May/June 2010 Update

[Alan Yu]

Dear Prayer Supporters,

I should have written this in May, but then my Facebook account was
hacked and I have lost access to my account for almost 2 weeks. And
then I travelled to Florida to attend my graduation from the Robert E.
Webber Institute for Worship Studies and a family reunion at Orlando.
And when I got back, I have tons of work to catch up, including an
Adventio program and a new Sunday School class at church. Please
forgive my procrastination for sending this letter.

I would like to share with you some good news. In mid-May AFC
received a stock donation from someone we do not know personally. A
stranger called me up at AFC and asked to meet with me. He used to be
from Toronto and volunteered at AFC with Rev. Knight. I and Wayne had
lunch with him the following week. He indicated that he would like to
donate 5000 shares of a stock to us. The stock is publicly traded at
TSX and the stock price then was about $17.60 with the 52 week high at
$21.70. So this is a huge donation we are talking about. We have
finished processing the transaction and according to policy have sold
the stock for around $85,000.

In the beginning of the year when we worked on the budget, we
struggled a lot about the figure for donations from individual
donors. I put down on the budget a number that cannot be justified by
previous years' pattern, but I just knew that we need that much money
to support the ministry which we are very certain is in God's will.
The Board also accepted the figure without knowing how we can raise
enough money for that budget but only by faith.

I met with a local board member about 4 months ago to go through the
financial analysis I did. One thing that caught both of us was that
AFC Vancouver did not have any big donor. The largest donation we got
for the last 2 years were at $10000. So he asked us to pray for
identifying one big donor who can give us big money. So we started
praying for that.

And so this unexpected donor showed up. This donation is one of the
largest donation we ever received (the only comparable incident was
the $100,000 we received from one donor when we purchased our
building). To the staff at AFC Vancouver, this is not just a big sum
of money, but a prayer answered, particularly when we were not
receiving our pay cheques at the end of April. What is even more
important is that this is an affirmation from God that what we are
doing is really his will.

On the day when we didn't receive the pay cheques for April, our staff
did devotions together and we read Psalm 65:9 你眷顧地，降下透雨，使地大得肥美。神的河滿了水；你
這樣澆灌了地，好為人預備五穀。 10 你澆透地的犁溝，潤平犁脊，降甘霖，使地軟和；其中發長的，蒙你賜福。 11 你以恩典為年歲的冠冕；你的路徑
都滴下脂油， 12 滴在曠野的草場上。小山以歡樂束腰； 13 草場以羊群為衣；谷中也長滿了五穀。這一切都歡呼歌唱。It takes
faith to believe this when you don't even get paid. But God is truly
faithful.

Please give thanks to the Lord together with us.

On the personal side, Aslan has grown much weight, but we are still
adjusting to the rhythm of taking care of 3 kids. Please pray for my
wife Constance as most of the demands from the boys are rested on her.

Thanks for your diligent prayers all along. We could not have done it
without your prayer support.


Blessings,
Alan Yu


Some of Alan's speaking engagements in July and August:
every sunday: teaching sunday school on "Christian Slimming" at
Westside Baptist Church
every wednesday: leading student discipleship group at Westside
Baptist Church
July 4: preaching at Westside Baptist Church on "Workaholism"
July 18: preaching at AFC Restoration Worship on "Only If..."
July 25: preaching at Westside Baptist Church on "The Love of Respect"
Aug 1: leading workshop on "Addictions" at Westside Baptist Church
summer camp
Aug 8: teaching sunday school on "Christian Views on Sex and Birth
Control" at Pacific Grace MB Church
Aug 15: preaching at Westside Baptist Church on "The Lack of Courage"
Aug 20-23: leading AFC's Teleios Student Revival Camp at Hope, BC