Two Mikes and a Steve
Life in Chad can be hard. It’s hot. It’s dusty. There’s a constant threat of illness. There’s also another challenge to overcome and that is the general lack of reliable electricity.

At the Welcome Center, electricity is supplied by a generator and a solar/battery system working in tandem. Originally, the two were able to supply the Center with electricity during the night and for a few hours during the daytime. But, as the Welcome Center’s use grew it became apparent that a more robust system was needed to meet the Mission’s needs.

After discussing the situation with LBIM Director, Matthew Rogness, it was decided that new batteries and solar panels would be purchased and shipped to Chad in anticipation of a future expansion of the solar/battery system. As it turned out, procuring the equipment was the easy part. Although we had the equipment, we didn’t have the expertise to install the system. So, we prayed that the Lord would provide somebody willing to come to Chad and install the new system.

As the months passed our equipment sat in storage at the Welcome Center while we waited upon the Lord to solve our problem. Then in early 2010, a short-term mission team came to the Welcome Center. During their stay, I discussed our situation with team member Mike Braaten, from Maple Park LBC, Lynnwood, WA, and immediately Mike showed a keen interest in what we needed to do and offered whatever help he could provide to get the job completed.

When Mike returned to the States he proved true to his word. Within a very short period of time he was able to find an electrician, Mike Watts from Maple Park LBC, who was willing to not only go to Chad but to completely re-design the system to maximize reliability and ease of use.

Preparations were made and in April of this year the two Mikes and I headed to Chad. Both men paid their own way, took time off from work and gave countless hours of their own time to make this endeavor a success. And, a free will offering at Maple Park LBC provided the necessary funds to pay for my airline ticket!

I cannot stress enough how thankful I was to have these two men as members of this little team. Their selflessness is something that I will always remember. Also, a big “Thank You” must be given to Maple Park LB Church and Pastor Dave Overland. The whole congregation adopted this project as their own.

In 1 Corinthians 12 the Apostle Paul talks about the body of Christ (the Church) and how as members of the body we all have a part to play. It is great to see how, when we are led by the Holy Spirit, though we may be few, we can accomplish so much.

Steve

Why do Missionaries Have to Learn so Many Languages?

It seems like LBIM missionaries are always learning another language and are always in need of prayer in acquiring them. We feel the same way. As we started our second language, we asked why we willingly put ourselves through this. Learning a language is a tedious process that tests the mind and will. One big challenge is there are so many languages to learn. On the little island of Taiwan, there are seven Hakka dialects. We only learned one of them. Now we are learning the official language, Mandarin Chinese. There are also aboriginal languages along with the Taiwanese language.

We need to learn so many languages because the people we desire to reach have learned so many languages. We know many people here who are fluent in four languages. They learn them to further their business customer base or because members of their family prefer to speak another language. They want to communicate. Our motivation is similar. We study these languages to further spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. We want to communicate.

There is a select group of people who have very little problem learning languages. Kids are language sponges. When we want to keep secrets from our kids, we speak to each other in Hakka, their poorest language. It does not work very well anymore. We cannot even disguise our communication by spelling it in English because our oldest is quickly deciphering this code. Kris and I are jealous of kids’ proper grammar and lack of accent. To her mother’s dismay, our daughter has even tried to correct our neighbor’s speech.

In high school and college, we avoided taking languages because the reasons for taking them were not convincing. Someday you might have a Spanish-speaking neighbor or coworker, so you should spend four semesters of your high school education diligently studying so you can be friends. Or someday you might travel to Spain and want to buy stuff. A better motivation for children of the church to study languages is that this is for the furtherance of the gospel. No other discipline is as directly involved in spreading the gospel. Even good theology is not possible without language.

With this in mind, we have been purposefully placing our children in schools and activities to ingrain the Chinese language into them. We want them to read and speak Chinese and English well, not just for college entrance, but for the purpose of spreading the gospel. You may think you do not have these types of opportunities. Growing up in rural North Dakota, I remember an old grandma who preferred reading out of her Norwegian Bible. Immigrants are still coming to America. Opportunities outside of a classroom are available to ingrain languages with native speakers. It really does not matter which language. The skill of learning a language is crucial. I can tell you from experience, the second one is easier.

Raising up the next generation of missionaries is very important. There is still work to do all over this world. The people who have yet to hear the gospel may not speak the languages taught in high schools so there will always be missionaries learning another language.

