“We’ve been chosen,” writes Ann Corbin. She and husband Steve are MSC volunteers assigned to the Global Maritime Ministries, working out of Reserve, LA, a few miles upriver from New Orleans. However, often they’re working the ports in this city also.

The Corbins have been selected to be among the recipients of the “Christmas in August” promotion for the year 2008. This is a joint missionary effort of our National Woman’s Missionary Union and the North American Mission Board in which the stories of these missionaries are “told” to church groups all over the country, and those groups are invited to send resources their way. Hence the name “Christmas in August.”

In many publications of the WMU and NAMB, the story of Steve and Ann’s missionary work will be featured and readers will learn what supplies they can use for their ministry. They might, for instance, ask for office supplies, building supplies, or other items which they can use. Or, they might simply request gift cards for Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, etc., which they can use with the seamen and port workers who come to their port ministry centers for hospitality and witness. Some missionaries have gotten so much response to this August emphasis they’ve had to rent storage space to hold it all.

Some 35 to 40 missionaries in all will be featured in the “Christmas in August” promotion. Most churches will choose one or two or three missionaries and focus on their work. There’s no way of knowing what level of response Steve and Ann may expect.

Anyone know of a good, cheap vacation place for Steve and Ann in the Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg area of Tennessee? They’ll be headed to a conference in the Carolinas and want to have a few days vacation in mid-July. Their e-mail is steveandann@portministry.com.

One word of explanation about MSC missionaries: they’re self-supporting. Mission Service Corps volunteers devote full-time to their mission work, and rely on what financial support their friends and church back home send their way. If you have any experience at this sort of thing, then you know their support is relatively meager. That’s why I don’t hesitate to inquire if anyone knows of a good vacation place for this outstanding and Godly couple. They are the finest and I hope we can honor them this way.

Here’s a paragraph from Steve and Ann’s most recent newsletter:

“As many of you know, we work cruise ship days downtown at least six times a month. When the cruise ship comes in we pick up the crew and bring them to the seaman’s center so they can call home, work on the internet, play games and have refreshments. Many of these crewmen are signing off the ship and going back home on vacation after working on the ship for the last nine months. These men and women have become like family and to see them leave is very hard for us. One of the things that we have started doing is sending them home with a ‘goodbye bag’ that they can take on the plane. In the bag we have included a Bible, a Jesus video, and a little booklet that tells them about Jesus and how they might come to know Him as their personal Lord and Savior. Please pray for our friends on the Carnival ‘Fantasy’ cruise ship.”

Now, one more missionary: Harry Lucenay who pastors the Kowloon International Baptist Church in Hong Kong.

Admittedly, this has nothing to do with what’s going on in New Orleans these days, but he’s a dear friend and with his lovely wife Nancy, Harry is doing a significant work for the Lord out there on the cutting edge of the Gospel. Frequently, he tells of first-timers coming to their home Bible studies or church services and beginning to learn about Christ. His internet newsletter frequently tells of the cultural issues existing in that unusual part of the world.

Here are five anecdotes from their latest letter.

A man living in the rural area of Hebei killed six women. He sought to sell their ‘ghosts’ to families that wanted ‘ghost wives’ for their dead, unmarried male family members. The man made about $6,000 yuan for each ghost. The murderer said it was easier to kill people than to steal from tombs.

Fruit vendors in Sanya (Hainan province) have to hang a sign saying ‘black-heart store’ if they use improper scales to cheat customers.

Residents of Hong Kong eat an average of 88 pounds of rice per person each year. If that sounds like a lot, consider that in the 1960s the average was 264 pounds per person.

A wealthy tycoon in Hong Kong spent $153 million in US funds to purchase his own aircraft. He told how he was riding on a commercial airliner when a passenger stripped to his underwear to don his pajamas. It so embarrassed the tycoon, he made sure he was never subjected to such a sight again–by purchasing his own plane.

The hospital staff at Zhenjiang No. 1 People’s hospital in the Jiangsu province put in an interesting request the other day. They ordered helmets and police batons to defend themselves from attacks by patients and their families. The outpatient staff is often subjected to cursing, threats, and abuse by patients and their families over high charges and differences over medicine and health-care.

Pray for Harry and Nancy Lucenay, please. Prior to going overseas, they served the FBC of Longview, Texas. Before that the FBC of San Antonio, and prior to that Temple Baptist Church of Hattiesburg, MS. They are high quality folks with a good sense of humor. Proof of that last point: Harry has two brothers–Tom and Dick. It’s a fact.