Gettin’ Real Deep in Kid’s Class.

One of the things I am blessed to be able to do here in Taiwan is teach English to an extremely diverse group of children. The ages vary from age 7- 12. Some of the students are kids of doctors, carnival game owners, underprivileged households, and gangsters. Some speak English fairly well, while others can only mimic your words with no understanding of anything you say. Some are well off, and some fend for themselves at home. Many of these kids I have worked with for around two years. When we thought and prayed about this class, my housemate Sarah Flanagan and I really felt like our class was supposed to be a place of safety, interaction, love (you’re probably rolling your eyes), and fun. Most of these kids get whisked off to school at around 7:30am and go from school, to academic programs, to tutors, to group study times until as late as 11:00pm/ midnight. By the time they get to us, I am pretty sure they couldn’t care less about learning yet another thing. We do plan our classes for hours, teach them english, and make them participate, but our primary focus is not a list of vocabulary words, but the kids. We love these kids a lot. We have built good relationships with the kids in whatever way possible. I don’t know who is more excited when they climb up the stairs to our classroom; us or them.

I say it is a blessing to work with these kids because honestly, it fills my love tank. Every smile, every parrot-like repetition, every time they get it, every giggle, every “Hello,” and use of English word, every look of shock when I utter ANY Chinese word of phrase (which is few and far between)… all these things outweigh my tiredness and frustration when they don’t listen, or yell at each other or us teachers, or the mini-panic attacks I get when I realize our idea to make class “fun” goes horribly, horribly wrong.

At the moment we are taking a different approach to the way we are teaching English. Each week we learn a new letter of the alphabet, teach it to them phonetically, teach them words that start with that letter, teach them a couple sentences they can use with these words, and then have an activity.

Two weeks ago we taught the letter E. We created an activity based on the vocabulary word “exercise.” We thought it would be a REALLY great idea to create an elaborate obstacle course in the classroom. The plan was this… They first had to weave their way around, over, and under a maze of strings that they could not touch. After getting through this, they had to crawl through a tunnel of 7 chairs. Under each of these chairs were pictures of the vocabulary words that they had to tell you the English words for. After getting through that, they had to crawl over a barricade of three stable tables. Once over, they had one more challenge. They had to throw a suction cup ball at pictures on the whiteboard, and if they hit them they had to yell out the English word for it. It was after two hits that we would stop their time. The one with the best time got a prize. Did I mention we added facepaint for dramatic effect? Haha. This plan of ours, that we thought was the best idea ever, turned into our biggest nightmare. We had not only unleashed the monster, but we had riled it up to a point of no return. Picture: wild banshees, hitting each other, screaming at the top of their lungs, running and jumping , dancing on tables, and being completely oblivious to the teachers who were trying to calm them down. After thinking it through, I realized that our activity would have probably ended in a lawsuit if it were done anywhere else other than Taiwan. Hey, you live, you learn, right? I learned we will never do this again.

 Last week, we learned the letter F. After creating our vocabulary sheet we realized, that it would be perfect opportunity to share the gospel using a series of these words:

Failure.

Father.

Faith.

Forgiveness.

Free.

Forever.

We used these words to talk about man’s sin, God’s love and forgiveness for us, and his ultimate perfection.

After sharing the gospel, one of the students, Eric, raised his hands and asked Sarah, “How can you say God is perfect when there are babies born with deformities?”

Sarah and I widened our eyes and looked at each other, shocked by the question this 9 year old asked. Sarah murmured, “Wow. It’s getting’ real deep here in kid’s class tonight.” then spent the next 10 minutes going back to the beginning and explaining creation, sin/ the fall of man, the broken world, God’s ultimate faithfulness, etc. And everyone was silent and listened.

It was in this moment that I was all the more blessed to be a part of this kids class. Because I realized even more what an impact we could have on them. Yes, the kids who were once too afraid to say hello, fully participate. Yes, the parrots have stopped mimicking and have actually learned. And yes, the kids have fun in class like we hoped. But the one thing I want for them is to know the love of Jesus. Even if they don’t necessarily believe in Him now, I want the seed to be planted. They are not too young to hear the gospel. They are not to young to understand truth.

So please pray for us and for the kids class.                                                                         Pray that Sarah, Rachel, and I could be a great example of the love of Christ. Pray that their hearts would be hungry to know Jesus.Pray that there would be opportunities for us to also share with their parents.Pray that they would come to know the One who gave his life for them.

Some of the Kids:

Serena (“Serena, will you take a picture with you sister?” “Never!” sad. Best at English. Helps lead class.)

