Somewhat Sickly

Foremost, my apologies to the faithful viewers of this blog; we should like to have posted more pictures and videos than we have, but it has proven more difficult than we should have hoped it to be - uploading a single picture, for example, takes approximately twenty minutes. That's about the time it takes to heat up and eat a bowl of noodles, and I can't eat that much.

As the title suggests that someone is somewhat sickly, I will admit to being the somewhat sickly one, with some emphasis on the somewhat. All is well though, as I'm really quite enjoying the opportunity to slow down for a couple of days and let God use me in more subtle and relaxing ways. Consequently, for those who know me it will be of no surprise that I took to writing my thoughts in an essayistic form, but for the sake of not posting a four page document on this blog, relaying my thoughts to reflect that of Serve the Worlds, and getting philosophical on a more or less journalistic blog, I created one for my purposes. I'll still post on here to reflect on how the trip is going, but I'll periodically post my silly thinking on The Thinking Order (oh yeah) blog as well.

Returning to the purpose of this thread, Jerry and I had the awesome opportunity to speak at an orphanage last Saturday, and I must say that it was such a time of splendor. We did not take pictures, but someone there was and it'd be great to see if we could get our hands on them. We played games, I told stories while Jerry acted them out for me, and we gave many, many high-fives. Initially the children (6-12) were a bit uncertain of us, but after they watched us perform a slow-motion drama, they decided we were strange and fun - ten minutes, in fact, was designated to Jerry pretending to pass an invisible ball in slow-motion to various children, they would throw it back with incredible force and we would consequently be knocked over by it. As I said, I told the stories: the story of Jesus walking on water and Jesus talking to children, the story therein being that if we do what Jesus does we can do incredible things, and Jesus loves talking and spending time with children. We concluded with praying with the children and hanging out for a short while. It was amazing, and please pray for the children - I cannot fathom being an orphan, but they were so wonderful I should like them to know just how much God loves them.

We also thoroughly enjoyed riding through Taipei on the back of mopeds. I have and will continue to describe portions of the Asian transportational system as "Transportational Anarchy", but miraculously, it works. I took a couple of videos of this adventure, and hopefully will be able to upload them overnight. We viewed the 101 Building (tallest building in the world until a few weeks ago), enjoyed the Lantern Festival, and had a marvelous chat with our hosts - two of the church deacons: Joseph and June. As always, it was a pleasure to be able to share with our hosts.

This evening Jerry will be speaking at a local hospital (I wish I could be there, but due to my sickness was advised against it) and later this week I'll be speaking at a Juvenal Hall. Please be in prayer that I would share with them what the Lord would have me share; I have an idea, but I want to make sure it's His idea. We are daily challenged by God, and I admit openly that this has been a massively introspective trip for the both of us; as much as we're privileged to share with others, it is likely more beneficial to us, and I pray the stamina to joyfully walk through this time, and result a stronger, more loving and more faithful Believer.

Please pray for us as we begin the latter half of our time in Taiwan.

First Stop: Taiwan

As I sit here reflecting on the past two weeks, I can only think that life is good.  Life is good because God has taken me on an incredible journey just to get out here, and now that I'm here, I see why.  These first weeks in Taiwan have been full of spiritual growth and blessed ministry.  My thought has always been, "Ministry is people."  So far we've been given the opportunity to witness and talk to young professionals, youth of the church, those attending the Sunday morning church service, small groups, church staff, and complete strangers.  No matter what the audience though, my thoughts are with the individual people.  I want to know their lives, their hurts, their joys- and through honestly caring and loving people, allow God to open doors to share the gospel.

