People Stories - Irene

Meet Irene, a fashion designer, from the Netherlands. We first met Irene when she came to BBC in the spring of 2017.

Sometimes at the beginning of a service Mark will ask newcomers to stand up and state their name as a way of introduction. Irene boldly offered, "I'm Irene from the Netherlands. I'm Catholic but thinking about being a Baptist." Wow, what an introduction.

Shortly after that she joined us for our annual church retreat. Since then Irene has faithfully and consistently placed herself under the teaching of God's Word.

This past Saturday we had the privilege of spending several hours with Irene, enjoying a sumptuous lunch and lovely conversation. She told us about her spiritual journey from the age of eighteen through spiritism, sorcery, secular psychology, hypnotherapy, witchcraft, occult, and New Age. Through all this, she was a spiritual seeker, looking for truth, but didn't know light from darkness. Even in the midst of such spiritual darkness, God showed her glimpses of light and used various personal experiences to draw her to himself.

In early 2017, Irene placed her faith in Jesus, the light of the world. During a trip to Israel this past summer, she was baptized in the Jordan River, following the example of her Lord Jesus. She is currently pursuing BBC membership.

What a delight to watch Irene hunger and thirst for God's righteousness. She's learning so much from God's Word and from his people.

Pray for Irene as she grows in her understanding of God's Word and how his Word should affect her thinking and her life. Pray that the God of light will shine in her and eradicate the remaining vestiges of Satan and darkness.

Pray for China

Romans 13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 

1 Timothy 2:1-3 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, ² for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. ³ This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior.

Would you please pray for China’s governing authorities as they meet to conduct their party meetings within these next few weeks?

Please pray that they would make and enforce laws that would do good for their country and for their people.

Pray that God will give them wisdom from on high so that all people “may lead a peaceful and quiet life."

People Stories - John & Karen and other musings

We live in an area of Beijing where we see few foreigners compared to other parts of the city. One day after I arrived back in Beijing as we stocked up on groceries from the large grocery store in the mall, we met a man named John in the checkout line in front of us and started chatting with him. Because that day he happened to wear a university shirt given him by his daughter, Mark started the conversation about that university which quickly led to college football talk. Naturally. J We chatted for a bit and handed him our contact card. A few days later he emailed us, and we eventually caught dinner with him and his wife since they live not too far from us. What a fascinating couple! He had been doing business between China and the US for over 25 years, but now he teaches law and business courses to foreign and national university students. His wife Karen is just beginning a distinguished professorship in nursing in another section of the city. We delighted to hear their story, how they met, and how they ended up in Beijing.  We would love to continue conversations with them since they live close by.

Not long after our dinner with John and Karen, we met a man from New Zealand at a bus stop. As we talked, I noticed that he wore a T-shirt sporting the periodic table of elements. It turns out that he teaches chemistry at the same university as John.

It feels strange to talk about ‘foreigners’. I don’t think we would refer to a ‘foreigner’ in the US, but anyone not a native Chinese gets labeled ‘foreigner.’ Often we hear little children call out 为国人 (wèiguórén) as we walk by them. We have learned to play a little game with them. We respond in Chinese that we are not foreigners; we are American. It’s fun to see the shocked look on the kids’ faces and hear the adults chuckle that not only did we understand them, we responded in their language with a riddle. Although it seems strange, it actually makes it easy to spot foreigners and strike up conversations.

I read once that some people in the US get offended when asked where they are from as if they weren’t American. Here it’s a great conversation starter. Seeing a foreigner and asking where they are from breaks the ice since all we foreigners fall in the same situation here. We don’t belong. We know that. So we try to connect on those topics that bring us together, things that we have in common even if we hail from countries around the world. 

Climate Change

Climate change. Words we hear often in the news. What is climate change? How do we affect climate change? Is there such a thing as climate control?  When discussing climate change, we often refer to weather or environment. It could be literal or figurative.

Today I learned about climate change, again. Every once in a while, we hear of waves of change, or climate control.  Sometimes they sound loud but end up fading away. Today’s climate change indicates winter is coming with cold winds blowing and animals may hunker down and hibernate for while, until spring thaw. 

According to http://www.bigcat.org/news/the-truth-about-bears-and-hibernation,

Animals hibernate as a way to adapt to their surroundings. They have to be able to survive the cold weather. They hibernate to escape the cold and because food is scarce.

To get ready for hibernation, animals will eat more than usual during the fall to store up body fat. During hibernation and torpor, they will use up this extra body fat to live off of while not losing any muscle. This allows the animal to come out of hibernation thinner and still as strong as it was before winter. 

We don’t often see the changes in the animals as they hibernate, but they come out of hibernation as strong as or stronger than when they began.

As we enter this new climate change, please pray for spring thaw to come and that the animals would not only survive but thrive. 

