following an unknown path

please pray

Today, September 22, 2009, at approximately 9AM Taiwan time, Peter Bennett, sustained a head injury when struck by a car as he was crossing the street in Yonghe, Taiwan, a suburb of the capital city of Taipei.

I do not know Peter, but it seems like according to the blog set up for him that he worked with Team Expansion.  I found out via Scott's facebook who blogs at SQJ Taipei, and set up the site to help others pray for Peter.

I invite you to join others in prayer for this young man who is serving the Lord in Taiwan and is now in critical condition in the hospital.

roaming souls

Many (if not most) Taiwanese believe that it is best to die at home.  If someone does not die at home it is believed that their souls may roam the earth restlessly, haunting people.

It is also believed that each person has three spirits and seven souls.  Every seven days a soul leaves.  Thus, traditionally the mourning period used to be 49 days. This gives each soul a chance to escape from the earthly body.  At the burial, when the body is cremated, loved ones will cry and scream and plead for the spirits and souls to please, please leave the body before it is burned.

Spirit money and clothing will be burned as a gift for the deceased and food given as an offering so that the loved one will not starve or go without in the after life. 

But, if there is no body and/or the body is not at home, when the souls leave the body the souls will wander, becoming ghosts.

This weekend was the "first 7th day" since the big typhoon washed away homes and lives.  Therefour, it is believed that souls are beginning to roam, and people who've lost loved ones are pleading with them to go home.

Here is a CNN video that explains:

This is only more troublesome because Ghost Month is upon us.  Ghost month is the seventh lunar calender month when it is believed that the gates of hell open and all the lost souls have one month to roam the earth and be fed (since they did not die at home and were not able to be given a proper burial, there is no one to worship them, so it is believed that they go hungry in the afterlife).

All I can say is please pray. 

Pray for the Lord's mercy on the Taiwanese.  Oh, how they need to be set free by Truth Himself.  Pray that as believers we never forget the reality of lostness and never lose a sense of urgency to proclaim truth every chance we have.  Oh, Father, let us not become lazy and complacent.

If time allows me, I plan to discuss further Taiwanese funeral traditions and Ghost Month in the coming week or two. Anything specific you want to know? 

PS: I feel for the child in the video who is being lied to by the others about the whereabouts of his parents.  I know they believe they are doing what is best for him, but in my mind it can only be making matters worse for him. 

wanna be a missionary?

Jim, the guy who maintains Missionary-Blogs.com, is hosting a bloggy carnival on the topic of advice to people who want to be missionaries.

Of course the advice given will depend upon where in life you are and just how far along in the process you are to becoming a missionary.  I mean, if you are an unattached 19 year old asking the question the advice I'd give you would be somewhat different than the advice I'd give to a married couple with four kids. So, since I came the unattached college student route, that's who I'll pretend I'm talking to here, and maybe some of t he others who participate in the carnival will address other demographics.

So, if you are a high school student or college student interested in becoming a career missionary, here is my advice to you in no particular order.

1. Stay out of debt.  Do everything you can to avoid living beyond your means.

2. Talk to and pray for missionaries.  When they come to visit your home church, talk to them. Read their blogs, leave comments, join their prayer mailing lists.

3. Go on short term mission trips.  For example, I first went to Houston for 10 weeks after my junior year in high school, a month to Taiwan after my freshmen year of college, two months to another Asian country, then a year back in Taiwan.

4. Get involved with local opportunities to serve in your church or other churches in your community.  Is their a local soup kitchen?  Does a nearby church have a ministry to refugees?  international women? inner city kids after school programs?

5. Become a mission info sponge.  Find out all you can about different missionary organizations, read biographies of missionaries (And the Word Came with Power is a great one to start), go to mission fairs, take a Perspectives course.  My grandmother is part of a "mission circle"--a bunch of older retired ladies meet once a month to pray for missionaries, share books read, or listen to a missionary talk about their work--I was the youngest in attendance by at least 30 years.  But meeting with these women was one of the greatest blessings as I journeyed to become a missionary.

6. Make international friends.  They are all around you, and every single one I met was longing for a friend.  The world is at your doorstep . . . international students and business men (and their wives and children) would be happy to be your friend and teach you about their home culture.

