January 2012 Prayer Letter
Dear Pastors, Partners, & Praying Friends,
We started of this New Year in a hospital located in China’s capital. On New Year’s Eve morning my wife woke up with much pain and asked me to take her to the hospital. We were worried there may be something wrong with the baby or that she might even be in labour. Seven hours later they discovered that her gallbladder was infected.
After giving her some medication for the pain, we took a plane to the capital city to get treatment at another hospital (since there could be complications with this problem and the pregnancy). We arrived at the hospital later that evening and my wife was in the hospital for three days fighting the infection (hoping to delay the surgery until the baby is born).
Thankfully, they were able to get the infection under control and I am writing this letter from the capital as we wait for the arrival of our little one (around Feb. 3). Then my wife will have surgery to remove her gallbladder. Please keep her and our family in your prayers during this time.
Other than this small scare, we ended the New Year excited about what God is doing. In our last prayer letter we mentioned our desire to help get behind two new church plants in our city. The goal is to raise $7,500 for each church and almost 50% of that total is already promised! Praise the Lord!
These two churches are already seeing souls saved, are busy passing out Gospel tracts / church invitations and preaching the Word of God! Get involved in helping these two churches in China by giving a financial gift. You can give online at www.projectchina.org or you can send donations to Project China, P.O. Box 442, Alpharetta, GA, 30009, Note: “China Church Planting”.
Other areas of prayer and praise for this month:
- At the church’s annual Christmas party several were baptized!
- On January 29th we are asking churches to get involved in the “Global Day of Prayer for the Chinese”. Pray and get involved (more information at www.projectchina.org).
- We hope you will pray with us over the next month as we are looking forward to see how the Lord is going to use our situation here in China’s capital. We have already been in contact with other laborers and churches in the city. Also, living in another part of China hours away from our “home” and seeing there is still a great multitude of people, strengthens our desire to see more laborers raised up for this “people rich soil” here in the land of China. Will you come and work in these fields?
Thank you for being a part of our team, Project China, with your prayers and financial support!
In Christ,
The Tolson Family
December 2011 Prayer Letter
Dear Pastors, Partners, & Praying Friends,
We finished November strong as we entered into the final month of this year. We are amazed at how fast the time goes by but we are excited to be spending our second Christmas here in China. Thank you for your continual prayers and support of our family and ministry.
As I mentioned in our last prayer letter, we were able to be assist in a church plant. Since then, there has been another church that is being planted by the man was ordained in October. Both of these men have been training under my co-laborer and he excitedly reports about sending them out:
“Two young men in our church are starting new churches this month! This is so thrilling for us, and I hope you will rejoice with us. Both of these guys have been working with me closely for about three years. They have served as assistant pastors for the past year or so. They have witnessed, preached, baptized, and discipled. They have proven to be faithful men who can teach others also. When the church went through an event of persecution, they were the ones that boldly led the church through it!”
We have been privilege to know and work with this great team and to know these two men that are being sent forth to plant churches here in China. We want to help get behind them as they try to establish these new churches in the city. One of the ways we can do that is financially, my co-laborer writes:
“The total expense for each of the new church’s rent, utilities, pastor’s salary, and everything else will be close to $7,500 a year. This is obviously a very small number compared to the cost of a new church plant in many other places! These churches will be taking their own offerings and paying all their bills they can, but it will likely be a little while before they are fully self-sustaining.”
We want to help raise these funds and invite you to get involved in planting churches in China by giving to these churches. You can give online at www.projectchina.org or you can send donations to Project China, P.O. Box 442, Alpharetta, GA, 30009, Note: “China Church Planting”. Thank you for your consideration of this worthy investment!
In Closing, we hope you will pray and/or praise with us over the following:
- Laborers – Pray and consider giving your life to preach the Gospel in China.
- Chinese – I was able to preach for 28 minutes this month. Praise the Lord!
- Baby – The baby is due on February 3rd. We will be traveling to another city at the beginning of January and will stay there for about five weeks.
