At the beginning of December, both of us caught the flu and RSV; we were sick for 2 weeks. Pray that we continue to have physical, emotional and spiritual strength. May the Lord bless us with grace and wisdom as we observe and discern His guidance. Caleb successfully completed his fall semester and returned to the GTA for some family time over the winter holidays. We are thankful to our family in Canada, for their care and love for our son. We praise God for His everlasting love for Caleb. It gives us additional reassurance and peace as we serve in the field.

1) A Small Revival in Göttingen:

The past three years of the pandemic were tiring. Evangelism during the post-pandemic era has been even more arduous. We held church ministries this past year. The Spirit began to work in His people and led them to repentance from September to December. When people returned to God, the desire for holy work was awoken. God added newcomers and new believers to the church. “Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.” (2 Timothy 2:21) We give thanks to the Father for the small revival our church has experienced. May the Spirit watch over Göttingen and help us be alert and persistent in prayers for the sake of the Gospel.

2) New Students Orientation and Follow-up Outreach Programs:

We witnessed that when relationships are restored with God and with one another, believers become more willing to go the extra mile. In order to promote the outreach activities, we went out ten times as a group to deliver pamphlets to people on the streets, campuses, and around the city center. With limited human resources, our church experienced the miracle of “Five Loaves and Two Fish” where the Lord directly blessed the gatherings in triumphant numbers. We only had seven members to prepare for four outreach events in October. Yet, the Lord led 50 newcomers to us. Half of them have become regular attenders and committed new church members.

The outreach activities based on the core needs of newcomers are Campus Life, Senior Students’ Sharing, Basic Legal Knowledge in Germany, etc. These new people were also willing to attend the faith session – The Joy in the Life of a Christian. They were amazed to hear of the miraculous transformations through testimony!

The main purpose of the follow-up is to maintain a close connection with the newcomers after the New Students Orientation. The various activities allow them to experience how Christianity is applied in different aspects of life by introducing a “Holistic Gospel”. These included:

(a) Networking over food and fun events: Getting to Know the Old City of Göttingen + Love Feast (30+ attendees), Exploring Göttingen Underground + Love Feast (30 attendees)

(b) Emotional well-being series in Sunday School: Personal Growth – emotions, stress management and self-esteem (20 + attendees)

(c) Exploring Christian faith: Friday weekly sessions of the Alpha Course for the young adult group (average 16 -26 attendees, 2/3 are seekers).

3) Christmas Gospel Celebration: 

The Father guided us through the preparations for our Christmas Celebration and brought almost 100 people on December 25th. The programs included a children’s drama of the nativity story, singing groups, musical performances, testimonies and Gospel messages. For the Christmas Celebration, only a small group of roughly ten people could help out as others were traveling or had fallen ill. But the believers served with one heart and one mind, offering their best as a gift to our Lord Jesus. Amazingly, God led six of the attendees to Christ! “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

Adding two more newly converted in December, we will be preparing follow-ups for eight new believers in total. May God bless them with yearning hearts. We currently have about ten seekers who regularly attend our meetings. Pray that they may respond to the Gospel with humility and courage.

1) The emotional and spiritual health of believers and seekers: It has been exceptionally cold this winter in Germany. The severe outbreak of Covid in China also added to the risk of situational anxiety and seasonal depression in families and students. In October, our church began a Personal Growth series in adult Sunday School twice a month. May God use the series as an opportunity for us to walk with believers and seekers through the different seasons of emotional and life challenges.

2) Dumplings Feast for Chinese New Year on January 22nd: It has been 3 years since our last Dumplings Feast. Pray that we will be able to host another one for this Chinese New Year. May the seekers experience the love and warmth from our church during the feast.

3) New outreach point: Bad Sooden-Allendorf is a small town near Göttingen. The town population is around 8,000. It has one private university. Despite the pandemic and the changes in international students’ admission policies, there are still around 200 Chinese students. The Chinese Lantern Festival Outreach will be held on February 4th. Pray that the Lord will prepare resources to serve the students who will be attending. Also pray for the opportunities to “cultivate the soil” in this small town.

4) Our trip back to Hong Kong: We will be visiting Hong Kong for work and a family reunion from February 14th – March 14th. The last time we visited Hong Kong to share about our ministry in Germany was in 2017. We look forward to sharing God’s grace and believers’ stories. We hope to share the miraculous work of the Lord with different churches and pastors.

5) Gospel Sunday on March 19th: Please pray for the joint Gospel Sunday event for Göttingen, Kassel, and Marburg. The speaker will be Rev. Liu Minhe. May the Lord anoint the mouth of the speaker, persuade the hearts of seekers to attend, and may the Holy Spirit work in the hearts of everyone who will be at the meeting.

Thank you for supporting the ministry in Germany and upholding our family with your prayers. Wishing you all a blessed Chinese New Year!