Eldridge Update

Eden Update - 9/30/2009

Dear faithful Prayer Partners and Friends,

I am constantly amazed by God’s strategies in reaching our Ladies of the Night. We have always struggled in reaching the ladies in the red light district of Hui Du. There are about 1000 prostitutes in this area but almost all of them are under lock and key most of the day; as many of the ladies have been forced into prostitution. When these ladies are on the streets meeting customers, they are constantly watched and guarded by their pimps, madams and bouncers. Our conversation with the ladies, whenever we get the opportunity, is always monitored.

After much prayer, Father showed us one place that these ladies are not monitored – when they are prepping to get ready for the night, at the beauty palour/hair dressing salon. (I guess no man can endure the long hours of watching girls straightening their hair and applying make-up.) We have had great success in a beauty salon chatting freely with the Ladies of the Night. When this beauty salon was up for new ownership, we felt led to take over the store. At the same time, Xiao Ling, a transformed Lady of the Night, just graduated from cosmetology school. The timing was perfect for her to take over the management of the store.

So now we are proud owners of a beauty salon in the heart of the red light district of Hui Du. We ask for your prayers to cover Xiao Ling and favour upon our shop.

We are amazed by Father who has help us set up not only shelters for the ladies to live, workshop for them to earn a living and medical health care for their physical well being. Father has also led us into prison to reach the girls who have been arrested, to the villages to help educate villagers on the strategies of the traffickers and now, a salon in the middle of the red light district. God is also sending us Chinese nationals from Singapore who have been deported by the Singapore government for prostitution in Singapore . We are praying to start a new shelter for these ladies and need funds to do so. Our Father’s heart is to set the captives free. He hears the cries of these ladies and longs for us to help provide a way out of captivity for them.

Thank you for partnering with us in all things! Blessings to you and your family!

Wendy

July Update - 7/31/2009

Greetings from Eric & Wendy!

As promised, here are some various family and ministry updates from the past month.

Blessings in 2009 at Eden Women's Ministries

God has done so many exciting things during the first half of 2009 at Eden . Here are just a few:

	20 girls have come to know the Lord and 10 have been baptized.
	We hired 3 new local staff to work in the shelter and workshop.
	More local Christians are getting involved with our shelters - offering free music, literacy, and even dance classes at the shelter weekly.
	Our prison ministry is receiving huge favor. The guards are aware of what we are doing and still allow our staff to visit weekly. 10 of these imprisoned women recently came to know the Lord.

Please continue lifting up this bright light in such a dark part of China 's society.

Eric Becoming a "Utility" man at MUP

Recently, I had a conversation with a swimmer who had won multiple gold medals in the Olympics and later became a swim coach on one of the top swim clubs in the world. When I asked him his coaching role on his swim club, he said he was a "utility coach"; meaning that he floats between each group of swimmers offering his expertise with each of them rather than being dedicated to one individual group within the swim club. When I heard this, I was reminded that this is how God has been using me at MUP since our return to the States. Sometimes it has been challenging having such a loosely defined role at MUP. And, it has been difficult communicating my role here. But, this freedom has allowed me to contribute in several strategic areas rather than just one. Here are a few just in the last couple of months:

	As the MUP board was looking into the possible HQ relocation to Dallas , I was asked to do the detailed analysis between Seattle and Dallas which was presented to the board two months ago.
	I am coordinating MUP's representation in the upcoming Urbana missions conference which is the largest missions conference in the world. This is an exciting opportunity to share our vision to thousands of young people with a hearth for the nations.
	I have been working with our CEO and Director of Operations to revamp our organization's internet communications strategy which includes secure email, internal website, conferencing, and work collaboration tools. As a result of this work, we are currently beta testing an entirely new platform which should be rolled out in the fall.
	After deciding to relocate our HQ to the Dallas area, we have had to decide which part of the Dallas area we should be located in. Over the past month, I have been putting together some detailed analysis on the various towns a and areas in the area as we work through our decisions.
	I have taken on a permanent role of coordinating MUP's worldwide conference. This is the only time our entire organization gets together in the same place to pray together, worship together, and seek God's wisdom in key ministry areas.
	I am working to develop a new video which we will use to heighten awareness amongst the Church on the ever growing needs of reaching the ignored peoples of the world.

