Hello China!

Greetings to all. I apologize for the long absence. Another ten days and it will have been a whole two months of absence, excessive even by my standards.

Korea wrapped up quite nicely. And home was a real blessing. I was also in the UK for about ten days before coming over here to China.

Speaking of Korea wrapping up, my testimony at Jubilee Church was a frightening experience. Many a time in the Bible, God is described as worthy of our trembling; for the whole month leading up to my testimony and as I prayerfully waited, I was literally trembling. Led by the Spirit, I shared unabashedly and honestly with the congregation about my life up until now. Completely a surprise to myself, the nearly 2 hour ordeal focused on pre-Jesus saving my life. So hopefully the stark contrast is made evident through this blog or knowing me. If you are so inclined to get to know my story better than you would probably like too and have a strong stomach, click on the link below. You can download it as an mp3. So if you rather put it on your Ipod, (if you don't mind listening to me ramble for two hours) that is possible as well. I simply pray that in anyway, if you happen to listen to the testimony I gave at Jubilee Church, you will be blessed. It also explains the name change. I will begin signing off as Christian starting with this blog.

So there was that, and also a truly blessed experience being a teacher at Vacation Bible School for countryside children in S. Korea. I had been quite strongly against going for several personal reasons, but the Spirit had convicted me about going, so I went. And boy, is it great when the Lord proves me wrong, which is more often than not. He knows far better than I. It turned out to be a real blessing. Even all the songs and dances I learned, many of which I was able to teach my ten year old sister when I was home. When I did, I found myself crying like a baby as we sang the chorus, hand motions and all, that went, "You made me, You saved me Lord." Wow, so simple yet so true. In the context of me not having cried for ten years, and that now my heart has been softened to the point to where I can understand that truth with my heart blows my mind. Praise God.

Home was so great. The two weeks I was home sped by like lightning. The most notable change was my brother. When I had first arrived he had nothing but mockery for my newfound Faith. During my time at home he came to Christ, and by the time I left he was asking me to pray for our family. Blessed be the Name of the Lord, for He is faithful. He answers prayer.

It's funny because, my brother was so incredulous about my new life in Jesus Christ that it got to the point of him getting belligerent. He would get even more belligerent when I would try to hold his hand, as he flung punches at my face. However, ultimately the love of Christ won him over.

The theme for the Vacation Bible School that we did was Fruit of the Spirit. And for the five days that we worked with the children, each day had a different theme. Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. These are only five of the nine spoken of in Galatians 5:22. It was truly beautiful to see these Fruit play out in the setting where before my worst was always brought out in me, home with those who love me most. It is true; those who love us and know us best can hurt us most, and we end up doing the things and saying the things we regret the most. However, this time it was different, and not by my effort but by the Fruit of the Spirit which is a gift from God, payed for in full by the Blood of Jesus Christ. Praise God. It was enough to make my cynical brother accept Christ into his heart. Now, ups and downs, he begins a beautiful walk. Thank you Lord.

What really brought it home though, was City Fest. City Fest was an event held in downtown Portland, OR right on the Water Front of the Columbia river. Leading up to it were months of service in the community, culminating in a weekend of Praising God in potentially one of the cities most contemptuous of God in the U.S. if not the world, relatively speaking of course. Twas a blessing. I was so blessed to praise with tens of thousands of people to the wonderful music of Chris Tomlin, Toby Mac, Kirk Franklin, among many others and see many come to Christ, including my own brother.

That was during my last weekend home. Leading up to that final blowout was a lot of time spent with my family, more than I have ever spent with them in all of my visits home in the past.


On August 26th, I departed from Manchester, England. It was a ten day trip, and I really want to thank my brother in Christ Michael Sadler, for making the trip a reality. It was eye-opening, not what I expected, extremely humbling and I may find myself in England doing graduate work sometime after 2011.

And now I am in China. This post is actually a very poor account of the past month and a half. I apologize. Really, so much has occurred in the past month and a half that it actually probably takes some more processing on my part before I relate it to all. Hopefully the link to my testimony shall provide most with sufficient blessing this time around. Regardless of how ridiculously busy I will probably be this term, and not to mention this year, I will try to write more often.

China so far has been great. Third day tomorrow. The paraOlympics are going on here on the Peking University, or Beida, Campus. I am immensely jet-lagged and looking forward to our excursion to Guilin tomorrow.

As a preview for something I may write about in the near future, I have been involved in a business venture connected to bio-plastic and all things sustainable for almost two years now. As things continue to develop I will put something together, and also let anyone who is interested know how to get involved.

Love,Peace, and Grace to All,
Christian