Day 35.
Yesterday I watched a video of a sermon about the importance of setting goals for yourself. The preacher began with an anecdote about a class of students graduating from Harvard with their master's degrees. At their graduation ceremony, they were asked how many of them had clear goals for their future that were written down. 3% raised their hands. Then they asked how many of them have goals that they had not written down. 13% said they did. 84% of the class graduating from Harvard with their master's degrees did not have any clear goals.
So 10 years later they checked back up on them. The 13% of students that had said they had goals, on average, had a salary twice as large as the students in the 84% category. Although those numbers are noteworthy, it's nothing compared to the 3% of students who were making 10x as much money as the other 97% of students combined.
The preacher went on to talk about his own personal list of goals that he had written down and how it has really just turned into a prayer list. He said that he has had it for many years and God has already answered 97% of the things on his list. He went on to talk about the importance of making the goals things that are not fleshly desires but things that are in accordance with God's will.
He mentioned that it's not always going to be easy to accomplish the goals you set, but that when you face a struggle, or come up to a mountain, you cannot shy away, you must say, "God, give me this mountain!"
Which brings us to today.
This morning I was almost back to my apartment after a long run when I got stopped by a Taiwanese man who started speaking at me very quickly in Chinese. He was hard to understand, but after about 20 minutes of lots of confusion, I understood that he wanted me to come back and see him today at 4:00pm.
He has his own make-shift temple right outside his home, so I knew he needed Jesus. So today at 4:00 I went back with a couple of friends.
Apparently, he noticed that I was a foreigner and he wanted to show me the beauty of Taiwan, so he had planned for us to climb a mountain. We took a bus down a windy road, got off at a place where the only only thing you could see was trees and started hiking. My friend Sandra had started a conversation with him about Jesus the second we got on the bus, and we did not end up getting back home until 10. He is a very serious Buddhist who was sure that he could convince us that his way was right, so we spent almost 6 straight hours hiking up and down a mountain, with a stranger, (who then bought us dinner) in a serious religious debate. He didn't budge at all, but I know he'll be thinking about it tonight. We asked him a lot of questions about his religion that he could not answer and a lot of doubt was cast on his beliefs. Also, he lives really close to us, so I'm sure we'll get to talk to him again.
His name is Mr. Zhuan, if you want to pray that God will penetrate his heart and that he will have a desire in him to not settle with what makes him comfortable, but to really seek after and know the truth.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
筹款Fundraising
Day 34.
So this weekend we're pooling our efforts to try and bring in the last $7000 dollars. We all stayed up really late on Friday night preparing and baking...
For a fundraiser on Saturday...
And for going out in the streets and trying to sell muffins. In some cases we had great success...
So this weekend we're pooling our efforts to try and bring in the last $7000 dollars. We all stayed up really late on Friday night preparing and baking...
For a fundraiser on Saturday...
And for going out in the streets and trying to sell muffins. In some cases we had great success...
And in other cases, we wouldn't even get a response...
But after all that, we're still about $6,000 short. So we're going out again today with more muffins and hopefully talking to churches about our need and we'll see what God does!
Friday, April 27, 2012
泰广告 Thai Commercials
Day 32.
Today was the last day on the theme of "Relationships". We learned a lot about the importance of keeping relationships correctly prioritized and how to date with respect for both the person you're dating and their future spouse (whether or not it's yourself). We also watched a lot of Asian commercials. They are far superior to that of American commercials. See for yourself...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ect56804xfA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZMX6H6YY1M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Ssht4ri8o
All of those are from Thailand.
If you cried: it's ok, you're not alone.
Last night, (as it is going to be every Thursday from this point on) my ministry was English Conversation Club. The DTS from Florida was there and they put on a bunch of skits for the students in the club. Then we broke up into smaller groups and talked about the skits with the students. We had the opportunity to share the gospel with them, which was super cool. We also just got to start forming relationships with the students who we'll be hanging out with every week until we each head to our prospective outreach locations. I met the guy who was president of the club last year (as a freshman!) and he said that he's a Christian and he knew that great ministry is done through this club and YWAM, so when he heard that it wasn't going to be continuing last year because of lack of leadership, he stepped up and led the club. His name is Leo. Also, the blind boy who Ann and I met last week, John, was there! I'm looking forward to going back and hanging out with everyone there next week.
Also, we found out today that the travel agency extended our deadline for the money until Monday! So right now a bunch of us are baking and we're having a fundraiser tomorrow. Please pray that we get enough funds so that everyone can stick around for the rest of the school and outreach.
Today was the last day on the theme of "Relationships". We learned a lot about the importance of keeping relationships correctly prioritized and how to date with respect for both the person you're dating and their future spouse (whether or not it's yourself). We also watched a lot of Asian commercials. They are far superior to that of American commercials. See for yourself...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ect56804xfA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZMX6H6YY1M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Ssht4ri8o
All of those are from Thailand.
If you cried: it's ok, you're not alone.