Sabrina (Serena’s sister. Servant-hearted. Soft Spoken. Totally adorable)

Matt (Super good at soccer and baseball. English is great. Super sassy.)

top: Jason (Super naughty… but funny)

Eric (He’s the one that asked “How can you say God is perfect….?” Really cute. Is the only one that remembered my name when I came back from Christmas break.)

Kevin (I know teachers aren’t supposed to have favorites… but he is my favorite. Probably knows English the least… but is by far the cutest.)

Anderson (He’s new, but we already love him. I may have called out certain bingo vocab so that he would win)

The Most Incredible Year.

At the start of this year, before heading back for my third year in Taiwan, I felt strongly that God was telling me that this was going to be the best year of my life thus far. Naturally, I was excited and went into this year with a dream-load of expectations of what that could mean.

I returned to Taiwan excited for another year of staffing the School of Biblical Studies, another year in Taiwan, and another year amongst these amazing people. I could hardly wait for the 40 new students to arrive and I was beaming with the excitement of being able to prepare and teach a week on 1^st Corinthians.

As time went on my life became crazy. Amidst class, grading, planning worship sets, staff meetings, trying to be there for the students, and dealing with outside issues, I began to realize that 1^st Corinthians prep was not coming along as planned. I was determined to put forth my best effort in preparing this book so that the students could get as much out of my lecture as possible. The uber-Christianese quote, “You do your best, and God will do the rest” played constantly through my head. I worked 15 hour days, and had never prayed so much and worked so hard for something and seen such little fruit come from it. I just wasn’t getting it. Soon the monthly countdown, turned into the weekly countdown, turned into one week until my pre-lecture with my school leader…I still was nowhere where I needed to be. I doubted that I would be able to teach it and that I would have to relinquish it over to my school leader, Scott Contival, who is just one of the wisest men you will ever meet.

On top of that, a week and a half before my teaching, I went through a break up with someone I thought I was going to marry.

So far, this year was nothing that I expected.

Fast-forward. Last week I finished teaching 1^st Corinthians. Praise God for the strength to do that.

Today, the first real day of breath in class. No worries of a near teaching. I went downstairs for a moment and found my friend, Zack Mills, studying his Chinese. Naturally I interrupted and we began to catch up. Then he asked me how my heart was doing (in regards to the recent events I have written above).

Poor guy… he didn’t know what he was unleashing. Nor did I really know that I was going to share all this with him. It sounded all too familiar to me. I had run these thoughts through my head a million times, shared them with a few close friends and family, and knew exactly how I felt. As I ended my spheel I said, “But you know, it’s ok, because from the beginning of the year God said it was going to be the best year.” Usually I end jokingly with something like- “I mean, so far it’s turned out to be the worst couple of months. But hey, I’ve still got 7 more so I’m going just assume that they will only get better.”

But before I could get to that, Zack asked, “Do you still believe that?” And instead of following up with the usual, it hit me.

I said “yes” and just began to cry (God bless Zack mills at this moment).

I couldn’t even separate these last 5 months from the next 7. Because I realized I had been so foolish. I wasn’t focusing on the right thing. I realized these last 5 months, as hard, stretching, and life-draining as they were, could not be classified as “sh*tty.” I realized that even if nothing spectacular happened in the next 7 months, this year had ALREADY been my best. God had already kept his promise.

I had learned how to love. I had learned how to give unconditional grace to someone. I had learned how to trust and take risks. I had learned how to be vulnerable. I had learned how to be weak and be ok with that. I had learned endurance. I had learned to work through pain and completely see God’s faithfulness come through yet again. I had begun to learn dependency on the Holy Spirit. And while God was teaching me all of this and growing my character, He supported me with the best community. He gave me roommates who loved my very pathetic shell. Roommates who would run into my room, or the kitchen, or the classroom and tell me a funny story, or joke, or anything to be my comic relief. They made sure I was keeping up on the necessities of life (like eating and sleeping) instead of drowning myself in my work. I had loving friends who nurtured my heart through the unchartered territory I found myself in; who brought me flowers and spoke wisdom from God. I had my brother here, who came to me every time I said, “Nick, I need you.” I got to teach 1st Corinthians. I get to live in Taiwan. I get to teach english to taiwanese kids who literally fill my heart with laughter and joy. I have bible students who daily challenge me in their zeal for God, hunger for truth, and earnest and genuine love for each other. And above all else, I have a God who never leaves me. I have a God who cares enough about my heart to talk to me by way of my cell phone (If you want to know the story you can ask.) God has just completely blessed me these last couple of months.

So if that’s not the most incredible year, I don’t know what is.

Frank, My Buddhist Friend.

