Summertime Greetings from
Beijing! June 2017
We
hope this letter finds you rejoicing in the goodness of the Lord. We too give
thanks for His sustaining mercy and the many doors of Gospel-opportunity He
continues to open for us here in the Capital of the world’s most populous
nation. Here is some of what we have been doing the last couple of months…
Leader’s Retreat / “Serve
the City”
In
April we enjoyed an overnight in the hills outside the city with a number of
our Beijing International Christian Fellowship Zhong Guan Cun ministry leaders.
We were blessed to have Jerry McCarty (in the plaid shirt next to Dayna) from
“Serve the City.” He did a great
job letting us know
ways their organization is helping to advance the Kingdom of God in word and
deed in 100 cities around the world. Pray with us in ZGC for the His wisdom as
we want to faithfully share the compassion of Jesus with our city.
Women’s Retreat
One
weekend in May Dayna joined with 80 ladies from around the world on a BICF Retreat.
She was a Small Group leader and really enjoyed the time of sharing and growing
together. The theme was “Covenant Relationships” and lots of good friendships
were formed.
The
Chinese man who owns the hotel/resort where the ladies stayed was especially
interested in their Bible studies. As they were leaving he asked if they could
send a Bible teacher for his 80 employees to learn the wisdom of this Ancient
Book! We connected with a brother who lives nearby, pray for God to open hearts
as the Word is opened!
Great Friday
As one-third
of the members BICF ZGC leave every year, there are few traditions! One that
has stuck for several years has been reflecting on the saving work of our Lord
by hearing His “seven words from the cross” on Good Friday. Here are this
year’s seven preachers. They did a great job taking us back to that awesome
“ground zero” with fresh eyes of faith. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
I
had the joy of baptizing Kwame, standing next to me in the front row, on Easter
2016. This year he declared “It is Finished!” By the grace of our Lord, he just
became the first citizen of Ghana to earn a Ph.D. in China’s prestigious
Tsinghua University! Pray for him and all those who return home.
Biggest Baptism!
Easter Sunday we
joined with the Church around the world rejoicing in our Risen Lord. It was a
special joy to baptize the largest number of new believers since we began
serving here in 2009. Young brothers and sisters from Uganda, Ghana, Viet Nam,
China, Indonesia, Mauritius, Mozambique, and USA professed their faith in Him
who died and rose again. The young lady from China seen here reading her
testimony joked about how all her classmates in Canada mispronounced her
name….not sure if I got it right when I baptized her!
Clara,
on the far right, is a first-year student from Mozambique who speaks very
little English. Lydia, standing behind Clara, is a fifth-year student from
Mozambique who has learned English AND Mandarin and came to faith in Jesus here
in China! So Lydia now brings a bunch of Portuguese speakers every Sunday and
translates for them. Clara heard AND HEARD and decided, even if she could not understand
the pastor (few can!), it was time for her to take her stand of faith in
baptism. Prior to interviewing Clara for baptism I had no idea we had this
Portuguese flock! Now we have supplied them with discipleship and evangelistic
materials in Portuguese. And now a small group of 8 meets weekly in Portuguese.
Pray for them as they just found an entire dorm floor of a nearby Uni is filled
with all Portuguese speakers!
Like any church we
enjoy the random surprises of just who God will bring on any given Sunday. In a
city of 24 million, we get a lot! Easter Sunday 300 of our 650 worshippers
walked to a nearby University dining hall for a 10-course lunch (for just $ 5
usd!) after service. Dayna’s table had a family of Samoans who “just happened”
to be in Beijing on Easter. (Momma, hands on her 12 year-old daughter’s
shoulders.) Her other daughter, far left, seems to have found a friend in one
of our Samoa young men who just became member of our church (he is a University
student).
Julia,
in the beige coat is a dentist from here, newly returned from living several
years in the States (where she came to faith in Jesus). Easter Sunday she told
Dayna the Lord put a burden on her heart to offer dental care to any of our
students in need. Then that afternoon Anne, a student from Kenya, confided in
Dayna that she has been struggling for several months about how she might get
her teeth fixed!! Introductions were promptly made, and Anne is smiling pretty
again!
Forgiveness and Friendship
Our
newly launched Japanese service has become a model of God’s restoring grace.
They have been meeting for almost two months now, and the growing congregation
(40 last Sunday). Our Japanese Pastor Kosei models reconciliation even in his
marriage - to Ruth (from Korea!), they have three fine Japanese/Korean children
who love the Lord. They have served here in China for 20 years, showing that
love and forgiveness from Jesus transcend political bitterness and barriers. A
growing number of Chinese Christians are learning Japanese and sensing a call
to share the Gospel in Japan. Half of our newly forming congregation in ZGC are
non-Japanese who want to reach Japanese! Pray for them.
There
are a number of Japanese communities in this big country that are asking Kosei
for his help. As far as we know he is the only Japanese Christian pastor in
this nation of China! If you know any Japanese pastors…this is a Macedonian
call!
Singing in the Streets for
Easter!
After great
worship and way too much good food, why not go sing the praises of the Risen
Lord on the busy streets of Beijing? We did. No troubles. Lots of curiosity.
And several sincere inquiries.
Faith@Work
With
our congregation so full of University students, many doing graduate degrees,
we feel the weight of equipping Kingdom workers for decades of service. And,
like all believers, they will spend many more hours “on the job” than in a
church. As they should! We want to encourage them to see their “calling” is to
the make Christ known in the marketplace and public square. One Saturday
in April we learned from four men who have been doing this for decades. Over 80
young adults “invested a day for a lifetime of Kingdom service.” And we then
launched a monthly group that now meets to think and pray about Faith @
Work.
MICN in KL
The
first four days of May we attended the Missional International Church Network
meetings in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (www.micn.org) We had the
privilege of presenting a workshop to our colleagues entitled, “Integrating International Students & Returnees with International
Churches: A Highly Strategic Interface.” We had a great discussion with fellow
pastors from Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. God is moving people
around the world, we’re hoping that more and more Christians see this as a
Divine Opportunity to reach out with the love and truth of Jesus Christ.
June Courses
This month of June Mark will teach
two courses here. For our “Tuesday Training” program he will teach the “The
Doctrine of Man: Who are we? What have we become? What can we be?” And for two
weekends he will teach a course for the BICF Seminary, “Apologetics: Reasons
for Our Hope - Defending
and Commending the Christian Faith in Today’s Complex World.” Please pray for
extra strength to teach and carry on with other preaching and pastoral duties
this busy month.
It is also the time that many of our beloved students will graduate and
return home. We rejoice that they’re following Him to carry the Gospel from
“everywhere to everywhere.” We try to say “a hui hou! (see you again!)” but as
they head off to distant times zone it can feel like good-bye! One day we will
rejoice together in His presence with all the stories of His mighty works!
We pray you will have a fruitful summer in His service! We are so
thankful for all your prayers and support that enable us to serve Him here in
Beijing!
In
the Wondrous Name of Jesus, Mark and Dayna
Blair
Our Mission Pioneers - 10123 William Carey Dr -
Orlando, FL 32832 USA
Checks
should be made out to ‘Pioneers’ – with a separate note attached saying: ‘Mark
and Dayna Blair, Beijing.’
Electronic
transfers can be sent to: https://give.pioneers.org/p-75-give-to-a-missionary-or-project.aspx (Our Account # is 110565, Mark and Dayna
Blair)
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