Salvations and Dean Sherman and Miracles Oh My!

Me and Dean Sherman

Hello again from Hong Kong everyone! I hope that this newsletter finds you all in good health and in good spirits! I have been working hard studying about God’s work in Asia and researching the Unreached People Groups I’m so desperate to reach during my School of Frontier Missions (SOFM). Let me assure you that what I am learning is not only breaking my heart for Asia, but encouraging me that God’s will can be accomplished! So far I’ve written 2 Book Reports, completed 10 chapters of an intensive mission methods study book, and finished the first half of a profiling portfolio on an Unreached People Group. Our SOFM community has been growing closer and more trusting of each other, and we’ve truly felt the Holy Spirit fill our classroom! To know and trust that Jesus is blessing us in our work and that He is pleased with us pushes us to go forward in our desire to see the Great Commission fulfilled. God has been using my quiet times with Him to give me encouragements for the future and to remind me to just rely on Him, something that I am learning to do more - I am loving it and I am loving Him.

We were blessed enough to have Dean Sherman come back to Hong Kong this summer. Dean has become very well known in all of YWAM for his teachings on Spiritual Warfare and Relationships. He taught for a week during my DTS, and this time he talked to the SOFM about stronger Spiritual Warfare. He taught about how it is our unresponsiveness to the enemy’s attacks that stop us from going to reach the people of the world who have not yet heard the Gospel. He is such a wise and well-spoken instructor, and having been with YWAM for 42 years, his extensive knowledge on this topic, which amazingly he accredits all to God, was invaluable. His teaching style not only opened our eyes to Biblical truths about spreading the Gospel, but he teaches in such a way that I left his lectures feeling as though I should have already known the things he spoke on. The key to Dean’s success as a teacher though, is his humility, which I experienced firsthand when I sat with him twice during his stay for lunch and just listened to his opinions on topics such as Houses of Prayer and the Old Testament Israel. To have such workers as Dean among YWAM is truly God’s blessing.

My SOFM classmate Michael and I met a Chinese man in our village named Andes. Through a couple of conversations we’d discovered that he was a very bitter man, having lost a child to abortion, and impregnating a woman who was not his wife. However, he was interested in what Michael and I believed, and we were able to introduce him to Jesus. On our third visit, Andes accepted Christ as Lord, and we explained to him about how Jesus loved him, his now ex-wife, his daughter, and newly born, illegitimate son and his son’s mother. I also felt that God wanted Andes to know that his unborn son was now waiting for him in heaven, and that made Andes cry. Michael and I really felt the Lord’s guidance that evening and we really saw a change in Andes’ life. I praise God for introducing me to Andes so that I could introduce Andes to God! On the way back from this meeting though, the enemy struck against me, and my wallet was lost on the bus! I didn’t notice until hours later, and I knew that God was my only chance of finding it. So, after cancelling my credit card, and making a few unsuccessful phone calls, I just began to worship Jesus, and He reminded me that in this line of work, the enemy tries to discourage us in whatever way he can, and that I need to be willing to experience loss in order to experience great gain. I realized then that Andes’ life was worth way more than anything in my wallet, and I praised God for considering me worthy to suffer for the Gospel! The next morning, the bus driver returned my wallet with everything in it, untouched. Not a thing was missing! This is so rare in Hong Kong, and it was such a miracle from the Lord!