an exciting email for hope's refuge!

hi all. its 1:27am and i should be going to sleep. as you could probably tell from my last message, things have been a bit stressful with spiritual warfare. well, life is a bit more stressful with finances and moving and such. but the Lord is so good to remind me and encourage me that He is the Lord of All creations and the Lord that provides what we need when we need it and gives us glimpses of the future and even visions of our eternity in heaven. how amazing is our Lord?! here is one example: today - bud came home from work and we sit down and talk about things regarding to our financial status, his job, our up and coming move to hong kong island and our last month here in fanling. i got a bit discouraged and i could tell he was too. so we prayed. just a simple prayer that the Lord would provide and keep our Faith in Him strong. after we prayed, we went into the living room and i checked my email and when i checked one of my accounts, my daily bible verse for the day was:

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened."
~ matthew 7:7-8

now, i don't want to be over-spiritual about things and know that i tend to steer away from participating in the "flip through the bible and let your finger land on a random verse" technique. but sometimes, i believe the Lord does use things like that to get our attention because He is a loving God. although they are not so random when its from God! anyway, so that was one way the Lord lifted my spirits and got me more focused and able to be soothed by His comforting arms.

the second way the Lord lifted my spirits was through an email. a few days ago, i emailed Heartbeat International as Focus on the Family had encouraged me to. so as i was checking my email and about to sign off for the night, as soon as i refreshed my page there was a new email. i checked it and it was from Heartbeat International. here are some excerpts from the email:

"Also, if you are interested, you could affiliate with Heartbeat. This would allow you to receive our Pulse Newsletter and it would include your center in Worldwide Directory of pregnancy resource centers. We would waive the international affiliation fee and allow you to join at no cost..."

"...As you can imagine, we don’t have too many contacts in China. Do you believe you’ll be able to start and openly operate a pregnancy center there? Is Hong Kong open to this sort of work or is it discouraged? I’d like to learn more about your experience there if you are willing to write back. And we’d like to help if we can..."

to read the full email, go ahead and click this link and it will take you to a print screen of the actual full email! :) please keep this in your prayers and that i will not get ahead of myself and ahead of the Lord's timing. please remain in prayer for our financial situation and please pray that our move to causeway bay will be easy and stress free! love you all. thank you for loving us and caring for us and keeping us in your prayers.

agape,

christin joy.

so things are interesting right now...

nei ho ma (how are you). so life has been pretty interesting lately. i'm not even quite sure where to start! don't worry - things are fine. the Lord is sufficient in providing and leading and guiding us in our every needs so there is no fear or worry to be had! wow, it sounds like i'm getting ready to drop a huge bomb in your laps, so i'll just get to the point! how's that? :)

well as you know we had friends come and visit, got to participate in getting some good books to china, got to do a lot of touristy stuff. we walked up to the temple that is literally up a few flights of stairs behind our house. basically - just got to walk around hong kong a lot and it was actually good because it helps you to recognize how lost this country is in so many different ways. from the ancestor worship, money being very important (these people LOVE to shop for things i'm sure they don't need), pressure on the children and a very confucious lifestyle amongst a lot of the older population. for me, the hardest thing is to see how a large majority of women who are pregnant don't look beaming and thrilled. now, i know that with chinese culture, people that walk by you on the streets kind of stick to themselves just getting to their next location. and let me not lead you to believe that all women out here that are pregnant are not happy. there are women who you can tell are just beaming at the very thought that they have a little "them" inside their tummies.

but there is a large amount of women that i see that my heart breaks for. its like the Lord lets me see that they are stressed, working hard and maybe even scared. also, knowing that in the chinese culture if you're pregnant and not married, its disgraceful, it just gives me more and more of a drive for me to start Hope's Refuge. i have come to the idea that it is going to take a bit of time to get this ministry established. that being said, i have spent and am spending a lot of time on research, getting contacts (i.e. Focus on the Family, Care Net, Prolife America) and ideas. when i first got here, i was introduced to 2 separate organizations that do amazing work out here in hong kong. the first is home of loving faithfulness who takes in orphans (children up to adults) with physical and mental handicaps. the other is mother's choice who take in children and pregnant girls who need a place to stay, as well as have a pro-life outlook.