Thank you for being a part of our team, Project China, with your prayers and financial support!
In Christ,
The Tolson Family
November 2011 Prayer Letter
Dear Pastors, Partners, & Praying Friends,
God is doing a work! October was a month full of many blessings as the Lord is building His church. We are excited to be apart of what the Lord is doing and experience it first hand as we continue in our language studies. Let me report to you three areas of how the Lord is working:
First, my co-laborer has been training several men and this past month the first one was ordained into the Gospel ministry. I was honored to give a challenge at his ordination. It is exciting to see how the Lord is going to use him and his family as they take the next steps in ministry.
Second, we are able to build more relationships and share the Gospel. This past month as we were at the police station trying to obtain some paperwork that we needed, I was able to talk again with a friend, who also is a police officer, and he showed interested in receiving a Bible. Pray for this man’s salvation.
Also, we have been able to meet with others and share the Gospel with them as we are constantly meeting new people. Pray for souls to be saved!
Third, we assisted a new church plant here in the city. Another man that my co-laborer has also been training for several years was ready to establish a new church. It was a great learning process for us as we learned how to look for and find a location, organize and hold outreach events, plan and setup everything for the beginning of the new church plant. It is exciting to see a local church planting another local church.
Other points of prayer and praise for this month are:
- Language – We are in our fourteen month of language study and there is still much to learn. Pray for the Lord to bless our efforts as we continue along.
- China Baby – The baby is due on February 3rd. We will be traveling to another city and must stay there for about a month’s time.
- Laborers – Pray for 5 men to surrender their lives to give China the Gospel.
Thank you for being a part of our team, Project China, with your prayers and financial support!
In Christ,
The Tolson Family
October 2011 Prayer Letter
Dear Pastors, Partners, & Praying Friends,
We continue month-by-month and day-by-day to see the goodness of God in our lives. It is exciting to be able to serve the Lord on the mission field. I want to start this letter off by simply saying, “thank you for giving to the Lord and partnering with our family to take the Gospel to China.” Your financial and prayer support are vital to this ministry. I also want to ask you to be a mobilizer for more laborers to take the Gospel to China in our generation.
China, being the largest country in the world, has millions who have never heard a clear presentation of the Gospel. There are many cultural gaps and the language is considered one the hardest in the world. China, for the most part, is an inexpensive place to live, the economy seems to be doing well, and the people are friendly and open. With all that being said, China is probably one of the largest unreached places in the world, not in percentage but in amount of people. Yes, there are Christians, churches, missionaries, and evangelist here, but the amount of people that live inside China’s borders is so great that there still are so many who just aren’t being reached with the Gospel.
The current city we live in has about the same population as the entire state of Georgia, but I can guarantee you that the spiritual makeup is completely different. An average person in our city might know the name of Jesus but doesn’t know why He came.
Christianity is growing in China but all of it is not healthy and much of it would follow under the the more loose, generic definition of the term “Christianity.” Christianity is easily accepted for it’s “blessings” and not for it’s “cross.” The government doesn’t mind Christianity as long as they can have their hand in it and are able to control it. The government church itself was formed to make Christianity fit into their form of government and control. Some who boldly step outside of their control are faced with persecution.
Religion is here in China. The cults are here in China. Tradition and superstition are still a strong part of their everyday lives, but what China lacks is the true preaching of the Word of God that causes repentance towards God and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It lacks men who are willing to train the next generation of pastors and missionaries in China.
China needs men. China doesn’t need another 007 English teacher or an American Christian Cafe, it needs men. It needs trained men with a Bible in their hand. Men to climb over the great wall of fear that paralyzes so many before they even get started. Men to charge and take on the giants in this land. Men that are willing to fight, live and die for the gospel sake; humble men that are fit for the Master’s use.
Will you be a mobilizer in your church? Will you look for young men and pray that God would use their lives and send them to China? Will you encourage them to come to China for six days, six weeks, or six months and let their eye affect their hearts? Will you help them financially get here? Or will you surrender and come yourself? Will you..?