We will share some of the fruit of these projects as they roll out. In the meantime. Please lift Eric up as he works to help make MUP more effective at reaching the unreached peoples of the world.

In The Neighborhood

For a long time, Eden has been building relationships in the largest red light district of our city in China . The area has been the focus of much of our prayers and efforts, and we have recently seen some encouraging breakthroughs.

Our greatest joy has been an open invitation we received from a local hairdresser. While she helps girls get ready to work in the brothels at night, she allows us to pray with them, listen to their stories and share God's truth. We're so excited to see how God uses these weekly visits to change lives and bring hope to the girls.

We disparately want to reach the leader of this area. Please join us as we pray for an opportunity to share with this man and allow God's conviction to come upon him. For we believe that "no one can enter a strong man's house .... unless he first binds the strong man." (Mark 3:27)

The Seed which Dies Produces Many Seeds

Over the past year, Eric has been gradually winding down Maxsource. Most of the employees have found other work. A few months ago, we closed our China office and shut down our web hosting business. We do still have a small number of employees who are working from their homes. But, Maxsource is no longer taking on new customers and in most cases, is not taking on new projects. This was very hard for Eric since Maxsource was his "baby" since it's conception in 2003. But, in reality, Maxsource was a vessel to be used by God. And, we felt God leading us to take these steps.

The purpose of Maxsource was never the "business". In most businesses, the employees are just tools to help the business grow. But, at Maxsource, the business was just a tool to help the employees grow. Since the Kunming Maxsource office was closed a few months ago, four new house churches have been planted by Maxsource's former employees in Kunming . What an amazing image of John 12:24 which says "Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But, if it dies, it produces many seeds."

God is so good!

Family Update

Each year in June, Eric seems to go on a crash diet. You see, our health insurance adds 15% to our annual premium if our weight is too high. What a great incentive to lose weight! Eric actually started in January and had lost about 30 pounds by the end of June to barely make the limit which our insurance sets. Hopefully, he won't have to lose so much next year :-)

Each year in July, our kids take part in the Texas YMCA Swim Championship meet. It's always alot of fun as our kids' team has won team high points for 7 years in a row. Unfortunately, this year, another team took high points. And, we had to settle for second. But, all of our kids swam very well. Raena won high points for the 11-12 year old girls, sweeping all of her events. As I write this, she is in College Station , TX competing in the TAGS (Texas Age Group Swim Championship) meet.

Last month, Raena's rabbits had bunnies. Typical bunny litters are 3 to 5 bunnies. Raena's rabbit had NINE babies. One was a runt and it died after a few days. Mother rabbits only have 8 nipples. But, the remaining 8 bunnies are growing very fat. Anyone want a bunny?

Tomorrow, we leave for Port Aransas (a small beach community in South Texas ) for a family vacation. Eric's parents will be joining us. His mother's Alzheimer's has progressed greatly and this may be our last family vacation with her. Please pray for our families as we vacation together at the beach.

Blessings -- Eric & Wendy Eldridge

Letter From MUPS - 3/25/2009

Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus,

I am coming to you with a request for help.

First, I have the privilege of thanking you for your past partnership with Eric and Wendy Eldridge in their ministry with Mission to Unreached Peoples (MUP). Second, I am writing to let you know of the important role they have been asked to take with our global leadership team.

A little over a year ago, I was invited by MUP and led by our Lord to become CEO of MUP. We are in the process of re-visioning and re-structuring the organization. This restructuring will enable us to be much more effective in taking our part in reaching the 27.9% of the world which still today has little or no access to the Good News.

