The time has passed so quickly!  Every night I think to myself, I should post to the missions blog… but then I’m exhausted and can’t think about what to write because there’s just so much to digest.  The other day, though I was smart and wrote some things down.  We’ll start from there.

Pastor Chuang, when he talked to us about coming and talking to the youth group about evangelism, mentioned wanting us to talk to them about stuff we’ve done at school, etc.  Listening to a couple girls the other day, though, really impressed me about what they had done at their school.  I was encouraged by their boldness in sharing the Gospel.  This is good news and they wanted to share it with people!  I know that often when we have events at school, and people ask why we’re doing something, it’s easy (at least for me) to be nervous about telling them the true reason.  I would sometimes just leave it as, “we just want to show the campus our love.”  Although this is true, I should not be afraid to tell them why we love them.  They are not afraid to show that they truly believe God is working on their campus.

I also love how they approach a lot of things.  Instead of starting off with booklets containing the four spiritual laws and telling the people they’re sinners (although this definitely comes up later, if the person is interested), they start off by asking how they can pray for them, and praying for them on the spot.  Literally translated, these are “prayers of blessings.” I think this is absolutely wonderful.

I think if there’s one thing I’ve learned (and be sure, there are definitely more than one) it’s the power of prayer and how the Holy Spirit moves.  I didn’t used to think that the culture in Taiwan was that different from the US.  I mean sure there’s more good food and people dress a little differently… and then there are the things we learned in Chinese class about families and tradition and stuff.  But I mean honestly… it’s not that different, right?  Wrong.  I’ve begun to see how much of a need there is here.  A lot of people here are truly seeking for something.  Buddhism is extremely prevalent here, to the extent that it’s incredibly ingrained in the whole culture.  The seventh month of the lunar calendar is called (literally translated) “ghost month” to Buddhists and as a result the whole economy actually goes down because people don’t want to build houses, buy cars, get married, basically do anything important that can be affected by these ghosts.  During this month (which is now) people have been burning an incredible amount of incense and I can see that the people here indeed have a sincere fear of these ghosts.  I want to tell them about the God who has conquered all and can rescue you from all things (like the ultimate ghostbuster?).  Anyway this is more motivation to learn to speak Chinese better.  I keep wanting to share the Gospel with my family but it seems that that is the hardest part.

God has indeed been moving in Taiwan.  Over the past two weeks, He has definitely been moving in us, revealing a lot of things about ourselves we may not have known before.  I’m excited to continue to get to know these wonderful people.

To you, thanks for your prayers and support!  Please continue to pray for focus for our team.  It’s lots of fun here!  We’ve been so blessed by the people here in hosting us.  I hardly know if I deserve any of it.  =)  But we want to remember that we’re here to love God’s people in Taiwan and not to stop serving.  Also pray for me as I share my testimony with the whole congregation today… all three services… eek!  May God give me the strength… and take away my nervousness… to deliver the message for Him!