Andrew & Kris

THE BEGINNINGS OF A NEW CHURCH PLANT

The woman sitting at the table next to mine looked up when she heard me speak in Japanese. I knew I had a ten second window of time max to begin a conversation with her. If I didn’t say something right away, she would bury her face in her magazine again and I would lose the opportunity. What to say? Noticing she had ordered the same thing I had, I tried “This tea & toast set is really good on a cold morning, isn’t it?” What a lame comment, but…that’s all it took!

Half an hour later, after telling me a bit about her life and reminiscing about some childhood memories - including six years of attending Sunday School and being a sheep in the Christmas pageant - we finished up our tea and headed out. “Ooohh, Christmas!!” she said somewhat wistfully. “I haven’t thought about Christmas for a LONG time. It’s so nostalgic.” I handed her my blog card and encouraged her to come to a Christmas Eve candlelight service.

Dean was sitting on a bench downtown working and praying for opportunities, when a young girl sat down next to him to wait for her friend. Once again, the creativity of our conversation starters seems a bit lacking, but…”It sure is getting cold out here” seemed to be all that was necessary. Often people who talk to us like English, and this girl was no exception. She dreamed of going on a working holiday, but didn’t have the money…REALLY wanted to go to Hawaii…wished her English was better… Since the topic posted on “thatrinda’s blog” at the time just happened to be the testimony of a Hawaiian pastor friend, Dean showed it to her and gave her my card. A few minutes later her friend showed up, anxious to get going. After making a point of shaking hands with Dean, she disappeared into the crowds.

I hopped the train into the city and glanced around for an empty seat. There was only one! I plopped myself down next to a guy with pink and orange streaked hair, chains, and rather creepy looking accessories dangling from his cell phone. I tried to catch his eye and smile as I sat down, but there was no acknowledgement of it on his part. His face remained completely expressionless and his eyes remained glued to his cell phone. For the next ten minutes I tried to think of something to say to him. “How can he be reached, Lord?” I thought… He and thousands of other empty faces that ride the train every day.

As we move into the beginning stages of a church plant focused on downtown Sendai, many of our days include stories like these. We recently heard that, when starting a new ministry, at least half our time should be spent out trying to meet new people. We’ve become very intentional about that. Whenever possible we ride the train or subway instead of driving. We carry our laptops around and work at coffee shops instead of inside our house.

I’m writing this at a favorite burger chain. Two of the girls working here are students who love to practice their English. A few minutes ago one of them broke my heart by telling me she had just lined up a new job after graduation – at one of Sendai’s largest shrines. She will wear a traditional Shinto robe and be responsible for cleaning religious articles and helping English-speaking tourists.

Please pray that God will give us many opportunities for meeting people with open hearts. In December we passed out hundreds of Christmas CDs, blog cards, and cool advertisements for a contemporary style Christmas story viewable by cell phone. It’s sponsored by a group called “Let’s Love Japan”. We DO love Japan. And we thank you so much for supporting our work here.

Linda

See Linda's Blog here.

Delicious Water

“Everything you have told us has come true. You have never lied to us”. These were the first words spoken to us by an elder of one of three villages in which we oversaw the installation of wells due to the generous giving through the Advent Conspiracy project of Bethesda LB Church in Eau Claire , Wisconsin . And then the chief spoke up, saying, “Our thirst has been quenched”. Dan (LBIM missionary) took this opportunity to share the story of the woman at the well and the eternally thirst quenching water offered by Jesus. Can you imagine a better introduction to a village that you want to minster to?

        My two sons, John and Grant, and I had come to Chad from Bethesda LBC to join Dan in the process of overseeing the installation of these wells and meeting with these communities. We were helped in this process by a LB Chadian missionary and a local well technician. At one of the villages, prior to the well, the villagers were either walking 30 minutes each way for water or drinking dirty pond water. One local elderly man who could not walk that far to get water said he had been sick for years due to drinking bad water. He had already noticed the difference in his health after drinking the water and said that he felt “delicious”. This term surprised us at first, but after seeing the warm, dirty water they drank most of the time, this cool, clear water would be like eating a warm double chocolate cake with raspberries and a scoop of ice cream. “Delicious”.

        The well that was replaced in another village had been an open well. A little girl accidentally dropped her bucket down the well. A young man went down the well to bring the bucket back up. He was exhausted when he reached the top, slipped and fell 40 meters back into the well and died. As a result, nobody was comfortable using the well, and so they had to walk 30 minutes each way with their buckets and jerry cans.

