I want to submit a different opinion about the last few weeks.
I am ridiculously proud of everyone on the mission team. And I sincerely enjoyed when the Holy Spirit would fill a room we were ministering at and bring about a “cryfest”. It actually happened a lot. It happened most of the nights at Cao Ya (resulting in 3 people radically accepting Jesus as Lord and the Cao Ya youth group taking off weeks of work to join the mission team when they initially did not want to). It happened throughout a lot of the 72 hours of prayer at Shou San. One of the nights a mob of people wailed before the Lord at the altar. We were so stunned by the move of the Spirit that we didn’t know how to end the night. How do you tell a bunch of sobbing people “Ok. Uh, we have to stop now because there’s a 11pm neighborhood curfew where we can’t make noise anymore or else the police will come.”? The “cryfest” happened a lot during MTL times (Minister to the Lord) where we prayed almost 2 hours every day. One night the Holy Spirit fell in the room and our meeting ended up lasting 5 hours as we sat in the sanctuary crying out for our lost family members. It happened the last night of Tien Liao where little kids cried in the presence of God. A 16 year old girl (non-Christian) missed the sermon and entered the sanctuary (cold turkey) in the middle of ministry time and just began to cry under the heaviness of the Holy Ghost. A middle school girl named Sally was sobbing for almost an hour straight in one of our team member’s arms. The “cryfest” happened again at Princekin Elementary School. A gym was transformed into a sanctuary as 50+ little kids (even preschoolers) were crying as they encountered the thick presence of Jesus. Tissue boxes kept being brought into the room as more and more crumpled, white tissues littered the floor. There are more examples of radical moments throughout the mission trip. The “cryfests” happened many times as the Holy Spirit pounded the places with His glory. I loved it when He would minister that way...
BUT...
Those moment are not what impressed me the most. Don’t get me wrong. I loved the “cryfests”. I believe that God moved mightily in them. But those were not the most important/touching moments to me. What moved me the most were those normal days when we (the team) would faithfully go out and love, play, and talk to the kids about Jesus... even when it was tough. That’s where the REAL LOVE was at. It’s easy to get a bunch of people in a room and cry. All you have to do is tell them Jesus loves them, worship (so that the throne of Jesus will descend into the room), and let them loose to encounter. Easy pie. You can just stand at the side and watch. What’s hard is BEING like Jesus to them. It’s hard to motivate yourself to want to win their trust and become their friend. That’s why doing skits, games, testimonies, small groups, and crafts can seem so much harder. IT IS HARDER! It’s harder to love people. It’s not meaningless activity. It’s actually the more necessary, most humbling, and most loving activity of all. It’s easy to just throw them in a room, play some music and watch them cry. But to invest in their lives? To love ON them? To be willing to tell them about Jesus when they’re seemingly disinterested? To disciple them? That’s the tough part. It takes a lot of humility.
I am less impressed by traveling preachers who throw out the Jesus bomb at revival meetings (don’t get me wrong, I think they are necessary and vital in the advancing of God’s kingdom), and more impressed by pastors who stay faithful to a flock, press on through the mundane to disciple them, and practice patience in loving the individual. There are tons of Christians out there who would love to join the Hillsong traveling band and throw wild Jesus parties out for masses to cry at and have a spiritual high. But there are few people who are willing to do the thing that is most like Jesus and faithfully love the weak, unspiritual individual through the mundane.
I love this year’s mission team. It was composed of people who were humble enough to pray and serve. They were all meek enough to love the unlovable day by day, step by step, and choice by choice. We are not perfect. There were definitely days were the accuser of the brethren would put disheartening thoughts into our minds and say that way we faithfully worked to love and teach about Jesus was ineffective and meaningless. But Jesus’ words are the truth and they break the lies of the enemy. Jesus says that when we speak His words it does not return empty (Isaiah 55:11) and that if we give people even a cup of water He will reward us for it (Mark 9:41). There is no doubt that this year’s mission trip was by far the most spiritually powerful. But power without love is empty. I am proud to say that the mission team truly poured themselves out to love everyone God put in their way. Every member exhibited astounding patience, kindness, selflessness, and hope... even in the mundane. To me, witnessing such faithful love in them during the tough days was the most radical expression of Jesus to a broken, love-deficient people.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Epilogue [Josh]
I write this now with a torn heart. This is my third day in tokyo trying to get home and it looks like the flights are all booked again and I will stay another day in tokyo most likely. It's frustrating staying in the airport all day. Looking back, I wish I didn't go standby as right now, all I want to do is go home or go back to taiwan.
