Back from the trip

We are back to Seattle safe. Thanks for remembering us.Please mark in your calender that there is a public sharing about the tripon 1/31 Sat 7.30pm in CBC.We did go deep into the earthquake zone this time. The road was very, verybumpy. The deeper in, the less resources. I was standing there bundled upand I would tremble after a little while, but they had to stay there 24-7.Please continue to pray for them. The snow is probably going to make itworse. We baught cooking oil and some warm clothing and hauled the load in.PTL that we were able to find the driver who was willing to drive the ruffroad.I'm very impressed with the local field workers. Many of them have beenthere since day one of the earthquake. Not easy at all. I thank God fortheir dedication. I met 2 workers who are even contemplating to move andlive in a villege deep in the earthquake zone. Amazing! BTW, I ended updoing a short pre-marital counseling for them.We have 2 main purposes in the earthquake zone. We want to support andencourage the earthquake survivers, and we want also to support the localworkers. The local workers have done a wonderful job in the field. Thevillegers love them. What testimony. I'm just honored to work alongside themto share the good news and hope. God has indeed provided amazingopportunities for that beyond what we asked for.And yet, I ask you to pray for the field workers. They are doing verydifficult work. They can get tired physically, mentally and physically.I thank God for our team unity and always willingness to serve. There waslanguage barrier, but that did not stop the team to reach out. There was nohot water to shower, but the team did not complain. And we did get a bigpresent from God on Christmas day. There was a brief period of hot water forshower! God is so good.On 12/25, my son took me from the earthquake zone to Chongqing. He does notread chinese road sign very well and I'm blind and we tried to find outwayto the school for the blind. It was quite a trip. But we did getthere by the grace of God. Principal Li was worried about us.Oh the kids are so so cute. I don't know why the community does not givethem much opportunity. I know God sees them very differently for sure. Sincewe are now there the fifth year, we know the people in the school very well.
They are like our own children. We are so happy to see them taller each ear.
There are many moments for deep sharing with them. Hey, let's not forget theteachers. We have lots of good bonding and sharing time with them, too.Talking about teachers, did you know that one of the teachers is studying inBoston this year? A sister donated an air ticket for her to come over theSeattle for Christmas. She was surrounded by love and PTL she became ourfamily member.After Chongqing, several of us went to Beijing for several days. We spentsome time sharing and encouraging a group of disabled people there.Before the trip, I remember we prayed for God to raiase up more disabledleaders, to heal the broken hearted in the earthquake zone, to enableharvesting among our long term contacts and even good fellowship among thebrothers and sisters back home. We see God doing all these and more. God isgood all the time. Thanks so much for your faithful prayer and support!

Reporting from the field

The following was what I wrote on 12/17/08 when I was still in China.
I'm now writing to you from Mianyang, very near the hardest hit earthquakearea. We (Gloria, Roger and I) should be moving deeper into it tomorrow todo prep work. Bosco is now in CQ preparing for the team. I just want to giveyou a quick update while I still have email access.
So far, we visited many people that we have been working with in the past.It's amazing to see how they opened up so much to us and to him. Forexample, we visited 5 families of sponsored children. They feel so touchedwhen we visited them. J did the same to us, didn't he. One father said thatthe school has a lot of programs, but after he read the letters from thesponsor, he knows that the rainbow project is different. We also went to thehospital to meet xinyang, the 13-year-old boy for whom we have beenarranging arm/hand surgery. The operation happened about 2 weeks ago. He isrecovering well. PTL! We shared with him and his aunty. They were veryreceptive. Please remember his PT in your thoughts.
In this trip so far, we met many young people struggling. The economy isgetting worse. They are graduating or have just graduated. Life is tough.Many of them even have disability. That really puts them in a super hardposition. We had a lot of deep sharing together and encourage each other. Werecognize that everything else changes and is inherently unstable, but he isalways there for us. Please remember their future in your thoughts.
Roger and Gloria love hot food, but I'm staying away from it as much aspossible. The weather in CQ and Sichuan is not too cold. So far we arestaying very healthy. Thanks for your thoughts.
The teams should be arriving soon. Please remember their trip.