        The need for wells is great in Chad . It is hard to explain all the blessings these wells will bring to each villagers’ life. In addition, the credibility these gifts bring our own missionaries cannot be counted. Each village had to come up with a portion of their own funds for the well, which is a very wise thing Dan insisted on. At each village we would sit on mats and discuss how important it was for the village to start a fund, with each villager to contribute to, used to maintain and repair the wells in the future. They would form a committee with a well manager, a treasurer and secretary and sometimes have two people for each position to keep everyone accountable. It was exciting to me that these same committees could be used for forming farm cooperatives in the future.

        It was a bit hard to justify spending $2,500.00 for my ticket. Was it really worth it? Shouldn’t we have just given the money for more wells? After struggling with this for the first week, we no longer thought it was a waste or unwise. Bethesda LBC adopted this people group years ago, engaging ourselves in the support of ministry among them. We are convinced that we ourselves had not fully adopted these people until we met them personally, and spent time talking and eating with them while sitting on their mats. All three of us look forward to our returning to Chad someday. We have fallen in love with these people and our visit and the funds spent were a wise investment.     Dean Hansen

A Time and Place Such as This

People say: “Stuff happens”, “Just do it”, “That’s life.” This is what God says: “I know the plans I have for you…” (Jeremiah 29:11), “My ways are higher than your ways…” (Isaiah 55:9), “You have been placed here for such a time as this…” (Esther 4:14), “My purpose prevails…” (Proverbs 19:21), “What I have planned, that will I do…” (Isaiah 46:11).

      As our family reflects on the divine providence of God in our lives, we are blessed and at peace because of it. We see how God has orchestrated the occurrences of our lives for His good purposes. And as Proverbs 3:5 reminds us, we are learning to trust God more, and we are learning to lean less on our own understanding, but rather to continually acknowledge God and His providence, knowing that He will indeed direct our paths.  Rejoice with us in how God brings us to the places and through the times of our lives for His glorious purposes!

      God planned and purposed for us to return to the United States this year for a medical leave, to attend to some concerns for one of our children. We wondered at the time if it was necessary as it would pull us away from ministry in Chad . We now see that it was for the best; that the medical/psychiatric attention was not only a huge blessing but will enable us as a family to continue this ministry together.

      God has planned and purposed for us to welcome a new member to our family. Shortly after we arrived home in the States, we discovered that Rachel was pregnant! This event defied the scope of medical logic, and so was a big surprise. Claire Mireille was born to us on the 19^th of April. “Claire” means “clear” in French. “Mireille” is another French name meaning “miracle”. And so we are blessed with this “clear miracle” from God. God purposed to place us in the United States for this time of pregnancy and delivery, as we were able to have access to good obstetric care, something not easily found in Chad .

      God planned and purposed that while on this home leave we would be able to visit multiple North American congregations, share about the Lutheran Brethren ministry in Chad and be blessed by this fellowship. And God purposed that Dan would be able to work alongside LBIM director Matthew Rogness, assisting him with matters concerning the mission in Chad .

      God has also purposed that Dan take a trip to Chad for the first two weeks of June, along with three men from the Bethesda Lutheran Brethren congregation in Eau Claire. While there, they will be visiting unreached communities and overseeing the installment of three wells in villages that currently have no good source of drinking water. We pray that this open door to these communities will lead to further contact and opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus, the source of water that gives eternal life.

      God is leading us next to France where we will spend the 2010/2011 academic year in French language learning. We are doing this because as we return to Chad we will be engaging more in a partnership ministry with our Chadian Church , the EFLT. This partnership will include providing assistance to the Chadian Lutheran Brethren congregations in enabling, training and facilitating the sending and supporting of Chadian missionaries among the unreached people groups of Chad . Much of this engagement will, by necessity, take place in the French language.

      Thank you for your continued prayer and support of the ministries of LBIM as you continue to rejoice with us in God’s providence.   

Dan

Cameroon 2010 Mission Team

Where do we start to describe to you the trip God took us on to Chad and Cameroon this past January? Let us start by praising His holy name for the glory displayed as we traveled along. This was revealed to us in countless ways as the 16 Americans journeyed to the other side of the world in His service. We are thankful for the prayers offered on our behalf as God provided for us each step of the way.

