Short-Term Mission to Shanxi 2014

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
  Last year, I went to Shanxi (山西), China for a short-term mission trip. This summer, I will be going to Shanxi, again. We will have two short-term mission teams from DCCC (Davis Chinese Christian Church) . One will be serving at Qixian (祁縣) , and the other will be serving at Yuci(榆次). Both cities are located in Shanxi province. I will be serving in Qixian.

From July 7 to 18, our STM team will be serving at Qixian's local church. The first week we will hold an English camp at the church. There will be three levels of English classes: Beginner class, intermediate class, and advance class. I'll be helping out the beginner class this year. The second week we will be holding the Christian Youth Camp at church. Youths from junior high to senior high (maybe some college students) from two main churches: Taigu (太谷) church and Qixian church, will come to the camp and learn more about their faith. We'll be leading worship, Ethical teaching, English Corner (teaching English), games, and story telling for the youths.

The main goal of our trip is to build relationships with the kids and youth, learn more about their faith and their backgrounds, and hopefully help them grow in faith. Some youths may have complicated backgrounds, so our team has been trained to assist them when they need help with dealing things such as families, career, etc. We also use this opportunity to share more about Christ love to help then grow spiritually. Some of them are new believers, seekers, or non-believers. I went last year and built great relationship, so I want to go back this year to follow-up.

Prayer request:
1. Pray for our team's strength. Personally, I'll be leading worship, taking care of beginner English class, which is basically like a VBS (Vacation Bible School) but much longer, leading bible studies and doing English corner. Our other teammates will have more than one task to do, as well. So pray that we will have enough strength to do well in all the ministries.
2. Pray for team's unity: Pray that our team can work together well when we are teaching, leading bible studies and leading worship.
3. Pray for health and spiritual attacks: Last year, most of us got sick during the trip. Also, last year, some cult came into church and shared things that aren't biblical. Pray that these attacks from Satan won't stop us from expanding God's kingdom.

Thank you all for your prayers.

In Christ,
Joseph