Last night, (as it is going to be every Thursday from this point on) my ministry was English Conversation Club. The DTS from Florida was there and they put on a bunch of skits for the students in the club. Then we broke up into smaller groups and talked about the skits with the students. We had the opportunity to share the gospel with them, which was super cool. We also just got to start forming relationships with the students who we'll be hanging out with every week until we each head to our prospective outreach locations. I met the guy who was president of the club last year (as a freshman!) and he said that he's a Christian and he knew that great ministry is done through this club and YWAM, so when he heard that it wasn't going to be continuing last year because of lack of leadership, he stepped up and led the club. His name is Leo. Also, the blind boy who Ann and I met last week, John, was there! I'm looking forward to going back and hanging out with everyone there next week.
Also, we found out today that the travel agency extended our deadline for the money until Monday! So right now a bunch of us are baking and we're having a fundraiser tomorrow. Please pray that we get enough funds so that everyone can stick around for the rest of the school and outreach.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
庆 Celebrate
Day 30.
Gosh, I have so many exciting things to share. I'll begin with the most important.
At the beginning of our DTS, we had 14 students and 13 of us were Christians. As of yesterday, ALL 14 OF US ARE CHRISTIANS! So if you're reading this and you're a Christian, you can rejoice because we have a new brother in Christ. :D
On the flipside of that, although we now have 14 Christians in our DTS, this weekend we may have as few as 9. The final deadline for school fees is this Friday, because they are going to begin purchasing our tickets for outreach then. There are 5 students who have not yet been able to pay their school fees. If they don't have the money to go on outreach, it doesn't make sense for them to continue studying at this school, because it's all geared towards outreach, so if God does not provide for them by Friday, they will be dismissed from school. We've all been fundraising a lot over the last couple of weeks and God has already been really faithful. Originally, we lacked about $20,000 in school fees, and as of this morning, we only need $7,000 more.
We've been praying a lot about it and we know God can bring in the funds. It's just a question of whether or not completing this school and going on outreach is in God's plan for everyone here right now. I'll let you know on Friday.
On a completely different note, every Wednesday we have "family dinner" and this week it was my turn to cook with my friend Junell. We made barbecue chicken, mashed potatoes, mac 'n cheese, grilled asparagus, corn bread, and corn on the cob. Everyone loved it. I loved it. It tasted so much like home. :)
Also, I'm learning so much new Chinese everyday! That's all.
Gosh, I have so many exciting things to share. I'll begin with the most important.
At the beginning of our DTS, we had 14 students and 13 of us were Christians. As of yesterday, ALL 14 OF US ARE CHRISTIANS! So if you're reading this and you're a Christian, you can rejoice because we have a new brother in Christ. :D
On the flipside of that, although we now have 14 Christians in our DTS, this weekend we may have as few as 9. The final deadline for school fees is this Friday, because they are going to begin purchasing our tickets for outreach then. There are 5 students who have not yet been able to pay their school fees. If they don't have the money to go on outreach, it doesn't make sense for them to continue studying at this school, because it's all geared towards outreach, so if God does not provide for them by Friday, they will be dismissed from school. We've all been fundraising a lot over the last couple of weeks and God has already been really faithful. Originally, we lacked about $20,000 in school fees, and as of this morning, we only need $7,000 more.
We've been praying a lot about it and we know God can bring in the funds. It's just a question of whether or not completing this school and going on outreach is in God's plan for everyone here right now. I'll let you know on Friday.
On a completely different note, every Wednesday we have "family dinner" and this week it was my turn to cook with my friend Junell. We made barbecue chicken, mashed potatoes, mac 'n cheese, grilled asparagus, corn bread, and corn on the cob. Everyone loved it. I loved it. It tasted so much like home. :)
Also, I'm learning so much new Chinese everyday! That's all.
Monday, April 23, 2012
未来 The Future
Day 28.
So every week, someone comes into our classroom and informs us about a different political or religious situation and we take time as a class to pray for it. The first week we learned about the traditional religion of Taiwan and prayed that people here would come to know Jesus. In subsequent weeks we have been learning about different ministries around Taiwan and been praying for their effectiveness. We call this time Intercessory Prayer.
This past week a man came in to speak about the School of Frontier Missions. It's a school run through this YWAM base that is focused specifically on unreached people groups. For 3 months you study a certain culture and language of an unreached people group and learn ways to most effectively spread the gospel in a place where it has never been heard before. Then you move to that place and live there for anywhere between 3 months and 2 years.
I've been wondering for a long time what to do after DTS is over in August. I could go back to St. Olaf... I could work full time... I could go study the Bible intensively at a YWAM base elsewhere in the world... Really I feel like the world is my oyster. However, I didn't really feel a pull in any certain direction until I heard about this school. The next one starts in September.
I'll keep you updated.
So every week, someone comes into our classroom and informs us about a different political or religious situation and we take time as a class to pray for it. The first week we learned about the traditional religion of Taiwan and prayed that people here would come to know Jesus. In subsequent weeks we have been learning about different ministries around Taiwan and been praying for their effectiveness. We call this time Intercessory Prayer.
This past week a man came in to speak about the School of Frontier Missions. It's a school run through this YWAM base that is focused specifically on unreached people groups. For 3 months you study a certain culture and language of an unreached people group and learn ways to most effectively spread the gospel in a place where it has never been heard before. Then you move to that place and live there for anywhere between 3 months and 2 years.
