Hello from Dulles International Airport. We are waiting to board our flight as we head to Birmingham, England for a five month sabbatical. Over the past month it has been so great to visit with many family members and friends around Virginia and North Carolina. Our times with different churches has been a blessing as we were encouraged through a reconnection of those relationships. Thank you for your prayers as we have had nothing but safe and uneventful travel.

Now it is on to the next phase of this year. Our time in England is a new adventure for us. Our schedules are intentionally quiet for the next few months as we seek the Lord’s will and guidance for the first steps in the next season of our lives. Thank you for praying with us.

Please also keep these matters in your prayers:

  1. Our friends Joel is home from his recent treatments. He still needs healing. May the Lord bless him and his family as they tread this path of uncertainty.

  2. Sarah’s Aunt Mattie is having surgery today to repair a degenerative cornea. Her recovery is going to be very trying as she must remain still on her back for 3 days post operation. Pray for her patience and for her daughters as they support her this week.

  3. The people of Eastern China experienced devastating flooding this week in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Doksuri <https://bit.ly/3qfewtY>. May the Lord have mercy and bring relief to those suffering.

We leave you with this prayer from the book “The Seasons of a Restless Heart” by Debra K. Farrington:

God, my Source of Strength:

A season is turning in my life calling me to make ready:

Walk with me, I pray.

This unmapped course lies divided ahead urging careful determination:

Walk with me, I pray.

The gate has swung open and everything’s loose bidding that someone be left behind:

Walk with me, I pray.

Until the turbulent waters clear I reach for Your mercy  and pray for wisdom:

Walk with me, I pray. — Keri Whelander

Holding the Ropes - Special Request - 2023.07.15

Special Prayer Request: Our Bangleshi friend, Soniya, is going to hospital for surgery tomorrow (Sunday 16 July). She is having a kidney removed. The kidney was damaged by kidney stones a couple of years ago and never healed. Prayer points:

  1. Successful surgery and quick recovery. May the medical staff give her the best of care. May she have time to fully heal and regain her strength.

  2. That the Lord will be glorified in this situation.

  3. Gratitude for the friends who donated funds for her surgery.

Thank you for your prayers. Will update with news as we get it.

Maranatha!

Holding the Ropes in Prayer - 2023.07.08

Hello from Virginia. After driving 5,000 miles (8,000 km) we arrived safely at our temporary “home base”. We will be staying with Sarah’s father for the month of July while we visit with family, friends and churches around Virginia. Our travels here were marked by amazing scenery: the USA is a land blessed with stunning beauty and splendor, drawing our hearts to praise the Lord. Even more beautiful than the natural beauty of mountain and field has been the reunion with family and friends along the way. What blessing to reconnect through times around the table and on the way. Our souls were refreshed and encouraged by each visit. What a joyous privilege.

However one visit left us heavy of heart: a friend is dealing with glioblastoma, a brain cancer whose defeat is possible by a miracle of God’s grace and modern treatments. His faith is strong, his supporting family are fully engaged. We only had a short visit with him as we didn’t want to over burden him or his wife. His healing is our number one prayer request for you this time.

  1. Pray for Joel to be healed such that the Lord is given glory and many people are blessed. May his wife, Kristen, and family are given the support they need during this most trying of experiences.

  2. Pray for our times of sharing with churches around Virginia: We will be in Radford, Chase City, Blacksburg, and Richmond this month. May our words encourage prayer and worship.

  3. Macau continues to face many challenges due to the ongoing COVID pandemic. May the church in Macau find special grace and wisdom for being the people of the Lord.

We leave you with this lovely benediction we heard at Jerusalem Baptist Church in Warsaw, VA:

May the Lord bless you and keep you,

May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.

May God give you grace never to sell yourself short,

Grace to risk something big for something good,

Grace to remember that the world is now too dangerous

for anything but truth and too small for anything but love.

So may God take our minds and think through them,

May God take our lips and speak through them,

May God take our hearts and set them on fire,

Through Christ our Lord. — Amen

Holding the Ropes in Prayer - 2023.06.23

Hello from the Road. We are currently visiting a dear friend and celebrating Sarah’s B’day in Minnesota. These past two weeks have been packed with such visits. The Lord has graciously kept our travels safe and us healthy. We are so thankful for the times to reconnect with people. This past week we even serendipitously met up with dear friends from a completely different part of the USA. These friends happened to be holidaying along our route. What a joy.

