hongili's update
Church Life
God has blessed our life and ministry in many ways during the past half-year or so.A couple months ago, after having postings out for about eight months, God blessed our youth ministry with two leaders in David and Amy Martin. They’re a young couple from the Midwest who have a desire to eventually serve as missionaries in China, and they have a visibly genuine love for the Lord. What’s exciting for me is the opportunity this affords to focus more on developing our adult ministry which has been getting less than half of my attention.
Since our last update, our adult congregation has started taking baby steps in connecting with our neighborhood. I was invited to give the invocation at a local Kiwanis club meeting, our members started to regularly spend time at a nearby nursing home, and we had an outreach at a senior citizens’ center for Chinese New Year. In a few weeks, we’ll be doing some beautification work at Shery High School, a continuation school in the area, as part of a greater church wide effort in the South Bay called Sharefest to be a blessing to our neighbors. The sister who’s coordinating this event manages a large number of people at work for SBC, but in the fifteen years she’s been in the church has done little more than usher on Sundays. It’s been great seeing people like this stepping out to use their gifts and abilities for God and getting so much joy from it. (Left & below rite - some pictures from last year's event at Fleming Middle School.)
Also, almost all our visitors this past half-year have been directly from our neighborhood, as per our prayers, and most of the ones who have stayed are not Asian. I don't think it's necessary for us to have representation from every race and ethnicity in Southern California, but this has been a significant step for us towards living up to our designation as a “community church” in a community with few Asians.
A Tiring Challenge
I
just recently reconciled with one of the key leaders at our church
after a month of distraction, frustration, and awkwardness. It really
felt like Satan was working overtime to keep us down, but I’m glad to
be over it. As hard as the experience was, I've been truly thankful
for the opportunity to grow through it. I thought I’d have more to say
about this, but we decided to have a clean start and forget about the
past which I’m trying my best to do.
Family Life
Michele and I just got back from a Family Life marriage conference. At first, I decided to go just to encourage other couples from our church to do the same, but it ended up being a really good review for me. With all the ministry tasks and relationships at church, it’s been easy to settle for less than great dialogue and interaction when I came home in the evenings. I’m grateful for the reminders and insights we received. I’d recommend the conference to anyone interested in refocusing and refreshing their marriage.
Finally,
I love being a dad. Jie is so wonderful, and Michele, being a great mom,
has made it easy for me to appreciate Jie all the more. After a
session at the marriage conference about “leaving a legacy” I’ve
adjusted my schedule to get home a little earlier in the evenings to be
able to spend more quality time with her on a regular basis. Everyday
has become much more precious with my daughter in my life.
Recent books for discussion, if you're interested:
Prayer Requests:
- I recently started a leadership team for our adult English Ministry. A separate leadership team for the EM is new for the 30-year history of our church, so please pray for the new leaders to really take ownership of this and for a good working relationship with the church board.
- A friend of ours asked us to pray about possibly going overseas for missions together in the pretty near future. We’re open to what God wants, although I really want to finish up what we’ve started at CCCSB first.
- Please pray for faithfulness in sharing God's faith, hope, and love with our neighbors, and also for a greater joy in doing it.
