Mele Kalikimaka (hawaiin for Merry Christmas)

I won't be posting as much as Michael is taking his laptop back with him. boo-hoo! We will be leaving for China on the 19th. Staying in Hong Kong helping with a Christmas outreach while there. On the 28th we leave to go up into central China to help run a two week discipleship training school. The end of January we will go up to Beijing to see the great wall, etc and than onto Dalian in northern China. We will help out with another discipleship training school there. Everyday in China 35,000 people become believers so there is a great need for discipleship. In 2008 Ywam is sending 20,000 Christians to Beijing for the Olympics. They are gearing up for the World Expo in 2010 as well. They want to start up 40 bases through out China to meet the need. They are looking to start a school of biblical studies and a school of biblical counselling. People are hungry to learn about Jesus there. They want to be missionaries to the rest of the world. If a house church closes down from being found out, four more start up in different locations. Churches worship for three to five hours there. I won't be able to post or receive anything relating to Christianity while in China. All our emails will be read while in China and we don't want to put at risk our contacts there. If caught all that will happen to us is we will be asked to leave but the Christians there will go to prison. They are willing to risk it all just to learn more. There is a five month dts going on right now and we will meet these people. I'm starting to realize the greatest risk to our faith back in North America is to become comfortable in our prosperity.