Dear praying partners:

It seems when we get back to Taiwan, things start moving and never stop. The churches at ChiDu and Taipei each have their needs but both are moving in a good direction... and we are seeing a heart for evangelism in the Christians at both churches. We are looking to help move the HsiChi Lotus Hill Community Church to weekly worship services instead of once a month. They plan to do an outreach to the community on December 26th which you could pray for.

Judy and I have been doing our own evangelism projects... On Sunday night we had an evangelistic concert in Taichung and so we got back to Taipei after midnight. The concert went really well. I preached on Hebrews 4:12-13 and the fact that you cannot hide from God... but have to face Him... and can only do it through Christ. One younger Taiwanese man came up afterwards and asked very seriously about how he could know if he is a Christian or not although he has grown up in the church. There was such a crazy crowd that I did not get to talk to him very long... but please pray for him... I wrote down the church's website in Taipei for him to check out...
--- so pray for wisdom on how to make the most of every opportunity... also pray that my language ability in Taiwanese and Mandarin will continue to improve.

Please keep praying for the concerts this Christmas season. I find that preparation through intercessory prayer really affects the audience... the first concert we did at Sheng-te Christian College in Chungli on the previous Wednesday (several hundred college kids)... had a pretty distracted audience, but the Taichung Concert on Sunday night to the PCT College Fellowship group... (again several hundred but also many older adults and children) was really attentive... and we had prayed for them before the service. An old man came up afterwards and told me he liked my preaching because it was clear and simple... but I must say, that must have been God's grace... Only God can change hearts, no matter how good I am at communicating and capturing their attention or how good Judy is at singing or how moving her testimony is. And God responds to the prayers of His people.

Our upcoming concert is Friday night... a women's group... and then on the 18th and 19th we have two big concerts in I-Lan County. The last one for the Christmas season is the 26th also in Taichung.

Also this Sunday, I get to lead communion for the first time (one of the great privileges of being ordained to the Gospel ministry).

I've been reading Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism by Iain H. Murray... really good book put out by Banner of Truth. I really recommend it if you want to understand the shape of the current church in America... why all these denominations sprang up in the 1800's and why and what a lot of the major divisions developed. (And also a little on why the cults like the Mormons developed then.) Truly Satan sows tares among the wheat, but God's harvest will not be stopped. You've heard talk of "revivals", we sing songs about "revival" and you might have actually been to a "revival" meeting... but if you really want to know the ones that transformed the US during the First and Second Great Awakenings, read this book. The publisher's website is www.banneroftruth.org

We'd love to hear from you on what you've been reading and how you are doing.

God bless and thanks for your continued support.

In Christ,
JOEL & JUDY

Rev. Joel H. Linton
Missionary to Taiwan
www.taiwanchurch.org

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