September 2013 – Project China Update

• Mark and his family are hard at work with the planting of Gospel Baptist Church. They are still experimenting with service times, and as a result have seen a great number of first time visitors to the church. The leadership of the church is also developing as Mark is already giving young men in the church increasing responsibility.
• Ben‘s family has been soldiering on through their support-raising process! September was a busy month for them as they visited 16 different churches to share about their ministry plan for China! Praise the Lord for giving them safety in this time, and please pray that their support would quickly reach the goal!
• The four churches the team has planted in Jake‘s city are considering a major project: planting new Bible studies in various locations all around the city. Hopefully, some of these Bible studies will eventually be new church plants. For now, this will be a fantastic outreach opportunity. Their desire is to plant a Gospel-preaching outlet within reach of everyone in their city!
• It’s not often that we celebrate the death of a Bible study, but there was cause this month! Pastor Liu had been leading a Bible study for several months, and it was going great. But looking at the map, we realized that it was closer than he realized to one of the churches Pastor Jia pastors! Pastor Liu has done a great job working to get all those who were coming to his Bible study to join that fellowship! Now Pastor Liu is planning where his next Bible study will be planted…
• Jake was back in China again this past month. He was able to meet with the pastors and their assistants for many hours over the course of a week. The Chinese pastors are doing a wonderful job in his absence.
• Jake’s family is still in the final stages of their adoption process. Their baby girl just turned a year old, which means they’ve been back in the States for right at a year. They are hoping to return to China full-time in the next couple months. Please pray for their paperwork to be finished soon!
• John‘s family has continued to make good progress in language training. John has preached and taught Sunday school several times already. He is working to shore up his weaknesses and prepare for launching out into a pioneer work in the future.
• Please pray for John and his extended family on the passing of his mother. John got word last week that his mother’s health had taken a turn for the worse. John and his wife returned to the States and were able to spend a bit of time with his family around the funeral. Please pray for comfort for his family.

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