I've been wondering for a long time what to do after DTS is over in August. I could go back to St. Olaf... I could work full time... I could go study the Bible intensively at a YWAM base elsewhere in the world... Really I feel like the world is my oyster. However, I didn't really feel a pull in any certain direction until I heard about this school. The next one starts in September.
I'll keep you updated.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
可爱 Too Cute
Day 27.
Basically these are all of the things I've seen over the last couple of days that I found cute.
This weekend, a few of my friends and I went to Esther's house. Her dad is a pastor of a church south of Taipei. They had a special event on Saturday night, so we went and helped out. There were a bunch of people there who had never heard the gospel before. It was great! There was a huge barbecue and karaoke and cute children and lots of Jesus.
ALSO, there is a DTS who just arrived here earlier this week. They had their lecture phase in Florida and they just started their outreach. They will be here for 3 weeks and then they will go to China for a month and a half. We got to see them do some skits and hear some of their testimonies this morning in church. It was so cool to think that I'll be doing that same thing in just a couple of months in the Philippines!
Thursday, April 19, 2012
我爱中文 I LOVE CHINESE!
Day 24.
The Chinese language is the most popular language in the world. It is spoken by 1/5th of the world. It is a tonal language (supposedly because the originators wanted it to sounds like singing), but even more beautiful than the way it sounds are its characters. They are created in many different ways. Originally, they were made by drawing pictures of the word they described.
Today, in class, we watched a video. It is a preacher talking about the origin of a few of the first Chinese characters ever created and the characters themselves tell the stories of what happened before the first people migrated to China in 2500 BC. Adam (the first man) was alive a mere 1600 years before China's history began. This is actually a relatively short amount of time when you consider that Adam lived for over 900 years. So basically, this shows how the first Chinese people ever wrote Bible stories within their very words before the Bible even started being written down. IT'S CRAZY.
It's about an hour long video, but if you're short on time, the first 10 minutes is enough to get the point across. It's absolutely unbelievable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA-AkJzpKmg
The Chinese language is the most popular language in the world. It is spoken by 1/5th of the world. It is a tonal language (supposedly because the originators wanted it to sounds like singing), but even more beautiful than the way it sounds are its characters. They are created in many different ways. Originally, they were made by drawing pictures of the word they described.
Today, in class, we watched a video. It is a preacher talking about the origin of a few of the first Chinese characters ever created and the characters themselves tell the stories of what happened before the first people migrated to China in 2500 BC. Adam (the first man) was alive a mere 1600 years before China's history began. This is actually a relatively short amount of time when you consider that Adam lived for over 900 years. So basically, this shows how the first Chinese people ever wrote Bible stories within their very words before the Bible even started being written down. IT'S CRAZY.
It's about an hour long video, but if you're short on time, the first 10 minutes is enough to get the point across. It's absolutely unbelievable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA-AkJzpKmg
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
故事时间 Story Time
Day 22.
Today I have three stories for you.
1. Today I started half marathon training. My friend Yusuke is the only other person I know who is running it. He is from Japan, and he's the only person in DTS who doesn't have either English or Chinese as his first language, but he generally does a good job of speaking English.
So we started training today. We ran 4 miles. Afterwards he said, "I just noticed, I have not worked out in 6 years."
Hahahaha.
2. Ann is a girl in DTS. She has a suicidal dog. She said when she was home over the weekend, they left the door to their balcony open and her dog ran outside and jumped off their 6th floor platform. It landed on a balcony on the second floor. It popped right up and was totally fine. The neighbors were a little freaked out though.
After Ann told us the story and we were all obviously shocked at the dog's audacity and resilience, she said, "it was not even as bad as the first time."
WHAT?
Apparently the first time he had jumped off a bridge they were walking over into about a foot of water. Again, it was totally unscathed.
3. Tonight was the second time we went to the University to evangelize. It was so cool! I was partnered with Ann (owner of the suicidal dog) and before we went out, we prayed for God to give us a picture of the people that He wanted us to talk to.
I saw a pair of moccasins with a dangly-fringe thing and she saw a bunch of people sitting in a group. I thought it was highly unlikely that we would find anyone wearing moccasins, because it was pouring rain. (And we just kind of walk around campus). So we just start walking and the first person we ran into is a blind student named John who speaks very good English and doesn't know where he's going. Of course, neither do we, but a couple of girls are walking by and Ann stops them to ask for directions. One of them is wearing the pair of moccasins with two dangly-fringe things! I was so pumped. We walked with the three students for a while and got to tell them about what we're doing and we invited all of them to The Rock (the coffee shop run by YWAM) and we got to answer their questions and we prayed with John.
When we said goodbye to each of them, we decided to go to a 7/11 that we had passed where we had seen a bunch of people sitting. Side note: 7/11 is like the place to be in Taiwan. People were definitely studying in there... Anyways we went back in and there was a girl in line to pay who was wearing the exact same moccasins. I didn't even think. I was so pumped. I went up and just started talking to her immediately. She and her two friends got to hear all the first things that came to my mind and then I invited them to the Rock. It was unbelievable. That was the second week in a row that a picture that God had shown me showed up twice in a row. He's so amazing!
Today I have three stories for you.
