the whole shabang [Arthur]

So...it's been quite a while since the first post. A lotta things have been goin on...God's been moving me in a bunch of different directions. I suppose I'll have to start from the first week, since I think the last time I posted, I had only just begun the trip. I'm sure many people have already posted about the stuff that happened weeks ago, but I'll share anyways. During the first week, we spent the first 3 days running something kinda like a summer camp for elementary school kids during the day. We did a lotta "campy" stuff, like crafts, games, the whole bit. Looking back on it, those days derived mixed meanings. In one sense, it felt completely unfruitful...we were making friends with the kids and all, but there were hardly any seeds being planted. The good news of Jesus Christ loving us and dying for our sins was not being spoken of. Our role as Christ's ambassadors had been diminished to that of a common summer camp counselor. Honestly, I felt useless before God. I had traveled all the way to Taiwan merely to teach kids songs and crafts.

I'm not sure about the rest of the team, but for me, the missions trip really started to spice up during the 72 hour prayer fiesta. We started at midnight of a Friday (so technically it's Sat.), making sure that there was always at least one person leading worship and at least a few people praying. When I first heard about the 72 hour prayer event, I was actually kinda dreading it...I've always been lazy in prayer. However, it turned out to be a huge blessing. It was refreshing. It's not very often that I can set aside that kind of time devoted solely to praying to the Lord. I found myself wanting to speak with the Lord more and more. It was awesome.

Feeling restored in my soul, I was excited for the second week of our missions trip: Tien Liao. There, we ministered to students ranging from elementary to middle school. There was a particular student, Tony, who I felt especially convicted to pray for and minister to. I prayed that the Lord would give me boldness to share about Christ, and that the Lord would speak powerfully to Tony. The Holy Spirit, as usual, worked in a way against my expectations. Instead of speaking through me, the Lord spoke through another leader, Chris (Jian Wen), who usually is very timid and soft spoken. The previous week, he was leading a small group with me too, but he rarely said anything. He's one of those guys that'll do whatever needs to get done, but when it comes to speaking to groups of people, nothing comes out. Out of nowhere, Chris began sharing his own testimony with our group at Tien Liao. I don't even remember saying much that day to our group, but I was fine with that. The Holy Spirit was working in both the kids and our missions team. It was...awesome.

Our final week was the sweetest of them all. It was a 5-day ministry at Little Prince kindergarten/elementary school. Actually, when I first heard that it was going to be a 5-day ministry with both a morning and an afternoon group, I was a bit intimidated. From the sound of it, it was going to be the most tiring week of the entire missions trip. The morning group was mostly older elementary school kids, whereas the afternoon group was made up of kindergarteners. The first 3 days went by pretty fast, but I quickly began to feel the same meaninglessness in what we did as I felt during the first week. We sang songs, played games, performed skits, but in the end, Jesus Christ was not being preached. I was desperate for God to do something because the last thing I wanted to do was waste the kids' time and my time by talking about things that won't last. I prayed and prayed and prayed for these kids during our MTL (ministering to the Lord) times, which is a time set apart each day for our missions team to pray to the Lord. On the last day at Little Prince, the Holy Spirit started working like crazy. There's one kid, Frank, that I was particularly moved by. We were singing the song "How Great is Our God" as the missions team went around praying for each kid. When I got to Frank, I really felt moved to pray for him in Chinese, despite my limited vocabulary. I put my hand around his shoulder, and I'm not sure what I said, but after speaking only a few sentences, I felt a tear hit my arm. I opened my eyes briefly to see if Frank was alright, and I saw his eyes completely wet with tears. I hugged him even closer and asked him what was wrong, but he just shook his head. I asked him, "You know Jesus loves you?" and he nodded his head as tears continued to stream down. I didn't know what else to do but continue to pray with him. We prayed to God together, asking Jesus Christ to come into Frank's life and to fill him with the Holy Spirit. When we had finished praying, I opened my eyes and saw that the kids around us were also full of tears. I motioned the kids toward me, and I just hugged them close. It was amazing to the see how the Spirit could move the hearts of even little children. I really felt the words of Christ saying "Bring the children to me". Some of them sat on my calf, so as I prayed, I started to feel a burning sensation, then a numbing sensation. I didn't want to interrupt the good work that the Holy Spirit had already begun, so I prayed to God that He would give me strength in even such a small matter. By the time we finished singing and praying together, my arm was completely wet with tears and snot. But I was alright with that. I counted them as holy tears and holy snot, so in a strange sense, I didn't really want to wash it off. The Holy Spirit really did something great, and I praise God for that. I really had a hard time leaving those kids, but I know that Jesus will never leave them. I'm confident that God, who is faithful, will complete the good work that He's started in them.

I've probably already overwhelmed this posting since I tried to recap the entire missions trip in one hit. Again, I apologize for waiting this long, I feel like I was withholding blessing from you guys, so I want to ask for your forgiveness. If you guys wanna hear more, just shoot me an email or ask me the next time you see me because I'd love to share about it. God is good. Praise the Lord. Amen.