Former SE pastor returns from China, Taiwan

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- Ron and Monica Maixner have a flair for overcoming difficult situations.

They were married during the Halloween blizzard that dumped about 40 inches of snow on much of Minnesota about a decade ago.

Sunday, they returned to New Hope Community Church in Sleepy Eye after a four-year missionary stint in Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan.

The Maixners came to Sleepy Eye nearly a decade ago because they heard of the need for a new church, despite the fact there was no church building.

When the Maixners left Sleepy Eye for mainland China four years ago, they had one child, one-year-old Josiah.

While overseas, Hannah and Michael were born in Hong Kong, where medicine is considered much more advanced than mainland China.

Initially, the Maixners worked in China as English teachers. They did missionary work during their leisure time in a city of 600,000 people, considered a small city in China, where 1.6 billion people live.

Maixner said the pace of life in that city was even slower than the pace in Sleepy Eye.

Pigs are walked to market. Rice is planted and harvested by hand. Plows are pulled by oxen.

China's doors are now opening more to Christianity, but only two to three percent of the population has been converted.

"You used to have to go there as a teacher of some type," said Ron. "Now we are teaching Christianity in churches and seminaries."

The Maixners taught English most of their first year there. They remembered one convert in particular.

"A doctor in Monica's community class was so hungry for the gospel, he would pound on our door almost day and night and eventually came to Christ," said Ron. "It was tough there at first. We didn't fit in and everybody was looking at us. We didn't know how it would go at first. We just put our faith in God to lead and direct us and got faith and support from New Hope in Sleepy Eye."

Ron played soccer with the Chinese and brought his teammates to his apartment to watch soccer on one of the few televisions on campus.

In order to further their effectiveness as missionaries, the Maixners attended Chinese language school for three years, in Taiwan their final year.

Because Communists frown on foreigners so much, the Maixners could not study Chinese religious vocabulary on the mainland. As a result, they received that training in Taiwan.

That situation also proved difficult.

They were told that adding to their family and studying the Chinese language at the same time could put many demands on their schedules. However, but they had two children during that time.

They nearly came back to the U.S. during their third year in school. Working long hours, studying Chinese and raising their children in a foreign land put plenty of stress in their lives.

"It was a very dark, difficult, stressful time for us, but we came out on the other side, knowing that God was in the midst of it," Ron said.

Now, they speak fluent Chinese and have been ministering to the Hmong people in China. They hope to return to China for another four years.

The Maixners currently live in Rochester where they are missionaries in residence at the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church until early next year.

If they return to mainland China, they will be forced to home school their children. If they return to Hong Kong, they will send their children to an international school.

The Maixners US address is P.O. Box 35000, Colorado Springs, Colo. 80935-3500.