17 Mar Student Ministry in Macau

Jeff Bleijerveld with the Macau team. L-r: Jenaya Bonner, Mia Kline, Jeff, Brandt Kline, David Kline, Melissa Kline, and Bridger Fetters.

Jenaya Bonner meeting with some students in Macau.

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

Throughout the world youth show signs of apathy, but perhaps not more so than they do in Macau. Surrounded by Mainland China, with a rather confused national identity and a future of simply serving as Asia’s gambling capital, jobs and money come easily to the youth of Macau, but the future seems rather bleak.

Our team of Jenaya Bonner, Bridger Fetters, and David and Melissa Kline work in local schools as English language teachers and conversationalists. This lends legitimacy to their presence in Macau, but also provides opportunity for them to get close to students, hear their pain, and share the gospel with them in meaningful ways.

Working alongside the Living Water and Living Stone United Brethren churches, they network with church members so other Macanese believers can be brought into the circle of friends they form. This ensures that the gospel message is not simply dismissed as a Western cultural phenomenon, but is relevant for Asian culture as well.

Just after I left Macau on March 7, I received a disturbing message from David Kline. The body of one of his students was found floating near the ferry piers. While nothing was said to indicate it had been suicide, and would not in this culture, neither was there indication that a criminal investigation had been launched.

Both David and Bridger teach at the same school and ask for prayer as numerous significant conversations are taking place with students trying to deal with the tragic loss of a classmate. Pray that out of this tremendous loss, many will find hope in Christ.

15 Mar Japan: Global Ministries Partnering with Samaritan’s Purse

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

Global Ministries is partnering with Samaritan’s Purse in the aftermath of Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami.

United Brethren people are compassionate and generous. So when disaster strikes a country, they want to help. People often contact Global Ministries to ask if we are doing anything to help in a specific situation.

Our practice is to partner with organizations which specialize in disaster relief. When the earthquake hit Haiti in January 2011, we partnered with Samaritan’s Purse and CH Global and channeled relief contributions to them. Within weeks of the earthquake, UBs had sent nearly $70,000 for disaster relief.

Likewise, the tsunami in Japan requires the expertise of a major relief ministry. Global Ministries is again working with Samaritan’s Purse.

Donors can direct funds to the organization themselves. Or, we will gladly forward your gift—100% of it—to Samaritan’s Purse. Some prefer the latter to avoid being placed on a mailing list.

What is Samaritan’s Purse doing?

At the request of Japanese Christians, Samaritan’s Purse has deployed a team to provide emergency relief aid to people affected by the earthquake and massive tsunami that hit the northeastern coast on March 11. Giant waves engulfed coastal towns and swept away houses, cars, boats, and trains.

The twin disasters devastated hundreds of towns and villages in northeast Japan. Hundreds of thousands of survivors have been left without adequate food, water, shelter, or heat as overnight temperatures dip near freezing. There is no electricity in many regions; the nights are cold; and the suffering is great. Evacuations over nuclear power concerns have
 only compounded the problems.

Samaritan’s Purse is planning to distribute food, water, medicine, blankets, hygiene supplies, and other essential items to people who have lost virtually everything. Their Japanese church partners have secured five trucks and begun purchasing supplies, and have secured permission to enter the disaster zone. Local believers are being mobilized as volunteers.

Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham has, in the past, conducted evangelistic Festivals in the Japanese cities of Osaka and Okinawa, and they have hundreds of church partners in the country.

If you want to channel relief money through Global Ministries, you can send a check to:

Global Ministries
302 Lake Street
Huntington, IN 46750

Include a memo note on the check designating the gift for “Japan relief.” Your entire donation will go toward relief efforts.

13 Mar Now THAT’S a Pulpit!

Jeff Bleijerveld (left) preaching at a UB church in Thailand. Beside him, translating from English to Mandarin, is Mark Choi, the Hong Kong missions director. On the left is a Thai worker translating from Mandarin to Thai. (click photo to enlarge)

One of the pulpits (click to enlarge)

A view from behind one of the pulpits. (click photo to enlarge)

Jeff preaching in a Thai church. Most of the people sit in plastic chairs, while the children sit up front on the floor. (click photo to enlarge)

Jeff Bleijerveld, Director of Global Ministries

Our two churches in Thailand feature the largest and most impressive pulpits in the denomination.

Rev. H. M. Lee, who heads up our work in northern Thailand, made pulpits from the trunks of two large teak trees. The stumps sit upside-down.

I’ve wondered how Rev. Lee brought the stumps to the churches. Teak is a very heavy wood.

I had the chance to preach from these pulpits. The large size came in handy, since we needed several translators. I spoke in English, another person translated from English to Mandarin, and then another person translated from Mandarin to Thai.