Missionary Update - Rob and April E

This update was taken from Rob and April's summer newsletter. You can contact them to get on the distribution list.

Visa Update- Praises!

Thank you for praying about our visas. In a very sudden and unexpected way, the Lord has provided! Even though the university had refused visas to many of our friends in the same situation as us, we approached them about the possibility of giving us not only a student visa for April, but also a ‘dependent’ visa for Rob, who would not be studying. Much to our surprise, they filled out the paperwork with no questions, and we should have our visas this week. Praise God with us for meeting this urgent need!

A Summer of Win, Build, Send

Usually when working with university students, the summer is a time of less activity, as students head home for a few months. But our situation was a bit unusual- most of our students live in the city where they study, and most of them will be around for the summer. So this summer, we have been able to continue pursuing our ministry distinctives of winning, building, and sending.

Win- Most summers, we are blessed to have a short-term group from the U.S. come to our campus for a month of meeting and sharing with as many students as they can. This summer was no exception, and as that group heads back to the States, Rob and April will be ‘following-up’ on their work here. We have a number of names of students who have shown an interest in the gospel, and some of whom have even begun to follow Christ! Pray with us for these new believers as we seek to establish them in their faith and incorporate them into our campus fellowship.

Build- Our students surprised us this summer when they insisted on continuing to meet weekly. We were able to offer our new apartment as an ideal, central location for our students to use as a meeting place this summer, and since classes ended, we have had a weekly time of study, prayer, and fellowship. Our students have been greatly refreshed and encouraged by this time, which we have devoted to studying and memorizing Romans 8 as a group. Because the summer group ‘feels’ more casual, we’ve been able to encourage some of our students to lead the study time, helping them to develop skills as teachers and leaders in God’s kingdom. Our time has also resulted in some unexpected conversations (see “Wolves and Sheep” below)
Send- Due to the Olympics, security in our country is heightened, and we have been unable to send our students on the evangelism summer projects we usually offer. But one great opportunity this summer was in response to the recent earthquake in East Asia. Our ministry has been able to find open doors for relief trips to earthquake-affected areas, trips that would combine meeting the practical needs of the people there and sharing the gospel to meet eternal needs. So far, one of our students, Linkin, has already been sent, and our fellowship has been supporting him through prayer and giving. We are seeking to have two more of our men, Cleveland and Grudem, be able to join a later group. Please pray for this sending opportunity, not only for the blessing it will be to the people in need, but also for the tremendous leadership and spiritual development that can take place in these young men’s lives.

Changes

Many of you received our email at the time of our move- an experience that tested our patience and faith. Thankfully, our second effort to move went very well. Now that we are settled in, we would like to share with you about some changes in our ministry that resulted in our move.

Over the past few months, in conversation with our leadership, we have been closely considering three things: the situation of our campus, our personal needs and well-being, and the needs of our regional ministry. One difficult (and yet very hopeful, as you will see below) was to not have a full-time team of missionaries on our campus this next school year. With inadequate numbers of missionaries arriving, combined with some changes our university is undergoing which make ministry there very challenging right now, we decided to place our staff on more strategic locations for the year.

At the same time, we (Rob and April) have found it very difficult living as a new couple on a geographically remote campus. For our own well-being, we have felt the need to live closer to some other believers with whom we can build longer-term relationships.

A third factor was some needs of our regional ministry. Our campus ministry is one of many campus ministries grouped together in a region. Many of you know that Rob and April both came to East Asia on a “Stint”- a one-or-two year commitment- before committing to long-term service here. Every year, we have many stinters serving in our campus ministries, and they are a vital part of the work we do. The region has observed a growing need to devote more attention to the training and care of our stinters on the field.

Given Rob’s experience here, he will be devoting more of his time to the training and care of stinters- developing them in their knowledge, skills, language, and character in order to enable them to be more fruitful in their ministries.

April will continue to study language, and she will add to her responsibilities some event planning as well as work with orphans.

But we are not done with campus work! Rob and April will both continue to meet with our students and help provide leadership for our campus fellowship. The absence of a team in the fall has forced our students into realizing that ministering to the campus is their responsibility. Rob and April will seek to counsel, teach, train, and mentor our students, especially the student leaders, as they begin to take ownership of their campus as a field of ministry.

Please pray for our transition, both logistically and personally. Moving to a new location can be stressful, but we are very clear that this is God’s leading for us, for our campus, and for our region.

An Unexpected Phone Call

One confirmation that it was the Lord’s hand leading these changes was a phone call I (Rob) received once the decision was finalized. ‘Roger’ graduated from our campus more than 5 years ago, and along with some friends from our fellowship, began a house church. I had not been in touch with Roger for some time, when he called me to set up a lunch appointment. He shared that recently God has been challenging the members of his church that they should be more involved in ministering to our campus. He asked if it would be ‘feasible and desirable’ for his church to partner with our campus fellowship!

I can’t describe our mutual joy when we compared stories and saw that God’s leading in this coincided with the prayers of our students and our team that He would provide leadership for our group as the Americans moved out. We are currently working with the church to involve them in teaching and discipling our students. Praise God for amazing provision! And join us in praying for this growing partnership.

Of Wolves and Sheep

One of the reasons we are excited to partner with this church is because of how hard it is to find a legitimate house church, one that is not teaching some form of heresy- mild or serious. Our recent experience illustrates this:

During our summer fellowship, the conversation has often turned to the topic of cults. Some of our students have encountered Christian cults advertising on the streets or on the internet. One of our students, Cleveland, is a mature believer who is very familiar with the way many local cults pervert the gospel, and he has been able to warn and educate some of our younger believers.

Over the course of the discussions, we discovered that two of the women in our group had been attending a house church for a while; however, some of the teaching contradicted what they were learning in God’s Word, so they ceased going. They shared with our group some of the materials the group had given them, and Cleveland immediately identified the marks of a Christian cult. He was able to show them some of the serious errors in the teaching and compare that to what God’s word really teaches.

Please pray with us for protection from wolves in sheep’s clothing. Pray that God would purify his church and protect his sheep. Pray also for Cleveland, in whom we see a genuine shepherd’s heart to preserve the purity of the gospel and warn against falsehood.

Increasing Financial Need

Finally, in light of these changes, we would like to share with you the current state of our financial support. Thankfully, God provided the financial support we needed in order to return to East Asia last summer. However, the past year has been one in which the value of the dollar here has dropped significantly. Our current income will quickly be insufficient to meet our needs here. We will be sending another, more specific letter at another time, but for now, would you please pray for our finances, perhaps even that the Lord would lead you to begin or increase giving to our ministry. If you are able to give to our immediate needs, you can do so by contacting us or online by visiting https://give.ccci.org/give/0511233.

Thank you again for your prayers and partnership!