Well my wife and I are busy making our presentation of the Chinese mission field.  We’ve put together a collage of pictures over the years that explain our experience, and certain aspects of the Chinese that we’ll be dealing with.  We’re trying to make it as attractive as we can without taking away the main things we want people to see which is that absolute necessity of planting churches in China and our part in that.  Church planting in China isn’t like church planting in a place like America though.  Under a communist government we’re not able to purchase ground or a building to use however we please.  Humanly speaking the best we could hope for is that the government realizes that a solid Bible believing church is a force for good in their communities, bringing the blessings of God denouncing wickedness, and turning the lazy into honest working individuals.  And even if that happened at the national level, policies are drafted in such a way where its the local governments that call the shots.  So a person would do well to make friends in their community; wise as serpents but harmless as doves.  Obviously there are men and women that have been in China doing missions work for longer than I’ve been alive, but one thing I’ve learned is that God exalts the humble, and we’ll be at His feet every step of the way seeking which way we should go.

I’ve been in martial arts my whole life, perhaps we can reach out to the community by offering Karate English lessons to children and teenagers? Perhaps we can use the school as a platform for inner city ministries while offering free lessons to the children of police and government officials to generate good relations with the local government. A lot of what a person can do comes from good 关系 (relations).  We will trust the Lord with these hard decisions, but none the less the main goal is self-sufficient, indigenous, Bible believing, and soul-winning churches!

We are praying about team missions.  While we’re going to join some already doing church planting work, we will in a year or so branch off to plant churches in the surrounding cities and provinces.  Having a team to do that I think provides the encouragement, fellowship, and labor a new church plant needs.  Please pray that the Lord would have His way in all of this.  We can make plans all day long, but if they don’t originate from the Lord, then it’s doomed for failure!