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Dear prayer partners
We
would like to thank you sincerely for all the prayers that you have made
faithfully and steadfastly on our behalf. In the past 3 months in particular,
our family has received abundant blessings from above. We would therefore like
to take this opportunity to share with you our joys and to offer thanksgiving to
our Lord together. A.Visit made by Special Mission
Team MARCH TO MID APRIL
A
special mission team from the Toronto Wah Kee Church, consisting of Rev. S.M.
Wong and Minister W.Y. Chan and Mrs. O.W. Chan, came to visit us for a week in
March (11.3 – 19.3). This church have supported our mission for over 20 years.
We were greatly honored to have them witnessing/sharing in our church and at the
bible study classes. We spent a number of enjoyable nights together and their
sharing brought great encouragement to both our local fellow-workers and us. B. Paul went home to visit his mother (19.3
– 9.4) It
was distressing for Paul to learn that his mum is suffering from neck cancer and
undergoing chemotherapy. He therefore made time to go back home and comfort his
parents. Whilst at home, he was pleased to have the rare opportunity to reunion
with his elder brother and sister returning from the States. He was very
thankful to the Lord that he may enjoy sharing with his parents and receive
invaluable counsel from them. On his way back home, Paul managed to drop by Hong
Kong on 7 April for two days. He took the opportunity to visit Grace’s mother
and relatives as well as a number of B&S, some of whom he has not met for
over ten years. It was quite a short but sweet reunion! Whilst Paul would not
mind staying longer, he need to rush back home to see Grace off and to take over
her duty for looking after Daniel. A.
Grace traveled
afar (11.4
– 14.5) 1.Trip to Toronto. Grace has never traveled afar by herself alone ever since she got
married. Now comes an opportunity for her to practise faith and trust the
care-taking of her family and fellow-workers into the hand of the Lord. When she
arrived at Toronto, she was quite thankful for Rev. Wong and Minister Chan to
meet her at the airport and for Mrs. Chan to show warm hospitality. As a
consequence of all their helps in a multitude of ways, Grace managed to get
around in a foreign land with little difficulty at all. Re-experiencing first love and encountering God's mighty power. Here
in Toronto this foreign land, I was able to reunion with Rev. John Kao and many
old acquaintances from the same bible college which I studied. I was also able
to enjoy gatherings conducted in my mother tongue and to sing again those hymns
which I sang when I first received calling from above to march into the mission
field. All these combined to bring back nostalgic memories of the precious
moments when I was being mold by the Lord. My love for the Lord was rekindled
and I pledged that I would love Him as I had promised before and would re-commit
my life to serving Him faithfully until His will is done. For
all my past 20 years in Africa, I hardly ever had the chance to preach in my own
mother tongue. Therefore, throughout these 16 days in Toronto, it was quite a
challenge for me to have to share and witness in Cantonese in front of my
fellow-clergymen and a wide audience of Chinese. I therefore need to meditate
and pray earnestly each day and rely on His promises and bountiful supply. As it
happened, for all the over 30 gatherings and countless individual
sharing/counseling, both the audience and myself were greatly blessed by Him.
Praise the Lord! Once again in my life, I experienced that His blessing is quite
sufficient for me to use and His power would be revealed in full through my own
feebleness. God opens door in front, enabling us to see clearly what lies ahead. This
trip to Toronto proved to be quite a good one because, in addition to being able
to complete successfully all my mission duties, the Lord had helped me to secure
a school for the further education of my son Daniel. First of all, I went to
visit the University of Waterloo outside the city of Toronto. The Lord was so
kind as to enabling me to meet the department head of the mathematics faculty
and obtained much useful advice. The Lord then guided me to see the headmaster
of the high school under the Peoples Christian Academy. I was very glad to learn
that the school agreed to take in Daniel for Grade 12 in January 2002 in
preparation for university. This arrangement is necessary because, towards the
end of year 2001, we shall be terminating our second term of service (8 years)
in South Africa. For our 2 years of furlough, in response to Rev. Kao's earlier
invitation which was made some 3 years ago when we met in a conference in South
Africa, we have planned to come to Toronto to help his church in promoting
mission work. We finalized our decision to come to serve in Toronto only after
long duration of praying and seeking God's will, discussion with our field
director, plus this reconnaissance visit by Grace. After discussions with the
church leaders, it was agreed that during the forthcoming 2 years, we would have
the following duties: to assist in promoting mission work amongst the hundreds
of Chinese churches in Toronto, to recruit missionaries, to participate in the
mission education programme of Wah Kee Church, to provide counseling advice for
prospective missionaries, and to look after missionaries in the field. 2.Trip to Hong Kong. On her way back home, Grace managed to drop by Hong Kong for some days
and enjoyed the hospitality of Kin Wah, her brother-in-law. She in particular
treasured the moments with her mum and enjoyed greatly all the happy sharing
together. On 5 May, as planned in advance, her mum moved into a private senior
citizen home to stay. Now that she can have some private time, Grace made good
use of her last week in Hong Kong to tidy up many loose ends and to get an
overall body check up. Praise the Lord, her medical report reveals that she is
generally in good health at present. This is no doubt the result of persistent
daily physical exercising plus well-kept food regimenting in the past two years.
