President’s in Taiwan

A lot of exciting things have been happening over the last month so I thought I’d take a few minutes to share some of those stories.

Visa Miracle
Thank you so much for praying with us throughout our visa crisis. On Friday we received an email saying that those of us who have visas expiring in July (Amber & I included), have officially been given the paperwork needed to get our one year extensions! We are still waiting to hear back from the visa office about whether or not the group with visas expiring in August will get the same results. As a base we are still praying for another option for obtaining visas in the future. However for now, we are all praising God for this breakthrough because it truly looked like an impossible situation for a while.

Joy’s Baptism
Some of you might remember Amber’s friend Joy from Vietnam. In Amber’s last update, she wrote about Joy receiving Christ and how she’s the only Christian in her family. Last week, Joy went back home to Vietnam. A couple weeks before leaving, Amber had the privilege of attending her baptism. The most exciting part about this particular baptism was that it wasn’t just one or two people getting baptized but 25 people made their public declaration for Christ that day! Joy’s mom and two younger brothers were able to attend the baptism as well so she briefly had a chance to meet them. Although Joy is the only believer in her family right now, she is boldly sharing with them about the transformation that God has been doing in her life.

Joy plans on returning to Taiwan in September either for a short visit or to find a more sustainable job. Please pray for her in these coming months that she will be able to find other believers in Vietnam who she can have fellowship with while she’s there.

Stand for Life
Another great opportunity that Amber and I had recently taken part in is something called ‘Stand for Life’. We partnered with another organization that is fighting to promote adoption over abortion here in Taiwan. They brought in families from all over to share their experiences about adoption. The adopted children also took part in the program by performing some beautiful songs and dances.

Abortion is something we are against. At the same time, we fully believe that as Christians we are called to love on people around us even when we don’t agree on the same issues. That’s why it was so refreshing for us to see and take part in this event. Not once did we hear people shaming pregnant women who are being faced with many difficult decisions. Instead they were giving a very practical solution for women who may not want an abortion but feel like there are no other options out there.

String Art Blessings
I am still loving making string art. A few weeks ago as I was teaching my English class about different hobbies, I used pictures of my string art as an example. One of my students (Andrew) showed a lot of interest and asked if I would make a Taiwan map string art piece for him to which I agreed.

After making the piece, I delivered it to Andrew at our café and another girl who was sitting at the table showed interest in the piece as well. Andrew then took the piece, gave it to the girl then asked me if he could order 4 more pieces! When I agreed, Andrew told me that he wants me to make four more maps of Taiwan then wants me to give them away to other foreigners so that they can always be reminded of this country. I love giving gifts so this blessing from Andrew was very much a twofold blessing. Not only were we blessed with some much needed finances, but we are also able to bless other people with these beautiful pieces of art!

Baby President
For anyone who hasn’t seen our recent Facebook post, we are so thrilled to announce that we will be having a boy! Our excitement for this precious boy is growing more and more every day. He is a very active and healthy little one who likes to kick and move nonstop. We can’t wait to meet him face to face this October.

Vision Becoming Reality
For a while now, God has put it on my heart to begin making string art portraits so that we can help the local Taiwanese get more discipled and grow closer to Jesus.
This vision started to become a reality today as I finished my first string art portrait!

This turned out better then a thought and it is exciting to see how God has given me the desire and the skill to do this type of art.
Soon I will also hopefully be starting a string art class for the Taiwanese! 🙂

God bless you all, we love you tons and thank you for supporting us! It means the world!
Jacob and Amber President