when i first got here, i thought, sweet i'll work at home of loving faithfulness. went and had an amazing time with the people there for a few hours, have had great correspondence with the top people of the organization and was praying about spending my time there. that being said, things have changed for bud and i as well as kristen who lives with us currently and danny who was going to be moving in with us. kristen feels led to move and work on getting our Love Letter to the people of China, full time. danny feels the same. bud and i on the other hand have been given some other ideas that we've been praying about and ask that you keep us in your prayers. he works in sai wan ho, which is nearly 2 hours away from where we live now, in fanling. home of loving faithfulness is in sheung shui/fanling. with the news that kristen and danny are being called elsewhere bud and i think it best to move closer to his work so he does not get burnt out with all the travel and long hours.

i believe that this move is from the Lord. not only will we be closer to bud's job meaning he and i will be able to have more time together (because as of right now, i only see bud 3 hours a day mon-fri and maybe a hour or so on saturdays and then of course all day on sunday and it can be difficult, since we're newly married! this is the normal lifestyle for people out here who work and since we want to live here legally and get ourselves established, he needs his job.) but i then would be nearly 2 hours away from home of loving faithfulness. i think the Lord was preparing me for this move way in advance, as i have not officially dedicated all my time to home of loving faithfulness. i have been quite hesitant. but the funny thing is, the center i want to start, Hope's Refuge, is almost exactly what Mother's Choice is doing. the only difference i believe they have from Hope's Refuge is Hope's Refuge will be entirely Christ-Focused.

mother's choice is on hong kong island. bud's job is on hong kong island. so right now i'm praying that the Lord will move in a mighty way and place me at work in Mother's Choice. i have emailed them and await their reply. i am praying and thinking that this will be a great opportunity for me to see how they run their center's, see how they provide for the children and young women and see how they work together as individuals with a common mind. so as much as it may seem that life is kind of slow right now (because it is), i truly believe the Lord is just taking His time in getting us situated in the life that he has given bud and i. having more time together will allow us to go out in the mornings and get to know people without being stressed for time and be able to invite them over for fellowship, will allow me the time to do more research and if all goes well, work alongside people with almost the exact same vision as i have. this will also allow bud to not feel like all his time is taken up by work, as it has been since we are so far away (which is very discouraging to him).

so with all of this i bring to your attention that this is a foothold the enemy is trying to use to divide friendship and fellowship, to steal the joy of our Lord and Savior and has caused some pretty lame tension around the house. things have been laid out on the table and we are letting the Lord bring peace back to this household. but for a few days (for me a few weeks for me. i had the feeling things were getting sketchy around here for about 2 or so weeks now) things were very stressful, people were getting in their flesh and things were not being dealt with properly. now that things have been dealt with, we can begin healing from the attack the enemy made.

i will end with this, please keep everyone in your prayers as this is a kind of weird time but exciting time because it just gives us more opportunity to praise our Lord and have faith in Him. but here are some specifics:

1) i'm getting my name changed on my passport and getting my dependency visa. please pray that this will go smoothly.
2) the Lord's guidance and that i may hear his voice clearly regarding mother's choice. if i do get involved with them, i will have to go through the work visa process the same as bud did, which will be another hurdle to jump when it comes.
3) guidance for kristen and danny in their relationship as well as their callings from the Lord
4) that bud and i will find a good place to live for not too expensive near his work. we have found a few options and are waiting for a call back from a few, so hopefully i'll be able to tell you an update for that in the next week or so.
5) that moving will be easy and not take up too much of our time and not stress us out.
6) that we'll get through the rest of this month on our limited funds, until bud gets his first full paycheck.
7) full restoration of friendships from the attack from the enemy
8) God's will in everyones lives and that we will be sensitive to the Spirit moving us, move when we need to move and stop when we need to stop and wait when He calls us to wait.
9) the souls and the people of hong kong and china, that the Lord will use us to help them see the need for Jesus in their lives and the way out of the bondage of sin and ancestor worship
10) for the slow but steady research and move towards the start of Hope's Refuge

