Copy
View this email in your browser
Dallas Texas               Winter 2020

2020 in Review: God is not on mute!

"“Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you." - Psalm 139:11-12

12 months ago I (Ric) sat down at my laptop to write a final newsletter for 2019. Without having a clue what 2020 was in store, I along with my family was filled with so much energy and ready to embark on a new and God-given journey to New Zealand in July. A year later today, after attending countless farewell parties and renewing the leasing for numerous times, we are still here in Dallas. I am sitting at the same place, typing on the same laptop, jumping into one zoom meeting after another and getting used to have people shout at me, “Hey you are on mute!” 

"You are on mute!"

If you have been working from home or hosting meetings since the lockdown in March, you are probably no stranger to this phrase. People have gotten accustomed to hearing it at least once during every Zoom meeting and adopted the new meeting skill to shout and wave at the screen, “Hey you are on mute!” In fact, this quote has been voted as top 10 quotes of 2020 in New Zealand. As we are wrapping up a long hard year of 2020 full of death and suffering, many cannot wait for this year to be over and others especially Christians could hardly make sense of God’s sovereignty amid a series of national crisis including wild fire, racial injustice, election and global pandemic. It can seem like God is distant and silent from all the tragedies and animosities throughout the year. It pains our heart to shout and wave at God, “Hey God, you are on mute!”

This “unprecedented” year has reminded me of those dark and chaotic years between the prophecies of Malachi and the coming of the Messiah. These years are called “silent years” because there were no inspired words from God during this time. For 400 years, it seems like God is on mute! Not only did God click the mute button, but also turn off His camera. God went silent. God was nowhere to be found. God seems to have forgotten His people and His promises like what we experienced in 2020. But was God on mute? By no means! Instead, God was doing what He does best to work in the dark that far exceeded the reach of our imagination. Jesus, our long-awaited Messiah arrived at the darkest and the most unexpected time. By the grace of God with His steadfast love and faithfulness, God unmuted Himself to bring His kingdom to earth by sending His Son to die on the cross as ransom to pay the price for our sin and death. Our God is the miracle worker to turn darkness into light and death into life. Hallelujah!

And this year was no exception. In the midst of the tragedy and uncertainty, our family was graced and privileged to witness the glory and faithfulness of God shining brightly and powerfully throughout the year. In the end of every year, it is our joyful tradition to reflect the year and recount the blessings of God. So we invite you to join us to recount the unmuted blessings of God's faithfulness and to celebrate what God has done in 2020 and what God will do in 2021. 

Celebrating the unmuted blessings of God’s faithfulness

A Year of Fruitful Ministry
Though we couldn't go to New Zealand in 2020, God has brought us deeper still with a spiritual breakthrough instead.

