People Stories - Elkana & Elena

Elena & Elkana at one of our favorite bakeries/coffee shops

Elkana & Elena began attending BBC during the summer of 2018 upon the recommendation of a counselor connected with the Master’s College in CA. That same counselor and his family generously let us live in their apartment our first year in Beijing.

We have really enjoyed getting to know Elkana & Elena over the past several months by spending quite a bit of time with them. Elkana (he is Italian) and Elena (she is Welsh) married a few years ago and have been involved in teaching English as a second language in several different countries. They came to Beijing so she could teach English while he concentrates on an online biblical counseling degree through the Master’s College. They are both serious and funny, intelligent and passionate, and like most newly married couples, still figuring out married life.

Elkana shared with us the story of how God rescued him from his sin and what God has been doing in his life. As he tells it, he grew up in a Christian family and although he considered himself a Christian and even studied theology, he lived a life of sin. His first marriage ended in divorce then he had a few long-term, live-in relationships. One day after marrying his wife Elena, God used a YouTube video entitled "Are You Really a Christian?" to challenge his relationship with Jesus Christ. Upon conviction, Elkana repented of his sins and placed his faith in Jesus Christ.

In the short time we have known them, we see Elkana growing in his relationship with Christ, desiring to serve the church, and learning how to love his wife. Much of our conversations revolve around what does it look like in real life to love his wife like Christ loves the church, His bride. One day Elena confessed: “he’s not the same person I married.” The gospel continues to transform both of them and we thank God for the privilege to participate in that transformation.

Below is a picture of Elkana’s baptism on September 16, 2018.

Rejoice in the Lord’s work and please pray that He will continue the good work He has begun.

People Stories - YT

Our son Philip once said “Some people have never met a stranger. My father, on the other hand, has met them all.” That skill comes in handy quite often.

When we come home to Greenville during the summers, we use the YMCA fitness room several days a week. We find the exercise helps us all around – physically, mentally, and emotionally. We also discovered that our local YMCA has a very large percentage of internationals. We love the international mix and naturally, Mark uses the opportunity to speak to anyone he can. All the better when they speak Mandarin.

While we spent the summer of 2017 home in Greenville, we met YT at the YMCA. After our initial conversation, she and I (Cheryl) met together a few times at a local park in between where we both live. We walked and talked for an hour to an hour and a half each time and truly enjoyed each other’s company. I got to know YT and some of the things on her heart and mind. We reconnect each time we come back to Greenville.

YT moved to the Greenville area about 2014 so her children could attend SC schools and then progress to US universities. Like a typical family from their culture, her husband works in their native country and visits them in the US periodically while YT and the kids live near extended family here in SC. So she lives here, studies English, and seeks to raise two teens in a culture not their own.

Many of our conversations center around the teenage years, parenting, perceived American teen culture vs heartfelt parental wisdom, peer pressure, etc. God has provided many opportunities to weave in gospel conversation as it applies to these very real things on YT’s heart and mind.

Because Mark has recently been preaching in our home church on the topics of marriage, family, children and singles, we invited her to come with us to hear the Word on these topics. She has consistently come to hear the messages from God’s Word and last time also brought her teen son. She wants her son to find good, positive peers so we used that opportunity to introduce him to teens and teens’ parents from GBC.

One morning recently she joined several lady friends and me for a morning of coffee and conversation at our home. My goal was to introduce her to GBC ladies so she has a broader circle of friends when Mark and I aren’t in town.

Please pray that God would open YT’s heart and mind to the message of the gospel and that she might learn how the gospel applies to parenting. Pray that YT will seek wisdom from God on high and share that wisdom with her teens. Pray that our church would embrace and befriend YT and her family.

Whate'er My God Ordains is Right

On September 27, Mark and I left Beijing for an undetermined length of time. This past spring and early summer, I experienced some significant pulmonary issues including pneumonia and a collapsed lung. Although I took antibiotics to successfully treat the pneumonia and the lung re-inflated on its own, the doctor visits and subsequent medical tests revealed a severe allergy to a common fungus called aspergillus resulting in allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA). In addition, the tests revealed a non-tuberculin mycobacteria. Thankfully, the bacteria fell into the most common and easily treatable variety.