This last week I went to Starbucks to prepare for my 1 Peter teaching. As soon as I sat down, an older Taiwanese man turned to me and started speaking to me in broken English. He was more than precious as he would cover his mouth and giggle after every sentence he would speak in English. As we kept talking, I found out that his name was Frank, he has three children who are all married, he studied English in New York and California, and he is Buddhist. He showed me a Buddhist book about female enlightenment and talked to me about how enlightenment is when your mind becomes one with Buddha’s mind. It’s when you are so greatly influenced by him that you receive knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and a transformation of life. He then began to talk to me about love and how Taiwan has such a skewed perception of love.

I took this as an opportunity to share the gospel.

I shared with him about God being love and how Jesus came down and sacrificed himself as the ultimate form of love. I shared my beliefs in God and tried to explain it in a way that was understandable to him and his beliefs in the world. I tried to tie things into his already conceived ideas of what he believed and tried to point out the differences so that he knew that our God’s weren’t the same.

His response was not expected. He grabbed my arm and said,

“You need to teach this to my people. You need to tell the Taiwanese about this true love and what he did!”

I told him that I would be honored to and that that is actually why I was here.

He squeezed my arm a little harder and said, “Please. You must. Don’t forget.”

After talking to him for almost an hour, I finally opened up to 1 Peter. The only problem was that my mind was now replaying everything that had just happened. Whether or not this man really understood what I was saying, or what HE was asking me to do… God used that moment. God gave me a mission and made me realize that this was REAL! I have a responsibility here. I am not just here to stay in the YWAM bubble. I am here to share the gospel. I am here because Jesus died on the cross to save us, and then commanded us to be a witnesses to the ends of the earth. It was at this moment that I felt an urgency and stronger call to share the gospel at any opportunity.

I Shop on the Streets.

Over the last month and a half my housemate Sarah and I have been cleaning our new home, painting the walls, and trying to find all the furnishings before our other two housemates returned home from the Ukraine and Myanmar. We wanted it to be completely finished before they came home so that they could just rest after a month and a half of teaching the bible and preaching.

It was a long and hard process, seeing that it was left in the worst state possible, but we completed it the day before our first roommate got home. I am happy to say that we acquired almost all of it from off the streets. We still have to add some character into the house and make it feel a little more homey, but the important thing is… WE HAVE A HOME!!

The Housemates:

Analia Christine Zukowski “The Graceful Paradox”

Age: 23

From: Salem, Oregon

Random Facts: loves the color green, has an insane obsession with all things pumpkin, loves Autumn, loves to run with Catherine. Has known me for 23 years. Dances by herself. Is twitter pated- don’t hate me. She is a harmonizing genius. It’s crazy for me to think that after growing up with her in Salem, Oregon, I am now sharing a room with her in Taiwan.

Catherine Ruth Mcconnell “The Mom”

Age: 23

From: Belmont, Michigan

Random Facts: Loves the colors green and purple. She is a running machine. She loves the bible and reading. She bakes chocolate chip cookies almost every night. She is a realist, a comforter (she has to be after she crushes our dreams- JUST KIDDING). Loves the Economist. Loves to travel but gets lost everywhere.

Sarah Noel Flanagan “The Fashionista”

Age: 22

From: San Francisco, California

Random facts: Loves the colors teal and yellow. Hates Thanksgiving food. Is a Star Wars nerd. Once Got her friend arrested at the Canadian border for leaving a grenade in the trunk of her car. Has feathers weaved into her hair. She loves Disneyland (I think…).Never wants to wake up in the morning.

 

 

The House: (Yes, it is a bit eclectic, but at least that was all free!)

Our First Party: Thank you dinner for everyone who helped.

 

Taiwan Part Deux

When I first arrived in Taiwan last march I saw the slogan, “Taiwan Touch Your Heart” posted on just about every street corner and souvenir shop. I thought it was a nice attempt to try to coerce foreigners into actually believing that Taiwan was a place that would stick with them forever. I also had a nice chuckle at their attempt at English grammar. This time around as my leader drove me back to my home in Dan Shui I finally realized that Taiwan had indeed touched my heart. Taiwan and I had a rough start last year but I know without a doubt that we are going to have one of the best years together.

For those of you who don’t know, I am back in Taiwan to staff/ teach in the School of Biblical Studies (SBS). The school starts the end of March and will be the beginning of the hardest and most rewarding/ life-giving 12 months of these students’ lives. This school looks like it is going to be the largest one this base has seen yet. There are almost 50 that have been accepted with so many more on the waiting list. THIS IS SO CRAZY! My role this next year is to 1) teach one book of the bible each term, 2) lead a small group of ladies, 3) have one-on-one time with the students, 4) grade the homework, 5) and just be there for the students as they go through huge transformation by the word of God. Aside from that, I will be helping at a free English Coffee Bar that the base owns. The last three months I worked there during SBS, I worked in an English class for kids from the age of about 9-13. I have been dying to get back there and be with the kids. I have a huge desire to work with my friend on organizing and bettering the curriculum we have been using and incorporating more about Jesus within the teachings.

