January 2006

Christmas Past
We are happy to report that the Lord blessed the Christmas services at Lighthouse and Daya Baptist Church . Once again the buildings were filled to capacity and we could still think of others who promised to attend but didn't make it. It was especially encouraging to have a good number of first time visitors including whole families and adults attend. At Lighthouse the teens and children performed a Christian adaptation of Charles Dickens' “A Christmas Carol” (no ghosts but the angel Gabriel instead and Ebenezer Scrooge was called Mr. Money for translation sake). Daya's teens performed a presentation of how the angels might have viewed Christ's birth (with some humor injected – we're sure that the real angels weren't such hams!) These plays led to a clear gospel presentation that was followed by small gift bags for the children and refreshments for all. We thank you for your prayers for these services and ask that you continue to pray that we may see some continue to come and accept Christ as Savior.

Silent Nights (and Days)
For two weeks after Christmas, Lisa was sick and unable to speak as a bad cold caused her to have laryngitis. We tried almost every remedy known to both western and Chinese medicine including a few things that we still don't know what they were. However, the only cure seemed to be time, prayer and …silence! Even though Lisa's voice is back, please pray for her health as she has a cough and doesn't feel fully recovered.

A Twice New New Year!
One of the benefits of serving in Taiwan is that we have two “new years” - the Western New Year (January 1) and the Lunar New Year (this year it is on January 29). So if the first one doesn't get off to a great start, we can always try again! We already have a few things planned for the New Year including children's ministry workers training classes and Bible training/discipleship classes. In addition, we ask you to pray for wisdom in planning effective community outreaches and involving more of our people in the ministry. We are also asking the Lord to let us see some of our saved teenagers at Lighthouse follow the Lord in baptism. It seems that this will take a miracle as their parents are opposed to this until they become adults (age 21 in Taiwan ).

With your prayers we will attempt great things for the Lord in 2006 and expect Him to show Himself mighty so that the people of Taiwan will know He is the True and Living God!