Second Half of the Semester, Part II

Vision Trip

We hosted a vision trip of staff from the US the week after Thanksgiving. Organizing these types of trips on our side is part of my new job. I think the group had a pretty good time seeing and experiencing life here. It was the first time in this country for most of the group, and the first time out of the US for a couple of them. One of the highlights of the time with the group was an outreach party on one of the campuses here. The group arrived late Tuesday night, spent Wednesday and Thursday touring and meeting students to invite the party. That might not sound too hard, but they also had to find students who spoke English pretty well, since none of them speak the language of this country. By Friday night, there was a party with over twenty students. After hearing a short introduction to the gospel, the majority of the students were interested in hearing more and are still being followed up by members of the team on that campus.

Group picture at the outreach party

We played a game of 'Win, Lose or Draw' for the ice breaker

Thanksgiving

At Thanksgiving, I had the opportunity to go and celebrate with my friends Graham and Ashlei. They are leading a team in a new city that just opened this fall, so it was fun for me to get to see the new place for the first time too. I was there less than two full days, but had a great time hanging out with Graham and Ashlei and their team.

This was our first experience with cooking turkey (do I really want to do this again??) but it turned out to be pretty tasty. Turkey cooking tip #1: Always take the neck out. Turkey cooking tip #2: The seller/processor of frozen turkeys may have hidden the neck inside the turkey. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it is not there. I hope that our trial by fire turkey cooking tips will benefit those of you who do not have turkey cooking experience in the future.

Thanksgiving Group Picture


Trying to figure out what to do with the turkey

Pandas

In mid-November, I was in another city for a meeting over a long weekend, and I had the opportunity to visit a panda research facility. In spite of the fact that I have been here over five years now, this was my first trip to see the “beautiful panders” or “pander bears” as they are called by the English speakers around here. It was a neat experience to get to see these rare creatures roaming around the park like environment that had been created for them.

As I walked around, I couldn’t help but be saddened that this country seems to take much better care of these animals than some of the people who live here. Please continue to pray for the people here, so many of whom really are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Trying out the Panda look...

It was pretty cool to be able to get this close

This is where they live.

Bangkok

In October, several of us had to go to Bangkok to renew our visas. Here are some pictures from that weekend trip.

Wendy and I both really like Starbucks coffee.  We do not have Starbucks where we live, but Bangkok has 100 Starbucks shops
(they were celebrating the 100th store opening on the weekend we were there).

Picture from the river taxi

Another picture from the river taxi

Night traffic in downtown Bangkok

This Month's Highlights

Dear friend,

It has been an exciting month here, and I’d like to share a few highlights with you:

Most recently, we have been celebrating National Day and Mid-Autumn day here. National Day is always around the first of October and Mid-Autumn day fell pretty close to National Day this year.

Mid Autumn Day

Mid-Autumn day is when the moon is supposed to be the brightest, and it is traditionally a day here when (extended) families get together and share a meal. There are also a few fun legends behind this holiday. Below are some pictures from a performance of these legends at my language school…







National Day

The National Day holiday is actually a week-long holiday for the students and many government workers. This weekend is the conclusion of the week off, and it has been a busy one. Time off for the students meant that they had more free time this week and we were able to plan some special activities with them. Some of the activities around the city included teams taking students to share the Gospel in underprivileged neighborhoods and going to help with workers’ children at an elementary school for impoverished working class families. As for me, on Monday I helped out with an evangelistic event for college freshmen. The campus that I worked with divided into three groups at three different locations. Altogether, I estimate that there were 60 or so students involved in the activities that day. Our time was designed to be a day to play, but also to give a couple of seminar type talks to help the freshmen in adjusting to college life (I taught the seminar on how to study English; I also later taught them how to play ultimate frisbee). During lunch, a third year Christian student shared her testimony with the group. The other students listened closely, and I believe that at least a couple of students made decisions for Christ that day. Here are some pictures from that time…





Camping

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I went camping with a group of about 26 Christian students from the same campus as the Monday activity. We had a very fun time of fellowship, and during a devotional on Wednesday morning, Matt challenged the students to form discipleship groups for fellowship and doing evangelism together. Matt made it clear that the decision to join on of these groups was a commitment and would involve sacrifice, especially of the students’ time. Twenty-four of the twenty six indicated that they would like to participate in these groups. I found myself reflecting on last year’s camping trip during Matt’s talk. The challenge last year was to start a weekly fellowship meeting on their campus. To see how far the Lord has brought them in the past 12 months made me sit in awe of how great He is. Now they have a thriving fellowship group on that campus and are seeking Him to take them to the next level in that. Below are some pictures from the trip…











