Dear Friends,

There is so much to tell you, that's why well try to keep it short.
June: On June 23rd this year we attended the beautiful wedding of Alain's sister Rheane to Felix in Switzerland.
July: Super missionary conference in Taichung,  enthusiastic participants and a good programme for families. Alain's suggestions that we of the Taiwan Missionary Fellowship (TMF) should join the Asian Evangelical Alliance and also work more closely with the Year 2000 Movement  were welcomed and accepted almost unanimously. Both of these decisions are a significant step in terms of organizational and theological co-operation for the Lord's people in Asia and the Chinese church growth and mission movement. Alain was chosen to be the link between TMF and the "Year 2000 Movement"(With the beginning of 2001 this organizations name is going to be: Chinese Christian Evangelistic Association, CCEA).
Rita and Jonathan visit relatives in Germany. Jonathan really got on well with his grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. A trip to the theater will no doubt remain in his memory for a long time.

August: wonderfully relaxing holiday at the sea in Thailand.

September: Rita is awarded the Chinese Montessori Certificate, qualifying her to teach children from  3 - 6 yr..

Theology students from U.S.A. work wonders in our garden, paint the outside of our house and the gate, give English lessons and teach in the Sunday School, help with visits,  our house groups and services.

At the same time a team from the OM (Operation Mobilization) ship "DOULOS" visited our church. Our young people were quite taken by the OM team members from Papua New Guinea, Hungary, Australia and Switzerland.

Typhoon "Biliz" causes quite a scare, but we remain unharmed.
Our preacher is ordained, and is now referred to as Pastor You. At his ordination Christians from the Bunun ethnic church from the mountains sing an archaic sounding traditional ordination song. (see photo)

Earthquake memorial service one year on
The churches in Puli invite approximately 1000 earthquake victims to on open-air meal with music and testimonies. For several months our church has been looking after 35 families. (Reports about their background and some of their amazing conversions are soon been translated from Mandarin Chinese into English by Rita) Amongst them there is a family we told you about in a previous newsletter.  They had spent several months in a tent in the "wilderness" in Puli, before the whole family with the exception of the father came to the Lord in July. His wife would love to come to our house group, but isn't  allowed to.

The Fukien Chinese House group project
Much has happened as a result of your many prayers. One of the major surprises is the development of the Fukien Chinese house group, which some of you may remember us mentioning. About 80% of the Puli population speaks this language. This Easter we held a baptism where for the first time actually more men were baptized than women. One of the women baptized, the only Christian in her family, would like to open her Fukien-Chinese house group to the members of her family. The house group started in the beginning of July. By the end of July her husband had become a Christian and burnt all his house gods and occult objects as a result. Real progress has been made in the house group since then. The people who live in Ue-Mei's area are all employed at a nearby temple.

Jonathan's Fourth Birthday
By the time you receive this letter, Jonathan will already have celebrated his fourth birthday. This is a big day for him, as he has lots of  birthday resolutions, for example, no longer drinking milk out of a baby bottle at supper-time, but out of a cup, to study hard, etc.
He already plans what he has to do each day, and usually keeps to his plan. Some mornings he has "work" on his schedule, by which he means sorting out, arts and crafts, and putting different things together. The German word of the moment is Why?  Whenever he hears a new German word, he immediately asks what it means. He enjoys his weekly Chinese lessons with his teacher, Chang, and his knowledge has helped him gain confidence at nursery school.

School evangelistic campaign with more than 700 participants.
The organizer of the campaign was so excited by the pupils enthusiasm for the gospel that he even forgot to take the collection. The testimony of the speaker from Singapore was directed at those who were feeling suicidal. Since the earthquake the suicide rate has shot up to 1.8%, many of whom are old and lonely. With practical assistance and connections to house-groups we are building up a network of relationships with those affected, and we hope that in this way lives will be saved from despair.

Christmas celebration in Puli
In the last years we always had many people attending the event, but were unable to do the follow up of the 500 + addresses during the year. This year for the first time we had the evening and its program prepared by the different cell groups as well as the sunday school and youth group. All people were invited by cell group members who already know the person. One of our newest cell group member brought her whole family. While Rita was in charge for the music with the youth people Alain made sure that the cell group leader can prepare their groups for Christmas with the Word of God and Chinese Christmas hymns and songs. Before, the only Christmas song some knew was "Silent Night".- The approximately 180 guests obviously enjoyed not only the Christmas dinner but also stayed for the colorful Christmas Eve program, many of them to the end.

New Web Service available (URL:http://www.geocities.com/arhautw/): We have opened a web site, where you can see more about our life in Puli and read our latest news and prayer requests. The website is a "byproduct" of Alains work in the Sending Function Committe where he is in charge of the text for its website. While the website of the SFC is mainly in Chinese languages our personal website is multilingual and can easily be used for recruiting purposes in the languages German, French, English and Mandarin. Besides, it delivers a whole lot of links for those with an interest in missions and how helps to educate their own friends or churches about it. Do you know somebody who is thinking about becoming a missionary? Well, this site may help him to progress toward his goal. Some of our features are still in a stage of development, and yet the basics are available already, the Mandarin part should be fairly complet by the midst of next months..

We wouldn't want to finish this letter without saying a big "Thank you" to all those who support us so faithfully and regularly.  Especially since the earthquake we have begun to understand why God wanted us here.  Thank you  for continuing to pray for us. Many greetings from Puli.

Alain, Rita and Jonathan Haudenschild
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The DMG Accounts:
Germany:   Volksbank Sinsheim 2692.04 (BLZ 672 919 00)
Austria:    Oesterreichsiche Postsparkasse Wien 7188.420:
United Kingdom: Barclays Bank London, Code 20-94-67, A-C 60829838
Switzerland:  Schweiz. Missions-Gemeinschaft, Postgiro Zurich: 80-42881-3,  Remark:DMG, f. Haudenschild