1. Today I started half marathon training. My friend Yusuke is the only other person I know who is running it. He is from Japan, and he's the only person in DTS who doesn't have either English or Chinese as his first language, but he generally does a good job of speaking English.
So we started training today. We ran 4 miles. Afterwards he said, "I just noticed, I have not worked out in 6 years."
Hahahaha.
2. Ann is a girl in DTS. She has a suicidal dog. She said when she was home over the weekend, they left the door to their balcony open and her dog ran outside and jumped off their 6th floor platform. It landed on a balcony on the second floor. It popped right up and was totally fine. The neighbors were a little freaked out though.
After Ann told us the story and we were all obviously shocked at the dog's audacity and resilience, she said, "it was not even as bad as the first time."
WHAT?
Apparently the first time he had jumped off a bridge they were walking over into about a foot of water. Again, it was totally unscathed.
3. Tonight was the second time we went to the University to evangelize. It was so cool! I was partnered with Ann (owner of the suicidal dog) and before we went out, we prayed for God to give us a picture of the people that He wanted us to talk to.
I saw a pair of moccasins with a dangly-fringe thing and she saw a bunch of people sitting in a group. I thought it was highly unlikely that we would find anyone wearing moccasins, because it was pouring rain. (And we just kind of walk around campus). So we just start walking and the first person we ran into is a blind student named John who speaks very good English and doesn't know where he's going. Of course, neither do we, but a couple of girls are walking by and Ann stops them to ask for directions. One of them is wearing the pair of moccasins with two dangly-fringe things! I was so pumped. We walked with the three students for a while and got to tell them about what we're doing and we invited all of them to The Rock (the coffee shop run by YWAM) and we got to answer their questions and we prayed with John.
When we said goodbye to each of them, we decided to go to a 7/11 that we had passed where we had seen a bunch of people sitting. Side note: 7/11 is like the place to be in Taiwan. People were definitely studying in there... Anyways we went back in and there was a girl in line to pay who was wearing the exact same moccasins. I didn't even think. I was so pumped. I went up and just started talking to her immediately. She and her two friends got to hear all the first things that came to my mind and then I invited them to the Rock. It was unbelievable. That was the second week in a row that a picture that God had shown me showed up twice in a row. He's so amazing!
Monday, April 16, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
福音 The Gospel Part 2
Day 19.
This week BLEW MY MIND.
When we were told that we were studying the gospel this week, I wasn't all that excited, because I was pretty confident that I had heard it before. The first day, we were asked to share what we thought the gospel was. I quoted Romans 10:9-10, "because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved, for with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved."
But if we, as Christians, in sharing the gospel, say only that Jesus died for you, or if we tell others that "Jesus will make you happy" or "he will be your best friend", that's not the gospel.
The gospel is about righteousness, not happiness.
So what's the whole gospel?
The good news is that we have a creator. A good creator. Who created us with a purpose. Paul says in Romans 1:20-21 that everyone can look at the world and know that we have a creator. If this is true, we owe Him honor and thanks. In the same way that we are told to obey our father and mother, we are supposed to obey God. The Bible does not say, "obey your father and mother if they are nice people" or "if you like them" or "if you agree with their decisions". You are supposed to obey them for no other reason than that they brought you into this world. Same goes for God. So the good news is that He's perfect, and He loves us each individually.
The bad news is that for our sin, we deserve to go to Hell. If we don't understand this, we can't truly understand the gospel. We need to know that God not only CAN send us to Hell, but He must. The Bible generally takes for granted that God is going to judge us, because the Old Testament was mostly preaching to the Jews who knew they came from God and they believed that they owed Him. So then the question is: why did God create us? Because if He created us for selfish purposes and then decided to send some of us to Hell, that doesn't seem like the perfect justice I know God has. God created us to partake in His glory. It is the best and truest thing in the world. He created us so that we could experience that, and be a part of it forever.
The great news is that the Father sent the Son to take all of His wrath. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that in union with him we might share the righteousness of God." Christ came and fulfilled all of the prophecies so that we could be made righteous through faith in Him. So even though we sin, we can still glorify God and spend eternity with Him.
But God still gives us the choice. He does not force us to choose Him and partake in His glory. Even though that is the reason we were created, He lets us choose otherwise if we want. Romans 1 verses 24, 26 and 28 say that God gives people over to their sinful desires, if that's what they choose, but Galatians 5:25 says that we should let the Holy Spirit control our lives. The Holy Spirit will help us to stay away from sin if we accept the gift of righteousness and eternal life in Christ Jesus.
God does not promise that if we choose to accept the gift of Christ and are "born again" that it will be easy. 2 Timothy 3:12 says, "Everyone who wants to live a godly life in union with Christ Jesus will be persecuted." I believe it's worth it. It was explained to us this way:
Scenario 1:You are getting on a plane. You're the last person on, so as soon as you get on, the doors close behind you. The flight attendant who greets you hands you a parachute and says it will make your flight much more enjoyable. You kind of doubt it, but you put it on anyway. As you sit in your seat, your butt barely fits on the chair because you're sitting so far forward. People are pointing at you and laughing. The person in front of you tilts their chair back and your tray table hits you in the gut. You take the parachute off. This flight is not any more enjoyable.