We were blessed by extravagant hospitality along the way. Steve and Janice and their family helped us both coming and going, graciously accommodating us at the Welcome Center.

After a day of border crossing and bus travel, we arrived at the Baptist Mission in Maroua, Cameroon. God treated us to sightings of roan antelope, giraffes and monkeys along the way. There we met up with the evangelism director for the Cameroon LB Church, and sketched out a schedule for the week ahead. Another day of travel with a brief stop in Kaele and we arrived at the Catholic Mission in Yagoua, our home for the week. We toured the Martha Adair Hospital, visited the border crossing at the Logone River and turned in for the night. The next morning we split up and worshipped with three different LB congregations. Pastor Chris Priestaf, Zachary Schroer and Scott Skelton were invited to bring the message.

Sunday afternoon we visited the mission points and set up clinic in the old hospital. We were pleasantly surprised that there was now an administrator of the hospital and they had laid in a supply of medications. An ophthalmologist had been doing cataract operations there of late and he kindly volunteered to help in the low-vision clinic with Vicki and Mike Braaten. We evaluated and treated many of the church pastors and elders and translators who would be working with us in the days ahead as we organized ourselves into triage and lab, medical, vision and pharmacy units.

The team God had assembled was good humored and diverse. Each member seemed both essential and sufficient for the work at hand. We were impressed at how God coordinated our time with His church in Cameroon to bring almost two hundred people to the Lord and plant two new churches in the Yagoua area during our visit. This, despite our lack of language skills in French and Masana (except for Allison and Solveig).

God allowed us to serve hundreds of people in the clinic setting as well, including a number of extremely ill children and adults. In addition to addressing their medical needs, we were able to pray with many of them. God demonstrated time and again how He was sufficient when we felt hopelessly inadequate.

Although many were served in the clinic and touched in the new church plant areas, we saw countless others who were not. The Cameroon CLB plans to carry on the Lord's work there using medications, supplies, and evangelism tools we left behind, powered, of course, by the Holy Spirit. We felt strengthened in the Lord by our brothers and sisters in Cameroon as they felt strengthened by our presence. Please continue to pray with us and our leaders as we seek to discover our part in His work. Noel Johnson

Getting to Know the Kittelsons

In 1986 while serving Pilgrim Lutheran Brethren Church in Mentor, Ohio, the Lord moved our hearts to seek out the opportunity to serve Him in Taiwan, sharing God’s love with the Hakka Chinese. We are pleased, honored, humbled and thankful to be missionaries in Taiwan these last 22 years. We believe God has placed us here to specifically touch those Hakka who are not reached by ways, methods and activities of the traditional Church in Taiwan. We have served in many locations since our arrival. At present, we partner with members of Victory LB Church, Hsinchu, to develop ministries that would particularly interest and encourage the Hakka in outreach.

For someone who may not know us and our life in Taiwan , one question that might be asked is, “Who are the Kittelsons, really?” If you asked a member of Victory LB Church, a person we are working with, or a member of the community this question, what would they say? These are some of the responses you might hear.

• They are a couple who speak the Hakka language.
  Yes, we can speak Mandarin Chinese, and normally foreigners just use Mandarin, but we primarily use Hakka for our life in Taiwan. Often the first question we ask is, “Do you speak Hakka?” To us the use of this minority language helps us identify the Hakka around us, endears us to them and often opens the door for friendship because we have bothered to learn their heart language and have entered their culture.
  
  
• They sing and play Hakka music.
  Through the years, we have gathered and become familiar with many types of Hakka music. We have specifically learned traditional and contemporary songs, melodies, lyrics, and instruments that we then use for evangelism, discipleship, and worship. With this music, we share the gospel with new friends and express our faith and worship among the Hakka believers. God has taken something that we have an interest in and enjoy in life, and has made it a part of our ministry.
  
  
• They are people who pray with and for others.
  As we become friends with people and understand them, their life, beliefs and needs, we seek to bring these things before God in prayer. In our visiting with people, before we depart, it is customary to take time to pray for their needs and to ask our Heavenly Father to bless our friends, those who know Jesus as well as those who are still on the way. It may happen at a prayer meeting, but it may also occur during a chance meeting on the street. 
  
  
• They enjoy being among people.
  We strive to be people who become acquainted with those who live and work in the community.  As we live in our community (shopping, eating, relaxing and exercising) we get to know the people around us and they get to know us as well.   With these relationships, God opens the doors to share the gospel with our friends and acquaintances. Ministry among these people is our life. 

