Our Christmas Date
16 hours ago
Friday, June 25, 2010
The Man with the Taser
A few weeks ago, the kids and I were at Ikea. (WooHoo for Ikea! I love that place. Seriously.) A couple of men from the bank were restocking the ATM. One man was doing the actual restocking of cash while the second man stood behind him with a Taser aimed and ready. I assume this was to deter us shoppers from attacking the man and it was a very good deterrent. Ethan immediately noticed that the man's "gun" seemed to be deformed and had lots of questions. After I explained that it wasn't really a gun but a taser and then explained what a taser was for and then explained why the man had a taser (that question came from Abbey), Ethan had just one more question. "Hey, Mama, if you taser someone, will they be dedicated?" To which I replied, "Probably not, but if that were the case, Mama could make a fortune selling it to pastors."
Revival in Taipei
Everyone, I am so excited about Taipei!!! Before I get to the good part, let me give you a little history.
When Chris and I first came back to Taiwan as a married couple 9 years ago, we moved to Taipei to start a church. We were 22 at the time and I think the experience was more to let us know that we didn't know Jack. Needless to say, a church did not get started and we eventually came down to Kaohsuing. Now, fast forward to last year. We had an evangelist from the States, who felt a great burden for Taipei, help us with some outreach that resulted in a weekly Bible Study Class in Taipei. Taipei is 6 hours driving from Kaohsiung, but thank God we have the bullet train which takes about an hour and a half to two hours. Chris has been going up every Saturday (along with Jing Hwa) and teaching this class. That means an early morning and a long day right before Sunday. (If you have read the LiGang Report here , you know we have three services on Sunday.)
Now, for the exciting part!! Chris just baptized the first person in Taipei this month!! We had two of our Taipei people to receive the Holy Ghost at our national conference back in February, but this is the first baptism. And, for the REALLY BIG NEWS, Chris will start having services there later this year! There is going to finally be an Apostolic, Chinese church in Taipei!!
When Chris and I first came back to Taiwan as a married couple 9 years ago, we moved to Taipei to start a church. We were 22 at the time and I think the experience was more to let us know that we didn't know Jack. Needless to say, a church did not get started and we eventually came down to Kaohsuing. Now, fast forward to last year. We had an evangelist from the States, who felt a great burden for Taipei, help us with some outreach that resulted in a weekly Bible Study Class in Taipei. Taipei is 6 hours driving from Kaohsiung, but thank God we have the bullet train which takes about an hour and a half to two hours. Chris has been going up every Saturday (along with Jing Hwa) and teaching this class. That means an early morning and a long day right before Sunday. (If you have read the LiGang Report here , you know we have three services on Sunday.)
Now, for the exciting part!! Chris just baptized the first person in Taipei this month!! We had two of our Taipei people to receive the Holy Ghost at our national conference back in February, but this is the first baptism. And, for the REALLY BIG NEWS, Chris will start having services there later this year! There is going to finally be an Apostolic, Chinese church in Taipei!!
Monday, June 14, 2010
God's Soldier
I overheard this conversation recently.
Ethan to Abbey: "Hey! Let's pretend I'm a soldier, a soldier for God. Now, SIT DOWN AND TELL ME WHAT BIBLE STORIES YOU'VE LEARNED!!"
Man, I sure hope she has been listening in Sunday School!
Ethan to Abbey: "Hey! Let's pretend I'm a soldier, a soldier for God. Now, SIT DOWN AND TELL ME WHAT BIBLE STORIES YOU'VE LEARNED!!"
Man, I sure hope she has been listening in Sunday School!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Droplets of Doubt
Lately I have been thinking about something. I am going to try and put it into words, but if I fail, I apologize. CAUTION: Potential Rambling Ahead.
Lately, I catch myself like Peter walking on the water. I am "walking" and then in the middle of some action, doubt sneaks in like a horde of gnats. Small, yet still annoying. Just for example. As most of you know, I am currently studying Chinese. I have been in Taiwan for almost 9 years, but I haven't had a chance to officially start studying Chinese until last November. (By the by, THANK YOU so much ED Asia supporters for making it possible!) I have one teacher that has a lot of faith in my ability to understand Chinese. We have great conversations. Our class is two hours long and somewhere around one hour, I will have a moment where doubt sneaks in. She will be talking and I will be understanding everything, then my brain will suddenly say, "Hey! Wait, is she speaking Chinese? You can't understand this much Chinese! Hold on!" And in that moment, I will FORGET EVERY CHINESE WORD I KNOW!!!! I have to literally give myself a pep talk and say, "You can do this. You can understand her just fine. Pull yourself together." Now, while this is annoying, I have just been figuring that my brain was on overload and not really thinking to much about these little episodes. Until Sunday.
