By Jon Lung

I sat across from him in the assembly hall and watched him as he quietly held the hands of his translator and American “ge ge” (older brother). They had been like a family for the last week…the closest thing to a family that Li Xiao Feng had ever had. They swam together, danced together, ate together, and went shopping together; they had shared life with each other. But now it was time to leave. The week of fun had ended and goodbye letters were being read at our last assembly time. Tears began to fill Xiao Feng’s eyes and he held the hand of his volunteer tighter as the realization came that he had to go back to his life at the orphanage. He had seen love. He had known what it was like to be treasured and given value. His life had been changed forever because of this week. But what now? Is there hope for life after camp?’

Li Xiao Feng’s story is not uncommon for many of the kids that we work with in Bring Me Hope, but his story does have a happy ending. Asking ourselves how we can help these precious kids beyond a week of camp, we have been working to implement programs that follow up with the kids and advocate for them once they are back at the orphanage. The idea is that after spending a week with the orphan, the volunteer and translator know that child and his or her needs the best. They are the one’s who have invested in their lives even just a little and the kids become much more than just a picture on the internet to them. They become real lives with real, tangible needs that can be met.

This last summer, Robert, a college student from Ireland, came to camp and met Xiao Feng. He came to sincerely care for Xiao Feng and was challenged to do much more for him than spend time with him for a week. Robert returned home and began a campaign to advocate for his young friend. He talked to people he knew, spoke at gatherings about Xiao Feng and his need for a family to adopt him. Now after months of persistence, Xiao Feng has a family who plans on adopting him! These kids desperately NEED someone to be a voice for them. Bring Me Hope as an organization can’t follow up with each child that comes through camp, unless we can partner with people like you and other volunteers who have a heart to help.

Each year, Bring Me Hope does a nationwide “Nightwalk” event to raise money to bring kids to camp. People involved with BMH around the world and in China will all walk on the same night. This years Nightwalk is on May 18. If you are interested in participating, please contact me. Thanks! Jon Lung (jonlung2@gmail.com)

Children’s Choir Musical, Saturday, May 5th, 6:30 p.m.

Voluntary donations will be accepted to benefit the Blue Ridge supported ministry of Romania Reborn, providing hope, help, and homes for children.

Mike and Pam Richardson

On March 22, Mike Richardson had a delicate spinal reconstruction surgery. The problem was found “by accident” – his Multiple Sclerosis (MS) had advanced and they were looking to see if it had gone to the spine when they found his spinal cord was being squeezed. He has extreme pain in his knees and ankles and uses a walker most days. He asked for prayer that their van will sell quickly to help cover some of the cost of the surgery because they do not have health insurance. They are grateful to the Lord that the problem was found before the spinal column was damaged.

Pam Richardson writes:

We are facing struggles on many sides. We have had a magazine printed since December that we cannot seem to get finished. We have broken equipment and are having a really hard time getting it working. We finally took all the magazine pages to Monterrey to get them put together, and the machine at the SHOP broke!! We have four conferences coming up the end of April at Pachuca, Guadalajara, Cuernavac, and San Antonio, TX.


We need a carpenter to finish the stairs on our house so we can move. Mike is really having a problem with stairs, and when we move we will have a bedroom downstairs. It has been a six-year project we would really like to finish. Thank the Lord a young man named Heriberto recently started to help us. We really do need another helper. I have a young woman here until May and after that I also need someone to help with school, home, and some office stuff.

In all of the struggles, God has been so good and opened many doors of ministry. There is a lot of violence. Recently there were many shootouts in Saltillo and many were killed. The violence is increasing, which seems to have put a spiritual hunger in many people because they are scared. 

We feel more convinced than ever this is where the Lord has us. His presence has been so real. Mike has a peace while in tremendous pain. It is hard for our children, but God is working in all of us. I long to see my children prepared and walking in a strong faith of their own. Please pray for all of us. Mexico is in a hard place and we are grateful to be part of what the Lord is doing here at this time. Thank you so much for your prayers!

Ed. note: Mike Richardson sent us a link last fall of a message he gave outlining his burden and vision. If you haven’t yet had a chance to hear this passionate cry of his heart, now would be a great time to make the time to listen.

Stephen Aputara

Stephen Aputara serves in Ghana. In March he held a series of village outreaches or “crusades” that were attended by over 2,500 people, with 730 people praying to receive Christ.

Stephen writes:

Thank you for your prayer support during our time of the Crusades. The impact of the Crusades is very, very impressive. Many souls are being added to the numbers in the churches each Sunday.

Those who stopped attending church for reasons best known to themselves are all back in the churches. We are encouraged at the results, and the impact it has made in the lives of the individuals and the communities. With the burden of discipling the new converts, the call to hold another crusade is so loud.