What can I say about this trip? Last year, it was awesome because every night at Tien Liao, we cried out to the Lord together and prayed for the children and the Lord was evident in those camps.
This year? Like Arthur, I was frustrated as it seemed like we were going through the motions and we weren't spending enough time with the Lord asking for His help. If there is one thing that I can say about missions is that there is power in genuine prayer. Cao Ya was difficult, as we were thrown a curveball that we had to deal with 2 locations instead of one. I know that I instantly started thinking logistics and how we could handle all the kids with just half the staff. The Lord started breaking me of the "work first" mentality and is starting to give me a "pray first" mentality. Cause if we start working first, then we'll see a great program that doesn't have the Spirit and that isn't how ministry works. Ministry only works through the Spirit because it is the power of the Spirit that pierces the heart.
Like most others here on the missions trip, the Little Princekin school was the highlight of the trip. God's spirit was really moving in most of the kids there. It was awesome, because prior to that for 4 days, the kids didn't seem to be interested in anything except for playing around and horsing around, which was disheartening to me. Praise God for the missions team, as they held up great and handled the kids no matter how difficult they were.
God sees in different ways than we do. I was struck by this on day 4 when we were talking about the children and I was suprised about how many of them came from broken families. You wouldn't be able to tell by looking at them, as they seemed like happy kids. Rambunctious at times, but generally well adjusted. Just goes to sho you how Satan is at work underneath the covers.
The last night that we were there at Princekin, we gave the gospel story (again!) and also had a time where we played music and the teachers (mission team) would pray for them. and the Lord had plans for that time. in both sessions we had the Holy Spirit come down like fire. In Hebrews it talks about Ministers being flames of fire. And in this case, the Holy Spirit came down upon the kids in a mighty way. We started praying for the kids and the kids who didn't seem to care for anything in the world and were only interested in horsing around were englufed by the Holy Spirit and it was so evident that the HS was working. I remember one girl in particular who was sitting alone at the time and I remember sitting next to her and holding her and just weeping for her as the Spirit was so strong that words were inadequate. After we were able to pray for the kids for about a hour (which was half the time that we had with them) we ended with song and the camp was over. Bu the Spirit was still working so evidentally that we had a bit of a celebration praising God and shouting to the Lord. You see, Princekin is a normal school. One of the mothers of the mission team member fought tooth and nail with the school board, parents, husband to have this english camp at the school. So I can say with pretty good accuracy that this was probably the first time that these kids have ever heard the gospel and many of them have never heard any of the bible stories that we ended up talking about. How awesome is that, to be praising God here in a school, where we may not ever get the chance to do this again, that God showed Himself mightily in these children. I pray that the Lord will provide them follow up to be able to nurture that seed that is within them. I pray that Satan will not snuff out this flame.
My laptop is running out of juice and I have nowhere to charge it. So I must end it here. All I know is that I will be returning back and that nothing is going to stop me. God's work must be done here and I know God has called me! Praise the Lord!
What can I say about this trip? Last year, it was awesome because every night at Tien Liao, we cried out to the Lord together and prayed for the children and the Lord was evident in those camps.
This year? Like Arthur, I was frustrated as it seemed like we were going through the motions and we weren't spending enough time with the Lord asking for His help. If there is one thing that I can say about missions is that there is power in genuine prayer. Cao Ya was difficult, as we were thrown a curveball that we had to deal with 2 locations instead of one. I know that I instantly started thinking logistics and how we could handle all the kids with just half the staff. The Lord started breaking me of the "work first" mentality and is starting to give me a "pray first" mentality. Cause if we start working first, then we'll see a great program that doesn't have the Spirit and that isn't how ministry works. Ministry only works through the Spirit because it is the power of the Spirit that pierces the heart.
Like most others here on the missions trip, the Little Princekin school was the highlight of the trip. God's spirit was really moving in most of the kids there. It was awesome, because prior to that for 4 days, the kids didn't seem to be interested in anything except for playing around and horsing around, which was disheartening to me. Praise God for the missions team, as they held up great and handled the kids no matter how difficult they were.
God sees in different ways than we do. I was struck by this on day 4 when we were talking about the children and I was suprised about how many of them came from broken families. You wouldn't be able to tell by looking at them, as they seemed like happy kids. Rambunctious at times, but generally well adjusted. Just goes to sho you how Satan is at work underneath the covers.
