This week we had a very laid-back house church meeting at A-liong's house. Everyone was tired from a busy Chinese new year week. A-liong gave his testimony to the group about how he came to understand the peace of Christ. He told the story of how he always had feared the gods and ghost of Taiwan, leaving him uneasy. Yet as he came to understand more and more about Jesus he said that fear got less and less, until it no longer effected him. Shortly after he came to that point he made a choice to accept Christ as his savior. You could tell that the group was encourage by this testimony and others were really challenged by it. This was a great step in A-liong's faith.

We recently Juan said that she is a Christian. She recently told her mother-in-law that she can no longer participate in the folk worship, as she is now a Christian. Pray that God would continue to work in her, and that she could grow in her knowledge of God's grace.

We have been encourage people to invite their friends and neighbors to house church, and this past few time we saw a few new faces. A-liong invited his friend Mr. Iu, who came with his wife and kids. Han-lim and Lily brought along Mr. Ko and his wife, who is also a foreign bride. In addition the Liau family was there too. One challenge in reaching Mr. Iu and the Liau family is that they don't always reside in Chia-yi, the husbands have found work outside of Chia-yi. Mr. Iu is gone from Monday to Friday, and Mr. Liau and his family disappear for months at time. We had a great time sitting around the tea pot chatting. Pray that we can see more of these folks.

In addition to Tea Night and House Church we have continued to work on various projects. Jen has been doing illustrations for the next mini-Bible, and illustrations to help the production of the Po-te-hi project. I have been helping with script and been getting great help from Lim Chun-iok, a Taiwanese living in Boston. (Information on his DVD in Chinese) We have also been looking into expanding the Christian KTV material, both figuring out what is needed to do it right, and how to do it. Also, we have been maintaining follow of material to Ten Seconds prayer movement, and preparing an updated website. Pray for these projects, and that God would be able to use these efforts.

This past week we had house Church at A-liong's house. We had a nice time of fellowship and studying about Jesus. What was exciting was how all the believers talked about sharing their faith. Mrs. Liau discussed sharing her faith at the memorial service with her family. A-liong's wife discussed her burden to reach her neighbors and friends. And finally Hoat's wife, Ping, wants to reach out to her mom during Chinese New Year.

This year was our second Christmas outreach cookout. We had a good crowd and a good number of new people. This was exciting as many we e invited by us directly. This year we tried something new for our main activity. Using similar techniques as Walk Thru the Bible, pairing hand motions with nemonic phrases to remember the story of the Bible. Kerstin Richter, our OMF teammate, used this method to illustrate creation to the coming of Jesus. Kerstin led people through the motions and phrases, then we had people repeat it. Almost everyone was involved, and we even had people stop to watch. It was a great time of fellowship of the Christians and an excellent first exposure to Christianity for many others.
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A-liong, along with Han-lims daughter got baptized on the 24th. They were baptized at one of the churches with which we partner, Chai-yi South Church. A-liong has been reading his Bible, trying to read it daily. He and his wife want to open their home to be place where people can hear about Jesus. Han-lim only a week before finally consented to allow his daughter to be baptized. He is now the only person in his house who is not a believer in Christ. It was also great to hear the testimony of his daughter burden for others and prayer.
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We participated in the City wide Christmas parade. Many churches and Christian schools come out to do a circuit through the town. This year the parade was longer and better attended than previous years. Families lined the road to watch, and eagerly accepted mini-Bible portions, the very one Jen just finished illustrating. The response was so strong that we realized we did not prepare enough. Maybe one third of the way through the parade we were out of mini-Bible, having given out about 1200 of them.

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Jen was asked to do illustrations for the new mini-Bibles that we will be producing. These illustrations are done in a more Asian style. Our goal was to have them produced in time for Christmas, which gave Jen a tight deadline. The mini-Bible is an introduction to Jesus, and includes His birth and the calming of storm. The illustrations were just sent to Taipei. Pray that the printing goes as scheduled so we can get them in time!

