NEWSLETTER: March 2018

“Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice! …Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns!’”

— 1 Chronicles 16:8-10; 31 (ESV)

Lenten greetings from Shanghai! Here in China, we have recently passed through the long Spring Festival (Lunar New Year) season. Along with all our friends and colleagues, our family enjoyed a time of extended rest with family and friends during February. Many folks here also spend a significant amount of time during the holiday season traveling in trains, planes and cars. This time of the year allows for much thinking and reflection on the year passed, along with hoping and dreaming about the year ahead. We in the Church are also in the season of Lent, that time of the year when we focus our thoughts and prayers on our deep need for what the Savior has done for us on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. So, in this spirit of reflection and repentance, we would like to ask for your forgiveness for allowing so much time to pass between our last update and this one. Many of you joined our support team for the first time at the end of 2017 – welcome and THANK YOU for joining us in His mission here in Asia, and for encouraging us in our calling to “…say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns!’”

We have so much to thank God for, both in our work with CWEF and in our family life. As I mentioned in previous letters, for the past year we have been going through a long and difficult process of re-registering CWEF’s organization in China to comply with new laws regulating foreign non-profits operating in China. I am so thankful to be able to report that after months of being stuck in bureaucracy, we have now completed this process and are once again a fully recognized, legal entity! From our human perspective, this was certainly not a guaranteed outcome, so we thank and praise God that he has answered our prayers and is making it possible for this work to continue, so that more and more people here will have the opportunity to know and experience the love of Christ, in word and deed. 

Now that this legal hurdle has been cleared, we can move forward with the health and education development programs that had been on hold due to the registration process. These include High School Scholarships for students from low-income families and the HEAL health education program with people in remote rural villages, which is being funded this year by a generous grant from Target Corporation (of the retail stores you know and love).

Several additional highlights since we wrote to you last:

• CWEF team meeting, which included wonderfully blessed times of worship, fellowship and planning with our team and board members from across Asia. Two LCMS colleagues who were able to join us for this meeting were Sean Harlow and Julie Lutz. Both have now moved on to the next stage of their service to the Lord in other places. We thank God for the time that He allowed them to serve with us.
• The official founding of Shining Star, the local non-profit that CWEF helped launch, which is led by Summer (a recently baptized Christian), and whose members are primarily made up of previous CWEF Scholarship recipients, who serve as volunteers. Shining Star is reaching out to young ‘left-behind’ children and their families in rural China.
• Our annual collaboration with Concordia International School Shanghai teachers and students – the TrIBES service trips we facilitate together in rural China.

In my role as director for CWEF, one of my main responsibilities is working to raise funds for CWEF’s health and education programs in China and Cambodia. At the end of 2017, we ran a campaign called “81 by ’18”, aiming to raise enough to sponsor scholarships for 81 high school students in China before 2018. By God’s grace and through the generosity of many people, we were able to surpass this goal and sponsor 139 young women! 

I’d like to invite you to ‘meet’ a few of the young women – Summer, Sharlin, Mandy and Huimin – who have been blessed by this program and are now in university or beyond. Click on their names above or go to vimeo.com/cwef to see short videos of them sharing their own stories. All four of these young women are active members of Shining Star organization (mentioned earlier).

At the moment, we are in the midst of yet another online fundraising campaign, this time to provide clean water for families in Cambodia as part of a challenge from the GlobalGiving online platform. If you would like to join us in this effort, please visit the link below. Every gift of any size will help us reach our goal of at least $5,000 from 40 donors by March 30. Many thanks in advance!  https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/clean-water-for-cambodian-families

In family news, Coco and I are very excited to share with you that John will be a big brother soon! Supposedly, our little #2 is currently the size of a cantaloupe and will be born at the end of June. Before the little one comes, we will be returning to the U.S. for our biennial Home Service travels to meet and share with supporters. Below is our schedule of currently confirmed visits; we are still working out final scheduling for all the weekday visits during these weeks. Please contact us if you’re interested.

Saturday April 7 – Mission Central, Mapleton IA
Sunday April 8 – Immanuel Lutheran, Greenfield IA
Wednesday April 11 – Saint Johns, Honey Creek IA
Sunday April 15 – Emmanuel Lutheran, York NE
Sunday April 22 – Holy Cross Lutheran, O'Fallon MO
Sunday April 29 – Christ Lutheran, Costa Mesa CA

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Thanksgiving for a healthy, growing baby #2. Prayers for Coco as she carries this little child, especially during our upcoming Home Service travels in the U.S. as we travel many miles and reconnect with many folks.
• Thanksgiving for completion of CWEF’s organization re-registration process in China.
• Prayers for Sean Harlow and Julie Lutz, beloved friends and colleagues who are moving on to the next stage of their service to the Lord in other places.
• Thanksgiving for God’s wonderful provision in sending needed funding for CWEF, especially for the scholarship programs in China and Cambodia.
• Prayers for additional funding to provide for all of CWEF’s planned programs and administration support.
• Prayers for Summer and the Shining Star organization, as they grow and develop their organization.
• For CWEF’s board of directors and regional LCMS leadership – for wisdom and vision as they make decisions about the future direction of the organization.
• For all the people connected to CWEF’s work, that the Spirit would be working in their lives. 

