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Life in Asia It’s been a while since we last updated you on our life here in Taiwan so we thought we’d take a couple minutes to share a few stories. Before we start, we thought we should take the opportunity to share where we’re at with everything going on in the world. As you already know, life has been turned upside down for the people in the Ukraine. It’s been very challenging seeing how things have been unfolding for this country over the last week. We’re standing with them in prayer as well as connecting with individuals we know who have family living in the country to see how we can help. Since Russia first invaded Ukraine last week, we have received several emails from concerned friends and family about whether or not we have a plan in case China decides to invade Taiwan in the near future. The answer to this question is yes, we have a plan as much as we are able. We both feel strongly that God has called us to this country and this city for a specific reason. We may not be able to see the full picture right now but we do trust that He has a plan. That being said, we do not feel at this time that we are meant to leave the country. If we felt God was telling us to leave, we would do it without question knowing that He knows the future and what’s best for us. As far as plans go, we have things set in place as much as we’re able. If we had to leave our place we could easily grab what we need in a few minutes and be on our way to the nearest airport. However we are more than three hours away from the nearest international airport or embassy. We are close friends with the main US embassy contacts in our city. If ever there was an emergency to break out, this couple would be contacted right away and would quickly get the word out to us and the rest of the foreigners living in our city. I’m not going to go into all the details of our exit plan right now (otherwise you would be here for a while), but if you ever have specific questions for us, please feel free to email or message us and we will do our best to answer those questions. Okay enough about all this, let’s talk about what God has been doing in our city and family over the last few months.   Guests in Our Home Since the Covid restrictions eased up in September last year, we have had the privilege of having 33 people stay at our home. This has been wonderful for us because a big part of why we feel God gave us this house to rent, is so we would be able to host anyone who needs a place to stay. We have opened up the house for hosting not only teams but also families or singles who need to get refreshed spiritually and need a place to stay to focus on God, vision, etc. which hopefully will help them become more equipped and effective in ministry. So far we have had a lot of people saying that they want to come stay here for a time for those reasons which revealed how much this is needed right now. Many people are feeling burnt out for various different reasons and we feel that 3 John 1:8 applies here.   Community Nights Our community nights (Discovery Bible Study) are one of the highlights for both of us since moving to Taitung. We love seeing the mix of people that come through the house on these nights. At our last community night we had two new people join us for the first time. One of the guys who joined is someone we met at our local park one weekend when we took Hezekiah to a small carnival. This man (Erwin) and his daughter were in front of us while waiting in line for a ride. When we told Erwin that we are Christian volunteers in the city, he immediately seemed interested and even said he might like to stop by our church some weekend. The night Erwin came to his first community night, he was so open. He told us all that he is not a Christian and in fact doesn’t follow any religion. He did say that he is searching for answers to life right now and has started studying the Bible to try to find some of those answers. It was so fun watching him process everything as we were looking through and discussed the scripture for that night.   Closing the Rock At the end of last year, we decided as a team that after 6 years running, it is time to close down our YWAM cafe. This cafe has been a blessing to so many people over the years but with Taiwan borders being closed for so long and Covid restrictions coming into effect, we have had very few people coming in over the last year which made it too difficult to maintain the cafe financially. We believe that it is important to be good stewards and so holding on to this when it was not being used would not be good stewardship so instead of stopping our activities there, we are moving them to our house instead which includes a Bible study and English class but might just look differently. We had our final farewell/Christmas night at the cafe at the end of December. A lot of our old guests came for that final evening because they said the cafe was always such a special place for them. One girl even traveled from the North of Taiwan just to attend the closing night. In January we had a team of 11 people come from our previous base in the North to stay with us for a week so that they could help us clean up and close down the cafe. Not only was this team a big blessing for the physical labor they put into helping us close the cafe, but they also gave their time to help us with a couple of our other ministries. One evening they were able to lead our community night by preparing the meal for 20 people (which gave Amber a big break) and then one of them shared and led a discussion about a specific bible passage (which gave Jacob a break for the night). It was fun for us being able to engage with the community that night without having to put in all the work to plan the whole evening.   