December Work Report from Gaius in China

I am writing this report in the New Year, 2016. Thank you for all your support to me in 2015. I also thank HeartCry for your wholeheartedness and service. I am very grateful to be in contact with a group of brothers who love the Lord so much. May God remember your labors.

In December 2015, my family and I experienced God’s great grace and blessing. The brothers and sisters here are starting to think about the needs of my family. They are planning to walk with us the next few years and take care of these needs. I am very thankful for this. It shows that they are growing slowly and are willing to apply the Bible practically to their lives. They also are learning to care for the spiritual and physical needs of their shepherd. This was a great encouragement and blessing from God.

I went once this month to Shanghai. I was invited by the pastor of an international church there to share on the challenges and joys of planting a church in an urban context. This church wants to plant a new church in another part of SH. So they wanted to hear my personal experience in doing this, the difficulties and sorrows, and the joys and hope. They hoped this would encourage the congregation. On arriving at the largest city in China I was again made aware of the need for Reformed churches in each and every city. Many Christians need to commit themselves to a healthy church and through the church live out the commission God has given. There are so few churches like this in China. This encouraged me to work harder at establishing my present church in the Bible.

This month I finished the series on The Gospel of Mark. I finished preaching expositionally through this book over two years and the help it gave me personally was great. This was the first time for me to preach in an expositional way through a whole book of the Bible. Preaching like this helped me to rethink through and apply my theology, my preaching method, and my preparation method. This enabled me to be better prepared for future ministry. Also, because of this process, the brothers and sisters learned to listen to the Word, understood the Gospel, gained a better understanding of Jesus, and were able to apply it to their lives.

We finished our small group study on Christians in the Workplace this month and my co-worker went back to the seminary to keep studying. I started a new study on fearing men based on Edward T. Welch’s book When People Are Big, and God Is Small. The purpose for this study is to deal with fears in the brothers and sisters from a biblical counseling point of view with the hope that they grow emotionally.

On Christmas Eve our church carried out evangelism to those around us. Every one took action (with a few exceptions). For many of them it was their first time ever to share the gospel with people they didn’t know. We were rejected by a lot of people, but some were willing to listen to us. The brethren realized how strongly people can be opposed to the gospel. We very politely greeted people and asked to share with them and yet still we were rudely rejected. This made the brethren realize that the world really hates the gospel and hates those who truly love it. However, after this experience the brothers and sisters asked that we do evangelism more often, for which I am very thankful.

Overall I am very thankful for the year 2015. It was a year of blessing for my family and of growth for the church.