Jon
I thank God for this opportunity
updating you about God's leading in our family's lives as we move
towards the future. This past semester has been relatively busy with
myself being involved in a Bible study for Indonesian students, the
course at Yuan Ze University on Christianity, and helping with
preaching at a couple of churches (the wife of one church's minister
while fighting cancer is still involved in ministry although tiring
easily due to the treatments: (Pray for the Shultzes) on a monthly
basis. I also thank God for the joy of attending a local church and
being involved in a small cell group (I have no formal service) –
the preaching is challenging and I learn a lot about the thinking
processes of Taiwanese (other than students) in the cell group.
Sharon
I just realized that in my letters I
never talked too much about what my wife Xiuman is doing. Well,
other than looking after our three children in Taiwan, in the past
year, she was involved with three different young women in 1:1 Bible
studies. While all three formally prayed to receive Christ, one young
woman, in particular, is really growing, being baptized herself and
leading her husband and one child to know the Savior as they have
seen the change in their wife and mother. Praise God. I apologize
for not mentioning my wife very much in previous letters. (In
Taiwan, looking after children takes a lot of time. Unlike Canada,
there are no school buses to pick up my children, and all three
children go to different schools in different directions. Thus, each
morning she probably spends about one hour getting all the three
children to school. In the afternoon the process is reversed with
each child getting out of school at different times. Making it more
complicated, each day is different. For Ruth, her school ends at 3:30
every day. For Leon his school ends at 12 o'clock except for 2:30 on
Tuesdays! Well for Johan...)
Future/Prayer Requests
This summer my family will be coming
back to Canada. We have just booked our tickets for the summer. I
will come back first on June 10
th to attend the physics
conference in Ottawa. Sharon will bring the three children on June
28
th.
We are looking at the possibility of
spending one year in Canada, so to be able to better care for and
consider my mother. The school here in Taiwan has given permission
and it appears that within God's will for our family. I ask you
continued prayer for this, as with any change there is apprehension
(Chinese word for crisis: 危機
is composed of two characters: 危=danger
and 機=opportunity).
I hope you can remember us in prayer as we continue
to seek God's leading in the future. I'm very thankful for my
department being very supportive of my concern for my mother and the
willingness of other teachers to take care of my classes when I am
gone. One concern is my graduate students and another is Aien our
eldest daughter.
Israel Trip
I am thankful that God give her family
chance to go to Israel to attend a conference at the end of February (this year).
I attached some my reflections from that trip.
Family Hiking in Mountains
Leon under a tree that was likely alive when Jesus was alive! (the park official quickly asked us to move in case the tree fell down)
Family in the mountains
Sharon at the end of the climb
Jonathon