In coming home this last Christmas, I had a seemingly flawless plan.  The day after I returned home I started working at Starbucks. My boss was far too kind to agree to letting me work there for two months and let me work 40 hours a week. With this job, I would make more than enough to pay for my living accommodations and a couple months of food.  Cha-ching. My set date to return to Taiwan was February 13^th which gave me plenty of time to work and to catch up with people that I had dearly missed this last year. And then I got the news…I got an email which said, “I hope you are sitting down for this,” and then  continued to explain that because of new Visa regulations, I had to return to Taiwan the 20^th of January or else I wouldn’t be able to return for another 6-12months. It was a shock to the system to say the least. Because of this, it leaves me with even less money than I was hoping I would make.  I have never been one to really support raise. I’ve sent my letter here and there but I never wanted to bother people. You see, I think it has been a major pride issue in the past where I didn’t really want to go as low as to bother people by asking them to support me with money that they may or may not have. I always said I trusted God in this area and would preach that God is faithful to just about everyone I knew who needed money. The only thing is, I would make sure that I would do everything in my power to make sure I didn’t actually have to trust God. So I have always worked my tail off before going anywhere so that I could depend on myself and feel comfortable with what I had. Before coming to Taiwan this last time I wore  myself so thin by working around 75hours a week. This time around, God has brought me to this place of complete dependence on him and how he uses other people to support me. At this point, I have about $500 in my account and after that I have no idea where my money is coming from. I know some of you may not be in the best of places financially but I would love it if you could pray about supporting me. A one time offer is great and HAPPILY accepted, but what I am really needing are monthly supporters until March 2012 (one year). It doesn’t have to be a large sum, even $10 a month would be helpful. I’m not asking for thousands and thousands of dollars to live like a queen, only enough for my basic needs.

My budget goes as followed:

• Housing: $140 a month
• Food: $300 a month
• Ministry: $50
• Phone/ insurance: $50
• Emergency money: $20

Total :  $560a month.

Aside from that, I would love your guys’ prayers for this next year. Prayers that I would be a humble and God fearing/seeking leader and for the many students that we will be mentoring this upcoming year.

If you would like to donate, you can do so through the Montana YWAM base. They have set up a missionary support account for me and they can give you a receipt so that you can get a tax deduction. You can tell them that you either want to do a one time offer, or they can set up an automatic monthly transaction so that you don’t have to even think about it after that. If you would like to

Thank you so much for all your support and friendship.

Support can be sent the following ways:

BY CHECK made out to YWAM in US$.  They must not put your name on the check but can either put your project number in the memo line or send in a separate note saying who the check is for.  They can mail it to 501 Blacktail Rd, Lakeside, MT, 59922 and just mark it for Accounting.

BY AUTOMATIC DEPOSIT. They will need to complete and return the attached deposit form and we process these on the 15th of each month.

BY CREDIT CARD. We run these on the 1st of each month and we will need the attached details which they can either phone in to us on 406-844-2223 or email into us.  The bank charges a 3% charge on all credit card transactions and this will be deducted from the amount.

Each supporter will receive a tax deductible receipt which has a tear-off portion and an envelope that they return with their next support.  If they choose, they can receive their receipt by email.  At the end of the year, your supporter will receive a year end tax receipt for the total support they have sent in.

Please email me at Naphtalie.a.edwards@gmail.com if you have any questions

Taiwan until March 2012

For a few years now, I believed that I approached God with a completely open hand. Numerous times I would say to him, “God, I would give up anything for you. Do you see that my hand is open before you, willingly offering everything that I have, all my desires, and all my supposed rights? Take them, all I want is you.” After saying this recently, I felt as if God smiled and then pointed at the other hand that was conveniently tucked behind my back saying, “What’s there?” “Nothing!” I quickly responded.

He kindly asked again, “What’s behind your back?”

I paused and then slowly presented a clenched fist. I told him it was nothing.