7. Read about and pray for the lost.  Use something like the Joshua Project or a book that introduces different unreached cities and people groups.

8. Surf the websites of mission organizations you are aware of to look for their advice and their requirements.

If you are a little more sure about where God is leading you, you can do all of the above with a bit more focus on the specific people group or country.

And, above all, pray.  When I begin to search and ask questions and hunt for answers on how to get myself overseas . . . I became like the ever twisting cycle of a washing machine--churn, churn, churn.  I think James referred to it as being tossed about by the waves.  I asked so many questions and talked to so many missionaires . . . and each one gave me different answers, perspectives.  I am thankful for their input, but until I realized I was trying to be a missionary on my own power I wasn't at rest.

The path may be unknown to me and to you, but it is not unknown to our Heavenly Father.  Speak to Him, seek Him, and He will faithfully make known to you the path. He says so, and we both know He is trustworthy.

engagment party in taiwan

Before I left Taiwan, the mission team I work with threw Lawrance and me an engagement party. 

Carolyn made this really fun (and yummy) double heart cake in our honor. :)

We also played a game similar to "The Newlywed Game."  It was a lot of fun.

We are so blessed!!

some posts to check out

Since I'm in the middle of enjoying family and getting ready for marriage and planning a wedding, writing about life in Taiwan is not on the forefront of my mind.  But, some bloggers I enjoy reading are still posting some great stuff . . and not just about Taiwan either. 

A new addition to my blogs to watch list is stevewebel.com.  Recently he's been posting about "third culture kids." 

What is a TCK?
You might be a TCK if . . .
Would this stress you out?
TIME Article on TCKs

Guy Muse has an excellent quote about what is ministry at Ministry is . . . .

The Desiring God Blog has been doing an excellent on going series on "Day to Day Observations in Asia" written by a 'Cross-cultural gospel spreader" (what a great term!).  So far the series includes:

Do You Believe in Djinn?
Praying For and Burying the Dead
Faithfulness and Fruitlessness
The Traffic Jam

Of course if you are interested in what life is like for places in the world where cell phones are not the norm check out this really cool video on Mobile Phones in Uganda.  Mobile as in big yellow phone travels around village by bike. :)

And, the Taiwan Prattler posted about idols in Taiwan recently: are they Cute? Solemn? Stately?.

Another site/blog I love to keep my eye on is the Missionary Blog Watch.  The author is always keeping us up to date with great things going in the "missionary blog world."  Recently he's featured Blogs You've Never Read.

the faces of persecution

A Believer dies for their faith in Christ every 3 minutes according to Voice of the Maryts.
{RSS Readers: Click over to see the embedded video.}

Join me today in praying for our brothers and sisters around the world.

wanna be

Blog posts like this make me wanna be a missionary!!! :)

interview with an atheist about evangelism

My mom shared a link to a video of an atheist that agrees with the quote I posted yesterday . . . that it is a cruel mercy for Bible-believing Christians to not be sharing the their faith with those around them.

Video is from this site: The Great News Network, who have given permission to repost as long as there is a link back.

Thanks for sharing this, Mom!

Father, continue to help me have a burning passion and boldness to share Your Good News with those around me who live in total darkness.

missions month over at cup of joy

Just wanted to help spread the word that March is missions month over at Cup of Joy. 

Deborah is posting on different topics about missions each day for the month of March.  All her posts so far have been informative, but the two I liked the most (so far, we are only on the 6th of March you know) were about tatoos and diabetes and exploding trash. 

sharing the good news

We currently have a team of six (from Missouri) here serving with Hokkien Harvest, the mission team I partner with, for the week.

Yesterday, Wednesday, they came to Tainan and shared the Good News with Taiwanese college students. 

What a privilege to witness new life begin!

I invite you to join me in praying for both the team as they still have a few more days here with us and for your new brother and sisters in Christ!! 

my struggle with evangelical piety

As I was skimming through this article, Has God Called You?, by Albert Mohler, I nodded in TOTAL agreement to the bolded part below.