House Church during November has been really interesting. It is clear that Holy Spirit is at work. Han-lim told us about how his older daughter wants to be baptized. At first he seemed very opposed to the idea, but he seems to be considering it more and more. After a discussion on prayer he prayed that God would “help him with his unbelief” as he now half believes.
This last Sunday A-sia* showed signs that the Gospel is at work in him. It was clear to him and his wife that Christianity was different than other religions, which base judgement on how good you are. They are struggling, as many do, with the idea of grace not being fair. Han-lim, A-sia* and his wife Juan are all coming closer to the Gospel, pray that His mercy and Love would lead them to repentance.

We had house church last night and tried something new, Christian KTV. At OMF field conference our team heard of Christian lyrics that had been put to the melody of an old KTV song. I made KTV disc with the lyrics, music, and pictures from Taiwan and we played it on the TV. People sang more than they ever had before. It was so cool to see them enjoying singing together.

In addition a few cool testimonies given. A-liong shared how his faith has given him more peace in his life. A-sia's wife, who not a believer, shared how God quickly answered her prayer for a place to start a business, and beyond what she asked. A-liong's wife Zhen also told about how God provided financing for their house, which they have dedicated to God and His service.

Christian KTV, Discussing Jesus calming the storm, Kids coloring and playing together. (click for more pictures)

After hearing that Olivia's bone marrow transplant was unsuccessful her husband, my language partner Mr. Chhoa asked if we could have a prayer meeting for her. He has never been that open to the Gospel, so it spoke volumes to me that he asked this. We put the word out to friends and former students of Olivia and had about 30 people show up on her birthday to pray for her and speak words of encouragement.
Me, Susan, Amy, & Jen

About two months ago I asked Hoat where he thought the other guys at Tea Night were in relationship to Jesus.  He said that A-liong was the closest.   I really didn't see it then, but in the past month A-liong has just had incredible things to say at Tea Night, and has seemed to start to understand the Gospel.  

Tonight, Wayne I went out to his house to have tea.  After chatting for a while Wayne asked what he had been thinking about after coming to our Tea Night for about 10 months.  He thought for a while, stared at the roof, and said that the thing he noticed is that he no longer wanted to worship temple gods as he passed.  In the past he was in the habit of going into some temples he passed to worship, but now he had no desire to worship them.  He then mentioned that was a problem for Han-lim, and that problem kept Han-lim from becoming a Christian.  

I asked A-liong if there was any problem in his heart that held him back from fully believing in Jesus.   He thought about it, looked at the roof, and said that he had no reason not to believe in Jesus.  I reminded him of the truth he had pulled from the scripture that we can only get back to God through Jesus.  He thought about it, and said he was willing to pray with us, if we helped him pray.  Wayne then prayed with him to accept Christ as his savior.  It was clear that a-liong descion made an impact on both him and his wife.  His wife looked overjoyed, and his decision was deeply felt.
A-liong at recent cookout with Tea Night guys

We had a very rainy cookout at Han-lims. But people still came out to chat and eat together. Although some of those people Han-lim invited did not come many others did come, like his big sister.
Hoat's daughter A-Sia

Our men's tea night times have been rather exciting these past few weeks. They guys have been not only coming, but consistently approaching spiritual topics and being willing to get into the word. But really it has been more that just reading and listening. They have really been interacting with the word, struggling to pull out the meaning, and also willing to ask what does this mean.

We have bee going through various stories on grace. This past time we discussed the rich young ruler. I was startled at quiet A-liong strong response to a comment been Han-lim, "Don't you see, if one tries to reach God on his own he can't, he has to depend on God." It is clear that the gospel message is becoming understood, and there have been some strong challenges to the group. Pray for times to follow-up individually with A-liong, A-sia, and Han-lim.
A nice pic of Hoat telling it like it is...

The men's tea night has had some exciting times this past few weeks.  We have been discussing belief and disbelief in the gospels stories, and what Jesus' reaction is to statements like "help me in my disbelief."  It is clear that the men have been really challenged by these discussions, and they have really been interacting with the text in an exciting way.   We have been challenging some of the guys to take a step of faith and ask God to help them with their disbelief.

Met at A-liong's house this past Sunday. We had an impromptu cookout and birthday celebration for A-liong's son. Followed up with a Bible story on Jesus' Baptism. There was a lot of good discussion on the role of Baptism for believers. It was really good to see the families interacting and their confusion and misconceptions clear up by talking about Jesus' story and looking at the Bible.

