po ying brought over hello kitty uno cards!

hey everyone. i wanted to write an update on some things! bud started his job this past saturday and he has been working non-stop since (minus sundays, he has sunday's off). he is pretty tired because he is climbing about 1000 stairs (thats not an exaggeration) every morning. see, he works in mid levels and thats about 1 hour and 45 minutes away from home and 20 of those minutes are spent walking up stairs! haha. so its hard on him, but its only for this week that he works at that center. next week he starts at the other center where he will still be traveling that amount of time but not up all those stairs! but on the lighter side, he is enjoying teaching the kids and he has good things to say about it. hopefully when he gets some time he will update. please pray for perseverance as its quite a bit of travel time and its hard for him and also it takes up a lot of his time but he will be doing runs into china once a week and as things come closer for Hope's Refuge then he will be helping with that any way he can too. and church on sundays' so life is a bit busy for my lovely wonderful husband bud newman. his birthday is sunday! he'll be 26, hehe. we got him a kitten, we pick it up in 2 weeks after it gets the vaccinations it needs. its a precious little kitten, only 1 month old, fun and fiesty. we'll post pictures soon. so monster truck will have a little sister. very fun. hehe.

i will be starting my volunteer work with Holf next week or the following which is exciting. it will get me the experience i need that will help me with Hope's Refuge. :) speaking of Hope's Refuge, i was encouraged by one of my contacts from Pro-Life America to contact focus on the family as they had just recently posted an article about hong kong and china women. read below the correspondence:

this is what i wrote them:
Hi there, my name is Christin Newman and I read the article about pregnant women in china finding a safe haven in hong kong. here is the link to the article: http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000005266.cfm

i am currently living in hong kong, just moved here about 3 months ago. my husband is teaching english as we get settled in and do long term/life long ministry out here taking bibles to mainland china as well as working at a local "orphanage" that caters to disabled children and adults. we've been blessed with opportunities out here. after having read your article, it totally coincided with the vision the Lord has put on my heart to start a crisis pregnancy center/orphanage in the new territories of hong kong, where i live. it would be a christian organization and not for profit.

we are only in the beginning/vision stages of everything and i wanted to ask if you had any ideas or suggestions, if you had contacts i could speak with about starting off. i also wanted to ask for prayer and anything else you may want to offer. it was amazing how your article came out a few days after i launched my beginning website for the ministry i will be starting - hope's refuge. please take a look at my webpage if you like, it helps give a better idea of what we're aiming at. http://christin.newman.googlepages.com

this has been a dream for me for quite some time and have been praying for it for a long time. hong kong is an amazing city that needs the Lord and needs to see that there truly is value to life, even the unborn lives that they are so easily disposing of, day in and day out. i will be adding more to the webpage, as you can see its not completed. its just a preliminary. :) we're not looking to start this ministry for a while, but i was encouraged to contact you and see what you thought and see if you could give any ideas, offer any sort of support or point me in a good direction. sorry for a long and drawn out email. if this is the wrong email to send this too, please forward it to the correct person or email me and let me know who i should get in contact with. thanks so much!

agape,

christin joy newman.

and this is what they wrote back:
Thank you, Christin, for your e-mail to Focus on the Family.

We appreciate the time you have taken to write us. Our desire is to be of assistance to you in any way that we can. It blessed us to learn that you would like to start a pregnancy resource center, as well as an orphanage. We'll be praying that the Lord will guide you with His wisdom in the days ahead as you reach out to those in need.

As you requested, we have provided the following Web site links that may be of interest to you:

http://www.heartlink.org/directors/benevolentresources/

http://www.voiceoftheorphan.org/Display.asp?Page=Home

Before closing, you may wish to get in contact with the following organizations. Perhaps they also may be able to assist you in the manner you have envisioned:

CareNet
44180 Riverside Parkway, Ste 200
Lansdowne, VA 20176
703/478-5661
703/478-5668 = Fax
info@care-net.org
http://www.care-net.org

Heartbeat International
665 Dublin-Granville Road
Columbus, OH 43229
614/885-7577
614/885-8746 = Fax
support@heartbeatinternational.org = E-mail
http://www.heartbeatinternational.org = Web site

LIFE International
72 Ransom Avenue, NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
616/248-3300
616/248-3500 = Fax
info@lifeinternational.com = E mail
www.lifeinternational.com = Web site

Again, thanks for writing. May the Lord bless you for your commitment to save the lives of the innocent, and may His Spirit add power and conviction to all of your efforts in this regard.

Sandra Reagan
Focus on the Family

so that is pretty exciting news. very promising. how amazing would it be if the Lord blessed Hope's Refuge with a large support and sponsorship like focus on the family? that would be so awesome. please join us in praying for that!

other than that, we are just enjoying our company and new roommate that came in, as we said before, a few fridays ago. unfortunately, daks and cami leave monday and tuesday so we'll be sad when they leave. but Lord willing, they will be returning soon. they have enjoyed their time here, which is good! well, i'll let other people update soon - hopefully. haha. :) *hint, KRISTEN UPDATE! hahaha*hint*. i'll write more later, i just wanted to let everyone know of the update from focus on the family. oh and please be in prayer for Crossweave, the church that bud and i are apart of back in california. they have been so faithful to us in sending us prayerfully, keeping us posted on their website as their church missionaries and such. they have their grand opening this sunday as their first OFFICIAL service. they have had a couple previews but this sunday is the big opening. the Lord has been faithfully providing this very opportunity and i trust that Lord will be making a big noise with their ministry. if you're in the california area, check them out! here's their website: http://crossweave.org/

okay, i am finished now. don't forget to leave us comments to let us know you're still reading and still in contact with what we're doing. we love you all so much and miss you too.

agape,

christin joy.

p.s. we are still praying for bud's work visa and we're expecting it in a couple weeks, keep praying alongside us regarding his work visa.