Fri, Nov 14th - 12:52AM

Blog update

My dear friends and relatives,

Greetings in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This has been an extremely busy month.  I've just started teaching at Shepherd Covenant Church at their  Missionary  Training School each Tuesday and Thursday morning just prior to my personal Chinese classes..  The students are great.  They have a real desire to grow closer to the Lord.  They also have a great desire to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others. Over the last couple of years I've accumulated a variety of resources which I have placed in a resource manual for the learners.  The first book is called "Good Shepherd Missionary Training School Good News Class."  As you can tell the focus is the good news of Jesus Christ.  In this are some resources from OMF (their chronological Bible summaries with embedded questions).  I really like these seven stories because they lay down a good foundation for who God is and what He wants for us vs who is Satan and what is he trying to do in our lives.  As a result of sharing these in a variety of circumstances many people are being trained and armed with a good foundation to share the good news with others.  Since Taiwan is mostly made up of idol worshipers and have little true knowledge of God these stories lay that foundation down so that people have a better understanding of God and Satan.  As a result, commitments are more solid.  Praise the Lord! 

Another aspect of this workbook is how to do one verse evangelism from the Navigators and two hand illustrations: one on prayer and one on the Gospel.  These are great resources from the Navigators. There is a bilingual booklet describing the bridge illustration in detail. They will be able to do this as well.

Also, they are being challenged to read/listen to the whole Bible in Two months.  None of them have read or heard the whole Bible as of yet.  I've just finished reading/listening to it in one month.  My goal is to either read or listen to the Bible once each month.  It has been great as well as a great challenge. They are doing the Navigator's Scripture Memory.  Once they finish each section they will have an exam.  After one year of Scripture memory we will move on to what the Navigator's call Life Issues verses.  They will also have Scripture Memory tests as well on these verses.  They will then work on memorizing various chapters.  Those who are in discipleship and mentoring classes do the same.

They will also learn Child Evangelism Fellowship's no word book/hand to share the gospel with children.  Right now one of my teacher's is translating that for me.  We will also incorporate some of the aspects of Evangelism Explosion in our teaching.

Also, there is a second workbook called "Discipleship Training" which includes the above plus a bilingual Bible study.  This training book is good for about one year. I'm currently working on the second year.

One aspect of discipleship that I really love is answering off the cuff questions.  They really enjoy discussions and so do I.  I find that sometimes the most seemingly easy questions can actually be the most difficult. i.e Why is the good news so good for everyday?

My Chinese is getting better and better.  The various English Bible Studies are doing well.  It seems like the Advanced English Bible Study is growing and the very low English Bible Study is getting more students.  My goal is not only to teach them a little bit of English while teaching them Scripture but also that they would come to know Jesus.

I've had various opportunities to share the gospel.  One woman about four weeks ago accepted Jesus.  Pray for her.  I gave her the English name Faith.  She is really struggling.  Pray for true repentance and salvation for her.  She is really under quite a bit of attack.

One of my girl's lost her job last week and had to go back to her home country, Philippines.  I'm actually quite proud of her.  She followed all that I told her from the Scriptures.  She followed it totally.  As a result God truly blessed her.  God's timing was also perfect.  When she went back home she found out that her brother was in the hospital and they had no money to pay for his medicine.  This young man had mocked God.  Her mother spoke to him about the need to repent of his attitude toward God and to turn his life over to Jesus.  So he did that and received Jesus as his Savior and Lord.  He also asked for a Bible.  The health of my girl was not that good but God is also helping her with that as well.  God is really good!!!!  Praise the Lord!  It really excites me to see the Lord's people doing things the Lord's way.  I know that God will go before us when we have the right attitudes mixed with the right actions in total submission and humility.  Praise the Lord!!!!

My health has been just OK!  I saw my doctor today and my blood sugars are down to 7.8.  5.0 to 6.0 are in the normal range.  Previously it was between 13.8 and 15.6.  This is a very large drop.  That is great.  I'm looking forward to total healing from God. I know that He has healed me.  I really want to see the results of such an action.

On December 7th I'll be ordained in my church, Erling Gospel Center, as a missionary/pastor.  There will be at least 12 pastors who will be involved in the ordination from various countries, denominations, ethnic groups, as well as men and women pastors.  I've been licensed in the U.S. but not personally ordained.  So I am looking forward to this greatly.

One young lady that I met on a plane coming back to Taiwan this summer has been in contact with me.  God is totally awesome.  God placed on my heart to strike up a conversation with her on the plane.  Since then we've been having great discussions and counseling sessions by e-mail.  Please continue to pray for "K".  God is working in her mightily.

One lady from my Chinese school is moving to PingDong.  We had a great time together.  Please pray that "M" she would come to know Jesus. She is seeing God work but she is into some other kinds of stuff.  On our trip we saw three motorcycle accidents and one car accident.  One motorcycle accident was really bad, probably the worst that I've seen here.  It looked as if the teenager who had no helmet was dead.   My heart goes out to the parents in this situation.  Some only have one child. Some more.

Prayer items:

1.  Continued healing.

2.  Continued safety as I travel many places.

3.  Opportunities to share the Gospel with more people.

4.  Thanksgiving meals: 3 of them (a) teenagers in my home 22 November (b) Chinese school  lunch 26 November (c) My home Sunday 30 November after church.

5.  For those in my school to pick up the languages quickly.  Some are struggling.

6.  New discipleship classes: growth and maturity toward God and that they would catch the vision for discipleship.

7.  First discipleship class would continue to teach others 2 Timothy 2:2

8.  I'm going to be singing for a community wide Christmas program on 20 December.  Pray that this will be an opportunity for people to get a clear picture of the purpose of Christ coming.

9.  One lady "L" is going back to the States to pick up her children around Thanksgiving.  Please pray for the children so that they can learn Chinese and enculturate into this culture.

10.  The end of January is Chinese New Year.  I'm going to be teaching at a camp for Filipinos.  I need God's wisdom on how to share what they need from the Scriptures.  I don't have the topic as of yet.

11.  I'm hoping to go to Israel in March.  Safety and an enjoyable time.

12.  In May I'll be in the Philippines again.  I'll be teaching at a camp for 50 youth.  The topic is how to make disciples.  Praise the Lord!!!

13.  There is a possibility that a team from the States will come.  Pray for wisdom on how best to use them and when the best time for them to come would be.

God bless all of you!!!

Scripture:

Psalm 2:8

2 Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.

Matthew 28:18-20 

2 Timothy 2:2, 15  

2 The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

Xiao Yang

 18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."