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



September 19, 2012

Busy in Beijing

Mid-Autumn Greetings from Blue Sky Beijing!  

Thank you so much for your prayers for our return. We have been back for a busy and productive month. We thank the Lord for good health!
Fall Push

Our Beijing International Christian Fellowship Zhong Guan Cun congregation has moved - just across the street within the same office complex. We’re back in the worship venue the church started in six years ago. We’re now all together in one English service that can seat 500 people; we’re just over 300 now. Lots of students and professors from all over the world are here. Our biggest logistical challenge in the move is enough classroom space for the more than 100 children in our congregation. We rejoice that our families are fruitful AND flexible as we grow in ministry.


Our ‘Fall Push’ includes starting up new Small Groups (we’re aiming for groups on all the 82 campuses that surround our church…so far about 20!) and people plugging into on-going ministries in and out of the church. That’s all happening now. Pray for our people who have newly come to Beijing to find and follow Him even far from home.
China ‘Kids’
Our eldest son, Nathan and his wife Heather, are doing great as they begin their 2nd year in Beijing. Nathan is a Product Designer and Heather a High School Biology teacher. They have their own apartment close to their work, not too far away from us. We see them at least on Sundays, sometimes more! Serving a congregation full of young adults means we have lots of great ‘kids’ from all over the world. We almost lost one in April. I can still feel a chill from the words from a doctor in our congregation, “Mark, humanly speaking, there is no hope for her.” Within a week Lina went from an active University student into a coma. She lay at death’s door for a week before they took a chance and gave her medication for Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS). As her parents flew here from Burundi, we rehearsed what we might tell them if the worst occurred. But after 5 days of treatment she was awake!  Ten weeks after going to the hospital for a bad flu, she walked out! She uploaded a video to tell the world her story. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg6I8Bkwj70&feature=results_video                   It was a great joy to have Lina (in pink, holding a friend’s baby) and her sister join us for lunch last week.
The Beijinger
A couple who lead our Music ministry work for “The Beijinger” magazine as their day job. You might be surprised to see who they put on page 53 of their July issue…

China I.F. Conference

China has over 200 cities with more than one million people. Many of them have a growing population of Internationals. A number have International Fellowships of various sizes. (“Fellowship” seems to be more ‘politically correct’ here…but they look like churches to me!) We at BICF, the largest and oldest IF in China, will host a conference to encourage and equip IF’s from China and the neighboring nations. Pray that we will have a great time of Kingdom-advance.

A long-time Japanese friend, Noboru Morishige, a singer/songwriter/evangelist will be with us for this Conference. We look forward to some special opportunities to reach out to Japanese here in Beijing. Please join us in prayer for this special times.
November 8 there will be a complete change of Government leaders here in China. This is a very important event for the nation. Ask the ‘King of Kings’ to appoint people of peace for Gospel advance.

We have really enjoyed receiving ZG Briefs. They compile current news articles about China from many sources into one easy to find email.  You can check it out at: http://www.zgbriefs.com/

The most recent ZG Brief cited an excellent collection of photographs that present varied, colorful, snapshots of this amazing land: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2012/09/china.html
Thank you, again, for remembering us before Him who graciously rules all nations! 

Yours in our Mighty Savior! 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 )

Our Blog www.blairstan.blogspot.com 

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








August 25, 2012

Stoned in California?!


Greetings…from California…still!

Last Sunday was our last church appointment for our home leave in California. In fact, we had two appointments – Dayna in Fresno, me in Los Angeles. I shared in three services and then enjoyed one last Tommy’s hamburger! Driving from the burger shack I was suddenly sweating and writhing in pain I was stoned – kidney stoned! Sunday evening I was in the E.R. and sent home with pain pills and told to wait. The stone painfully traveled through my kidney but got stuck in the lower pipes. But by Wednesday infection unexpectedly set in. It seems, like as some people have speculated, “I REALLY WAS full of pee!” My blocked kidney was not functioning properly. So early Thursday morning a stint was surgically implanted between my bladder and kidney and it successfully drained the blocked fluids. I just got released from the hospital and cleared to fly NEXT Wednesday, August 29, Lord willing….a great 57th birthday present. Amazing how your plans - and your health – can dramatically turn in a blink. Sunday morning I was preaching from Genesis 15 about the certainty of God’s wonderful covenant promises. Sunday night I was like Abraham in that chapter, venting his doubts whether the promises were really true?! Thanks for your prayers as we cross the big pond back to Beijing in a couple days. The kidney stone is still not found, and for the next few weeks I have a new hose pipe inside. Still a healing work in process…. More chances to grow in faith like Abraham!

We praise the Lord for His care and blessing as we have trekked in cars and planes up and down the West coast these last two months. We have been very encouraged to renew friendships with loved ones here. We have been humbled by your faithful prayers and generous support. We have had 12 meetings with churches, shared in home meetings, and enjoyed great food --- need to get back to the gym in Beijing! We arrived with a deficit of about $1000 in our monthly support need. Thanks to your generous sacrifice, the gap is closing. We will have more precise figures in the coming months.

We had a great fun and foggy celebration of Dayna’s birthday in San Francisco with her nieces and nephew:

We had a great visit with our youngest son Aaron in Oregon. It was fun to celebrate his 25th birthday:


And we were very happily surprised to meet our second son Josiah who came to Southern California on a business trip from Kazakhstan in July:


Nathan (first son) and his wife Heather have had a good summer in Beijing, even finding a nice apartment for themselves. We look forward to seeing them soon.

We are eager to resume our service for Him through the Beijing International Christian Fellowship. The Fall season is a critical time for meeting and inviting the thousands of International students who come to our city to Zhong Guan Cun. Our morning sermons will be from the Gospel of John and the evening sermons from 1 Samuel. Many different ministries will be re-starting: Small groups, “Welcome to Beijing,” student outreaches, Leaders retreats and training, membership classes, and Seminary classes. We covet your prayers to be faithful and fruitful in the midst of all these opportunities. A new challenge we have just learned of is that we are moving our worship venue from Raycom building A to building C. (We were in C for three years, almost three years ago!) Long story, but change is always challenging…even in constantly changing BICF ZGC.

Mark was recently quoted in an article about International churches in Christianity Today:


Our short and busy time at home has reminded us how much we need and appreciate your prayers and partnership in our ministry. Thank you! Mahalo nui loa! Xie Xie!

Yours in His Great Faithfulness! 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