Despite this heartening accomplishment, it is considered advisable for Grace to
shed seven more kilograms of body weight. During her stay in Hong Kong, the Lord
provided Grace with good opportunities to meet and share with many experienced
senior missionaries. She even managed to visit Macao and witnessed the
conducting of an intensive missionary training course. All these opportunities
enabled her to gain invaluable learning experience and to meet and share with
B&S who have always been supportive to the mission work of her family. On
two occasions, Grace was given the opportunity to share and witness during
Sunday worship service. The moment that she found to be most precious and
memorable was being able to spend Mother's Day with her own mum before she
rushed to catch an evening flight back to South Africa. All in all, thanks to
the Lord's close guidance, this trip to Toronto and Hong Kong proves to be most
fruitful. B.Abundant blessing in South
Africa APRIL TO MID
MAY
1.As
mum was on leave and miles away, dad and son would have to cling to each other
more intimately than ever before. During the Easter holiday, dad and son shared
all household duties including being chef in turn. They also competed daily in
weight-lifting exercise with the dumbbell which dad newly purchased. During this
period also, as Daniel was required by school to attend a special tutorial
class, he stayed for convenience on certain days at the house of a sister in
Christ. He thus gained a good opportunity to learn to live in harmony with
people other than his kin. 2.Whilst
Grace was away, her two full time fellow-workers Rona and Sheila faithfully
shouldered all mission duties such as: leading bible study, visiting neighbors,
teaching bible class at the school for the Blacks etc. Augmented in various ways
by the helps of other sisters in Christ, all necessary works were conducted
smoothly as usual. 3.As
Grace returned from her trip to Toronto and HK, she was most thankful for all
the bountiful blessings of the Lord on their local work. She found that, with
the faithful support of her kin and fellow-workers, all works had progressed
well and apparently was even better than before when she was present. Grace is
convinced that, as God answers the prayer of the Saints, all these
accomplishments would not have been possible without the support of your
faithful prayers. THANKSGIVINGS
& PRAYERS 1.We
thank the Lord for safeguarding our family both in and off home. Under His
sheltering, we dwelled safely, stayed healthy and all our services were well
blessed. 2.We
thank the Lord for keeping Paul’s mum throughout her long and winding
therapeutic process. Her chemotherapy and electrotherapy were completed
successfully with some signs of recovery. We pray also that the forthcoming
laser operation for the eye disease of Paul’s parents may be completed
smoothly and successfully. 3.We
thank the Lord for helping Grace’s mum to adapt gradually to her first month's
residence in a senior citizen's home. Her bodily health is improving and her
back pain is subsiding. 4.Since
early June, responding to the earnest request of his brothers in Christ, Paul
re-started the daily devotional bible study at the Light House between 5 a.m. to
6 a.m. every morning. 5.After
her return, in view of surging demands from the sisters in Christ, Grace beefed
up the content of the morning devotional bible study to include: studying the
book of Revelation every Monday & Wednesday, studying the book of Esther
every Tuesday and teaching about the essence and identification of cults every
Thursday. The bible-studying mood heightens in direct proportion to the
increased number of participants. All participants are keen to learn more. Grace
needs your prayer support such that the Holy Spirit may fill her with all the
power she needs and that she may be able to allocate sufficient time for
preparation. 6.
Please give your prayer support to Grace’s two fellow-workers. They wish to
enroll into a distant bible learning course and pray that God would supply them
with the needed tuition fee. 7..Please
give your prayer support also to Paul’s two fellow-workers. They wish to
enroll into the ICBM seminary and pray that God would supply them with the
needed tuition fee. H.Please
pray for Daniel such that he may have sufficient energy and power to cope with
his schoolwork. He is preparing to re-take the Matriculation Examination in
July. I.Please
pray for Grace’s home visiting mission. At present, she pays regular visit
every week to two sick Muslim ladies as well as to a newly converted Hindu lady
who suffers from cancer. Please pray that these ladies may open their hearts to
the Lord and be receptive to biblical truth, and that they may experience
God’s company and enjoy heavenly peace from above. May
God bless you abundantly and you will prosper spiritually! Yours
in His service Paul,
Grace & Daniel Chiang South Africa, 1 Aug 2001 更新日期：Oct 5, 2001 |