The last night that we were there at Princekin, we gave the gospel story (again!) and also had a time where we played music and the teachers (mission team) would pray for them. and the Lord had plans for that time. in both sessions we had the Holy Spirit come down like fire. In Hebrews it talks about Ministers being flames of fire. And in this case, the Holy Spirit came down upon the kids in a mighty way. We started praying for the kids and the kids who didn't seem to care for anything in the world and were only interested in horsing around were englufed by the Holy Spirit and it was so evident that the HS was working. I remember one girl in particular who was sitting alone at the time and I remember sitting next to her and holding her and just weeping for her as the Spirit was so strong that words were inadequate. After we were able to pray for the kids for about a hour (which was half the time that we had with them) we ended with song and the camp was over. Bu the Spirit was still working so evidentally that we had a bit of a celebration praising God and shouting to the Lord. You see, Princekin is a normal school. One of the mothers of the mission team member fought tooth and nail with the school board, parents, husband to have this english camp at the school. So I can say with pretty good accuracy that this was probably the first time that these kids have ever heard the gospel and many of them have never heard any of the bible stories that we ended up talking about. How awesome is that, to be praising God here in a school, where we may not ever get the chance to do this again, that God showed Himself mightily in these children. I pray that the Lord will provide them follow up to be able to nurture that seed that is within them. I pray that Satan will not snuff out this flame.
My laptop is running out of juice and I have nowhere to charge it. So I must end it here. All I know is that I will be returning back and that nothing is going to stop me. God's work must be done here and I know God has called me! Praise the Lord!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Prayers Answered [Deanna]
So Missions is over and I am typing in Kenting where I had to ride on arthur's back on a moped...in typhoon rain weather. the SCARIER part is that calvin drove ellie and almost crashed into a car in typhoon rain weather. The man in the car also yelled at him and it was very scary. Praise God we're all alive =)
Anyways, here are the highlights:
we went to go pass out tracks in front of the world games. The initial plan was htat we'd do the body worship but we didn't have portable speakers that run by batteries so we decided to not do it. Then, Priscilla and Ellie started doing street evangalism. Priscilla would speak and ellie would translate and they got a little crowd together. This was when we were done passing out tracks. Then I met up with Arthur who said he had the song on his phone. Then I started gathering a small group together and Arthur played the song and we did it. Then we used Emily's phone that was louder and did it again with a bit more people. And then, we did it a final time in a different area with a full explanation because priscilla and ellie were done. We had a little crowd watching us and videoing us through the phone so hopefully God will use it later on.
For hte last week of missions, we went to samuel's mom's school: Little Prince. I really wanted God to use me thru the kids because honestly, I felt liek I hadn't been used by Him for the kids in tien liao and the other school the first week. So I had fervently been praying but the first day, i tried hugging one of my girls (10 years old) and then another girl in my group yelled at me for hugging her because she had a heart condition and had just had surgery so I was thrown off by that. And then, when we got into groups, I didn't have my nametag so none of hte kids knew my name and all thought my chinese accent was weird because I had really lost my voice that first day. Then we had the afternoon kids and they were like 5-7 years old, REALLY shy, and I just didn't know how to control them. They're so young that it's really hard to talk seriously to them AND to talk to them for a long time because of how short their attention spans are. So i was pretty exasperated the first day.
Then, after the second day, they remembered my name after i told them one last time and then after class they like wouldn't want me to leave and whenever they saw me from their classroom, they'd scream out my name. I think them finding out i was ticklish also helped them to like me more. After I knew they liked me, i started being more bold on what to share with them and being a little more personal. I think because they're starting to understand a little more, they didn't share very personally. But I was very surprised by my afternoon young group because they shared very openly and a lot of them had fathers who drank and smoke all hte time and would hit them or their mother. It was hten that I started really having a heart to pray for all the father's in Taiwan because I think very few understand their true role in guiding a family. I see it in tw drama's too. All the male leads have bad relationships with their father while the female leads have the best relationship w/their father. I think they think too much of hteir responsibility of bringing home the money and leading in that way and not actually caring for their family in a loving way where their kids can actually experience love.
The girl with the heart condition ended up being the one i had the biggest heart for because everyone else in my group had gone to church before and so they could all memorize the verses easily because they had before at some time whereas isabelle would give up and not even try the first day. Then the 2nd day, she seemed more open to God and started participating more in answering questions and she became really attached to me. The 3rd day she wanted to be the first to recite the verse. It really touched me. On the 4th day, when I played with the kids, they all wanted me to sing the 2 songs to them, Alleluia and Deep Down. I didn't think they'd answer the question when i say Do you love your Jesus because they had just learned it but after i reminded them of the harder words, they SCREAMED it and loved that song more than the Alleluia (i think they only wanted that one to tickle me).
