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 57^th 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 25^th 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:

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/global.increases.in.expatriates.challenge.international.churches.in.ministry/30371-2.htm

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 )

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

California Connections

Greetings from Los Angeles,

We arrived here safely on Thursday. It is good to be with family and friends. We have mobile phones through August 22 when we leave to return to Beijing. It would be good to talk with you. Here are our numbers:

Dayna 626-354-3387

Mark 626-354-3276

Thanks for your prayers. We have a full schedule during our time here. We had a great first Sunday and look forward to our visits to churches in the coming weeks. Here is our plan:

July 8 Carlsbad Community Church, Carlsbad, California

July 14 Grace Bible Church, Irvine, 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

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

Beijinger: Book Shelf

California Here We Come!

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

Prayer Card

Eastertide

Greetings from Vietnam!

This Sunday Mark will speak at the Hanoi International Fellowship. We came here to attend the Missional International Church Network (www.micn.org) meetings here next week. We are very thankful for this get-away after a super-busy, super-blessing, Easter season in Beijing International Christian Fellowship. We return to life and work in Beijing next week.

School of Preachers

About a month ago Mark had the joy of team-teaching “Principles in Communicating Scripture” for the BICF Seminary program. About 20 young adults from Zambia, Canada, England, Kenya, Tanzania, and the USA attended. Another preacher/pastor of an International Church here in Beijing was the co-teacher. It was very interesting and informative time together. In a few weeks we will have the follow up class “Practice in Communicating Scripture” and we will listen to – and interact with – our “student preachers.” Our BICF ZGC Good Friday service was a great chance to measure their progress. Mark asked seven of the students to prepare and present “5 Minute Sermons” (is that an oxymoron?!) from our Lord’s words spoken from the cross. I was bursting with pride and gratitude to hear how well they all did! You can hear them yourself if you wish:
http://bicf.org/downloads-and-resources/view.download/39755

Our motto for BICF ZGC is “Gathering, Growing, Going.” It is a great challenge and opportunity to have a congregation of mostly University students from over 70 nations. China has brought the best and brightest here from many lands. Christ has orchestrated is all to transform and train His Ambassadors to go to ends of the earth with Great News. And we have a front-row seat to see this happening! Growing by marriage too, on Easter Saturday!



Easter Hypocrisy?

One of our students groups – and you will see why they remain anonymous – was planning a student Easter camp as part of our BICF ZGC outreach. Their plans and program were going forward. But then the ‘elephant entered the room.’ Two of their active members, whom we had not seen for awhile, came by to talk with Dayna and I. Long story short, they were hurt by gossip and unkind words from this group. So they stopped coming. About two weeks before Easter I had an opportunity to speak to this group. When I mentioned my appreciation of their Easter plans there were lots of proud smiles! I noted that they had done a lot to get ready – food, travel, venue, speakers, music, etc. But there was one concern I had, “Has anyone tried to find out why so and so are no longer coming? We have heard a sad report from them that they’ve been hurt by folks in this group. I am NOT taking any sides. Maybe the problem is their fault? But if we really believe Jesus is Alive and that His resurrection changes all things, can’t we try and sort out this problem before making any more plans for an Easter Camp?” Their silence was deafening! I had to get on to another meeting, but “Mama Dayna” stayed, and stayed, and stayed – after three hours of discussion, tears, and confession. The group resolved to make things right. There were several more meetings with the 2 and the group, again with “Mama Dayna” the mediator. Praise the Lord that Easter Sunday found us breaking bread and singing His praise all together. We pray that our students, who come from many churches and traditions, learned something about true life in the Risen Jesus – we sure did!



Easter Celebration

We had 497 people gather to rejoice in our Risen Lord Easter morning. Five people – from Spain, Rwanda, and USA – made profession of faith in Christ and were baptized. A young lady from Spain and a young man from Rwanda, both students here in Beijing, joined a number of young adults we have baptized here. For the first time since I have served here, we baptized young people – the sons of our Administrator, a Deacon and the daughter of an Elder. This came at the end of healthy process where the Elders searched the Scriptures about the question: “how old must a professing believer be to be baptized?” (BICF is a believer’s baptism church.) Our answer? The Bible does not specify any age, rather the ‘answer’ is whether the person makes a credible profession of Jesus as their Lord and Savior. (We would be glad to send you a copy of the position paper we wrote on this.) We are blessed with lots of believing young people from solid Christian homes in BICF ZGC so the three we baptized on Easter might be the first-fruits of more. What a joy to see the Lord bring people to Himself here in the capital of the world’s populous nation.

California Here we Come

We plan to be in California in July and August. We look forward to seeing family, friends, and supporting churches. We are putting together our schedule now. Let us know if you are available for a visit. We look forward to opportunities to share what the Lord is doing in Beijing. We especially hope to meet those with a burden to work with International Students.

Since our last letter, we have had several friends join our support team. We are very thankful and getting closer to our monthly needs. We are very grateful for your prayers and support!

Yours in Him whom death could not hold! Mark and Dayna Blair

Our Mission
Pioneers - 10123 William Carey Drive - Orlando, FL 32832 – USA www.pioneers.org

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

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

Tales from Tonga

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

Our Email blairstan2@gmail.com or blairstan@psmail.net (secure)

Our Blog www.blairstan.blogspot.com Skype: blairstan

Greetings from the world’s most populous nation!

