My September Update [Josh]

你好!

Autumn is here and September is coming to a close. Summer has flown quickly and as the leaves are changing color, I think about how my life has changed and will change in the next couple of months. Life is busy (no surprise there) preparing to leave my job, packing, fundraising and doing mundane things like laundry. :)

This weekend I leave Chicago and travel to Kansas City for the Intro to IHOP-KC internship. I am so ready to go! It’s been over a year since I made my decision to go and it’s finally happening! I excited and nervous about what it is going to be like, but most importantly, I feel at peace and have a direction that I I know is where God wants me to go. No more wondering what is next, trying to figure out where God really wants from me. I am running hard after Him and that’s all that matters. Plus I love road trips. I find that I have the best times of worship and prayer in the car driving. Yup, I’m strange like that. :)

If I look back at this journey, I have to laugh. You see, 10 years ago I told the Lord, “I know you have some kind of missions thing in store for my life, but I have a desire to minister cross culturally. So could you send me to Africa, South America, Australia, etc, etc? Just don’t send me to minister to the Chinese people. I grew up in a chinese church, so I already know how to deal with them. Let me minister to others.”

Oh, how God must have smiled when I told Him that. How ironic that God has changed my heart so completely that not only am I going to Taiwan, but that I can’t wait. God is chuckling, I know it!

Prayer Requests:

• Pray that my prayer and devotional times would be rich and full of His presence. Because of the busyness of my life, they have been hurried and at times, difficult to spend the time that I want to at the Lord’s feet.
• Pray that I wouldn’t be discouraged and overwhelmed with all the preparation and challenges that lie ahead. I’m trusting the Lord, but there are times when it’s a little dark.
• Currently one of the Taiwan youths, James, in the So San church has some bad coughing and when he got some x-rays, they found some white spots on his lungs. He is going in for additional tests, but the hospital will not take him until december, so pray that a earlier opening will open up and that he would be healed..
• Pray that the Lord would quickly raise up the support necessary to do His work.
This is my first newsletter. You’ll see many changes with the format as I tinker around with what works best, so don’t be surprised to see a different format next time. I like to change it up. :)

Thank you so much for all your support! I am so grateful to consider you my friends, brothers and sisters. It is so encouraging to talk to many of you in the past weeks and sharing with you what God is doing in Taiwan. I so value your prayers immensely and couldn’t continue in ministry without them! I hope to get a chance to talk with you in the future. If you want to stop by IHOP to visit, let me know!

As always, if you are led to help out, it’s easy enough. At the end of this letter will be a pledge slip that has instructions on how you can partner with me in reaching Taiwan for Christ!

In Him who Loves us,
josh
_______________________________________________________________________________
Josh’s Taiwan Missionary Journey Pledge Slip
If you would like to be updated with what is going on Taiwan, there are a number of ways you can do this:
1) Join the Facebook group called “Josh's Taiwan Missions Journey”
2) Follow on my taiwan blog (which may have guest “speakers”) at http://fhlministry.blogspot.com

I would like to partner with you in prayer ______
I would like to partner with you financially ______
One time _______________ Monthly Amount: ______________________
• If you are donating monthly, please do so electronically at http://www.fhlministry.com/donate.

• If you are giving a one time donation electronically, you can go to http://www.fhlministry.com/donate

Home, Sweet Home.

Unlike many others, I never posted a blog entry to share about how the mission trip ended. A big part of me wants to just say that I had forgotten, but deep inside, there was a part of me that didn’t want the trip to end. Yes, I missed home; yes, I missed America, but I knew that if I went home, I would miss Taiwan. Consciously, I knew that the mission trip had ended the moment the camp at Prince Kin ended, but it saddened me that this year is most likely the last year I would be going to Taiwan for missions.

After returning to Taipei a week after the missions ended, I thought I would post my blog entry, but I could not put to words the exact feelings and thoughts I had. I could not figure out what it is that I wanted to say. My mind wanted to say one thing, but my heart felt another.

After another 2 weeks, I finally returned to the United States. That following Saturday, Josh held a Debrief meeting at Church where we would have an MTL and also share what it was that we learned personally from this years Missions trip. I had made previous plans already and could not make it, but when I thought about what I would have shared if I had gone, I still couldn’t put my finger on it.

