Belated April Q.U.O.T.A

Apologies for the few who might have been following this blog. Some of us (read: I) are finding it hard to get out of "old school"... I am not a blogger, it seems.... Most of my time is taken up with people on a non-digital plane.... But I am trying to catch up.... here's our QUOTA from April 2010

February saw ACTI finish an intensive 6-week residential cross-cultural training program with 10 trainees and 3 young teens - 1 family and 2 single ladies from Sarawak; 1 single lady from West Malaysia; 3 single lady pastors from Hong Kong; and 2 young men from Singapore. All from ethnic Chinese backgrounds, but 4 distinct cultures... all learning together…with varying abilities in English, all fairly fluent in Mandarin, but with mother tongues which were: Foochow, Hokkien, or Cantonese.

A great bunch to work with! We were also privileged to have Joey here to tutor the children as well as to help in a number of other areas.

Joey spent several weeks at the Batam Ministry House helping with computer, internet and English skills. Andrea joined her end February, was a few days in Jakarta with a group reaching the extremely poor with the gospel by living among them, then also explored art school opportunities in Yogyakarta. Joel stopped in on his return to Vancouver from a working holiday in New Zealand. So, for a few days we were again a family all together in Asia.


In March, Janet and Henry attended meetings in Bali with World Team leaders from various parts of Asia, then took a 5 day holiday with the girls. Henry was in Kalimantan to teach at a pastor’s seminar end of March.

18-30 April is another Step Aside For Encouragement program (S.A.F.E.). Please pray over the next 2 weeks as we help Christian Workers who have been worn out and perhaps "burned" in ministry. We cannot share all the details; however, over the next 2 weeks we hope to be of use in the Master's hands to touch these souls.

Last week was great! We had 2 groups of overnight missionary guests, Henry had 2 meetings with other missions leaders, we had a day out with Dave and Phyllis Enns, and we visited missionaries from Java (formerly in Kalimantan) who were in the hospital recovering from hemorrhagic dengue. We helped serve food at an evangelistic outreach, and cleaned the ACTI premises for the SAFE program. This morning Henry borrowed the church van and drove Janet, Phyllis and 10 Indonesian ladies to a restaurant where a good friend hosted them for her 50th birthday celebration.

The Indonesian Fellowship has picked up in the interest shown from the ladies. Some are allowed a day off once a month, so Janet is teaching handwork and computer skills. (A few are on Facebook if anyone is interested in communicating with them once a month or so – contact Janet for info).

The Batam House ministry is struggling with direction and lack of funding. We are praying that more ladies will benefit from this ministry, and more churches in Singapore will utilize this for their domestic workers. Wendy and her husband, Eman, are heading up this ministry.

2 weeks ago we were invited by an Indonesian Christian fellowship to have dinner with the Indonesian Ambassador to Singapore. We made some good connections and ate some of the most delicious Indonesian food ever!!!!