Annual BBC Retreat

This past weekend, BBC held its annual retreat. We have learned over the past few years, that no matter how much effort and frustration organizing and planning a retreat for the whole body takes, everyone enjoys the time of concentrated fellowship and focused teaching. Our Father blessed the time of teaching with messages on the greatness of JC by looking at various passages in Mark. Our speaker addressed the greatness or supremacy of JC over things like spiritual powers, wrong ideas, creation, trials, and our own unbelief or doubts. We certainly need these reminders. As a part of the application, after the messages we gathered into smaller groups and discussed applications of these topics, including role playing that left us in laughter.

So often BBC reminds us not only of the glory of JC, but also of the beauty of the future when all nations will gather together as one. Attendees represented 13 nations this weekend. One recent Sunday, we had 20 nations represented. Can we do this in SC?

 

Taking our turn with the children

Starting a 2-hour round-trip hike up the mountain

Most of the hikers. One dad with little ones turned around earlier.

Wild cows on the trail

Catching up

What do you do when the day begins with an AQI over 800 and you don't want to go outside? Catch up on blog posts.

Botanical Gardens - a visual feast

Luke 12:27(ESV)

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Ornamental peach tree

Tulips

 

Ornamental Peach Blossoms

Sam & Sarah, visitors from Kenya

 

People Stories - Jacob & Mary

Jacob and Mary came from Kenya to Beijing where he works as the COO of UNICEF. What a blessing to have a couple our age with young adult ‘children’ with whom we can share ‘young adult’ woes. We have enjoyed much fellowship and laughter with this dear brother and sister.

Imagine our joy and surprise when we learned their older son attends Winthrop Univ. - ‘in our neighborhood’, relatively speaking when we consider the distances around the world – they from Kenya, us & his parents living in Beijing, their son in our state less than 2 hours from our home. God’s world is very small indeed.

People Stories - Yuri

Oftentimes people reach out to us via BBC’s contact page to which Mark responds to all reasonable requests. We met Yuri through one of those contacts. Yuri first visited BBC several weeks ago when we went out of town but last weekend came to stay with us. How fascinating to hear his story and how God saved him.

Yuri’s family immigrated to Canada as refugees from the broken Soviet Union in the early 1990s when he was a child. Over time Yuri of course learned English and diligently sought to rid his English of a Russian/Ukrainian accent so he speaks English quite clearly.  In 2008 he first came to a large city in China to work in the electronics field then studied Chinese. While living in that city, the Lord saved him. Eventually, he went to the US for training and serving in some hard places. With a heart for China and some language under his belt, he returned to China. Now he teaches language and culture at a university a few hours outside of Beijing.

He originally contacted BBC looking for Xn teaching and fellowship. In describing his city, it seems a lonely place and very little solid Xn teaching. Our out-dated Lonely Planet China book describes his city as “a cultural desert” and “no place to linger”. Wow, let’s go!

Please remember Yuri and his hunger for solid teaching and fellowship. 

People Stories - Stefan & Kevin

We meet people all over town and in every situation.  We talk to people on the subway, on the bus, waiting in lines, etc. Foreigners stick out here so we usually find them. Just yesterday I met a group of people who didn’t look local but I wasn’t sure. It turns out they were moms, teens, and children from Mexico and Pakistan who live not far from us at the Air Force Academy. That’s the same place our Muslim Pakistani friends lived about a year ago. Bus stops, bus rides and subways provide great meeting places.

One day on the subway we met Stefan from Vienna, Austria. We always look for connections to begin conversations. Naturally we asked him if the greatest classical music composers hailed from Vienna. Of course!