One key issue here is a common misunderstanding about the will of God. Some models of evangelical piety imply that God's will is something difficult for us to accept. We sometimes confuse this further by talking about "surrendering" to the will of God. As Paul makes clear in Romans 12:2, the will of God is good, worthy of eager acceptance, and perfect. Those called by God to preach will be given a desire to preach as well as the gifts of preaching. Beyond this, the God-called preacher will feel the same compulsion as the great Apostle, who said, "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" [1 Corinthians 9:16, ESV]

Consider your calling. Do you sense that God is calling you to ministry, whether as pastor or another servant of the Church? Do you burn with a compulsion to proclaim the Word, share the Gospel, and care for God's flock? Has this call been confirmed and encouraged by those Christians who know you best?

God still calls . . . has He called you?

When I was finishing up grad school in 2002-2003, I was faced with "what next?" 

I actually considered the fact that I desired to be in Taiwan a sign that it must not be God's will for me.  I actually thought that I should have to struggle and surrender to a task that I didn't want to do in order for it to be pleasing to God. 

WHAT!?!?!  Why would I think such a thing?

So, I started looking at other countries.  Some friends in Japan had invited me to come work along side them, so I replied with interest.  I began to look at organizations that I could serve with in China. 

Then another terrible thought occurred to me . . . "what if it is not Asia?"  So, I contemplated South America and Africa. 

I cannot explain in mere words what this was doing to my heart.  I was willing to follow God anywhere He wanted to send me, but I was sure that meant I must suffer, that I couldn't be happy or joyful about it.  Why I fell prey to this evangelical piety line of thinking remains to me a mystery.

However, this reopening of looking for a place to go was making me much like those waves in the first chapter of James--driven and tossed by the wind.  I remember in at least one sermon long ago, my dad compared that Greek word used there to the agitation cycle of a washing machine.  The twist and turn, twist and turn of all that water going no where.  Yep, that what it was . . .  my heart stuck in a perpetual spin-cycle of emotion.

By God's merciful grace, a godly couple I had met on a mission trip to Hong Kong some years before were in town and wanted to meet up.  As we sat in the Chinese restaurant, and I poured out my heart, expressing my desire to follow God suffer for God. 

Oh, I will never, ever forget the looks on their faces.  I was unable to discern the falsehood of the evangelical piety lies I had fallen subject to, but they sure were able to.  They responded first in utter shock to the words spewing from my mouth and then with loving kindness spoke scripture to me. 

For the first time in months, I was able to see that when we follow God's will there IS joy.  And that is OK.  That being obedient, although not easy and not without sacrifice, is a thing that is full of joy and happiness.  Oh how everything changed that day!  Praise God for the people in our lives who speak the truth in love to us!

Please don't hear me wrong--being obedient is not easy.  But that doesn't mean it must be a dreadful, terrible thing that we will hate doing.  God is kind.  Like that second quote by Betty Scott Stam I posted two weeks ago, when we release the little trinkets we've been clinging to, He replaces them with precious treasures.  Letting go of those little trinkets might seem hard at the time, but accepting those precious treasures?  Never. 

Our God is a God who gives desires to His children who delight in him.  How neat is that!?!  Oh, what a great God He is!!

God's will is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2).  Amen!

Betty's prayer

"Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept Your will for my life.  I give myself, my life, my all utterly to You to be Yours forever.  Fill me and seal me with Your Holy Spirit.  Use me as You want, send me where You want, work out Your whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever."

Written by Betty Scott Stam (raised as an MK in China, she later was a missionary to China herself who watched as Communists killed her husband before they killed her too; whole amazing story here).

Elisabeth Elliot copied this prayer into her Bible and signed it when she was ten or eleven.  After finding it in one of Elisabeth Elliot's books, I copied it into my journal and signed it when I was in high school (I did change the Thees and Thous to Yous and Yours). 

Both Betty and Elisabeth sacrificed much to serve their Lord.  I, of course, have given so little compared to them.  However, the Lord has completely changed my original desires and hopes, altered my own plans and purposes.  For this I am glad.  Betty's prayer remains my heart's cry to this day. 

