early october

the first part of october was amazingly busy. we had a chance to join most of the montreal staff team for breakfast with donna dong, an old friend from california and now inter-varsity's director of multiethnic ministries. donna, who has always been a great teacher and a clear thinker, is also a cancer survivor and seems to have a fresh passion and drive for her work of promoting an inter-varsity ministry that reaches people of every background and sees them reconciled to God and one another through the gospel of Jesus. it was great to see her again.

later that week m and i had a hospital visit with a chinese friend who has had some severe and troubling medical issues. h and her son are relatively recent converts, and this time has tested her newfound faith. but it was a joy to see her in the hospital and find her spiritually stronger than ever, trying to reach out to her hospital roommates and the medical staff. we took her home later that week, and helped her to get re-established at home. it'll still be a long road to full health, and she is still facing the prospect of further complications that might force her to go back to china, where she assures us she can get better medical care than here. from what i've experienced of quebec's health system (where 29% of us cannot find a regular doctor), i can believe her.

beyond that, it was more of the same: lunch with a young couple that had a wild summer in ministry, learning to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in a fresh way; an evangelistic meeting in a downtown coffeehouse with some amazing music, great prizes, and a very attentive crowd for my message on finding success; m's regular meetings with a number of women (mostly students) that she is mentoring; a sermon at a local church from matthew 9 (the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few); dinner in chinatown with some international friends — and their friends!

a bit of family news:

• b took her sats for the second time, and had an unusual amount of opposition which attended the day; still, she was relieved to have completed the exams. her sat ii's are scheduled for december.

• m celebrated her 25th christian birthday, which also happens to be the same as n's baptism day. congratulations to m and n on all that God has done in their lives — the best is yet to come!