Through the years and in my recent travels, God has taught me many key lessons – through many different people and experiences.
Churches in China enjoy some freedom to worship and evangelism, but discretion is important for continued security. Please pray for God to open these doors.
As an older brother with valuable experiences I’ve made it my goal to encourage and visit disciples and churches domestically and outside the US. Each year I invest at least two weeks of vacation from my career to build up churches in other nations. I’ve visited churches and orphans in Europe and Asia, often on my nickel to avoid burdening them and to demonstrate my personal love and commitment to them. Steve Chin (Hong Kong) asked me to be his external mentor in his life and ministry. Steve & Jane lead the Hong Kong church and oversee church plantings in mainland China and Taiwan. I visited churches across China and Indochina the past two years. I don’t do sightseeing thought I 
love new places and history, and I visited the Great Wall with the brothers, but my purpose is to give to the people.
love new places and history, and I visited the Great Wall with the brothers, but my purpose is to give to the people. I visit and teach the Christians, reach out to the lost and encourage and teach with words and example as an older brother. I share lessons from experience in our Bible Talk, Region and the Boston Church. The disciples want to learn how to develop and maintain spiritual fervor while building a family and demanding career. Steve recognized I share a similar lifestyle with the disciples; career, family, kids, bible talk, evangelism, discipleship partners and leadership roles. I’ve gained great experience in the Boston Church learning lessons from the disciples, elders, evangelists and teachers and the kids (Matt 18:3-4). The experience provides a wealth to share with disciples and leaders around the world. Wyndham and Jeanie Shaw’s friendship and leadership in the NW Region are invaluable to Gail and myself. Being in the Drake & Loree Bible Talks provides real world experience (with effective results) that’s treasured across Boston, the US and around the world. Disciples and those outside the church are hungry to hear hope that real people can find happiness in real lives, lives filled with joy and pain common to us all. They value examples, teaching and sharing of life application on matters such as:
- Loving friendships in our Bible Talk (BT)
- Baptisms in Bible Talk (4-6 baptisms each year for long as I can remember, and this didn’t decline after 2003!)
- Consistent & meaningful discipling relationships that make a difference
- Weekly BTs, simple but impacting, with visitors to church & BT plus visitors studying to know God
- Love for the poor and needy which translates into action and baptisms in the Bible Talk.
- Relationships among elders and evangelists which are real, impacting one another and leading the church. Sometimes these relationships are challenging, but always loving and unity-building.
- Successes, challenges, evangelism and agape love for work colleagues
- Experience in parenting, good and bad…my kids are real like yours
- Life experience, good and bad…it’s especially encouraging for people to know our faults & real-ness
- How to love your wife / husband, even when there are conflicts
- How to love brothers and sisters when it’s not easy or “not my nature” to love as Jesus taught
On my recent trip I visited churches in across northern China. I spoke in the churches, spent time with staff, marrieds, singles, campus and babies. I made new friends and encouraged thousands, and shared the good news even though I didn’t speak Mandarin. God taught me the love of Christ (2 Cor 5:14) through everyone and convicted me through their eagerness to learn, their love for me and their love for one another. God inspired me through their faith and sacrifice, their willingness to give up everything, even their freedom and their lives, to honor God. The fellowship is a treasure I brought home to others. I challenged the church in Beijing to pray for impact in the city and among the millions who will visit the Olympics this year. I promised to pray for an opportunity to meet and baptize Yao Ming so he can return to help spread the gospel in China. One group near North Korea grew in number by 20% last year and disciples across this great nation are filled with the Holy Spirit and speak the word of God boldly (Acts 4:31).
Friday was a national holiday to honor deceased family members…long lines walking to cemeteries at 6.00 am as we drove to the airport. Hundreds of husbands of the Hong Kong church hosted a Wild at Heart retreat just north across the border into China. Steve taught on being Wild at Heart (re: Eldredge) and I led classes on “leading your wife” and “parenting pre-school kids”. Saturday was extreme sports events with a Chinese outdoor 
barbeque in the evening. Retreat meals were served in a large cafeteria permitting table-time with groups of brothers (plus an assortment of unusual foods…with coke for the visiting American. Sunday I preached and had visitors I had invited the day before, leading by my example in this grace, also. The brothers let me throw Frisbees in church as we had done on the Great Wall…an object lesson, of course.
barbeque in the evening. Retreat meals were served in a large cafeteria permitting table-time with groups of brothers (plus an assortment of unusual foods…with coke for the visiting American. Sunday I preached and had visitors I had invited the day before, leading by my example in this grace, also. The brothers let me throw Frisbees in church as we had done on the Great Wall…an object lesson, of course. Steve Chin and I communicate regularly via phone and email. We pray about and discuss personal and church needs and disciple one another. I asked Steve if I could have dinner with his family while in country…I’ve been encouraged by his care for the churches but I wanted to hear from his wife and children about his most important spiritual role as a father & husband. I teach leaders in my Fortune 500 company the same thing in a course on Leadership in our management college…if you want to know what kind of leader you are, go home and ask you spouse and children (I use bible verses, too…more later). Our children know us better than anyone and they will usually be brutally honest…right Tom, Jack, Wyndham? I often remind church leaders and elders (like me) that if leading the church becomes more important than your family then we cease to be the men who should lead God’s family (mucho biblical references, too abundant to list).
