The "L" Family (Secured)
Spring 2022 update
Dear Praying Friends,
"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." Isaiah 41:10
This verse is one that should bring great comfort to all Christians, and especially for those that are going through difficult times as the children of Israel were when this verse was given to them. It brought the promise that God had not forgotten them. For those of us living during these unpredictable times it is also a comfort to us.
We know that there is a lot of news about the new Covid outbreak here - and much of it is true. As we always say, "Whenever you hear about something that is happening here, it is probably true somewhere here". We have friends in Shanghai who have been locked in their homes for almost 2 months now. We personally have experienced soft and hard lockdowns as well. The scariest thing is the unpredictability. We do not live in fear... But any time that we are out of our home, we have the potential of interacting with someone who might test positive. In that case, we would be contacted to either be quarantined in our home, or be taken to a quarantine camp outside of the city. Currently in our province we are having to do mandatory testing once or twice a week. We are trying to say vigilant. We are able to purchase most staples like meat, bread, and vegetables. However, all of this is subject to change at any moment and without prior warning. Continue to pray that we will maintain a good attitude and be a positive testimony to our neighbors and friends.
Our weekly meetings are also being affected. It changes each week whether we will be able to meet in person or need to meet online. We were able to meet for Easter but the following week we had to be on Zoom again. We do praise the Lord that as of now, we are able to meet online, there have been some real concerns about this being stopped nation-wide. We are also meeting online for three studies each week with people from Beijing, Shanghai, and even as far as Barcelona. I am also preaching for a local group in Beijing that is currently having to meet online. We look forward to a time when we can all be together again in person, but we recognize that meeting online is a provision from the Lord. I have been able to add two new people to the study in Shanghai and both are actively seeing for understanding. Please pray for the members of this study. Currently there are six people in the study, three are believers and three are not believers. This is the group that I was meeting with on Tuesday nights, but their company has recently moved them all to shanghai.
P-S has been able to continue to meet in person, when allowed, with a local lady, Mrs. C. Her husband, Mr. C, had to go to the US for his father's funeral and to also relocate his mother. After the funeral he moved his mother to North Carolina, which is near some friends and near a good Chinese church for her to attend. Mr. C is now trying to return to his family here in China. Please pray that he will be able to return quickly. He must renew his passport and get a visa for Korea before he is able to come back. Also, the tickets for returning are quite expensive at the moment since there are so few flights flying here. Pray for wisdom as he tries to navigate all of these challenges.
We would like to take this opportunity to again praise the Lord for allowing us to be able to renew our visa for another year. The climate here is constantly changing and we are never sure if we will be allowed to renew each year. With the pandemic, many businesses have suffered, however, since we work from home it has not really affected us and the Lord has blessed us to be able to do enough to earn our visa again this year. We are all set until March 2023.
We ask that you continue to remember us in your prayers. It appears that things will most likely continue in a heightened reaction to the virus until after the new year. There is a big meeting and election in November that could have a huge impact on things here, but until after that election we feel that things will remain much the same as it is now. Please pray that we remain diligent, and redeem the time!
In Him,
S and P-S
Dear Praying Friends,
"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." Isaiah 41:10
This verse is one that should bring great comfort to all Christians, and especially for those that are going through difficult times as the children of Israel were when this verse was given to them. It brought the promise that God had not forgotten them. For those of us living during these unpredictable times it is also a comfort to us.
We know that there is a lot of news about the new Covid outbreak here - and much of it is true. As we always say, "Whenever you hear about something that is happening here, it is probably true somewhere here". We have friends in Shanghai who have been locked in their homes for almost 2 months now. We personally have experienced soft and hard lockdowns as well. The scariest thing is the unpredictability. We do not live in fear... But any time that we are out of our home, we have the potential of interacting with someone who might test positive. In that case, we would be contacted to either be quarantined in our home, or be taken to a quarantine camp outside of the city. Currently in our province we are having to do mandatory testing once or twice a week. We are trying to say vigilant. We are able to purchase most staples like meat, bread, and vegetables. However, all of this is subject to change at any moment and without prior warning. Continue to pray that we will maintain a good attitude and be a positive testimony to our neighbors and friends.
