Points for Prayer

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( As of  July  16, 2012  )

Please read our new requests  and updates in italics below. 

2012-006.  Peter’s knee & shoulder.  I continue to recover from surgery to my knee and shoulder which I had in April.  My shoulder is much better finally, now in July.  But I am still hobbling around with pain in my knee.

2012-005.   Pray for Covenant personnel who are in the States after a short term and working hard to return overseas…. I think of Christy Taylor, Diane & Chris Wiebe, and Neil & Liz Peterson.  Many of them are finding fund-raising to be challenging in this economy.  Liz & Neil are dealing with many issues related to Liz’s obtaining United States citizenship.  Christy and the Wiebe’s are doing on-going education to enhance their teaching skills.  Please pray that these times would be refreshing  times of rebuilding and encouragement.

2012-004.  Praise the Lord for the strong church growth in Taiwan and for the many ways the churches are reaching into their communities and countries around them.  Pray that the new sanctuary for the Xindian church would be completed in time for a 60^th anniversary celebration in October.   

2012-003.  A house, a visa, and energy to make the move back to our former country of service.  We hope to move sometime in October or November.  Please pray that all the important things will come together.

2012-002.  Ruthie and I are in the States for two weeks for meetings and study.  Please pray for Ruthie as she continues her program in Spritual Direction at North Park Seminary in Chicago.  Peter will be returning to Thailand on July 16, Ruthie on July 26.

2012-001.  The smell from the mill that was such a big problem last year….

·        Has now been solved!   Thank the Lord we were able to find an environmental engineer who was able to help us design a system that totally eliminated the smell.  We closed down the mill in mid-January and then worked hard to make many changes in the ventilation system.  When we turned on the system it worked!

Returning home

MVF is doing great in Thailand.  But still our hearts have remained in a neighboring country.

Earlier this year we paid several visits back to our former home.  First we accompanied two twenty-somethings to let them have an opportunity to see opportunities there.  Then we accompanied two Thai friends from Bangkok who wanted to use their gifts and resources for good...

In earlier trips I had struggled with feelings of anger over how we had been treated.  After giving some of the best years of our adulthood, we were "invited out" and we lost everything we thought we had been building.  But during these trips back, we realized that we felt at home--and I wrote about it in one of my blog postings.  God was doing a work in our hearts.  We realized:  This is where we would like to finish up our last 10 years of active work/service!  Almost concurrently, we received an invitation from a national friend to help him in his company.  For her part, Ruthie has a standing invitation to return and help mentor a number of Lao and foreign friends.  

We have now received the go-ahead to return.  We hope to be living near the capital city by the end of the year!  Please pray for a visa, a house, and energy to make the move.

What will happen to MVF?  It is in the good hands of Wessel and our Thai management team and will continue strong, we hope and pray.  At some point in the future we may move the food mill too.  But that is still too far in the future.  We'll update you as events happen! 

Stateside..for meetings & study, friends & family

The Covenant Annual Meeting was held in Irvine, CA this year.  And the theme was right up our alley:  "Remaining Faithful, Serving Globally".  Our friends and colleagues, Bob & Grace Shim, set a great tone for the meetings in their two morning devotionals.  They shared how God had allowed them to connect with friends in Kyrgyzstan on levels which surprised and humbled them--in pain, in disappointment, and unfulfilled expectations.   

We spent many hours in meetings and were not able to attend most of the main sessions.  But we realized, again, how blessed we are to be part of this organization and team.   

Prior to the meeting and after we had time with our extended families in SoCal and Colorado.  Good, good times.  The night we reached Colorado Springs was the night when the Waldo Canyon fire took 346 homes.  We lived with smoke and ash for days, but it didn't ruin Colorado's natural beauty.  A few pictures...

Darcy Quinn, Ruthie, Mary Jo McCurry, Erin Dutton Quinn, Peter, Don McCurry

Heading out to the park with Dominic & Darcy

3 McCurry sisters: Mary Beth, Ruthie, Jo Ann

Taiwan again...this time Peter

It has taken us nearly two years, but we have finally visited all the countries where we have personnel and active partnerships.  Taiwan was the last--simply because it was the least urgent.  Ruthie and Nancy Jo visited Covenant expat personnel more than a month ago.  Now it was my turn--to visit Taiwan Covenant churches.  I went not so much to encourage or catalyze, but to listen and learn.   

Amazing!  Taiwanese Covenant churches are growing like crazy!  There are now four churches with close to 1,000 members.  One church--the mother church at Xindian--is just finishing a new sanctuary.  They are not into thinking small or being timid.  In order to take the church to the people, they decided to buy a building designed for a shopping mall.  The first three stories are, indeed, going to become a shopping mall.  But the fourth story...a 3,000 seat sanctuary, visible from one of Taipei's most important freeway interchanges.  

Xindian church taking shape in a shopping complex

Looking down on the shopping mall

  

Three more things really caught my attention:  the way churches are reaching into their communities, their mid-week prayer meetings attended by hundreds of people, and the bridges they are building into the mainland. 

