This Thanksgiving season, I want to thank God for some of the ways that he has used your prayers for us over the past year or so.
Prayer: our highest priority
To mobilize people for prayer, I have sent out 11 monthly prayer letters, including this one. These theme-based letters explore the various “Old Strategies for New Realities” that I outlined in my February 2017 prayer letter.
Yesterday, I composed a letter on why our future efforts to reach the world with the gospel must assume the absence of American prosperity and the protection of the United States Government. You may find it on my blog (wrightdoyle.com) or at https://www.reachingchineseworldwide.org/blog/2020/11/7/on-the-cusp-of-collapse.
A weekly update tells how God has answered prayers in the previous week, gives our latest news, and presents specific prayer requests for the coming week. To subscribe to these, write to bookkeeper@globalchinacenter.org.
Publications
My second priority is to produce articles and books that will advance the cause of the gospel among the Chinese.
Writing:
God has enabled me to compose:
7 book reviews: You can find these at www.reachingchineseworldwide.org and www.globalchinacenter.org.
8 stories for the online Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity (www.bdcconline.net).
Truth and Life: Doctrinal and Ethical notes on the Bible: In the past year, I’ve written notes on all or parts of Genesis, Exodus, Judges, Zechariah, Matthew, Mark, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, 1 Peter.
This is a work in progress. Go to www.reachingchineseworldwide.org/truth-and-life-old-testament.
Currently, I am working on an article about Augustine’s doctrine on grace, for independent academia.edu
Editing
With Dr. Carol Lee Hamrin, I am co-editor of Studies in Chinese Christianity (wipfandstock.com/catalog/series/view/id/49/).
In the past year, we have edited two new manuscripts: China’s Registered Church by Wayne Ten Harmsel, and a textbook on the history of Christianity in China by Rick Cook.
In the 1980s, the first edition of the Greek-Chinese Lexicon came out. My Greek students did the translation under my supervision. It contained many errors, so I spent five years correcting them for a new edition, which appeared in 2013. Reading through it, I found some more mistakes, though they are fewer and mostly very minor. Now I am trying to eliminate these. I have made corrections on about 350 pages this past year. I’m at page 834 out of 1,073.
Personal Relationships
Though the pandemic has kept us from traveling, we’re still able to call and correspond with CI-GCC associates, Board members, and supporters, as well as seekers and friends in Asia, North America, and the United Kingdom.
By phone and correspondence, I have also been helping two Chinese graduate students with their research on 19th-century missionaries to China.
Former members of the Chinese Christian Fellowship at UVA have organized Zoom reunions to fight COVID-enforced isolation. Dori and I have participated in four of these. Dori has been following up with one of the women since then.
Proclamation
In June, I preached a sermon in Chinese by Zoom to the Chinese Evangelical Christian Church of Cleveland.
An Indian pastor whom I met there in 1993 organized a three-day online pastors’ conference that I addressed in September. He has asked me to continue offering Bible teaching for his network.
Once again, we thank you for all your intercessions! In this tumultuous time, may we all learn to let our requests be made known to God in prayer, with thanksgiving, and receive from him that peace that surpasses understanding (Philippians 4:6-7)