Scenario 2: You are getting on a plane. You're the last person on, so as soon as you get on, the doors close behind you. The flight attendant who greets you hands you a parachute and says that the back half of the plane is going to break off at some point during the flight and this is the only thing that can save your life. As you sit in your seat, your butt barely fits on the chair because you're sitting so far forward. People are pointing at you and laughing. The person in front of you tilts their chair back and your tray table hits you in the gut, but none of it matters, because you are not letting go of that parachute.
So, the question is... Are you going to grab a parachute?
This week BLEW MY MIND.
When we were told that we were studying the gospel this week, I wasn't all that excited, because I was pretty confident that I had heard it before. The first day, we were asked to share what we thought the gospel was. I quoted Romans 10:9-10, "because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved, for with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved."
But if we, as Christians, in sharing the gospel, say only that Jesus died for you, or if we tell others that "Jesus will make you happy" or "he will be your best friend", that's not the gospel.
The gospel is about righteousness, not happiness.
So what's the whole gospel?
The good news is that we have a creator. A good creator. Who created us with a purpose. Paul says in Romans 1:20-21 that everyone can look at the world and know that we have a creator. If this is true, we owe Him honor and thanks. In the same way that we are told to obey our father and mother, we are supposed to obey God. The Bible does not say, "obey your father and mother if they are nice people" or "if you like them" or "if you agree with their decisions". You are supposed to obey them for no other reason than that they brought you into this world. Same goes for God. So the good news is that He's perfect, and He loves us each individually.
The bad news is that for our sin, we deserve to go to Hell. If we don't understand this, we can't truly understand the gospel. We need to know that God not only CAN send us to Hell, but He must. The Bible generally takes for granted that God is going to judge us, because the Old Testament was mostly preaching to the Jews who knew they came from God and they believed that they owed Him. So then the question is: why did God create us? Because if He created us for selfish purposes and then decided to send some of us to Hell, that doesn't seem like the perfect justice I know God has. God created us to partake in His glory. It is the best and truest thing in the world. He created us so that we could experience that, and be a part of it forever.
The great news is that the Father sent the Son to take all of His wrath. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that in union with him we might share the righteousness of God." Christ came and fulfilled all of the prophecies so that we could be made righteous through faith in Him. So even though we sin, we can still glorify God and spend eternity with Him.
But God still gives us the choice. He does not force us to choose Him and partake in His glory. Even though that is the reason we were created, He lets us choose otherwise if we want. Romans 1 verses 24, 26 and 28 say that God gives people over to their sinful desires, if that's what they choose, but Galatians 5:25 says that we should let the Holy Spirit control our lives. The Holy Spirit will help us to stay away from sin if we accept the gift of righteousness and eternal life in Christ Jesus.
God does not promise that if we choose to accept the gift of Christ and are "born again" that it will be easy. 2 Timothy 3:12 says, "Everyone who wants to live a godly life in union with Christ Jesus will be persecuted." I believe it's worth it. It was explained to us this way:
Scenario 1:You are getting on a plane. You're the last person on, so as soon as you get on, the doors close behind you. The flight attendant who greets you hands you a parachute and says it will make your flight much more enjoyable. You kind of doubt it, but you put it on anyway. As you sit in your seat, your butt barely fits on the chair because you're sitting so far forward. People are pointing at you and laughing. The person in front of you tilts their chair back and your tray table hits you in the gut. You take the parachute off. This flight is not any more enjoyable.
Scenario 2: You are getting on a plane. You're the last person on, so as soon as you get on, the doors close behind you. The flight attendant who greets you hands you a parachute and says that the back half of the plane is going to break off at some point during the flight and this is the only thing that can save your life. As you sit in your seat, your butt barely fits on the chair because you're sitting so far forward. People are pointing at you and laughing. The person in front of you tilts their chair back and your tray table hits you in the gut, but none of it matters, because you are not letting go of that parachute.
So, the question is... Are you going to grab a parachute?
Thursday, April 12, 2012
奇迹 Miracles
Day 17.
I've heard of and witnessed plenty of things that I would call miracles: people being healed, speaking in tongues, moms with super strength and agility when their baby is in danger... I'm sure many of you have heard of these things happening too.
But last night, I witnessed something that I never imagined I would see in my lifetime...
It all began around 11:00pm. That's when the mosquitoes come out. In Taiwan, they are nocturnal. A bunch of us were staying up to work on a book report and it didn't take long before we got aggravated with the frequent buzzing in our ears and sucking of our blood. We fought back hard.
We grabbed those suckers out of thin air. Without even looking up from our books.
The later it got, the more ninja-like abilities we had.
(In reality, we killed none of them and woke up our neighbors from banging on the walls with our shoes trying to kill them.)
But that's beside the point.
What really matters is what happened about 2 hours into the battle.
After grueling hours of disappointing, fruitless labor, we killed a mosquito with our minds.
This is not a joke, people.
And today, when we were all feeling very tired and very itchy, we would just remember that mosquito.
So if today you're feeling down in the dumps, I encourage you to remember the mosquito.
It has not yet failed to raise my spirits.
