“Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.”
(2 Cor. 9:15)
Dear Friends, Family, and Ministry Partners,
We trust that your Christmas celebrations with family and friends was a time of joyful reflection on God’s gift to us in Christ. We praise the Lord for the safety that God has given to Marla and me over the thousands of miles we have traveled both by air and by car. Our own holiday celebrations actually began at Thanksgiving; but I’m getting ahead of myself…
Most of you did not receive our last prayer letter (dated August 8, 2023). The reason was that, after returning to the US in late June, we found ourselves unable to access our online mailing list service, because it required authentication through our Taiwan phone number. We did send out that letter by snail mail, but only to our supporting churches. If you would like to read that previous letter, you can find it here— http://www.east-is-east.org/newsletter/nl_20230807.pdf. We have now regained access to our account.
We moved into furlough housing in Midland, Michigan on September 1st of last year and began traveling to visit our supporting churches in the Michigan area. These included churches in both the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan, northern Wisconsin, and western Pennsylvania. We did some calculations and discovered that, due to our travels, we have only been present in our Midland home for half of the time since we moved in, and we have put more than 12,000 miles on our vehicle!
During this time, our travels have included two survey trips to a major city in the Northeast, in order to explore a possible opportunity for future ministry there. We desire to remain within Baptist Mid-Missions and to continue in church planting ministry; therefore, we are seeking to partner with an existing BMM work in North America. So far, God has not opened a clear door of opportunity to us. We will provide fuller information to you, our prayer and financial supporters, as the Lord gives us guidance and clarity.
From late November through the end of December we took advantage of the holiday season to spend time with our scattered family. We visited our son, Luke, in Huntsville, Alabama at Thanksgiving. Then our whole family gathered in Gatlinburg, Tennessee for an early family Christmas. We enjoyed a week of celebration with our married daughter’s family and our two unmarried children in a beautiful mountain retreat. It is the first time since 2014 that our family has been together at Christmas. Then for the last half of December we flew to California to see my mom and my brother’s family. It was a huge blessing for us to be able to strengthen these family connections.
Over the weekend of New Year, I (Matt) flew to Washington, D.C. to participate in the ordination examination and ceremony of one my previous students from Mainland China. After being driven out of China, he is now planting a Chinese-speaking church in nearby Virginia. It was an encouragement for me to see a previous student who is continuing to serve the Lord, and I enjoyed the fellowship with co-laborers on the ordination council.
Marla and I will be moving from Michigan to South Carolina in mid-January. Originally, we planned to finish up our furlough reporting in January, but invitations have come in for us to report to a few other supporting churches in the South. We plan to complete furlough at the end of February and to begin transitioning to a new ministry soon afterward, Lord willing. For this purpose, we hope to take another ministry survey trip during the month of February. Please pray for the Lord to continue to give us safety as we travel, to bless our ministry in the churches, and to give us direction and wisdom as we pursue a transition of ministry.
In Christ,
Matt & Marla Hanna