Our weekly meetings are also being affected. It changes each week whether we will be able to meet in person or need to meet online. We were able to meet for Easter but the following week we had to be on Zoom again. We do praise the Lord that as of now, we are able to meet online, there have been some real concerns about this being stopped nation-wide. We are also meeting online for three studies each week with people from Beijing, Shanghai, and even as far as Barcelona. I am also preaching for a local group in Beijing that is currently having to meet online. We look forward to a time when we can all be together again in person, but we recognize that meeting online is a provision from the Lord. I have been able to add two new people to the study in Shanghai and both are actively seeing for understanding. Please pray for the members of this study. Currently there are six people in the study, three are believers and three are not believers. This is the group that I was meeting with on Tuesday nights, but their company has recently moved them all to shanghai.
P-S has been able to continue to meet in person, when allowed, with a local lady, Mrs. C. Her husband, Mr. C, had to go to the US for his father's funeral and to also relocate his mother. After the funeral he moved his mother to North Carolina, which is near some friends and near a good Chinese church for her to attend. Mr. C is now trying to return to his family here in China. Please pray that he will be able to return quickly. He must renew his passport and get a visa for Korea before he is able to come back. Also, the tickets for returning are quite expensive at the moment since there are so few flights flying here. Pray for wisdom as he tries to navigate all of these challenges.
We would like to take this opportunity to again praise the Lord for allowing us to be able to renew our visa for another year. The climate here is constantly changing and we are never sure if we will be allowed to renew each year. With the pandemic, many businesses have suffered, however, since we work from home it has not really affected us and the Lord has blessed us to be able to do enough to earn our visa again this year. We are all set until March 2023.
We ask that you continue to remember us in your prayers. It appears that things will most likely continue in a heightened reaction to the virus until after the new year. There is a big meeting and election in November that could have a huge impact on things here, but until after that election we feel that things will remain much the same as it is now. Please pray that we remain diligent, and redeem the time!
In Him,
S and P-S
Dear Praying Friends,
"I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole hear, I will shew forth all thy marvelous works." Ps 9:1
We would love to show forth the marvelous works the Lord has done since our last update. We have seen the goodness of God and have had multiple big opportunities over the last few months. From Bible studies to outreach activities, the Lord has been gracious to us to allow us creative ways to serve Him.
Since Thanksgiving, we have had several chances to use our home for outreach activities, something that we have been restricted from doing for quite some time now. We have had almost 100 people in our home in November and December, with groups varying in size from as few as 4 people to as many as 40 people at a time. This was not even a possibility in 2020 but the Lord in His faithfulness made it possible this year.
We have continued to have our normal ministries, and these have been a real blessing. 'PS' meets with several ladies on Tuesday nights, these are mostly foreign ladies, and she is happy to be a part of this group. She also has continued to work weekly with several of the local pastor's wives and has enjoyed mentoring these ladies in both their ministry and family issues. She is hoping in the spring to do a special ladies retreat with these dear ladies to continue to be an encouragement to them. Please pray with us that this will be able to happen.
'S' has also continued his Tuesday night studies with several Chinese young men. Please be in prayer for one young man named Paul who has recently been coming but does not know the Lord. We are studying the book of John and he has already heard the clear gospel presentation several times in this study. Besides Tuesdays, we continue to have our Wednesday night study with a family in Beijing, as well as a family who used to be in our church, currently working in Madrid. On Friday nights or Sundays, 'S' is preaching online for a Church in Beijing. We also have a continuing study on Saturday mornings currently studying the book of 1 John. All of these show forth God's faithfulness and his marvelous works. Besides this 'S' also preaches about once a month for the international fellowship.
in addition to these continuing ministries, this last year we had several large groups where we were able to explain about American culture. At Thanksgiving, we took the opportunity to explain the need for showing thanks to God for his faithfulness. We had several groups to our home for Christmas celebrations. In one of our gatherings, we invited a local "Group" to come and encouraged them to invite unsaved friends to hear the real meaning of Christmas. We had the opportunity to share the Christmas story starting in Genesis through the Cross. One professor who attended told us that he had recently been given a "Book" and had read how it all started but he had not heard about how the problem of sin was resolved. He had lots of good questions. We had another girl say she was interested in learning more and we were able to encourage her to attend our friend's meetings on the weekends. We understand she is still seeking and asking questions. Please pray for Teacher Z. and Shirley as they continue to seek answers to their questions.