As the weeks went on, my hands began loosening to show all the different things that I desperately clung to for comfort; things that I found value in. While we studied Ruth, I was completely challenged by Ruth’s life. Most know the story of Ruth. She was a Moabite woman who married an Israelite man. When her and her sister-in-law’s husbands died, their mother-in-law, Naomi, released them to go back to their families. Her sister-in-law left for home but Ruth faithfully followed Naomi. When Naomi saw that Ruth still followed her she said, “See, you sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” What Naomi had to offer her was nothing. She had no possessions, no wealth, no husband, no sons to redeem Ruth, and no status. She had seemingly nothing. But one thing that Naomi had was a God worth following. There was something about Naomi that Ruth wanted to be faithful to. So Ruth responded, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried.” She gave up everything that she knew. She gave up her family, her friends, her nation, her land, her comforts, and her gods. During a time that anyone would want to cling harder and more closely to the things that make them feel comfortable, she up and throws them away for a better cause. She did what she knew was right because of the convictions of God. She gave up everything she had for an unknown, uncertain, and scary future knowing that there was a good and faithful God that would lead her and make all things perfect in his will.

I want a faith like that, that will give up everything that I have knowing that God is ultimately better. I want to be able to say, “Ok God, Take it all. Take everything from me, I give it to you. I do not need my wants, and you satisfy my needs. Yes I love my family, I love my friends, I love the clean crisp air and green scenery of Oregon, I love food that’s not all fried, I love cold weather/ all four seasons, I love the security of a job, I love being able to have an adequate amount of money to survive and to give to people, I love getting in my car to go wherever I want, I love Americans, I love the idea of meeting the one guy I will be with for forever at any given moment, I love learning, I love my church, I love leading worship at church, I love the idea of  having my own house, I love having mold free clothes and blankets and rooms, I love clean streets and restaurants and cafés, I love real toilets, I love comfort, BUT GOD… I love you more and I surrender them all to you.” I am slowly learning to be in that place where I don’t allow these things to hinder me from doing God’s will. I mean, right now, on the outside it appears that I have sacrificed a lot of things throughout the years by doing “godly things” but internally I had not made the switch. I’m not saying that material possessions are bad, or that my desires or dreams are bad because many of them are good and are God given. But when we allow these things to take a higher seat then God or dictate whether or not we are sold out for God THEN its bad. True freedom is found when we start living like we belong to the most high God. No longer for our ambition, our five year plan, our agenda, our hearts desire but now for God’s kingdom, his agenda, his glory, to make his name famous, to expand his rule and reign on earth. Then and only then, we are truly free. Jesus is inviting us to step away from our consumeristic, humanistic hearts, our way of living, our independence and to stop living for ourselves and open up a new door and start living for Jesus; walking with him, following him, laying our life down at his feet, day by day, becoming his son, or his daughter.

I’m almost done I promise. Over the past couple months, with all these revelations in mind, I have been going back and forth about what I was going to do next. One minute I would be sold on going home, finishing college, and working. The other minute I planned on living here to teach the bible for a year and 3 months. After much prayer, I have decided that I will be staying here. Over the next year and three months I will be staffing here in Taiwan teaching the bible. I will be home for a little over a week during Christmas break so if anyone wants to catch up with me… I would LOVE it. You can just send me a little love on facebook and we can plan a little hang out sesh.

Hope you all are wonderful and that you have a fantastic thanksgiving week. I am thankful for you all.

Surviving the Hurricane.

I have just been through the most intense hurricane of my life. It was called Hurricane Fanapi and it was on the war path to China; Taiwan just happened to get in the middle of it. We were warned a couple days earlier to stock up on food and stay indoors. When the Hurricane hit, the winds tore through the city, the rain pooled everywhere in the roads and signs and loose objects flew everywhere. Ok, it wasn’t actually as bad as I may have made it sound. There were ripping winds, torrential rain, and signs that were ripped from walls, but for the most part it was more fun than anything. The actual center of the hurricane was further away, so we did not get it as bad.

So, my intentions when I first got here to Taiwan were to write an update about every two weeks. As the days went on, I realized that perhaps once a month would be much more realistic. Well, I am pretty sure it has been about three months since the last post. Terribly sorry. Does it count for anything if I say, “My computer crashed, and is now slowly giving up on me?”

I swore I would never do the peace sign for pictures...

Since it has been about three months since my last post, I honestly can say that I have no idea what to share with you. So much has happened. I am now officially finished 2/3 of my course. Only 3 more months to go! At this point, we have finished up the New Testament (aside from Matthew, which will be our last book studied), the Pentateuch (which is the first five books of the bible), and Joshua through Chronicles. I remember starting with Galatians thinking I have no idea how I am going to finish this book in one week. It’s six whole chapters! Now my thoughts are generally “ok, 65 chapters, yeah If I schedule my time wisely then I can get it done before the week is up.” My day usually consists of waking up to my alarm at 6:30am and hitting my snooze. 6:40am comes around-snooze. 7:00am-snooze. 7:30am-snooze. 7:31am- “Shoot. I only have 19 minutes!” At 7:50am I leave my apartment and begin walking to the classroom.Every morning I pass the cutest group of old Taiwanese people waiting to get into the health clinic. My goal is to make as many of them smile as possible. And I never walk by the medicine tea shop without waving hello to the sweet man working there, saying one of the only Chinese words I know, “Ni Hao.” Most days, at around 8:00am, I start my workday and don’t finish until 10:00pm at the earliest. But don’t worry; I do get a few breaks. On Wednesdays, I get to do my ministry and on Thursdays I get the privilege of babysitting the cutest child ever. His name is Jonathan Justice (Aka Johnny Justice or J.J.). And Sunday…that is my beautiful day of doing absolutely nothing.