Xinyang's Update

Xinyang came up to Chengdu with his sister and sister's boyfriend this week. We took him to see the operating surgeon and Joy Phang (HK's Standing Tall organization and supervising physical therapist (PT) for Xinyang). Xinyang has obvious improvement in his arm rotation and arm movements. His hand is in a much more 'released' position. Although he is able to move his fingers from the base of the fingers, the movement is still quite limited. In discussion with both the doctor and PT, they're saying that further improvement is hopeful, but it will still take some time, citing that it's been a long while that he hasn't been able to use his hand. Due to the previous injury, his forearm muscle, which would govern the closing his fingers, is significantly atrophied and needs strength to be restored. Also, since his forearm tendons were cut and reattached, the point of reconnection has, as what the doctor termed, over-healed, which has stiffened the tendon. The doctor and PT agreed that, in 2-3 months, Xinyang should undergo a second significantly-less-involved surgery to remove some of the over-growth, to allow for more flexibility in the tendon, which should encourage further movement/motion in the forearm muscle. Overall, I felt encouraged by the examination. I am touched by the doctor's personal involvement and interest in Xinyang, and our Hong Kong friends' commitment to him! Thank you Father! Xinyang was taught new exercises to get more flexibility out of his fingers, thumb, and arm rotation. In addition, Miss Chen (Miss Phang's colleague) helped to make another arm/hand splint to encourage the straightening of Xinyang's palm/fingers. As I write this email, Xinyang and his sister/boyfriend are on their way back to Qinchuan.

Xinyang is in good spirits - he's obviously pretty happy about the new movement in his arm/hands and is hopeful for improvement. It was so good to see him and his sweet smile!

Please continue to lift him and his family up.

Banquet on Oct 25

Have you seen 3 rainbows appearing together? Read on...

The Rainbow Missions' banquet on 10/25/08 was indeed a wonderful event. I want to share with you many of the blessings I saw related to the Rainbow Missions' banquet and appreciate you for all your generous participation. This all started with a brother wanting to bless God, bless RM and bless the under-privileged in China by donating a wonderful banquet at Bellevue Hyatt. It turns out that many people have been blessed and definitely him,too. We were originally given the Evergreen room with pillars, but God blessed us with the grand ballroom to view His plan in a grand way.

Half a year prior to the event, we started the planning under the leadership of Richard. The planning team had a lot of good fellowship together. We had a lot of laughters, too. You know how much a teaser Richard can be. And Leon and KK designed and produced the invitation cards for us. Everyone said it's beautiful. I'm sure Tai Shan (their dear dog) contributed to the creativity. Since our key speaker Tungmui has cerebal palsy and cannot speak clearly, Gabriel volunteered to be her voice. She took time to practice with her, took Tungmui out for sight seeing to get even more used to her vocal. I know Gabriel was blessed, too, because she herself loves outing and photography. But more importantly, Tungmui's joy and peace made her a wonderful and inspiring sight-seeing companion.

The 11th hour came. The AV equipment to handle the grand ball room was not trivial. Most of this great equipment was on loan by brothers and sisters out of their service to God. Aside from the regular AV, we had 2 big simultaneous projection screens and we had to project Tunmui's foot-painting demo live. The whole technical team worked hard to make this work. They really worked hard. I was told only afterwards that, even though they had tested all the equipment the previous night, the laptop failed and the backup laptop also failed. No wonder Stephen smelled like sweat when he walked near me at that time. Thank God! Morgan had his laptop with him. Believe it or not, the AV system was up only minutes prior to the start of the event. We believe in Christ's provision and the team work was amazing. Tungmui sat there painting a lotus pond attentively with her foot, following the lead of the holy spirit. She concentrated to hold down the involuntary movements of her arms. She did not have to say much. She lives out the vibrancy of rainbow. Christine organized a fun silent auction for us to win a painting from Tungmui, a finished painting that she brought from Hong Kong. It's a painting of a rainbow which she had painted just prior to knowing us. The person who won the painting decided to make the painting available for circulation at church for more people to see how God shines through in a disabled person. And since Tungmui's painting was so much sought after, Tungmui promised to finish the lotus pond painting and paint one more to be auctioned. All the proceeds of these 3 paintings will go towards the Sichuan earthquake relief fund in RM. Adding up the earthquake fund and the general fund, God blessed us with about US$20,000 of love offering that evening.