Other points of pray and praise for this month are:
- Language – I was able to preach a 20 minute message at the end of this month. Praise the Lord!
- China Baby – our baby girl is healthy and is due on February 3rd.
- Voice in the Villages – soon we will be getting things to production and start training.
- Church – the church will be ordaining a Chinese pastor this month.
- Short-termers – their is a short-term group visiting this month for about three weeks.
Thank you for being a part of our team, Project China, with your prayers and financial support!
In Christ,
The Tolson Family
09.13.11
September 2011 Prayer Letter
Dear Pastors, Partners, & Praying Friends,
August 10th marked one year since we boarded the plane in Atlanta, GA to leave for China. We consider it a privilege that we get to serve as foreign missionaries. God has been so good to our family and we just want to see His name high and lifted up here in China. Thank you for your love, support, and prayers over the past year and we are excited about our partnership in the Lord and what HE is going to do in the coming months and years!
As we reported in our last prayer letter, the first Sunday morning in August we had a situation with the police in which they entered the location where the church was currently having services and stopped the preaching, stating that what was taking place was illegal. They had detained three of the preachers and one of the church members for questioning and then released them.
We ask for prayer that the church would move forward preaching the Gospel to the glory of God and that is exactly what they did. The church continued to have its midweek and Sunday services. It was encouraging to be a part of and see the church continue to serve in spite of persecution from the government.
Since then, the church has continued to grow. We no longer could use the location we were using for the Sunday morning service but have to use a smaller location that the church was already using for the midweek service.
Continue to pray as the church continues to boldly move forward. They are already talking about starting other churches and how they can reach more people with the Gospel.
Also, our co-laborers have returned from their short furlough and we are excited they are back. When they returned, two different groups from their sending church, which is also a supporter of ours, visited China for a short time. It was encouraging to be able to spend time with and help host them.
Other points to pray for this month are:
- Language. We are in our 12 month of language school and have another 12 months to go before we complete our language training.
- China Baby. My wife is about 20 weeks along and the baby should be due at the end of January.
- Voice in the Villages. This ministry is in the beginning stages as we are having things translated. Pray that soon we will be getting things to production and start training.
- Pray for laborers. We need men who will give their lives to live in unfavorable circumstance to take the Gospel to the largest nation on Earth.
Thank you for being a part of our team, Project China, with your prayers and financial support!
In Christ,
The Tolson Family
09.9.11
Are you getting our prayer letters?
Every month we try to write a prayer letter that gives relevant information about what is taking place in our lives and ministry. It is a great way to keep in contact with everything that is happening here.
If you are subscribe to this blog, then you should already be receiving the text version of the prayer letter as it gets posted each month on this blog.
There are also a few other ways to receive our prayer letter that I want to make you aware of:
In the Mail – Each month we mail out a full color, one page, paper prayer letter to several hundred churches and individuals. It would be no problem to add you to the list if you would like to receive our paper prayer letter in the mail each month. We just need your name and address, which you can click here and fill out the contact form and you should start receiving it when the next mailing goes out.
By Email – We have a email edition of our prayer letter that goes out every month as well. It is more than just the text, like the blog version, as it has a design template and includes the new pictures every month that are on the paper version of the letter. You can sign up for that specifically by clicking here. As long as you just choose “Prayer Letters” you will only get one email a month from us.
On the Website – All of our prayer letters are archived on the website in PDF format. You can register and access the membership area of the Project China website (www.projectchina.org) and download any of the previous prayer letters.
So are you getting our prayer letters?
If you already are, thank you for staying connect to Project China. If not, I hope that you will choose to receive our monthly prayer letter in some form and pray for us!
