Missions Email Update

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am so grateful for your prayers and for your financial support in the past few months since my missions plans were finalized. It has been amazing to see how much God has helped me to grow during college and to see how He has provided for me in my preparation to go to Yunnan. I just wanted to send an update email to all of you to tell you a little bit more about my preparation and to ask for continued prayer.

Praise the Lord! Since you last heard from me in my support letter, God has definitely blessed my preparation! I have bought my plane tickets, received my visa, purchased a Chinese/pinyin/English New Testament, and have also reached my fundraising goal. Also, through a class I'm currently taking this semester, I have been delving deeper into microfinance and have been learning many things that I hope will be useful for the work I'll be doing in the villages of Yunnan province.

This past week, I finished the last classes of my college career and am now preparing for graduation. It's an exciting time, as well as a busy one, and I ask you to pray that I would take the time to adequately prepare my heart as I finish the last bits of my schoolwork and other graduation activities.

I'd like to leave you with a verse from the benediction this morning in Sunday service, words that I think really hit me, because they highlight the reason for why we go on missions. In Romans chapter 10:12-15, it says:

"For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'"

Thank you for reading this, and please continue keeping me in your prayers!

For His Glory,
Mark