Asia Travels

Asia - 10-24 through 11-12

We go to listen, learn, build, explore, coach, resource, network

East Asia #1: October 26-28

We had a rich time with the Loveland family (missionaries for 10 years in Taichung).  The picture is of our "Taiwanese family from our summer mission camp.  We had a reunion on a Saturday night.  In the picture is also Michael Mayor (blue shirt) from LSCC.  He is there for one year learning about missions.  

The Loveland's will be moving back to KC due to Pam's parent's health.  David will work with me with in cross cultural opportunities in the KC area. He also will continue to work with Taiwan, and travel with me as a trainer/coach as well.  

Peter (in the green) and his wife (next to him) will lead the house church and we will continue to work with them along with another missionary family that we have joined for many years in the summer for the American Life Camp. (in July).  I invite you to prayerfully consider joining next summer's mission camps in Taichung and be a part of making friends for eternity by living and sharing the Gospel with seventy to one hundred Taiwanese college students.  Contact me for more information: 

East Asia #2:  October 28-29  

Ching Yu and I traveled to another city for the next few days and met with two house church pastors ( Pastor Z & Y) whom we met last year.  Last summer we had a mission team partner with them.  This time we prayed and interacted on how we can go further in our partnership both with summer teams and also for leader training opportunities during the rest of the year.  

They are also interested in finding good private/Christian high schools in the U.S. to give guidance to some of their families who desire to send their children to the U.S. for their education. So, I promoted SCA -  a private school near us. 

China sends more students each year (235,000) to the U.S. for education. The next largest people group comes from India (96,000). South Korea sends (70,000) students.  We have many contacts with student ministries working with international students on U.S. campuses that we are able to recommend in sending their college kids to.  One of our objectives is to build a "bridge" as a two-way partnership from the U.S. to Asia where we can send Americans for a one year to two year term and also receive Asian students and connect them to good campus ministries and or churches.  This year we have have eight students studying abroad for at least one year in various cities and countries in Asia.  

East Asia #3:  October 30-31

We traveled to our next city to meet with Pastor P.  He is very interested in us coming back and speaking at a college student gathering on the theme of holy living — A life that please God, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8.  We spent the day with him in listening to their needs and talking about ways we can join in partnership and participate in what God is doing through his network of churches.  

East Asia #4: Oct 31-Nov 1  

We are in transit through Hong Kong to our next destination. This is a picture of the massive crowd coming toward us in the MTR (the Hong Kong subway).  It still amazes me how efficient Hong Kong is in moving the masses of people everyday and it is very clean!

East Asia #5: Nov 1-2   

We conducted a one-day conference called: "A Colorful Life".  We focused on six episodes on Abraham's life as the example of a person living by faith.  We broke the seventy attendees into ten groups and then I shared from the life of Abraham.  I instructed the groups to talk about what lesson of faith they learned from each episode and to write it out in a sentence that started like this, "Faith is .............."   After they worked out their faith sentence, they drew a picture of their sentence.  The picture to the left is an example of one of the group's drawing.  It represents Abraham being called by God to leave his homeland and all that he was comfortable with to a land of the unknown.  Each group posted their drawing on the wall and gave a report of what their faith sentence was and how their drawing depicted their sentence.  It was a full day and a lot of fun!

East Asia #6: Nov 2-5

We then traveled to another city where an American family has been living for two years.  They have a small gathering of believers who worship on Sundays in their home.  This past August, we helped six American college students move to this city and enroll in the University to learn language and culture. They plan on being at this university for six months and then they will relocate to another city and university to continue their cultural and language learning.  The long term is for some of these students to be prepared for a longer term role in this country or return home and join international student ministry on U.S. college campuses.  

East Asia #7: Nov 6-7

On November 6th, we traveled to a nearby city and met for the first time a wonderful young couple the Lord is using to grow a solid fellowship of believers in their  home.  We had the privilege of sharing a message in the evening to about a gathering of 20 believers.  It was truly a rich time of Worship and Word.  We had a meal together and we also talked about future possibilities for us partnering and participating in what God is doing in them and with them.  This was one of the highlights for me in meeting this group of believers in sweet fellowship with the Lord!

East Asia #8 Nov 8-9

We conducted a core leader team retreat which we called, " Times of Refreshment".  Together we explored the first chapter of Ephesians with future retreats planned to continue to travel through the spiritual riches of this letter from God.  The picture illustrates some of our findings from the Book of Ephesians in answering the question:  "What is the Church?"  What metaphors did the Apostle Paul use in the Book of Ephesians to describe the nature and function of the church of Jesus Christ.  We added drawings (orange post it notes) of some of these metaphors as we discussed with each other what these mean to each one of us both individually and what these mean to us as a team.   
We also will be conducting various workshops on servant leadership, preaching, pastoral development and transformational theology.  Our American team of six will be moving to this city in a few months and enroll in a famous university to further their cultural learning experience. 

Headed to Chicago: Nov 10

I arrived in Chicago on Sunday and went to bed.

Chicago for a one day Doctrinal Ministry Team meeting:  Nov 10-11

On November 11th-12th, I participated with a jet-lagged head at a Doctrinal Ministry Team meeting. Even though I was not mentally sharp at this point, it was a tremendous time to listen, discuss, and dialogue on a variety of doctrinal topics for future articles and a seminar at our annual Pastors conference

Going Home: Nov 12

Home sweet home - yeah.  I get to be with my bride!

I thank God for you and your heart-felt prayers, for the Lord gave us strength every step of the way and allowed us to be used by Him, for Him, and through Him to bring Him glory and honor!  

Psalm 67,  doug