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Thank You so much for your love for us as you pray for us and support our ministry here at the East Asia School of

Theology. Sijie and I together with the kids are certainly blessed by you.

During these last few months we have been quite busy with our ministry at the school. Sijie has been helping out in the "Partners in Ministry" program, a curriculum designed to help the wives of the students grow in their faith and application of biblical truth. Sijie started her mentoring group with 5 ladies from Korea, China and Japan. Recently, she also taught a couple of lessons on parenting. (She would say that mostly she just shared her own examples of what not to do.) The ladies enjoyed the time of discussion on various Christian parenting principles and they were encouraged by the sharing of their personal journey in parenting.

Our new academic year began in July, bringing in students from Vietnam, Korea, Myanmar, Japan, Suriname, China, Thailand, Mongolia, USA, Singapore and Philippines. On the campus here in Singapore we have more than eighty students now this semester. We desire and pray that these students will be equipped to be effective ministers for Christ so that they can take the gospel to many parts of the world. I was joyfully reminded of this by what He has been doing through alumni and some of our current students.

A Reminder of EAST’s mission

Pastor Amus, one of our alumni, recently made a trip back to Singapore and to EAST. He came to share what he has been witnessing in the mountains of Northern India as he proclaims the gospel and plants churches there. He described how his church planting ministry is seeing great multiplication as rural mountain peoples come to faith in Christ. What a great encouragement. It was also a reminder of the role that EAST can play in helping to bring the gospel to Asia. When Amus first came to EAST he was a timid and fearful student, but now after graduating and doing ministry for a few years, God has transformed him into a bold and effective minister of the gospel! Amus is now working to raise support so two of his coworkers can come to EAST to study as well. What a joy to be involved in this kind of transformation in the lives of students! Thank you for being a part of this together with us!

Bataraa, one of our current students, has a personal vision to plant 200 churches in Mongolia. In June, he led a team of EAST students as part of our program curriculum to Mongolia to do an evangelism and church planting effort among the nomadic tribes on the Mongolian plains. This is a very rural and difficult area to travel to, but the men who went were blessed fruitfully as they met with warm reception and were able to reach out to Mongolian youths. In their evangelistic campaign in ten days they reached 118 people in the desert places with the Gospel and saw 93 coming to salvation faith! This is a most unusual result! A truly supernatural grace from God! It is a historic record of sorts as Mongolian leaders acknowledge that they have never seen such an amazing result. Praise the Lord! A local pastor is now ensuring that the fruit is carefully followed up and assimilated into the church. The team returned greatly changed by God's grace and are motivated to trust Him for greater things. Thinking about how to apply theology in a practical ministry setting is the heart of this school so I am thrilled by the way He is changing the lives of these workers for the mission field.

Another team of our students went to Northern Vietnam (communist) and God had a different agenda; they were arrested in the dark of the night in their hotel. Tracked down for their religious activities, they were released on payment of a fine. They prayed and continued faithfully seeking evangelistic opportunities. It was in the midst of political tensions between China and Vietnam but they chose to continue with the project learning unique lessons of faith that have steeled them for the Great Commission. The Lord brought about another kind of fruit allowing the team to appreciate that people everywhere need the gospel including closed countries. The country remains closed to the gospel but the Lord led them to some believers and they were able to train them for evangelism. This opened the eyes of the student body to pray and consider how to reach this new mission field.

A Short Trip to Vietnam

Now, myself and the 7 other guys in my mentoring group (MG) are planning to travel to Vietnam for a short 4-day ministry trip. This trip is part of the school curriculum in which everyone goes out for a long weekend of cross-cultural ministry. Please pray for us as we fly to Southern Vietnam and spend 4 full days doing ministry there. We leave on September 4th.

Please Pray for Us!

* Pray that we would constantly grow closer to the Lord!

* Matthew and his MG will go for their short ministry trip from September 4th - 9th. Please pray for them as they spend 4 full days ministering in Southern Vietnam.

* Matthew is currently teaching 3 courses at EAST. Pray that God would use him to help others grow in their love for God and those around them.

Blessings, Matthew, Sijie, Hudson, Amber and Alethea

If you would like to support our ministry:

Please make checks out to: “Cru” and mail to: 1707 1/2 post Oak Blvd #165, Houston, TX 77056

or go online to: www.give.cru.org/2789402 email us at: matthew@cru.org.sg or sijie@cru.org.sg