Updates from Macau

April 23

Pastor Bill Axline's message on Easter Sunday was uplifting, inspirational and full of hope just like the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, who rose from the grave and ascended to heaven, giving hope for eternal life to those who believe in Him.

The power of the resurrection can make a difference in believers' lives! I have seen with my own eyes the power that has transformed many lives in Sung Wong as people walk close to God. Here are four specific examples of the power of Christ's resurrection impacts lives in Sung Wong Church:

Comfort in death:
I was invited to lunch at this sister's house only after we met for the second time. In our conversations, she told me about her brother who was lost at sea two years ago in her hometown in the Fujen province. Because he was her parents' only son, it was very difficult for the family to face his death. Every time she called her mother on the phone in China, they would end up crying over the phone the entire time. But now both have found Jesus, and in doing so, have received His peace and comfort.

Strength in adversity:
Her shining white teeth and bright smile caught my eyes from the first time I met her. She lives on the top floor of the 26-story dorm where there is no air conditioning, when temperatures can easily reach into the upper 90's in a given day; sometimes she would eat her dinner out on the roof to catch a breeze. Life is tough here but her spirit is high and her smile is bright since she has found refuge in the Lord at Sung Wong last year. She and her roommate are two of the zealous learners and servants in the church. Her roommate is the woman I mentioned in my "Macau updates 5" (March 31) who only sees her son once a year in China. She has decided to return home and take up parenting to her son as soon as her contract is over. She is willing to give up a higher paying job in Macau to be reunited with her family.

Holiness in living:
All his life, he had been living in darkness and fear, worshiping idols and evil spirits. He had made concessions to the evil spirits by altering his house, roof, windows and doors, changing jobs and burning incense all in the hopes of pleasing the spirits. He lived this way until a friend brought him to church where the Gospel set him free. Since then, he has broken out from the bondage of Satan's strong hold and has come into Jesus' loving presence. He was one of the six men who were baptized on Easter Sunday.

Diligence in serving:
Every night when I approach the door of Sung Wong at around 9:30 pm, I am greeted with the sounds of the piano: Kuan-Mei is practicing music for Sunday worship. Because there are no musicians among the church-goers (few contract workers have music training), she recently began taking piano lessons in order to play for church services. She and the song leaders come to church every day after work and practice for at least two hours before going home for dinner. Their spirit in serving has made up for their inadequacy in skill.

Looking back on our own walk with God, what evidence do we see of His transforming power in our lives?

Ephesians 4:1

April 14

God provides for all our needs, I can testify to that throughout my entire STM experience here. He has given me not only my daily bread but also given me everything that I needed.

HE gave me a wonderful place to live in (it is paradise compares to the contract workers' dorm.) that over looks a patch of green tall trees, the Fortress of Mong-Ha, among columns of apartment buildings around me. It is very close to Sung Wong Church and takes only 10 minutes to walk, but I can make it in 7 minutes when returning home from a late night ministry.

HE gave me the tongue to speak the languages here that helped me feel not like a total stranger coming to a foreign land. Knowing both Cantonese and Mandarin enable me to communicate to almost anyone. HE also gives me the opportunity to practice on some translation skills. By the way, I am translating for Pastor Bill Axline on Easter Sunday worship and baptismal service at Sung Wong Church. (Help!!!)

HE gave me the hands to reach out to people who need the Lord by paring me up with Ian Jie in serving God and training His people in Sung Wong Church. By means of personal evangelize, visitation, passing out tracks, we bring in people to church from the harvest field one at a time. There have been eight disciples who were trained and equipped at Sung Wong, who now are fully dedicated themselves to do God's work in their homeland.

HE gave me the feet to walk with missionaries and workers who come here from all parts of the world to Macau. I have met GJ from The Netherlands; Anita from Germany; Alison from Australia; Olivia from Canada; Bonnie from Illinois; Judy from Chicago; Jan from Ohio; Jenny from Michigan; Ian Jie from Macau; Joshua from Hong Kong; Carlson and Naomi from Michigan; Mei-Mei from California; Janna from Illinois. There are about 50 missionary workers in Macau reaching out to Chinese people by building friendships, teaching English, doing social services.... They are doing whatever it takes to let the gospel be known.

How, then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Romans 10:14-15

April 10

It was only two weeks since I have been here; there had been two people from GWM checked in and out of the hospital. Brother Cho, Ian Jie’s husband, is recovering at home now, but Jan had checked into the hospital due to a fall days later. She fell and twisted her wrist in the market place and was kept in the hospital for tests and observation for couple days.

