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.