The last day was craaaaazy. For our closing we prayed for all the kids individually. All the girls in my older group started crying and I had never seen or felt the Holy Spirit move in such a powerful way, especially with an age group VERY diverse and VERY young. I knew that A LOT A LOT of us were praying for the kids and God really answered our prayers by being present and stirring in their hearts. Even though the girls wouldn't tell us why they're crying besides the fact that they didn't want us to leave/they'd miss us. I know something triggered their crying before they thought of us teachers and I KNOW God was with them. I just pray that theyw ill continue to seek after You, evne if they're not allowed to. Especially isabelle, since her family doesn't believe in anything and she started to understand God's love more and more everyday. 2 of my girls wrote me a card/got me a phone chain and one of those girls also made her sister write me a card in the youngest group. I had no clue who she was either but she for some reason knew me and my name and gave me a card. I felt like God had really answered my prayer by asking to be used by the kids because I had never felt that loved by that many little kids before. I don't interact with little kids that much in the states so all of this was a real blessing and something where we all knew ONLY Christ could have done it.
I also gave my cheese away to James and Chris's sister. I saw how much they loved it and how much james and samuel wanted to steal it before the girls saw it and now it is with them. Hopefully i can come back next year (PLEAAAAASE GOD MAKE A WAY) and HOPEFULLY they take REALLY good care of it and take many many pictures with it =)
I really better get this one back some time, not like my OTHER pillow...
Anyways, here are the highlights:
we went to go pass out tracks in front of the world games. The initial plan was htat we'd do the body worship but we didn't have portable speakers that run by batteries so we decided to not do it. Then, Priscilla and Ellie started doing street evangalism. Priscilla would speak and ellie would translate and they got a little crowd together. This was when we were done passing out tracks. Then I met up with Arthur who said he had the song on his phone. Then I started gathering a small group together and Arthur played the song and we did it. Then we used Emily's phone that was louder and did it again with a bit more people. And then, we did it a final time in a different area with a full explanation because priscilla and ellie were done. We had a little crowd watching us and videoing us through the phone so hopefully God will use it later on.
For hte last week of missions, we went to samuel's mom's school: Little Prince. I really wanted God to use me thru the kids because honestly, I felt liek I hadn't been used by Him for the kids in tien liao and the other school the first week. So I had fervently been praying but the first day, i tried hugging one of my girls (10 years old) and then another girl in my group yelled at me for hugging her because she had a heart condition and had just had surgery so I was thrown off by that. And then, when we got into groups, I didn't have my nametag so none of hte kids knew my name and all thought my chinese accent was weird because I had really lost my voice that first day. Then we had the afternoon kids and they were like 5-7 years old, REALLY shy, and I just didn't know how to control them. They're so young that it's really hard to talk seriously to them AND to talk to them for a long time because of how short their attention spans are. So i was pretty exasperated the first day.
Then, after the second day, they remembered my name after i told them one last time and then after class they like wouldn't want me to leave and whenever they saw me from their classroom, they'd scream out my name. I think them finding out i was ticklish also helped them to like me more. After I knew they liked me, i started being more bold on what to share with them and being a little more personal. I think because they're starting to understand a little more, they didn't share very personally. But I was very surprised by my afternoon young group because they shared very openly and a lot of them had fathers who drank and smoke all hte time and would hit them or their mother. It was hten that I started really having a heart to pray for all the father's in Taiwan because I think very few understand their true role in guiding a family. I see it in tw drama's too. All the male leads have bad relationships with their father while the female leads have the best relationship w/their father. I think they think too much of hteir responsibility of bringing home the money and leading in that way and not actually caring for their family in a loving way where their kids can actually experience love.
The girl with the heart condition ended up being the one i had the biggest heart for because everyone else in my group had gone to church before and so they could all memorize the verses easily because they had before at some time whereas isabelle would give up and not even try the first day. Then the 2nd day, she seemed more open to God and started participating more in answering questions and she became really attached to me. The 3rd day she wanted to be the first to recite the verse. It really touched me. On the 4th day, when I played with the kids, they all wanted me to sing the 2 songs to them, Alleluia and Deep Down. I didn't think they'd answer the question when i say Do you love your Jesus because they had just learned it but after i reminded them of the harder words, they SCREAMED it and loved that song more than the Alleluia (i think they only wanted that one to tickle me).
