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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Pray that we would have many opportunities to share the good news of Christ around the upcoming Easter holiday.
Brian
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