5/14/99
Ok, I know that this is pretty important. Many of you are praying for me, and I'm asking the rest of you to right now. Here's a brief synopsis of what's going on in China:
Somewhere in the midst of bombing the heck out of Kosovo, the United States "accidentally" bombed the Chinese embassy in Kosovo with a smart bomb. There's controversy over whether it was an intentional act or an incompetent act, but I won't speculate on that here. The Chinese government hasn't allowed the Chinese Media to inform the public about the war in Kosovo. So all the Chinese people have been told is that the U.S. bombed their embassy, and they see it as a terrorist act. As a result, students have marched in protest on American embassies all over China. The U.S. consolate in Chengdu was burned down. Needless to say, this is a bad time for Sino-American relations.
China is about to become a big part of my life for two months. I'll be teaching English there as a missionary with Youth Mission International (YMI) and China Educational Exchange (CEE) from mid-June to mid-August. For more on that, see this. Many people expect me to cancel the trip because of this. But God has called me to go. And unless he tells me not to go, I'll follow through on what he's asked of me. Please pray for my team. (Mitch Krohn, Chandra Friesen, and I.) Pray that we can be patient and depend on God to give us the strength to deal with the stress that this situation will cause during our stay in China. But, most of all, pray for the hearts of the people who we'll minister to. Pray that Satan will not use this tagic series of events to turn people's hearts away from God. Pray for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in and through our team, to work naturally and supernaturally to bring people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And please pray for the fundraising efforts. It's not easy to raise funds to go to a country that's not on good terms with the U.S. Thank you all for your prayers, and may God bless you with rich spiritual blessings! - Andrew