The last day was craaaaazy. For our closing we prayed for all the kids individually. All the girls in my older group started crying and I had never seen or felt the Holy Spirit move in such a powerful way, especially with an age group VERY diverse and VERY young. I knew that A LOT A LOT of us were praying for the kids and God really answered our prayers by being present and stirring in their hearts. Even though the girls wouldn't tell us why they're crying besides the fact that they didn't want us to leave/they'd miss us. I know something triggered their crying before they thought of us teachers and I KNOW God was with them. I just pray that theyw ill continue to seek after You, evne if they're not allowed to. Especially isabelle, since her family doesn't believe in anything and she started to understand God's love more and more everyday. 2 of my girls wrote me a card/got me a phone chain and one of those girls also made her sister write me a card in the youngest group. I had no clue who she was either but she for some reason knew me and my name and gave me a card. I felt like God had really answered my prayer by asking to be used by the kids because I had never felt that loved by that many little kids before. I don't interact with little kids that much in the states so all of this was a real blessing and something where we all knew ONLY Christ could have done it.
I also gave my cheese away to James and Chris's sister. I saw how much they loved it and how much james and samuel wanted to steal it before the girls saw it and now it is with them. Hopefully i can come back next year (PLEAAAAASE GOD MAKE A WAY) and HOPEFULLY they take REALLY good care of it and take many many pictures with it =)
I really better get this one back some time, not like my OTHER pillow...
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.
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.
Closure [Deren]
The missions trip is over, and wow, what a year. As I am awaiting my bus to Taipei I am standing on the balcony of the church overlooking the city of Kaohsiung. I find peace in the strange quiet and stillness of the church. As I reflect back on the many things we have done over the past 3 weeks. Only one thing comes to mind, and that is -Ask and you will receive-.
During this missions trip, we have asked for many things, and they will come in God's timing if they have not already come. I am sure of it. We asked for God to show up, and He came strong. It was a true blessing to see everyone grow in Christ, especially the Taiwanese youth. Prayer is the key, it is how we talk to God. We have all grown spiritually. I pray and hope that this passion inside all our hearts will not die out. As Taiwan Missions 2009 is officially over, I pray that God will continue to do His work.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
a long week [christina]
I believe it's been about a week or so...well maybe over, I don't know...since I've blogged.
so let's start off with Tien Liao.
It was actually not what I was expecting, but it was still good. I thought that it would be all little kids and it turned out to be like 20 little kids and 15 middle schoolers. AHH...haha not really. I had one of the jr. high groups and with junior high kids often time get the quiet kids and it's usually just one or two instead of the entire group, which made it somewhat difficult. When I first met them they all seemed to be really scared of me for some strange reason. Everytime I tried to talk to them they would run away. But I prayed and asked God to open their hearts and answer some of the question that we were asking. So the first day they were all fairly quiet and didn't say anything in and I thought they didn't want to sit next to me because I thought I smelled or something, but I didn't.
There was one girl...she always had a smile on her face and she was fairly happy, but she always covered her mouth and I wondered why. I saw a glimpse of her mouth and half her teeth were literally rotted away and it scared me, but I knew that there was a happy spirit inside of her and comforted me. Wendy was the name of this girl. She was one of the main ones that I was praying for and by the last day she was answering all of the questions that we had asked and she had a curiosity in what God looked like. We told that if se prayed and asked she would see him maybe. But God doesn't normally reveal himself to people, but I prayed that God would give her a glimpse of himself so she would know that our God is more real than hers.
I also prayed that she would come to the praise night that we were having. There were many kids there before hand, but I didn't see Wendy and I was starting to think that no one from my small group would be there, but in walks Wendy and someone else that I didn't recognize. I asked her who it was and she had told me that it was her little sister and I was really encouraged that she had brought her little sister. They both had the smile and similar sests of teeth, but I knew that God was stiring in her heart. It came time for the altar call and she was one that raised her hand. We started praying over them and I looked and I saw her eyes closed and head bowed as though she knew what she was doing. Her smile was no longer there, but I knew she was trying to pray to the Lord. It was awesome. When we were all done and it was time to go she looked at me with a big smile and hugged me. I was touched, but I knew that God had started something up in her heart!
I wish I had blogged earlier cause I just realized how much stuff I still have yet to share with all of you. ok so anyways, that Saturday I don't really remember what we did during the day, but at night we were going to where the World Games were being held and we passed out tracks. It was really interesting cause I had passed out tracks before and usually it takes us a really long time to give them out, but this time the people were more will to take it and I saw many of them reading it and I was surprised that they didn't throw it out right away. I was really encouraged when I saw that. Another thing that we were going to do was body worship and at first we didn't have a place to use speakers to play the music and we were just going to not do it, but God provided phones that hold music for a reason. At first it was just three of us, the second time it was four, and the third time it was all of us on the worship team that was there. Even though we could barely hear the music I still felt God saying that we should do this because people can see what we're doing and there was actually someone sitting there with their camera recording us. IT WAS GRRRREAAAAAAT!!! haha ;D
ok so that was Saturday. THen the week began at Prince Kin, which is a kindergarden that one of our members mom works at. We teach two different times. Once during the morning and once in the afternon. We prety much just spend all day there, but it's not to bad. One thing that we all are very gratful for is nap time. We have all been quite tired and we get to sleep for at least 1 hour, which is awesome!!
