The Need for an Overflow [Priscilla Wan]

I’m so happy to be here. Every year the people on the mission team come in with more faith and courage to pursue the deeper/greater things of God. I love this team! They sincerely love God and love each other. There is so much laughter going on that I'm covinced we are the loudest people on this island. Currenly Emily's teddy bear is stolen again and stuff somewhere inside of the church's grand piano. This will make quite a scene if forgotten about until Sunday when the pianist leads the congregation in worship and we hear a "Tonk! Tonk!" in the midst of a worship song.

In the last couple of days we’ve been praying with passion and tears for the people in the Caoya church (pronounced Tsao Ya) to experience the presence of Christ. On Monday we had a prayer furnace during the Caoya praise night and God was tangibly felt in the room. I have never felt so much power at that church before. Tears were rolling as we pressed in with worship and adoration. On Tuesday night we asked God for passion. We got into small groups and shared our hearts with them. I've especially noticed that the guys in Taiwan are watching the guys on our mission team with wide eyes of admiration and curiosity. They have never seen men on fire for Jesus before, and every move, every word that proceeds from the guys on the team are being absorbed by these Taiwanese boys. It truly made my heart burst with joy to see these Taiwanese guys have some good Christian role models to look up to. Most of them have fathers or brothers who are heavy into gambling, smoking, drinking, computer games, etc. I could tell that they were blown away by the witness of the Christian men on our team. For the first time they are realizing what it means to be a true man. For the first time these boys are experiencing the ability to value God and love Him.

Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with a girl at the Caoya praise night. We were standing on the roof of the church overlooking the scenic geography of Kaohsiung. There was a large Buddhist temple just a block away from us. I asked her if she had ever been there. She said she goes sometimes with her family. I asked her what kind of god was worshipped there. She said that the god they served in that temple was pretty much the “Jesus” of Buddhism.

“They are similar.” she said.
“How so?” I asked.
“They both protect us. They both love us.”

“This god loves you?”
“Yes.”

I was shocked. I asked her if this god had died for her. She said no. But she insisted that you could worship both Jesus and this Buddhist god. I then explained to her either Jesus is lying or the Buddhist god is lying. Jesus claimed that He is the only God and the Bible says that all other gods are trying to trick and trap you. You have to pick. You have to decide who is the liar and who is telling the truth... Jesus or this Buddhist god? I told her that we are here in Taiwan to tell them that we have met this man Jesus and that He is the true one. The girl seemed shocked. I don’t think she had ever been told this before. Please pray for her as I will try to approach her about this issue again today and pray with her.

The people of Taiwan need to hear the truth. It saddens me that this girl has never had someone confront her with the ultimatum of the gospel. But truly, the church itself must have revival first before the gospel can effectively reach the lost. We cannot speak passionately or boldly about a Man we barely know. Please pray for the hearts of every member on the mission team to be stirred up and in love with Jesus. Pray for powerful encounters with God in our own spirits. Taiwan needs us, the church, to overflow.

It’s my hope and prayer is that these next few weeks will launch us into deep intimacy with God. Prayer is not just the theme of this year’s mission trip. Prayer is the mission from here on out... forever. Please pray that God will anoint our prayer times with Him. There are a few people from the Caoya church who are joining our team today. One of them just decided that she would like to live with us only yesterday after the praise night. God touched her heart and she longs for a community to grow in and experience God with. Pray that God will bring the right ones to us and that they will fall madly in love with Him in this upcoming week.