We’re getting well into the semester now, and everything has been great so far. Everyone is in class, learning to get around, and making new friends. Although I am pretty accustomed to living here now, this month has still been a month of discovery and exploration for me—this time in the area of relationships and job duties. Since I am working with the new folks now, I’ve been trying to figure out their schedules, personalities, and things that will specifically help each one of them thrive here. I’ve also been working on figuring out a plan for my own continued language study and development.

For the new folks, I am facilitating a monthly training session where we talk about several books/articles that they are assigned to read each month. The topics range from team dynamics to cross-cultural min., and provide some valuable insights into how to live here well. That time is also kind of like a debriefing time for them too, and we talk about how they are doing. I was very encouraged by their openness in sharing their thoughts and feelings on how things were going in their teams and individual ministries. Besides that time, I have started a study hall that meets twice a month for them to come and learn spiritual language that they do not have the opportunity to study in class. The first session met last week, and we studied John 3:16 together.



Even all of this is just a small snapshot from the past month. The Lord is doing amazing things here, and I am excited to get to be here to watch. I covet your continued prayers for me and the ministry here.

In Him,

Brian

Back in East Asia

Dear friend,

I'm back in East Asia!  What a great blessing it was to get to be back in America this summer.  The following pictures and posts are from the second half of my time in America.  It has also been great to get back to East Asia.  Our new folks arrived safely, and I appreciate your prayers for their travel and settling in.  Many of them start language class today, so please be in prayer for them as they face that challenge.  They seem to have settled in pretty well, or at least no one has broken down and begged to go home yet (that I know about)  :).  We had a training time for them here last week, then a time for our whole region to come together and seek the Lord's vision for the coming year.  One of our days together was completely devoted to prayer.  The Lord has blessed us with some very creative people here, and they planned a really fantastic day of seeking and crying out to the Lord for His wisdom and direction.  

Below are some pictures from the retreat...



Creation Station: Recognizing the Lord's work in His creation and praising Him for that.  


Draw your dreams:  Small groups from everywhere in our region took turns artfully expressing their hopes for their campus and this country for the coming year (I blurred this on purpose for security)


Wailing Wall


Kinda like a clown car :) -- Going to lunch from the retreat place in a little van.


Surprise Birthday Party! -- They really got me with this one.  Wendy and I had a joint birthday party the night before (her birthday is August 22nd), so when Ellie invited us for dinner on the night of my birthday, I had no idea anyone else was coming.

Other July/August Highlights

Two days of fishing in Maryland with Dad and Uncle


Birthday party with Sharon given by Robert Beaman's Fellowship Group


Dinner at Chili's and a fun day of hanging out with East Asia friends


Brian and Jesse at the Old Well

More Summer Updates...

Things have finally settled down a little for me (for a little while at least).  The past six weeks or so have been like a whirlwind.  (Colorado --> NC--> East Asia).  It was so fun to see many of you this summer, but my time in NC this summer was a lot shorter than last time.  If I didn't get to see you, know that you are still loved :)  One of the highlights of the summer during my time in NC was the birth of my nephew.  I'll post some pictures below...


The "Logan" chair from Uncle Brian


Getting ready for nap time


Logan and Uncle Brian


Proud grandparents


Dan, Elizabeth & Logan

Colorado...

4th of July cookout 
(click image for larger view)



a few more pictures from the past couple of weeks
(click image to see larger view)

Where in the world is Brian...

I feel like I’ve been MIA from you guys for a little while. Transition is not always as smooth as you plan, and even when transition is a semi-normal part of your life, it’s not easy. Between May 19 and June 3, I left one culture that I had been in for a year, went to NC which was my original home culture and then to Colorado for six weeks. I’ve been in Colorado for about three weeks now, and I feel like my head is about to stop spinning. Of course, in a couple of weeks, it will be time to hit the road again. I’m sure there is a good lesson in that somewhere…

As for the training here in Colorado, it is going great. I honestly feel like this might be one of the most worthwhile things that I have done in the past five years. “More worthwhile than going overseas,” you’re asking? Obviously I believe that going is very important and worthwhile. But this time is about investing. Investing in others who are going. It is a relatively short period of time that will prayerfully result in about 75 more people being better equipped to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. That is EXCITING to me!!! I am one person who can go, but the thought of being able to help (even a little) 75 people be better prepared to go gets me going. I hope you’re excited about that too!