Today is the 8th of September. I’ve moved from Chicago to Ohio where I have started a new life, and it is now that I realize what I have learned from my experience in Taiwan. It’s the concept of home. Being here in Ohio, it is so different in terms of lifestyle, ethics, rules, and morals. People do different things for fun, and look at things in a different perspective than big city people. Driving around here is different, people rank things of importance differently than Chicago people, and it’s just so much more laid back than a City.

It’s been almost 2 weeks since I’ve moved here, and I want to say in all honesty, I miss home. The first week of moving here, I became so homesick that I cried every single night for a few days because I simply missed being home. I missed my church, my family, my friends…and knowing where I was. Nothing I did felt at home. No one I knew made me feel at home. I would hang out with friends here who would try to keep me busy, but no matter what, my friends here were not the same as my friends at home. Nothing I did here would be the same as what I did at home.

I felt like this until one Sunday when David took me to church with him. We were late, but the moment I walked into that room, I really felt at home. I closed my eyes during worship and it was like being back at my church singing loud to praise our worthy God. During the sermon, I felt like I was back home listening to my own Pastor Bill speak. Even though I was surrounded by Koreans and not Chinese people, and the speaker was Korean, and not white, it was the closest thing to home that I had felt in a really long time.

Of all the change, I realize one thing. I realize that although everything about your world may change, the one thing that will always be familiar to you is God. I realize that I have made God a part of my lifestyle and will always seek after Him.

In the same way, our Taiwan mission trip last year was very impactful on Taiwan in actively seeking God and serving God. But the thing is, we can run as many Sunday services as we want, lead worship songs as much as we want, teach as much English to the kids, teach them how to dance to Jesus songs, and Teach them the bible, but all of this will go away. The moment we step on to that plane to go back to America, all of that goes with us. We do all these things knowing that this is what we have at home. We are so blessed to be more spiritually fed in America, and we want to make Taiwan just like our own home. But yet, the moment we leave, we take our home with us. Does that defeat the entire purpose? We want to make a home in another place because God resides in this home. And wherever this home will be, God will be. Therefore, we want Jesus in Taiwan.
This year, we focused on one thing and one thing only: PRAYER. We held MTL’s every day, beginning from 45 minutes a day, and by the end of the trip, 2 hours a day. We began with some people understanding prayer, to everyone understanding prayer. We began with only US team and So San team in that prayer room, to US team, So San team, Cao Ya team, and Tien Liao Team. We had a 72 hour, 3 days of prayer where youth, kids, and parents from all different churches came and prayed in our prayer room. Where worship leaders of either language led worship in the prayer room. Where prayers were of either language, and yet were praying to the same Father.
So what did I learn this year? I learned the very foundation of what prayer is. Prayer is home. Where there is prayer, there is home. And where there is a home (a church), there will always be prayer. Before, we may have made the church into an activity house. We have games there, events, prizes…etc. but when we left, all of that left with us. It just became a church again. But this year, we made those churches into prayer houses, and when we left, they still were prayer houses.

When I talk to my friends in Taiwan from those churches, it makes me so happy to hear that their prayer meetings are still going strong. It brings me so much joy to know that what we did this year stayed there. Even though they are surrounded in darkness by Buddhist temples, idol worship, and demons, they are able to find freedom from that through prayer. Even though we sometimes think that we are “better off” in America because Christianity is a predominant religion, we don’t realize that we face other types of darkness that hinders us from being at home. Whether it is secular music, gossiping, lying, cheating, or any type of sin, it is the same darkness. It’s the same source. Its Satan. And if we can create a stronghold against him through prayer in Taiwan, then I know I can too, regardless of where I am.

So, I miss Taiwan. I miss Chicago. But I realize that I simply miss Jesus. I now realize that I only felt homesick because I hadn’t found my ‘home’ yet. I was like a lost sheep looking for my Sheppard. My only prayer is that the lost sheep of Taiwan may also find their Sheppard, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanks for all your prayers while we were there. Continue to pray for Taiwan as the Holy Spirit is working and moving through lives. He is the God of Taiwan, and He is faithful.