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.