Twelve years ago our family arrived in a country we had never heard of before. We are leaving Thursday for a place we never dreamed we would live. Life takes some unexpected turns. In the summer of 1997 we taught aspiring pastors in Almaty, Kazakhstan for two months. Frankly that seemed long enough for me! When the seminary president said thanks and come back I just smiled. But when we got back home to Hawaii late that summer our sons began to say, “Dad, why not?” They were ready to come to this country with no skateboard laws and snowboarding all through the long winter! So we landed back in 1998, thanks to lots of generous folks. We’d see if we could last till the end of our three year commitment. We liked it. Truth is we still like it. It will be hard to get on the plane.
We leave behind nearly a thousand men and women in whom we have invested His Word for their Kingdom service. Some of them are serving faithfully as church leaders, sadly a few have abandoned the faith, but most are walking with Jesus and witnessing for Him. We have published several books in Russian and Kazakh which can keep on teaching after we’re gone! Dayna has seen dozens of kids pass through Tien Shan School in her ten years of teaching there. A couple months before our arrival back in 1998 they notified us that our sons would not be admitted unless one of us could teach. I thought it was a scam to get teachers, probably was, but it has been a lot of fun! Sixteen more will be graduating at the same hour we are in the air toward Beijing. We have never had a bad Sunday with our ‘family’ at International Christian Fellowship - lots of tearful good-byes yesterday.
Last week Mark had the privilege of sharing with a small group of Kazakhstani pastors he has worked with for over a decade. He oversaw most of their seminary ‘entry interviews’! They have been faithful in serving Him. Their churches are not large, but they are self-supporting and growing. It was a great encouragement to hear their kind words. One brother said, “When people ask me how I got to be such a good preacher, I tell them Mark Blair.” And he can preach in Kazakh and Russian! Words like that just confirm our plan to leave, praise and glory to God.
We need to be a bit more careful with email in our new place of service. Feel free to tell us anything about yourselves, we’d love to know. Feel free to ask about us and our work in the International church. Please do not mention anything about Government (anybody’s), conversion (in or out of any religion), or Chinese churches (any kind). We ask for your consideration in this primarily for the benefit of brothers and sisters who face challenging circumstances there.
We had a great visit recently with our son Nathan and his wife Heather. They’re back home in Eugene, Oregon. Nathan is pursuing studies in the field of Product Design. Aaron is also in Eugene, working and continuing his studies. Josiah has been living in Almaty since Christmas. He is quite busy working several jobs and enjoying his daughter Maylee. We appreciate your continued prayer for our family too. We will start our work at BICF from this coming Sunday. We are excited about the new opportunities. We are so grateful for your faithful support as the journey continues!
Yours in Him who was Promised the Nations, Mark and Dayna Blair
NEW CONTACT INFORMATION:
Our PREFERRED Email (we hear Hotmail is erratic in China)
blairstan2@gmail.com
Our Mission
Pioneers - 10123 William Carey Drive - Orlando, FL 32832 - USA
www.pioneers.org
Our Blog
www.blairstan.blogspot.com
Our Telephones
Mark’s Mobile: 13669934719
Dayna’s Mobile: 13520615371
Home: +86(10) 8213-5890
Work: +86(10) 82862813
Skype: blairstan
Our Ministry
Beijing International Christian Fellowship www.bicf.org (audio sermons)
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
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