"When we consecrate ourselves to God, we think we are making a great sacrifice, and doing lots for Him, when really we are only letting go some little, bitsie trinkets we have been grabbing, and when our hands are empty, He fills them full of His treasures." (Betty Scott Stam)

ways to bless missionaries for free

13 awesome postage free ideas can be found here on the Desiring God site.

Please know that I'm NOT asking for any of these!!  I am simply passing on some great ideas that I know would bless the missionaries in your life. :)

I specifically recommend the ones that do not cost a penny at all:

• Commit to pray for them on a specific day of the week for a year. 
• Write a song or poem or story for them. Email them the text and a recording of you reading or singing it.
• Get friends and family together to create a holiday video greeting for them using Google Video or YouTube.  Include lots of people you know they miss.
• Pray specific Scripture for them and their ministry, and then email it to them.
• Call or email their parents—Christmas might be just as lonely for the ones at home as the ones away.
• Donate frequent flier miles to them. (I don't know this one might cost you a penny or two, but would be a great idea if you know what airline they already have frequent flier miles with or if you have enough for an entire free trip.  I know of several missionaries who have flown to the field or gone home during crises by "paying" for tickets this way.)

come see the beauty!

“Come see the beauty of the Lord!” 

As we sang this song during the English worship service, an image of the gargantuan, dark idol on top of a temple in JhuNan flashed in my mind’s eye. 

How very different our God is!  He is beautiful.  He is clothed in majesty and glory.

Please pray with me for the Lord to open the eyes of the Taiwanese people that they may see His beauty. 

~in joy~    
amanda    

Picture Description:     A close up of the idol’s angry glare.  He is a god of medicine—worshipers plead for health at this temple.  Click here for more pics taken at this temple.

Originally posted on my no longer active website on Sept 25, 2003.

evangelism

I "share" the posts I read and think others would benefit from reading.  But sometimes, simply sharing them in my sidebar is not enough.  For example, there are parts of this clip below from Pulpit Magazine written by Jesse Johnson that I would totally highlight, underline and draw stars next too if I could mark up a computer screen!!

All believers are to be active in evangelism. In fact, all four Gospels end with Jesus commanding believers to bring salvation to the lost (Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47; John 20:21). Jesus’ last earthly words were another repetition of this same command, to bear witness to the gospel (Acts 1:8). It is not an overstatement to say that all Christians should be driven by a love for evangelism. After all, it is our mission in life.

But while all Christians are called to be active in evangelism, not all Christians are equally gifted at this particular calling. Acts 21:8 and Ephesians 4:11 both imply that some have the gift of evangelism and some do not. But God in His wisdom has still called all Christians to evangelize.

Thus, one of the marks of a Christian is a love for evangelism. If you are fearful, evangelism gives you the opportunity to trust God for courage. If you are timid, evangelism gives you an opportunity to trust God for confidence. Christians are slaves to Christ, soldiers in His service, and sons of God. Our master, our general, and our Father has given us our orders: to reach the lost with the hope of the gospel.

As Christians, we love what God loves, and God loves the lost. As we become more and more sanctified, we become more and more like Christ. This growth causes us to grow in our love for those who are still God’s enemies.

a very noisy 1st Sunday of Advent

I sit in my living room contemplating advent, thinking about hope and grateful for grace while candle light dances on the wall beside me and Christmas tree lights twinkle in front of me.

But, my home is not a quite place on this first Sunday of Advent.  No.  A Taiwanese god is having a birthday, and the temples of Tainan and making sure that he is well celebrated. 

From my back window I can hear worship instruments playing their song.  From my living room window I hear the sounds of an opera being acted out for the god to enjoy.  I hear worship drums being beat in a rhythm unfamiliar to me.

That is I hear these things only when the fireworks and firecrackers have subsided.  Since six this morning they have been worshiping all across town.  All day long firecrackers have boomed and fireworks whizzed and popped.  And, since they echo off the nearby high rise buildings the sound can be overwhelming.

And, from 10-11 this morning and then from about 9-10 tonight they shot fireworks and firecrackers for an hour straight each time--A FULL HOUR OF NON-STOP FIRECRACKERS!  I begin to think they might never stop.  They are still going strong as I go to bed at 11:30--however, now it is more random.  Like every five minutes one temple decides to pop something rather than all the temples all shooting off fireworks at the exact same time for an hour.

