This is an ATL or “Ask The Lord” month. That means instead of having structured ministry, we have fairly open days, where we seek God’s direction in what He wants us to do. At World Race Training Camp they gave us the motto, “Life is ministry and ministry is life”. Which sounds great, but honestly I find it easier to define my productivity by how much I get done. So in my mind, only praying sounded a bit like a cop-out.
But coming into the World Race, I also knew that a lot of months would be ATL, because we are in parts of the world where doing blatant ministry with a host could bring unwanted attention to them.
The first half of our time in Taiwan was in Taipei, the capital, where we had debrief time and a week of teachings by our mentor Stephanie. Something she said to us was, “Are you ok if sometimes prayer is all that you do for ministry?” She told some stories of ministry hosts on other World Race routes where the whole month was spent “only” praying. Laying the groundwork for the Gospel to be shared in the future, praying against the enemy’s influence on a place, and for hearts to be opened. This reenforced for us the fact that no ministry will truly be successful without prayer as the groundwork. That prayer is actually more important than anything else.
So what has ATL looked like for us this month? In Taipei, we did a lot prayer walks and worship in the park, where we got to have some conversations with people. One time when we were doing worship, we met a friendly man named Pole. We got talking to him using Google Translate, and eventually asked if we could pray for him. A little surprised, he said he was “Bù hao” or “no good”, implying he wasn’t worthy of prayer. We assured him he didn’t have to be a Christian, or even a “good person” in order to receive prayer. We were able to pray over him, and gave him a woven cross we were given at Launch, to give to people that God highlights to us.
Taking a slide break during a prayer walk..
On the same day after the conversation with Pole, two of my team mates decided to go to the grocery store. On their way back it had gotten dark, and they noticed a lit up storefront with people playing guitar and singing inside. They decided to check it out, and as they got closer, saw a cross inside and a sign that said, “Light Church”. They met Stephen and Audrey, Taiwanese Christians, who were doing worship practice for the next day! They invited my friends and anyone else who wanted to join, to come to their Saturday evening service. The next day, 8 of us went to the service, and it was so amazing worshipping with our Taiwanese brothers and sisters! (The song list included the Chinese translation of “Wake Within Me” by Hillsong Young and Free, so cool!) Audrey even volunteered to translate the whole sermon for us, since they normally don’t have any native English speakers at their church.
Audrey leading worship and Stephen playing guitar.
Afterward, some of my team was talking to Audrey and her friends about what the World Race is, and that we would soon be going to Kaohsiung (pronounced “Gao-shung”) in southern Taiwan for 2 weeks. Then Audrey exclaimed, “I don’t have a job right now, can I join you in Kaohsiung and translate for you?” And that is exactly what happened!
A view from our 5 hour train ride down to Kaohsiung
Now our squad of 19 people is split up into three teams, so the 6 of us on team Wabi Sabi are here in Kaohsiung, plus Audrey and our squad mentor Emily. We are staying at a hostel run by a Christian Taiwanese man named Paul. We’ve been able to build a friendship with him and encourage him, as well as help him with daily chores around the hostel. We have also had some great conversations with other people staying at the hostel.
Back row: Emily, Stone, Allie, and Eric. Front row: Zach, me, Audrey, and Ashley.
We’ve also gotten to spend a lot of time with Kristin, a World Race alumni, who now lives here full-time as a missionary. We have 3 more days here in Kaohsiung, so I plan on writing a more in-depth blog about our time here after we leave.
Prayer requests/praise:
We will soon be heading to Hong Kong, where we will spend one week applying for Chinese visas, which can be quite a task, so please pray for a quick and smooth process.
Also, my squad mate Jacob, on one of the other teams, got baptized on Sunday! He was baptized by our other squad leader, JD.