I was encouraged by feedback from Steve’s wife and children (ages 16, 15, 9), as I have 
been encouraged by his caring and decisive leadership of HK and the churches across China. Steve is an energetic, intuitive leader with a passion and heart for God’s work and the people he leads. Steve & Jane work with talented and spiritual people who lead awesome families of churches to spread the gospel across this vast land. The people of China I’ve met, disciples and those not-yet disciples, demonstrate an unusual eagerness to seek and receive spiritual input. God is working through them and through the Holy Spirit, to bring the good news to the one billion people of China. This nation will be a key world power this century economically, politically and spiritually. Please pray for God to guide them.
been encouraged by his caring and decisive leadership of HK and the churches across China. Steve is an energetic, intuitive leader with a passion and heart for God’s work and the people he leads. Steve & Jane work with talented and spiritual people who lead awesome families of churches to spread the gospel across this vast land. The people of China I’ve met, disciples and those not-yet disciples, demonstrate an unusual eagerness to seek and receive spiritual input. God is working through them and through the Holy Spirit, to bring the good news to the one billion people of China. This nation will be a key world power this century economically, politically and spiritually. Please pray for God to guide them. I committed to the disciples this was not a vacation trip, though I did burn vacation weeks from my job to travel and serve them. I invested myself to be there and I have a godly & brotherly expectation that they imitate my life and apply what I taught them with words and example (2 Cor 6:11-13, Phil 4:9). At times I wondered if I would come home safely. Would I survive eating strange foods including a dish prepared with dog meat (thanks Steve)? Would I be arrested in a communist nation, an hour from North Korea? I’m an American rocket scientist teaching (albeit non-technical matters) in underground churches in a nation which ain’t exactly our best friend. Would I survive jumping from towers with the brothers in the extreme sports games? And the most difficult question: can I stand to be away from my family that long, especially Gail??
Due to my job and other responsibilities I had little time to prepare lessons before my travel. I asked God to give me help through the Holy Spirit to meet the needs of the 
churches. God took away my security blankets, leaving me completely NOT in control. I arrived in each new city with no money, knowing no one. I knew only how to say “hello” in Chinese (phonetically nee-how). I hoped someone would be waiting for me at the airport, hopefully someone not there to arrest me. As we drove from the airport I learned the names of my hosts, and what time I spoke that night and the topic. This sounds a little dramatic but it really was God’s simple plan to humble me and keep me from thinking I was competent for the task before me. Others would plan better, but God worked through the my weakness to teach and encourage the churches (1 Cor 2:3, 15:43; 2 Cor 11:30, 13:4).
churches. God took away my security blankets, leaving me completely NOT in control. I arrived in each new city with no money, knowing no one. I knew only how to say “hello” in Chinese (phonetically nee-how). I hoped someone would be waiting for me at the airport, hopefully someone not there to arrest me. As we drove from the airport I learned the names of my hosts, and what time I spoke that night and the topic. This sounds a little dramatic but it really was God’s simple plan to humble me and keep me from thinking I was competent for the task before me. Others would plan better, but God worked through the my weakness to teach and encourage the churches (1 Cor 2:3, 15:43; 2 Cor 11:30, 13:4). In the course of the journey God taught me much, and He allowed me to teach and encourage the brothers and sisters of China through lessons of experience I’ve learned over the years as follows:
a) Through my family over the past 30 years
b) Through my marriage over the past 35 year
c) Through my 36 years of being a disciple
d) How to love your wife and family
e) How to balance family, career and spiritual responsibilities.
f) How to love your wife because you respect God, how to live considerately with her and have fun!
g) How to respect your husband because you respect God, and how to have fun together!
h) The importance of the physical relationship between a husband & wife, including sex.
i) How we should not exasperate our children, and then all the ways I have mistakenly done so.
j) The many mistakes Jack & Gail have made and ways to avoid these.
k) The value of mistakes in our lives, as mistakes provide a gold mine of opportunities to learn.
l) How to be effective in reaching others: high impact leaders, common people and all in between.
