Is there life after being fired by the International Mission Board for refusing to sign the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message statement? We can answer that question with a resounding, "YES!" Throughout this past year, the Lord has been remarkable in His love and provision for us. He has been faithful in making a way for His will in our lives.

Early Support Allows Return

In the summer of 2003, following our termination, such an outpouring of support came from some churches and individuals that we were able to return almost immediately to the work in Macau.

If we were to sum up the past 18 months, we would use the word "provision." The Lord has provided for our relational needs, material needs, spiritual needs, and work needs. We have trusted the Lord to provide. He has not let us down and has opened up new opportunities for ministry in the process. We would be remiss, however, if we didn't mention that we're still looking at ways of developing a more sustaining support base. There's still plenty of room for supporting partners to join us in the work of reaching Macau.

An Atmosphere of Freedom

We're not sure how best to share this, but we also want to say that we're very happy to be free from the stifling legalism we experienced before our termination. What we lost in financial support has been more than made up for in freedom to follow the Lord's leading and minister according to His written Word. It's the old "frog in a pot" syndrome. You don't realize how hot the water has gotten until you get out.

Since coming back to Macau, we have found deep and meaningful relationships among other "like-hearted" missionaries.  The support and accountability of these relationships has been wonderful.  We also continue to develop deeper and deeper relationships with the local Chinese people.

We continue to work closely with Grace Baptist Church, teaching, sharing, training and learning to love one another. This fall, two members of the church, Mr. Liu and Mrs. Chan, who earlier accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, stepped out on faith to begin an intensive one-year discipleship ministry training course. We're supervising their practical ministry activities and discipling process and helping them financially so they can concentrate on the training. Pray for both of these people as they spend this year in preparation for greater service.

Volunteers Come to Macau

Since our return, we have worked with volunteers from Hong Kong, California and Virginia. They have encouraged us, and they continue to bless Macau as they pray for the people here. 

In the past year, we hosted two groups from Virginia. The first group came in January and spent their time prayer walking and sharing with local people -- work extremely valuable to our ministry.

The second group came in July and helped with MAX (Macau American Exchange) camp - an English and cultural exchange camp for Macau's youth. This was a great time of interaction and sharing of Christ's love.

We're also doing more English teaching than ever before.  We've both found more opportunities than we have time to explore.  Right now, the demand for English language learning in Macau is exploding and opening up contacts with many new people.

Lighthouse English Training Service

Through all this, we feel the Lord is leading us to start a new ministry business venture in Macau in 2005 - Lighthouse English Training Service.  LETS will embrace a couple of components. 1. We will provide local English training to professionals and service industry staff.  2.  We will develop the means and channels for recruiting Christian teachers from North America to come and work in Macau in the local secondary schools and as English tutors.

We're hoping for some additional support for this effort in terms of capitalization and initial start up money.  As funds become available, we will rent some office space and scale up the business accordingly.

The purpose of this is not to make a lot of money, but we do expect that the business can generate enough funds locally to make it self-sustaining. We also expect that this will be a way of facilitating the ministry of others willing to serve in Macauas we provide them a legitimate base for working here. We hope interested people will contact us for more information on how they can be a part of this ministry.

Support for the Future

While we wouldn't have chosen all the things that happened to us along the way, we know that God is working for our good.  The Lord took a bad situation and made it into a blessing for our lives. We rejoice in the opportunity to serve as Baptist missionaries in Macau and would welcome your prayer and financial support so that we may continue in our field of service as representatives of God's Kingdom here in East Asia.

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Larry and Sarah Ballew's mission statement:  "As representatives of God's Kingdom, we live to proclaim His message of: Healing from the Past, Help for the Present and Hope for the Future."