The kids in the morning are mixed aged. Half of them are very quiet and the other half is loud. The first day kids are always quiet and shy, but I think part of the reason they did talk was because there was candy. There was one kid that knew all the answers and got pretty much all the candy and there wasn't a chance that the other kids could have gotten any. I fell as if that was part of the reason that some of the kids were quiet, but since then they have all participated in answering questions and have opened up quite a bit. 2 of the are still a bit quiet, but I know that they know what we are teaching them.
The afternoon kids are very loud and have a ton of energey. I really don't understand where half of it comes from. The first day I noticed a few kids where buddist necklaces and I thought to myself that they were the ones I needed to keep in mind, but the next day I didn't see any of them wearing one. It was kind of weird, but I think that was Gods way of telling me that it doesn't matter who is what religion because all of these children are improtant. Because our groups were big and hard to control we were split into 2 different teams. I had the majority of the boys and 2 of the girls, but I don't have a translator and I thoguht that it was going to be very hard, but so far it hasn't been to bad. I prayed to God to give me words to speak and he is starting to, but I know there is more to come.
Today we talked about their families a little bit, and it was really interesting. One girl didn't have a dad, on was buddist, one was catholic, one said that she prayed by herself in her room, and one didn't really know what we were talking about. I felt like a didn't know what to do because they were al different, so all I told them was that God will always love them and I hope that they herad those words. There is one boy named Jay and today he asked, "if I get angry will God run away?" I told him, "No, he will always be in you heart if you believe who he is." and the next thing I knew he said that he wanted to know and believe in Jesus!!
SO there have been many things that encouraged me and I hope that it has encouraged you as well. Please continue to Pray for Wendy in Tien Liao, even though we are not there pray that God still stirs in her heart. Also just pray for all the kids at Prince Kin especially Jay and him knowing God even more. Also that God would give our team physical and spritual strength to last the next 2 days and God would speak words of truth through all of us.
I think that this will be my last post so if you want to know more please email me at cuchanger@yahoo.com.
so let's start off with Tien Liao.
It was actually not what I was expecting, but it was still good. I thought that it would be all little kids and it turned out to be like 20 little kids and 15 middle schoolers. AHH...haha not really. I had one of the jr. high groups and with junior high kids often time get the quiet kids and it's usually just one or two instead of the entire group, which made it somewhat difficult. When I first met them they all seemed to be really scared of me for some strange reason. Everytime I tried to talk to them they would run away. But I prayed and asked God to open their hearts and answer some of the question that we were asking. So the first day they were all fairly quiet and didn't say anything in and I thought they didn't want to sit next to me because I thought I smelled or something, but I didn't.
There was one girl...she always had a smile on her face and she was fairly happy, but she always covered her mouth and I wondered why. I saw a glimpse of her mouth and half her teeth were literally rotted away and it scared me, but I knew that there was a happy spirit inside of her and comforted me. Wendy was the name of this girl. She was one of the main ones that I was praying for and by the last day she was answering all of the questions that we had asked and she had a curiosity in what God looked like. We told that if se prayed and asked she would see him maybe. But God doesn't normally reveal himself to people, but I prayed that God would give her a glimpse of himself so she would know that our God is more real than hers.
I also prayed that she would come to the praise night that we were having. There were many kids there before hand, but I didn't see Wendy and I was starting to think that no one from my small group would be there, but in walks Wendy and someone else that I didn't recognize. I asked her who it was and she had told me that it was her little sister and I was really encouraged that she had brought her little sister. They both had the smile and similar sests of teeth, but I knew that God was stiring in her heart. It came time for the altar call and she was one that raised her hand. We started praying over them and I looked and I saw her eyes closed and head bowed as though she knew what she was doing. Her smile was no longer there, but I knew she was trying to pray to the Lord. It was awesome. When we were all done and it was time to go she looked at me with a big smile and hugged me. I was touched, but I knew that God had started something up in her heart!
