Pray BFF #54 February 17, 2004
Dear Prayer Team,
In God's House of Training
Are we ready for this year's work? I suppose we would always say no if we knew what God was planning to do. The Lord is providing more regular speaking opportunities this year. Two new series, with overheads and handouts are still in the design stage. Fortunately, some of the material only needs to be reformatted for teaching. Here are the four series, three of which start soon.
Godly Beginnings for the Family (This is a new ten week series for expectant and new parents. It is in the production stage).
Biblical Parenting Principles (This has already been completed and taught; the next class will be mostly in Chinese).
A Series on Marriage (A ten week series that needs shaping into English and Chinese).
What we find so special is the way God trains us. First, He trained us to develop materials for teaching, then for the web and then for overheads. Then He had us teach series which demand much more design and effort. Simply said it is intense. We taught the Overcoming Anxiety seminar and the Reviving Your Personal Devotions series. Last year we taught the Parenting series which forced me to teach using my very rusty Chinese . And in many ways, preparing materials to be taught in another language requires a lot of extra effort especially because the material is graphically oriented.
Now we have two new series to develop (Beginning parenting and Marriage). Please pray for us! Our goal is not to sound or look good but for God to actually instigate long-lasting godly changes in a given area of life. Many materials are too superficial. We are dealing with rebuilding the biblical foundations. So please pray for wisdom!
In the case of the married series, we have enough material for a book or two. But now our challenge is to shape it into a ten week series. This is not easy! We want to teach the foundational principles. For this series, Paul has also been asked to teach it in Chinese this summer. So further work needs to be done as well as a good translation.
Boast in Weakness
One thing is for sure. We have lots of weaknesses to boast in. Anything God can squeeze out of us this year is to His great and grand glory. Our faith is not in ourselves or our experience. We are still stunned by what God has produced in the past couple of years. This gives us faith but not self-confidence. If God doesn't give extraordinary wisdom, supernatural concentration (especially in our household), tenacious organization, ample humility, fluidity in tongues (English and Chinese) and of course His Spirit's anointing in all we do, we will be in a most desperate situation.
Thanks to God! |
Requests to God
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We give praise to God for all the parents helped through the last parenting class. The surveys confirmed God's hand upon the class. Paul has been very thankful for the encouraging responses to the ADT (Advanced Discipleship Training) material. Praise God for no flu this year (yet) and only one or two colds in the family. Safety in traveling long distances with our van which was fixed just in the nick of time! We are thankful for many more speaking/training opportunities. Thankful for both refreshing times on our vacation trip as well as concentration to work. |
We have two parenting classes and one marriage class scheduled for the first half of 2004. We appreciate a chance to see Paul's parents during this vacation and a chance to get away from the oppressing cold. Pray for rest, provision and focus. Pray for Pastor Stephen in India as he leads others in reaching out to a vastly unreached area. People have been asking for more and more materials in printed form. This seems to be an indication that God is preparing us to develop workbooks or books. Pray for guidance. Ask for clarity and help for organization of BFF, both financially and structurally (non-profit). Wisdom to develop the two new series mentioned above. |
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Serving Together for the Glory of God, Paul and Linda Write to Paul with your comments: Top of Page | Previous | Next | BFF Homepage |
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