As I have reflected on effective methods for reaching Chinese with the Gospel, it seems that one theme keeps recurring: The need for patience. Without patience, coupled with perseverance, we are not likely to have a lasting impact on our Chinese friends or upon their society.

As we look back over the past year, we are once again both amazed and thankful for what God has done.

A few weeks ago, I visited a large American church which was about to cut staff because of insufficient funds. One major reason: Their huge mortgage.

Maybe the most valuable gift we can give visiting students from China is a our genuine interest in them, expressed by sincere questions about their country, culture, family, and reactions to their host culture.

Long ago, Lin Yutang, in My Country and My People, wrote that China is a more “feminine” culture compared to the “masculine” cultures of the West. We may take the Chinese emphasis upon personal relationships as an example of this difference.

Since arriving in Taiwan on April 25th, I have seen abundant evidence to confirm my previous belief that this island plays a strategic, even vital, role in the building of God’s church in China.

Short-term trips can promote the Gospel among Chinese if they build on existing relationships, increase our knowledge, contribute something useful, and lead us to pray.

Chinese marriages are in trouble. When I asked a Chinese pastor how the couples in his church were doing, he replied, “Worse even than American Christian marriages.”

The presence of Chinese students and scholars living abroad represents the most important arena for outreach to Chinese worldwide.

The past year has seen mammoth changes, and 2009 opens fraught with uncertainty and danger...We expect to advance, not retreat, in 2009, but we rely upon your faithful intercessions for us, and thank you in advance for this vital assistance.