The interns have been here for a week now, and they have done a fantastic job so far. They’ve been working like crazy – please pray they don’t break down before the end of the six weeks! Having them here has made me think more about the point of short-term mission trips. Not really sure […]
Archive | 2009
Who Cares About Potential?
We’ve got four interns arriving today. They missed their domestic flight last night, so they’ve now been traveling for about 40 hours. I’m really excited about these guys and girls coming – there’s a lot of places where they can plug in and be used. I’ll tell you one thing that I’m not interested in […]
Of Point Guards and Church-Planters
Are foreigners needed in church-planting roles in mainland China? Big implications for that question. Most foreign full-time Christian workers here are banking on a negative answer. Start a coffee-shop for evangelism, have a training conference for pastors, or build an English school for discipleship – these are the basic building blocks of most plans to […]
Don’t Leave Home Without…
Recently made friends with an American student who is studying Chinese for the summer at our university. He heard like third-hand that we were leading a local church, so after class last week he caught up with me on the elevator and asked if he could come. Turns out he’s also interested in getting involved […]
Organizational Baggage
So there’s a foreigner that’s come to our services for the past couple of weeks. It’s been great to have him around – he’s had some mission trip experience with a great organization and is extremely willing to jump right in and serve. When he came the first week, though, he was a little confused. […]
Just When You Thought…
…it was safe to stop thinking about China… After a much-needed four month blogging sabbatical (okay, maybe not much-needed), it is time to resume fully operational updating maneuvers. It would be hard to go back and talk about all that’s happened in these four months, so suffice it to say that it’s been an amazing […]
Holiday Consolidation
The Chinese New Year Festival is underway. It’ll go on for a couple weeks. A lot of businesses will be closed the whole time. Quite a grocery shopping frenzy leading up to the day before the festival. But most of the big stores are open, as we enter the time of year where a billion […]
My Personal Halloween
Probably one of my least favorite things about being a missionary is wrestling with fear. Not that missionaries have a corner on fear – I imagine there’s no escaping this battle no matter who you are. Whenever you have a sense of God’s direction, there is always going to be an accompanying sense of fear. […]
The Good Ship Disciple
Last night was encouraging – though this season bears plenty of discouragement. Everyone is heading home for the holiday. School is out, and most of our friends are already gone. It can get pretty lonely – we’re really blessed with a good number of close friends here – not particularly fun to have them all […]
Going Nowhere, Already Arrived
Got a text message from a guy a couple days ago which ended with, “I feel lost in my life.” How’s that for a commentary on Christ-less existence? The truth is, even in the middle of the most intense period of learning of their lives, students still find themselves without an all-inclusive perspective that makes […]
Check Out My Book…
The Gospel in China 
Recent Comments