13 Feb Macau News from the Beckers

Carlson and Naomi Becker, UB missionaries in Macau, sent the following as part of their January update letter.
The week before Christmas, we felt impressed to reach out to a young woman, a new Christian during the past year, who was struggling on her own away from her parent’s home and support. A church in the US had sent us a cash gift for Christmas, and we were enabled to take her to the grocery store and buy her some food to help stock her pantry. Naomi had been giving her tips about how to save money on food. We were humbled as we took her through the store and she first picked out two items as gifts to her father and mother for Christmas.
On Christmas Eve, this girl invited her father to go to an Evangelical Outreach Program with her, and because of the change he had seen in her, he went. They gave an altar call and the father went foreword to accept Christ. We were so thrilled that we practically walked on air after hearing the news. We were blessed to be a minute part of it and to see the joy in the young girl’s face.

Christmas celebrated here in Macau was much different than our traditional “back home” celebration. For one thing, it lacked all of the commercialization. We were thrilled to hear Christmas carols being played in our elevator during the whole season. Even though we did not have our family here, we did celebrate with our mission family. We attended Living Stone Church in the morning and then the group came to our apartment for the evening meal. Melissa Kline’s parents were here, so they joined our Christmas feast. We had a lot of fun with our White Elephant gift exchange as we laughed until our sides hurt. We have a very creative staff to work with here. Melissa’s parents surprised Jennifer and Naomi with a box of Velveeta Cheese. The cheese was Naomi’s most prized gift that she received that day. (We can get it in Hong Kong, but it is too expensive to buy.) It is the simple things that count the most when you are away from home.
We have hosted five guests for the last two days. Paul Coy and his wife and some friends from Thailand were here, and we really enjoyed them. Our home is becoming quite the stopping off place for people from around the world and also for the people of Macau.
Carlson is beginning to do some of the bookkeeping at the ELP office to relieve Jennifer Blandin. We are studying Cantonese with a tutor. ELP classes will start in another week after the Holiday festivities die down, and then we will be back into our usual routine.
We are excited about the launch of Living Stone Church on February 26. Please pray that we will be able to draw in many from the surrounding apartments. There are thousands to draw from. We will send out over 5,000 flyers announcing the first service. We have already put up a new sign on our building that shows we are holding church services. Our desire is to establish a Chinese Church and not have it be “American” in its style. We are now working to get Chinese preachers to preach several times each month. There will be a lot of work getting ready for the launch. We are excited and trusting God for the harvest.