I've been putting off writing this update for a couple days because I haven't been all that sure how to say what I want to. I figured, hey, it's the biggest news this blogger has ever seen, I want to make sure I put it right, correct? Well, I've been thinking about it for about five days and it still seems the best way to say it is

DOUGLAS HAS TRUSTED CHRIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our whole team has been doing back flips for the past several days. Douglas has been our number one prayer request for months.

Ok, here's a quick summery of how it all happened. Douglas first started coming to Bible study at the start of last semester (just when I arrived here in Kinmen) to practice his English. Soon he started coming over to the dorm on Sunday afternoons to visit, play guitar, sing, or whatever. We normally had a fair number of high schoolers over on Sunday afternoon. About halfway through the semester he started showing more and more of an interest in spiritual things. When Dad was here (in April) he told Douglas that he should read some in his Bible some everyday. Douglas took it very seriously and has been reading every day since then. Towards the end of the semester Douglas was hanging out with us more and more. He made plans to spend the summer at Andrew and Lucas' house. When summer camps started he hung around and helped out (and what a great help he was! His English is way better than our TA's!) One week into summer camps his Dad threw a birthday party for him. As is tradition, he made three wishes before blowing out the cake. Normally the third is kept a secret...but he said he wanted to tell us, because he knew that we would want to know. "I know that the Amarica's are Christian's and I hope that one day I can be a Christian too."

Over the summer he asked a lot of questions. He talked to Lucas, Andrew, Meagan, Christine and Joel. Andrew told me several times that he didn't know what was stopping him.

After we got back to Kinmen Douglas spent a lot of time hanging out at the dorm before he left the island to go to college. The night before he left Lucas asked if it would be ok if we prayed over him. We layed hands on him and Andrew prayed that Douglas would become a Christian.

Last thursday he called Rebekah. He told her that he was a Christian and had been since a few days after his birthday, but had not really been sure about it and was afraid to tell anybody. Rebekah asked him a lot of questions about it: was there a certain time he had asked God to forgive his sins? Did he believe that Christ had cleased him? Yes he said.

Since then he has openly to declared his faith. When you see him on MSN his username says "Douglas--I am a Christian". He's going to a church in Taipie. And he's really excited about praying for us and our ministry here in Kinmen. And he's started witnessing to his friends (pray for his (and our!) friend Aluba!)

Ok, so maybe that wasn't such a short summery, but it's basically what's happened.

Here's a couple quick requests:

---Pray for me working with Kiwi, a teacher who I teach 10 (out of 20) classes with every week. This guy has no control whatsoever over his classes. They are totally nuts. If thay are as nuts tomorrow as they where last week I'm going to have to talk to him about it. Pray things go well.

---Pray for a kid named Joe, who's mother is teaching in one of the Jr. high's here. He hardly speaks any Chinese and they've put him in school here. He basically just roams the school as he wants. When I'm there he hangs out in the English classroom ('cause I'm one of the very few people at the school he can talk to) and does nothing. And it's amazing how distracting "nothing" can be to the other students! So Thursday I started him on bu pu mu phu (he's supposed to be learning Chinese right? Never thought I'd find myself teaching Chinese, but if nobody else is going to teach him anything, I might as well). Tomorrow I'm going to have him do some reading and essey writing. I figure it will be Chinese Thursdays and English on Tuesdays (I go to the school twice a week). At any rate, pray that he keeps a good attitude, isn't a distraction in class and doesn't get on my nerves too much (ever gotten half a week worth of talking to in the space of about 6 hours?)

---Wednesday starts my new English conversation class. I can't wait for it. Also pray for my Monday night conversation class. Tonight we taught them "God is so good" and explained a little bit of what the words mean.

---Pray for Jimmy and Jerry, two new kids here at the dorm. They have been asking Rebekah and I a lot of questions about Christianity.

---I am seriously missing Jr. high. And I don't really like teaching elem. Pray that God will help me be content.

Alright, it's 1 in the morning and I still need to take a shower...so I'd better close this. Bye! God bless you guys!
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