Because of the uncertainty of treatment and not knowing exactly how long the treatment will take and whether or not we should return to Beijing later, we packed up virtually all of our belongings that would fit in four large suitcases and four carry-ons, about 300 pounds of luggage. Anything that couldn’t fit stayed in our apartment. We left furnishings for some friends to live in our apartment while we’re gone plus a few good books.

After a four-day stopover in Nebraska for one of our Beijing friend’s wedding, we landed back home late on October 1. The next day I had my first appointment to lay out the treatment plan. The infectious disease doctor has been very thorough and accommodating to our situation living in Beijing. We discussed an 18-month regiment of antibiotics for the bacteria and will add treatment for the fungus a month or so in. Contrasted to our earlier understanding, we can treat these conditions concurrently with the potential to return to Beijing.

Some of our good friends like to ask us questions such as “How do you feel about …?” At one doctor visit during the summer, the doctor looked at me and said, “I don’t think you should go back to Beijing.” That stung. It hit me hard. I cried. Mark and I know that we have followed God’s leading in serving expats in Beijing. Yes, the work is difficult in some ways, yet so joyous in others. Yes, the air pollution is bad but we make provisions.

At this most recent visit, a different doctor looked at us and said, “There’s no reason you can’t take these pills in Beijing.” That also hit me hard. We had just moved everything and had not even unloaded all the suitcases yet. I cried. I wondered and still wonder what God is doing. After we made decisions, plans, and provisions, God changed the plans. We calculated, packed, etc. then we received several instances where things we planned on fell apart. What is God doing? I don’t know but whate’er my God ordains is right. I find comfort in the following song.  "And so to him I leave it all."

Whate’er My God Ordains is Right – Indelible Grace

1.  Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Holy his will abideth. 
I will be still whate’er he does
And follow where he guideth.
He is my God, though dark my road.
He holds me that I shall not fall 
Wherefore to him I leave it all.

2.  Whate’er my God ordains is right,
He never will deceive me.
He leads me by the proper path, 
I know he will not leave me. 
I take, content, what he has sent.
His hand can turn my griefs away 
And patiently I wait his day.

3.  Whate’er my God ordains is right 
Though now this cup in drinking 
May bitter seem to my faint heart, 
I take it all unshrinking.
My God is true, each morn anew 
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart 
And pain and sorrow shall depart.

4.  Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Here shall my stand be taken.
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine, 
Yet I am not forsaken.
My Father’s care is round me there.
He holds me that I shall not fall

And so to him I leave it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaeM6a8Iks4

THE PEACE OF GOD FROM THE GOD OF PEACE

THE PEACE OF GOD FROM THE GOD OF PEACE

Philippians 4:4-9

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. ⁵ Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹ What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

When we recognize that God is near –

When we trust him in our anxieties –

When we lay our hearts out before him in prayer –

When we let our requests be known to God –

When we thank him –

THEN God gives peace beyond all understanding. That peace will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

When we work at thinking on excellent virtues –

When we think of virtues worthy of praise –

When we imitate the lives of godly people –

THEN the God of peace will be with us.

The God of peace gives the peace of God. Yet, God requires us to train our hearts and minds to focus on and trust in him. The analogy of a coin with two sides helps us with this conundrum. God promises to give us the all-surpassing peace that guards our hearts and minds. At the same time, he commands that we rejoice always, that we give our anxieties to him in prayer, and that we thank him. God promises to be with us when we think on and practice holy virtues.

We don’t necessarily understand how this mystery of God’s promises and his commands come together, each independent of the other, but so uniquely linked as to work together. Yet we can have the peace of God that the God of peace gives.

In the chaos of our lives, let us bring everything to God in prayer with thanksgiving. Let us meditate on the holy virtues outlined in these verses. Then we can rest in God’s peace.