"You're a real cool guy," Lee said when he was walking away from me at Burger King.  We came upon the part in our schedule for the month called "Individual Evangelism."  Jason and I talked to the staff and said we would prefer to do this part of ministry in a very relational, comfortable setting for people.  So last Tuesday, I was taken to Burger King while our Taiwanese brothers and sisters went out in search of some people who wouldn't mind sitting down and talking to an American who recently arrived in Taiwan.  About 2 minutes later, four univeristy-aged people came on over.  I loved being able to sit down, ask them about their lives and see what they think about Jesus.  I found it is really easy to bring Jesus into the conversation when He's the reason you're in their country.  God started opening doors and I was able to explain to them Jesus and a love relationship with God and how it's different from just following a religion.  I could tell something was going on inside of them, especially my new friend Lee.  He was really thinking and asking a lot of really good questions.  Lee and his friend had to leave earlier than we would have liked, but I could tell that he walked away changed.  He didn't receive salvation that night, but for the first time, Lee was introduced to Jesus and a new life that God had planned for him.  While walking away, Lee stopped, looked at me and said, "You're a real cool guy."  For me, that was awesome.  He saw that I didn't view him as unsaved person A.  He was able to sit down and talk to someone who for some reason cared about him and without judging him or his past actions, tell him about God's sacrificial love and grace through Jesus.  I handed him a paper with my testimony in English and Chinese as well as some information on the back about giving your life to Christ- so please pray for Lee.  In our talk I could see how God loved him so much and had an awesome plan for him- please pray for his salvation and journey with God!

In other Taiwan news, here are some pictures of some fantastic people we have met in Taiwan:

We are staying right next to the National Taiwan University- which is a dream for me because I get to walk over there everyday and play basketball!  I've been able to meet some great guys over there.

This is Jason watching intently during a youth group game.  These guys are great- I was able to speak with them afterwards about living as a Christian and they took us out to eat on Sunday- great group of youth.

This was pretty much our man night with our friends Jun and Joseph.  We are here posing with medals at a promo stand for the deaf olympics later this year in Taipei.

These two people are Joseph and Esther.  They are awesome and some of the most wonderful hosts ever.  They always take us out to eat and we've probably spent most of our ministry time with them.  Two of the coolest Taiwanese people we've met.

At the National Taiwan University, there was an anime convention and students were dressing up like characters from Japanese comics and shows.  This is me looking like a ninja with my ninja clan.

Well that's all for now.  Thank you to everyone once again for all you're prayers!  This is truly God's trip.  He's calling the shots and we're lovin the ride!  All credit goes to Him for anything good that's happening, so remember to thank Him!  Jason and I are doing great and feeling alive!

Jesus bless,

Jerry 

Jason & Jerry as Brought to you by Taiwan

Hello All,

Well, here we are in Taiwan and finally making our first post - well, at least I am; I think Jerry still needs some nagging before he'll post. But in truth, we've been exceptionally busy, especially since we got here from Japan.

Japan was, well, amazing - a true blessing from God to have an opportunity to rest before serving the countries hosting us. We had the opportunity to see many of the sites of Tokyo and be blown away by God's blessings for where and who we stayed with; this is a story, I'll try and be brief:

Jerry and I got off the train station in the middle of Tokyo and, frankly, it was a miracle that we made it that far. It would seem though that we are both experts of the old, celebrated immagrant technique of standing somewhere looking very helpless - which, if done correctly, inspires local folks to come to your rescue, and by God's grace it worked. From that station, we had directions rather hard to understand to a hotel with no english name; more staring helplessly, and God sent more helpers to bring us to the seventh floor of a building which in fact did not look like your standard hotel. In faith, we rang the bell and waited to see what happened - if perhaps we had been sent to a place where they kidnap foreigners for ransom and make them wear rediculous hats. A few minutes later and we were in the presence of amazing people who started a hotel for missionaries and had been prayerfully awaiting our arrival with (literally) praise and worship to God... Twenty blessings later, we went to our rooms and fell on our faces in thanks to God.

That's, honestly, but one small story in the numerous stories we've been daily experiencing. God is amazing and I'm certain these blessings are the product of his graciousness and the innumerable prayers of his saints for us. Please, keep praying.

Now in Taiwan, we've been put in the awesome and humbling position of coming alongside a church in teaching, preaching and evangelizing. In reverence, yesterday, we really came to the realization just how much the church here is looking to us to set an example and help them by serving in knowledge and wisdom, and by emphasizing the absolute importance of relationship in light of the cross. Please pray for us as we help in this church and have the opportunity to share our faith with unbelievers, deacons, pastors, and layman; the opportunity to speak to kids in a juvanile prison; the opportunity to give joy to children in an orphanage. Please pray, for the good Lord has shown many awesome opportunities to serve, and we wish deeply to do so with faith, obedience, wisdom and love.

Love you all.