Dear All,

Greetings in Jesus, and thank you all for the encouraging response from so many of you assuring us of prayer over the past 6 weeks. God has answered, but other challenges have arisen!

First a report back!

The Asia tour was one of my most demanding ever, but it went extremely well in the main. My frustrations and pain were the unresolved issues at
home, and the break-down of my connection to my ISP mail box. The result - few answers sent to the 700+ emails that came to me! This I am now handling!

1. South Korea. Oct 25 - Nov 9. The WEC team were brilliant. The tour was well arranged by our leaders, Byung Kook and BoIn and the WEC Board and WECers + pre WECers in Korea. The tour was on a larger scale than I had imagined. Colin Nicholas and I spoke to around 8,000 people in the WEC meetings and possibly 12,000+ more in Sunday services. Response and impact were significant. We sold hundreds of the Korean OWs and The Church Is Bigger Than You Think in Korean The negative - it will worsen the pressures on our WEC team. There are now 180 Korea WECers and 150 pre-WECers in the pipeline....Please pray as we contribute with advice for solutions to the looming wrenching changes that will be needed for all to survive and WEC Korea to grow healthily.
2. Hong Kong Oct 21-25, which front-ended Korea was intense. Wonderfully I slept for 6 hours on the plane, but at 7 a.m on arrival I had my first intereview as Chairperson of the WEC Missionary Training College (MTCA) review. These interviews and intensive discussions as well as busy schedue of meetings filled my days 7 am to 11 pm, followed by preparation for the following day's meetings. I was wonderfully sustained. The meetings were not as well attended as our folk had hoped - a demonstration of the need for us to set up a more effective Sending Base and MTCA ministry. Please pray for the on-going review process (Sandy Hart, Trevor kallmier, Eleanor Chee and myself involved) which should be completed by June 2004, and involve maybe several more visits to HK for me during that time. Pray for Eleanor and also her the handover to other WECers to run the SB ministry, and for her as she continues contributing to the local assessment.
3. Taiwan Nov 10-13. Violet McMaster, our SB leader there arranged meetings as well as a visit to our basically Korean WEC team working among the Hakka. These all went well, but it was intense with both a poublic and pastoral input for me! We did have ONE copy of the new OW in Chinese, and many copies were sold in advance of publication.
4. My Mother. She survived - just. She came out of intensive care after several weeks, but is now back in hospital with a minor stroke. We aim for a Celebration of her life on Dec 13 whether she is still with us or not, but we would love her to be with us and participate with us for as long as she can manage on that day.
5. The Joshua Project list improvements I have submitted are being well incorporated with pleasing results. Pray for my writing of the Visual OW to proceed well! I have much more in editing and improving to do.
6. Global Mission Executives networking - we need answers from key individuals before proceeding....
7. Spanish Operation World - work on translation is now about to start! Pray for completion!

New items

1. I leave for a week-end of ministry in Serbia at a key Bible School Dec 5- 7. I would value prayer for the 6 ministry slots I have for that time.
2. Plans are finalizing for another tour of teaching and ministry in Australia and New Zealand 8 Feb - 8 Mar with a further few days attached for input into Hong Kong.
3. Numerous crises in our home situation over my recent absence were causes of deep pain and concern - Ruth and Andy lost their Mother (-in-law) in the street in Antalya through a massive heart attack when visiting last month. The heart problem is genetic - there is concern Andy could have inherited this and thus their three daughters. They are home for tests. Our little local home church is going through a damaging crisis and Robyn and I are involved in trying to find a solution. We'd value prayer.

Patrick and Robyn Johnstone,