One additional prayer request we would ask you to be remembering. The government here has enacted a new law that takes effect on March 1st that will make it illegal for any online teaching, preaching, or sharing unless you have obtained a government license. We currently teach online anywhere from 3 to 4 times weekly, plus additional times if we are doing training. We are not sure what this law will look like and how stringent it will be, so we ask that you remember not only us, but the many ministries here that were forced to go online during COVID. This has allowed us some success in harder-to-reach places but may now be stopped if this control is tightly enforced.
In Him - S and PS
"I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole hear, I will shew forth all thy marvelous works." Ps 9:1
We would love to show forth the marvelous works the Lord has done since our last update. We have seen the goodness of God and have had multiple big opportunities over the last few months. From Bible studies to outreach activities, the Lord has been gracious to us to allow us creative ways to serve Him.
Since Thanksgiving, we have had several chances to use our home for outreach activities, something that we have been restricted from doing for quite some time now. We have had almost 100 people in our home in November and December, with groups varying in size from as few as 4 people to as many as 40 people at a time. This was not even a possibility in 2020 but the Lord in His faithfulness made it possible this year.
We have continued to have our normal ministries, and these have been a real blessing. 'PS' meets with several ladies on Tuesday nights, these are mostly foreign ladies, and she is happy to be a part of this group. She also has continued to work weekly with several of the local pastor's wives and has enjoyed mentoring these ladies in both their ministry and family issues. She is hoping in the spring to do a special ladies retreat with these dear ladies to continue to be an encouragement to them. Please pray with us that this will be able to happen.
'S' has also continued his Tuesday night studies with several Chinese young men. Please be in prayer for one young man named Paul who has recently been coming but does not know the Lord. We are studying the book of John and he has already heard the clear gospel presentation several times in this study. Besides Tuesdays, we continue to have our Wednesday night study with a family in Beijing, as well as a family who used to be in our church, currently working in Madrid. On Friday nights or Sundays, 'S' is preaching online for a Church in Beijing. We also have a continuing study on Saturday mornings currently studying the book of 1 John. All of these show forth God's faithfulness and his marvelous works. Besides this 'S' also preaches about once a month for the international fellowship.
in addition to these continuing ministries, this last year we had several large groups where we were able to explain about American culture. At Thanksgiving, we took the opportunity to explain the need for showing thanks to God for his faithfulness. We had several groups to our home for Christmas celebrations. In one of our gatherings, we invited a local "Group" to come and encouraged them to invite unsaved friends to hear the real meaning of Christmas. We had the opportunity to share the Christmas story starting in Genesis through the Cross. One professor who attended told us that he had recently been given a "Book" and had read how it all started but he had not heard about how the problem of sin was resolved. He had lots of good questions. We had another girl say she was interested in learning more and we were able to encourage her to attend our friend's meetings on the weekends. We understand she is still seeking and asking questions. Please pray for Teacher Z. and Shirley as they continue to seek answers to their questions.
One additional prayer request we would ask you to be remembering. The government here has enacted a new law that takes effect on March 1st that will make it illegal for any online teaching, preaching, or sharing unless you have obtained a government license. We currently teach online anywhere from 3 to 4 times weekly, plus additional times if we are doing training. We are not sure what this law will look like and how stringent it will be, so we ask that you remember not only us, but the many ministries here that were forced to go online during COVID. This has allowed us some success in harder-to-reach places but may now be stopped if this control is tightly enforced.
In Him - S and PS
The “L” Family
Dear Praying friends,
“Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:6-8
These are definitely verses that have truths to remember for 2021. As we look back at 2020 there were times when anxiousness and worry seemed to be a daily part of life. However, as we “think on these things” as Paul says, we can rest assured that God was in control - and still IS in control. In February, these were actually the verses that “P” had the opportunity to teach through, with approximately 25 ladies, in an online seminar. During the week she spent about 2 hours a night going over the truths found in this scripture, especially, “being anxious for nothing”. The ladies felt it was very timely and a good lesson for all to learn.
