HANDS ON

We woke up around 9am the second day and ate breakfast with pastor Lin and his family. Pastor Lin was very curious about what we were doing and said that just last week he preached about taking more practical steps of faith. Pastor Lin asked us many questions about missions because he was wanting to get his methodist church involved in missions in some fashion. One of pastor Lin’s son’s was starting a new job today at a restaurant. It turns out he was starting at the same restaurant we first walked into that was not even open yet called “Bread & Soup.” Definitely not a coincidence; we could see how God was already planting seeds at this restaurant. Before we left pastor Lin’s mother gave us more money for food. Praise God!

We said our goodbyes and decided to go to the national monument of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the “Father of Taiwan.” We spent some time alone reading the bible and praying then came back together to pray. I think we all were itching to share the gospel, so we made that our goal to share with at least one person that day.

Me and Drew also felt again we should go to Taipei 101. But first we checked out this monument. While we were there taking random pictures, a young girl asked us if we wanted a free tour about the life of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. We all obliged and learned a bit of history to how Taiwan became a democracy. Of course the story included bloodshed and sacrifice. We were surprised to see that Dr. Sun Yat-Sen was a Christian. It was amazing to see how he brought people together despite religious differences.

While we were getting a tour, I felt like God wanted me to speak to this girl about Jesus, so I went for it. We just asked her some questions about her faith and asked if she considered Jesus. She said that a friend of hers did but she was having problems in the family because of it. She sincerely asked us if she could have Jesus and practice the traditional worship of her ancestors which is quite common in Asia. We tried to explain to her the difference between worship and honoring as best we could, but this is a deep cultural tradition that needed more time. She really thought about what we were saying about Jesus and I felt like God wanted me to encourage her and tell her how precious she was in his eyes. She really appreciated this. She didn’t receive Jesus, but seeds were planted. Do you know someone that needs Jesus?

Afterwards we got lunch in the mall at the bottom of Taipei 101. As we were leaving we saw a Taiwanese couple praying together so we stopped to talked. They were a cute middle aged couple who were thrilled about what we were doing. We talked for them for an hour and they offered to take us to their church so we could spend the night.

We ended up meeting another young couple who offered to take us out and spoil us some for for dinner. We had these funky colored waffles that were awesome. We had a great time together and I was so thankful that these two, who were both very busy professionals, took the time to fellowship with us and care for us. We felt valued and never felt like a burden to them. We all slept very nicely in the hotel style rooms in the upper floors of the building.