I've heard of and witnessed plenty of things that I would call miracles: people being healed, speaking in tongues, moms with super strength and agility when their baby is in danger... I'm sure many of you have heard of these things happening too.
But last night, I witnessed something that I never imagined I would see in my lifetime...
It all began around 11:00pm. That's when the mosquitoes come out. In Taiwan, they are nocturnal. A bunch of us were staying up to work on a book report and it didn't take long before we got aggravated with the frequent buzzing in our ears and sucking of our blood. We fought back hard.
We grabbed those suckers out of thin air. Without even looking up from our books.
(In reality, we killed none of them and woke up our neighbors from banging on the walls with our shoes trying to kill them.)
But that's beside the point.
What really matters is what happened about 2 hours into the battle.
After grueling hours of disappointing, fruitless labor, we killed a mosquito with our minds.
This is not a joke, people.
That thing fell out of the sky on its own. Right onto my laptop.
So we spent the next few minutes praising God.
So if today you're feeling down in the dumps, I encourage you to remember the mosquito.
It has not yet failed to raise my spirits.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
大学 University
Day 15.
TODAY WAS INSANE.
Starting today, every Tuesday and Thursday night, we are going to be out in Dan Shui (the area of Taipei that I live in) evangelizing. On Tuesdays I'm assigned to the university in Dan Shui.
So I was partnered up with my friend Sandra. She's from Taiwan, she's 24, and she graduated from this school two years ago. She thought it would be a good idea if we prayed beforehand and asked God to give us a picture of the person or people that He wanted us to talk to.
So we prayed and spent time in silence. In my head I saw a guy doing pull ups and a pair of boxy, black-rimmed glasses. She saw a pair of coffee-colored shorts and a volleyball court. So we went to the track.
We were keeping an eye out for any of these things and when we made it half way around the track, we still hadn't seen anything, so we just stopped and started talking to some random guy. While Sandra completely carried the conversation in Chinese, I stood there praying like crazy, and a guy wearing the glasses I had seen walked by us.
Sandra and I were quickly dismissed by the guy we had been talking to (he wasn't very interested) and I told her that I had spotted one of the guys we were looking for. We started following him and his friend around the track for a minute and they went off to the side and over to the pull-up bar!
I almost cried I was so happy. Honestly, I was in such disbelief, but I knew we had to talk to them. We told them that, much like they were raised to be obedient to and honor their parents, God, who created us, asks us to be obedient to and honor Him. We shared with them about Jesus and who He was. One of the guys was extremely interested in religion and the other one wanted to know how to pray to God. It was so exciting! We talked to them for a while and answered all of their questions and then prayed for them. The guy with the glasses had cancer in his nose, so we prayed for him to be healed. We left them with information about how to get to The Rock. (The Rock is a ministry here in Dan Shui that is a coffee shop run by YWAM.)
We still had another hour, and Sandra said no one was at the courts that she thought she had see the volleyball at, so we sat down and prayed again. Neither of us really heard anything from God, but as soon as we opened our eyes, there was another guy wearing the exact same boxy, black-rimmed glasses right behind us. So we started sharing the gospel with him.
It was incredible. He was so interested in everything we had to say and kept having questions. He shared about his life and about his beliefs and every time we told him more about our faith he wanted to know more. His name is Andrew. We ended up talking to him for over an hour.
It was such a cool day! YAY GOD!
TODAY WAS INSANE.
Starting today, every Tuesday and Thursday night, we are going to be out in Dan Shui (the area of Taipei that I live in) evangelizing. On Tuesdays I'm assigned to the university in Dan Shui.
So I was partnered up with my friend Sandra. She's from Taiwan, she's 24, and she graduated from this school two years ago. She thought it would be a good idea if we prayed beforehand and asked God to give us a picture of the person or people that He wanted us to talk to.
So we prayed and spent time in silence. In my head I saw a guy doing pull ups and a pair of boxy, black-rimmed glasses. She saw a pair of coffee-colored shorts and a volleyball court. So we went to the track.
We were keeping an eye out for any of these things and when we made it half way around the track, we still hadn't seen anything, so we just stopped and started talking to some random guy. While Sandra completely carried the conversation in Chinese, I stood there praying like crazy, and a guy wearing the glasses I had seen walked by us.
Sandra and I were quickly dismissed by the guy we had been talking to (he wasn't very interested) and I told her that I had spotted one of the guys we were looking for. We started following him and his friend around the track for a minute and they went off to the side and over to the pull-up bar!
I almost cried I was so happy. Honestly, I was in such disbelief, but I knew we had to talk to them. We told them that, much like they were raised to be obedient to and honor their parents, God, who created us, asks us to be obedient to and honor Him. We shared with them about Jesus and who He was. One of the guys was extremely interested in religion and the other one wanted to know how to pray to God. It was so exciting! We talked to them for a while and answered all of their questions and then prayed for them. The guy with the glasses had cancer in his nose, so we prayed for him to be healed. We left them with information about how to get to The Rock. (The Rock is a ministry here in Dan Shui that is a coffee shop run by YWAM.)