Because of the opportunity that “P” had with these ladies, the same group asked if I would be willing to do a once-a-month service for them online. It has been a blessing to serve this small congregation in this way. I was also able to preach a special Good Friday service for this same group online. We look forward to the day we can travel again and encourage these dear brothers and sisters in person.
Besides these opportunities, we have also had the privilege to start three new studies. “S” meets on Tuesday nights with a small group of men who are seeking to know more about scripture. At the same time, “P” is able to take some ladies from one area of the city to another area for a Ladies’ Bible study. On Fridays, “P” has started a mentoring study with a local pastor’s wife. She is excited about this and the possibility of adding some additional wives to this study. We also started another study on Saturday mornings with a young family. We just finished an extensive study through Colossians and are now excited to be going through the book of 1 Peter focusing on, our Living Hope.
We are extremely excited about all these new opportunities that the Lord has allowed us to be involved in, and we look forward to seeing what will continue to come as 2021 unfolds. Please continue to remember us and the work that is happening here. “S” also had the opportunity to do an Easter chalk talk for about 50 people for the local expat group. It was a good opportunity as many of the believers had invited unsaved friends to the activity. This was one of the rare times since March 2020 that we actually were able to have everyone meet together. What a blessing to be able to celebrate our Lord’s Resurrection in this way.
Unfortunately, our correspondence will continue to be very sparse in this time of heightened risk. We appreciate your gracious understanding in this area. Please know we are still working here and doing as much as we can for His Kingdom, but for safety reasons for both us and the dear brothers and sisters here, we need to keep our communications very limited. We do appreciate your thoughts and concern for us and would appreciate your continued prayers on our behalf. We have been faithfully remembering you, our partners, as well in our daily devotion times, as we know things are difficult all over the world right now.
In Him
“S” and “P”.
Dear Praying friends,
“Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:6-8
These are definitely verses that have truths to remember for 2021. As we look back at 2020 there were times when anxiousness and worry seemed to be a daily part of life. However, as we “think on these things” as Paul says, we can rest assured that God was in control - and still IS in control. In February, these were actually the verses that “P” had the opportunity to teach through, with approximately 25 ladies, in an online seminar. During the week she spent about 2 hours a night going over the truths found in this scripture, especially, “being anxious for nothing”. The ladies felt it was very timely and a good lesson for all to learn.
Because of the opportunity that “P” had with these ladies, the same group asked if I would be willing to do a once-a-month service for them online. It has been a blessing to serve this small congregation in this way. I was also able to preach a special Good Friday service for this same group online. We look forward to the day we can travel again and encourage these dear brothers and sisters in person.
Besides these opportunities, we have also had the privilege to start three new studies. “S” meets on Tuesday nights with a small group of men who are seeking to know more about scripture. At the same time, “P” is able to take some ladies from one area of the city to another area for a Ladies’ Bible study. On Fridays, “P” has started a mentoring study with a local pastor’s wife. She is excited about this and the possibility of adding some additional wives to this study. We also started another study on Saturday mornings with a young family. We just finished an extensive study through Colossians and are now excited to be going through the book of 1 Peter focusing on, our Living Hope.
We are extremely excited about all these new opportunities that the Lord has allowed us to be involved in, and we look forward to seeing what will continue to come as 2021 unfolds. Please continue to remember us and the work that is happening here. “S” also had the opportunity to do an Easter chalk talk for about 50 people for the local expat group. It was a good opportunity as many of the believers had invited unsaved friends to the activity. This was one of the rare times since March 2020 that we actually were able to have everyone meet together. What a blessing to be able to celebrate our Lord’s Resurrection in this way.
Unfortunately, our correspondence will continue to be very sparse in this time of heightened risk. We appreciate your gracious understanding in this area. Please know we are still working here and doing as much as we can for His Kingdom, but for safety reasons for both us and the dear brothers and sisters here, we need to keep our communications very limited. We do appreciate your thoughts and concern for us and would appreciate your continued prayers on our behalf. We have been faithfully remembering you, our partners, as well in our daily devotion times, as we know things are difficult all over the world right now.
In Him
“S” and “P”.
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