Cross Cultural Discipling MissionBenjamin & Karen Rees

January 2013

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Weather (4:10 p.m. on January 17): Sunny and cool. Temperature, 19 °C (66 °F). Relative humidity, 68%.

“SEASONS GREETINGS”When I started working on this letter, it was not yet American Thanksgiving, so I opened with “Happy Thanksgiving.” But I got interrupted, and Thanksgiving passed, so I switched to a Christmas greeting. That became “Happy New Year.” Now even that is past, though Chinese New Year is still to come. Writing “Seasons Greetings” should cover me for the holidays already past, for the one still to come, and for the time of year.

“For Unto Us A Child Is Born”“For until us a child is born.” These words from Isaiah 9:6 had a double meaning for us this year. The main reference, of course, is to Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas. But for us as a family, this year we celebrated another birth.

Our daughter Megan gave birth to a daughter (our first grandchild) on December 6. For anyone who is interested, that is traditionally St. Nicholas' Day. Her name is Hadessah Ruth Robertson. Hadessah is a variant spelling of the original Hebrew name of Queen Esther. Ruth is not only a Bible name, but one that has now been passed down through four generations on the female side of our family.

The baby was due just after American Thanksgiving, so Karen flew to the States on Thanksgiving Day and stayed until December 31 to help Megan and Matt through the first few weeks (and to enjoy the baby herself).

While in the States Karen got to enjoy a belated Thanks-giving dinner with my family and four Christmas dinners with various groups of relatives. “Home Alone” in Hong Kong, I (Ben) had to wait until January 8 before we could have our traditional Christmas feast here.

* Thank God for Hadessah's birth, and that Karen was able to be there for the birth and to help out.

* Hadessah was born with a “primum atrial septal defect.” This means that the wall between the two sides of her heart had not completely closed before she was born, allowing oxygenated and un-oxygenated blood to mix. Sometimes the hole closes naturally as the child grows. If not, surgery will probably be needed at a later stage. Please pray for God's healing – by whichever method He chooses, though we would prefer for it to happen naturally, of course.

Other Special EventsThe church celebrated its 31st Anniversary on November 11. A shortage of money and personnel forced us to scale back on the celebration this year. Among other things, we had a local speaker – C.S. Ho, an elder at the Mongkok (Chinese)

Karen Ruth Rees and Hadessah Ruth Robertson

church that we worked with when we first came to Hong Kong – rather than bringing someone from the Philippines as the church has done for quite a few years. Despite the smaller scale, everyone seemed to have a good time.

The shortage of personnel also prevented us from starting on Christmas preparations until after the Anniversary, but people worked hard and quickly and managed to pull

together a surprisingly good program and party on December 23.

* Thank God that these celebrations went well and also that the mood in the church seems better than it had been for much of the year.

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COMINGS AND GOINGS

Our Trips, Past, Present and FutureIn the last one of these letters that I sent out (last April), I mentioned plans for a trip to the U.S. in May and June. We flew to the States on May 22 and were there for Megan and Matt's wedding anniversary and our own anniversary. We celebrated son Matthew's birthday early because we left on his birthday, June 20, arriving back in H.K. on June 21.

While there we were able to spend time with our families, visit three of our main supporting churches, and discuss mission direction and policies with our mission directors. We also moved some of our stored possessions out of an old house on Karen's parents' farm and into better storage on my sister Joy's farm.

In the first part of this letter I have already mentioned Karen's trip to the States in November and December for Hadessah's birth.

This coming summer we plan to go to the U.S. and Canada for about three months, June through August. This will be our longest time away from Hong Kong since 1995 and it is only possible because Janeece England of Missionary Relief Services (MRS) will look after things in our absence.

Among the things we hope to do are to spend time with family and close friends, visit as many of our supporters as possible, move more of our things from Karen's parents' farm into other storage (since they are now in their 90s and may not be able to stay on the farm much longer), and visit as many as we can of the many former members of the church here who are now scattered across Canada.

