this is for people who i don't have on my email address....

hello family and friends,

so things have been pretty busy as of late. :) its been good though. our good friends kristen (one of our new roommates), daks and cami arrived last friday and we have been pretty non-stop. we have been doing a lot of tourist stuff, showing them around, introducing them to the hong kong culture and eating amazing food. (i think i gained like 3 pounds but thats okay, it was worth it because it all tasted so good). kristen blessed me some new clothes which i was definitely in need of (and they are girly! yea, thats different for me but i love them!) and then they brought bud tortillas and such. i also got a few new books to read for encouragement. we went to the vine, a college group that meets on saturday evenings in central (hong kong island). we wanted to show the polar differences between the church we attend on sundays and one of the 'better' churches in hong kong. thankfully, we serve a great God who has blessed us with a church - the kowloon city vineyard, pastored by long time missionary to hong kong jackie pullinger. :) all i want to say is please pray for the churches in hong kong and that they will be sensitive to the sweet small voice of the Holy Spirit and respond accordingly.

so we went to church on sunday and we were refreshed by being in the true presence of the Holy Spirit. Joining together as a family of believers and joining together the way you read about in the book of acts. its so good. :) then we hung out with po ying and watched movies. on tuesday we went on a long walk up to the large temple that is behind our house. it is quite depressing, knowing that people spend so much money and devote their life to a "god" that is dead, will never be alive and all their worship and love for this "god" and "spirits" and "ancestors" is all in vain. its hard on me to see it. this month is ghost festival month, so there is lots of spiritual warfare happening at the moment. maybe a little more than normal because people are inviting "ancestors" which translates to us as demons, to walk freely around the area. its been quite a sad month, seeing ancestoral worship everywhere, in random parts of the streets and such. :( please pray that the Lord will be gracious and help us all in learning the language out here, its frustrating walking by and not being able to talk to people and tell them about the freedom they could have in Jesus Christ. but at least it keeps us praying all the time.

the walk up to the temple was pretty crucial so poor cami and i have been waddling around because our legs hurt from the 200+ some steps we climbed. ;-P but kristen and i plan on making that apart of our work out, every other day. wooo! so wednesday we got everyone briefed with some ministry opportunities out here. and yesterday, thursday, we were able to participate is some amazing activities. it was awesome. after we went through, we spent time haggling prices and hanging out with people at the "blue mall" which is well, 5 levels of amazingly fun stress in mainland china! haha. we were able to offer some gifts to some men we ran into and it was awesome, they seemed quite happy to have been given a gift and to read such awesome stuff. :) praise the Lord for the victory is totally his.

today kristen, cami and i went out on a girl date and talked more about hope's refuge and got some good ideas. please begin praying for the opportunity and finances for possibly kristen and i to come to the states and talk about hope's refuge with some churches. if you're interested in having a briefing about the vision, please contact me. i would love to answer any questions and i'd love to hear any ideas if you have any. :) it was good to sit and fellowship with awesome ladies of the Lord and it was awesome for daks and bud to have some guy time, just hanging out. :) its important!

bud starts his job tomorrow and hopefully he will hear the status of his work visa. once he has his work visa, i can then apply for my dependency visa which will mean that neither bud or i will be required to leave the country for a year and apparently the first work visa is the hardest and renewing it is easier. so please continue to pray that the Lord will bless bud with this job and the work visa so everything will go accordingly. once i have my dependency visa, i will begin more looking around for possible places for hope's refuge as well as start my part time volunteer work with home of loving faithfulness. i will also hopefully be devoting a few nights a week helping the rehab ministry that is apart of our church, the vineyard. :) :) so thats that for now. also, remember - bud's birthday is coming up!! september 2!!! :) send him love notes at hkmissions@gmail.com if you want. haha. :)

i will get going now, love you and will update more once things are a little more calm.

agape,

christin joy.