News indeed!

Dear friends,

I am so grateful to God and so blessed by Him just to be here and serving Him and beginning my life's journey doing His work. It's so awesome and words alone cannot say how I feel, but everytime there's chance, I would be singing and shouting praise to the Lord our God. Halleluyah! Generally, it's good to know where I'm heading, and good to know that God knows the way there.

This past week, I have two highlights that I would like to share with you. And the first is this, my parents have given me their blessing for my work. I didn't expect this, because first, I am the oldest son in a Chinese family, and second, they've given me so much, it's become hard to see how they'd let their son go into fulltime missions work, and possibly go to Africa and be really out of reach. And with their blessing, I feel complete and I feel that there is no way that anyone can keep me out of Africa, and I'll definitely do my work there, soon as the Lord sends me. I am so encouraged by this, and I just really want to thank God for showing my parents how to let go, and for taking care of them, so that I can be free to serve Him all my life.

I love my family very much and I've been stuck between wanting to serve and wanting to provide for my family for a long time, and I think it's the only thing that's anchored me here and kept me from leaving. But this time hadn't been wasted, because God had used it to show my parents that I'll be stuck at this point if I can't make up my mind about this, and I know I can't, so they made it for me. My parents let go, gave me their blessing, and told me to make that choice, between putting family first, or putting God first. I guess they realised after all these years that unless if I'm doing my true calling, I won't be happy, and that my calling is to serve God in the front lines.

This is really encouraging, and it brings my mind back to the story of the Jailer who believed in Christ and then through his faith, his whole family is saved. (Acts 16:16-35) I've always wondered at what that means, because obviously salvation is a personal choice, and you have to choose to accept Jesus, to be saved. But I guess, what I'm getting from my experience in this situation is, God is definitely and willingly going to take care of my family, whilst I'm choosing Him and choosing to serve Him with all of my life, because then, I would not have the time or resources to do what I need to be doing as a son. And what I didn't bank on was that God isn't just going to stop at physically keeping my folks healthy and living, but He's really going to show them more how to also be spiritually well, even though I won't be there to show them myself. This is really amazing! Praise God!

The second thing that I wanted to share about is a grave mistake that I've made over the last 6 weeks of serving here at HOLF. There are other volunteers who are here for a much shorter time than I intend to, and a lot of them are youth and university students, so naturally I took to them and had chosen to spend more time being in the same place and doing the same chores as they are, and forgot that my responsibilities, if I wanted to serve fulltime, included a lot more than what is demanded from the short-term volunteers. Pui Yee, the head nurse, reminded me, and I felt very ashamed of my actions, and became very gloomy for a couple of days, especially because she mentioned that if I'm not suitable, then I won't be able to serve for a year, and that came as a very shocking reminder. Now the pressure from the reminder was immense and very overwhelming because Pui Yee was going to leave on a missions trip 11 days from the serious talk that we had, and I wasn't sure I could change her mind in that few days, but I realised that there was time left and I wasn't going to give up on God. I needed to shape up and to be working hard, remembering hard how to run things, and become as able as any of the fulltimers to run the entire operation, because unless if I know full and well how everything goes, I will not fulfill their requirement.

And that's what I did. I am a bit slow still, but I haven't made any mistakes or needed any reminders from the other fulltime health workers, and I'm working my butt off and God is really giving me enough energy to last it out, and I feel that I'm doing quite well. Praise God! Pui Yee's now on the trip, and will be back in 10 days, now there's still a chance that I will be made to leave on August 12 with all the other college volunteers, but I'm no longer worried about Pui Yee not being here, and that I can't show her that I'm capable of serving, because I know God is in control, and what I do unseen by others is seen by God, and if God has a mind to keep me here or to send me to Africa, noone can take me away. And between Pui Yee's reminder, and my parents' encouragement and advice, I'm really choosing God each and every day. That is so great!

And that's my update for the past weeks. Thanks for your prayer support, it's what I need most. Keep praying for my work, and my health, and also for the kids' health and for their joy and their own unique spiritual experience and journeys. I don't know how receptive they are, but maybe they have a better way of talking with God and we're just missing out.

I now have $1,700 (US$213) of sponsorship for each month, together with my tutoring ($1,800/month), it's enough to cover my expenses, but after the summer, I won't be able to tutor as much, and that may change the way things are. So also please keep praying for my financial support, and for God to really help me out here. I'm sure He will, but it's really good to pray and ask about it, we are His children after all.

God bless you, my friends.

James