Preparations are under way just a few minutes drive from our house. Thursday, March 5, is Lantern Festival.  In addition to traditional Lantern Festival celebrations where people create artistic lanterns, our town is known for holding for a feast on that day.  What originated as an event sponsored by our local temple to encourage people to pray for blessing and peace now attracts busloads of people from other places who come to obtain some of the free sticky rice.  Each year the responsibility for preparing the food is rotated to different villages that are geographically close to that major temple.  Governments and various social agencies all contribute to this community event.  Some people will fill a bag with rice in order to carry some back to family and friends.  Many days of preparation are needed for an event that will last only a few hours.  Today as I drove past the venue, my thoughts also wandered to think about the banquets and feasts mentioned in the Bible.  A computer search revealed that there were even more references than I had remembered.  Jesus used preparations for a banquet to describe the life of faith.  In Luke 13:29 he talks of a future feast in the kingdom of God, one that will be attended by people from east, west, north, and south.  In Matthew 22 He describes a luxurious banquet that was prepared, and guests were too busy with their own lives to attend.  Seeing the preparations in our community reminded me that we need to be intentionally prepared for the return of Christ and the special banquet we will eat on that day.

Kathy-Lu has returned from the retreat with the women co-workers.  She enjoyed the fellowship and felt that God used what she shared to encourage some of the attendees.

We have been privileged to have two pastors from Canadian C&MA Chinese churches visit us in the past week.  We appreciate the interest they are showing by making the effort to travel to where we are located.  One of the churches is considering sending a short-term team to assist with a summer children’s camp.  Please pray for God to lead and work out the details regarding whom He desires to work at the camp this summer.

Last Sunday God arranged that we arrived at the Amazing Grace Alliance Church just as Mrs. Lee came out of a nearby lane.  She mentioned that her foot had a problem and she would be going for x-rays the next day.  We were encouraged that she accepted the invitation to come to the church service and was willing for us to pray about her foot after the service.  Please pray that God will continue to use physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual needs to open people’s hearts to the gospel.

This week we will be telling the story of the Good Neighbor (Luke 10) in the classroom.  Thanks for praying for us on Thursdays and Fridays as we volunteer in the elementary schools.