Jesus gives us these words in John 14:27:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

THE STEADFAST LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS OF THE LORD

THE STEADFAST LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS OF THE LORD

What do we know about God? What comes to mind when we think of God and who he is? So many things, so many characteristics, so many actions. Yet two characteristics of God that continually come to my mind are his steadfast love and his faithfulness.  A few translations of the Bible use steadfast love where other translations use the following words: mercy, lovingkindness, faithful love, grace, promise, or loyal love. Most translations of the Bible use the word faithfulness but a few translations use these words: loyalty, truth, trust, goodness and truth. While these other translations express beautiful facets of the diamond of God’s character, I appreciate the words steadfast love and faithfulness. We find the thread of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness woven throughout the Bible. His steadfast love and his faithfulness go together, hand in hand.

           

What does steadfast mean? Steadfast refers to “unwavering, firm, or directed”. What does real love mean? Love seeks the highest good of another person. God unwaveringly and firmly directs his love toward his people for their good and his glory.

What does faithfulness mean when attributed to God? Faithfulness refers to being true to one’s word or promises. God is the only one who completely and perfectly keeps his promises. None of his promises or words have ever failed. God’s character is true; therefore, he is completely faithful.

His steadfast love and faithfulness define him and his purpose for his own people. When Moses asked God to show him his glory, “The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation’” (Exodus 34:5-7). When the prophet Jeremiah lamented that God seemed to have afflicted and forsaken him, he responded with “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:21-23). We see both God’s steadfast love and faithfulness in these verses that describe who God is.

When I remind myself of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness, I have hope. No matter what challenges I face in life, I remember his steadfast love and faithfulness. I can trust God because of who he is and what he does. Who else commits unwavering love to his own? Who else has completely and perfectly kept his promises? God abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness.

For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.  – Psalm 100:5

Beautiful Air

Everyone talks about Beijing's awful air quality, but this was the view out our bedroom window this morning. The first picture doesn't capture the clear blue skies nor the spire between the buildings, much the the visible detail on the spire. AQI=21

People Stories - Hector & Bessie - a part of God's Story

God loves to tell a story; he tells his story in his word – the Bible. Readers of the Bible today see how he put his story together from beginning to end – his story of redeeming a group of people for himself to glorify him. Yet individual stories form the whole of his large story.

Recently we received an email with great news from our friends Hector and Bessie, yet that news is part of a larger story. Let me go back to the beginning of when and how we first met Hector and Bessie. We tell this story often because it speaks of God’s sovereignty and graciousness. I give many details here because God interwove them into this beautiful story.

I distinctly remember where Mark and I were when he received the phone call in early 2014. In the midst of a busy intersection in Beijing’s Wudaoku area on our way to Chinese tutoring, Mark took a call from a woman who said, “Hi I’m Bessie. Can you marry my boyfriend and me?” To my untrained ears among the sounds of traffic and Chinese pedestrians, I assumed this woman sounded Chinese so Mark and I discussed how to point her and her boyfriend to an appropriate Christian couple. Imagine our surprise when she and her boyfriend, Hector, came to Beijing Baptist Church the next Sunday. They weren’t Chinese at all but El Salvadoran.

During those first several months of 2014, we built a solid friendship with Hector and Bessie, spending time together, discussing many different topics, asking questions about their understanding and faith in the gospel, and seeking to apply the gospel to their life. In March 2014, Mark performed their marriage ceremony. However, over time, life circumstances and a growing family contributed to them not coming to church.  Life in Beijing living far away from church without a car, with children, is just plain difficult.  At a few points during that time, we did catch up with them briefly.

Fast forward to February 2018. Mark and I had settled into a hotel room in Hyderabad, India when he received a text saying “This is Hector, your prodigal son.…” What a pleasant surprise! Thus began a reconnecting and re-establishing of our friendship. Hector reached out for help in their family life. So, over several months after our return, we met often to talk about how the gospel applies to our lives as husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers.

In May 2018, Nate & Julia, former Beijing Baptist Church members, returned to participate in BBC life for a two-month assignment from Nate’s seminary. Over the years Julia and Bessie occasionally stayed in touch thanks to technology and Facebook so when Nate & Julia came to Beijing and lived near Hector and Bessie, the families spent a lot of time together.

On July 9 while home in the States, we received an email from Bessie to update us on their lives. She included this sentence: “I am writing you to tell you that I became a Christian two weeks ago with the help of Julia.” Then she went on to explain how God used Julia to help her understand true forgiveness. She ended her email with the following: “I would like to say thank you for everything you guys have done for me and Hector for not giving up on us, since we first met and from the time we came back to church. We have been going every week instead of twice a month, our marriage and our parenting has improved a lot ☺️.”