By the way, I am investing my time this summer, but there is a way that you can invest too. The cost for being back in the US this summer is not cheap ($4,000+ - plane ticket prices are going up and make up half of that total). Would you consider making an additional investment towards putting more laborers in the field by helping me to cover the cost of being here this summer? I truly believe it will make an eternal difference.

Things to be praying for:

1. That the Lord would give me wisdom and humility in leading the guys I am coaching this summer

2. Grace and understanding for the program participants. Pray that the Lord would plant deeply things that will help them in their transition to long term life overseas.

3. That this will continue to be a time that all of us will learn and be blessed in the Lord

4. For financial resources to cover the cost of being in the US this summer

Every tongue. Every tribe. Every nation.

For the past three days, we have been concentrating on methods for effectively learning language with the program participants. Thursday and Friday, we invited people from several different language groups to join us for lunch at the park and help with language learning. It was fun to walk around and hear people speaking all those different languages (Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Japanese, Macedonian, Hungarian, Italian… just to name a few) knowing that in a few short months, each group will mean real people taking the gospel to people of that language.

How do you figure out what to feed people from over a dozen cultures for lunch?  
We went with mexican one day and sandwiches the next.  Maybe not exactly representative of the diverse background of all the language helpers, but everyone seemed to enjoy it and have a good time anyway.

Enjoying some good language practice and conversation.

Pictures from the past month...

Jet lag has its perks…
I took this sunrise picture from my sister’s house on the second morning I was back in the US. What an awesome God we have to give daily gifts like this one to us in His creation!


Snow in June?
We had a picnic during the singles weekend around this spot. The road sign in the background is extremely appropriate. The area where I live in Asia has beautiful mountains, but what amazes me so much about being in the Rockies is the almost complete lack of pollution. Very refreshing.




Beaten Down
Our group performs a skit to illustrate how our host culture often suppresses ideas that are different from the views of mainstream society.




Say Cheese
Singles Weekend in Breckenridge (6/17)

I haven't forgotten...

Friends,

I am safely back in America and have made it to my summer job assignment in Colorado. Life has been really busy but REALLY good and I am loving this incredible opportunity that the Lord has blessed me with. Detailed updates on that to come very soon.

In Him,

Brian

Irish Easter

St. Patrick's Day in April...  
Well, it is here anyway.  Here's a picture of me with a care package that I just received.  It had a ton of cool Easter and St. Patrick's day goodies.

Thanks for the great package Jesse & Yvonne!! 

Last couple of weeks...

The last few weeks have been extremely busy here. I have been traveling a lot... some for meetings in another city, and some to check out some opportunities in another city. Both trips were really fun. During the first trip, I got to hang out with my friend Graham and his wife Ashlei which I always love. The second trip was to a bigger city, and a place I am less familiar with. That was great too because I was able to make some new friends and learn about some new things that are going on there.

I also got some western treats while I was there (Starbucks, TGI Fridays and Papa Johns--MMmmm)! For the most part, I don't daily crave food from home anymore. I've been here almost five years and have just gotten used to what I have. But one thing I miss is getting good salads at restaurants. So the BBQ Chicken Salad at TGI Fridays was especially good (and tastes just like America!).

Aside from travel, several other exciting things have been going on...

1. Easter Party:
We had an Easter party on Friday night during which we saw around seven students come to know Christ. This whole party was student organized (by our student leadership team), and they did a great job. Several students shared their testimonies and then we split into small groups for discussion. It was in the small group discussion times that several of the students decided to begin a relationship with Christ. This is just one step in the momentum that seems to be building on our campus, and it is exciting to watch!


2. Easter Sunday:
My teammates and I went to the International Fellowship on Sunday morning to celebrate Easter with the local community here. Then we went back to Matt and Laura's, where Laura had prepared a southern style Easter feast with ribs, corn on the cob and mashed potatoes. We were all so full after lunch that we just sat around and talked for a couple of hours :) It was a very relaxing afternoon, and it caused me to be thankful for the friends that the Lord has given me to work with here.

