It has been a busy month here in Taiwan! Below are some of the exciting stories and cool encounters I have gotten to experience here. If I could sum up what God has taught me this month into one word, the word would be provision. God has provided above in beyond anything I could have expected, and He has done so in many different ways.
In four days the squad and I fly out for Hong Kong.
Our time in Taiwan started off with a four day debrief. Debrief was a time to reflect on the last month of ministry and begin to process all that had happened. For a lot of people this may have been their first time doing missions in a foreign culture. It was a also a time to vision cast our next few months.
One days during debrief we took some time to hike Elephant Mountain, which had lookout viewpoints of the city of Taipei. After making it to the top we spent sometime in worship, praying of the city, and having conversations with those around us. It is beautiful to be in a country where we can openly profess faith!
After debrief we went into a 10 day period of on field training. Our squad mentor Stephanie stayed on the field with us during this time. The leadership team, which included Stephanie, myself, my co-leader Emily, and our three team leaders did various teachings (mostly Stephanie) and activation/practice scenarios throughout the days. This was a great time of equipping our squad for their upcoming time on the field.
After the two weeks of debrief / training my co-leader Emily and I got to spend a few days with Stephanie doing our own little leadership debrief. It involved checking out all the sights in Taipei we had missed during our busy two weeks. We got to check out the zoo, Taipei 101 (worlds 6th tallest building), and do some planning for our next few months.
This picture comes with a dang good story of God’s provision. The day before I departed our leadership debrief in Taipei to join one of our teams already involved with ministry, I was working out in the park near our hostel. While I was doing my routine on the TRX (s/o to Joey) a Taiwanese man approached me and started a random yet simple conversation. I explained I was in Taiwan as a tourist but that I loved to tell people about Jesus (classic cover) and immerse myself in the local culture. We carried on in a broken English / Chinese conversation (way…way more English). I did not get a chance to enter into the full story of the gospel, but were now Facebook friends (hope your reading this David!). He had to go all of a sudden but he decided to leave me with a Chinese New Years gift of $1,000 Taiwanese Dollars ($32 USD). He said it was to go experience his city and learn more of their culture. That day proceeded to be one of amazing adventure. I shared the gift with Emily and Stephanie; we were able to rent bikes for the day to see all the sights left in the city (the picture above is from a visit to the palace we rode to) and buy dinner with it later that night (Korean BBQ!). Needless to say the entire adventure was, simply put, a blessing from God, through David of course! Thank you David!
After my time in Taipei I hopped a train to Toucheng, Taiwan. I met up with team Invictus here for our last two weeks in Taiwan. They were connected with YWAM (Youth With a Mission). The last two weeks we have been apart of a lot of different things. We have set up a new worship room at the local university, taught English at a few after school programs, and various other ministries.
One day we traveled to Pingxi during the Chinese New Year for the annual lantern festival. It is a world famous festival were over 100,000 lanterns are set off throughout the night (think Tangled). Our team went to set off a lantern and join in on the festivities and delicious street food.
Another story on God’s provision. To be apart of the evening festival it requires standing in hours of lines to get tickets and was a little out of our budget. While at the lantern festival we made signs that said, “free healing” (the Chinese was a bit off apparently). With the 1,000s that trafficked the area we had the opportunity to share with a few of them about the healing power of Jesus. We got to pray for a few groups of people throughout the day. At the end of the day we had a lady come up and ask for prayer for her daughter. Afterward she told us that she was a local Christian and we got to chat with her a little longer. She ended up having extra tickets (just enough for all of us) to release lanterns at the festival. We ended up being in the front row of the very first release of the evening. Our lanterns were continually broadcast up on the big screens, which the entire audience was able to see. I say this to say that all these people were exposed to the scriptures we were able to write on our lanterns. How cool!! To top it all off when we arrived at the release location we began to look around. All the people in our area were those that we had gotten to pray for throughout the day! God is so good yall!
Later that week one of our hosts, Zach, took us out to go camping at a nearby beach in Daxi. We spent the evening hanging out, cooking dinner over the fire, and sharing good stories. A great reminder that ministry can come in so many different way. The next morning he gave us some surf lessons and let us join the locals out in the swell to “shred the gnar.” Provision comes in great company and good surf too.
Now for a final story on provision, the provision of the Spirit. Shortly after arriving back to town after surfing I hopped a train and traveled north to visit team Wandering Children in Fulong. One of the team members on our team there had given his life to Christ in the last year, shortly before coming on the race. He had decided to be baptized while here in Taiwan! I got to take part in this special moment by being the one to baptize him. Talk about a surreal moment! I never would have imagined myself traveling all the way to Taiwan to baptize a man from the United States. God is funny like that and His timing is perfect!
Please be in prayer for me and my squad as we fly out for Hong Kong in a few days. Pray that our Chinese visa application get accepted, that hearts are open for the people we encounter along the way, and that seeds continue to be planted and watered.