Stefan is a fascinating entrepreneur. Here he represents Schärf Vienna-style coffee machines and seeks to establish coffee shops joined with a local bakery franchise. Where else could we get really good coffee and Viennese desserts? He shared with us his plan and program. Apparently one of his first shops will be near our home, though we haven’t figured out exactly where yet. After meeting on the subway, we met together a few times to hear his story and get to know him. Although he travels often to exhibitions and trade shows, he did attend BBC recently (and even an international fellowship in Shanghai) and hopes to come when he is in town. In one of our conversations, we wove in the concept of Mark 8:36 “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” and the concept from Acts 17:22-31 that all men everywhere reflect the image of God, have an instinct for worship, and a quest for transcendence.

In the course of a conversation with Stefan at a local coffee shop, Mark decided he wanted to send a video message to Stefan’s Thai wife who lives in Thailand. Nearby sat a young man who spoke perfect English so Mark conscripted him to shoot the video while Mark talked with Stefan introducing us to his wife. We then had a brief conversation with Kevin and gave him our card with our contact information.

A few days later, Kevin messaged Mark to say that he had read our blog and thought we had a “fascinating life”. Ha, little does he know. 😉But that opened the door for further contact. Over several messages he expressed sincere interest in Christianity - what it is and what it means. We met him for dinner at that same coffee shop later and really opened up the gospel to him. He asked many questions and had great discussions. We even gave him a copy of Ultimate Questions and a gospel of John in his native language. At the end of our time that day, Mark asked if he could pray to close our evening. Kevin asked, how does one pray? Mark suggested Kevin repeat what Mark prayed so Mark prayed that God would open Kevin’s heart and confess his sins. Kevin recently made contact with us again after being out of town for a while.

Please pray for Stefan and Kevin that God would open their hearts to see their need for Jesus as Lord and Savior. 

Exercise

Back in September Mark and I joined Hosa gym across the street in the opposite apartment complex. I have developed a gym routine of working the circuit of 14 weight machines plus one of three aerobic machines after using the weights. We use machines that work our legs, abs, and arms. When I first started, I could hardly lift any weight. I would put the arm curl machine on 10 pounds and maybe do 3 reps. At first I sat on one machine to push the bar with my feet and could push only about 30 pounds. We have a machine where we lay on our stomachs and kick back to lift the weights. I think I started at 40 pounds. Those first few days were hard; I could barely lift any weights. When I woke up the next morning, I knew I had used muscles that hadn’t been used in a long time. After a few days of that, I was sore, not in pain, but feeling like a massage or hot tub would feel really good.  Because I felt so much better physically and mentally after exercising, I kept at it.  Gradually I discovered I could do more reps without any trouble. Eventually I added more weight with fewer reps. Then more reps at the higher weight. Wait, what’s happening here? Am I getting stronger? Is my body getting used to working out? I’m not tired and sore anymore. Now after six months, I’ve added more weight and increased reps on certain machines. Some are still difficult to do but I keep trying. Mark thinks my body is changing. Yes, sometimes my muscles feel tighter and firmer than I remember, but I don’t see any difference.

Then it hit me. Physical exercise has a spiritual parallel. As we exercise our bodies, they change, they develop. Isn't this true of our spirits and hearts as well? It takes hard work, stretching, uncomfortableness, and effort to exercise our faith in Jesus. If life is easy with no hardships, what's the point of trusting Jesus? If we don't have sin, why do we need a Savior? Trials reveal our need. They reveal our idols. What things do I feel I must have to live? What can't I live without? Certain things, or something different? What if we made our relationship with Jesus the priority? What would that look like? Would it look like what we think? What does life look like when I can't see the end?

As I pondered the parallels, I noticed that we often don’t see our own spiritual growth. We don’t feel like we are changing, growing. But others see it. Walking by faith in Jesus Christ often looks like walking blindly, but it’s not. It’s putting our trust in the One who is completely trustworthy and obeying where He leads us. That might mean difficult times, suffering, not seeing the results yet. But growth in Christ comes through perseverance, faithfulness, and one-step-in-front-of-the-other days. It helps to soak in the Word of God with passages like the following from 2 Peter 1:

³ His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, ⁴ by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. ⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶ and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷ and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. ⁸ For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. ¹⁰ Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. ¹¹ For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (Emphases mine)