People Stories - Elevator Friend

One day while riding the elevator to our apartment, we chatted with a man who asked the usual questions of where we’re from, how long we’ve lived here, and what do we do.  We often answer by telling our focus for internationals in the city. This particular time when we told him, he responded by saying “I’ve always wanted to know more about Christianity. I want to know more so I can help my son when he asks.” Wow, not often does a person voice a curiosity so easily.

Since this week is a holiday week, he invited us to his home for tea. Over numerous cups of black tea, green tea, sunflower seeds, and grapes, we chatted for several hours about the Truth, the Message, and the emptiness of our hearts. Like so many, he has come to believe that there is more to life than earning lots of money, buying lots of things, and gaining lots of honors. Our new friend expressed the emptiness of heart that comes even as he pursues those things. He fears that his son will also discover an empty heart while pursuing all the pleasures of life.  He wants to prepare to share Christianity with his son while he is still a preteen, before he reaches the rebellious teen years and turns away from all that his parents stand for.

Rarely have we met a man so ripe for seeking the Truth. We explained the Message of Hope, drew pictures diagramming the four parts – the message about God, man, Jesus, and our response of faith and repentance. We left him with the Good Book, a study book, and Exploring Life (aka Ultimate Questions). Mark hopes to meet with him regularly in the next few weeks to talk.

This fall Mark began a series through 1 Corinthians and this past Sunday taught through 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, part of which reads

¹¹ No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. ¹² And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.

¹³ When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.  ¹⁴ But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. (NLT)

Please pray earnestly for clarity, understanding, and God to work in this situation. Please ask the Spirit to open our friend’s heart and mind to understand the Truth and share it with his own family.

Back Home in Beijing

We are now back in Beijing. Mark and I are together again in the Middle Kingdom. When I walked into BBC on Sunday after 3 months away, I really felt like I was home. Our apartment, on the other hand, took a little while longer. When I arrived, I discovered I needed to scrub the kitchen, throw out trash, and restore order.

Ironically all this occurred after I had been pondering the idea of investing in eternity. I didn’t do well on that front. I complained and griped a lot while I cleaned. I was more interested in my clean house at that moment than eternity. After all, heaven is clean, isn’t it? JK

But seriously, the Lord did convict me of my attitude. Yet how I wanted to cling to my attitude of wanting what I wanted. I wanted a clean home and I wanted everyone (Mark) in my path to know that. Unfortunately, that bad attitude carried over to other areas. Sin spreads; it affects everything. How is it that I can say I want to obey and glorify the Lord yet at the same time wallow in my sin? How can I have a complaining, griping attitude and say I love the Lord? How can I still feel the tug of a sinful attitude even after I acknowledge and confess it to the Lord? I had to wrestle through this and come to Jesus. Confession and repentance. That’s hard. I had to remember why Jesus died, for me. He took the burden of my sin on his shoulders. His death accomplished the punishment so I don’t have to. In that I find forgiveness – and the freedom that goes with it. I feel Romans 7 very keenly but also know that Romans 8 follows right behind.

Romans 7

15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 

Romans 8

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  

On the other hand, it was good to be back at BBC where we belong. I love the people here, some of whom have been here since we arrived in Aug. 2013. I love the tight-knit community of BBC. I love their smiles, their hearts, their love for Jesus in a place that is so different from our home countries. This is the body of Christ, blended from so many nationalities, cultures, and languages. 

Yes, we are home - in Beijing.

A word from our daughter Kristen....

From Kristen's Facebook post on September 2, 201

Overwhelmed and humbled to announce the birth of our daughter Caroline Elizabeth Odom on August 29th at 5:33pm weighing 7lb 13oz. As some may have heard, it has been a complicated and scary road post delivery. I am overwhelmed and thankful to have been carried in the hands of my Great Physician and Father in Heaven during some of my scariest hours and given the chance to be mommy and wife moving forward. I am stunned by the love of my husband, Brent Odom, who has served me and loved me in ways he never imagined he would have to when he vowed to love me on our wedding day. I am eternally grateful for the skillful hands and wise actions on the part of Dr. Matthew Smith from Highlands Center for Women and the amazing team of nurses, doctors, and care takers at St. Francis Hospital. I am also so very thankful for The Blood Connection and all those who take the time to donate blood and plasma making it possible for me to receive the 22 units of blood products I needed to be here today. We are humbled and so very grateful for the love of our parents, churches, and community who have been with us around the clock and loved on our sweet girl when I was not available, from those who have donated milk, Lindsay Abarotin and Sabrina Fields, to those who have brought us meals, prayed with us and supported us in ways that mean more than you will ever know. I am humbled and grateful that we can share our story and that God is good!

Psalm 118:28-29

 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
    you are my God; I will extol you.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    for his steadfast love endures forever!

Aug. 30 - one day old

Sept. 4 - home at last!!