Dear Mission and Prayer Co-workers,
“I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1
Greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to our Lord for guiding us and taking care of us every moment. We also thank you for your support, prayers and love that were shown throughout the construction of Glory Bible Presbyterian Church. We had moments of joy and hardship at the old location, and after 11 years, we moved to the new location on April 5th. In God’s amazing grace, we had the dedication service of the chapel of Glory Bible Presbyterian Church on April 29, 2014.
The Lord has given us a new land for church ministry. This is a land barren of the Gospel. Peoples’ hearts are very hardened and closed so that we keenly felt the need of evangelism. It’s as if there is a strong and big Jericho City in front of us, but we shall get a victory in the spiritual battle. There is much work to do, but there are few workers on the field. For a long period of time we nurtured our church members in God’s Word, love and with prayer. However many of them have abandoned the church and devotion by following their own judgment and convenience. It’s very disheartening to see our brothers and sisters turning away from the church just because it was relocated to a new place. Even if we are short-of-hands right now, we are able to care for two churches with the help of a few devoted members. Sometimes we just burst out into tears as our body and soul became weak and weary. We may fall and be discouraged at times, but we will stand up and continue to walk down the road like Elijah. Please pray for Glory Bible Presbyterian Church and Gospel Bible Presbyterian Church, that they can be deeply rooted and bear good fruit.
The mission team of Living Praise Presbyterian Church from Singapore will open the VBS for two churches in the middle of August. Subsequently the youth mission team of Glory Bible Presbyterian Church from Seoul is coming to visit us. These churches sent their teams to us to help us last year, and both teams have the same goal: to revive Sunday Schools in our two churches. We ask for your blessing and prayer that the Lord will work through them and His name be glorified.
It has been 15 years since we came under our Independent Board in the US. Since we long to pay a visit there and have a furlough year that we never had before, we hope that it can be realized with God’s plan. We are committing the ministries and church work to three theological students from Glory Bible Presbyterian Church. We are working hard to make the church become more independent and self-sufficient even without the support of missionaries. It is even more challenging to appoint a leader who stands up firmly on the faith and loves God and church wholeheartedly. Please pray with us on this too.
We are grateful and joyful that we can share wonderful blessings that God has poured out into the mission field through your support and prayer. May God the Father bless you all with gratefulness and peace.
In Christ,
Stephen and Lydia