Seeing the Beautiful Land

Greetings from the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, PA!

We are enjoying our mission Home Assignment. In the last month we have driven from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine - and beyond. We praise the Lord for His good care.

The Mandarin word for America is 美国 Měiguó. The literal
translation is ‘beautiful land.’ In the last month
we have been privileged to see
over 5000 miles of Beautiful Land so far.

This trip has been a great opportunity to thank our
supporters and reconnect with friends, family, and colleagues.
Seeing dear friends after many years has been a
vivid reminder that God is faithful and good,
especially to those who know His Son. They
testify to how the Lord has led, and continues to lead,
in their Kingdom service – we have learned
much from them.

 At the end of February 2022, we will be stepping down from Pioneers. 
Any funds sent to us through Pioneers after the end of February 2022 
will be returned to sender. We are enormously grateful for the generous support we have received as Pioneers since 1998.

We are not sure what’s next. We don’t feel ready to wear the “Retired” 
badge just yet. We want to serve the local church and advance global mission as we are still able. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. 
Our trust is in a Great Shepherd!

Here are some free sites you may find helpful…

·       Current News about the church in China from knowledgeable Christians inside…

https://www.chinasource.org/

We benefit from reading their thorough weekly news compilation…

https://www.chinasource.org/about/subscribe/

 

·       Bible teaching creatively and faithfully communicated in 40+ languages …

https://bibleproject.com/

 

·       Religious freedom updates about Central Asia and the Turkic world…

https://www.forum18.org/

they also have an excellent weekly summary of religious persecution…

https://www.forum18.org/subscribe.php

 

 

·       Global Professionals --- The enormous number of people who still have not heard the good news, the cost of sending missionaries (especially from the West), and the declining number of those who volunteer for full time missionary service means we need to have more than just the traditional strategy of global mission. Our job may be the best platform for Gospel-advance in Gospel-starved parts of the world. Find out what you can do…take the quiz!        https://www.scatterglobal.com/

 

·       America – our current mission field – is a place we are still trying to understand, this helped…

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/the-world-is-catechizing-us-whether-we-realize-it-or-not/

 

From here we travel South, then West, planning to arrive in California by year’s end. We plan to come to Hawaii sometime in Spring 2022, Lord willing.

All of us who name Jesus as Lord are on duty, wherever we are, for as long as we live. Press on!  

In Him who is Forever Faithful, Mark and Dayna Blair

 

Our Phone Numbers    Mark 808-218-4872 / Dayna 808-218-3698

Emails  blairstan2@gmail.com or blairstan@hotmail.com

 

Our Mission   Pioneers - 10123 William Carey Dr - Orlando, FL 32832 USA    

 

Checks to ‘Pioneers’ – with attached note: ‘Mark and Dayna Blair, Beijing.’                     

Electronic transfers: https://give.pioneers.org/p-75-give-to-a-missionary-or-project.aspx  (Our Account # is 110565, Mark and Dayna Blair)

 Blog  www.blairstan.blogspot.com       

Web Site  www.pastormarkblair.org

 

Greetings from the Homeland

                                                     

Thank you for your prayers as we transition back to life in the USA. Fittingly, we have spent our first month in Portland, Oregon where the motto is “Keep it Weird!” We’re not sure how much the weirdness is just because “its not China…or Kazakhstan,” but we are fitting in and having a great time with our family here. It has been a soft landing by God’s mercies.

We thank the Lord that we can be with our three sons and families here in Oregon. (Left to right…) Nathan holding son Kekoa (age 6), Nathan’s wife Heather holding Makana (age 4), Aaron behind them, us, and Josiah and daughter Maylee (age 17).

 

 Sunday all of us set out for a family vacation together in the Rockies. Our friends there just sent us a picture of our destination. We are eager to see this ourselves and share time together.

We plan to return to Oregon in early August.

We look forward to celebrating Dayna’s 70^th birthday on August 14.

And then the two of us will say good-bye to family and set out on our drive across the States.

After our big trip we plan to drive to California and share with the churches that have graciously supported our life and ministry for many years.

Our time as Pioneer’s will conclude in February 2022.  Thank you for continuing to pray with us for the Lord’s next assignment. We remain open and are trying to listen!

Gratefully in Him, Mark and Dayna Blair

Our new phone numbers (these are the only numbers that work for us now…feel free to call!)

