On behalf of SALT, we wish you all a blessed new year in God’s grace!

As we reflect on the past year, we rejoice that our ministry miraculously expanded beyond our expectations, largely due to the long-awaited cancelation of East Asia’s zero-COVID policy. We conducted 45 trainings, exceeding our annual goal of 40 trainings for the first time since 2021. However, we cannot give credit for this growth to any improvement in the general climate. In fact, this was possible only by the favor of God who has allowed SALT, a meager ministry, to be a small part of His grand plan. What great grace for us, PTL!

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
(2 Corinthians 4:8-9, NIV)

We are also pleased to report that the writing of our new course Nehemiah has been completed on time, while the revision of Old Testament 4 is scheduled for completion in early 2024. For sure, these are encouraging developments. Yet success will not be smooth-sailing as we foresee challenges ahead. After several years of hard work, our national trainers have indeed made remarkable progress in their writing skills, and have committed to becoming a self-reliant indigenous team. But as they have progressed past certain points, they have encountered bottlenecks, which is what they are grappling with now.

How to correctly and effectively allocate tight resources of manpower, and make better use of other limited resources? How to find and choose appropriate teaching materials in East Asia? How to deal with the current tense environment? These are concrete problems faced by our national trainers. Your prayers for them are critical.

In 2024, the SALT team will remain as dedicated as ever. Over the next year or two, it is our ambition to help our national trainers transform into not only an excellent training and curriculum team, but one that will show courage and bravery in order to overcome adversity. We hope this team will fulfill the mission to assist the East Asian church by equipping its leaders to train others. In today’s volatile and uncertain world, this work has a long way to go. Thank you for keeping our front-line heroes in your prayers, especially for faith and fervor as they fight for the Lord!