If you would like us to visit you or your church on this trip, please let us know as soon as possible, especially if

you want us for a particular date.

I have also been asked to teach “block” courses in two different Bible colleges in the Philippines – at under-graduate level in one and at master's degree level in the other. I have tentatively accepted, but dates and other details have not yet been worked out.

* Thank God that both trips in 2012 went well.

* Pray for the trip planned for this summer. Pray for the planning and arrangements, as we work on them now. Pray for us and for Janeece England as we work out the details for her to look after things in our absence. Pray that we will get quick responses regarding our itinerary, then for safe travel. Finally, pray that we will be able to accomplish everything we need to when the time comes.

* Pray for wisdom and guidance from God regarding the possibility of teaching block courses at the Bible colleges in the Philippines.

Other People In and OutLast year we had a regular flood of other people coming and going, mainly to and from the Philippines.

In my previous letter I mentioned the visit of Randy and Julie Gariss. Randy had been invited to speak in the Hong Kong Keswick Bible Week in March, and while they were here they also visited our church and spent several days with us giving us some much-appreciated encouragement.

Most of the visitors were ministers and Bible college personnel from the Philippines, including Simeon Cura (a preacher and the husband of one of our HK members, who

Our very own "paparazzi" taking pictures at the church anniversary celebration on November 11

I played Joseph in the drama portion of the Christmas program

came for Mothers' Day), Gilbert Guillermo in June, and, one after the other in October and November, Domingo Tallud, Ed Sabado and his wife, Joffrey Barba, Esmelito & Rebecca Acson, and Leolinda Columna.

Also here in October and November were Misti Jennings, who works with Ted Skiles in Taiwan and had to exit Taiwan to renew her visa, Glen & Fen Andrusiak (Fen is a former member of the church here, who was one of the first to go to Canada), and Jeannie Hoffman and Jim McElroy. Jim and Jeannie are second-generation missionaries to the Philippines. (Their parents were Barton and Betty McElroy.) They are old friends and gave us much-appreciated encouragement and advice regarding some

problems we had in the work at the time.

* Please join us in thanking God for giving us the necessary strength and encouragement to get through a rather stressful few months. The last quarter of the year is always very full with several major church activities. All the extra visitors just at that time, plus Karen's trip and our grand-daughter's birth all added to the stress. But, thank God, we made it through all right. We only had to house one of the visitors ourselves. Unlike most recent years, there were not a lot of complaints after the activities (even though they were on a smaller scale than recent years). And, while a few of the visitors caused additional stress, some of them also brought needed encouragement.

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OTHER NEWS AND PRAYER NEEDS

“The Ruby Ring”Karen got a much-hoped-for “Christmas present” this year.

She and I both like to write, and over the years one or both of us have had items published in Straight, The Lookout, Christian Standard, Devotion, and Horizons.

Karen also enjoys history, and is especially interested in the period of the English Reformation. For some years she has been working on a historical novel based on the life of William Tyndale, who published one of the first translations of the Bible into English. While she was in the U.S., her novel, The Ruby Ring, was accepted for publication by CrossLink Publishing. We will, of course, update everyone when it comes out, which should be within a few months. This is the first part of a trilogy, so we hope it sells well enough to warrant publishing the other two.

She would like to have a website to help publicise her writing, but we both lack knowledge and experience in how to set this up. If anyone can give us advice or help, this would be greatly appreciated.

In the meantime, she has two more articles due to be published in the Christian Standard in February and March.

* Thank God that the book is being published. It means a lot to Karen. Pray that it will sell well.

Out of the OrdinaryLast March was a full month for us – especially for me (Ben), and especially the final couple of weeks.

Hong Kong has a really elaborate annual flower show. Every year we plan to go, but it usually gets squeezed out. This year we went, on March 21.