We pray in all these things that the Lord will use who we are and what we do so people around us may see Jesus and understand His love.  May God receive all the glory, may many come to accept this love of Jesus, and may God’s Church grow strong among the Hakka in Hsinchu.

Mike and Delores Kittelson

Another Language

We are pilgrims on the road to our heavenly home.  Sometimes in Chad , sometimes in the United States … And this year, our Father has sent us to Albertville, France. He has us here to learn French. Kirsten and I (Marcos) are in class three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon, and I think the professors plan for us to study another three hours at night. The kids are in on the act, of course. The three oldest are in public school, with Lucas (12) in middle school about a mile away, while Hans (10) and Betsy (3) at a pre-K to 5^th grade school just around the corner from us. Katie (2) is in our language school’s child care for most of the day. They are all in full immersion in French, and the Lord has answered all our prayers regarding their schooling situations. Each one has the teachers and classroom situation that is just right for them. We will be here until July of 2010, when we plan to return to Chad, well equipped with French.

French will be vitally important as we continue to broaden our ministry partnership with the Lutheran Brethren Church of Chad. We, Lutheran Brethren missionaries from North America, have been assigned the role of pioneering ministry to previously unevangelized peoples of Chad. These important first steps to expanding God’s Kingdom in Chad need to be followed up by Chadians taking the gospel to other Chadians. They will be the ones to take the Good News of Jesus to every corner of their country and beyond. They, however, need to be called, trained and sent. We can have a role in this process, which is why we need French.

You see, when we first arrived in Chad, we learned Chadian Arabic first to better communicate with our people group. Though this choice brought us closer to the people we wanted to reach, it, paradoxically, distanced us from our Lutheran Brethren brothers and sisters, who by and large do not speak Arabic. French is their common language. Knowing French we will be able to speak with and encourage lay people, evangelists, pastors and even the President of their synod. Lutheran Brethren International Mission is seeking to catalyze the LB of Chad to answer God’s call to send workers into the harvest fields of Chad. As the Church responds to this part of their God-given mission, we can be there to walk along side them. Again, French will be indispensible for this.

All this does not mean that we have abandoned our church planting and translation work among our people group. We will continue these, and our new-found knowledge of French will help us in these ministries as well. Primarily, French will be very useful as we continue translation work. We want to increase the involvement of our people group in the translation of the Bible into their own language, and most of the training and resources available to them are in French. Knowing French can help us work more closely together. Translation ministry inevitably leads to literacy, and in Chad that means dealing with the government, which primarily works in French. In addition, French will help us as we work with other Christian groups in Chad, like the Jesus Film project for Chad, who share our goal of making Christ known throughout Chad.

Thank you for your prayers and support during this important time.  

Marcos

Reading the News Backwards

One of the best pieces of cultural advice that I picked up during our first few years of ministry here in East Asia came from an older lay pastor and his wife.  I no longer remember what the main subject of our conversation was on that particular afternoon, but I do remember a brief, off-hand remark that the husband made about how to read newspapers and listen to news reports in our new host country, which happens to be closed to traditional mission work: “You have to read the news backwards,” he commented rather matter-of-factly.  “If there’s a front-page article about a good wheat harvest in a particular northern province , that probably means that a famine has been going on there.  If there’s a feature story about the harmonious relations between this minority group and that majority group in one particular region of the country, it probably means that those two groups have been fighting each other recently.”

I’ve put that little tidbit of advice into practice many times since then.  It has, on the whole, served me quite well—and not only when reading local newspapers!  Many “news” items appearing on western news websites, I’ve discovered, are best read “backwards” as well.  Take some of the typical fare being served up on my home page (www.yahoo.com) recently, for instance: “Episcopal Bishops OK Prayer for Gay Couples”—“Butler Lashes Out at Aniston Romance Rumours”—“Obama Wearing Mom Jeans?”—“June Video Game Sales Drop Sharply.”  What do headlines such as these say about our own culture back in the US ?

