PERSEVERANCE

We are still chipping away at the remaining days left on our amazing trip. To say the least: we have witnessed nothing but the Spirit taking control! We are incredibly grateful that we have been able to see this unstoppable and perfect love take control of people and situations to transform moments into wonderful meaningful memories and stepping stones.

A few quick facts about our actual reading sessions: all four of us are reading with different students (mostly college students) anywhere from 5 to 7 hours a day. Most of the hourly reading sessions are with different readers throughout the day. The great thing about this is that we are reading the same stories over and over again from the Gospel of Luke and it's NOT getting old! We are still vibrant, active, excited, and discovering so many things by delving into the Word the way we must in order to let the Spirit reach these thirsty people.

We only have a few days left and the feelings are bittersweet. We are anxious to experience these last intense reading sessions and kick it into overdrive with these readers by helping them understand the importance of working on your faith on your own after we leave. Also, we are excited about the fact that the sights of loved ones and family members are quickly approaching as well. To be honest though, we are still kind of heart-broken at the fact that this life-changing experience has gone by so swiftly. Logically speaking, we suppose that this is all to be expected.

A few great pieces of news have jumped into our laps:

* Mitchell Roush's reader Louis, who we mentioned we wished you to pray for on the last blog post, has expressed intense interest in becoming a Christian in the near future after finishing the Luke book. (He is on lesson 26 out of 31.) Also, he wishes to become heavily involved in a church nearby. We are currently helping make connections to do so.

* We are all STILL trying new and exotic foods! Most of which have managed to stay down and surprisingly even taste good as well!

* Mitch Clay will be heading to the Xiamen Church, the one spoken of in the last blog post, and leading an English Bible Study session in the mid-afternoon. This is a rare and exciting opportunity for the full-time-minister-to-be. He is quite elated at this great chance and we are eagerly awaiting the arrival and report of the experience.

* Tammy Phan has successfully found, met, and become good friends with a female, college student, Chinese 21 year-old named Tye Wha who is actually shorter than her! We were quite happy to connect with this little ball of energy and shared in Tammy's personal celebration of a shorter friend.

* Last evening there was a birthday party thrown in honor of one of the male college student of the local Jimei church and we were invited. This celebration was very enjoyable and filled with great inside jokes and new friendships sparked.

* Julie has become a great trooper and survived multiple reading sessions with a student that has not been interested and tried desperately to NOT do the Luke book. However, Julie has done a wonderful job of keeping up a great attitude and getting some of the lessons done with him anyway.

Thank you all so much for being such an imperative and supportive aspect of this mission with us! We feel that we can not adequately word just how grateful we are for your prayers, love, support, thoughts, discussions, etc. given on our behalf and on behalf of all the wonderful hearts we get to experience the hand of God touching.

We would like to lovingly plead that you please start to gear your prayers to another necessary staple of this mission: The Follow-Up Ministry to be executed after we leave this site. There is an organization and a congregation that will shoulder the burden and privilege of following up with these readers we have. They will be the ones that will be making plans, phone calls, house visits, event hopping, and so many other things to help ensure that these wonderful starving students learn how to thrive off the wonderful Christ-like family that is available. After all, once these popular Americans leave--will the luster chip off slowly? Or will it stay intact and strengthen so that the faith will become solid as oak? This is what we need to be praying for.

We love you all; we are praying for every single one of you; and we appreciate your connection to this wonderful Savior that we are so passionately exhibiting here in Jimei, China.

~ Grace and Peace be with you