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

Josh + Coco + John + #2  //  lcms.org/lange

NEWSLETTER: August 2017

“For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

— 2 Corinthians 4:15-18 (ESV)

In our last newsletter, I shared with you that CWEF was going through a process of re-registering the organization in China to comply with new laws regulating foreign non-profits in China. I am sorry to report that we are still awaiting approval from the Education Bureau of Yunnan to approve our application so that we can move forward to re-establish a representative office. In late spring, our contact at the Education Bureau had given us verbal confirmation that they would approve our application, but our application is unfortunately still stuck in bureaucracy. So, we continue to wait and pray, confident that God is with us in the waiting and is using this momentary struggle to achieve His purpose in us and in the world.

Recently, I was able to witness a wonderful way that He is working out His purpose, particularly in the life of Summer, the young woman we asked you to pray for in the previous newsletter. Summer was formerly a CWEF High School Scholarship recipient and university intern, and she is now working with a volunteer team of her peers to launch a local non-profit in Guangdong province. Summer has been reading the Bible, exploring Christianity, and asking questions for some time now. Dolphin, our long-time CWEF staff, has been witnessing to and mentoring Summer. In late spring, Josh was able to celebrate together with Summer, along with Dolphin and her family, as she was welcomed into God’s family through the waters of Holy Baptism. What a gift! It is exciting to look forward to the years ahead. Summer will able to influence many peers and young adults connected to this new organization, as she lives out her faith and is a witness to God’s great love in Jesus.

We are also very excited about the launch of ‘Shining Star’, the new organization Summer will be leading. Their main work will be to run the GROW program, which mobilizes volunteers to provide care for left-behind children, whose parent(s) live and work in other cities. CWEF will be supporting Shining Star with start-up funding as they get their feet under them and develop a stronger local donor base. Shining Star will also be working with CWEF to provide trained volunteer resources for other programs.

In the coming weeks and months, we will be…

• …holding our annual Team Meeting for all CWEF staff. (late August)
• …running our annual collaboration with Concordia International School Shanghai – the TrIBES service learning trips, which include volunteer service work at CWEF project sites in rural China. (late September)

In family news, we had a wonderful time in the U.S. in late June and early July as we attended the Lange Family Reunion and connected with friends and family in the Midwest and on the West Coast. Coco and I are really enjoying John as he grows up, especially in recent months as his language skills have developed more rapidly. We get a lot of laughs at his seamless mixing of Chinese and English words into his sentences, such as: “我们do it!” (“Let’s do it!”).

PRAYER REQUESTS

• For CWEF’s organization re-registration process in China.
• For CWEF’s board of directors and regional LCMS leadership – wisdom as they seek out a new permanent executive director for CWEF and potentially other positions as well.
• For LCMS’s new Asia regional leaders, particularly Rev. Charles Ferry and Kendall Cortwright, as they carry out their roles as regional director and interim business manager, respectively.
• For our upcoming CWEF Team Meeting, that God would allow it to be a source of deep blessing, direction, encouragement and energy for everyone involved.
• For the upcoming TrIBES trips together with Concordia Shanghai, that God would allow the connection between team members and local project participants to be filled with meaningful service, learning and witnessing opportunities.
• Thanksgiving for Summer’s faith and baptism.
• For all the people connected to CWEF’s work, that the Spirit would be working in their lives.

Thank you so much for your support!

Josh + Coco + John  //  lcms.org/lange

NEWSLETTER: March 2017

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’”

— Acts 17:24-28 (NIV)

So much has happened since the last time we shared an update with you, and through all of it we have been reminded of God’s perfect timing and arrangement of people and circumstances for his good purposes.
 
First, I’d like to share some good news of how the Spirit has been working in the lives of some of our CWEF program participants in recent months:

• Kanhchana, our health director in Cambodia, has begun training second-year HEAL program advocates using lessons from CHE (Community Health Evangelism). Several of the advocates who were given the gift of faith through their participation in the program last year are now intentionally bringing their husbands or other family members to training so they can hear the Gospel along with the practical and valuable health training.
• Melody, a CWEF university intern and previous high school scholarship recipient, has received the gift of faith and is preparing for baptism.
• We had the opportunity to host Summer, another university intern and previous high school scholarship recipient, here in Shanghai earlier this month. She was invited to tell her story at the annual fundraising auction for Concordia International School Shanghai. The Spirit is working in Summer’s life through his Word and through friends, and she was able to join us for worship service during her visit with us.