We will appreciate you as you prayerfully partner with us to jointly share the Gospel to the unreached in our areas. We depend on your prayers. Prayers keeps the burden fresh. It keeps our eyes and our thoughts in an expectant mode. Here are some prayer needs:

• Praise God that my truck is fixed
• Praise God for the opportunity of sharing His Word with joy
• Praise God for the team spirit of the Pastors and Leaders
• Pray for God’s provisions and protections
• Pray for more workers and partners
• Pray for more souls to be won
• Pray for our Bible College to start in June
• Pray for our church buildings projects
• Pray for a replacement of a strong four wheel truck for the ministry
• Pray for more advocates for the ministry here


Based on the crusade outcomes, we the leaders of the churches met [recently] and prayerfully considered holding more crusades from the 13th June to the 17th June in five different places. We have seen the wind of God’s Spirit moving in the communities where the Gospel is not preached, or not strong. There is no rest for the Son of Man: even though we are recovering from the marathon crusades, we are on the lookout for His interventions.

Thank you for your partnership in prayer for these two special missionaries, as well as all of our supported missionaries around the world.

By Leah Garber

Abu Saad quickly became a zealous witness for his Savior, joining a Gospel team on a missionary trip to Sudan in 1990. After that initial trip, he spent several years distributing tracts, tapes, and Bibles door-to-door with evangelism teams in a number of different countries, seeing many Arabic-speaking people come to Christ as a result of his outreach. These experiences convinced him that the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa need a ministry that has the stated goal of reaching every home and tent with the Gospel and discipling new believers (with extensive follow-up, church-planting, and leadership development) in conjunction with the efforts of indigenous churches.

In preparation for the leadership of such a ministry, which he subsequently founded, Abu Saad obtained his Masters Degree in Christian Leadership while his wife earned a Masters in Law and Professional Christian Counseling. (She has since started a PhD program in the area of Professional Christian Counseling, with the goal of eventually opening a law/counseling office that would grow into a full-time counseling center.)

This dynamic couple’s ministry now mobilizes Christian Arabs to reach marginalized Arabs in a number of ways – from providing Bedouins with veterinary services for their camels and other livestock to providing adult literacy classes for gypsies; from hosting block parties for slum children (who receive backpacks full of school supplies, and whose parents frequently invite their Christian benefactors into their homes afterwards) to distributing food, clothing, and Bibles in war-torn localities. The ministry also reaches out to the obscure Druse people and to Arabs in prison. True Christians everywhere recognize that the Gospel is the only answer to the terror and hatred often found in the Arab world.

We are blessed to have Abu Saad join us in early March: Smryna Ministries (a Blue Ridge supported organization) will host a special evening event for him at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 10, and he’ll speak briefly in Blue Ridge’s morning services on Sunday, March 11. Please watch the bulletin and emails for announcements about these events as well as his further speaking opportunities at the Men’s Breakfast, at LIFE Groups the week of March 5-9, and more. Prepare to be blessed and to be a blessing as you discover ways God might use YOU to pray for and support His work in the Arab-speaking world.

On arriving at Dublin Airport at 5:30 am, we got our vehicle and some breakfast, took a stroll in St. Stephens Green, and then drove to our friends, the Thompsons, for lunch. They have been involved in John 3:7 street ministry for many years. Each night that they go out to city centre, an average of 10-12 people accept Christ. They have been very involved in discipling people as well. Evie met their daughter Rebecca before we had been in the country, one day on our first trip 10 years ago. It’s beautiful to see these girls age in the pictures I take and grow into women who truly love the Lord.

After our warm welcome back, we headed an hour and a half south to Gorey in County Wexford. We stopped for groceries and supplies and on to our self-catering house. Soon after, several of the church members from Gorey came and we shared fellowship over Chinese take-out and tea, of course. At that point we had gotten not much more than a catnap in 32 hours. Keeping our eyes open was a challenge. But time is so short, and we did not want to waste any of it.

In the course of the week, we spent many times of fellowship every day, sometimes at our house, sometimes at others’ or out and about, such as taking an elderly widow friend to lunch. Some friends from past visits drove an hour or more to see us. When people speak of Irish hospitality, they do not exaggerate! We have been the happy recipients of much warm Irish hospitality and great meals. And our friend Ollie said that I make very good tea now, even for an American! Perhaps it has taken the whole ten years, but as small as it is, I consider it a triumph.

On the Sunday, Mark preached a sermon on bitterness, inspired by the teachings of Bill Parker. The response was tremendous and we understood right away that this was a teaching the church appreciated and felt they needed.

One morning, I led a talk at a women’s tea. It was attended by 30 women–off their chart in numbers. It was encouraging to meet so many new women, some of whom, hungry for God’s Word and fellowship, had driven an hour or more to get there. I had spent many long hours before the trip, praying about and writing the talk. I was surprised that the more I prayed, the more the direction changed. My specific prayer to speak the words that God most wanted the women there to hear was immediately answered as one woman thanked me publicly, saying it was exactly what she needed to hear and just what her pastor had recently taught about. Another woman piped up and said she didn’t even know the other woman or go to the same church, but that it was also what she needed and what her pastor had recently taught about as well. God is so good!