This was also the week a STM team from Taiwan came to visit at Sung Wong Church. They are a group of Seminary students from the Conservative Baptist Seminary at She-Lou, Taiwan. The team consists of eight in total with six students, a pastor and a camp director. Because Jan was not here, I became the interpreter for the group between the English speaking and the students from Taiwan. I also translate in the weekly co-workers meeting. (At this writing, Jan is back with us, but she is taking a break from translation while I am here.)

It was a very busy and intense week for all of us, the seminary students, Ian Jie and myself; for the brothers and sisters of Sung Wong, it was a week of exciting learning opportunities. What they have learned will help them serve in their church here and will enable them to do future ministry work when they return to China.

The STM from Taiwan has brought a lot of actions to Sung Wong during the week. They took what they have learned in the classroom to Macau, the real mission field, and put their knowledge into actions. They lead us in singing; personal testimony; passing out gospel tracks in parks and streets; one on one evangelizing; games and magic. I worked closely with them during the week and have learned a lot from them.

I learned to pick up work when there is a need to get it done; I learned to pitch in to lighten someone’s load; I learned to take on new challenges to learn new skills; I learned to put down worries and look up to Jesus for strength…

I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:13

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:58

April 5

From the first day I got here, Ian Jie has been saying that God has brought me here in time to help out. Last Saturday, six days after I arrived, I got a call in the morning from Jan (another co-worker with GWM) telling me that brother Cho, Ian Jie's husband, was vomiting with blood and sent to the hospital. Ian Jie was staying with her husband in the hospital all day and I was asked to fill in for some duties at church. There was this Children's ministry at 3 in the afternoon at church that I was supposed to help. A brother came to teach the upper class students on their homework from school and telling Bible stories; I was to help out with the little ones.

A mom brought in her two children age 5 and 3 and carrying a bagful of stuffs with her. One by one she pulled out from her bag an English book on alphabets for her 3yrs old son, and a phonics book for the 5yr old daughter, and asked me to teach them English. It looked like they have been taught to read half way through the books. It is ironic that the 3yr old boy can hardly talk yet he is learning English; and the 5year old girl is reading up a storm except for the L's and R's.

I let them play a little after we studied but the mom interrupted their play and pulled out a box of Chinese chess and wanted the little girl to ³practice². She said her girl could beat some college kids on Chinese chess game. So I asked the little girl to teach me play. Needless to say, I was a slow learner and was defeated miserably on every game.

In light of this, my son Eric would make a comment like this: Chinese parents! Always PUSH their children to excel - "won zei chung loong". He is right, most of us want to gather all the riches of the world; but the Bible says:

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

---Matthew 6: 19-21---

April 3

People Need the Lord
By Steve Green

Everyday they pass me by
I can see it in their eye
Empty people filled with care
Headed who knows where
On they go through private pain
Living fear to fear
Laughter hides the silent cries
Only Jesus hears

Chorus:
People need the Lord
People need the Lord
At the end of broken dreams
His is the open door
People need the Lord
People need the Lord
When will we realize
People need the Lord

We are called to take His light
To a world where wrong seems right
What could be too great a cost
For sharing life with one who is lost
Through His love our hearts can feel
All the grief they bear
They must hear the word of life
Only we can share

Chorus

This is a song Susan and I used to sing for fun to counteract Barbara Streisand’s “People Who Need People”. But now it sounds so real to people around us, not just in Macau but also everywhere in the world.

Thank God for Internet that helped me find the lyrics for this song.
Thank God for my children who bought me this laptop for the trip.
Thank God for the midnight oil they burned in setting it up before my departure.

Thank God for Jenny and GJ here in helping me get connected to the Internet.

Thank God for this computer that I am able to communicate with you.

With all the helps listed above, my husband’s only concern was if I am able to use it. His last word to me at the airport leaving PDX was “Do you know how to turn on the computer?”

March 31

There are young and old alike among the contract workers. The young ones are in their early twenties and the old ones are in their late thirties. The young and single ones are more carefree in their lifestyles, they have no family burden aside from physical fatigues from long hours in the factories (overtime is very common till 10:30 pm, sometimes to midnight or even into early morning hour). But the married ones are caught between making a living and separating from their spouses and/or children. If they have children, the child raring responsibility rests mostly on the grandparents. Husband and wife, one may find work nearby and the other one may have to work and live in a different province; or both are working in separate provinces away from home. The bottom line is they go wherever the jobs are and leaving their child/children to their aged parents to raise them.