We as an organization feel the Lord has called us to recruit, and send hundreds of new missionaries in the next few years. We will equip these new pioneering strategy teams to help stimulate movements to Christ among those least evangelized people groups or cities who have no known workers or churches. To achieve this call, we are building a strong leadership team to develop the infrastructure and the strategies needed to recruit, train, send, lead, and support this next generation of missionaries to the last remaining frontiers of missions.

We were very pleased when Eric and Wendy agreed to join our global leadership team in our newly established Global Office in Plano , Texas . Eric is eminently qualified to fill our newly created role of Director of Field Development and Services. He will create and provide new services and initiatives which will help resource field missionaries to become more effective in serving the least evangelized. Wendy will continue to focus on providing crucial coordination and advocacy for the ministry she co-founded in China which rescues women from prostitution.

Frankly, your help is crucial. The possible misperception that they are no longer missionaries and the current economic situation has left them with dwindling financial (and maybe prayer?) support. Eric and Wendy will be crucial members of helping implement this vision – and continue to be on full missionary status.

We are praying that Eric and Wendy can continue to serve with our Lord as our organization moves into some new levels of strategic effectiveness and greater numbers of new missionaries. Their new strategic role will help facilitate many others being sent and becoming effective. The mission movement and our organization need them even more now.

Would you be willing to help again? Your financial support is critical if they are to continue in their missionary calling and also help our organization move strategically forward. I have taken the liberty of enclosing a pledge envelope. Would you please pray about making a new pledge to support Eric and Wendy’s ministry with Mission to Unreached Peoples?

With greatest gratitude for our shared service to Jesus,

S. Kent Parks, Ph.D.

CEO

Mission to Unreached Peoples

This Month's WOW Story! - October, 2008

Wendy Eldridge

Back in the days when Lisa and I were the only ones walking the red light district of our city, we were just two housewives following God, prayer walking an area with over 40 brothels. (This area no longer exists. God has since wiped out all the brothels in this neighborhood.) As we circled the area, talking to the girls and visiting brothels, Joe, a pimp, would watch us. It bugged him that we were fearless and not the least bit intimidated by his presence, even with his huge bouncers surrounding him.

One night while he puzzled over this, he dreamt of us in a dream. In his dream, he saw us walking the neighborhood as usual, but this time he saw a tall creature walking behind us. He later described this creature to us as huge, towering over us. “This creature had the form of a man but he was gigantic and had wings on his back. His wings spanned from the buildings of one side of the street to the buildings on the other side,” he said. (This is a man who grew up in communist China with no background in Christianity or angels.) “No wonder you women are fearless!” We thought he would bow down and accept Christ with such revelations, but he did not.

Not long after the dream, Joe was arrested and thrown in jail. In jail, he worried about his family finding out about his occupation and losing face with them. He decided to call on our God for help. “Lisa’s God,” he said, “I make a bargain with you…if you prevent my family from finding out about me in jail, I will take you as my God once I am released.” God was good and protected Joe’s family from finding out about his situation. On leaving jail, Joe fulfilled his side of the bargain. He called us up and accepted Christ as Lord.

I want to say that all was merry and well with him after this, but that was not the case. Joe had an affair with one of his prostitutes, got her pregnant, and abandoned her. We took the girlfriend into our shelter, counseled her into keeping her baby, and offered her a job. Joe moved on to drugs, more women and new brothels. (Not newsletter-worthy material!)

But, through this all, God continued to work in Joe’s life. God did not abandon him. In recent months, Joe has reconciled and married his girlfriend, left his company of bad influence, and settled down to open a convenience store and become a father to his son. Our God is a faithful God. His word never returns void.

The Lord has enlarged our vision to include pimps and madams. As a result in our relationships with pimps and madams, we have seen 6 brothels shut down and all the girls in it leave the work or come to our shelter.

Map to Calvary Sunday Messages Updates