super happy days ~*^_^*~

Yo everybody

Sorry we haven't had a chance to update. We've been pretty flat out since we've arrived here in YuChih but it's been a great 3 days so far. We arrived here in the village on Friday afternoon and started off with a dinner that night with the current Church preacher Grace and her husband Vincent and daughter Jessie.

We spent Saturday with the youth group in the morning, kids club in the afternoon and the uni/senior high school students in the evening. We've been sharing about Australia and also playing games. We shared a couple testimonies in the morning with the youth. In the arvo, we did a skit about a shepherd and his lost sheep which the little kiddies loved. We then had a sheep activity where they stuck cotton wool and eyes on to paper. They really enjoyed it and the Preacher got to share with them the message behind the bible story.

The new members of the team have been having a great time getting to know a lot of the kids here and for myself - it's always good to come back to my second home and see my other 'family' here in YuChih. It's so encouraging to see the university students who were 14yrs old when I first met them 5 years ago and are now much older and attending universities all over Taiwan but still all came back on the weekend to see us and have a fun night on Saturday night. It was tiring but a great day of encouraging the Church and kids who have so much love for each other and this place.

Sunday we had worship in the morning which was all in Taiwanese...and spent all afternoon preparing english classes which we held this morning at a new junior high school called MingTan junior high which Heidi said "it was a fantastic experience". We will be there again next Monday for a 4 hour session - 2hours English class and 2hours Christmas party where we'll be able to share the gospel, skits, songs and testimonies.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we will be going to a Christian hospital to share songs and testimonies for half an hour sessions at different wards which will run all morning til midday. We will be all sung out after that and we'll be doing that again on Friday morning.

The week ahead looks like this:

Wednesday - English classes at YuChih Junior High School in the afternoon

Thursday - Nursing home in the morning and Christmas party with grade 8's at YuChih Junior High School.

Friday - Puli Christian Hospital in the morning

Saturday - Youth in the morning, Kids in the afternoon.

Please pray for us - some of us have been having really bad sleep and irregular toilet trips. So we find ourselves really drained. Please keep praying for our unity - the group has been going well so far and we've been working through things quite well but it takes a bit longer coz there's 9 of us. It also means we are sleeping later because we are taking longer to organise things. Pray also for the kids that we meet and that they'll want to know about Jesus and that we'll keep making the most of every opportunity and every relationship we have with the kids.

Praise God for all the encouragement and inspiration from the brothers and sisters at this Church who do sooo much for the community here!

Just keep praying that we'll glorify God and show the love of Christ every chance we can.

Thanks all.

Mikey

Safe Arrival!

We have landed here safe and sound at Taipei! We have been wasted from the travel but working hard with our skit practices and organising the activities for saturday, while at the same time building up some team bonding!

Please pray for unity of the team!

Pray for good rest!

Pray for hearts of the people in Yu Chih!

Pray for health that we won't get sick cause of the cold weather!

About Taiwan

Now a bit about Taiwan:

Republic of China is commonly known as Taiwan, it has a population of 23 million. Yet only 2.5% are evangelical Christians, half of them are regular church attendees.

Less than 1/200 Working Class Taiwanese are Christians. Working Class makes up two third of the population (15million).

Most Christians in Taiwan are middle or upper-middle class; this is because they are educated into speaking mandarin where as the working class are far less educated, very traditional and speak in Taiwanese. This causes barriers, as most missionaries speak mandarin rather than Taiwanese.

There has been a missionary decline in Taiwan over the past ten years caused by a number unknown factor, possibly due to people having the misconceptions that there is a strong church presence in Taiwan. Since it doesn’t have restrictions of religious freedom, it is not a hard country to spread the Gospel yet it is the hardest asian country to reach to.

Spiritual darkness is very apparent in the countryside. Taiwan has more temples than any other country in the world and is influence by superstition and idolatry.

With this in mind please continue to pray for Taiwan, that a spiritual revival will come upon the country and that Jesus will be proclaimed.

Team 2010

As previously shown in the picture, a team of 9 will be going to Taiwan from 7th of December till the 30th of December 2010.

The team consists of Mikey, Ivan, Ping, Jeremy, Jack, Grace, Heidi, Lisa and Susie.

During our stay in Taiwan we will be spending our time serving at the local church in Yu Chih. We will also be staying at the church too.

Yu Chih, similar to a country town, is located in the middle of Taiwan about 10 min drive from the famous Sun Moon Lake.

Our time will be spent serving at the church, visiting hospitals, school, other churches and helping out with the youth groups and the elderly groups at the church!

During our visits to these places we will be performing skits, singing songs and sharing our testimonies of how God has saved us.

Praise God for:

-Raising up and giving the opportunity for 9 people this year to head back to Taiwan to sow seeds and encourage the local Church in YuChih

-the small humble Church in YuChih which we will be serving at who continue to serve graciously and lovingly to the community

-Supporters night, the prayers and the finical support that you have blessed us with

Pray that:

We will continue to love Jesus and grow and stay in a close relationship with Him leading up to this mission trip so we can be effective over there.

God will prepare the hearts of those over there that we meet and that He'll use us as instruments to do His good will

God will help us with organizing the trip over the next couple of weeks with meetings, training, and gathering support and raising funds

Meet the team!

9 Aussie grown Asians are being sent to Yuchih by Brisbane's CCCB and Sydney's Gracepoint church to reach the Taiwanese community this Christmas.

Support us on our mission to ensure that Jesus is worshiped this Christmas in Yuchih!