Prayer Session Another way the team blessed us was by facilitating a prayer session with one of the local ladies who comes to our bible study. This lady has had a lot of hurt and trauma in her past and as a result she often hears voices telling her how worthless she is and that she should just end her life. Previously we spent time with this woman praying for healing and freedom from these things, but without being fully fluent in Chinese, it seemed to not have the impact on her that we were praying for. One of the girls from the visiting team actually has a lot of experience praying with individuals through past trauma. She also happened to be one of the two Chinese speakers in the team which was perfect! This was the best possible solution as we had someone there in person who had both experience and the ability to do this session without the need of translation. In the end, we feel that there is still a road ahead to walk with her but we can see progress little by little. University team helping at Galilee Just before our most recent team came from the North, we had another group of Taiwanese university students come to work with us for a week. One of the organizations that we partner with in Taitung is called Galilee, which is an organization that helps high risk families and youth learn relationship skills and grow in a healthy way, with the aim of leading them to Christ and to be healthy members of society. They also teach high risk youth practical life skills and we have the opportunity to help with those kids in various ways. Part of our role in partnering with Galilee is the upkeep of a farm/camp that they own. This involves maintaining and building new structures and meeting places that will help this ministry run smoothly. Galilee uses the camp to do team building activities for families, tree climbing, and as a place to set up a campground to be more intentional. With the help of the university students, we were able to build a new structure on the property which will be used for a bathroom and storage area.     Pregnancy Update Amber has been feeling much better and getting much bigger now that we are past the halfway mark. We already have the baby’s name picked out and we will be posting the gender reveal soon! (Just been a bit preoccupied with different things) Thank you for your prayers for the new little one!   God Sized Prayer Request We have seen God do amazing things in our lives and others around us so many times and for the last year, God has put this prayer on our hearts. We are praying that God will enable us to own the house that we are currently living in instead of renting it. We have already done a number of improvements on the house and have been using it to host many different people as they need it, to run ministry out of in various ways and we want to continue to use it as a ministry house long term. Not only that, but if refugees ever were in need, this would be an open place for them to come to. If we ever leave Taiwan, we want the house to be given to other missionaries who will continue to serve here and reach the Taiwanese and we hope this house will be a constant light in the city where ministry can be done from. It is the perfect location, size and style for mission work and has been a wonderful blessing to be able to rent. The deal we have currently is only a 3 year time limit to live here. The owners of the house wanted to sell it but because of tax laws here, they can’t until Dec 2023 which is when they expect us to either move out, or buy it from them. The price is still unknown and they plan to find out the market value at that time to determine how much they will sell it for but the current price of most houses in our area is extremely high. Feel free to message us for more details. This is a huge prayer request and something that is completely beyond our ability so it will be only by God’s will that it can happen. We believe that He has given this to us to pray for because it is His will. We still want to ask for your help in praying for this to happen though. We realize that some people may be critical about us wanting to buy a house in Taiwan in the midst of a potential invasion from China in the coming times and we have 2 simple answers to that concern: 1. Even though there may be a threat or danger to us with these possibilities, that doesn’t mean that the call God put on our lives is revoked. We feel God called us to stay here and unless He gives us a very clear sign to leave, we are choosing to press on toward the goal that He has given us. We cannot shift our focus and direction just based on outside circumstances in the world but instead we need to keep our eyes on Him and keep moving forward until change is directed by God alone. 2. The desire to buy the house is not solely about us and our ministry here but even after we are gone, this house will continue to be used by other missionaries or people in need who may even be Taiwanese missionaries. Our prayer is that this house will be a beacon of light that lasts for generations. Thank you for praying with us! Hugs and blessings from Taiwan! Jacob, Amber, Hezekiah and baby number 2 Love, Humility, Jesus.  |
| Help support us: Tax deductible for Canadians Support Amber & Jacob Help support us: Tax deductible for Americans https://www.ywamnsi.org/support (designation code: 490) Help support us: Anyone (no tax receipt) Paypal: arelke89@gmail.com -or- jacobpresident@gmail.com Our mailing address is: Jacob & Amber President 42 Renwu Street Taitung City, Taitung County Taiwan ROC951 |
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