There is another sense, though, in which I have increasingly come to “read the news backwards” since our family moved to this East Asian country more than a decade ago—a way of reading unfolding events that has much more to do with my long, uneven journey toward a deeper, calmer faith in Him than with my more recent forays into a healthy journalistic skepticism.  In my day-to-day work as a director overseeing the ministry of about 170 cross-cultural workers in this country, I’ve recently received news—by email, by phone, by Skype, by instant messaging—of dear friends losing their full-term baby, of a godly brother in ministry being arrested and sentenced to a year of prison labor for “disturbing the public security,” of colleagues having to flee or hide from deadly ethnic rioting occurring on the streets outside their doors, of co-worker after co-worker being denied visas to work and study among the unreached peoples that they love, of brothers and sisters in Christ facing life-threatening accidents and illnesses.  How am I to view this seemingly relentless onslaught of overwhelmingly tragic and discouraging news?  On the surface, it would appear as if we are losing the battle—as if we might just as well pack our bags, move back home, and stick to harmless, gossipy news about the latest scandal, the hottest new styles, and the coolest new electronic games.

But when I look again at these recent events with eyes of faith, with a deeper vision honed on a growing confidence in the God who has been relentlessly (and successfully) pursuing sin-sick humans for millennia on end, I see something very different happening around me in this country.  I see seeds of life being planted that will never be uprooted.  I see co-workers and colleagues being painfully, lovingly, tenderly equipped for significant future ministry.  I see an all-knowing Supreme Commander carefully, deliberately repositioning his crack troops for the next major offensive on enemy-held territory.  I see the ruler of this present darkness baring his fangs, raging in murderous desperation as peoples and territories that he has owned for centuries upon end come increasingly under redemptive, divine assault from every direction.

When I see this way, I see truly, knowing without the slightest hesitation that we are indeed on the winning side.  Knowing that nothing can possibly happen to us, His deeply cherished children, that He is not capable of turning--somehow, someway—into an opportunity or an occasion for displaying His glory, for working some new, unforeseen blessing into our lives, for drawing a world of lost, desperate people all around us steadily and inexorably to Himself.  The battle indeed belongs to the Lord.     

Joel

Bethel Team Goes to Chad

As part of the Connections English teaching program, Jon and I taught conversational English to both children and adults. Our classes were connected to two LB churches in the Sendai area, and our goal was to teach English, share from God’s Word and our own faith lives, and establish friendships with our students. Having a family of five was a particular source of interest to our students. Our children and our family life were the source of many chapel ideas, and our students were eager to show our entire family around Northern Japan.

In between classes, we managed to attend river BBQ’s where bear meat and hormone were featured items, eat jellyfish and visit an onsen (read bath) with our entire church family, learn to cook many Japanese foods with ladies classes, go skiing with our students, and visit many beautiful temples, shrines and gardens. We acquired a taste for sushi, shiso, miso and tofu. James is actually bringing home seaweed as a treasured souvenir.  Maria has become an expert on Japanese fashion, and William recently asked if he could dye his hair from blond to black like all of his friends. See what a difference two years can make?

As short-term missionaries in the English program, we had the unique opportunity to “hook” some of our students with our free-spirited Western ways and our inability to speak Japanese. We said things, tried things, and acted in ways that aren’t “typically” Japanese, and our family of five became a little missionary team. On one outing we were playing baseball as a family at a park, laughing and having a blast, and we greeted a woman who was walking her dog. Like many others over our time here, she wanted to practice her English. She enjoyed watching this game of American ball, and we chatted, gave her an information card, said good-bye, and kept on playing. A year later, she called the number to the church, asked if she could please study the Bible, and came to greet the family she met one year before in the park.  She wants to be baptized soon! 

We learned that even though we didn’t speak Japanese, love translates in any language.  One of my classes was a group of wives and mothers, and at chapel time, I shared from my heart about my own struggles over issues we could all relate to…parenting, selfishness, wanting to control things, and needing reminders to trust God. Our hearts grew close as we laughed together each week, and as these precious women taught me how to make soup, mochi rice, and okonomiyaki. We parted with a fair amount of tears and plenty of Western hugging!

There were challenges during our time here…broken arms, learning how to grocery shop, living in a 500 square foot apartment, driving on the opposite side of the road, and constantly feeling like we were “babies” in grown up bodies who needed help to do many things. We laughed a lot, cried a little, and learned quickly to say “excuse me” in Japanese. We became excellent actors, and sharing each day’s stories became popular dinner conversation. 

God not only sent us, He equipped us and blessed us. Our Japanese students freely tell us there really is no religion here. People are so open to hearing about the hope that Christ brings. Could a trip East be in your future?        Kim Sorensen

Chad MK to Taiwan