We had an incredible service Sunday night. If you missed it, poor, poor you. I mean, it would have been worth the flight from the States for just that service. During a time of deep prayer and God was doing awesome things in every ones lives, I was talking with God. I know God's voice. I know how He speaks to me. But right in the middle of our conversation, that same voice of doubt popped up and said, "Are you really sure that you are talking to God? Maybe you have just been talking to yourself for all these years." WHOA! Hold on a minute. I can accept that my brain is on overload with Chinese, but on overload with God? Not happening. And in that moment, I realized that voice of doubt was my enemy. An enemy that would not like to see me succeed in learning Chinese, would not like to see me succeed in my ministry and certainly would not like to see me succeed in hearing the voice of God. Something I had been writing off was trying to plant seeds in my mind that I do not want there.
As Christians, I think we can never take our eyes off of the ultimate goal. Heaven, people, that is the ultimate goal. Don't forget it.
Lately, I catch myself like Peter walking on the water. I am "walking" and then in the middle of some action, doubt sneaks in like a horde of gnats. Small, yet still annoying. Just for example. As most of you know, I am currently studying Chinese. I have been in Taiwan for almost 9 years, but I haven't had a chance to officially start studying Chinese until last November. (By the by, THANK YOU so much ED Asia supporters for making it possible!) I have one teacher that has a lot of faith in my ability to understand Chinese. We have great conversations. Our class is two hours long and somewhere around one hour, I will have a moment where doubt sneaks in. She will be talking and I will be understanding everything, then my brain will suddenly say, "Hey! Wait, is she speaking Chinese? You can't understand this much Chinese! Hold on!" And in that moment, I will FORGET EVERY CHINESE WORD I KNOW!!!! I have to literally give myself a pep talk and say, "You can do this. You can understand her just fine. Pull yourself together." Now, while this is annoying, I have just been figuring that my brain was on overload and not really thinking to much about these little episodes. Until Sunday.
We had an incredible service Sunday night. If you missed it, poor, poor you. I mean, it would have been worth the flight from the States for just that service. During a time of deep prayer and God was doing awesome things in every ones lives, I was talking with God. I know God's voice. I know how He speaks to me. But right in the middle of our conversation, that same voice of doubt popped up and said, "Are you really sure that you are talking to God? Maybe you have just been talking to yourself for all these years." WHOA! Hold on a minute. I can accept that my brain is on overload with Chinese, but on overload with God? Not happening. And in that moment, I realized that voice of doubt was my enemy. An enemy that would not like to see me succeed in learning Chinese, would not like to see me succeed in my ministry and certainly would not like to see me succeed in hearing the voice of God. Something I had been writing off was trying to plant seeds in my mind that I do not want there.
As Christians, I think we can never take our eyes off of the ultimate goal. Heaven, people, that is the ultimate goal. Don't forget it.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
LiGang Report
You all, I meant to post this blog a few months ago, but I wanted to post pictures with it and that turned into a BIG fiasco! After messing with the pictures forever, I forgot that I didn't actually post this! So, 3 months late, here is the wonderful news I wanted to share!
March 21st, we had our first service in LiGang (pronounced Lee Gah-ng), about 45 minutes Northeast of Kaohsiung. Chris has been teaching a Bible study class there since December 2009, and we had two people from this Bible study receive the Holy Ghost at our national conference this year in February. One of the ladies who attends the class is currently loaning us, free of charge, the first floor of a building she owns. God bless her!
Chris wasn't sure what to expect for the first service, but God amazed and astounded us! We had 39 people in attendance, with only 13 of those being from the Kaohsuing church! Then, then, we had two people receive the Holy Ghost for the first time!! There was such an awesome move of God's spirit and confirmation that this was the right step to take. So, praise God and keep us in prayer (especially Chris) as Sunday now has three back to back services.
We had our official church dedication last month and I am sorry to say that I forgot how many people we had in attendance, but we ran out of chairs and several of us stood for the whole service. Dad Bracken preached for us and once again, we had a wonderful move of God's spirit. Oh yeah, here is the slide show that I wanted to post before.
March 21st, we had our first service in LiGang (pronounced Lee Gah-ng), about 45 minutes Northeast of Kaohsiung. Chris has been teaching a Bible study class there since December 2009, and we had two people from this Bible study receive the Holy Ghost at our national conference this year in February. One of the ladies who attends the class is currently loaning us, free of charge, the first floor of a building she owns. God bless her!
Chris wasn't sure what to expect for the first service, but God amazed and astounded us! We had 39 people in attendance, with only 13 of those being from the Kaohsuing church! Then, then, we had two people receive the Holy Ghost for the first time!! There was such an awesome move of God's spirit and confirmation that this was the right step to take. So, praise God and keep us in prayer (especially Chris) as Sunday now has three back to back services.
We had our official church dedication last month and I am sorry to say that I forgot how many people we had in attendance, but we ran out of chairs and several of us stood for the whole service. Dad Bracken preached for us and once again, we had a wonderful move of God's spirit. Oh yeah, here is the slide show that I wanted to post before.
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