Henry, Ling, Annabel and Jonathan Lu 吕子峰, 锺凌, 吕辉安, 吕辉中 2012 July May 31, 2007 Dear Prayer Partners,

Our contact information: Our work address: COCM UK Office: 2 Padstow Avenue, Fishermead, Milton Keynes, MK6 2ES, U.K . Tel: 44-(0)1908-234100

Our Home address: 15 Laker Court, Oldbrook, Milton Keynes, MK6 2TQ, U.K. Tel: 44-(0)1908-604382 Henry Mobile: 44-(0)7515489305

Our email addresses: [email protected] [email protected] and Annabel at [email protected] Jonathan at [email protected]

All Contributions payable to: COCM USA, c/o Lily Chuang, 38 Stonegate Drive, Wethersfield,

I trust that you have been receiving Henry’s monthly thank-you letter with updates of the many ministry trips that took him up and down the UK, to Europe and other parts of the world. However, it has been more than 6 months since I sent you our last family prayer newsletter. Not that I forgot to write. I had started a few times but failed to finish in each occasion.

end for rest. I started to write a new letter during the February half term break when our family drove all the way to Land’s End in southwest England for a short trip. I thought I had everything needed for the trip, only to discover I left my reading glasses behind after we arrived at the hotel. Without glasses, I gave up on reading and writing after about 5 minutes of effort.

Right after the New Year, I reflected on my struggle to wrestle with time (or the lack of it) and wrote about my decision to have intentional rest before each new week starts, but I didn’t manage to finish the whole letter when I reserved a day in my week-

In March I wrote about my daughter’s expedition weekend, how she packed and carried extra snack food, clothes, and modern-day necessity items that turned out to be a burden for the 48km journey on foot. It reminded me how often we travel on our spiri-

tual journey in the same manner, carrying things for self reliance but they ended up becoming a heavy burden that hinder the growth of our faith. I was proud of the fact that she endured to the end and finished the whole walk, but found out that this was only a practice run; the real expedition will take place at the end of June in a much tougher mountainous area. A moment of hesitation caused me the opportunity in finalizing the half written prayer letter. Coming into April, I realized the true reason behind my difficulty in getting a prayer letter out was the competing deadlines of other writing assignments. Since the beginning of the year I have taken up the editor responsibility for the Living Water Magazine. This has been a new and exciting experience and I must say that it is by far the most challenging assignment I have accepted since I came to COCM. This magazine is aimed to share the gospel message through testimonies and easy reading articles with restaurant workers, small business traders, and people in Diaspora Chinese communities who are not highly educated. As I am not familiar with this reader group and am not working with them directly, I try to understand their needs through talking to those who minister to them directly. It is quite time consuming in the beginning, but it is necessary preparation in order to tailor the magazine content and writing style to the readers. My first attempt to put together a new issue of the Living Water magazine was an extremely humbling experience. Like many times in the past when I stepped out of my comfort zone to take on a new ministry responsibility, I had no idea how to start and could only pray for God’s hand to guide and to make things happen in spite of my inability. And just like what I experienced in the past, during the time of praying and waiting I saw God at work slowly but surely. He sent his angels to not only support and encourage me when I was in doubt, but also send column articles and testimonies to me in unexpected ways. A sister who is chief editor for a Christian newspaper took me under her wings and became my mentor. By the end of April, I was able to collect all the materials, finish editing the whole issue and send the final version to the artistic designer. I learned much in the process and gained new insight into the need of sharing the gospel through literature ministry. The month of May brought us warm weather, consecutive sunny days, as well as the urgency for our family to start the application

process for settlement in the UK before our current visa expires in early July. The first hurdle was to pass the “Life in the UK” test. We needed to study a manual with 6 chapters of information about UK’s immigration history, population, government, society, education, as well as various aspects of working and living in the UK. After a few days of memorizing the materials and answering hundreds of practice questions, we both passed the test. Next we must prepare the various required documents for the application. Our daughter Annabel is taking GCSE exams and will finish half of them in May. In England, compulsory education ends at age 16. Afterwards children will do Advanced Level study to prepare for entering university at age 18. Annabel had turned in her application with choice of subjects to study in A-level, but she is still unsure about whether she has made the right selection. May the Lord guide her and shape her direction by raising circumstances to confirm her choices and give her confidence. Jonathan is now 13 and starts to show signs of growing (acne, deodorant, …) like a typical teenager. This is an in-between year in school and so not much seems to be happening. Lately he is getting more into playing table tennis. (Many people are playing serious ping-pong here in England!) We continue to pray for God to open doors for Jonathan to try out new things and take part in a variety of after school activities as well as make friends outside of his school circle. Because of the UK settlement application, Henry will not be traveling outside of the UK for a while. Not thinking far ahead, a few months ago I booked tickets to fly back to the USA with the children in August. Please pray that we will be able to receive our passports and permanent residence permit in July so we do not need to change our overseas travel plan for the summer. Finally, Henry and I want to thank you for faithfully supporting our family over the past 5 years. Knowing many of you went through difficulties of your own in past years, Your prayers, financial support, and partnering with us in the mission field “are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.” And we pray that God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Until we meet or hear from one another again, may the Lord bless you and keep you in His grace.