Dear friends and supporters,
Thank you for being our co-workers by means of prayer and giving.
We received an email from a member of a supporting church asking for prayer requests. He will be leading the church in prayer for us this Sunday evening. Here is the information we sent to him.
We just finished a Bible study with several members of our church family. We were in John 14 but ended up in 1 Corinthians 13 talking about the abuse of the Spiritual gift of tongues. Will (a young Chinese man) was in the study. He came to faith last year and was baptized in the spring of this year. He would like to stay in Boston but is unable to find work in his field of study. This is what happens here 98% of the time. Students come to faith in Jesus Christ are baptized, but, unable to find work, they return home, mostly to China.
This makes building a self-supporting church difficult, but, conversely, it means we are regularly sending Christians back to non-Christian places. We continue the discipleship process by means of video conferencing. Each week, we have several online meetings with disciples who have left Boston, but who do not yet have churches to attend in their area of the world. For instance, Roger planned to attend our study this evening by means of Go To Meeting online video conferencing. He did not make it, probably because it was too early in the morning in China.
We are working at getting to know the Chinese house church network. Since we need places to refer our Chinese disciples, knowing the Chinese house church network is very important. This morning’s Bible study was also online and it was attended by friends from Iowa and Beijing China—three Caucasian and three Chinese. The study was on Romans 9. The people from the China delegation are from a house church in Beijing (second ring). It is a church Deb and I attended when in China. We now have become close to some within the church and through them we are beginning to learn of the network of house churches across China.
Please pray for Jo (this is the person I mentioned last week), Song, and Sidney. All three of these Chinese friends are engaged in evangelistic studies—Jo for around two years, Sidney and Song for 6 months. Pray for Helen a (Chinese) student at Bentley. She is preparing for Christian baptism. Pray for Roger, Men, Jay, and many others who came to Christ here were baptized but do not have a church in China. Please pray for Ted (A Chinese professional living in Japan). He came to faith in Christ by means of online video conferencing. I have never met him in person, but I have come to know him fairly well. His only Christian interaction is in our Saturday night online Bible study for members of our church who are no longer in Boston. Ted loves these times of Christian fellowship. It is the only fellowship he receives. Pray for Amy who is also in China and who also came to Christ by means of video conferencing and desires to know Christ better. Both Ted and Amy were introduced to us by members of our church who were traveling in China.
This is the strength and strategy of what we are doing in Boston. We meet internationals in Boston some of whom eventually become Christians. We then follow these human connections back to China where we become acquainted with family and friends in China. Some parents, siblings and friends of our Chinese disciples are becoming Christians by this means. The potential is literally out of this world.
Please pray for the Steven’s family and for Andy Scott. These individuals are raising support to work with us in Boston. Both the Stevens and Andy have already been serving in Boston. They are all extremely important to the ministry here. Please pray that they will soon have the support they need.
Thank you for praying for us,
Bill and Deb