December 14, 2012

It's Snowing in Beijing



Advent Greetings from Beijing!   

Our ‘Made in China’ evergreen sparkles with ornaments we’ve collected and lugged round the world. We play joyous songs Christmas songs from Hawaii as we gaze at the slate grey skies of Beijing – well below freezing these days! We rejoice that we can declare His Advent in the capital city of the most populous nation in the world. Jesus Christ reigns even here in China. Shopping malls, and many homes, shine with festive holiday lights. Carols declare His Good News for huge crowds of shoppers. Churches will be filled with people searching to know the ‘reason for the Season.’ And millions of believers are eager to share Him. Like the Apostle Paul experienced, we see these twin truths, “a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” (1 Corinthians 16.9)
Tonight our church will put on an International Christmas Concert in a large church near BICF ZGC. As their church is for locals, we can invite all our friends for this outreach. So we anticipate their 1000+ seats will be filled to standing room only, as it was last year, with colleagues, classmates, and students of our BICF members. We anticipate a great program with music from our various BICF congregations; English, Russian, African, Pacific Islands, Maoris, Koreans, and the Chinese choir from our host church. Please join us in prayer that many people will be reached and Jesus will be praised! 

Thanksgiving…Twice!
We have much to be thankful for! A few days before Thanksgiving Mark got another ‘all clear’ from a CT scan. Now three years have passed since Mark finished chemo. The Lord is gracious in giving us health and strength for this ministry.
On Thanksgiving night over 150 of our Beijing International Christian Fellowship Zhong Guan Cun family gathered in Café Heaven. Members of our Korean congregation own and operate this spacious restaurant which has been a great venue for our small groups and outreaches. Mrs. Park and the crew cooked up a tasty meal for us all. In our 20 Thanksgivings abroad we’ve seen how this National Holiday – with all its scrumptious grazing! – is a world favorite! 75% of our crowd were non-Americans, but all quite Thankful! Best of all, many were friends, colleagues, and classmates who came along to hear about our gracious, giving, God.  Here are just a few of our happy diners…
     
 Outreach to Japanese
Our long-time friend, Noboru Morishige, a singer/songwriter/evangelist shared the Good News in song here in October. He sang in six BICF congregations, our conference of International churches, and in two outreaches in café’s filled with young adults. He gave free CD’s of his gospel songs in Japanese that he has written to all who asked. Their eager response was most encouraging. Hear him at www.thedaywill.com
 

 Teaching Skills
In early November Mark and Dayna were able to team-teach a “Teaching Skills” class for the BICF Seminary program. We had ten students from six different nations. It was a privilege to share with them from our years of ministry experience, success and failures! Each of them did some teaching before their peers and it was great to see their gifts and talents – and their willingness to learn and grow in effectiveness. 

Weekend in Wuhan
We spent last weekend about 1000 miles south of Beijing in the ‘small’ city of Wuhan (just 8 million people J) with young adults in their International Fellowship there (WICF). Saturday we had a day-long Marriage Conference for about 20 couples. 
Sunday we had a Relationships seminar with about 250 singles. Most of the congregation are students. Our Beijing congregation is surrounded by more than 80 Universities, but there are over 150 Uni’s in Wuhan! Most of the WICF members are Africans, along with many from India, Brazil, and other Asian nations. Being with these folks from such wide and diverse corners of our globe reminded us how Jesus truly is the Savior of the world. Got a nice thank you a couple days ago…

 Dear BICF Pastors,
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. We are deeply grateful for the time spent with Pastor Mark and Dayna here in Wuhan. Their teachings and resources for the married couples and the singles, and the sharing with the leaders of WICF have been enriching beyond our initial expectations. Words can only imperfectly convey our appreciation to the Lord, to BICF and to you. May God's work continue to prosper into your hands and His joy fully dwell in you.
As we pray and hope for a continued and blessed connection with BICF, may you receive cordial greetings from the WICF family.
Blessings,
Abel Muyisa, Wuhan International Christian Fellowship

Christmas Anticipation
We are very glad that our son Josiah will travel from Kazakhstan to be with us. That means two of our three sons will be with us as Nathan and his wife Heather live and work here in Beijing. God is very kind to us! We pray that your Christmas will also be one of great joy and that you will seize every opportunity to make Him – the reason for our joy – known far and wide.  
As some of us may soon be going over a ‘Fiscal Cliff’ we are very grateful that you continue to support us with finances and prayers. We had hoped to get this letter out after Thanksgiving, but there are so many great things happening here we can hardly pause to shout out the news! Truly, the Lord is working wonders here. 

Yours in Him who Came and will Come Again!  Mark and Dayna Blair 

Our Mission
Pioneers - 10123 William Carey Drive - Orlando, FL 32832 – USA www.pioneers.org
(Support checks should be made out to ‘Pioneers’ – with a separate note on the check saying: ‘Mark and Dayna Blair, Beijing.’ Some have asked,  and you can send funds through electronic transfers too: http://www.pioneers.org/Give/AutomatedGiving.aspx



Skype: blairstan

Our Mailing Address
Beijing International Christian Fellowship / Zhong Guan Cun
Raycom Infotech Park, Tower C, Room B115,
2 Kexueyuan Nanlu, Haidian District, Beijing, China 100190

Our Ministry
Beijing International Christian Fellowship - www.bicf.org
Hear Mark’s sermons at: http://bicf.org/english-service



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