Chris and I are in Kuala Lumpur as I write this! We arrived a couple days ago and have since had
a bit of time to explore the city... today however, it's been raining hard since we woke up so
we've been a bit house bound. But glad to have the excuse to do nothing for a while! Our time in
Indonesia was busy and amazing!

Thank you for your prayers, we are so grateful for you all. It is such a comfort knowing that you
are behind us and supporting us! God is so good! Being in South Africa can be so challenging at
times, but those times are worth every minute because of the kids we are working with.

Just to update you a bit, since we are staying a few months longer, Chris and I have both felt led
to solidify some goals for our time in Jo'burg. In September and October, our time was spent
serving (taking care of the kids, loving them, etc.) and visiting various community development
projects around Johannesburg like orphanages, youth centers, and homeless shelters in order to
have a broader prospective of the city's needs and how they are being met... and not met. We
had also been involved with the young adults group, specifically our bible study.

Both Chris and I have sensed the desire of the young adults to serve their community and to be
involved in the church's various ministries. But many don't know where they can be involved or
how to get started or even what kind of program they'd like to help with. Chris and I feel that we
could be effective "middlemen" between the young adults and the community in the next few
months. We are already in place as volunteers at a couple orphanages and can easily introduce
the young adults to people who run the various other outreaches. Our coordinator, Claire, at
Rosebank Union Church, is also a hub of information and always excited about new volunteers.
Also, we are good friends with the young adult director, Ralph, who has already mentioned to us
his desire to see more young adults serving in Jo'burg. We believe that both Claire and Ralph
would help us organize some kind of program that would get more young adults serving!

Because Chris and I have a flexible schedule in Jo'burg, we can structure our weeks to include a
time when we invite the young adults to come with us to various projects, liaising between the
two, giving them an opportunity to see what's going on and get an idea of where they might
want to volunteer while providing the projects with new volunteers who would hopefully commit
to coming back regularly. After a couple months of this, our goal would be to have a core group
of young adults going to different projects and encouraging their friends to do the same. So by
the time Chris and I leave, there would already be local leaders in place to continue encouraging
the young adults and providing a means for them to serve.

We haven't spoken to anyone at Rosebank about this yet! It's just a vision Chris and I have
developed over the last few weeks while we've been out of the country. Please pray that we are
within God's will as we go back and attempt to set this all up! It's exciting to know that God has
us in place for reasons that we weren't expecting. However, we are committing to staying longer
in faith that God will provide our physical needs. Our accommodation and a car have been sorted
out for the first month upon our return but, after that, we do not know where we will live or how
we will get around. Also, financially, we are each in need of money to cover the cost of our
extended medical insurance, changing our flight, as well as paying for living necessities like food
and gas for the next three months. We are praying that the church will be able to provide a little
bit of money from the missions budget and we're really trusting that God will carry us through this
time. If anyone is interested in giving, remind them that it's tax deductible if they give it through
the church! Pray for us as we are a little anxious about this aspect but believe and have faith
because God wants us there. He is in control and he already knows what he's going to do! We
are learning to wait and trust in Him.

We pray for you always and believe that you all have been called by God to be where you are right now. May God do all he has promised and give you a good Christmas as well!!

Love in Christ,
Chris and Mariko