Week 3: Jan. 11 - Jan. 18

For our third week, we had more cultural experiences, completed some housekeeping with a pastoral visit from our WYAM Kona base leaders, and had more intimate prayers/conversations with recent converts.

Praying for one of the new believers, a businesswoman who treated us all to a nice meal.

Our base leaders flew all the way from Kona to check in on us in person, offer us prayers and guidance, and joined us for our team times where we visited Taichung's exquisite museums and opera house. Though sweet, our prayer sessions were bittersweet. As we are one of four groups in South East Asia, we prayed for sick members in other groups every morning, receiving updates on their slow recovery. These prayers eventually turned to our own team, experiencing sleeplessness and infections. Yet praise God, now those members are fully recovered!

BECOMING A CHRISTIAN IN TAIWAN IS A VERY BIG DEAL...

...not just for the believer, but for their whole family. The new believers I meet feel they are sacrificing entire generations worth of their family's culture and are carving out a new direction.

So when new believers hear of missionaries to Taiwan, they're eager to take us out for dinner or coffee, and have long conversations with lots of questions. We even had a Michelin star meal (treated by the business woman above), and I was made gourmet coffee from a firefighter cheif. All the while prayerfully answering many things about the gospel, the church, our testimonies, and words of encouragement for these hungry new disciples!

THE FIRE CHIEF OF TAICHUNG

On of the ministries we helped TKC with was handing out free coffees to the many business people in the streets during lunch rush. The fire chief of the city happened to come by and was delighted to see fellow Christians loving his community. He invited us personally to his office to enjoy handcrafted gourmet coffee and we were able to each share our testimonies with him, encouraging his faith. He told us his own heartfelt story of belief, which equally encouraged us.

MEI WEI

An invaluable ally, Mei Wei is the base leader of YWAM Taichung, and we wouldn't have been able to make nearly as many connections or an impact without her prayers and support. She doubled as both an organizer and at times a translator - show us how impactful longterm domestic missionaries are.

" TIM "

I made quite a few friends myself, who themselves were not Christian, but eager to learn more about God. One funny episode was seeing a vision buying a red hat. When praying into it, I clearly felt the Holy Spirit prompt me to run back to a stand where, sure enough, lay a red baseball cap.

As I painstakingly purchased it in broken Mandarin, a local corrected me in perfect English. I turned around to meet Tim (Yi Ting 奕廷), a Chinese teacher for foreigners and new long term friend and guide. He quipped that my Mandarin was not good enough to be mormon, so he was more open to a friendship.

The team presses on...

the low and slow way, God's mission in Taiwan.

"...but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect..."

1 Peter 3:15

Your brother in Christ,

George