Saturday, October 24, 2015

Pride goeth before destruction...

All my life, I have heard, "Pride goeth before a fall."  But that is actually a haughty spirit.  Pride just brings destruction.  Now, in the following story, I would like to think that I wasn't being prideful.  I didn't mean to be prideful if I was.  I was trying to do the Lord's work like a good, little girl.  But there was destruction.  Great, embarrassing destruction.  The kind that makes me wonder why I am sharing this, but well, funny stories must be told.
Earlier this year, we had special guest here in Taiwan.  We are blessed to often have guest who are willing to endure the long flight over and we are always very grateful.  However, these guest were a bit unusual in several ways.  1. They were younger.  2. Their whole family came. 3. They were here for a month. 4. They were here at a time when my mother-in-law was out of country.  So, I had a chance to host them for dinner at my house.  I love hosting guest and was really trying to put my best foot forward.  I set the table with my best dishes.  I cooked a great meal with homemade marinara sauce, homemade bread and some cute individual cheesecakes for dessert.  I'm not bragging, but I'm pretty good at cooking.  And eating, but we'll just talk about the cooking! 
So, we had all eaten this great dinner and it was time for the coffee and dessert.  I quickly cleared the table and got each person their preferred coffee or tea.  I had just sat down with my dessert and was enjoying the wonderful conversation when our guest speaker said something that hit me so funny.  And for the first time in my life, I spewed coffee out of my mouth and across the table!  I was very, very effective.  I hit the guest speaker, his wife, their coffee cups, my father-in-law's cup and the whole plate of little cheesecakes.  After all, I like to do things well!  I immediately clapped a hand over my mouth and fled to the bathroom.  The table sat in stunned silence.  I quickly washed up and returned to red-facedly apologized and began cleaning up the mess.  By this time, everyone had recovered and were laughing!  Well, I was laughing, but not recovered.
As you can imagine, this has been the source of many, many jokes and I am just happy that they had a good sense of humor about my "explosion".  I am a bit scarred now.  I just barely sip my drink if I am listening to anything funny.  After all, my mouth has already failed me once!



Saturday, October 10, 2015

Schedule

Many of you wonderful people have ask us when we are going to be back in the U.S..  In an effort to make life simpler for everyone, I am now posting a very simple schedule over on the right of this blog.  If you are interesting in having the Chris Bracken family at your church at some time, these are the dates that we will be in the US.  Also included are some of our events in Taiwan that we would love for you to help us pray for.  Thank You!

Christian Development Course in Chinese

Hello World!


Many of you have approached us over the years and ask for help when witnessing to Chinese people you have met.  You have made a new friend, but you've discovered that only so much can be communicated in nods, smiles and hand gestures!  Often, we wish we had something to immediately give to you since we might forget to mail a book back when we get home.  Well! Finally! This is hot off the presses and sure to help!  It is 40 Christian development courses translated into Chinese (Simplified characters)!  With his permission, one of the ladies here in Taiwan has translated Bro. Crawford Coon's A Reason of the Hope. You can download the Chinese lessons here:


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B20h0TRS5H1sQ3RLUXZYUnBLZzA/view?usp=sharing


You can download the English version here:


http://thedayaftertomorrow.net/ag5/Christian-Development-Course-A-Reason-of-the-Hope--ISBN-0961885335-9780961885335.pdf


We are elated to have this available!  Hopefully, this will be a blessing to you!  God bless!