March 27, 2024 Update

Dear friends,

My last letter requested prayer about the changes/decisions for my eldest daughter and son in the next year. Here are some of God's blessings.

Aien (Charity) will complete her Master's in Biblical Counselling at Moody Theological Seminary(Chicago) in May. Her next hurdle is passing the licensing exam in Illinois in May. Following graduation, she will go on staff at Moody, where she plans to stay for one year, working in the front office of the counseling center (28 hours/week) and seeing clients. God has blessed her to work with her supervising professor to re-open the counseling center after being shut down during COVID. From 3 people, it has grown to 15 counselors and interns, so management, coordination, and insurance billing will be her new responsibilities. God has allowed her to learn so much. Prayer requests for her: (1)she and her roommate will be looking for a new apartment midway between Moody and her roommate's work location. (2) Her licensing exam. (3) Moody is up for accreditation for their counseling program next month.

Johann is now looking to finish up Grade 13 in Canada. He hopes to continue studying music at university. We are thankful to a sister from China (Michelle) who has allowed him to stay with her family. He worked hard on his interviews and auditions and belatedly realized last month that universities requested the IELTS English Proficiency Test as he had yet to spend four years of high school in Canada. It has been quite stressful studying for it this last month. Last Monday, he went online to try the test -- but the system on his computer crashed. He was so frustrated that he banged his laptop on the desk (damaging the desk but not the computer, thank God). It looked like all doors were closing (He cannot return to Taiwan as his Canadian education is not recognized since he has dual citizenship.) But on Thursday, he received excellent news: the University of Western Ontario gave him an exemption from the English Proficiency Test and an admission offer with an entry scholarship. This morning, he happily called me to say that U of T had also decided to exempt him from the English test. Praise God for his goodness. He was able to attend the church young people retreat with a lighter heart. Prayer: For his decision about where to go. As he says, this is a happy decision as all choices look great!

Laid-back Leon is doing as well as he wants in Grade 10 in Taiwan. He is quite satisfied to be in the top quarter of the students and has little compulsion to fight to be #1. He enjoys reading both English (e.g., Lord of the Rings) and Chinese novels or Japanese novels translated into Chinese.

Ruth continues her Grade 7 studies (1st year Middle School Here). She continues her interest in animals and is focused on her desire to attend the University of Guelph, although she faces great difficulties in Mathematics. She has dropped archery (she was practicing until 7 pm every night) to concentrate on her studies, and her math marks are improving.

Ruth and I are looking forward to going to Canada and attending Camp Cherith in the summer -- I hope we can bring other children with us this year. Two students are currently interested.

This is long enough for now. Please continue to pray for the African (predominately Eswatini and South Africa) church, the small international Christian fellowship at the university, and the Moses/Jesus/Socrates course at Yuan Ze University.

Sincerely,

Jonathon

PS: Pictures are taken at the International Orchid Show in Taiwan. So beautiful is God's creation!