In our last letter we shared that Persephone, previous CWEF executive director and my (Josh’s) supervisor, had stepped down and was planning to return to the U.S. in January to care for her ailing father. As it turned out, she had to leave in early November, as her father unexpectedly was injured in a bad auto accident (from which he thankfully has recovered quite well), and in early December I took over the role of interim executive director for CWEF. This was a bit of a shock that I wasn’t quite prepared for, since I was also pushing hard to finish the final project of my master’s degree before the end of the year. Due to all this, the last two months of 2016 was an intense period of long hours, little sleep and – let’s be honest – a lot of stress. By God’s grace, Coco and I will also remember this time period as one in which the Lord covered us with his abundant love and peace through many answered prayers, unexpected supporters, perfectly timed encounters with good friends and his ever-sustaining Word. We sincerely appreciate all of you who regularly pray for our family.

In January, we enjoyed the gift of spending time with our colleagues for an LCMS family retreat and CWEF annual meetings. All the members of the LCMS Asia team and our families met together in southern Taiwan during the first week of January for worship, fellowship, learning and fun. Our little John enjoyed celebrating his 2nd birthday and having fun with a LOT of new friends in Taiwan. Two weeks later, Josh traveled to Phnom Penh and Kunming for program planning meetings with the CWEF Cambodia and China teams. During these meetings, we were blessed to be joined by Julie Lutz, the newest member of our CWEF team and one of the people God brought to help out at just the right time. Julie has been serving with LCMS in Papua New Guinea for nearly 30 years, but due to some visa issues, she isn’t currently able to return to PNG, so she has agreed to come serve with CWEF in a temporary role supporting our local staff, and is working out of our office in Hong Kong. Thank God for Julie!

In the past two months, our team in China has been focused on adjusting to new laws that have come into effect in China regulating international non-profits with operations in mainland China. The primary change is that we need to re-register our offices through the public security bureau (the police). We are currently in the middle of this quite lengthy process and would very much appreciate your prayers: that we could complete the process as quickly as possible, that we would be allowed to continue operating as we have been and even that God would open up new opportunities as a result of this re-registration process.

Meanwhile in Cambodia, our health and education programs continue to move forward, and at the beginning of April I will be making a trip there to spend time with our team in Phnom Penh together with LCMS colleague Rev. Charles Ferry.  Pr. Ferry is based in Indonesia and is responsible for the Southeast Asia area, including Cambodia. He has recently been added as a member of CWEF’s board of directors, and I’ll have the opportunity to introduce him to our programs and partners there, including members of the burgeoning Cambodia Lutheran Church.
 
In early March, our Cambodia staff worked with a service team from Hong Kong International School, who supported one of our bio-sand water filter projects there.
 
In family news, John has started attending ‘school’ – a small daycare in our neighborhood. He is loving it, and so is Coco, as she now has some very welcome free time during the week. She and I have begun getting more engaged in our church here in Shanghai – Coco’s now singing with the music team and I’ve started teaching Sunday School – 6-8 year-olds (!). It has been a fun and meaningful addition to our lives these past few months.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• For CWEF’s board of directors and regional LCMS leadership – wisdom as they seek out a new permanent executive director for CWEF and potentially other positions as well.
• For LCMS International leadership – as they seek to fill open roles in the Asia region, particularly: regional director and regional business manager.
• For CWEF’s organization re-registration process in China.
• For Julie, as she continues to adjust to life in Hong Kong and work with CWEF.
• Continued prayers for Persephone as she adjusts to life back in the U.S.
• For all the people connected to CWEF’s work, that the Spirit would be working in their lives.

Thank you so much for your support!

Josh + Coco + John  //  lcms.org/lange

NEWSLETTER: Autumn 2016

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

— Ephesians 3:14-21 ESV

Paul’s “prayer for spiritual strength” for the Christians in Ephesus was the theme for the recent ALEA (Asia Lutheran Education Association) conference, which I had the privilege of attending last month. Over a hundred educators, administrators, ministry leaders and non-profit workers assembled together in Hanoi, Vietnam in mid-September to share ideas and encourage each other in the work we have been called to. I was also invited to help lead one of the workshop sessions, together with my colleagues Persephone James and Beka House from CWEF and Concordia International School Shanghai.

Just before the conference began, we were also able to celebrate and thank God with everyone at Concordia International School Hanoi, as its beautiful new campus was dedicated. I reflected back to the last time I had been in Vietnam – over 8 years ago, just a few weeks after I had arrived in Hong Kong to begin my service with LCMS. An international school in Hanoi was still just an idea at that point. What a joy to see what He has done and is doing in that place!