In God’s story, God never gives up on us; He is always faithful to his promises and his character. We can trust him because in his word, he continually speaks of his steadfast love, his covenant love. His is a story of redeeming people for himself. He is faithful; he will do it. He proves this in the lives of Hector and Bessie and their family.

Rejoice with Hector and Bessie and continue to pray that God will grant them faith, wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, especially as it applies to their family.

We look forward to living life with them again when we return to Beijing in late August.

God answers your prayers

Thank you for praying for us. We know that you pray for us by the way that God answers your prayers. Here are three examples of God progressively answering prayers.

1

Back in January we asked you to pray for people that Mark and I have known in Beijing. Oftentimes we feel like when someone walks out of our life, for whatever reason, we don’t expect to see them again. They move on and so do we.

However, recently several people have walked back into our lives. As we arrived in India in February to conduct pastors’ conferences, Mark received a text from our El Salvadoran friend Hector. He began his text referring to himself as our ‘prodigal son’. Not only are he and his wife, Bessie, asking us for help in the Word and how to apply biblical principles to their lives, God has providentially surrounded them with solid Christians in their oldest son’s activities. Over dinner one night, they tearfully asked for help in parenting their young children. Please pray with us that we would be faithful to clearly articulate the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ; that we will be faithful to bring God’s Word to their lives; that they would respond with faith and repentance; and that they will commit to following God’s Word. They exude spiritual hunger and seem ready to listen and learn. We plan to meet with them regularly until we return to the States for the summer.

2

In addition, our friend Alan recently contacted us again after a long absence. We ate lunch with him and listened to him catch us up on his life and explain his sense of purposeless. We sought to press him to seek the Lord Jesus above all else. He feels caught between two cultural worlds – born in one country, a naturalized citizen of a different country, but living in his original country. What does that look like in the details of his life? How does that affect his relationship with his culturally traditional girlfriend? Please pray with us that God would open his heart to the hope of the gospel.

We are delighted to be with these friends again and to renew and grow our friendships.

3

We also had a productive time in India where Pastor Jamie from GBC joined Mark for back-to-back pastoral training conferences in two different cities. On this trip Mark and Jamie aimed to identify leaders among the churches who can carry on the vision of theological and pastoral training.  About 80 men completed all three days of teaching on the doctrine of Scripture and the doctrine of God. Please pray that these men would integrate the things they learned into their own preaching and pastoral ministry.

In Acts 4:29 Peter and John prayed that the Lord would “grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness.” Please pray this with us – that God’s Word would go forth with boldness and clarity.

The conundrum of God's preservation and our perseverance

This week I encountered two people from our past that have walked away from their faith in God.

My heart is sick to hear these things. What makes a person walk away from a faith they once so passionately professed? I know the intellectual answers – our own sin and unbelief. But how does God allow people who once so loved him to now vehemently oppose him? I believe this illustrates Romans 1:1-22:

¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.¹⁹ For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ²¹ For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools.

I think the answer lies in verse 18 – they suppress the truth of God that they once believed.  

This situation reminds me of the dual conundrum of God’s preservation and our perseverance. As Paul writes to the church at Colossae in Colossians 1:9-14:

 ⁹ And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰ so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹ being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. ¹³ He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

God has delivered those who believe from spiritual darkness. He has redeemed us. That is the message of the gospel, the message of Christmas, the message of Easter. Without Jesus’ condescension as a human baby with the purpose to die for our sins and unbelief, without his resurrection from the dead, we would have no hope of forgiveness of sins, eternal salvation, or redemption to the Father. This is God’s preservation of us. He has secured redemption for those who believe. They will remain in him.

Paul goes on to describe who this Jesus is in verses 15-20:

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷ And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

And then I find stunning words in Colossians 1:23 in the next section:

²¹ And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²² he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation^[g] under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Believers will remain in Christ IF they continue in the faith and don’t shift from the hope of the gospel. God’s preservation, though his alone, is intimately tied to, but not conditioned upon, our perseverance. I don’t understand this mystery of the two, how they can come together, each independent of the other but so uniquely linked as to work together.

