Justin, “a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ to” my prayer group and prayer supporters. Greetings from Taiwan. We landed at 4 am this morning and the team is assembled and traveling towards our lodging in Hualien.
My roommate, Patrick, and I have been bonding over trying to memorize James (hence the greeting) in between practicing the hand motions for the Mandarin songs that we will be teaching. We’re currently on the mid speed rail from Taipei to Hualien. The scenery is incredibly green and beautiful on the right with a view of the ocean to the left. All the public transportation areas are super clean and well maintained.
Although I only managed 3 hours of sleep on the plane, I was able to make progress on my lesson notes. I was able to finish my lesson notes for the five lessons giving an overview of the gospel that I will be teaching in the first week while we were waiting for the rest of the team at the train station. There is still quite a bit of preparation left to do to make sure our Mandarin translations are on point though since I finished so late. Many people are tired but the lack of sleep will be good if it helps us get over jet lag quickly. Overall the plane ride was decently productive and may be the first plane ride where I sat next to my sister without fighting with her! She’s going with her own church on a different missions trip to a different part of Taiwan.
I was able to muster the courage to speak in Cantonese to a family traveling from Hong Kong while we were at the train station. We had a nice short conversation about our backgrounds before they left and I even got to mention that I was here with fellow church members. I missed the opportunity to share the gospel but it was good practice with my Chinese and stepping out of my comfort zone.
After we arrive at the hotel in the next hour or so, we will head to the local church which is about half an hour away by car to check out the facilities and set up and decorate the classroom.
We’ve been extremely well fed from delicious China Airline pork noodles to tea eggs to the red bean pastry cakes with black sesame filling instead of red bean. I was prepared to be a starving missionary for two weeks but that was one assumption that was completely inaccurate.
God has helped lessen my anxiety by providing the time to finish my lesson preparation. We still need to memorize Mandarin books of the Bible for Bible drill and work on our translations. These challenges have been a good exercise in putting the appropriate effort in to prepare while also trusting in the Lord when we are not prepared, a balance I still struggle with often.
Prayer Requests
- Continued safety and good health for the team
- Team unity as we begin to work together and flexibility and patience to handle all situations
- Open hearts from the children we will be working with