We praise God for your gracious and generous support in between the seasons and we thank God for giving us the opportunities to help equip the saints, partner with like-minded organizations, restore the brokenness of our souls, and create margin to practice silence and solitude for God and family. God has entrust our family with plenty of preaching and serving opportunities throughout the year. 
  • Preaching the Word of God: Throughout the year, Ric was given the privilege to strengthen the churches (Asian American Baptist Church, West Houston Chinese Church, Formosan Christian Church of Dallas, Arlington Chinese Church, Plano Alliance Chinese Church) through the preaching the word of God in the time of pandemic. Ric has learned how to record a sermon by preaching to himself and gotten used to preach in an empty sanctuary. Though the church is undergoing an awfully interesting era, the Word of God remains living and active. Amen!   
  • TaeKwonDo Ministry: Throughout the year, we continued to lead the TaeKwonDo ministry before the during the pandemic to train the students with healthy diet and discipline, edify the students with the encouraging word of God and challenge the students to persevere during the time of hardship. The pandemic did not slow down the ministry that we were amazed that there were new students who signed up to join TaeKwonDo. 
  • Mission and evangelism workshop: In January, Ric was able to teach 6 weeks of mission and evangelism workshop at Asian American Baptist church to walk with the brothers and sisters to be saturated by the heart of God for mission and to practice the way of evangelism as a way of life. People were passionate about going out to practice and share the Gospel at the campus of University of Texas at Dallas before the pandemic. 
  • Discipleship Training Group: In July, Ric and Jocelyn also led a 10 weeks of discipleship training group to challenge brothers and sisters to grow from church goer to Christ follower by dedicating their lives to walk with Jesus as disciples who make and multiply disciples. Many of them have expressed that they have never been discipled before and they have been challenged to take the final word of Jesus (Matthew 28:19) as their first work!
  • Deeper Still Retreat: In August and October, Ric and Jocelyn were given the opportunities to serve the post-aborted brothers and sisters through Deeper Still Retreat in Tennessee. We were so humble to be part of the retreat that we have never witnessed such a powerful healing done by the Holy Spirit to each person in this short amount of time. God's love is so immensely incredible for the brokenhearted and crushed in spirit. PTL! 
A glance of God's Providence in Partnership 
The journey of serving the Lord is not a sprinter, but a marathon. In fact, Eugene Peterson's book portrays it well, "It's a long obedience in the same direction." We know full well with every fiber of our being that we are in this pursuit of God's mission for a long haul. There is no way we can run this race alone by ourselves, so after much prayer and deliberation, God has graciously answered our prayer by leading our family to partner with 4 incredibly strategic and like-minded organizations in the great pursuit of the kingdom and in the preparation of the kingdom work in New Zealand. 
  • Firm Foundation New Zealand
    • The mission is to equip Kiwis to become disciple-makers and to turn South Island into the next Bible Belt of New Zealand.
    • We are thrilled to join our friend, Jeff Coleman's family to train the saints in the areas of conversational evangelism, inductive Bible study, expository Bible teaching and preaching, biblical worldview training, and internship program for pastor and missionary in training. 
  • International Christian Community Eurasia: 
    • The mission is to plant churches, train foreign nationals, and provide support and oversight to missionaries and pastors pursuing the Great Commission in Europe and beyond.
    • We are grateful to partner with ICCE. Not only do they help take care of our funding, but also provide resources for pastors to minister and reach out to a post-Christian nation like New Zealand. 
  • Chinese Christian Fellowship International (CCF International):
    • The mission is to strive to change the lives of believers, support the church to equip the saints, train leaders to serve in the local churches and fulfill the commission in the cross-cultural missions through the in-depth study of God's word. 
    • We will focus on teaching the Bible through four-fold study method (writing, speaking, listening and reading) to train the leaders in the local church and equip fellow believers across the city of Christchurch. 
  • Post abortion Ministry: 
    • Someone Care
      • The mission is to free women from all walks of life - single, married, all ages and ethnicities in a setting of love, safety, and the reassurances of God’s faithfulness. 
    • Deeper Still:
      • The mission is to bring abortion wounded women and men before the mercy and healing power of God for the restoration, protection and transformation. 
    • Our earnest heart and burning desire for the nation of New Zealand (high abortion rate) is to raise the awareness of abortion, advocate the prevention of abortion and invite the abortion wounded brothers and sisters to go deeper still to break the chain of sin and shame for the lasting freedom and forgiveness.
A Hard-fought Year in Seminary
By the grace of God with the power and the strength of the Holy Spirit, Jocelyn has survived and finished another 6 seminary classes this year during this long, winding, in person/online, hard-fought and jam-packed shelter in place semester. Phew... On my Lord! Allow me to brag about this woman of God who actually has not only accomplished 6 classes in such a trying time, but also took time to cook for our family and neighbors who are in need, lead family devotion, help with homeschool, serve at the retreat and lead discipleship group. And did I mention boba tea? She even made boba tea for the students pulling the all nighter for finals. Isn't she Aww...amazing?!?!? She is our god-given supermama clothed by grit and grace. She taught us what it means to trust the Lord with obedience and perseverance and to demonstrated how to love our neighbors well as ourselves. And 5 more classes to go till graduation! Prayer up for this supermama! :) 

If you happened to be interested, here is the list of classes she took this year. I asked her what the Lord has taught her from all these classes. This is what she said, God has used these classes to transform my perspectives on the pain and trauma of this broken world with a new found passion and revelation to speak truth and grace to the lives of wounded and vulnerable women and to walk with them through a journey of healing, libration and restoration. If your church or ministry would be interested in hosting a sharing or seminar, she is more than happy to speak on any related topics below. 
  • Diagnosis and treatment of trauma disorder 
  • Effective ministry with woman 
  • Orientation and research method 
  • Story of the scripture from Genesis to Revelation
  • Human Sexuality
  • Woman teaching woman
A Precious Glimpse of Family Milestones
This pandemic year has allowed our family to slow down from the fast-paced lifestyle to practice the unforced rhythms of grace by creating intentional margin to exercise silence and solitude for God and family time. And the result is... humbling and life-giving. Praise the Lord! 
  • Praise God that we got to celebrate our 10th year wedding anniversary on March 20th this year. Instead of hopping on a Disney cruise, we did a simple, sweet and impromptu celebration to renew our vows before our kiddos while self-qruarintin at home. One special and sweet thing to be noted is that Kyra woke up at 5am to deliver an anniversary card she made through our bedroom door. We were amazed by how she was able to wake up in time. She had to set up the alarm to do it before we are awake. What a thoughtful girl. We praise God for His amazing grace to sustain our marriage and strengthen our family bond even in the time of pandemic.
  • Praise God that this year of pandemic is marked as Lord's gracious and victorious milestone of Ric's graduation at Dallas Seminary. It is a precious gift beyond word to finally come to the end of the study after 7 years of hard laboring and long perseverance. Thank you so much for your trust, prayer and support throughout the years. Because of many faithful men and women like you, the Lord has made this journey of faith even possible and utterly incredible.
  • Praise God for the blessing of Jared and Eveline's wedding (Jocelyn's sister) on October 3rd. The wedding was scheduled on March 28th, but because of Covid, they postponed indefinitely. We were sad and thought that we wouldn't be able to attend, but by God's sovereign plan, we were still here because of Covid. We had a wonderful and intimate backyard wedding everything done by the family members. Jocelyn, the coordinator. Ric, the officiator, Kyra, the musician, Liora, the flower girl, and Zion, the ring bearer. It was such a sweet memory of lifetime!
  • Praise God for giving our family opportunity to practice silence and solitude in the last two months of 2020. This is a long overdue invitation from the Lord to rest in the presence of God, to read the Word of God and to recharge for the mission of God. As a result, God has drawn near to us as we drew near to Him. It is a great joy beyond word to have family devotion together every morning to practice Lectio Divine (Divine Reading), to reduce massive time of social media, to cook and bake together, to finish reading through the Bible together, to serve our neighbors together, to travel together and to write songs and worship together. As we learned to take our time to breath in grace, we have grown together as a family to breathe out praise. :) 
Kyra wrote this song dedicated to the post-aborted men and women. We hope that you will be blessed by the song and be strengthened by the Spirit in the coming year. 