m) Importance of God’s word in our lives each day; our role to dig deeply into his word
n) Importance of discipling and discipleship partners to help one another to be more like Jesus, and to strengthen our marriages, families and friendships.
o) Importance of resolving conflicts with others: husbands & wives, children, family, brothers & sisters, outsiders
p) What I’ve learned from my many mistakes, especially through conflicts with brothers and sisters and the resolution and unity God taught and achieved in us as he taught us.
q) How to build the family of God, his church, as spelled out in Ephesians 4:11-16
r) How to identify each person’s gifts from God, to identify/implement leadership gifts delineated in Eph 4:11ff for building up the body of Christ. I owe much to Wyndham & Jeanie, Drakes’ BT, Lorees’ BT, NWRegion, Fred Fallers, Doug Arthurs, EJ Murphy, Curtis Peregrim, Lou Devlin, Nellie Morrill, Chet Sewell, Boston Elders & Evangelists and wives. I’m also indebted to brothers & sisters from mainline churches who taught me much.
s) Lessons from the Boston Church over past 20 years, especially leadership, roles and relationships among leaders and how these build up and sustain the body (Eph 4:11ff)
t) The example of the building by the Drake & Loree BTs in recent years.
u) The example of the building by the leadership of the Boston Church in recent years.
v) Importance of children in understanding God, our children in particular (Matt 19:13-14, Luke 18:15-17).
w) What I learned from Children’s Ministries (Kids Kingdom) around the world; what I learned from the children, teachers and leaders…special thanks to the children for what they teach us.
x) What I learned from the brothers and sisters of church plantings I visited across the world, with special thanks to the small churches and plantings on the cutting edge.
y) The simplicity of reaching the lost by loving others and Jesus-like acts of kindness
z) Gratitude for the gifts of grace, salvation & faith, and the gift of one another (Eph 2:8)
I’m out of alphabet, but here are two more sources of sharing lessons learned:
z1) Lessons learned from my career…good and bad, times I did well and times I nearly lost my job, bosses I liked and those I didn’t. Lessons from my older brother Cecil Wooten and from the retired CEO of my company with whom I’m now studying the bible who wants to be a discipleship partner. Successes and failures. Lessons from courses taken and taught. Business strategies and lessons from my Black Belt in Six Sigma.
z2) Lessons from students…as a volunteer I do seminars on rocket science & leadership for students in middle schools, high schools and universities across the US. I serve on the steering committee of a college within my company (80,000 employees) and teach courses. I’ve been blessed to learn from students of all ages, and I include bible appropriately as I teach leaders in my company…and they love it. When I teach about leadership people hear spiritual principles. When I teach about rockets people hear spiritual principles. I learn from each student of all ages. Regarding this, it is written that God “is over all and through all and in all” – Eph 4:6. It is also written that we should talk about him and these things “when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” – Deut 6:7. As appropriate we should can talk about these teachings and principles when we are with colleagues at work or teaching students in school. I’m aware we must exercise wise speech in these situations (Matt 10:16) and respect whom we serve, our employers and governments (Matt 22:21). Speak with courage and God will provide the opportunity…as it is written, on the mountain of the Lord it will be provided (Gen 22:14)
My trip to China was not easy but it was blessed and rewarding, impacting myself and those I met. The day before I left Boston I worked at my job until 8.00 pm. I arrived home to spend family time with my wife, son and dog (a 110 lb Mastiff puppy). They went to bed I prepared and packed through the night until 4.30 am when I left for the airport in a heavy snow. Flight time and layovers was 27 hours but I was blessed to sleep a few hours on the plane. God provided to meet the needs of the people when I arrived. As usual I learned more than I taught. Others have great talents and disciples around the world can benefit from your gifts. You can have an adventure, like Bilbo Baggins and myself…vaya con Dios.
I am grateful to the people of China for their open hearts (2 Cor 6:11-13). I am grateful to 
the leaders in Boston, especially my fellow elders, for their encouragement, sacrifice and support in allowing me to be away. I’m grateful for my family’s sacrifice, especially my lovely wife Gail. I’m grateful to my boss and management team for allowing me to be away from my job. I’m grateful for all who sacrificed to plant the churches in China. Most of all I’m grateful to God who gives life, hope, gratitude and promise. To him be the glory in all things.
the leaders in Boston, especially my fellow elders, for their encouragement, sacrifice and support in allowing me to be away. I’m grateful for my family’s sacrifice, especially my lovely wife Gail. I’m grateful to my boss and management team for allowing me to be away from my job. I’m grateful for all who sacrificed to plant the churches in China. Most of all I’m grateful to God who gives life, hope, gratitude and promise. To him be the glory in all things. I love you,
Jack Frederick
jfrederic1@aol.com Boston, MA posted by Jerry Maday