The ROCK COFFEE BAR:

Every Wednesday from 7:00pm to 10:00pm I work at a coffee bar owned by Ywam. It is open every night, and the drinks are free for all. At the coffee bar, we have a few different classes that people can partake in. We have, Spanish, English, and Korean class, as well as guitar, art, and dance classes. Aside from that, it is just a place for us to get to know the local Taiwanese and be able to build relationships with them and share the gospel.  For the most part, I work in the actual café and talk with people and share the gospel. My first term working there, I got to know two girls really well, and since then we have become really great friends. Their names are Jane Chiang and Jolly (sounding like Jolie) Kaku. Both are 22years old and have been extremely fun to get to know and share stories with. There is another woman who I have been investing a lot of time in as well. Her name is Maggie and she is 34 years old. It would be really wonderful if you would all pray for them if you get a chance.

Me, my classmate Mai, Jolly and Jane at a night market

Again... the peace sign.

Aside from the Rock, and studying in the classroom, I like to mix it up and study at (drum role please)… Starbucks. It is my home away from home. More often than not, I end up in a conversation with the person next to me, and Shazam… the next day I have a new facebook friend whose name I cant always pronounce. I just recently had the revelation that I might go there a little too often when I walked up to the counter and the barista said, “Hello Naphtalie.” I just looked at him and laughed. I had no idea they knew my name. Moments later I walked upstairs and began talking to another one of the Baristas named Frank and he mentioned a new drink they had. I said, “Perfect! That will be a nice way to switch things up. I am here so often.” Then he looked at me and said, “Trust me. We all know.” haha. Needless to say, I took a break from starbucks for about a week. Again, if you think about it, you can pray for Cherry, Frank, and Cedric (all Baristas).

Right now, I am on my last break for the year. It lasts until the 25th, so I have plenty of time to write more blogs, and perhaps you will get a better sense of what life is like here. I would love to talk with people also, so if you want to facebook me, I will have time to write you back, and if you would like to skype… even better. My Skype SN is: Naphers.

love.

Reflections after the Dragon Boat Festival.

This last week the city of Danshui hosted what is called the Dragon Boat festival. From Wednesday afternoon to Thursday around 9:00pm the entire city participated in this festival where they worshipped their ancestors and multiple different gods and idols. It was unlike anything that I have ever witnessed before. The streets were littered with people and so much confetti that your feet began to disappear under these large pieces of festive red paper. As you breathed your lungs began to suffocate due to the combination of overpowering incense and toxic fake money burnt offerings. The piercing noise of the gongs, drums, recordings, chants, and whistles were never ending. There was no peace or escape from the parades. There was a continual streams of people, floats, and displays that weaved in and out of the maze of alleys and streets that make up Danshui. As the festival approached we were warned not to linger in the streets and station ourselves in a place to watch the festivities. The parade has been known to be extremely dangerous at times. In the past some of the men participants have followed, harassed and even beaten bystanders. A great majority of those participating were drunk or on drugs as they circled the city worshipping their gods.

Of these people were those who practiced what I believe is called Bai Bai. These men were usually gangsters who were paid by the temple to perform this ritual.The men prepare themselves by getting extremely drunk or drugged up and through different avenues open themselves to be possessed by demons. They walk through the streets with their eyes rolled back in their heads and contorting their bodies. As they continued through the day they beat their heads and bodies with clubs that have glass, nails and other sharp items imbedded in them and cut themselves with sharp swords to create a connection/ freeway to the spiritual realm. It was a gruesome sight to see them walk down the street with blood staining their clothes and streaming down their faces and other exposed areas of skin. It was extremely hard to witness.

