It has been a wild start to our year in China – or not in China! In the past two years, Peggy has made four trips each year. Jon made seven trips in 2018 and six in 2019. Many of our friends in China and here have told us we needed a break – we are working too hard. Unfortunately, neither of us has been to China since December. Maybe God has forced us to take a break. But don’t get the idea that we are lounging around with nothing to do!
As the great social networker she is, Peggy has consistently communicated with our ministry friends in China via WeChat. Earlier this year, she shared that we were praying for China and for all our Chinese friends. We found it interesting that no one we know in China contracted the Coronavirus. And none of our friends knew anyone who had the virus.
Earlier this year, we were advised not to travel to China. Now China has banned all travel from outside the country. Even if we wanted to go, we could not. Recently, one of our Chinese friends asked for our address. She wanted to send us some masks! Many of our friends are very concerned that we will become sick. They offer lots of advice for our safety.
Jon is communicating with the leaders of a network of Chinese run and registered non-profits. Beginning in June 2019, Jon began providing Servant Leader training with this group. In November and December, we held three-day trainings with groups in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. They wanted us to return to four more cities in March. That was delayed to May and June. Now we are in early planning to provide live online/Zoom training with these groups in May and June. We are also discussing more training in September and later in the year with these non-profit leaders and other business leaders. Jon is developing a weeklong One-to-One mentoring workshop for our friend Teacher Qin to be delivered as soon as we can get back to China.
Both Jon and Peggy are busy developing and improving our curriculum. We are excited about the future of our ministry in China! Also watch for a Learning for Impact workshop we may offer here in the US. Attendees learn great teaching and communication skills and get to see an example of our work in China.
Finally, our Chinese staff partner, Stanley Zhang, could use our help. Before the pandemic, we were seeing the fruit of our efforts over the past two years and on track to raise enough income in China to pay Stanley’s salary. But, because of the worldwide situation, all of that has changed. Would you be willing to help Stanley by donating a tithe from your $1,200 US stimulus payment? You can make a donation at http://weblink.donorperfect.com/Stanley.
– Jon Sperling