It seems like things have been whirling about at high speeds lately. We had a busy but enjoyable Chinese New Year together, with lots of time for warm fellowship with the members of the congregation and other friends. The Chinese New Year is actually a 15-day festival, and today is the last day of the Chinese New Year holiday. The house just across from me had a lion dance this afternoon, in celebration of the holiday, and it was fun to stand outside my door and watch them performing.

The congregation has continued to do well. I have been pleased with the growth of the members in many small ways. In addition, we’ve recently enjoyed especially warm fellowship, with members who live overseas being home for the holidays. It’s been a good time for us.

We have been having a little problem with a leaky roof at our building over the past few months, during the heavy rains of the monsoon season. We’ve managed to get a good quotation from a contractor this past week. In a meeting today, the congregation decided it would be wiser for us to reroof the whole building rather than just patching up the problem areas. We don’t know how well the building was maintained before we bought it, and so felt like doing a thorough job of it now would save us more problems down the road. The members are each planning to pledge some extra funds to defray the cost. I was encouraged to see the enthusiasm of the group for practicing good stewardship of our resources. It was all handled maturely and efficiently, and I think we’ll have the job done quickly.

One of our members has been working over the past year or so to get a counseling service started, operating out of the building. Things have begun to come together nicely for that, and we currently have 4 regulars who are coming to the building for counseling. My sister and her family helped head up a “massive advertising campaign” in the neighborhood in December — consisting of their family, the children from church, and a few of us adults going and placing leaflets on each door in the buildings around the church building. It is nice to see the results from that coming together, and it is nice that the children’s enthusiasm has helped to bring this about. The two ladies who are running the counseling service are doing a very good job, and we hope to see it expand as time goes on. It is a good service to the community.

I would appreciate your prayers for comfort for my family. My maternal grandfather passed away last week. I am sad, and will miss him very much. I am, at the same time, so grateful for the life he lived, and for the shining example of faith that he was to me. He became a Christian 5 years ago, at the age of 75, and the humility with which he came to that decision moves me in a way that I cannot express in words. I have written a short tribute to him at my regular blog site, if you’d like to look at that.