The conference was a welcome shot of encouragement and spiritual strengthening during a very hectic period. August and September are typically extremely full of activity at CWEF – 

• returning to China and trying to catch up on many things after summer travels in the U.S.
• preparing for and helping to lead our annual CWEF all-staff meeting in Hong Kong
• finalizing all the planning and budgeting for education and health development projects in Cambodia and China for the new fiscal (and school) year
• preparing for and helping to lead our annual collaboration with Concordia International School Shanghai – TrIBES service trips at the end of September with CISS high school students and teachers, this year to two of our project sites in Yunnan and Guangdong province, China.

And in the middle of all of that we also received the news from Persephone James, CWEF’s executive director, that she will be stepping down in late January and will be repatriating to the U.S. to care for her ailing father. We affirm that this is the right decision for her and her family, and we also wish she could stay! Persephone has been a great leader for us in her brief time with CWEF and has been an awesome supporter and encourager for me personally and in my work. We'll miss her dearly. 

PRAYER REQUESTS

• For Persephone – thanksgiving that God allowed her to serve with us during this season, and blessings and protection as she prepares to complete her service in Asia and to continue her service in the U.S. with her dad and family.
• For CWEF’s board of directors and regional LCMS leadership – wisdom as they seek out a new executive director for CWEF.
• For everyone at Concordia International School Hanoi – thanksgiving for their new campus and blessing as they carry out His mission.
• For Coco’s dad – protection and good recovery from surgery.
• For me – spiritual strength, good health and protection as I help lead CWEF through more transition.

Thank you so much for your support!

Josh + Coco + John  //  lcms.org/lange

NEWSLETTER: Spring 2016

“What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

— Matthew 10:27-31 (ESV)

“Let not your heart be troubled,” His tender word I hear,
And resting on His goodness, I lose my doubts and fears;
Though by the path He leadeth, but one step I may see;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.”

A modern version of the old song “His Eye Is On The Sparrow” came up on my Spotify playlist the other day. I think it encapsulates something God has been trying to teach me these past few years: in the face of what sometimes seem, to my feeble little heart and mind, to be huge obstacles and uncertainties, Jesus says: “Don’t be afraid. My eye is on the sparrow; I’m still watching over you. Follow me.” This is real comfort; the source of true confidence, strength and peace. Coco and I are constantly in need of all three, and God gives us everything we need at just the right time. He gives us His love, forgiveness and grace each day. So, we give thanks! Thanks to Him and thanks to you, for being with us in prayer.

Since you last heard from us, I (Josh) have spent time participating in a number of planning meetings and retreats with different colleagues across Asia. First, in late January we gathered with our teams in China and Cambodia, first in Kunming and then in Phnom Penh. These were blessed times of fellowship, daily worship together and productive conversations about the direction of CWEF for the year ahead. These healthy discussions were meant to be an intentional starting point for a longer process of strategic planning for the next 3-5 years of CWEF’s work. God has blessed us with some wonderful people to help us as we go through this process, and we ask for your continued prayers that God would be working out his purposes in and through us now and in the years ahead.

This week, I’m writing to you from Manila in the Philippines, where our broader LCMS Asia team has gathered for our annual regional workgroup retreat. This has been a fun and energizing time to reconnect with many coworkers across the region who have become like family to me over the past 8 years, and it has been a great opportunity to get connected to a number of new families who have recently arrived and begun working in different parts of Asia over the past year. God has given each of us a unique call to serve, but he has also called us together. We support and encourage each other, we challenge each other, and we work to find new and creative ways to collaborate with each other toward the development of his kingdom.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• For Coco’s grandmother (her father’s mother), and the whole family. She is being treated for pancreatic cancer and has become increasingly weak over the past few months. God recently gave us the opportunity to visit her in the hospital, pray for her, share his Word and good news, and leave a bible with her. We expect to go visit her again in a month or so. Please pray with us that God would bring physical and spiritual healing to her life, and that together with all of Coco’s family members, she would be given the gift of faith.
• For our LCMS team members in Macau. They are experiencing a number of difficulties at the moment related to some complex visa issues and a current lack of coworkers. Two new families – the Mahlburgs and the Bushes – have already received calls to come serve there, which is a great answer to prayer. However, these two families are still in the initial support-raising stage. After hearing about all of this from our Macau teammates this week, I felt led to reach out to all of you and ask if you’d prayerfully consider helping the Mahlburgs and/or Bushes with a financial gift to help speed up their arrival in Macau to serve the local church and the English outreach center there. You can find out more about these two families by visiting: http://www.lcms.org/bush or http://www.lcms.org/mahlburg

Thank you for bringing these things to our Father, who still speaks to us through his Son:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

Thank you so much for your support!

Josh + Coco + John  //  lcms.org/lange