When my faith has wavered (sometimes seriously), I always come back to God’s faithfulness, his covenant love, and commitment to his people (me). I respond with the apostle Peter in John 6:68 “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,” and Jesus’ own words in John 6:14: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” No one else offers eternal life. No one else offers complete forgiveness of sins. Even, and especially, when I experience little faith and many sins. When I read the Old Testament, God reminds me of his commitment to his people (including me) and his passion that all would know that he is the Lord God. How could I walk away from such commitment, such covenant love, such sacrifice? I don’t trust myself. Yet, I place my trust in the one who holds me in his hands. I don’t trust my own faith. Yet I trust the object of my faith – the one who never changes.

May God preserve his own and cause his own to persevere.

My Only Hope

UPON LIFE I DID NOT LIVE

Words by Horatius Bonar (alt. K Twit), Music by Kevin Twit ©2012 Kevin Twit Music (ASCAP)

lyrics

1. Upon a life I have not lived, 

Upon a death I did not die, 

Another’s life; Another’s death, 

I stake my whole eternity. 

2. Not on the tears which I have shed, 

Not on the sorrows I have known, 

Another’s tears; Another’s griefs, 

On these I rest, on these alone. 

Chorus: 

O Jesus, Son of God, I build on what Thy cross has done for me; 

There both my life and death I read, my guilt, and pardon there I see. 

3. Lord, I believe; O deal with me, 

As one who has Thy Word believed! 

I take the gift, Lord, look on me, 

As one who has Thy gift received. 

(Chorus)

Upon a Life I Did Not Live on YouTube

South India Pastoral Training - Module 2

Recently Mark, Jamie Howell, and I spend about 11 days in both Hyderabad and Giddalur of southern India. We went at the invitation of a local Indian pastor to provide pastoral and theological training for rural pastors who have little opportunity to receive formal theological training. Mark visited Hyderabad (with pastors from Giddalur) last August to introduce them to several biblical topics. (See 8/3/17 and 8/8/17 posts) We called this trip “Module 2” where Jamie taught several sessions on the Doctrine of God and Mark taught several sessions on the Doctrine of Scripture.

While the trip was exhausting and frustrating at times, the teaching went really well. The men hunger for solid biblical teaching. We all watched men take notes, visibly process new information, and wrestle with doctrines they had never heard. Jamie consistently encouraged them to be like the Bereans in Acts 17:11 “…[who] were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Each time we asked our hosts if the men profited from the training, they reminded us that these men don’t have access to such training or resources.

 

In addition to providing solid biblical teaching, Mark aims to identify men who possess leadership skills  and qualities who can carry on the teaching and training. What better way to contextualize the gospel and the Bible than with local leaders? Several men showed such characteristics. Pray with us for wisdom for future endeavors.

 

Here are some photos of the trip.

Jyothi and Suresh Gumma - our gracious hosts in Hyderabad

Paul Gumma, age 16-17. In October, Paul (son of Suresh & Jyothi) had major heart surgery and is still recovering the use of his legs. As the photo shows, he has a contagious smile and laugh.

 Simeon - son of Suresh & Jyothi

Newlyweds Deborah & Praveen. We talked a lot about the Indian culture of arranged marriages.

Sunday Worship at Jesus Holy Church Hyderabad

Jamie teaching the Doctrine of God in Hyderabad

Two of the men with books donated by Ligonier Ministries.
These men know enough English to profit from the books.

Men in Hyderabad who completed the training.

Tuktuk - Our common mode of transportation

Mark teaching the Doctrine of Scripture in Giddalur.

Men who completed the training in Giddalur

The Indian custom of removing shoes before entering church (or a home).
It reminds me of Exodus 3:5 "Take off your sandals, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." What if we considered our worship space as holy ground?

The Indian custom of women covering their heads during prayer or worship.
Their application of 1 Corinthians 11:4-10  4 "Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, 5 but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head... 7 For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. 10 That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head."  The photo shows people lined up for the Lord's Supper. The elders walked between the lines passing out the elements of communion.

A peaceful excursion one afternoon outside of Giddalur, away from the hustle and bustle of town.