Mark 808-218-4872

Dayna 808-218-3698

Please note, we will no longer use markblair@bicf.org   or  blairstan@psmail.net

 We WILL continue to use blairstan2@gmail.com and blairstan@hotmail.com

 Our Mission   Pioneers - 10123 William Carey Dr - Orlando, FL 32832 USA    

 Checks to ‘Pioneers’ – with attached note: ‘Mark and Dayna Blair, Beijing.’                     

Electronic transfers: https://give.pioneers.org/p-75-give-to-a-missionary-or-project.aspx  (Our Account # is 110565, Mark and Dayna Blair)

 Email blairstan2@gmail.com  Or blairstan@hotmail.com

 Blog  www.blairstan.blogspot.com       

Web Site  www.pastormarkblair.org

 

 

 

                       

on the road again

 Aloha ‘Oe from Beijing,                         June 2021

 With anticipation of our next adventure, we gratefully send this final prayer letter from China. On June 13 we’ll close 12 years, and three days, of life and service in Beijing. We could not have been here one day without your generous support and faithful prayers. We are humbled and grateful for your many years of kindness!

 We are staying busy until we hit the tape. As always happens when we’ve made a move, friends are calling and saying, “Before you leave we want you to…preach…teach a discipleship seminar…speak to the Women’s Group…have lunch, coffee, dinner…how about a breakfast?...hang out…have a farewell…!” Lots of fun, it is great to be loved. We are enjoying our last days of bike rides across the city on these beautiful Spring days. And, oh yeah, we gotta pack!

 In the last few weeks, we have seen the Lord doing great things in this most populous nation on earth.

 Need to be a bit cryptic about the wonderful connection we just had with ‘family’ members for a week of enjoying the words of a great Book. It was a nice ‘bookend’ to our visit here in 2005, the first time had a similar week of sharing. These are not easy times for our Family here as “excellent virus protection” is being applied with intensity. But as the imprisoned Paul confidently said a long time ago, ‘there are no chains on the Good Word’ – or something close to that. The Lord is working through the courage and creativity of His kids.

 

We bragged on our son Nathan, now sharing the Story in 41 languages!  https://bibleproject.com/languages/

 

If you’re reading this where you can speak freely about Jesus and the Scriptures, we hope you are taking full advantage of those eternity-determining opportunities.

We really enjoyed Huangshan Mountain and beautiful surrounding villages. Great to see Gospel-workers in this most populous nation of the world! Pray for them.

 

We still don’t know all the details of our next adventure. What we do know…

 We just bought a car through the helpful service of mats.org! Josiah kindly drove it from Indianapolis to Portland, Aaron co-piloted from Boise. Mahalo, Sons! We hope those wheels will connect us. Since our last letter we have heard from friends and family in California… Oregon…  Washington…Kansas…Wisconsin…Pennsylvania…North Carolina…Tennessee…Hawaii… So, we are getting ready for our excellent USA adventure. We plan to head east from Portland, Oregon in mid-August. By the ‘winter’ we hope to be in California. We look forward to giving our mission report to churches there. Then, as things look from this side of the pond, head ‘home’ to Hawaii in Spring 2021. Those are the broad strokes, we wait on the Lord to fill in our daily planner. Let us know if we can see you along the way.

 We will be transitioning out of Pioneers by the end of February 2022 as we conclude this ‘home assignment.’

 We would love to continue sharing the Gospel, teaching the Word, encouraging Christian workers, and advocating for missions. We appreciate your prayers and any ideas. We learned a long time ago to “never say never.”

 

Yours in the Eternal Gospel,  Mark and Dayna Blair

 Please note, we will no longer use markblair@bicf.org   or  blairstan@psmail.net

 We WILL continue to use blairstan2@gmail.com and blairstan@hotmail.com

 We plan to get USA phone numbers and COVID vax soon after our return.

 Our Mission   Pioneers - 10123 William Carey Dr - Orlando, FL 32832 USA   

 

Checks to ‘Pioneers’ – with attached note: ‘Mark and Dayna Blair, Beijing.’                   

Electronic transfers: https://give.pioneers.org/p-75-give-to-a-missionary-or-project.aspx  (Our Account # is 110565, Mark and Dayna Blair)

 

Email blairstan2@gmail.com  Or blairstan@hotmail.com

 

Blog  www.blairstan.blogspot.com       Web Site  www.pastormarkblair.org

 

Where Do the Unreached Live?