This woman I talked to has two children, 15 and 8 yrs old; She spent only one year with each one after their birth and has been working away from home ever since leaving them to their grandparents. Now the teenager reaches adolescent and is going out of control under the grandparents’ care. Another woman has a 9 yrs old son living with her mother-in-law in China. Every time she gets a chance to go home (which is not often, mostly during Chinese New Year) and sees her son, he is acting like a total stranger to her because there is no bound between them.

The man we visited in his 10x10 room has recently accepted the Lord. He told us that he is gradually getting out of the misery of an extra marital affair with the help of his newfound faith in God. He has a wife and a son in China while he himself working in Macau where he met a woman whose husband is in China. The two of them started an affair that lasted for coup! le of years until recently the woman has found another man who is older but has more money, so she left him. This man was very angry and wanted revenge. He wanted to get hold of the older man’s wife and telling her about her husband’s affair with his girlfriend. This scam went on and on and was driving him crazy. (My head is spinning by this tale, too.) He came into the church one day and talked to Ian Jie about his misery /scams. Ian Jie said, “You have sinned against God and unfaithful to your wife, you do not need revenge, you need Jesus!” When he had no one and nowhere to turn, he turned to Jesus.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

March 27

Thank you for all your prayers through out my STM here in Macau. I like you to not only pray for me but also pray for: the contract workers, the Sung Wang brothers and sisters, Ian Jie, the GWM co-workers. The combination of all these elements in conjunction with the work of the Holy Spirit is what making this ministry successful.

Friday and Saturday nights are for visitations. Ian Jie took me and another sister who is under a discipleship program to visit several contract workers in their dorm. We headed out at 9:30 P.M. walking up and down the narrow streets, in and out of back alleys but could not find the building that matched the address. While we were wondering what to do (Ian Jie is very determined, she would not turn back.), miraculously, one of the people we wanted to visit showed up at a doorway and let us into the building. (By the way, there is no doorbell to the building, we would have to call that person to come down and open the door for us; besides this is an unscheduled visit and we just have to take the chance that they are home when we show up.)

There is no elevator in this building so we walked up to the 6th floor into a place that I could not have imagined. I have only heard about the horrible living conditions of some sweatshop laborers, but now I have seen one. We walked into a room and saw two men sitting on the edge of the lower deck of an iron bunk bed (with no mattresses) in a tiny room about 10x10. With cramp space, Ian Jie had to sit with them on the bed; I took the only chair in the room and the 3rd person sat at the doorway.

This man had just returned from a visit to his family (wife and son) in China and brought back his nephew with him to find work in Macau and they are sharing a room now. It is not much of a room; the bed has taken more than half of the room and the rest could barely fit an end table, a chair and couple of big water buckets. On the end table sits a large rice cooker, several rice bowls, chopsticks and a few basic cooking condiments. This is the entire living space for the two to live in, sleep in, cook in and eat in it. They share a toilet and a faucet with the rest of the people on this floor. This floor consists of two 10x10 rooms with 2 men in each, and a slightly bigger room with 4 women living in it. They put their sparse personal belongings on the bed; under the bed; hang their wash in the hallway or over any space they can find.

We visited the 4 women in the next room too; their room is even more cluttering, needless to say, women have more of everything. One girl had to wash her hair by getting her hair wet in the washroom (there is no sink or bath tub, only a faucet and a toilet in the washroom); she came back to her room to leather her hair in front of the mirror then went back to the washroom to raise it. No one is allow closing the washroom door except for using the toilet because people need to have access to the only water supply, the faucet, at any time.

The 7 of us sat on the edge of the two bunk beds and talked. All 4 women come from different provinces in China, promised by their agents to find better pay in factories here. But most of them are living in a reality that it is far from what they were promised to and had paid a commission for.

I walked home with a pair of tired legs (climbing the six stories narrow stairs) and a heavy heart, also with a renewed appreciation of what I have in Macau and what we all have in the U.S. I will share with you again about these people, contract workers in Macau, that some have found peace and hope here while some are still living in darkness and despair.

March 26

To lead Bible study on Wednesday nights is one of my duties here. I was told to choose a book from the New Testament and to prepare my own teaching materials. I started to work on that as soon as I got my job description form the GWM. After praying about it and talking to my pastors, I decided to take on the book of Ephesians. It is a letter that apostle Paul wrote to the saints in Ephesians emphasizing the foundation of Christian faith and the application on Christian living. The theme of the letter is for believers to know who you are before God through Christ, and live according to that identity. This book consists of six chapters; it is perfect for one chapter a week for six weeks, the exact length of my stay here.