Nearly every church I visited has afternoon tutoring programs for children from the neighborhood.  Many churches were actively involved in public schools in their neighborhoods where they have been asked to teach classes on ethics and other relevant subjects.

Teaching in a public school

A restaurant operated in a shopping center as an outreach to ex-prisoners

And those prayer meetings!  Hands stretched out.  Praying out loud, speaking in tongues--these were unlike any other Covenant church I have been in.  But why shouldn't they be?  Different is good.  The Apostle Paul said,  "Do all speak in tongues?  Do all interpret?"  I take it the answer is "No."  But then he said, "Now eagerly desire the greater gifts."  As for me, I just sat there--enjoyed the worship and the praise.  And I prayed again, "Lord, give me those gifts you want me to have."  (I Cor. 12:30-31)

 

Now about those bridges.  Nearly every pastor I met is involved in active ministry in the mainland.  When I was growing up we talked about "the iron curtain, the bamboo curtain"--those barriers separating the communist/non-communist world.  This is not news, of course, but...those things don't exist anymore.  Hundreds of bridges have been built.  It's hard to escape the conclusion--that's a good thing, an amazing work of the Spirit.     

  

A new ARC for us

Trying to visit all the personnel in Asia last year, on top of many consuming issues here in Chiang Khong, was a bit much for us.  

We asked Curt Peterson and the WM Leadership Team if we could bring a few other experienced cross-cultural workers together on a Council to help us with the work.  And so was born, early this year, the Asia Regional Council (ARC).  We asked Nancy Jo Hoover (China) to assist us with China & India and Bob Shim (Thailand) to take responsibility for Kyrgyzstan & Mongolia.  Tim Johnson (Japan) agreed to help, along with two Country Coordinators, Randy Bevis (Thailand) and Gary Carlson (Japan).

So, how does this help?  We meet together once a month by teleconference.  We talk about strategic directions and placement of personnel.  When we take trips, it isn't always just Ruthie and me.  One of us can stay home and a member of the Council travels with the other.  Already this has been a tremendous blessing to us and to those workers we are visiting (more on that in a bit).

Mongolian Mixup

Bob Shim, one of the people we have asked to serve on our Asia Regional Council, agreed to help us with Mongolia.  Together we made plans to visit Jim & Liz Sedore, our Covenant workers in Ulaan Bataar.  With Bob's five years in Kyrgyzstan, we thought, "Similar culture, similar issues.  Goats.  People.  Lots of medical work and interesting projects.  This could work!"

Of course just getting there-and getting out--presented its challenges.  From Beijing we were an hour-and-a-half in the air.  Then they said the Mongolia winds wouldn't let us land.  China Air put us up in a hotel.  Bob took Korean Air via Inchon and arrived no problem.

For the first day Bob was singing one tune:  "Wow.  This is so much like Kyrgyzstan it's incredible.  Once you've see one post-Soviet Asian republic, you've seen them all.  Same spiky lamps down the middle of the road.  Same ugly apartment blocks.  I feel right at home!"  That made me feel good.  I hadn't dragged him into the world of Genghis Khan for nothing.

So, we sat through 4 days of meetings.  Bob agreed to take my place on the board of Joint Christian Services.  And yes, we took an extra day each waiting for the winds to die down so we could fly home.  

But here's the bottom line:  So much about this place is unique and interesting!  Jim & Liz are part of a unique organization-an umbrella organization under which dedicated workers from scores of backgrounds and traditions are working together to bring positive change and assistance to the people of Mongolia.  Jim is charged with liaising with government and other international organizations.  Liz pours herself into the lives of women at a shelter for commercial sex workers.  The women there turn out some beautiful jewelry that you can find on their blog.

And this is a unique time for Mongolia!  The church there has grown rapidly over the last 20 years.  But with the world's fastest growing economy and major mining companies vying to exploit newly found mineral wealth, the challenges of this place are tremendous!  If you like that and you sense God urging you to a new frontier, think about joining Jim & Liz and the other JCS people in Mongolia.

Taiwan for two

Nancy Jo Hoover was a far better companion for Ruthie than me, I'm sure.  As our most versatile, experienced veteran, Nancy Jo has worked in more countries, adjusted to more contexts, than almost anyone I know.  And you know what she's really good at?  Being a catalyst-without "taking over".  That's a rare gift.

She went with Ruthie to visit Don & Lillian Dwight and Caryn Camp at Morrison Academy in Taejon.  Some have asked:  "Why are we supporting people to serve as teachers in a school that no longer serves our cross-cultural workers?  Shouldn't we rather place people out on the front lines?"  

Here's what Ruthie found out:  This is the front line!   

Morrison's student body is more than half Taiwanese.   Every year, scores of students find Christ.  Like Carl Groot's work at ICS school in Bangkok, this school has a tremendous impact in the community.  Don & Lillian, Caryn Camp, & Carl Groot--these folks work hard in their schools.  And in their "spare time" they're busy cultivating relationships, nurturing small groups of believers, teaching, and helping.  Ruthie said it was a real blessing to see these friends "in situ".  Now I'm jealous I didn't go.