‘Unreached people’ – still without Bibles, churches, and opportunities to hear the saving news of Jesus Christ - are found in every corner of the world—maybe even in your backyard. But these 10 countries have the largest unreached populations. Joshua Project

 

It Happened Here Too…Again!

 

Ni Hao 你好 from Beijing, China!                                                           Easter Monday 2021

Yesterday many thousands of people did it here in this capital city of over twenty million people. Many millions across this entire nation, the most populous in the world, did it too. Some were on screens. Many wore masks and shared waves and bumps instead of hugs and handshakes.  Many met in different places because they no longer possess the venues they used last year. All had to weather the Motherland’s intense efforts to “protect religious people” from sickness – apparently viruses spread more in churches, mosques, and temples than they do in bars, sports stadiums, and massage parlors.

Yes, lots of us here in Beijing, China stepped into the stream of those who have worshipped the Risen Lord Jesus Christ since those who kneeled at His feet before His empty tomb two thousand years ago. Yesterday brought new challenges to our gathering. It was the first time this congregation met in the workplace of one of their members. Worst of all, there was no PowerPoint – but somehow the Holy Spirit managed to show up without it. Most of us here in China plan to meet next Sunday too.

Our preacher yesterday shared new insights from a familiar text – Jesus on the Emmaus Road from Luke 24. This rich slice of Scripture holds wonderful treasures; seeing Jesus through all Scripture “Moses…all the Prophets…in all the Scriptures” (v. 27) – ongoing union with God by the Spirit through the Word “Did not our hearts burn within us…while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (v. 32) – and fresh courage when one meets the Risen Lord “they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem” (v. 33). We heard those great truths yesterday, with an insightful Covid application. Jesus sought two disciples who wandered away from the fellowship of believers; and when they had a fresh meeting with Him they ran back to join the brethren in Jerusalem. How many of us who have grown comfortable watching church wearing pajamas need that nudge?

Tomb Sweeping Day

Full disclosure, there were many more Chinese sweeping tombs yesterday than worshipping Jesus. Tomb Sweeping Day coincided with Easter this year. Families travel to relative’s graves to pay their respects, a Confucian form of posthumous respect and filial piety for ancestors.

Paper money, smart phones, cars, iPads, and luxury handbags – are sent to ancestors by burning while family members show their respect by bowing. I am not sure if there are tech instructors to help great-granny operate their new iPhone 12’s sent by burning paper to the Netherworld?

Those of us who follow the true and living God in China pray that as our foolish friends burn bucks and tidy tombs they will reflect on their life after death. Perhaps they will think about that crazy family member – friend – work colleague – former classmate – bar buddy – college classmate – or that smiling old man who cleans their apartment complex – who told them Jesus’ promise of Resurrection and Life. The old ‘tell somebody who will tell somebody’ still works best to spread the Good News here.

Visit from the Gobi

You can see how a billion people burning paper goodies for their ancestors does not help our breathing in China. In our 12 years here, we have never traveled to the Gobi Desert, so the sands of the Gobi paid us a visit during March. We had several ‘yellow sky’ days. The air quality measurement for Beijing soared beyond the index levels. We will not miss this part of life here.

Different views of Beijing’s Forbidden City within the same week last month!

New Adventures Ahead

Our plan is to leave China in June, finishing our work here. We look back on the last 12 years with praise for all the Lord has done. We treasure friendships with brothers and sisters in Christ from around the world that we made here. At this point we hear His call to “Leave” more clearly than where He commands to “Land!” But we trust the Lord who has guided us through 40 years of global mission has a corner of his harvest field for us to serve for the next season.

Mark and Dayna, Easter 2021

We plan to land in Portland, Oregon and visit with family there. We are car shopping now. Sometime in late summer we hope to drive East and see friends.

We hope to visit family, friends, and churches in California this coming winter.  And then perhaps return to Hawaii in the first quarter of 2022, God willing.

A Work in Progress

Mark is busy writing our mission story. He has finished the rough draft of our Uganda years. It is in need of editing. It might be helpful if you have insomnia…

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9017ktkikvztmvy/The%20View%20from%20Under%20the%20Bus%20-%20Uganda%20April%202021.pdf?dl=0

We hope to see many of you in the coming months. Please let us know your availability, we are putting the pins in our USA map phone app…it has a world map too!