3. Field Trip:
I'm still a student, and sometimes it feels like I will be a student forever! The campus where I take class is usually really easy-going, but last week they planned a trip to a village and required all the foreign students to go. We're thinking they wanted to make a new brochure or something :) I took a few pictures, so I'll try to post them below.

Upcoming Requests:

*Team Retreat this weekend:
Pray that it will be a time of unity building and rest and peace for our team.

*May Holiday Trip:
Coming up in less than three weeks; We will be traveling to a small village where we will do some training with students, minister to local believers and have the opportunity to share with people in neighboring villages.

*Travel to the US:
Also coming up quickly, in May sometime. Pray that I would be able to find a good price on a plane ticket and get the travel details worked out soon.

*Summer Coaching:
I mentioned in my last letter that I am going to have the opportunity to coach people who are getting ready to go overseas for their first long-term assignment. I am so EXCITED about this! Please pray now that the Lord would be preparing the hearts of the participants for this time, as well as for me to be filled with humility and wisdom from the Spirit as I go into this time.

*Next Year decisions:
This relates to the travel that I mentioned above. I have serveral exciting options for next year right now--some here in the city where I live, and a few others in different cities as well. I will share more details with you later. Please begin to pray with me about which direction the Lord would have me to go. Please pray especially for His peace and provision. One of the options creates a need for a significant amount of additional financial support--please pray especially for this, that it would not be an obstacle for me, and if the Lord directs me to that option that I would trust Him fully to provide for me and His work here.

Here are a few captions from things I have been reading as I pray through this decision:

"God's work, done in God's way, will not lack God's supply." Hudson Taylor

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

"...for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine.
If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it." Psalm 50:10-12

Field Trip Pictures

Here I am in the courtyard of a traditional old home.



And here is what was left of a really, really good lunch.



Here is a view of the village through a traditional style wooden window.



Here is a picture of some kids at an elementary school that we got to visit in the village.

HTML

Disclaimer: I have a confession and the confession is that I am not a technological wiz kid. I realize I may have had you fooled with the new graphics and pictures, but alas, I cannot figure out how to make the text below stay within the margins of the page. This may surprise (a couple of) you, but I have some perfectionist tendancies, so this has likely bothered me much more than it has bothered you. But I have finally decided that it is not a good use of my time to keep playing with it and am going to do something more productive now (laundry). If the margin thing is driving you crazy or by chance you know how to fix it, please send me an email :)

This week's update...

So I was just reading my friend Tommie Anne's blog and was inspired to write more.  
Man, she writes quite well, and very consistently.  

Makes me look bad!  In the spirit of trying to be a better blogger, here
are a few things that happened to me this week:

I started language class.  Two things about that-  1.  I am not getting anywhere near perfect in language.  My character reading and writing is not good.  My speaking and listening is ok.  2.  I am tired to death of taking language class.  Please pray that I'll have a good attitude about it.

I went to a dinner for students who attended the student conference for our region last week.  Amazing.  That's all I can say about how this impacted those kids.  Thanks for praying for them.  They were saying things like:  

"This was the best experience of my Christian life."

"I wasn't sure how I could be a part of a spiritual movement on my campus but now I feel like I have a better idea."

They also shared some about their New Years' break... two students saw family members come to Christ over the break.  The one I heard more details about said...

ZF (excitedly):  My mama excepted Christ over the break!
Another student:  Did you share with your mama when you went home?
ZF:  Really, it was a lot of people who shared with her.  
I know a local pastor also shared with her last summer.  I had been praying for her for years.  I was talking to her about something and she asked if what I was talking about 
was related to Christianity... because she believed in that too.   
I told her that I have so much joy now that she believes!

Yesterday, I had a great day at campus.  I played Ultimate Frisbee with our national staff guys and some students.   I also randomly met a freshmen guy, "DL"--I'm not kidding, those are his initials, who just walked up to me and started talking on the basketball court.  He saw that I was drinking a Diet Pepsi and told me (in English) that he prefers Coke Light (Diet Coke) and that he doesn't eat sugar because its bad for his health.  I think we will be friends.  (I also strongly prefer Coke Light, but the student store did not have any cold ones and it was pretty warm outside).  He also said, "Let's be friends" and gave me his cell number.  Pray that I get to see him again and have a chance to share with him.

