At present, hundreds of thousands of students from China … seek higher education in the United States … These people represent China’s ‘best and brightest,’ who would not be in the West unless they were smart, well-connected, and ambitious ... For a variety of reasons, the presence of these students and scholars represents the most important arena for outreach to Chinese worldwide.

While in China, I had conversations with several dozen people. In almost every case, I found that they had something to tell me, something I needed to know before I could say anything of value to them.

As I wrote in Reaching Chinese Worldwide, brief trips to Greater China may be quite useful, if they are made with the right purposes and planning. Since we left Taiwan in 1988, I have traveled back there or to mainland China almost annually, and have always come home encouraged.

Our ministry has two facets: Ministering to Chinese, and Mobilizing others to participate in what God is doing among the Chinese. For each of these tasks, the Internet has become a major tool.

With more than 200,000 students from China at our high schools, universities, and colleges, American Christians have an unprecedented opportunity to communicate God’s love in Christ to a group of people who are unusually open.

My last letter looked back in a review of God’s mercies to us in 2013. Now let us glance forward to at least the first half of 2014, mindful of James 4:13-17.

“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” (Psalm 103:2) God showered us and our colleagues with many blessings in 2013.

Offering a listening ear, sympathetic heart, and godly counsel provides one of the best opportunities for communicating the truth and love of God to Chinese.

In the Great commission, Jesus told his followers not only to bring people to faith, expressed in baptism, but also to “teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28)

In my recently-published book, Reaching Chinese Worldwide, I mention a few points of contact between Chinese culture and Christianity. One of these is Christianity in America.