The second half of our time in Taiwan was spent in the town of Kaohsiung (pronounced Gao-shung). It was a 5 hour train ride south from Taipei. Our contact was Kristin, a woman who went on the World Race several years ago, and is now living there long term. She and her roommate Christine were a huge blessing to us!
When we arrived in Kaohsiung, Kristin met us and gave us a walking tour around town. She continued to bless us the whole time we were there, bringing us Taiwanese street food and lots of ice tea and fruit juice!
With Kristin, Christine, and Rose, another World Race alumni
We stayed at a hostel run by a Christian man named Paul. We enjoyed spending time with him and his friends who work for him, as well as other guests staying at the hostel.
This was ATL (ask the Lord) month, so our days were spent doing prayer walks, investing time in Paul, Kristin and Christine, and in each other. One of my favorite things that happened during this time was, each of us shared our full testimonies with each other. It was so sweet to see what God has brought each of us through and be able to get to know each other on a deeper level.
Another really sweet time was on Valentine’s Day, when the guys made a special dinner for us girls! They made spaghetti carbonara, sang songs for us, and gave us coupons to cash in on later on.
Audrey, our friend from the church we visited in Taipei came and joined us for a week. She immediately fit right in with our team.
The two Saturdays we were there, we got to help Kristin and Christine clean up an area that will be used for Sunday school and after school clubs with their church. It included organizing the closets, dusting off a year’s worth of dust, painting the walls and painting a mural. I had never painted a mural before, and I really enjoyed it!
Before
During
Finished!
One night we went to a lantern festival put on in celebration of Chinese New Year. It reminded me of Christmas decorations in America! There were lots of pigs, since this is the year of the pig. After looking at the lanterns, we found a quiet place, Eric pulled out his guitar and we started worshiping. We had several people stop and listen for a while. Emily got talking to a man who stopped to listen. She found out he had a similar story to hers, and got to share the Gospel with him! The man was so full of joy, as he was leaving, he hugged Zach, even though Zach hadn’t been a part of the conversation!
One of my prayers this month was that I would get to use my Japanese here in some way. I saw Japanese on signs for restaurants, stores, etc. all over, and spoke to some people, but they always knew English better than Japanese.
One day several of us went to a beach to watch the sunset. We took a ferry to get there, and on the way home, I overheard 2 girls my age talking in Japanese. They were Japanese college students on a one day vacation. I got to talk to them, and found out one of the girls works at a nursing home, which I also did several years ago!
On our second to last day there, all of us went to the beach again, and I got talking to a man who was wake boarding. His name was Sam, and he said he was the first person ever to wake board on the beaches of Kaohsiung. He has been wake boarding for 20 years now, and is in his late 60s. We talked for a while, but he was struggling with English. He mentioned he had visited Japan over 20 times because of his job selling tofu. I asked if he knew Japanese and he said yes, he knew it better than English! So I got to talk with him a lot more, this time in Japanese. Thank you, God, for answering my prayer.
With Kristin, getting bubble tea at the restaurant that invented bubble tea!
Thank you for your prayers!
We are currently in China, and will be headed to Mongolia in mid-April.
Our team leader Eric is leaving us, and Allie is our new team leader. Please pray for our team as we transition to Allie leading us and for God’s leading for what he wants us to do in Mongolia.
