himself in a small group reading through the gospel account of Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding feast. Since the student had never before heard of Jesus, he assumed that the story was fictional. But as he heard others in his group talk about the Savior, it suddenly dawned on him that the story was true. His eyes grew round and his jaw dropped before he blurted out, "Do you mean that he actually turned the water into wine?" As others in his group nodded, he exclaimed, "Oh my God!" He had, of course, cut right to the heart of the story.CHINA. The Christian worker was feeling pretty sorry for himself. He had traveled quite a distance to visit an elderly Chinese man in order to share the gospel, and when he arrived, the man was not at home. As he poured out his disappointment and frustration to the Lord in prayer, he received peace in his heart. Walking through forested mountains on his way home, he suddenly spied the man whom he had come to visit sitting in the middle of a pasture surrounded by three of his lifelong friends. The old men quickly made a place for the visitor and before the visit had ended, he had shared the gospel with all four of them!CHINA. After sharing a simple Chinese meal, the Christian and his non-believing friend turned to some serious conversation. As the believer began to share the message of salvation, he realized that his friend had never before seen a Bible or even heard of Jesus. But as the truths of the gospel were shared, the nonbeliever affirmed his understanding and acceptance at every point. When they got to the resurrection, however, there was room for pause. It just seemed too incredible to be true. So the Christian asked the nonbeliever to read aloud the account from the Bible. That sealed it. After stating "If the Good Book says it, it must be true," he accepted Christ into his heart.CHINA. Ten friends were gathered in a living room, praying and worshipping together, when the doorbell rang. In walked a young lady who was known to be a Communist party member. The group was not surprised to see her. This was her fifth visit to their gatherings. They continued their worship. Knowing he was under scrutiny, the host nevertheless shared a gospel message. Then the lady received the Lord! She had come as an instrument of the atheist government, but left a follower of the King

More praises from Colombia

Thank you for your prayers for the ""pied piper" an older gentleman who has
a heart for the children of one of the poorest and most dangerous parts of
Medellin. Each Sunday he rises early to go to the area and bring the
children down the mountain for church. Last Sunday 11 children traveled
down the mountain to attend church with him. Each Saturday he travels up
the mountain and stories the Bible with the children. There are an average
of 25 children, ages 3 thru 16, who attend each week. Two people went with
him one week, but they have not returned to help him teach the children.
Pray to the Lord of the harvest that someone can be found to help him teach
the children.

An audio CD is being produced of the 18 evangelistic Bible stories that
have been taught to the children at the Baptist School in Medellin during
their religion class. A copy will be sent home to each family. Pray that
many people will come to know the Lord through His Word.

Chinese church request

China prayer 09 Nov 06
'To stamp out the lottery craze in our church we have implemented church discipline and even excommunicated two or three obstinate members.' (Letter from Mr Gao in Jiangxi) Pray for this church and other Christians still in bondage to gambling - mahjong is extremely popular in China.

Praise from Colombia

Career Missionary, Sarah Craft, shares: "Ivàn and I just received some fantastic news! My petition for a Fiancé Visa has been approved by the Department of Homeland Security. And just as soon as we receive a hard copy of the letter, Iván can apply at the U.S. Embassy for his visa. We are so pleased that this step has gone faster than anticipated and we pray that the next step will also go smoothly! Iván and I thank you for your prayers and ask that you continue to remember us in your prayers. We´ll keep you updated as we know what comes next!"

Chinese Christians Give testimony

From CCSM "China Prayer Update" November, 2006
"The hardest people to reach are staunch atheists, staunch Buddhists and idol worshippers." That is what an experienced Chinese house church leader told us earlier this year. He thanked God that the Gospel is now impacting China, but shared his longing that many more people would come to know the Lord.
Yet another report shared the experiences of some Christian workers that, 'People have found no comfort from folk-relition, Buddhism or Daoism. Retired communist cadres often find that serving the Party all their lives has left them impoverished on small pensions, forgotten and unlived. Materialistic Marxism has no comfort to offer beyond the grave. (CCL)
When one Christian believer shared her testimony with us, she reminded us of the thousands of years of tradition of worshipping idols in China. She told us that she was in her twenties before she knowingly met a Christian. The Christian co-worker she got to know gave her some tracts to read and she had a lot of arguments with him. Finally she told him, "You believe your Jesus; I'll believe in idols." Yet as she contrasted Christianity and Buddhism, she realized, "Buddhism i sabout getting blessing for yourself; Christianity is about blessing others. They're very different." It took a number of months but finally she was ready to put her trust in the Lord Jesus. She shared, "I totally changed my outlook and professed openly that I was a Christian. I got rid of my charms and idols and was baptized."

More News from China

From China Prayer Guide

On 29 March 21 new pastors were ordained in Fuzhou (Fujian province). (Tianfeng, May 06) Pray they will faithfully preach the gospel.

On 28 March the first Christian conference was held officially in the Dali prefecture of Yunnan (formerly a CIM area). Nearly 100 delegates attended. (Tianfeng, May 2006) Pray for effective outreach to the Bai people who appear resistant to the gospel.

Nearly 2000 Christians were arrested in the year May 2005 to May 2006. (New York Times, 9 July 2006) This is a conservative estimate. Pray that all those unjustly persecuted will know God's presence and those unjustly imprisoned will be speedily released.