A Prayerful, Priveleged Partipant

YEAH! Minami is back in New Zealand!

Six years ago, God brought Minami to New Zealand as a high school student here in Palmerston North. I didn't meet her at the time, but she became a follower of Jesus through our J2 Ministry. She went through a hard time after that, and her mom (Chiyomi) came from Japan to be there for her. The J2 family took care of Minami and Chiyomi until the decision was made for her to return to Japan.

Minami-chan and her mum began attending Sakai Eiko Church (Nozomi's church) and were discipled by No-chan's mom, Yoko. When I went to Japan on my first mission trip in 2006, I got to know Minami and Chiyomi, and was blessed to be at their baptism on Christmas Eve that year! Praise God.

I am happy because Minami has returned to New Zealand this year to study. She had a hard time keeping her faith solid in Japan, and wasn't walking close to the Lord there. She has never stopped believing, but she lost that intimate connection with the Lord that she had come to know.
Praise God, she's staying with the Doi's in Auckland and growing in her faith as she becomes involved with their J2 ministry in Auckland. Minami is very special in our hearts, and we need to pray for God's protection from the enemy as she has faced serious oppression and spiritual attack over these years.

What's so odd about ODD FELLOWS?

Last week I was invited to share my testimony at our Chinese student fellowship at Massey... the leaders call themselves "Odd Fellows"... after all, God chose the odd to confound the wise!

What an awesome night! Lot's of yummy food, games that didn't need translation (the entire fellowship is run in Mandarin of course), and the joy of seeing three of our ISMNZ internship graduates in action, and one of our current ISMNZ interns stepping into leadership as well.

There were three testimonies that night. Christina (she calls me mom too, but she's gonna be a mamma soon) translated for me. She's great at interpretation and even adds her own humour. I enjoy working with her so much. Christina became a follower of Jesus as an international student, eventually coming to NZ for more study. She also graduated from our internship a few years ago, and continues to reach out to international students. She is working at Massey University as well as serving at our church as a deacon and leader. Please pray for she and her hubby Stephen McIvor (also a former ISMNZ intern) as they are expecting their first baby soon.

Xiaoou was an ISMNZ ministry intern in the early days of 2001 and on. Her arrival in NZ at the time was an answer to prayer for someone to help us with the increasing mainland Chinese student population. She helped pioneer the China Fellowship ministry, as well as was the main preacher in our Chinese congregation until she went away to Wheaton Seminary for two years. Now she's back, since been married, and continues to lead the Odd Fellows ministry and is a part of the leadership in our Chinese Congregation. We had a great time together in Cape Town last year at the Lausanne Conference, she was a multi-tasking roommate. Please pray for Xiaoou & Jikang as they grow together in ministry and God's calling in their marriage.

Daniel Eggink... ah - our Kiwi intern who is quite fluent in Mandarin. His heart is to one day serve in China, so he is interning with ISMNZ and serving at our Chinese church and with the Odd Fellows ministry (and OCF). I love having Daniel in my Being a Disciple course. It's such a joy to behold what God is doing in and through him. Christina introduced him, but he did his entire testimony in Mandarin. Good on ya Daniel!

Crazy Games!!!

It's all fun and games, until somebody loses and eye
which wouldn't matter cuz we were all blindfolded...

GRACE CITY CHURCH... 2011

What a joy to come back to a vibrant, growing ministry. God is blessing our Grace City Church family... please pray for us. Last week our Kidz Klub were fabulous, acting out Pilgrim's Progress for the church. WOW. As we were blessed by the growing kids ministry I just kept imagining them in the not so distant future as a part of our conTagious student group. AWESOME!

Christian has quite a burden on his back

SPEAKING OF CONTAGIOUS!
As the year begins, there is much enthusiasm from the "returnees" to conTagious to reach out to others. It's been a good start. We're using these first few weeks (since early March) to reconnect and build friendships and unity. It's exciting to have so many turning up on Wednesday nights to pray for the ministry and one another.

Josh, Vinnie and Alex... peace that passes understanding.

As always, food is important. Last week was "Dinner & a movie"... could someone please pass me a tissue? We watched "Letters to God" WOW -- what an inspirational movie. How one little boy in the midst of suffering and tragedy could touch so many lives, and his story continues thru the movie all the way around the world. Praise God. After the movie, a bunch of us needed to collect our thoughts and dry our eyes and get some praying done!

Please pray for this growing student group, that the Lord would bring more and more high school and uni students to our Sunday night fellowship. We will begin the discipleship studies again in mid-May, and there are several musicians among the group keen to put a team together. I pray that we can encourage these young lives to serve the Lord in their gifts and callings.

Wow... Zarette & Kenny have that peace too!

Looks like these three are not sure which way they're heading :-)

Ah... Emi, Kate & Jingxiu... peace & love