people we've met, including the man from the breakfast shop and our contacts from the Taichung outreach so far, including a young social worker named Miriam (she is from Tainan and won't be here tomorrow, but hopes to come to our event in Tainan on Friday)
weather – it's been cold, windy, and wet these few days, and we'd love some warmth and sunshine, especially since it'll encourage visitors to stay longer to listen and chat
health – some team members not operating at 100%; may God be their strength and sustenance (Grace, Alan)
two more Kaohsiung-ers are joining us tomorrow, Jenny and Anderson, Taiwanese believers who will be a great help due to their language fluency!
tomorrow evening, we are doing a more formal outreach event from 7 to 9pm. Pray for God to bring specific souls through the door to learn more about Him and the truth, and for our team to be the best messengers that we can.
We just got confirmation that a church in Tainan will be able to work with us to hold an outreach evening on Friday! We'll be working with Living Waters church, and apparently there will be a group of college students able & willing to help us out on Friday as well.
In the morning, we went to the Taipei 101 area and sang some songs out on the walkway before heading inside to the bookstore. We thought we might be able to share some of our giveaway materials with passersby, but as it turned out, not many people were walking around. It was quite cold, windy, and rainy, so that may have contributed! In the end, we handed out some Bible storybooks to a few kids and spent the rest of our time on prayer walks.
After lunch, we headed to Taichung where we are currently staying with two missionaries in this area, Woody and Tony. They have been super helpful with providing us a venue to do an outreach event tomorrow (Thursday) night and showing us the best area to do some outreach beforehand. In fact, they run an ORTV (English Bible study) evening every Thursday, but they have a “break” this week for Chinese New Year. So us Kaohsiung-ers will use that time to do our song/skit/testimony outreach.
We spent our evening checking out an area of the nearby Yi-jong night market where Woody advised us to set up camp for outreach. Luke played a few songs on his guitar and the rest of us walked around talking with the onlookers, getting to know them and inviting them to return the next day for our more formal event. Many were just travelling through like us and therefore will not be around tomorrow, but we will keep getting the word out tomorrow and see who God brings.
We packed up early in the morning with plans for spending some more time hiking some trails on our way to Taipei. Upon returning to our vans after a breakfast stop, however, we discovered that the keys to one of the vans had been locked inside the car! We weren't sure who to call for help since all the shops in the area were closed for the New Year break. Minor calamity! Major delay!
Our prayer for this latest dilemma was simply to recognize God's sovereignty in the situation. Just this morning, we read from Isaiah 45:5-6
“I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things.”
How was this “calamity” to be used for his glory??
As some of the guys tried their hand at jimmying the lock, others went back to the breakfast shop to ask for their advice. The shop owner was very kind to call some locksmiths in the area and find one whose shop was still open. However, he was in the middle of grocery shopping, so we had to wait for him to return! So a few of us talked more with the shop workers, and eventually asked if they would like to listen to some songs and see a skit, since we had a bunch prepared. It was basically a family-run business, along with one university student who was helping out. After the locksmith arrived (and opened the door in about 5 seconds with his special tools, hehe!), we all gathered in the breakfast shop and shared a song and a skit with them.
As it turned out (!), the father of this family attends a nearby Christian church, although, from what we could understand, the rest of his family does not go with him. He was very excited once he found out we were Christians going around with these songs and skits. We had a short but sweet time chatting with them, then departed soon after.
It seems a small thing, but what a great encounter God set up for us! We pray (and ask that you would pray along with us) that the Lord would open the eyes of this man's family members to see & know Christ as their saviour.
The rest of the day was spent travelling to Taipei, and we slept almost immediately upon arriving!
Pictures:
Iris giving some evangelical CDs/DVDs to the father of the family after our song/skit sharing.
The majority of today was spent wandering through the natural splendors of Taroko Gorge. Misty mountains, soaring cliffs, rushing rivers... breath-taking stuff.
"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God." Psalm 90:2
We continue to reflect on God's HUGEness and IN-CONTROLness. We serve a sovereign Lord! Today afforded us a longer chance to rest & refresh, and spend more time getting to know each other better as brothers & sisters. Tomorrow we head up to northern Taiwan!
Pictures:
journeying through Taroko Gorge (the hats are for possible falling rocks; we are not mining anything!)
Team decisions 1
Team decisions 2
Team decisions 3
Team decisions 4
No wonder it takes us so long to get things done...
Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: "To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance."
