Two good news and one concern

Dear friends,

I have two bits of news that I've been very excited about today and I have to share it with you! Firstly, one of my friends at the orphanage has come to accept Christ, and it excites me because I can be a part of this new part of her life! And I am thrilled! It took about one day for the news to sink in, but ever since the moment it sunk in, I've been excited about it! Praise Jesus! Praise God! It's also a really good bit of confirmation and acknowledgement from God, telling me that this is part of His purpose for me here at HOLF, and I'm just so thankful that He's chosen me to share in this experience with my friend. Thanks, Jesus!!

Now my second bit of good news came in a revelation this morning, when I forgot that it was Sunday because it's been so long since I've been to church, as I don't often have day offs on Sundays anymore. But then we do have a service here in Chinese and we do have Chinese praise songs, and a Chinese sermon every Sunday, and all sorts of different people turn up to take part of it every week. Now the sermon for today was really good, and I realised that I didn't need to be at "home" with a church to learn from the sermon, I just needed to listen with a willing heart. So the pastor got my attention, and I listened. The second part of the revelation came a little later when I thought about this, and how church here isn't bad at all. In fact, it's quite nice. I realised that it was such an advantage to be able to understand spoken Cantonese as well as spoken English, and here when the education level of the volunteers and workers are much lower than that of anywhere else I've worked/resided, it's much more apparent, and even though I can't read a lot of characters, I can still communicate with this language, and I've learnt not to take my "limited" Chinese for granted, because I'm much better off than most here. That and also my knowledge in Christ. There are Christians here that have been believers all their lives, but haven't had a chance to know Christ much deeper theologically than they had the first day they accepted Him, all their experience with Christ had been personal. But they've turned out to be very strong spiritually in their own way and very good people. Praise God for that. But also praise God that I am able to know more and understand more and communicate more, and this is furthermore leading me to think that God's given me these so that I can tell the masses about Him and His love for them. And I will, because that's what I've been given to work with, so I'll use the tools that He's given me to bring Him more glory!

So with this new insight, it's more like two and a half good news, rather than just two. And so wrapping up, there is one concern on my mind right. It's become apparent that I can't do anymore tutoring because my offs aren't always on the weekends, so I won't be able to give my students enough lessons, and won't be able to keep a consistent schedule. Good thing is that my mom is willing to take them, and lucky for them, because my mom is a really awesome teacher, but my concern is that my finances will take a heavy hit, because up until this month, my budget has been reached via both monthly giving from my friends, and from my tutoring, and the ratio's at half and half. So now, I'm down by quite a bit. So please pray about that. Thanks. I'm sure it's just a small issue, since God wants me here, He'll find a way to give me what I need to keep at this for a year.

Thanks for your time again. Hope to share more soon.

Yours in Christ,

James