Many people have asked about the house church. We met at the Chen's house this past Saturday night. One of the largest uncertainties was were people going to show up. Our last house church took 3 or 4 tries before people came. So it was a huge lift to our spirits as we showed up early to pray with the Chen's to find people were already there.

In the meeting we talked about what a church in the Bible is, and tried to talk about some of the misconceptions people have. Hoat was eager to help and even stepped up to read when others were hesitant to do so. Everyone was involved in the discussion and seemed to leave with a new perspective on what a church is, and what their church should be.

Since the Easter BBQ, our friend Siau-chong has been showing an increased interest in Jesus. He has been very open about Jesus and Bible stories. He has also been seeking us out and other Christians on a regular basis, even going to the men's tea night when Seann and I were out town.

Our family also visit A-khoan's family before going to A-liong's restaurant in the country. A-liong has been busy there and we had not seen each other since asked for a Bible. He says that he is still interested in finding out more, and I gave him one of our mini-Bible booklets he made sure I gave some to the workers at his store.

In the same manner as the Christmas Celebration we had a BBQ with many of our friends. A lot of them participated in a reenactment of the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. People really enjoyed playing roles from the story as Han-lim from Tea Night read through the story.

See Pictures at our teammates site.

Sunday night marked the first house church for the guys from our tea night meeting. People had a good time reading through the parable of the narrow door and discussing it. It was great to have everyone really involved in the discussion, especially the men. It was a very active and festive Taiwanese time, with singing, eating, chatting and tea. To see our friends really enjoy hearing about Jesus and praying for one another was the real highpoint.

See Pictures at our teammates site.

I had two good talks with two different guys named A-liong. The first one is the brother in law of A-khoan, who runs a bettle-nut stand near my house. I was out visiting people in the afternoon and ended up sitting down to have tea with A-khoan and a friend. I had been praying for opportunities to share more and follow up earlier talks, but I was not seeing anything sort of response to comments or questions. Then A-liong comes in. He said he had heard that I was there and came down the mountain from eel fishing to see me. He asked he if could get a Bible from me, and if I had one that was not too big. I told him I would bring him one soon. Then he said, "thats great. I can look it at then ask you questions, right?" So pray for him, that I can get one in his hands, and he will read it, and we have time to talk about it. Also, I think his friend and A-khoan were taken back by his aggressive desire to find out more about God. Pray that God protects his interest.

The second A-liong is the one who has been coming regularly to Tea Night. At Tea Night A-liong was the first to show up. He is usually the quietest guy, so this was a great chance to hear him say something about where he is at with God. He has stated before that he is investigating Christ. Last night he said that he has started trying to read the Bible on his own! He has found it hard to understand, and not that exciting. He felt bad that he did not have the same tenacity that Han-lim has, who is now up to Luke. I told him a bit about how hard it was for me to understand at first, but after asking God to help it became more and more clear to me. Wayne and I encouraged him to pray that God would open his heart and eyes to understand more. Pray that he does approach God, and that he would continue to seek the truth.
A-liong from the Tea Night at the Christmas Cookout

This past weekend our team met together to review last years annual plan, and to look forward planning for the upcoming year. As a team our primary vision is to see a house church within reach of and reaching out to every working class Taiwanese in Chai-yi and beyond. This is a huge goal, so that these meetings we spend a lot time making sure that what we are doing is pointing our efforts at this goal. At the end of the weekend and many hours of thought and debate it was great how God had used different peoples' gifting and thoughts to many some challenging but reachable goals. Although that many hours of planning, refining and reflecting can be taxing, it was definitely worth it.

Thursday's Days Tea night Hoat said that we should have a cookout, and we should have it at my house. There was nothing to say to that but, "great idea"

We had a great turn out. All of the men from our tea night outreach for men came. They brought their whole family. The kids, along with neighborhood kids, had a great time playing. Also my friend A-chai came out with his wife and kids. Although I have visited them before, this was the first time his wife was comfortable enough to come over to our house. Siau-chong came by later in the evening as well.

Jen got to speak some with Hoat's wife. She is a foriegn bride, and her Taiwanese is not very strong. She has been really encouraged to see the changes in Hoat's life since he became a believer.
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