Curiosity got the best of me and I couldn’t help but wander the city. I walked and I prayed. Minute by minute my heart pounded harder and faster within my chest as I was filled with sorrow for this lost nation. This is all that they know. They don’t know the goodness and love of the one that is so desperately longing for them to know him. I was extremely challenged that day. God challenged me when he asked, “Will you tell them?” Heck yes I will. This was not always my heart though and definitely not my desire. It has been a slow process for me to get to this point. Me and the Asian culture… we don’t really mix. My mentality when I first got here was to study the bible, focus on my work, and then get out of here as fast as I could. I thought to myself, well I don’t feel “called” to Asia, so I don’t really have to spend much time investing in the people here. That’s someone else’s responsibility. Stupid mentality. Day by day God has been showing me how from the very beginning of our relationship with him he has bestowed upon us a stewardship that many of us tuck away and forget about. There is a mission that we are all responsible to be a part of. It is our mission to see people come to know the Lord to the very ends of the earth. It’s not just something that was relevant for those in bible times. It’s completely relevant to us now. We are called to evangelize and share the gospel. We are called to evangelize in third world countries to those who have never heard about God. We are called to evangelize to those we see sitting beside us at Starbucks, those working out beside us at the gym, those who seem hardened and least likely to care, those who seem like they have everything and don’t need God, those who are atheists, those who are intellectuals, musicians, writers, politicians, business men, McDonalds employees, the homeless, the druggies, etc. EVERYONE must know about God. In 1 Corinthians 9:16-17 it says “For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this on my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship.” Even if we don’t want to preach the gospel, we’re afraid, or we think that no one really cares… WHO CARES! We still have a stewardship. We are stewards of themost precious gift that could ever be received. The question is, what kind of stewards will we decide to be? What kind of people would we be if we let our fears, our rights, or our time keep us from sharing salvation with people? People need to know about the sacrifice that was made on their behalf; for their good, for their freedom, and so that they could live with a purpose and in relationship with God. Thank God that we don’t serve a god that requires us to mutilate our bodies, abstain from everything good, and who looks upon us in disgust. We serve a God that wants relationship and that wants his creation to come back to him and live in hope of the salvation that he died for us to have.It’s the greatest news imaginable. What kind of steward will you be? How will you share the gospel? Evangelizing and sharing the gospel doesn’t mean just passing out Christian tracks, preaching on the street corners, and bombarding people with Christianese language. It’s just about sharing Jesus with others; through a testimony, the gospel, etc. We all have areas of influence and we all have passions… we have to do SOMETHING. We’re called to do something.

I am committed to Danshui.

The Much Needed Change.

My apologies for being the worst blogger ever. Does it help if I tell you that I now have a backlog of about three blogs that I have wanted to write? It’s the thought that counts, right? Who am I fooling. Now that things are starting to settle down a little bit I can go to town on my posts. I know you guys have been dying to read them. ha.

A couple weeks ago we started studying the book of Romans. I had been anticipating this book for a couple weeks but when I delved in, it meant nothing to me. There was no heart connection. I listened to the lectures, read the book over and over again, made observations, made interpretation, lamely tried to apply it to myself and…nothing. The day before the book was due I was impossibly behind and was frustrated beyond belief that this book, that is so full of life, spoke nothing to me. I went to one of my staff and from that point on my life has been changed.

My biggest fear in life has always been that when I died I would be in front of God, with pure excitement exuding from my body in anticipation of entering heaven and dwelling with God, and as I stood there, God would look at me and say, “Oh, Naphtalie, mmm, yeah, your life did not amount to much. What you did for me was pointless. Good try, but no this is not where you get to be.”

In high school, a very significant influence said to me in his class, “No one knows if they are actually getting in to heaven, not all Christians will even get there. I don’t think I have gotten to the place where God would see me at the gate and let me in. There’s probably no one in this room that has gotten to that point. Even good Christians don’t get into heaven.”

LIE.

I feared from that point on. Everything I did after that I did because I wanted to try and solidify my place in heaven. I wanted to please God and earn a concrete salvation

When I thought about the sacrifice that Jesus made for our salvation, I couldn’t accept it. It was completely undeserved. For me, it is really hard to accept things that are undeserved and unexplainable. I couldn’t fathom why a God of such perfection and power would want to save his creation that is constantly in sin. I could speak it over other people’s lives, but for my life it seemed inapplicable. My mind just couldn’t wrap around it. I had to earn it. I had to prove to God that I was worthy. Even then, everything I did seemed worthless and weightless. I became so tired and so totally worn dry, that not a single truth made sense to me anymore. I did not believe in my salvation. I did not UNDERSTAND salvation or the depth of Jesus’ death.

As I talked to my checker, he began to point out verses in Romans that answered all my questions, but just didn’t reach my heart. He asked me, “Do you believe the bible is true?” Of course I did. “Do you believe these verses are true?” Well, yeah. But I didn’t believe it in my own life. Why why why on earth would God want me? I am a creature of sinful habits; I fail constantly at doing what I should. My actions and ideas about salvation spoke that I that I didn’t believe that Christ’s death was enough. On top of Christ’s death, I needed to be perfect, I needed to devote myself to Godly things, and I needed to always be joyful.