Recently we heard a teaching from Exodus 33:12-23: Moses is in the Tent of Meeting with the Lord. Moses wants to see the Lord’s glory. The Lord invites Moses to stand on a rock near Him and then hides Moses in that rock when His glory passes by. I wondered, “where does that rock come from inside the Tent?” Seen through the eyes of the Gospels, it sounds like a narrative connection with Jesus (1 Corinthians 10:4). The Lord hides Moses inside Jesus and then reveals His glory.

These thoughts echoed around in my head recently as we drove through Glacier National Park, gazing up at the towering mountains of rock. (See the attached photo.) To see such splendor in nature, to consider creation in the light of the Lord’s glory is to be touched by His grace. Once seen, it is not quickly forgotten.

As we continue to travel East across the USA, please pray for:

  1. Safety on and off the road. We still have many miles to go before we rest.

  2. That we will have eyes to see the ways large and small the Lord is working in and around us.

  3. Visits with family and friends to be blessed with renewal.

The one thing I ask of the Lord — the thing I seek most — is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple. For he will conceal me there when troubles come; he will hide me in his sanctuary. He will place me out of reach on a high rock. Psalm 27:4-5 (NLT)

Entering Glacier National Park, Montana

Holding the Ropes in Prayer - 2023.06.06

Hello from Macau. Today marks the 27th anniversary of our arrival in Macau. Twenty-seven years of language mistakes and successes, cultural faux-pas and connections, enriching friendships, family milestones crossed, lessons learned, life lived. Almost half of our life has been in this city, this place. Speaking of place …

… “Place, like all things in life, is a good gift from God. Our calling is to come to know our places in ways that reveal God’s gifts to us and that evoke in us deep gratitude and rejoicing — which is to say, worship.” — Smith, C.C., Pattison, J. Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus. IVP Books, Downers Grove, IL 2014. P. 70.

Macau has been a place for seeing God’s good gifts, a place of much rejoicing and deep, deep gratitude. As we have gotten to know Macau over the years, thanksgiving has been a constant refrain. Thanks for being called to “taste and see” the goodness of the Lord in this place. Thanks for years of stability and opportunity. Thanks for friends whose hospitable love and care goes beyond reason. Thanks for a place to be at home in a sometimes crazy world. Thanks that in Macau we could practice hospitality helping others feel at home. Our years in this place called Macau have truly been a good gift from the Lord. Join us in giving thanks for all these years.

But now we are being called to some new place. Tomorrow we leave Macau to see where the Lord would send us next. We leave this place of blessing and grace with heavy hearts, mixed feelings of grief and hope, trepidation and anticipation, the sad tears of parting and the glad tears of joy for all the good graces this place has revealed to us.

Please pray with us for:

  1. Health and Safety as we travel in the USA for June and July,
    then to England on 1 August for a 5 month sabbatical.

  2. Wisdom for departing words.

  3. Eyes to see the gifts of God in whatever new place we are called to know.

Thank you for your prayers. May the Lord bless you with a place to know and worship the Lord.

“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.” Matthew 28:16-17 (NIV)

Macau housing area at night.

Holding the Ropes in Prayer - 2023.05.23

Hello from Macau. This coming Sunday is known in the church year as “Pentecost Sunday”. Fifty days after Easter, the Church’s birthday as told in Acts 2. In the telling, the Good News of the Kingdom goes out to people from all over the Mediterranean world resulting in a new community of people. Ever since that day we have found ourselves struggling to form healthy community where there is neither “Jew nor Greek, Slave nor Free, Male nor Female” being favored over another.

Recently read this quote attributed to Jüergen Moltman: “So the homogenous community is not really a natural community at all. It is a community for the common suppression of fear through permanent self-corroboration — which means that it is a highly *un*natural community.” This highlights a struggle faced by the church in Macau, and the church the world over. Due to language (learning Cantonese is hard) and culture, the churches tend to segregate along rigid lines. Not all churches, but most. Some do it intentionally holding to “A Chinese church for Chinese people”. Others with less intentionality. In our opinion, this holds the Kingdom back in Macau.

Please pray for …

  1. Church leaders who will reject fear and the desire to control in order to embrace the other in our city.

  2. Church members who will open their eyes to see the mosaic of people from all over Asia and the world who live and work in Macau.

  3. Models of multi-cultural, multi-lingual worship and service that can be embraced and explored by churches large and small in Macau.

