The good, the bad and the...

Apparently it's become a trend that I write about my weekends. So here goes...

This weekend I was met with both discouraging and encouraging news from two countries I'm fond of...India and China. I'll start with the discouraging. On Saturday I spoke with Sudha, a woman who I became very close with while in India. She mostly had great things to report, but then she hit me with a hard piece of news. One of the girls who I taught last year attempted suicide. Apparently her father had threatened to take her life if she brought home another bad report card. She was so scared that she determined that rather than face him she would take her life into her own hands. She went into the bathroom, poured kerosene on herself and lit herself on fire. Fortunately her mother found her before it was too late. She is currently in the hospital recovering in ICU and she suffers burns on 25% of her body. I can't imagine the thoughts that must be going through her head! She is only 10 years old and it's evident that she had given up hope. Please be praying for physical healing and also for reconciliation between her and her father. It goes without saying that it will be difficult for her to face up to her past and to continue life where she left off, especially in the society she lives in. Please pray that she will face it with courage. Most importantly please pray for her heart. Pray that she will live on in hope and believe in the God she has been told about at school.Picture I took of Lavanya last year on the first day of school

Now for the encouraging news....
I went to a dinner at church on Sunday night and heard some amazing stories about God's work in China. A few business leaders shared their amazing testimonies about how they had become believers and how so many have followed their lead. One man is an influential economist in the communist party. He was sent to the US to study our economy and concluded that the difference between the Chinese and US economies was that the US economy was based on a system of morality. He became interested in the nature of this morality and began to investigate the founding fathers religion for himself. He meet with theologians and pastors during the day and studied the bible at night. After he returned home he realized he could not refute the truth and became a believer. Since then he has even professed his belief to his colleagues in the Party with great boldness. One colleague asked, "Sir, isn't it a great threat to your position to profess Christianity?" Being filled with the Spirit (and the perfect answer for an audience of economists) he said, "I have weighed the risks and rewards and the rewards FAR outweigh any risk I have in being a Christian." Wow! Awesome! Another thing he said really resonated with me and reminded me of the vision God gave me a while ago. He said (in my paraphrase of course), "It's not offensive to share the gospel with our colleagues in China. For we believe that we should share any good gift we receive. So to share the gospel with our friends is not offensive. In fact the opposite is true. It would be unkind not to share! And, many have openly and warmly received the good news." Just within the past 1 year a great multitude of influential business men and woman have become believers! Praise the Lord!