Also, feel free to choose more than one option. If you want to get a paper letter in the mail, sign up for the email option, and download them from the website that is fine with us!
| Posted in Amazing Journey, Prayer Letters, Project China | 2 Comments »
August 2011 Prayer Letter
Dear Pastors, Partners, & Praying Friends,
“It’s Sunday! The police know we are a church and know where we meet, nothing left to do but keep going forward trusting God! Psalm 5:11-12.” This was an update that I posted on the first Sunday morning of this month. The church had some problems with the police on the previous Wednesday during a routine check up in the area, but didn’t know how serious the problems were.
That Sunday morning during the service a group of about 20 police officers or religious department workers entered our building and stopped the preacher from preaching. They blocked off the doors so no one could leave, questioned several people and took down the information of everyone in attendance. Then they took four of our people to the police station for questioning (three of them are preachers). After questioning them they released them. This is the first time the police have actually stopped the service and took in the church members for questioning.
Please pray for the church as we move forward preaching the Gospel to the glory of God! Pray for boldness and wisdom in the days ahead. Pray for the church and the Chinese pastors.
Before all of this happened at the church, we just finished hosting Fellowship Baptist Church in Maryville, TN for a short-term missions trip that we call the VisonTour. We had a great time and the group was able to help the ministry by assisting in the church’s first V.B.S., passing our gospel literature and church invites, spending time with and witnessing to Chinese college students who speak English. Many were able to share their testimonies and the preachers were able to encourage the church through preaching.
I believe by the end of the trip that there was a vision implanted in their hearts for His kingdom in China, ministry was accomplished to the glory of God and we were able encourage each other in the Lord.
After visiting places like the Buddhist Temple and seeing people worshipping idols, looking and praying over the city from the Dragon Tower, and seeing the masses of people at Tiananmen Square and Central Street, I am yet reminded of the great need for labors in this land.
Not only that, but after our recent run in with the police where they entered our church and stopped the service in the middle of the preaching, I am burdened of the need not just for laborers but bold laborers that are willing to give it all up and endure persecution for the sake of the Gospel. Will you stop playing games and surrender your live to take the Gospel to China? Will you?
Thank you for being a part of our team, Project China, with your prayers and financial support!
In Christ,
The Tolson Family
07.4.11
July 2011 Prayer Letter
Dear Pastors, Partners, & Praying Friends,
It has been a great summer thus far and we are expecting God to continue to work and do great things! The following is just a small glimpse at what God is doing in our lives and ministry:
Language & Ministry – We are continuing with our language studies through the summer, just completing our 9th month. Each week I am involved in teaching a small Bible study and each month I have the privilege to preach to the church. Each of these challenges my Chinese to keep advancing. Also, my wife was able teach the Children’s Sunday School class for the first time in Chinese.
We’re Expecting – In our last prayer letter we mention the one year mark since our little baby boy was still born. This prayer letter we are announcing that we are expecting again! The neat part of this is that we found out on Wesley’s birthday! We decided to wait to announce our good news until we could have an ultrasound and found out exactly when the baby was due. The doctor said the baby should be due around February of next year. We would appreciate your prayers in this matter!
Baptisms – It was exciting to see six people get baptized last month by one of the Chinese pastors. Several of the people were from the work he has started north of the river. God is using the Chinese pastors to grow His church!
VisionTour: China – We are having our first church group come and visit us at the end of this month. Please pray that they will be able to get a greater vision for China and be a blessing in the ministry through their short time here. If you would like to take a VisionTour to China, feel free to contact us.
Voice in the Villages: China – This is a project to help provide material and training for pastors in the villages. We are still looking for those who want to partner with us in this project. We can use your prayers and financial support.
Hopeless – If you follow my blog then you read about the glimpse of hopelessness as I stopped the car at the traffic light watching two men burning joss paper and bowing down in a ritualistic and empty manner. It was an act of devotion void of Jesus. The need here is great and the door is open, will you join us in proclaiming hope to the hopeless!?
Thank you for being a part of our team, Project China, with your prayers and financial support!