i think thats it for now. other than that, if you feel lead to donate to HK Missions, let us know and we can let you know how to go about doing that through a non-profit! please let us know how we can pray for you, please comment or email us and let us know how you're doing. we miss you and love you all very much. OH and please pray that our desire to have mexican food will simmer down. haha, we miss mexican food SO much. haha, and well - the mexican food here, if its not extremely expensive its not good. ;-P so thats that. love you all so much. talk to you soon!!

agape,

christin joy.

i am married to a legal resident of hong kong!

thats right! my husband is a legal resident of hong kong. he received his work visa today! praise the Lord! now i get to apply for my dependency visa and then he and i are set to stay in the country for at least one year. :) just a quick update. love you all.

agape,

christin joy.

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.

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.

missions complete! bohahaha!

hello everyone. as the title of this blog says, one leg of the mission to hong kong is now complete — i got a job! i will be working in sai wan ho [which is on the east side of hong kong island, very far away, but beggars can't be choosers] working at native english learning center. my work visa is still in process, so please be sure to keep praying for us, specifically that the government would approve my visa like any other standard application and no problems. we're hoping for smooth sailing! the great news is that i will only be working half days monday to friday and one full day saturday; and i will be making way more than we will need to live out here.

that said, we are coming into a bit of a financial situation between now and when i get my first paycheck [which won't be until september 31st]. we're running low on funds that we had saved to get here, and we need prayer and support from home to be able to pay for food, transportation and rent/utilities for the next two months. if anyone is interested in donating, feel free to check out the form on the hkmissions website, or contact me through e-mail.

so, like i said, now we're back to waiting for another few weeks. i start paid training at this new job [though at the mid-levels centre] on the 25th of august, so pray for that. kristen moves on the 16th and daks will be coming with her for a three week trip, as most of you already know. please pray for safe travels when the time comes for them to get over here. some time this week i will hopefully be updating the hkmissions website, getting the placeholder pages off there and including our two other full-time missionaries [danny mays and kristen gautreaux]. until next time, thank you for your prayers and comments! grace&peace. bye.

is patience still waiting...

don't mind that title of this blog, i'm just listening to good old juliana theory and the current song is titled 'is patience still waiting'. anyway...

hi all. its christin here and i'm please to introduce the newest "blogger" danny mays. :) he's in 'the band' with bud and is currently saving up money/gaining support to also move out here to hong kong. he will actually be living with bud, kristen and i and we're looking forward to having him out here. he is a very cool brother and we're blessed to have him. kristen and daks come out in about 20 days and we're excited about that too. hopefully, we'll be able to get daks and kristen to post on this blog as well. that way its not the same old 'faces' around here. :) eventually, hopefully, everyone that is coming out will be posting on here.

well, i don't have a large amount to report except that we're still waiting on a job for bud. but we have what seems to be a good lead. he recently went to an interview at "native english learning centre' if i'm not mistaken and the lady he interviewed was very nice and said to him 'i want to hire you. but the work visa is going to be a pain in the ass.' (those were her words!). she told him that she wants him to come in for a second interview when her colleague can meet him and i guess they may discuss what they can work out. they weren't supposed to have their interview until sometime after august 3rd. but they called him today and his second interview is this coming up monday! so please be praying about that. the job is quite far away from where we live, but if it is a source of income and a work visa then we can't turn it down. please pray that the second interview goes well and that if they want to go forward with the work visa application/paperwork (which is, might i add - a very arduous process) that the hong kong immigration will show bud favor, see that he is an asset to the community of hong kong and that God will bless him with this position. bud really liked the center as well, so thats always a plus. if bud is to get his work visa, then we will be able to live in Hong Kong without worrying about leaving the country to reset our 'visitor's pass' if you will.