Healing (written on 10/16/2020)

(Verse 1)
There's love over there
There's beauty right here
There's sunshine over there
There's joy right here

(Chorus)
Cuz this is the place of healing
This is the place of purifying
This is the place for strengthening
This is the place for sustaining
No one can destroy and replace Cuz God's working in that place

(Verse 2)
Before, they were dragging their feet in the sand
They were wondering why they were on this land
But after, from all those different places
They were wearing smiling
Cuz this is the place of healing
This is the place of purifying
This is the place for strengthening
This is the place for sustaining

These are God's special chosen people
And God's love won't crumble

(Closing)
Cuz God is their God
And He is their rod
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me — watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”  

- Messiah (Matthew 11:28-30)
Our prayer warriors, please pray for us in this between seasons and let us know how we can pray for you!
  • Pray for the discernment of the Spirit to join the team of Deeper Still to Taiwan and serve at the retreat/ training in May. 
  • Pray for the comfort of God to stretch His hands to provide constant and everlasting help to those who have been affected by the pandemic, especially for those who have not yet heard about Jesus. 
  • Pray for the strength of the Lord to be added onto Jocelyn as she is taking two heavy classes online next semester. 
  • Pray for our visa application to New Zealand that though the border remains closed and our visas were still pending, we will be at peace to wait patiently and trust our Father's perfect will and timing.
  • Pray for our marriage and family life to be rooted in Christ, to be filled with grace, and to be the beacon of light to many others whom we will encounter here, on the mission field and beyond. 
  • Pray for the adjustment, flexibility and resilience throughout the transition of packing and moving, especially for our kiddos, that we will be prepared to accommodate the culture, to keep us healthy, and to serve with joy. 
May our Lord Almighty alone receive all the honor and glory. May our Father God in heaven continue to bless you and your family abundantly and fill you with joy and peace as we anticipate amazing and mighty things He will do in the new year 2021!
The Suns family is beyond thankful for your unceasing prayer and generous support. We can do what we do to share the Gospel and make disciples for the advancement of the kingdom only because of you. We are committed to walking by faith and trusting our Father's provision for the cost of living here and launching into New Zealand. If you or you know of anyone who is passionate about mission, a postmodern culture, restoration through abortion and what God is doing in New Zealand specifically through our family, we invite you to continue this journey of faith with us.  

If you felt led by the Spirit to partner with us through financial support, here are two ways that you can help support our journey ahead. Please let us know if you have any questions. We are looking forward to hearing from you. :)


Until all are heard and healed,
The Suns :) 

Giving Options:
  1. No Tax-deductible through DTS financial support link (Jocelyn's student ID: 940219)
  2. Tax-deductible through International Christian Community-Eurasia (Please designate Ric and Jocelyn Sun)
Copyright 2021 © Journey with the Suns

You've received this newsletter because you previously expressed interest in receiving updates from The Suns. If you do not wish to continue to receive this newsletter from us, please let us know. Thank you for journeying with us! :) 

Ric: eshbutx@gmail.com
Jocelyn: jc.and.rs@gmail.com

Our mailing address is:
3900 Swiss Ave. Apt. 801
Dallas, Texas 75204
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
 






This email was sent to <<Email Address>>
why did I get this?    unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences
Journey with the Suns · 136 Westown Dr. NW apt. 202 · Grand Rapids, MI 49534 · USA

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp