Dear Ones:

Yesterday morning we met with Jeffrey and Ring Kwok to dialogue with them about their work and ministry here. Jeffrey was the interim pastor for the Chinese congregation of our church in Belton for a period of time. Jeffrey and Ring came to Vancouver from Hong Kong in 1988 following the direction of God’s will for their lives. They shared with us their incredible pilgrimage with the Lord; it was inspiring! From 1998 to 2005 the Kwok family lived in Ft. Worth and then in May of 2005 they returned to Vancouver. Jeffrey is currently the director of the Chinese ministries of the ACTS seminaries of Trinity Western University and also dean off the Canadian Baptist Seminary of the ACTS seminaries of TWU. He and Ring are involved in one of our Chinese Southern Baptist churches in the area and have a desire to help another Chinese Baptist church start a new work in the Langley area of Vancouver where there is currently no evangelical witness. Jeffrey gave us a power point presentation of his work related to the Chinese ministries program that he is developing along with some excellent statistics of the number of Chinese who live and work in this region…some 400,000…the majority of whom do not know Jesus as Savior. The largest number of immigrants come from mainland China and are Mandarin speaking. The Kwoks have a burden for the people of mainland China and a call to go there and train Christian leaders. Whether that will be full-time or part-time is still not decided. Ring is finishing her doctoral thesis on the only Chinese-speaking muslim group, the HUI. This was fascinating to me for we have IMB missys working among the HUI! Please pray for this couple as they continue to follow the leading of our Lord! Ring has some health issues at the moment and needs our prayers. Also pray that, as we share the work and ministry of the Kwoks with our Chinese congregation at FBC, Belton, they would respond to partnering in ministry with the Kwoks as they look to start a new work in Langley.

At 4:00 p.m. we joined Andrej, Anna and Michael (their son) for some prayer walking in the neighborhood surrounding the church where the All Nations church meets. Steve and I had the privilege of prayer walking with Michael, who is 23; he is such a fine young Christian man! Pray for Michael as he takes his driver’s test in the coming days and also for him to find work. We all gathered in the church after our prayer walk to share and to pray together…a very sweet time with this precious family, the Voths!

We had a wonderful dinner experience at a Japanese restaurant. The Voths joined us. One of my favorite cuisines is Asian so it was especially FUN for me as I enjoyed sushi and then Betty Kelsey and I ordered Japanese Hot Pot and cooked it ourselves!

Today is our day to sightsee in this gorgeous place. We cherish your continued prayers for us as we prepare to return home tomorrow. We will be flying back to DFW around 1:30 p.m. local time (3:30 p.m. TX time) and then travel by car from DFW to Belton arriving back home very late on Saturday evening. We will see all of you on Sunday morning! Pray for our pastor as he will be sharing the message God has given him!

Blessings and love to all!
Barbara Springer for the Vancouver Team