Tungmui's blessings certainly did not stop with the fund raising. People were so touched by her testimony that many groups and individuals wanted to arrange time to talk to her. The problem was that her flight was set to leave in a couple of days. Well, she assigned me to be her "golden agent" to make the impossible happen, for in God, nothing is impossible. The night before the flight, the airline told us that the flights were full even if we wanted to pay the penalty. We prayed and gave this all to the Lord. We knew if God wanted Tungmui to stay, He would. If not, that's ok, too. Yet the human side of us had to do the practical. So, Tungmui and her assistant packed up. And only late in the night that some seats were miraculously opened up. In addition, the airline did not charge us for penalty. We knew that God had a special plan for Tungmui's stay. During Tungmui's short 10-day stay, she spoke in 5 occasions, was interviewed by CCM magazine, was videotaped by Special Love fellowship,visited with individuals who needed encouragement. Her paintings stayed around as a living testimony that would remind us of her faith in God. Philip even took her to visit Seattle Pacific Univerity and Shoreline Community College to explore the possibility of studying here in the future. The day before Tungmui left, Chiao ma took us to a boat trip. On our way to the dock, Trix said that she had a dream about three beautiful rainbows and since it was raining, we prayed for the possibility of seeing rainbows. Also because of the rain, Tungmui, Anita (the assistant), Chiao ma and I set around a table inside the cabin. It was in this setting that Chiao m abrought Anita to Christ. Anita was filled with joy and we were, too. Originally, we could not find the right speaker, we waited for God to provide us with Tungmui who had separately prayed for a travel companion. Anita almost could not come to the trip. She and Tungmui were supposed to have left several days ago. The boat trip was not planned and certainly the rain was not either. Anita said that a couple of years ago, she met Tungmui. Earlier this year she met me and on this trip she met Chiao ma. These were the3 rainbows in her life that brought her to Christ. Perhaps these were the 3 rainbows that Trix had dreamt about the night before.

Xinyang's Update

Greetings in the Lord. I would like to update you on Xinyang's situation and we can all pray for him.

The adjustment of Xinyang to the adoptive family over the course of the last 2 months has been difficult, and the family has decided no longer to pursue this relationship. Some of the difficulty has surrounded Xinyang's lack of (or unwillingness) to interact with the family (contributing factors including his inability to speak putonghua and his apparent introverted nature).

The adopting mom has taken Xinyang back to Qingchuan. I talked to Xinyang. He sounded more reserve than before. Teacher Yang (the local teacher who has been his advocate) said that Xinyang did not want to come out to have lunch with others because of his disability. I'm quite concerned about Xinyang.

Xinyang does want to proceed with the surgery. His uncle should be bringing him to Chengdu. This should happen in a few days. Our contact in Chengdu will be meeting them in Chengdu and help us take care of the medical expense and facilitate other things needed in the process, including giving Xinyang some encouragement.

Let's all lift Xinyang up to the Lord.

Update on Xinyang: 3 strikes definitely not out‏

Eph 3:19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us... While we were focused on fund-raising for Xinyang's arm operation, God has much more installed for Xinyang. Let's start with the fund raising. To-date, we got about US$3,500. Don't know how much the operation will actually cost, but it is already very close to the original estimate. God is so good and thank you for your support and prayers! In the process of arranging for Xinyang to go to the hospital in Chengdu, we found out that Xinyang has been adopted by a family in Beijing in end of Sep., 2008. After some research, I found the contact information the the adoptive family. I called them last night. Guess what? The adoptive mom, Chen, is a doctor of internal medicine. Doctor Chen is very touched by the fact that so many people are trying to help Xinyang and she wants to be part of this effort. Xinyang told her the he wants to go to Chengdu for the operation. His reasoning is that "the uncle from America said so". How cute! Doctor Chen said that we can discuss in detail in early November. She thinks the best time for the operation is Chinese new year holiday. In addition, I'll be passing by Beijing in December. Maybe I'll get to see Xinyang. Xinyang faced a disabling accident, losing parents and experiencing rejection by the orphanage, but God has not forgotten him. He prepared a family instead of an orphanage to care for him; He prepared you and I to support and encourage him; He Himself loves him. Three strikes is definitely not out.

Yang Wenbuo

Yang Wenbuo is a 10 year-old boy in An Xian. His father was a night-shift driver. The morning of the earthquake, he went to the field to help out with farming. At noon he came back to sleep. When the earthquake hit, he was trapped and died. Wenbuo became reserve and we have been following up with him and his mom.