So much joy in Taiwan!

Amber smile big1

God has given each one of us unique strengths and gifts. Unfortunately some people do not know what theirs are or do not invest time and energy into growing them and that often leaves them feeling like they are not doing enough or they feel like something is missing in life.

Recently I have found that God has given me different gifts that I did not know I had, and I also have felt lacking in other areas that I have not had opportunities to exercise my strengths.

As Amber and I have been studying Chinese full time, it hasn’t felt totally fulfilling because honestly, language is not one of my strengths. I do however, know that I am still able to grow in language and that it is of utmost importance if I am going to live here long term and reach people with the gospel in their own language.

Studying and teaching the Bible along with discipleship is something that is so fulfilling for me and are strengths that God has given me. I am also noticing that He has given me a passion for creativity. Since I moved on from staffing in the bible school, it has been a bit of a workout for my mind and heart to feel like I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. Yet I know that this is a season where I am growing in more ways than I can see right now. I am sure that God has Amber and I in the right place at the right time.

That being said, I don’t have much of an update to write but here are a few cool things that have been happening with us:

As of today, Amber and I have learned 400 Chinese characters and can use them correctly (most of the time haha).
This maybe doesn’t seem like much but for our brains and language understanding, it feels like a lot. Language is getting more and more interesting to me as I learn.
For example: The word “righteous” is composed of a “lamb” on top of the word “me”. I thought it was pretty cool that Chinese actually depicts a lamb over me to mean righteous.

YWAM Taiwan is now 35 years old as seen in this video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzNAyMJl0A4 (Amber and I are at the top left of the 35)
We are blessed to be a part of what God has done in Taiwan up to now and is still doing. There have been a number of new locations around Taiwan pioneered and we hope to reach the entire nation.
Recently we as a base also felt that God is saying to adopt a UPG (unreached people group) and make efforts to reach them. We have come to a decision about 4 different UPG locations and will be starting to send out teams in that direction. (Sorry I cannot share the details for security sake).

Amber and I had our 1 year anniversary!! We are loving being married and growing tons. We are learning every day how to lay down our lives for each other more and be a blessing to those around us. We got to do some really fun things including making a video time capsule that we will get to watch on our 10 year anniversary!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpud2uTviWM&feature=youtu.be
We both LOVE hospitality and welcoming people to stay at our home free of charge so please feel free to come to Taiwan and stay with us! We would love to have you here!

I teach an Intermediate English class at our English conversation café and last semester I only had one student named Terry who is a great guy, totally open and super friendly!
He has grown up atheist for his whole life but recently became interested in God from what people at the café had been sharing with him.
Over the last 2 semesters I have seen him change slowly and he now attends a Bible study, goes to church, and reads the bible every night. I have loved getting to know him and grow in friendship and we have had a number of opportunities to talk about God, the Bible and who Jesus is.

He still hasn’t decided to believe in Jesus yet because he wants to be sure about what he is going to believe in and he also would face many difficulties as a Christian where he is from. Please pray for him that God would be speaking to him and give him the strength to make hard decisions. It is worth everything and I really hope to see him come to know Jesus deeply!

Another Taiwanese friend of mine also was an atheist and had a speech impediment. I was praying for him and encouraged him to ask God to speak to him and to ask Jesus for healing. He then went away to America for some months and came back to meet me at the café, where he shared with me that He was healed of his speech impediment and has now accepted Jesus into his heart!!! He goes to church quite far away from where I live so I don’t see him often but that was so exciting to hear!

Prayer:

Something that we would love to have some prayer for is for the people of Taiwan over the next week and their families to be met by Jesus in this time because right now it is “Dragon boat festival” and that basically means that there will be a lot of parades through the streets for the purpose of worshiping idols and ancestors. I know that this is a common festival in America too but the purpose here is completely for the worship of idols and demons.
People sometimes will mutilate themselves to ward off spirits and they really need Jesus to break into their lives!

Thank you so much for being a part of our lives and for supporting us in prayer and financially! We are trying to stay in touch as much as possible so please shoot us a message. Let us know what we can be praying for you for!

Wednesday encouragement video: https://youtu.be/GhJvEKzukqg

Love is the Answer, Humility is the key, Jesus is the way!

Jacob and Amber President