Yours in the Joy of our Risen Savior, Mark and Dayna Blair

 

Our Mission   Pioneers - 10123 William Carey Dr - Orlando, FL 32832 USA       

 

Checks to ‘Pioneers’ – with attached note: ‘Mark and Dayna Blair, Beijing.’                       

Electronic transfers: https://give.pioneers.org/p-75-give-to-a-missionary-or-project.aspx 

(Our Account # is 110565, Mark and Dayna Blair)

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

 

Blog  www.blairstan.blogspot.com

 Web Site  www.pastormarkblair.org

 

The Year of our Lord 2021

 

January 2021 A.D. In the Year of our Lord

Hau’oli Makahiki Hou! Happy New Year!

Those lucky bugs who have enjoyed a living Christmas tree must face a sad day. Before long, the fresh scent will be gone, and you will tire of sweeping pine needles. So, the tree is taken out the door and disposed of however your town deems ecologically acceptable.

But if you know the true reason people decorate all those trees, you have an eternal evergreen. What the cherubim and a flaming sword blocked from our guilty parents in Eden has been prepared for you – supersized by Gospel grace!

Jesus came to reveal God!

Jesus died to redeem sinners!

Jesus is coming to renew all things!

 

Mercy prevented fallen Adam and Eve from accessing the tree of life. I certainly am thankful these creaky bones are not my eternal abode. Yet, wonderfully, God’s everlasting mercy now invites us to a new heaven and new earth where we’ll TikTok in new bodies. The Lord has already landscaped His city with multiple trees of life along the riverside.

Those life-giving trees from God and the Lamb will never lose their leaves. Those leaves symbolize the transformational healing God will give His saints from every nation – not just the people but also their politics, all saints, and all structures. God’s final healing will not be a band aid, a feeble punishment soon escaped by presidential pardon. No, God’s healing will make everything irreversibly right. We will see even the worst things somehow worked for our good, and His glory. Get ready for a celebration that neither COVID nor King Herod can cancel.

This is our sure and certain hope. God is truth. He cannot lie. These are His promises. Since Jesus is the coming and current King, we should embrace 2021 as “the year of our Lord.” Is your ultimate trust in vaccines and government economic recovery plans or the One who “heals all our diseases” and has “the government on His shoulders?” Even though we have no idea what

Maylee in Almaty

  Josiah, Nathan, Makana, Heather, Kekoa, and Aaron in Oregon

 the ‘news’ will be, we already know this is the real story. The coming year and every year to come belongs to Him.

January 2021 marks the 40^th anniversary of our mission career. In January 1981 Mark went to Uganda with Professors Harvie Conn and Jack Miller and 8 Westminster Theological Seminary students. That young kid would never have imagined having such a life-long mission partner,  (we look forward to our 39^th wedding anniversary January 9) the great people and interesting places we would serve, and how faithful our support team would be – love, prayers, and provision from God and His people have kept us going all these years!

Words cannot convey our appreciation as we follow Him into this New Year in Beijing!!

Trusting Him with you for all our tomorrows, Mark and Dayna Blair

Praise Him with Us

We live in a very COVID-safe city! (…yes, that fact drips with irony and paradox!)

Churches can’t meet but we all gotta eat! So, our new ‘pulpit’ is our dining room table, sharing life with old and new friends.

God has wonderfully cared for our family, stretched half-way around the world.

Please Pray with Us

COVID restrictions have limited church gatherings including some of our opportunities.

Our son Josiah has moved to Portland and needs wisdom and direction for this next chapter of his life.

Mark is trying to write the story of our life in mission.

Our Mission   Pioneers - 10123 William Carey Dr - Orlando, FL 32832 USA       

 

Checks to ‘Pioneers’ – with attached note: ‘Mark and Dayna Blair, Beijing.’                       

Electronic transfers: https://give.pioneers.org/p-75-give-to-a-missionary-or-project.aspx 

(Our Account # is 110565, Mark and Dayna Blair)

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

 

Blog  www.blairstan.blogspot.com

 Web Site  www.pastormarkblair.org

   

·  At least 1.5 billion people do not have the full Bible in their language.

·  At least 7,000 languages are spoken or signed around the world.

·  At least 2,000 languages still need a Bible translation started.

·  Gospel ministry is being done in more than 2,700 languages worldwide.

Source: Wycliffe Global Alliance, October 2020