In Christ,
The Tolson Family
| Posted in Prayer Letters | 2 Comments »
June 2011 Prayer Letter
Dear Pastors, Partners, & Praying Friends,
As the Bible states, “…that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations…” we are seeing this become a reality in our lives as we slowly understand and learn this language and culture. We still have a long way to go but it has been a joy to start experiencing small opportunities to share the Gospel in the language the we have given our lives to learn. To God be the glory!
We completed our 8th month of language acquisition and we are continuing to progress. I was able to preach at the end of the month for around 15 minutes. Also, I was able to start studying the Bible with a guy. It has been hard and a blessing at the same time. Please pray for more opportunities as our ability increases.
The 27th of last month marked one year since our little baby boy was stillborn. It was hard to believe that a year has already passed. Our lives have changed so much since this time last year. Wesley changed our lives and helped us grow stronger, trusting and leaning on the grace of God. Our family wants to express our “thanks” to all those who have prayed for us and cared for our family during this time. Thank You!
Also, we recently released information about a new project that we are involved with called “Voice in the Villages: China.” It is a project the we are working together with our home church, Vision Baptist church, providing material and training for pastors in villages and the least desirable areas. Every month there is a PDF prepared with essential material to help these rural pastors. There has been a full-time translator hired to translate these PDF’s into Chinese. Then they will be printed, put into a notebook, delivered to the rural pastors and we will hold a short training session with them. We have the cost of labour for our full-time translator, printing/notebook cost, and transportation cost driving out to the villages. If you are interested in financially helping us in this ministry, you can send all monthly or one-time donations to: “Voice in the Villages: China” P.O. Box 442, Alpharetta, GA 30009 (please make checks payable to “Vision Baptist Missions” with “Voice in the Villages: China” in the memo).
As we surveyed the villages awhile back it surprised me how many villages there are. We just kept driving and there were more and more villages. Will you consider giving your life to take the Gospel to the thousands of villages in China!
Thank you for being a part of our team, Project China, with your prayers and financial support!
In Christ,
The Tolson Family
05.3.11
May 2011 Prayer Letter
Dear Pastors, Partners, & Praying Friends,
We are excited to be living in the grace of God, being fully accepted through the resurrected Son, Jesus Christ! As the months roll on by, we continue to see how good He is to us! We continue to see our need to depend and rely on Him and we continue to have the desire of making Him know among the masses that live within our reach and beyond. Continue to pray as we are making progress, but unless He is involved, it is all in vain! Here are a few highlights from this month:
Easter was a blessing! We were excited to celebrate our first Easter in China. In Chinese the name for Easter is “ fù huó jié ” or “Resurrection Festival.” Most people here don’t celebrate or even give lip service to this day, simply because many don’t know why Jesus rose from the dead is that important!
On easter morning during the usual Sunday school hour the church had a time of outreach, trying to gather a crowd and then invite them to our main service. We had a couple children’s activities and gave out some candy. There ended up being several who camp out. When the activities were over they invited every to come to the service and a good majority of the crowd migrated over to our building. There were many first-time visitors and nearly 130 people showed up!
We enjoyed the Lord’s supper and then they had baptism at the end of the service, two people were baptized! Also, there was one person saved at the end of the service in response to the gospel being preached! Praise God!
Our language is continuing to slowly increase. At the end of this past month, I was able to preach again, but this time for around 10 minutes. We are praying and working towards adding 5 minutes each month until I can preach a normal sermon. I am sure there will be some rough spots along the way, but we are asking for your prayers in this matter!
The Taube Family has been a tremendous blessing to our family since we have been on the field and we have enjoyed working with them. They recently returned to the states for a short furlough. This is a family worth having into your church and worth supporting if you are able. God has blessed their ministry here in China!
Consider your life! Earlier this year in an article on my blog I wrote “China has an over abundance of nominal evangelist and a lack of bold local-church-planters … China needs willing, trained, bold men of the Book! Men that have a high view of God and a high view of His Church.” Will you come plant churches in China?!?
Thank you for being a part of our team, Project China, with your prayers and financial support!
In Christ,
The Tolson Family