Day 11 - 7/10/2016 - Ballin

"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works"

     Hebrews 10:24

Hello again everyone! It’s Josh. Last night, Jeremy and Edward came over to Hwa-Chi’s to sleepover because their hosts had to pick up their son very early this morning from the airport. Zack just came back from America this morning, and we got to meet him at the Christian assembly. He’s actually planning on applying to American colleges, as he’s going to be a senior next year.

It was different sleeping in a room with two other guys. The room was much more cramped and a lot messier: the floor was littered with clothes, bags, electronics, and all sorts of other random things.

All of us woke up to a delicious breakfast of ham and egg sandwiches, a tray of fruits, and 葱油饼. Then we hurriedly got ready to leave for church.

Before Sunday school started, we met two new college students named Ben and Keira. Ben was very kind and thanked us for coming over to serve at the VBS this past week. Hwa-Chi continued his teachings on the 7 survival skills from last week. Since I don’t know Chinese that well, I couldn’t really take notes, so here are Jeremy’s:

Multi-tasking and focused work aren't mutually exclusive; they work towards the same goal and can coexist.

Identification of priorities in life are the truly difficult part of time management, not merely understanding the order of priorities.

Take the initiative as an employee, build up you own list of priorities and tasks to relieve some burden from the leader. Also, double-check the list with your boss.

Five-year plans are usually ineffective:

    Year One - Followed with minor delays

    Year Two - Failure to meet deadlines

    Year Three - Revisions and restructuring

Fear of change is based on lack of adaptability and leads to failure

Acceptance of change is built upon an understanding of resources and leads to success.

Agility and adaptability involves an understanding of resources and advice.

Continued learning throughout the entirety of life is a foundation of agility and adaptability.

The ability to motivate others is incredibly valuable and difficult to master.

As a leader, understand psychology to better foster and nurture the talent pool of the workers.

Being well-rounded and having a blanket understanding of as many relevant and irrelevant topics is crucial.

Taking the initiative and seizing opportunities produces significant benefits due to new experiences and connections.

When given a problem or assignment, take ownership of the problem and keep it in mind at all times; that is entrepreneurialism.

By taking ownership, your personal motivation is vastly improved, but does not necessarily mean developing a lone-wolf mentality.

The service really moved me today, seeing the entire congregation singing passionately together. The students led worship, and seeing them all serve together really touched me. All of them have such loving, compassionate, and serving hearts, and it’s so amazing and encouraging to see young people around our age who have that much faith.

The sermon today was on John 16: Jesus Warns of Persecution. It went back to the basics for the new parents to get an understanding of what the gospel is and what Jesus did. It’s great that the church is trying to build up a strong foundation of new believers. Again, here are Jeremy’s notes:

This time period in the chronicle of Jesus' life is full of lessons for disciples from the washing of the feet to the vine and the branch.

"In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me."

Threefold reasoning: because they do not believe, because Jesus returns to his Father, disciples will no longer see him, and because the kings of the world undergo trials.

God and Jesus makes us fearful, uncertain disciples into faithful believers who spread his Word.

Failing to believe in the Lord is the same as refuting God's existence.

Before we are saved and have faith, we cannot recognize the depths of our own sins.

Deeds without faith are empty, yet in the same way faith grows through deeds.

Jesus was sent as intercession for us, a pure and unblemished lamg to bear tthe punishment of our sins.

If God can be our Father, it is all because of Jesus Christ.

Jesus' victory over the grave is also a victory over Satan, and without him, we would all be trapped in this world of darkness.

By rejecting God and Jesus, we ruin ourselves.

Entering into the truth is one of the works of God within all disciples. Understand the difference between a man's personal beliefs and truths and God's holy truth.

Praying and reading the Bible requires God's support.

The overall purpose and goal is to glorify Him in all things and to say before Him that his message of love and faith has left a lasting mark on us.

The Lord gives us peace through Christ.

After eating a well cooked lunch, we talked to many of the kids who came back from VBS to church today, and it made it even harder to say goodbye after seeing how glad they were to see us one more time. We played a game of tag with them all, and then watched a video of pictures from the VBS.

Edward, Emily, and I started learning the drums from Albert, Luke, and Peggy while Jeremy played tag with Evangeline, Cherry, and the kids. We were practicing a beat that Peggy had taught us until we were interrupted by Luke’s and Albert’s drum lessons. Their teacher taught them a pop song familiar to all of us called Marvin Gaye.

Edward and I were planning on playing basketball with Albert after his lesson ended, so we still had an hour to kill. Upstairs, we bumped into Evangeline and met a boy named Wilson. Right away, I noticed his Jeremy Lin shorts and Kyrie Irving shoes, so I could tell he was a baller. Evangeline told us that he actually played for a team, so we asked him to come along with us to the courts.

During the 10 minute walk to the courts, we realized how hot it was outside, and by the time we got there and started warming up, we were already dying from the heat. So Edward, Wilson, and I decided to take off our shirts to keep ourselves cool, which is apparently normal for people to do in Taiwan. We started with a game of two on two, Wilson and me versus Edward and Albert. But it was a blowout, so we decided to switch the teams around. We didn’t keep track of score during the second game, but Edward was too exhausted to keep playing, so Wilson, Albert, and I played a game of horse for the rest of the time. Afterwards, we stopped at a vending machine, and Edward and I tried Taiwanese coke for the first time. It tasted very similar to root beer in America.

We walked back to the church and cooled down a bit, playing on the drums for a little, before Hwa-Chi and Pauline came to take us to dinner. We ate at a really nice buffet steakhouse, which had foods of all kinds, like seafood, barbeque, steak, and sushi. After stuffing ourselves full, we headed back home, which is where I am now, finishing up this blog post.

Prayer requests:

• The kids’ families to receive the gospel
• The seeds planted in the kids to grow
• Thanks for all the food provided by the hosts and from many of the brothers and sisters from the Christian assembly
• For us to have a safe rest of the trip
• The Christian assembly to continue to grow stronger in faith and always be on fire for God