As we celebrate the anniversary of Acts 2 this week, may our vision be: “After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb.”  Revelation 7:9 (NLT)

Local Ficus Tree’s Roots

Holding the Ropes in Prayer - 2023.05.09

Hello from Macau. This past Sunday we joined with the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union as they celebrated the end of Ramadan. Food and laughter were in abundance for this happy occasion. What made us the most happy was seeing the variety of people gathered together. Not just Guest Workers, people from different walks of life who have a heart to join with our Guest Worker friends in making Macau a healthier place to live and work. There was even a free-lance reporter there wanting to highlight the circumstances and needs of Guest Workers. Very encouraging as we gain this sense of a bubbling awareness and commitment to these lovely people.

Please pray for:

  1. The Chinese Christian community to grow in awareness of Guest Worker’s lives. Engagement by the local Christians can make a world of difference.

  2. Healthy working relationships between the different groups and organizations seeking to help Guest Workers. May there be humility and generosity, without ego or territoriality.

  3. Local governmental leaders to be courageous and bold in bringing needed change to labor laws in Macau.

Recently a YouTube video and a Bible verse flowed together in my head. Watch the video here <https://youtu.be/81ebWToAnvA> with Amos 5:24 in mind: “But let justice roll out like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” In a world full of what feels like unending injustice, I am encouraged to think that Justice will find a way to win through. Nothing can stop it, even if it has to navigate a rather winding way. Justice wins. Love wins.

Maranatha!

In Macau, these green water fountains provide free flowing clean water for anyone who thirsts.

Holding the Ropes in Prayer - 2023.04.25

Hello from Macau. Thank you for the many kind words of encouragement and blessing from our last communication. We find ourselves in an “in-between” state of preparing to step back from Macau and continuing to work in Macau until we leave in June. Appreciate your prayers for guidance in this season.

This past week Larry met with Pastor Lam, the principle of the Macau Bible Institute. <https://www.macaubible.org> Pastor Lam shared many of the needs and opportunities the school is facing. We invite you to join with us in praying for three important matters related to the school:

  1. Pastor Lam: his workload is rather overwhelming and he could really use some help and some time to be refreshed. He will be traveling for a family wedding soon. May the Lord multiply his time in a way that restores and refreshes.

  2. The school is dealing with issues ranging from the need to renovate facilities to a lack of teachers who are local. May the Lord give wisdom and guidance to the administration of these matters.

  3. Students: Macau’s Protestant Christian population is rather small and so the pool of potential students remains a source of challenge for the school. May the Lord provide resources for the right students to commit to studies at the right time.

I’ll leave you with this prayer from the Lectio 365 daily devotional:

“Father, thank You for always welcoming me, on my best days, my worst days, and all the days in-between. Fill my heart today with the deep welcome of Your presence, and open my eyes to the way You are interrupting even my best plans with Your pursuing love.”

澳門 = Macau

Holding the Ropes in Prayer - Special Edition - 2023.04.11

Hello from Macau.

2023 is shaping up to be a challenging season of transition for us. Over the past year or so, we both have clearly felt that God is leading us to step away from Macau. When we have asked, “Lord, Go Where and Do What?”, He has yet to answer those questions. But He has clearly said “Go and I will show you the where and what!”

So this year we are going towards a time and space to rest and listen to the Lord more clearly. We believe there is a new season of ministry ahead of us that God will reveal as we go. Here is our “Going in Faith” plan for this year:

During this Spring, we are stepping back from most of our ministry responsibilities in Macau. In June and July, we will be going to the USA to visit and share face-to-face with our supporting churches and visit our family and friends. We are asking you to join with us in praying for next steps and for those who are willing to continue supporting Light For The City, Inc. We are not retiring, rather we are seeking how to continue the ministry of Light For The City, Inc.

We will be taking Sabbatical in the Birmingham, England area during the last 5 months of this year. We hope that will be a time to rest, renew, discern, clearly hear and understand God’s will for us in the next season of our ministry.

We have been so blessed by our 27 years in Macau. Through the privilege of serving and the joy of loving friendships, Macau has become our home and we will deeply miss living here. Please continue to pray for Macau and our whole area.

We are sure of our local brothers and sisters ability to continue loving and serving people. We are hopeful in the network of loving relationships that have been built among the Guest Workers from different backgrounds and walks of life. Though we are extremely sad to leave, we leave Macau knowing that God is still here and continuing to love everyone, building beautiful relationships.

We invite you to journey with us this year through your prayers and financial support if you are willing.

We will keep in touch.

Thank you,

Sarah and Lawrence Ballew