Whaaaaaaatt???? What's happening in Canada??

[Truly Blessed]

Originally Posted by Maple Leaf

Thanks for the great reports.

I have enjoyed reading about your trip immensely.

Are you able to conduct open baptisms?

The short answer is "no". Just before I left Hong Kong in 1988, I was baptizing openly in a local lake and we even had an open meeting in one of the parks. However, since the Tiennemen Square incident in 1989 things have been more difficult.

I just returned home from China yesterday, so I will update you on our New Direction Student Fellowship at the university. We had three wonderful days with the students.
On Saturday we spent the day with 5 students who had been led to faith in Christ last Spring. I had the opportunity to share a Bible study on baptism with the students, but no opportunity to actually baptize them while I was there. All five see their need to be baptized. Joshua who now pastors the church we planted in Yuen Long will return to China in two weeks and will arrange their baptism. Joshua has baptized more than 120 in another area of China in the last two years. Praise the Lord!

On Sunday I spent the afternoon with these 5 students from last year and an additional 8 students receiving bursaries this year. We just hung out together, walking around the university campus, eating a snack together, and getting to know one another. At one point we had a guitar and I sang a couple of Christian songs for them as we sat on the steps of the administration building. It amazed me how quickly this group formed a bond of friendship with one another over the three days. They didn't know each other until we brought them together as recipients of a S.T.A.N.D. Bursary. The 13 of them will be New Direction Student Fellowship and are encouraged to bring their friends.

This is the cheapest and most effective outreach I have ever been involved in. There are 14,000 students enrolled at this university. If any of you or your churches want to invest in the eternal destiny of university students in China, we encourage you to sponsor a student through New Direction China Ministries. When you do, you receive their personal information and become an active partner with us, through email, in helping encourage them in their spiritual journey. If you can't give please pray for this ministry!