Coming to Visit! +Recap and New Ministry

Recap of the previous 2 and half years:

Over the last 2 and a half years living in the southern city of Taiwan, we have experienced some things that are very different from our original plans because of factors like Covid, team size, new baby, etc.

With that said, we can now look back at what has happened over these couple years and see the fruit that God has grown since we decided to move here.

Our original plans involved hosting outreach teams, working with Galilee (an organization here who helps high risk families), developing a camp that facilitates high risk family growth, setting up a play center at our home for women and children, running community nights with a discovery Bible study, and doing personal evangelism.

Some of those plans were changed, so we refocused our attention in different areas that we felt God leading us in.

You probably already know that one of the biggest areas of fruit in ministry since moving here has been the community nights at our house which now happen weekly. It has grown to sometimes have over 20 people attend, and since we have started, we have seen over 50 different faces attend at least once, if not more.

It has become a group of people who feel like family, and are really seeking to either know what the Bible says/get to know God, or to grow in their current walk with Jesus. Even last week we had someone confessing some personal sin they are dealing with and asking how to change. Amber and I love seeing the people changing and we are excited to see more.
Here are a couple pictures of our very first community night and our most recent one last week.

We have also been honoured to host some Taiwanese outreach teams who are learning how to preach the gospel, some missionary retreats for those seeking to get recharged in ministry, and some families who have needed time to regroup.

We have wanted to host some teams from US and Canada but the country was closed for a while, however it is open now and until now we have hosted 2 YWAM outreach teams from the US but we are hoping for more teams from churches. We are excited for the ability to host teams from churches who want to preach the gospel here so please keep that in mind when planning outreaches! We want to help! (BTW, in case you are immediately thinking about money, IT’S ALWAYS FREE to stay at our house)

We have consistently been working with Galilee, but the capacity has been reduced because of Covid. We partner with them to develop a camp and maintain it which has been a great success. Oftentimes Galilee runs activities for families such as tree climbing or other day camps to help at risk families learn healthy communication etc. We recently finished a zip line but it hasn’t been used yet.

This is an older picture but this is one of the structures that we helped build at the camp.

Our plan to start a play center did not work as we hoped but instead, we have found some small centers nearby that already provide this service to the community which we were pleasantly surprised by. They have recently opened again now that Covid is no longer a problem.

We have also been blessed to serve in a volunteer fashion for a special needs organization that one of our friends runs here, along with some various other volunteer needs in the community as needs arise.

New Ministry Going Forward

Many people in missions are often looking for the new thing to start, the new project, new ministry, new place etc. They are often visionaries who dream big and that is awesome, but I believe that in long term missions, one key to seeing fruit is consistency. Not to say that new things aren’t also effective in their own way, (especially in shorter missions) but just that when reaching people who might take a bit more time to connect with, I believe an effective approach is consistency.

Starting something, and then sticking to it year after year, sometimes even in the face of very little fruit for periods of time, helps build trust in the community that you are trying to reach. They get to see you over time live your life for Christ and how you grow closer to Jesus, live with integrity, and love others. The long-term consistency often has a much greater impact on people than shorter energetic ministries, depending on who you are reaching.

That being said…

After these 2 and a half years of learning about, and seeing fruit with our community nights, God has put it on our hearts to begin another ministry here. This new ministry will probably be the biggest test we have experienced here, but also will hopefully have the biggest impact on the city since we arrived. We already have the ball rolling and have plans in place, but we don’t want to speak too soon about the details of what it is on a newsletter. So, if you are interested in what it is and any details, please feel free to ask us personally. We are so excited about it and feel confident that it will produce a lot of fruit.

We will not be stopping our community nights as they are a kind of “heart beat” of our ministry here in Taitung and we want to remain consistent with it. This new ministry will be an additional project to what we are already doing.

As I said, you are welcome to ask us personally about the above and we hope that it can even be in person soon when we arrive to visit in a couple weeks!!

We are so excited to connect with you if possible and so please feel free to send us a message and let’s get together for a coffee or a meal or something else.

We will be in Victoria for June/July, and in Lynden for August/September.

We love you! Thank you for supporting us, for loving us, and praying for us! We are blessed to have you as our friend!