another good thing about bud getting a work visa will be that i will get what is called a 'dependency visa' which will be a help in me getting my work visa, with less hassle than it would be if i tried to do it on my own. this being said, if i get my work visa i will hopefully be working alongside HOLF (home of loving faithfulness.) the home is amazing and i fell in love with the children (ages 6-55!) instantly. they are so sweet and desperately need the love of Jesus covering them. please pray for them. the staff is amazing. its weird to pray with potential managers/bosses. i have never really had the experience when applying for a job or in an interview. it was quite refreshing. HOLF is a very real option that i'm praying about, but i also see potential other places that i could be used and i am seeking the Lord for the best fit for me and where He wants to use me. i recently came across a prolife website, prolifeamerica.com which had a link to the hong kong life league. unfortunately the english version of their website is very difficult to navigate; so i emailed the people at prolifeamerica and received a quick response and have been regularly corresponding back and forth. partially on a "pen pal" basis but she has forwarded my information and i should be hearing back from someone to help me get in touch with the hong kong life league. prolifeamerica is also sending me a package to help me in my quest. if you don't know, i have been doing pro-life work since i was in 2nd grade. its something very near and dear to my heart. so i have to seek the Lord on where he would put me. so please join me in that prayer as well.

other than that, we have just been soaking up being married, visiting places in hong kong and such. i dont remember if i said that we went to the beach a few weeks ago. our friend po ying and some people from church went as an outreach, to be a light amongst the darkness. it was nice and refreshing. speaking of our friend po ying, she is currently in vietnam (she is probably on her way back now) doing missions work so if you can pray for her safety and that God will move mightily that would be awesome. po ying is a God send. well, i guess thats all i'll say for now. i'm going to go do some things around this house. we love you all and look forward to praying alongside you about everything that has been mentioned. even though were thousands of miles apart, we can still meet together in prayer. how awesome is that? amen!

agape,

christin joy.

few more weeks!

i'll be going down to the bible belt in 4-6 weeks, guys... i'm looking forward to being able to speak in front of a few churches if i'm allowed and able. i want to make people aware of what work God is doing over in china and with the family that we have been given; as well as whats been placed on our hearts to carry out over there. God's good to us and we get to share it with a dying country, i can't wait to get there...

only a few more weeks for me! kristen will be there in 23 days now, i know her and daximus will have a safe trip. i love you all! take care, bud and christin!

and three updates!

1. the meeting went exceptionally well and basically everything dealing with christin working for the home of loving faithfulness rests on my ability to secure a work visa and employment. whoosh! God can do this and i pray He does. i ask you all to do the same. the good news from this is that christin will probably not have to go back to the states as we had thought might happen at one time. yay!

2. one down, one to go! i got my certificate in the mail yesterday. still no news on the video card but meh, those things can take a while clearing customs i guess. still i think it should've been here by now. ;-P

edit: i got it today at around 4pm!

3. in response to some peoples' thoughts, no i did not cut my HAIR, just my beard. i did it because it was too hot and itchy in hong kong summer for a beard. i'll be growing it back when the band gets here... oh yeah, bones. thanks to everyone for your support... of my beard. and its former glory. a moment of silence please... just kidding.

see, missionaries know how to make jokes too! as master splinter said 'i made a funny!!!' ha! okay, too much fun for tonight. i'll write more as things develop but please keep my job prospects in your prayers! pray that God would show us something in the next two weeks that will set the stage for the rest of our lives here in hong kong. thanks so much for reading and supporting! grace&peace. bye.

three things...

1. christin has a meeting with her potential new job tomorrow at 2pm c.s.t. so please pray for that to go well.

2. my certificate and video card have still not arrived.

3. i shaved off my beard and i look like my dad... only like 15 years old. it's pretty ridiculous.

that's all really. sorry for the lack of updates. ;-/ will write more when something new actually happens! grace&peace. bye.