We are back in chilly Beijing from almost three weeks in warm and friendly Tonga. About 110,000 people live on the 177 islands of the Kingdom of Tonga. We only saw Tongatapu, the largest island. We were in the capital of Nuku’Alofa with their 22,400 citizens. It was humid, hot, sunny, and rainy at the same time! There are many connections in language, culture, and history between Tonga and Hawaii. Some say Tonga is like Hawaii of fifty years ago. Not one stop-light in this kingdom! No Golden Arches, no Pizza Hut, no KFC, no Burger King, and no Starbucks – we REALLY were on a mission! But, despite such afflictions, it was a joy to make many new Tongan friends.



We were sent to Tonga by the BICF to strengthen our ties with our Pacific Fellowship. We were hosted by the young Tongan pastor who serves with us in Beijing. Through Pastor Benny we were connected to many Christian leaders of the nation. We spoke to the students of the Sia’atoutai Theological College. We appreciate the welcome we received from the leaders of this important theological college (pictured here). Tonga is a ‘Christian Kingdom.’ The Royal family members take prominent seats in various congregations. People speak with nostalgia about the late King who wrote hymns and creeds and took his turn as a regular Sunday preacher. Tonga is a very conservative place. On Sunday’s all shops are closed. If you are found swimming you will be arrested. Everyone is either home sleeping or in church on Sundays. But there is more emphasis on morality than about God’s saving mercy in Christ. Various fights and splits have created many different churches in Tonga. And on an island, where everyone knows everything about everyone, the sad stories of church splits, pastoral failures, and hurt feelings are told over and over for generations. We emphasized having a real, living, faith in Christ.



To compound the challenge, you can hardly drive one mile without seeing a new, large, well kept, air conditioned, fast growing Mormon church with their satellite dishes pointed to Salt Lake City. In addition they have large Mormon schools and a Temple too. Tonga has the second largest concentration of Mormons after Utah.



We had opportunities to speak to the leaders of the Tongan Free Wesleyan – the oldest and largest in the Kingdom (above). Dress in the Tongan churches is very formal – at least for the upper part of your body. Pastors must wear a tie or a clerical collar. When you preach you should wear a suit coat. The fact that it is very hot and humid is no reason not put on your coat. Seeing the sweat pour from the preacher is appreciated. I carried my suit coat, putting it on for brief moments, and then played the “dumb foreigner” card and took it off. Tongan men also wear wrap around cloth skirts and then a thatched natural fiber cloth on top, tied with a rope. I stuck with trousers. They either have no shoes or rubber slippers. My first meetings I wore shoes, but soon donned rubber slippers - Happy feet!

We are now Tongan Televangelists! Mark’s “TV Sermon” was shown live and then re-aired three times in the two weeks we were there. We were local celebrities because there are so few choices on TV! My normal opinion is “The best thing about having preachers on TV is that you can turn them off!” Now I am one of them. I spoke from Luke 15 where both the rebellious son AND the religious son were far from their Prodigal Father. Both needed to repent of trying to manipulate their Father and receive His mercy. Religious people don’t think they need grace while rebellious people don’t care that it’s available. Both need to come to Jesus to be found.



Please pray for the people of Tonga, especially the young people whose choices will guide their nation. We have learned much about the context and challenges faced by the Pacific islanders we serve in BICF. We met dozens of Chinese who moved there and run businesses. We tried to be faithful to teach, preach, and model God and His Word of grace, power, and authority. We had smaller meetings with faithful leaders who are trying to stand for real, Biblical, faith in this hyper-religious environment.



And we reminded the Tongans of their own rich mission history. From its birth in the 1820’s the Tongan church has been a missionary church. Many of the islands of the south Pacific were first reached by Tongan missionaries. Now, sadly, most Tongan Christian leaders who go out from Tonga leave because they are too radical for the oppressive conservatism there. More Tongans live outside the kingdom – in New Zealand, Australia, and the USA mostly – than inside. We urged believers and leaders to re-kindle their mission calling. There are still hundreds of islands in the Pacific with no Christian witness today.

Now we’re back in Beijing - eager to begin a new season of ministry. The dozens of Universities that surround our church location are packed with students from all around the world. This Spring Mark plans to preach through the letter of Paul to the Galatians. Pray that we will, like the author, “never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6.14). Ask the Lord to make His Word alive to our members, mostly students, from over 70 nations. Pray they will return to their nations, like Tonga, and declare His marvelous grace. Mark will also be team-teaching three seminary classes through our BICF seminary this spring. Lots of great opportunities ahead! May we have strength and wisdom for the many tasks!

Finance Update

We have heard from our mission that we need to raise more support. Who doesn’t!! We are almost $1000 a month below what we need. We’d be grateful for your prayers about this. We have been generously supported for so many years! We are very grateful. If the Lord prompts you to put some coins in our bank to keep us going for a few more laps of Gospel service. Truly, we thank God in every remembrance of you!

Our Mission
Pioneers - 10123 William Carey Drive - Orlando, FL 32832 – USA www.pioneers.org

Declaring His Praise in the Islands, Mark and Dayna Blair

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