When I was in high school I played rugby, and it is almost the only sport I bother to watch. Hong Kong has a major international Rugby 7s competition every year. I've often wished I could go, but have never been able to afford it. This year, a friend of Karen's generously gave us tickets to attend one day of the 3 day event. That was on March 24.

My high school was King George V School, here in Hong Kong. Students from the school are now scattered all over the world, but the alumni association organises a reunion every five years. The latest was this past March. I can never afford the time or the money to attend all the events, but I managed to get to a few.

If you are a Facebook friend, albums of all these events have been posted in my Facebook account.

Health MattersI have previously mentioned the lesion on my left temple that would not heal for several months. After seeing several doctors, including a specialist in dermatology, I had an excisional biopsy done in August. That means they cut out the whole thing (since it was small) and sent it to the lab. The verdict was that it was a “squamous cell carcinoma” (a form of skin cancer), but think they got it all. I am sched-uled to have a follow-up examination on February 28 to confirm everything is O.K.

Recently Karen has had a small but unexplained weight loss. Since one possible reason for such a weight loss is colon cancer, and since her mother had colon cancer (many years ago), Karen is in the process of getting tests done to make sure there is no cancer.

Apart from those problems, Karen continues to take bone-strengthening medicine for her osteopenia, and I'm taking pills for my enlarged prostate and to keep my blood pressure down. Otherwise, I think we are generally in good health, and we will probably get check-ups before our U.S. trip in June.

* Thank God that we are generally in good health and that the skin cancer was small and seems to have been success-fully eliminated. Pray that Karen's weight loss will turn out not to be anything serious.

Miscellaneous Prayer Needs * Thank God that the mood in the church seems to have improved. Pray that this continues. Last year there was a

serious problem with criticism and complaints that was threatening the unity of the church.

* Besides all the comings and goings of visitors last year, there has been a lot of “goings” of members who have either returned to the Philippines “for good” or gone to Canada to work. Several more are scheduled to leave in the next few months. Pray that all those who have left will find good churches in the places they have gone and will be faithful there too, and that we will get a good number of new people in to replace those who have left. Several of those who have left or are leaving have been among the leaders, so pray for others to take their place in the leader-ship and work of the church.

* The Sri Lankan refugee couple we have been helping, Raja & Chitra, had a fourth child recently. They still have no news about possible resettlement. Meanwhile, Karen has also gotten involved helping another couple, Allen & Deepa, who have a similar background and similar needs. Please pray for both these couples, that they can be resettled soon, preferably to places where there are good churches. Allen & Deepa are hoping to go to Australia, and Raja & Chitra to Canada.

* We hope to have elections soon for officers of the various groups in the church. Pray that enough suitable people can be found to replace those who are leaving and to keep the programs of the church going. Last year we had a real shortage of people willing to serve and as a result some normal activities suffered.

* Many members of the church struggle with various financial problems, and we heard recently that many of them have serious debt. In the next few months we will be using the Dave Ramsay course, Financial Peace University, to try to teach better money management. Pray that it will go well and be helpful. Pray especially for wisdom as we try to make the necessary “translation” from the U.S. setting that the course was designed for, to the situation our members face here and in the Philippines.

* Giving in the church continues to be lower than it ought to be. We hope the better mood in the church and the Dave Ramsay course will both help. We will also hold a Faith Promise Commitment soon. We do this almost every year, but our current church officers want to promote it in a bigger way this year. Please pray that it helps.

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Benjamin & Karen Rees, CROSS CULTURAL DISCIPLING MISSION Address: 85 Broadway, Flat B, 5/F, Mei Foo Sun Chuen, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Tel: (011) (852) 2742-6484. (Fax by arrangement at the same number. Call first.)

E-mail: reeshk@netvigator.com or reesmission@GMail.com. Website: www.hongkongmission.org Forwarding Agent: Penny Graves, 3300 E. 13th, Joplin, MO. 64801-5825, U.S.A. Tel. (417) 659-8105.