I wish I had blogged earlier cause I just realized how much stuff I still have yet to share with all of you. ok so anyways, that Saturday I don't really remember what we did during the day, but at night we were going to where the World Games were being held and we passed out tracks. It was really interesting cause I had passed out tracks before and usually it takes us a really long time to give them out, but this time the people were more will to take it and I saw many of them reading it and I was surprised that they didn't throw it out right away. I was really encouraged when I saw that. Another thing that we were going to do was body worship and at first we didn't have a place to use speakers to play the music and we were just going to not do it, but God provided phones that hold music for a reason. At first it was just three of us, the second time it was four, and the third time it was all of us on the worship team that was there. Even though we could barely hear the music I still felt God saying that we should do this because people can see what we're doing and there was actually someone sitting there with their camera recording us. IT WAS GRRRREAAAAAAT!!! haha ;D
ok so that was Saturday. THen the week began at Prince Kin, which is a kindergarden that one of our members mom works at. We teach two different times. Once during the morning and once in the afternon. We prety much just spend all day there, but it's not to bad. One thing that we all are very gratful for is nap time. We have all been quite tired and we get to sleep for at least 1 hour, which is awesome!!
The kids in the morning are mixed aged. Half of them are very quiet and the other half is loud. The first day kids are always quiet and shy, but I think part of the reason they did talk was because there was candy. There was one kid that knew all the answers and got pretty much all the candy and there wasn't a chance that the other kids could have gotten any. I fell as if that was part of the reason that some of the kids were quiet, but since then they have all participated in answering questions and have opened up quite a bit. 2 of the are still a bit quiet, but I know that they know what we are teaching them.
The afternoon kids are very loud and have a ton of energey. I really don't understand where half of it comes from. The first day I noticed a few kids where buddist necklaces and I thought to myself that they were the ones I needed to keep in mind, but the next day I didn't see any of them wearing one. It was kind of weird, but I think that was Gods way of telling me that it doesn't matter who is what religion because all of these children are improtant. Because our groups were big and hard to control we were split into 2 different teams. I had the majority of the boys and 2 of the girls, but I don't have a translator and I thoguht that it was going to be very hard, but so far it hasn't been to bad. I prayed to God to give me words to speak and he is starting to, but I know there is more to come.
Today we talked about their families a little bit, and it was really interesting. One girl didn't have a dad, on was buddist, one was catholic, one said that she prayed by herself in her room, and one didn't really know what we were talking about. I felt like a didn't know what to do because they were al different, so all I told them was that God will always love them and I hope that they herad those words. There is one boy named Jay and today he asked, "if I get angry will God run away?" I told him, "No, he will always be in you heart if you believe who he is." and the next thing I knew he said that he wanted to know and believe in Jesus!!
SO there have been many things that encouraged me and I hope that it has encouraged you as well. Please continue to Pray for Wendy in Tien Liao, even though we are not there pray that God still stirs in her heart. Also just pray for all the kids at Prince Kin especially Jay and him knowing God even more. Also that God would give our team physical and spritual strength to last the next 2 days and God would speak words of truth through all of us.
I think that this will be my last post so if you want to know more please email me at cuchanger@yahoo.com.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Intense Few Days [Priscilla Wan]
First off a praise report! The girl I asked you guys to pray about has received Jesus as her Savior. She even gave a testimony in front of the church about how God healed her and how she felt the presence of God at the Chao Ya praise night.
Ok. A lot has happened since my last blog. So much has happened that blogging it will feel like an injustice. We've been in Tien Liao for the last few days so we haven't had internet access. I'll try my best to give a very superficial overview:
We finished the 72 hours of continuous prayers (3 days). It was awesome. I love living in an environment where you know someone is praying all the time. We had about 25 people on the mission team praying and some people from the local churches too. We divided the time by 2 hour worship sets (live music) and 1 hour prayer slots. Throughout the event I could feel the atmosphere of the church changing. It became so peaceful... so close to God’s heart. On the second night we had a meeting in the main sanctuary and the Holy Spirit hit the room really hard. Adults, teens, kids were all crying at the altar as God filled the room. On the last day many people were sad that the continuous prayer was ending.
The next day I was absolutely blown away. MTL (Ministering to the Lord) time was only supposed to last 2 hours. But everyone ended up praying for 5 hours instead. You would think that after 72 hours of prayer people would want to “relax” and pray the minimum, but everyone wanted to pray more. We ended up crying out for our lost (or wandering) family members. It was a very powerful night with a lot of tears. When it was time to go to bed, I went upstairs and found a 17 year old Taiwanese girl (on our team) propped up on her bed listening to “Consuming Fire” and reading her Bible. I was so moved that after so much prayer people still used their free time to worship God.
