We’re back! Our three-week trip to Asia was a powerful and significant time for us. Buttercup and I are so grateful that we got to experience Asia together as a family. This was Buttercup’s first trip back with me since 2012, and it was meaningful for us to reconnect personally with our Campus Target family and see all God has done over the past ten years!
Our son enjoyed his first time in Asia. He was excited to greet all the native people we passed and we loved watching their faces break into smiles to see a little blue-eyed foreign boy grinning and waving at them. He turned out to be a great little international traveler!
Thank you for praying for our trip! Here are some praise reports:
– Buttercup and our son’s health: we didn’t have any major issues the whole time we were traveling! We were blessed to stay with some dear friends in their home, and also in another furnished apartment where Buttercup could cook most of our food. Our friends went out of their way to help us find, order and cook food so we wouldn’t get sick!
– God’s provision: thank you for all the special gifts that made this trip possible! It was really meaningful to be able to go together as a family, and in the weeks before we left we had a significant amount of our trip costs covered by donations!
One of the highlights from our trip was meeting one of our team’s key disciples, a young woman named Kristine. Our team led her to Christ almost two years ago, and since that time Kristine has actively shared her faith with her classmates and family, even when it meant persecution from fellow students. Last year, a girl named Lili betrayed Kristine and reported her to their school officials, telling lies about her. Kristine was brought in and harassed by the school authorities and threatened with expulsion from the university.
This Easter, a beautiful miracle occurred when Kristine got to personally baptize Lili, the very girl who had betrayed her but had repented and was restored to the church. It was a powerful moment of restoration and forgiveness for the whole church. We got to meet both Kristine and Lili who are now friends in a vibrant, growing house church! Kristine plans to work with our team full-time next year, so she can make the greatest impact possible on her campus for Jesus!
We gathered with long-term members to celebrate 10 years of Campus Target’s ministry in Asia. It was extra meaningful because our meeting place was in a church that is pastored by one of the young men our director led to Christ back in 2004 on his first trip to Asia! Buttercup and I were both honored for ten years of service with Campus Target. It’s amazing to see how much we’ve grown as a ministry since we started, and give thanks for all God has done! Over 200 young missionaries have been sent, dozens of discipleship groups and churches have been started, and thousands of college students have heard the Good News of Jesus!
The Bible is filled with examples of God’s people gathering together to remember what He did in their past. It stirred up faith that He’d do it again, and I think this trip did something similar in us. The first 10 years of CT’s ministry have been both bumpy and miraculous. We know a bit more of what we’re doing now, and I hope the next 10 years will be even more miraculous – even if they’re a little bumpy, too! 🙂
Thank you so much for your care, support, and prayers for our trip. We’ve just about adjusted back to this time zone – jet lag with a toddler is a whole new ballgame, we’re learning! Thank you again, we hope you’re having a wonderful summer!