Surely goodness and mercy will follow - a newly weds missionary diary

Usually, a newly wedded couple are eager to build up their family, plan their future and enjoy the time they have together. But, we have chosen a different path... 

~ Who are we?~

Below are our letters written at various times to tell you of our "missionary" life experience:

• He has chosen us   (Mar, 1996)
• Wonderful Guidance - 2 year mission trip (Oct, 1996)
• First Training Retreat in GambleGate (Nov, 1996)
• Our Preparation and Our Plead of Help (Dec, 1996)
• Second Training and enroute visits (Feb, 1997)
• First Impression On Site (Apr, 1997)
• Feel Our Culture Shock (May, 1997)
• His Grace is sufficient for us (Oct, 1997)
• His Faithfulness and our homecoming in Hong Kong (Feb, 1998)
• His mercy on the development in the mission field (Mar, 1998)
• Missionary challenge: second year is harder than the first (April, 1998)

                                                                  Love in Christ,

                                                                            Filbert and Iris
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Prayer Items: (Feb, 97)

1. Need to adjust to the climate here. (Winters can be -20 degrees Celsius)
2. Learn about the culture and the language. This language is classified as one of the hardest to learn well. It's very challenging.
3. Our family will accept Christ
4. God help us with our serving here, and help us to be loyal
5. Help us to know Him well and growth spiritually.
6. Pray for the Lord to give us wisdom in our work.
7. Help us to be hospitable
8. Pray for a vision in giving us a target cultural group. Help us pray earnestly for their salvation.  Around here, there are four different cultural groups we are aware of.
9. Iris' father as he has cancer and living alone in Hong Kong. Pray that he gets a better Christian support network.

Prayer Items: (May, 97)

Balancing between learning the language, adjusting to a new lifestyle and keeping up a good spiritual life is not easy. Please remember us.

Filbert will be attending a Global Action seminar to prepare for his leadership of the office missionary team, pray for God to grant him wisdom.

Filbert has to learn about email and even setting up an email server for the office's use.

Help us to be hospitable, particularly to our nice and friendly colleagues here.

Our field supervisor encouraged us to "adopt" a people group to care and evangelize to. May the Lord grant us a clear vision.

Pray that Iris' father gets better Christian support and be able to participate/get involved with the local church in Hong Kong.

Prayer Items: (Oct, 97)

Give thanks to God for the salvation of Thirsty. Please pray for a growing faith in him. He practiced burning incense to idols for a long time before he became a Christian. After believing in the Lord, he was robbed at his shop and lost some goods. Not only that, he had many weird and awful dreams. May the Lord protect and show Thirsty his power and his presence.

Filbert will be attending a Global Action seminar to prepare for his leadership of the office missionary team. Pray for God to grant him wisdom.

Pray for the reconciliation between the Gentiles and the Chinese. May the Lord help the Gentiles to ease up their stubbornness in not forgiving the Chinese. Pray also for the salvation of LidoTube, so he can become a peacemaker amongst the two races.

Pray for Filbert's work and may God let him relax and pray even when it can get very busy.

Thank the Lord that a vacant position in the office has been filled recently.

Pray for about US$70,000 for the expansion of the office space for more effective service to the local people. US$20,000 had been raised already.

Pray for Iris' father as he has to do dialysis daily. (more problems with his kidney, now) In his weakness, may the Lord be his help.

Prayer Items: (Feb, 98)

Pray that Thirsty won't get confused. His wife didn't like him accepting Christ. May the Lord help him to be a good testimony for her and be able to communicate well during her short visit from China.

Our language teacher is also very receptive to the gospel. She invited Filbert once to share his testimony. Now she's reading the Bible everyday. May the Holy Spirit open her spiritual eyes to understand salvation and give her courage to take a first step in faith.

The school has two teachers for 60 students, may the Lord bless us with more teachers because that's not enough.

Pray for Filbert's work. May God let him relax and pray for others even when it gets very busy.

OM's office is looking for another location to be their base. They need to raise about $70,000 US to achieve this. They obtained $20,000 US only. Pray for God to supply our needs.

Civil war is going on around us, in a neighboring country. OM still have about twenty colleagues working there. They are living in fear everyday though. Pray that God would send them guardian angels to keep them safe.

Prayer Items: (Mar, 98)

Iris' father is taken care of by a Filipino girl who lives in the house (a live-in servant). May the Lord strengthen her. Continue to pray that Iris' father will thirst for the Lord and grow in his faith.

Pray for that brother's father-in-law who has cancer but still visited Iris' father in the hospital. He is still not a Christian yet. Pray for his salvation.

Thank the Lord that Filbert's sister found an appropriate fellowship. Pray for her involvement there.  Continue to pray for his parents, older brother and sister's salvation.

Pray for our commitment in our second year of serving. Pray for our language learning, and wisdom in equipping ourselves in our future work.

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