I had my 1st Bible study at church with I as the leader and with Ian jie, an experienced preacher and an ardent evangelist, sitting in with the group. (How nerve wrecking can I be?) We divided the chapter in sections, read together and then went on to in-depth study. By God’s grace, I was able to calm down and carry out the study, before long people were talking and laughing in discussions.

After the study, I talked to a young man from the group that has been a believer for a long time. He told me that he is a chatterbox when talking with people, but turns mute when talking with God. I was surprised to hear that because he seems to know a lot about the Bible yet he cannot pray. I encourage him to build relationship with Jesus and start seeing Jesus as a friend. If you can talk with a friend, you can talk with Jesus. It reminds me of the song “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” all our sins and grieves to bear! I hope he comes to our prayer meeting next week, even if he does not participate in praying still he can observe.

March 22

Jenny took me out to town for a brief orientation around the city on my 2nd day here, showing me where the post office, the doctor’s office, the bus stops, the markets and a portion of the historic sites are. I also walk around the neighborhood and get familiar with the environment around my apartment, making small circles not to wondering away too far in fear of getting lost. I am sure the circles will get bigger and farther as I get braver.

Met with Ianjie (sister Ian) for the first time in the office and we immediately became like old friends. She is energetic, focused and on fire for the Lord, always talking about reaching out to new contract workers here and to discipleship the ones already believed in the church. She is up and around from morning to midnight totally dedicated to teaching (Bible study), mentoring (individual or small groups), equipping (future leaders) and also preaching on Sundays. I am so grateful that the Lord has led me here to work with her and be inspired by her enthusiasm for the Lord.

At the prayer meeting, people asked why I am here? I told them that it all started from prayers through which God spoke, and by obedience I got into actions, and was sent by my home church in Portland, Oregon. These contract workers work long hours during the day and still come to church at 9:30 p.m. for prayer meeting on Tuesdays and Bible study on Wednesdays. They come with eager hearts to learn the Bible and a joyful voice to sing hymns. I encourage them to form a choir for they love to sing, though a small number of people but with strong voices. I am really encouraged by their spirit, for the Bible says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

Prayer meeting lasted for one and half hour with singing, devotion and praying. It ended at 11 p.m. and I left the church, walked back to my apartment (a 10 min. walk).

March 21

By the time I unpacked, settled in and finally hit the pillow, it was way pass 2 a.m. into Monday morning. My head was heavy, my eyes were blurry and my shoulders were soured. I have finally landed and passed the most difficult portion of my STM journey the long flight across the Pacific Ocean.
Jenny Moul, the young graduate from Moody Bible Institute from Michigan, a member of the Great Wall Ministries team came to HK airport to meet me. When we needed to ask for directions, I offered to speak in Cantones for her but she insisted on speaking herself. When I heard she spoke Cantonese in clear tones, I was very much impressed. She has been here for 3 years working as "member care" at GWM and teaching English at Pui-Ching high school. I heard that she teaches more than 500 students and they love to be with her. Thank God for Jenny, without her help it would have been impossible for me to carry the 2 suitcases, one large duffel bag (with a lap top and other stuffs in it) and a big handbag, dragging them on and off bus, ferry and taxi, up and down the stairs, in and out of immigration checkpoints and finally reached the 22nd floor into my apartment. (thank God again that there is elevator in my apartment building, otherwise I would have been reduced to dust.) Jenny is petite, pleasant, strong and she runs marathon. (She reminds me of Susan.) I have always admired marathon runners of their physical and mental strength and stamina.

On Monday noon, the entire GWM team, 6 people in all (without Paul & Diana Mayhugh) met with me for lunch. They have planned a picnic for me but were cancelled due to raining forecast so we ended up eating in a restaurant. (I thought I have escaped the dreary rain from Portland, but was told that this is the raining season in Macau.) It was good to have finally met the team that I have communicated for the past six months during the preparations of my STM. They are a group of God loving and people-loving individuals. All of them have learned to speak either Cantonese or Mandarin for the sake of the Gospel.

I was so glad to unload my heavy suitcase to them - 10 lbs of "Tropical Mix"; 3 lbs of chocolate; 2 lbs of Jell-O; 60 packages of Spiced Cider; 3 packs of 48 piece Oregon scenery stationary (thanks to Adeline Kwok). I have reduced to only one suitcase left with still enough goodies to treat my new friends at Sung Wang Church.

Tomorrow I will meet with Ms Ian the assistant pastor at Sung Wang in the afternoon and join them in a prayer meeting at 9:30 P.M. (hope I can stay awake).

Keep on praying!