Dear Supporting Friends,
We thank the Lord for His faithfulness to our family and in our work here in Beijing. Just this week our landlord asked us to stay one more year in his apartment, without raising the rent! And we received another one year visa (longest they give) to pastor in the Beijing International Christian Fellowship! Praise the Lord who sovereignly opens doors.
California Here We Come!
We need a car! for our two months in the Golden State. We have no car here in China; we ride buses, subway, and bicycles. But we’ll soon need to line up – and pay up – at the pump like you! Any suggestions for a useable, no-frills, vehicle would be much appreciated. We hope to see you, let us know if we can meet up. Here is our schedule:
July 1 Valley Presbyterian Church, North Hills, California
July 8 Carlsbad Community Church, Carlsbad, California
July 15 First Baptist Church of El Segundo, El Segundo, California
July 17-20 Annual CCCC Conference, Colorado Springs, Colorado
July 22 Montrose Community Church, Montrose, California
La Canada Presbyterian Church, La Canada, California
July 29 Meadowlark Community Church, San Marcos, California
August 5 New Life Presbyterian Church, La Mesa, California
August 12 Sierra Presbyterian Church, Nevada City, California
August 19 Biola Congregational Church, Biola, California
Two Preachers in the Family
Dayna has recently been invited to speak in some of the other 18 BICF congregations. She has been with the French-speaking African congregation:
And on Mother’s Day she shared with the BICF Filipino congregation:
Leading our Friends to Christ
As our church is comprised of mostly University students, spring time is harvest time! We have a number of not-yet-Christians who come to our services, along with many believers that want to see their classmates and friends come to know Jesus. So we have made a very simple tool to encourage them to pray specifically for loved ones, and to think of practical ways to share God’s love and truth with them. Here’s the text of a small booklet we recently gave out:
http://www.bicf.org/downloads/Booklets/LeadingOurFriendsToChristWEB.pdf
On the same site you’ll find other BICF resources, even in Mandarin. Just one example of the amazing opportunities before us are more than five hundred students from Kazakhstan (almost all of them ‘traditional’ Muslims) at just one nearby University. Our BICF ZGC Russian Fellowship is making a special effort to befriend and share with these Kazakhstanis. Several of them have already begun to come to the BICF. Please ask the Lord of the Harvest to send laborers!
Family News
The Lord has been very faithful to our three sons. Our eldest, Nathan, and his wife Heather, live here in Beijing. Both have good jobs in their fields of study. Heather teaches Biology to Chinese high-schoolers. Nathan is a product designer in a small company led by a Chinese believer. He is pleased to see some of his designs coming to production stage. Josiah is in Almaty, Kazakhstan where our granddaughter Maylee lives too. Josiah has a new job working for the owner of a large corporation there. He is excited about the opportunities for advancement in this company. Aaron works for the King Estate in Eugene, Oregon. We had the joy of hosting Aaron for his first visit to China in March. (See Aaron sitting between Dayna and Nathan – unfortunately Josiah was not with us.) Thanks for lifting up our family so faithfully for many years! God is good!
Finance Update
Soon we plan to leave this nation whose economy is booming to visit a state billions of dollars in debt. And we’re coming to raise support for more years of serving here! What gives?
In thirty years of Gospel ministry we have never had such freedom and fruitfulness. Beijing has more University students than any city in the world; one million Chinese students, and 100,000 foreign students! We have the opportunity to freely share Christ with hundreds of thousands of expats, students, business people, moms, dads, and their kids. We declare the life giving Word of the only true God to people you’re never likely to see…on this earth…in this city of over 20 million people. Through seminary classes, small groups, and Sunday sermons we are instruct and equip believers from over 70 nations to understand the Bible and live it out before their global neighbors. We have a direct impact on places we could never go to preach, like North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Students we disciple from around the world return home to serve their governments, teach in their universities, and wield the respect that degrees abroad affords them – for the praise of Jesus!
Some lament, “The Chinese have taken away our jobs, now you want to take our money and work in China!” Strange isn’t it! Paul thanked the Philippian Christians for supporting him to reach their natural rivals in Thessalonica. “You Philippians well know…not one church helped out in the give-and-take of this work except you. You were the only one. Even while I was in Thessalonica, you helped out - and not only once, but twice” (Philippians 4.15,16 The Message). They saw the opportunity Paul had to make Christ known and wanted to further the work of the Gospel through him. We don’t claim to have Paul’s skill or effectiveness, but we have his message. And we rejoice that we see a very positive response, “in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing” (Colossians 1.6 ESV).
And, like Paul, we’re grateful for those who give like the Macedonians – when you are not having an easy time yourselves (2 Corinthians 8.1-5). We do our best to be wise stewards of your hard-earned resources. The overseas mission trips we take have been funded by the BICF. “Why don’t you get a salary from the BICF?” Good question! They do give a monthly stipend that pays our apartment rental. Sunday offerings from our congregation of mostly students cover the meeting venue rental, salaries for our Administrator and receptionist, and the expenses of our outreach focused ministry. 2011 was the first year we ended in the black. Our church plant continues to be financially reliant on the ‘mother church’ of the BICF.
We praise the Lord who has met our every need in almost twenty-five years of missionary service. But we did want you to know our support levels are down – by about $1000 a month – and we are looking to close this gap. If you need more information about our work, please just ask. We’re humbled to be stewards of His Gospel and your resources for His service here and hope to see many of you soon!
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 )
Our Email blairstan2@gmail.com or blairstan@psmail.net (secure)
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