We still had another hour, and Sandra said no one was at the courts that she thought she had see the volleyball at, so we sat down and prayed again. Neither of us really heard anything from God, but as soon as we opened our eyes, there was another guy wearing the exact same boxy, black-rimmed glasses right behind us. So we started sharing the gospel with him.
It was incredible. He was so interested in everything we had to say and kept having questions. He shared about his life and about his beliefs and every time we told him more about our faith he wanted to know more. His name is Andrew. We ended up talking to him for over an hour.
It was such a cool day! YAY GOD!
Monday, April 9, 2012
福音The Gospel
Day 14.
You know how people always think that Asians love Hello Kitty? It's true. They are obsessed. I can't leave the apartment without seeing it somewhere. I can't be IN the apartment without seeing it somewhere. The first thing that I did when I got here was go to a 7/11. When I paid, they gave me a Hello Kitty sticker. Hello Kitty EVERYTHING is here. I was passing by a pastry shop yesterday and saw these...
You know how people always think that Asians love Hello Kitty? It's true. They are obsessed. I can't leave the apartment without seeing it somewhere. I can't be IN the apartment without seeing it somewhere. The first thing that I did when I got here was go to a 7/11. When I paid, they gave me a Hello Kitty sticker. Hello Kitty EVERYTHING is here. I was passing by a pastry shop yesterday and saw these...
Just thought I would let you guys know that some stereotypes are true.
Today in class we were introduced the this week's theme: "The Gospel". I went into it thinking that this was going to be a pretty basic week. I mean, how many times have I heard the gospel?
But today was the most eye-opening day of class yet.
Here are the things that hit me the hardest...
1) Do I sincerely believe that people deserve to go to hell?
Most of us were raised to believe that people are basically good. If they are basically good, then they basically deserve good. If this is what we believe, then the gift God has given us in Christ is not amazing.
2) How often do we think about what Jesus can do for us? Or in sharing the gospel, talk about what Jesus can do for you? If it's all about me, then we begin to think that salvation is what we deserve. Then it's not "amazing grace" anymore. It's what Jesus ought to give us.
Wow, right?
Sunday, April 8, 2012
复活节快乐 HAPPY EASTER!
Day 13.
I just got back from my second church service since being in Taiwan. It was awesome.
The church has a translator, and they put up English and Chinese on the screen for worship music. The Taiwanese LOVE to worship. Church lasted 2 and a half hours today and an hour and a half of it was worship.
Yesterday, one of my friends shared with me the story of how he came to know Christ and I thought it was incredible, so I'm going to tell all of you. It starts out kind of rough, though. So, parental guidance suggested...?
His name is Yusuke. He's from Japan. About 5 years ago he was at a really rough place in his life and he walked out to the balcony of his apartment and was waiting for the next train to come by so that when he jumped from the 4th story of the building, the train would hopefully kill him on impact. He was standing there waiting and he heard the whistle of a train in the distance. He wasn't thinking anything as he stepped up onto the rail. The train came into sight and he started counting down from 10... 9... 8... "Live."
He heard a voice clearly say from right next to him. But he looked all around and there was not a person in sight. He stepped down from the rail. There's a reason for me to live. He had no idea what it was, but he spent the next few days searching for the answer. It was about a month later that a friend of his invited him to church. He went and he liked it a lot. After the service, the pastor came up to him and said that God had told him to point him to this verse: Ezekiel 16:6, "Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, 'Live!'"
He knew that this was the reason he was supposed to be alive. So he kept going to church and accepted Jesus as his savior a few weeks after that.
Amazing.
I just got back from my second church service since being in Taiwan. It was awesome.
The church has a translator, and they put up English and Chinese on the screen for worship music. The Taiwanese LOVE to worship. Church lasted 2 and a half hours today and an hour and a half of it was worship.
Yesterday, one of my friends shared with me the story of how he came to know Christ and I thought it was incredible, so I'm going to tell all of you. It starts out kind of rough, though. So, parental guidance suggested...?
His name is Yusuke. He's from Japan. About 5 years ago he was at a really rough place in his life and he walked out to the balcony of his apartment and was waiting for the next train to come by so that when he jumped from the 4th story of the building, the train would hopefully kill him on impact. He was standing there waiting and he heard the whistle of a train in the distance. He wasn't thinking anything as he stepped up onto the rail. The train came into sight and he started counting down from 10... 9... 8... "Live."
He heard a voice clearly say from right next to him. But he looked all around and there was not a person in sight. He stepped down from the rail. There's a reason for me to live. He had no idea what it was, but he spent the next few days searching for the answer. It was about a month later that a friend of his invited him to church. He went and he liked it a lot. After the service, the pastor came up to him and said that God had told him to point him to this verse: Ezekiel 16:6, "Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, 'Live!'"
He knew that this was the reason he was supposed to be alive. So he kept going to church and accepted Jesus as his savior a few weeks after that.
Amazing.
Friday, April 6, 2012
暨 Outreach
Day 11.
Today they announced where we are going for outreach!
So, for those of you who don't know, the way that Discipleship Training School works is this: you spend 3 months in training at a YWAM base and then 2-3 months going out into the world to "make disciples of all nations".
So, on Monday, they announced that from our group of 14 students (one student joined our class earlier this week), we would be breaking into 3 groups. One would go to China, one to Thailand and one to the Philippines.