The thing is, I believed a lie. Christ is and always will be enough. It isn’t by anything that we do or say that brings us salvation. There is no answer to the “Why” other than the fact that God loves us and always planned on us being in close relationship with him for eternity. He chose us. We are all sinners to the very core of who we are. The only thing we deserve is death- all we are capable of on our own is hell. But his plan was never for that. Instead, he made a way for us to be made justified. Jesus. There is no explanation of this great love. He just loves.

Here is part of a John Piper sermon and a couple verses that really spoke to me:

“not only does God look upon a guilty person in the courtroom and exercise clemency and forgive him and say, “you’re guilty. I forgive you. Go and sin no more. But he also beyond all imagine looks upon this guilty sinner and does not just say, “You’re guilty. I forgive you.” He says, “You’re not guilty.” Forgiveness is understandable; just a little bit understandable. We kind of have some way to get our hands around forgiveness. You let it go, you don’t hold it against him. But this… God looks him right in the face, sinner though he is and says RIGHTEOUS.” -John Piper

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then, it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, Who has mercy.” Rom 9: 15-16

“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore, we have been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” Rom 5: 8-9

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Rom 3: 23-24

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one believes and is saved.” Rom 10: 9-10

May be going blind but at least I have a fish.

You’ll have to excuse my spelling. I left my apartment today, after unblinkingly staring at my bible, computer, encyclopedias, Greek dictionaries, and charts for the last few days, and came to the realization that I couldn’t see details anymore. Unless it was within a foot of my face, it was only a shape with color. Good news is, we have finished Galatians! I have prayed for years that the bible would come alive to me and it finally has. My thinking and views of God are already being changed and I’ve only studied one book. One down. Sixty-five more to go. Oh, what’s that? You want to hear a little bit about Galatians and what I have learned? Well, ok. I would love to tell you.

Paul the apostle wrote the book of Galatians to the newly established churches in Galatia. After hearing news that the believers were being swayed from their faith, Paul writes one of the most emotion filled letters of the bible. The new believers were being approached by false teachers, the Pharisees, who began to teach them that yeah, the gospel is good and all but it isn’t enough. You also need to obey the Law. They were teaching that Jesus’ sacrifice, what he did on the cross, was not enough for people to be saved. The Galatians listened and started following a gospel that taught that salvation could be attained through works of the Law. Paul, who had spent morning, noon and night with them, investing in them, growing them, and challenging them was filled with anger, frustration, disappointment, and sadness that these people that he loved so dearly were being swayed by something so undeniably false. He cries out to them, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel…O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” There is no other way to God except through Christ. For it is by faith that we receive the promise of salvation by God. Before Jesus we were all under the curse of the Law for if we were not able to abide by all the laws and do them, then we were cursed (Gal 3:10). Christ however came and redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for our sake. For it says, “cursed is everyone hanged on a tree.” We, all of us, were on the shelf of the cursed and God came and bought, redeemed, us at the cost of his son Jesus. Our salvation does not come from anything that we have done or could ever do. We cant repay God. How tiring would it be if we served a God who was a task driver and a collector of dues? We don’t have to prove anything to him to be saved. He never expects anything but love in return. No one is ever too far-gone, too sinful, or too messed up. We’re already bought and paid for. We’re all bought for the purpose of redemption.

How amazing is the God I serve?

Taiwan Life.

I live on the top floor with the gated balcony.

I have now been here about a week and a half, and I absolutely love it. There are 59 of us here. We live in different apartments around the city; all within five minutes walk of each other. I’d like to say that I have the best house… now that we have hot water. My roommates are amazing. I live with a Mongolian, a Korean, a Taiwanese, and two Americans. I am so blessed by my new friends. Since being here I have taken the most uncomfortable two day trip Hong Kong to try get my visa, returned back to Taiwan, rekindled my beautiful friendship with one of my best friends Stephanie, reunited with my friend Basil who I haven’t seen for three years, made new friends, completed my Galatians studies, and bought a fish. That’s right, a fish. I figured since I am going to be here for nine months I might as well make this my home. Nothing says home like a red Beta fish named Heather. It’s perfect for me… I barely have to take care of it and it wont die.

Sounds like the life, eh?

Hopefully I have better stories to tell you next time. Until then, zai jian.

….I have to say, I tried to be all cool by throwing in Chinese at the end as if I actually knew what I was saying. The truth is, I just asked my friend. At least I know how to say hello, thank you, and Pineapple. You should be so proud.