Mark and Jon Farris, who has traveled with us several times, gave a purity talk at a men’s breakfast. It was also well attended and challenged the men to live lives that honor God in all they think and do. We hosted a youth afternoon for younger children, teaching them five parables of Jesus and having them perform versions of them with drama and puppets. We also led a teen night where we showed the music video “You Are More” by 10th Avenue North and talked about God’s love for each of us no matter what we’ve been through or what we’ve done.

We brought as many Bibles as we could fit in our luggage with the goal of coming home with only our own, and less than that if opportunity permitted. We gave Bibles to those who did not have one at the events we worked with. We gave them out to people we met, like an elderly chap who helped us put oil in our car at the petrol station. Jon and Evie gave a Bible to an elderly couple that they have danced with at an Irish cultural night now three summers in a row. I believe we gave away all but one of the Bibles we brought.

Having had the privilege to visit Ireland six times in ten years, we continue to learn about the state of the Church there and see how it is changing. The abuse and distrust in the Catholic Church has continued to come to the surface in the last couple of years. And yet, many feel that to be Irish is to be Catholic. People are searching for spiritual alternatives. Some are turning to the ancient pagan Celtic ways. My Irish friend told me that last year over 10,000 people turned out to Bealtaine festivals on May 1 across the island. This involves worship of the same Baal talked about in the Bible. Others though, are turning to Christianity. In just the tiny new church we work with, having about 25 members, we saw that in less than a year from our previous visit, there were about six brand new Christians. We attended the weekly believers Bible study (they also have a weekly study for those just wanting to learn more about Christianity). There were many faces there unfamiliar to me. Men and women were coming from other churches because they were hungry for more study of God’s word. I was so impressed with their depth of discussion and even more impressed when, in talking to people afterwards, I learned that so many of them were brand new believers! They are well beyond milk and onto solid food. It is exciting to see people coming to the Lord and growing so deep in their faith. God is truly working in Gorey, Ireland!

We thank you, our church body at Blue Ridge, for your part in this mission to Ireland. Thank you for your prayers for our family and ministry while we were there. The church in Gorey asks for prayer for their continued unity, for maturing of the new Christians and for the many unsaved spouses and family members of their believers. Our family is also praying about the possibility of going back for a longer time, possibly three months this summer, Lord willing.

By Patrice Smith

Let me take you to an African village in Malawi. We show up, uninvited by the villagers but welcomed as if we are royalty from some foreign land. One lady is spreading freshly milled corn flour on a bamboo mat so that it will dry in the sun. Children are scurrying around as we enter their village. It is a lovely warm day so everyone is comfortable as we gather between a cluster of mud huts. To show hospitality the Malawians seat us as honored guests on short wooden stools. About 25 villagers gather and sit on the ground. Pastor Zimba, our interpreter, introduces us.

One might think that we would feel awkward about disturbing the daily routine of the villagers, but these friendly Malawians live away from the local town so they are delighted by our presence in their village. Perhaps it is curiosity or just politeness, but people gather around us quickly. Then Pastor Zimba tells everyone that we have good news to share. He will interpret our English into Tumbuka, the local language.

Steve shares his testimony about walking with God through trials. His story reveals that God blessed Steve and his wife, Nancy, with four wonderful children. Steve shares that he lost his beautiful and loving wife after her battle with cancer. As he tells the ages of his young children when they lost their mother, one realizes that Steve’s testimony of God’s faithfulness through loss resonates with Malawians who face such trials on a daily basis. It is touching for one to realize that though we would never choose our losses, God can use them to beckon others unto Himself. Some of those “others” are so different from us, like these Malawians living in mud huts, but we share the same God who saves and rescues us. As Steve finishes his story I can see our audience is listening and hearing the message.

Each Malawian is handed an illustrated tract written in Tumbuka. I silently pray for help from the Holy Spirit to share effectively about God’s plan of redemption. As I talk about Matthew 7:13-14 and choosing the “narrow path” of following Christ, the gospel message is clear. I realize that it is easy for me to share this message in Malawi where I am received so warmly. One lady seems disapproving and she walks away, but most of the crowd is listening as Pastor Zimba interprets the gospel’s life-changing message.

Malawians absorb themselves in what they are doing at the moment, without concern about “the next thing” so I do not feel hurried. It is easy to share with people who eagerly listen. When Pastor Zimba leads the twelve who want to pray the “sinner’s prayer” and accept Christ, I humbly realize that God is at work. We are witnessing the repentance and life changing moment in these villager’s lives. What a gift!!

Many years ago, as a teenager, I fought the call of God on my life. I tried to convince God about what I would be “good at” and what would not work well for me. Though I battled His will, He continued to take me into experiences that were not in my

“comfort zone.” These years later, after so many amazing “adventures with God,” I encourage others who feel God’s leading in their lives to RUN after His will. What amazing adventures He has for us! Trust Him and run after His will!

“LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.” Psalm 16:5, 6

Pakistan update

Ghana update