The next day we went to Tien Liao to minister. This church is in the poorest community of the three (Tien Liao, Shou San, Chao Ya). Some people from Chao Ya decided to join the mission team (after we ministered at their church and invited them to the 72 hour prayer event) so our numbers grew to almost 30 people. For three days we held a VBS/English camp at a local school. On the last day we gave an altar call and 15 kids accepted Christ. We invited everyone to a praise night and at the praise night we laid hands on the kids and prayed for them. God really revealed His love to some of them event to the point of tears. They sincerely worshipped and prayed to God. A lot of people think that kids can’t understand or aren’t mature enough to worship or enjoy the love of God. But Jesus loves the little children. I was so moved to see God touching these little ones.
There were a lot of other things that happened. I wish I could tell it all well enough for those who are praying for us to understand that their intercession and fasting is truly working! God is anointing our prayer times and people’s hearts are being changed. I have no doubt that this is because a team of prayer warriors back in America are spiritually fighting with us. So, I genuinely thank you guys for your love.
Prayer Requests:
1. We’ve been working the mission team members really hard. Literally all the stuff has been back to back with virtually no break time in between. Sincere the spiritual atmosphere of the mission has become very intense, it can easily become draining. Pray that God will help the team members to utilize their MTL (Ministering to the Lord) time to refresh their spirits.
2. Chao Ya has invited us back to their church to run their Sunday Service tomorrow. Pray for an anointing over the service and that many people we meet the Lord.
3. Pray for Wang Zi Li school. We are ministering there for a week staring on Monday. Pray that God will capture the heart of those kids.
Ok. A lot has happened since my last blog. So much has happened that blogging it will feel like an injustice. We've been in Tien Liao for the last few days so we haven't had internet access. I'll try my best to give a very superficial overview:
We finished the 72 hours of continuous prayers (3 days). It was awesome. I love living in an environment where you know someone is praying all the time. We had about 25 people on the mission team praying and some people from the local churches too. We divided the time by 2 hour worship sets (live music) and 1 hour prayer slots. Throughout the event I could feel the atmosphere of the church changing. It became so peaceful... so close to God’s heart. On the second night we had a meeting in the main sanctuary and the Holy Spirit hit the room really hard. Adults, teens, kids were all crying at the altar as God filled the room. On the last day many people were sad that the continuous prayer was ending.
The next day I was absolutely blown away. MTL (Ministering to the Lord) time was only supposed to last 2 hours. But everyone ended up praying for 5 hours instead. You would think that after 72 hours of prayer people would want to “relax” and pray the minimum, but everyone wanted to pray more. We ended up crying out for our lost (or wandering) family members. It was a very powerful night with a lot of tears. When it was time to go to bed, I went upstairs and found a 17 year old Taiwanese girl (on our team) propped up on her bed listening to “Consuming Fire” and reading her Bible. I was so moved that after so much prayer people still used their free time to worship God.
The next day we went to Tien Liao to minister. This church is in the poorest community of the three (Tien Liao, Shou San, Chao Ya). Some people from Chao Ya decided to join the mission team (after we ministered at their church and invited them to the 72 hour prayer event) so our numbers grew to almost 30 people. For three days we held a VBS/English camp at a local school. On the last day we gave an altar call and 15 kids accepted Christ. We invited everyone to a praise night and at the praise night we laid hands on the kids and prayed for them. God really revealed His love to some of them event to the point of tears. They sincerely worshipped and prayed to God. A lot of people think that kids can’t understand or aren’t mature enough to worship or enjoy the love of God. But Jesus loves the little children. I was so moved to see God touching these little ones.
There were a lot of other things that happened. I wish I could tell it all well enough for those who are praying for us to understand that their intercession and fasting is truly working! God is anointing our prayer times and people’s hearts are being changed. I have no doubt that this is because a team of prayer warriors back in America are spiritually fighting with us. So, I genuinely thank you guys for your love.
Prayer Requests:
1. We’ve been working the mission team members really hard. Literally all the stuff has been back to back with virtually no break time in between. Sincere the spiritual atmosphere of the mission has become very intense, it can easily become draining. Pray that God will help the team members to utilize their MTL (Ministering to the Lord) time to refresh their spirits.
2. Chao Ya has invited us back to their church to run their Sunday Service tomorrow. Pray for an anointing over the service and that many people we meet the Lord.
3. Pray for Wang Zi Li school. We are ministering there for a week staring on Monday. Pray that God will capture the heart of those kids.
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