I'M GOING TO THE PHILIPPINES!
I'm so pumped. I know almost nothing about the Philippines. I pretty much know how to spell it. And that it's really hot when we're going to be there. I'll let you know as I find out more.
Today we also wrapped up the topic "The Character and Nature of God". I don't think I've ever had so much confidence in God's power in my whole life. It was especially cool being in a class full of people with drastically different backgrounds because in America we focus so much on God's love, but so many other students in class come from a place that focuses on God's enormity and justice and power.
It was also cool because we proved that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all God, which is something that I had accepted as truth before, but now I would be able to explain how I know it's true to anyone who asked. I guess I just gained a lot of understanding this week. YAY GOD!
Today they announced where we are going for outreach!
So, for those of you who don't know, the way that Discipleship Training School works is this: you spend 3 months in training at a YWAM base and then 2-3 months going out into the world to "make disciples of all nations".
So, on Monday, they announced that from our group of 14 students (one student joined our class earlier this week), we would be breaking into 3 groups. One would go to China, one to Thailand and one to the Philippines.
I'M GOING TO THE PHILIPPINES!
I'm so pumped. I know almost nothing about the Philippines. I pretty much know how to spell it. And that it's really hot when we're going to be there. I'll let you know as I find out more.
Today we also wrapped up the topic "The Character and Nature of God". I don't think I've ever had so much confidence in God's power in my whole life. It was especially cool being in a class full of people with drastically different backgrounds because in America we focus so much on God's love, but so many other students in class come from a place that focuses on God's enormity and justice and power.
It was also cool because we proved that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all God, which is something that I had accepted as truth before, but now I would be able to explain how I know it's true to anyone who asked. I guess I just gained a lot of understanding this week. YAY GOD!
Thursday, April 5, 2012
水饺 Dumplings
Day 10.
When I left for Taiwan, I was slightly worried that I was not going to like the food. The asian food that I've had before, I have loved. But the asian food that I've had before consists entirely of Jade Dragon. I figured it was going to be a little bit less American-ized, or at least a little less fried.
I was right. But it's so much better. Maybe because everyone sells food on the side of the road that is extremely freshly murdered, or slaughtered... executed... whatever the proper word is in this situation. My Taiwanese friends say that it all has to be fresh because when you become a woman in Taiwan, you gain the ability to smell when something is about to turn bad.
So the chickens...
When I left for Taiwan, I was slightly worried that I was not going to like the food. The asian food that I've had before, I have loved. But the asian food that I've had before consists entirely of Jade Dragon. I figured it was going to be a little bit less American-ized, or at least a little less fried.
I was right. But it's so much better. Maybe because everyone sells food on the side of the road that is extremely freshly murdered, or slaughtered... executed... whatever the proper word is in this situation. My Taiwanese friends say that it all has to be fresh because when you become a woman in Taiwan, you gain the ability to smell when something is about to turn bad.
So the chickens...
and the squid...
and the pigs...
are all completely intact.
I ate a full squid for dinner yesterday. It tasted like weird, rubbery chicken. But my two favorite foods are baozi and shuijiao. Baozi is basically a sweet roll that has pork in a sweet sauce in the center. Shuijiao is dumplings :) THE BEST.
Yesterday in class I led a devotional. Everyone is going to have to do it once, I just happened to be first. I spoke on humility. I thought it would be clever, assuming that I would probably trip on my way up to speak. (I didn't) But I did kick over the stand I had my Bible on in the middle of the presentation when I was showing off how I picture King David dancing while moving the Ark of the Covenant.
I don't know if I was always this clumsy, or if I've just been hyper-aware of it since I've been in Taiwan.
We finished reading the New Testament today. It took a total of 18 hours across 4 days. Cool, huh?
Monday, April 2, 2012
周末 The Weekend!
Today I went to a wedding!
I probably understood 5% of what was said at the ceremony, but it was super cute.
There was only one maid of honor and one best man and they each presented their parents and their in-laws with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. The ceremony was a lot more like an American one than you might expect, but the couple is also Christian, so I guess it would be a lot different for a couple practicing the traditional Taiwanese religion.
The theme for this last week was 'Hearing God's Voice'. We started reading a book called, "Is that really You, God?" by Loren Cunningham (the founder of YWAM). It's the story of how God called him to start this booming ministry, and it's insane. I seriously recommend it if you have time. It's a quick read but it's full of amazing stories and tons of different ways people have heard God's voice.
On Friday, we practiced hearing God's voice. Everyone in the room closed their eyes and a couple of people moved us into two lines and they had us pray for the person who was behind us (we didn't know who it was) and ask God for a character in the Bible and why that character fit them.
As soon as I started praying I sensed that the character was Paul and it was because God has a plan for this person to travel and set up churches around the world. It freaked me out. And then I wasn't sure if that was just me making that up or if it was actually God. So I turned around (after the allotted time for praying was over) the person behind me was a girl named Violet. I told her what I thought God had said and she started laughing and said that as she was praying for me to hear clearly, she had become Paul in her mind.
CRAZY.
This upcoming week's theme is the Character and Nature of God. We're reading through the whole New Testament in 4 days.
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