Having been engaged in special education for more than a quarter of a century, I have learnt much from close to a thousand students, and I would like to share my experience here with you.

We have been serving as a couple in East Asia for more than two years. While learning the culture and adjusting to our life in this new location, we have gotten to know many local friends and like-minded people, through serving together and providing mutual support.

I take a deep breath, I look up to Him, and trust that the One who called me from the “ends of the earth” will use my life here for His Glory.

In 2009, our family joined MSI, and moved from New York to Chengdu, where I spent the first three years studying Chinese. Because of the serious HIV problem in Zhaojue, the government invited our organisation to partner with them to start an HIV hospital.

Thank God that there are more people preparing to join us on the field soon. Many of them will need to learn language and culture before serving on the projects.

Our team has been visiting an elderly home for nearly two decades. Initially, there were twenty-nine seniors in the home, and since then the directorship of the elderly home has changed hands eight or nine times. Recently, the director asked us to provide past photos of the home, and we became the people who best knew its history.

The sun shone brightly through the window into our hotel room, on the last day of our vision trip to Meigu county. The balmy weather was a timely blessing from our Father to the Meigu team, as it was the big day of the Meigu project site’s 20th anniversary celebration.

“I’ve got a job!” Within an hour, I heard Lucy repeat this loudly and excitedly more than three times. One could palpably feel her joy and pride. Her mother sat beside her smiling contentedly.

We are thankful for the successful completion of the July Summer Camp for the students from our School Assistance Project.

We give thanks to God for his grace in MSI’s 30th years of history and service. Thousands of people, and dozens of projects and sites, have come and gone.

I began my presidency during COVID, arriving in Hong Kong on 1 June 2020 to an empty office. During the next few years, I was a privileged front-row witness of God’s sovereignty.

As with the other sections in MSI’s history, we witnessed many significant events and changes during this five-year period, 2015 through 2019. I shall list a few of the major events as well as share a few reflections.

I joined MSI in 1994 as medical director, and was MSI President for a decade from 2004 till 2014. At age fifty, I was burned out, had lost my joy in ministry, and I stepped down.

As I reflected about the founding of MSI, I have three highlights I would like to share. First, MSI is a continuation of the work began by A.J. Broomhall and Joan Wales.

God enabled several others and me to return before China closed her doors in March 2020. We give thanks that all MSI sites were operational by the end of 2020,

Our ministry in Daliangshan (literally, The Great Cool Mountains) was started by Sunshine. I am grateful to her, as I probably would not have gone there if she had not been with me. One of our mutual understandings before marriage was to have three children, but it was not something we took for granted

When I think about the years I worked in Meigu, so many stories come to mind. Of course, they always include teammates with oodles of creativity, tenacity and love, as well as all the Han and Nosu nationals who came alongside to help facilitate activities and summer camps. So, which story to tell? Hum…

It has been four thousand days since I came to the field in 2011, and I have experienced God’s abundant provision all along the way. We have had the opportunity to accompany families of children with autism, to support them in organising their own mutual support group, and now the parents have become our partners.

Sharon’s poem is a beautiful and moving reflection on her nearly thirty years of service on the field. She uses a variety of God’s names to express her gratitude for His many blessings in her life.

Over MSI’s thirty years, MSI Canada has sent over five hundred and fifty short term trippers to serve the people of China. Many have found that their expression of commitment to God by going to China was met with a love from our Father that dwarfs the love that we have for him.