It’s a busy time here, with Chinese New Year coming up next week. It’s the year’s biggest holiday for most of the members of the congregation and their families.

The girls I’ve been studying with every Saturday morning came together last night to help make gift hampers to give to our elderly members and visitors. The girls did a great job making them, and we now have 5 gifts to deliver before the weekend.

During the New Year holiday, we will have lots of good time to fellowship together. One of our members has invited several of us over to his place, and some old friends of ours who have fallen away now, hoping to help them reestablish connections with the body here. The holiday season is always a good time to reconnect, and I am pleased that the members are trying to make the best of the opportunity the season provides.

One of our old friends who is now living in the US is back for a visit with her family members now. Some of us were able to get together with her, her 2 boys, and her mother last week, and it was a very warm reunion. It is such a pleasant thing to be part of a body that can share such bonds together. (It was the first time I had seen her boys, and I was very impressed by how well-behaved they were!)

On a personal note, I was very pleased recently to recieve news that a poem I had written was accepted for e-publication at Utmost Christian Writers’ website. They are collecting poems for The Genesis Project, with each poem being focused on a specific passage from the Book of Genesis. If you’d like to see my poem, entitled Cursed, you can click here. (And if you write poetry and have something that might be suitable for the collection, the writers’ guidelines are here.)

Thanks, and Happy New Year to everyone!

新年快乐　•　万事如意