ALL DAY LONG these people have worshiped their idol with loud songs and amazing firework shows.  I didn't go investigate, but I assume their worship has also included sacrifices, burning of spirit money, colorful costumes, dancing, spirit possession, dragon dances, and there has probably been some blood shed as shamans pierce parts of their bodies with swords and daggers.  They probably have, are right now, or probably will go on a "god parade" dancing their idols through the streets so he or she in his or her different forms (one for each temple) has the opportunity to bless those nearby as the idols are returning from another more powerful temple where they went to get "recharged."

Less than two out of every one hundred Taiwanese are Christian.  Sunday as I sit in my living room, preparing my heart to celebrate the first Sunday of Advent, I am fully aware of this fact.   Lostness surrounds me, literally deafening me, making me sad . . . very sad.  When will the Taiwanese be able to share with us the hope we have in Christ?

My little neighbors and their mom join me in my candle-and-Christmas-tree lit living room to worship our Savior (I'm new to Tainan, but I've known this family for eight years).  We light a candle, read Scripture, thank Jesus for coming and for being our hope. . . . We worship the King of kings with very little display while the temples all around us worship an idol with great display. 

I will never forget the odd juxtaposition of this day  . . . the first Sunday of my first Advent celebration.

a neat summer camp (yes, this post is 4 months late)

This summer my cousins and I joined an English summer camp.  It was a privilege to be apart of such a neat camp.

The camp was held in TaiMaLi, an aboriginal village on the east coast of Taiwan.  It was an English camp for elementary school students but we used bilingual coloring books that story the Gospel as the textbook. 

A couple of factors made it so neat:

One is that team leaders wanted to serve Christ as families--so entire families served together.  MKs were on the frontlines leading and serving at the camp.  It was so neat to watch daughters leading worship right along side their fathers.

From the beginning the Gospel was the focus.  Several different tools were used to share the Gospel.  And, the neatest part of all was these first time hears of the Gospel were then immediately entrusted with the expectation to go and tell others this Good News they had just heard.

Also, the Gospel was told in culturally relevant ways.  One example of this was using a large scale "shadow puppet" play to tell about Christ's death, burial, and resurrection.

Another neat factor was that the "foreigners" and "locals" teamed up to work side-by-side.   Not only did we work with the pastor and believers in TaiMaLi, but a church in Taipei sent Taiwanese believers on a mission trip to help out with this camp.  It was neat to watch the reality that we are one big family in Christ play out as believers from different countries complemented each other's work.

 

Over the course of the week, over 70 accepted Christ as Savior.  That Friday night we had a celebration party and 17 were baptized in a small inflatable swimming pool! 

 

.

Here is a video of one of the boys in my small group being baptized:

This little guy's English name is William.  Would you please join me in praying for him and the others that choose to believe in Christ one week this summer at the Joyful Hope English Camp? 

Weeks like that make being here, oh, so very worth it!!! :)

a weekend to prayerwalk

There is currently a short-term team here in Taiwan working with my ministry team.   They are from Seneca Baptist Church in South Carolina.

This weekend they will be coming north to Tainan to prayerwalk my new school and neighborhood.  I am excited about this opportunity.  I just love it when we have teams come.  It is empowering and encouraging to those of us who are here all the time.  I don't know how to describe it.

Anyway, please join us in praying for the city of Tainan, particularly my neighborhood and NanTai University, this weekend.  And, please pray for this team as jet lag, culture shock, and humidity takes its toll--the majority of this team is over 60 years old! 

What is neat about this team is that two of the members served here in Taiwan for 30 years.  I am excited to meet them and be able to prayerwalk with them.

See yall on Monday!

women on the harvest

Women of the Harvest is a neat online resource for women serving cross-culturally.  I can't wait to have more time to pursue this very rich treasure trove of info for people just like me. 

They also have a quarterly online newsletter for POMs (parents of missionaries) called Harvest Legacy.  Skimming some of their back issues brought tears to my eyes.  I had a choice in whether or not I was going to make sacrifices to come serve overseas.  My mom and dad didn't get to choose whether or not they did--I made the choice for them.