Last night, my friend Danielle cooked dinner (Ranch chicken, etc.  Mmmmm) and we listened to Nickel Creek and played Settlers.  I won for the first time since I learned to play that game about five years ago.  

Right now, I am about to get ready to go to international fellowship and need to stop writing this so I won't be late.  Hope you enjoyed this little
 snapshot of my week.  More to come.

Brian

Brian + Joo + Kids

Me with my friend Joo who came from America to hang out with us in Thailand and some kids from an orphanage that we had the opportunity to visit.  The visit really was probably more of a blessing to us than to the kids.  It was amazing to go somewhere like that and see the kids thriving and learning who they are in Christ.

Second semester is here...

Dear friend,

I can't believe the first semester of this school year went by so fast. It certainly didn't seem like it was going by that fast at times, but it also seems crazy that it's already over. Things are going well on this side of the world. Our internet is finally working normally again... DSL here is slower than America anyway, but a transcontinental line was broken during an earthquake right after Christmas, and that slowed things down nearly to a stop. I couldn't access email or US websites for about two weeks. Then some of the connections were rerouted to satelite, which was still painfully slow. So it's nice that speeds are almost back to normal now.

I'll try for a 2-3 paragraph update on the last couple of months:

Christmas: It was great this year for those of you who haven't heard through other updates. Our team had an evangelistic Christmas party during which 53 students heard the gospel and 17 accepted Christ as their Savior. It was a really cool experience... two students shared their testimony and one also presented an outline of the gospel. He did an incredible job. The party was on Dec. 22, and it was a great early Christmas present. Then I spent Christmas eve and day with my friend Graham and his wife Ashlei in a city about an hour flight north of where I live. They were so gracious and kind to me, and I had a wonderful time spending Christmas with them.

January: This is a time when students start exams and become pretty unavailable. Most students leave to go home for a six week break for the Spring Festival when exams are over. Around October, we always look at January and think 'Man, I will have a lot of time to get things done in January when the students are gone'. But actually, that time fills up pretty fast too. We had several days of intense planning meetings, I caught up on some reading I needed to do, and I also got to do something that I really enjoy: Our company ownns an apartment in our city that needs to be sold... the apartment is not in a great state of repair, but over the years has come to be in an excellent location in town. So I volunteered to help remodel the place to get it ready for sale. While this certainly has been more challenging than a similar project in the US, I just really like to do this kind of stuff. And it has been great for my language skills--well, at least for learning words like crown moulding and about plumbing. It was neat to see the Lord provide that kind of opportunity for me even here.

February:  I was able to get some rest in Thailand, and I also got to attend an awesome conference for people who work with recent college grads and young professionals.  When we 
got back, the country was right in the middle of celebrating the traditional New Year's holiday.  I 
had been looking foward to some good local food, but had to wait nearly a week for the restaurants 
to open back up!  Pretty much only foregin restaurants and businesses were open.  Even the vegetable markets were mostly closed.  

As a result, I have had all the KFC I can handle for a while.  

I confess that I started writing this in February, and now it's already March.  This first week, there are some visitors here from America.  I'm a little sad that I don't have any visitors this year, but it's still been fun to meet other peoples' friends and families.  It really is a HUGE blessing to have people you love visit you here, and I am glad that a lot of folks are getting to experience that now.  It's also fun to watch people during their first time here because things that have gotten very "old hat" for me kinda come alive again through people who are seeing the (cool, fun, weird, gross, random) stuff for the first time.  Some of my favorite pictures I've ever taken here are still the 
ones that I took my first week, because everything was still so new.

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for students who will be coming back to campus this week from the New Years/Spring Festival holiday.  Pray that they will arrive safely and that they will have good time with the Lord as they readjust to campus life.
   
2. Pray for us as we meet with the returning students that we would be able to encourage them and that we would be encouraged by them through stories of how the Lord has worked in their lives over the break.
3. Pray for the weekly fellowship which will be starting again this Friday.  Pray that students would be more excited than ever about their relationships with the Lord and about sharing the hope that is found in Him with those around them.  
4. Pray that we would have many opportunities to share the good news of Christ around the upcoming Easter holiday.

Thanks so much for praying!

Brian