Dear All,

Greetings in Jesus, and thank you all for prayer in the past. We are now very happily settled in our new home of just over a year in Wisbech, N Cambridgeshire.

This is a special request for prayer; a whole series of issues have come to a head and we would value your support!

I leave for Asia tomorrow at last - after two failures (house-move last year prevented my going to Korea for the launch of the Korean Operation World and the SARS epidemic caused both the death of our HK leader, Nan Pin CHEE and cancellation of a long-planned visit in May). However last night I heard the news that my 86-year-old Mother has been taken into hospital with serious heart and breathing difficulties. We hope to go to see her in Basingstoke before I go to Heathrow Airport tomorrow (Monday).

1. South Korea. Oct 25 - Nov 9. The WEC team have worked very hard to launch an intense two-week tour of seminars and public meetings in the 6 major cities of the country. Colin Nicholas and I will be the main speakers. The main thrust will be for mobilizing smaller local churches for missions- involvement. The organization has been considerable, with venues prepared, networks activated, interpreters lined up. Please pray for Colin and me - sensitivity, cultural appropriateness, the power of the Spirit, passion for the least evangelized, effective working of technology (my diagrams and maps have been translated into Korean).
2. Hong Kong Oct 21-25, which front-ends Korea. This is an add-in to make up for the failure in May because of SARS. Eleanor, Nan Pin's wife is arranging meetings there each evening with the help of Sandy Hart. I will also have an intense day with the HK Assoc of Christian Missions arranged by Jonathan Lam, our former Sending Base leader and now Exec Director of HKACM. On top of this, Sandy and I are part of a small Review Committee for WEC's Missionary Training College, Asia. In between meetings we will be seeking to discern the way ahead for the MTCA started by NanPin and Eleanor. I am chairing this. We will need wisdom and balanced vision for this....
3. Taiwan Nov 10-13. Violet McMaster, our SB leader there is arranging three intense days in two cities. We had hoped the new Chinese OW would have been ready for this, but it was not quite finished. I will be able to show the cover of the two versions - one is for Mainland China!
4. My Mother. Please pray for God's timing in all things, and for me to know God's will whatever bearing in mind the implications for both the above tour and for the family. Pray too for Robyn who remains behind - and all the implications of my absence in a potential family crisis.
5. I have been working intensely for several months on a major edit of the enlarged Joshua Project peoples list - all 16,500 peoples. A massive undertaking. Not only is this needful, but I need the information in a map- able format as I work on the production of my next book, a Visual OW. This we hope to have ready in 2005. It involves colour, high tech graphics, and the complexities of producing camera-ready images.
6. For several years I have been quietly working towards a possible informal networking of global mission leaders. There are about 30 larger mission agencies with a global recruitment and ministry coverage and are involved in pioneer church planting. There exists no adequate networking at the present time. Various interlocking events and developments have precipitated a higher level of needed action. I need wisdom and the right level of pro-activity now to take the matter further.Please pray!
7. After 2 years, the painstakingly slow process of cobbling together a consortium to publish a Spanish edition of Operation World collapsed some months ago because of financial constraints. Now a new initiative has been launched. Please pray that the book may be translated and published in time for the big CONELA conference in the middle of next year.

Thank you.

When I return I will give a better coverage of news and let you know how things went!

In Jesus and for world evangelization,

Patrick and Robyn Johnstone,