[HT: Rays of Sunshine]

Tiffany and Becca's adventures--days 2 and 3

On the 2nd and 3rd days of Tiffany and Rebecca's trip to Taiwan, we went east to help with the end of a week long mission trip/English camp. 

But first we had to cross the mountains and drive along the beautiful coast.

I'll have to go into more detail about the camp later when I have more time.  But, God was at work in Taimali and it was a blessing to be able to be a small part of it.

One of our responsibilities was to cook and serve 300 hot dogs!  We cooked them in an out door kitchen.  I have three words to say about that: IT WAS HOT!!!

Friday evening we had a celebration event.  Taimali is an abrigional village of the PaiWan tribe.  So, during the worship time of the celebration, some of the ladies started doing a traditional group dance around the sitting area.  So, we joined in as well.  It was a great experience.

But, perhaps the best part of the whole weekend was that 16 people were baptized Friday night!!!  Praise the Lord!!  (I promise to write more about that experience later.)

it's all about the 'tude

My parents taught me very early about the importance of attitude.  Learning how to adjust it was a very important part of my up-bringing.

However, I first heard about the "10/90 rule" in regards to attitude and life during my teen years from Charles Swindoll.  I had the following quote posted in my closet during high school so I could be reminded of its truth daily:

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.  Attitude, to me, is more important than facts.  It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.  It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company . . . a church . . . a home.  The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past . . . we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.  We cannot change the inevitable.  The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.  I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you . . . we are in charge of our Attitudes.” (Charles Swindoll)

This is always true, but it is especially true when dealing with living in another country.  I must carefully guard my attitude and reaction to the things around me.  Sometimes it is a self-talk discussion where I must tell myself to choose to think and, thus, feel a certain way.

Let me give you an example. 

I live among thousands of Taiwanese people in a huge apartment complex.  I don't get a lot of mail, so I check my mail box regularly but not often.  The apartment complex has security guards who are supposed to watch the comings and goings of the people and open the safety bar to allow residents to park in the basement. 

These security guys also tell me when I have mail. (This is not part of their job description.)

At first, it was only when I got a package that they would gesture making the shape of a box and shout "package" in Chinese at me when I rode in on my scooter.  Then they started telling me about every.piece.of.mail--every postcard, every bill, every advertisement.  Friday night, one of them even ran down from his basement bar-opening post, shouting my name in Chinese as I disappeared up the stairs in order that he might get to my mailbox and open it so that he could be ready to help me retrieve my electricity bill.

So, I have a choice. 

I can (A) feel annoyed that I and my mailbox are being watched so closely and/or feel annoyed that these men don't think I am adult enough to check my own mail or (B) be grateful that the security guys care about me and want to make sure I get my mail in a timely manner.

It might not seem like it, but I tell you sometimes B is a really hard choice to choose.

And this is just one example.  Here are some more:

People stare at me.  Do I (A) decide this is rude and start to harbor negative feelings towards all strangers or (B) remember that I might be the first or one of the few white people they've ever seen in person and be grateful for their interest in me?

Children and teens shout strange things to me in English.  Do I (A) ignore them and grumble inside about how bad their English is or (B) with a smile and a glance in their direction, shout a pleasant reply back because really they might be trying to be friendly?

Complete strangers ask me stupid questions. Do I (A) put them off and get offended by their nosiness or (B) try to be as friendly as I can as I once again answer the same stupid question for the umpteenth time this month, being thankful for their interest in me?  (Actually, even the fact that I am choosing to call it a "stupid question" lets you in on the fact that I am choosing to think these questions are stupid when I could choose to think of them as friendly "get to know questions" instead.)

And the list goes on . . . and on . . . and on.

And again, it might not seem like it, but I tell you sometimes it is really hard to choose B.

But, let me tell you this too . . . when I do choose B, life is OH SO MUCH better.  Sweeter.  Enjoyable.  The world is friendlier and living here is great. 

And, in reality, because I am supposed to be salt and light, choosing B makes sharing Christ's love so much easier.  Not just because "they" see a changed person, but also because my 'tude is right and I can actually feel loving towards "them."

When I start to choose As more often then Bs it time for me to spend some extra time alone with the One who excels at 'tude-adjusting.