Preparation Day 3 - 6/6/18 Worthy of Worship

Hello again! I'm excited to be back and share about our preparation work as we near closer to our trip. Once again, God has been faithful in bringing our team together for a time of fellowship, reflection, and team-building. 

For our meeting on Wednesday, we met at a nearby Chinese restaurant to talk about the theme of appreciation over a nice traditional meal. In the past two years, our hosts and the youth have gone out of their way to care for us, from treating us to Taiwan delicacies, to taking us to explore the city, to making us feel at home and working alongside us at Chungke. We felt it was necessary to intentionally reflect on these experiences and take time to understand the gravity of what can happen when God's people support, love, and sacrifice for one another. (“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:24-25) To those in Taiwan reading this, we truly appreciate all that you have done for us! It's so easy to see God's love pouring out from each of you, and we're so blessed to have such caring brothers and sisters:) 

We also discussed the English songs we wanted to teach the children; in particular, songs that had motions and simple meanings so that the kids could easily learn them and stay engaged. On the topic of worship, a few weeks ago a couple of the team members went to a Chris Tomlin concert in which Pastor Darren Whitehead explained the importance of our praise. (I encourage you all to check it out! It was really eye-opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syLkdZbfHQ4  or https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/8-hebrew-words-for-praise-every-christian-needs-to-know.html ). Whenever we sing praises to our God, even during the seemingly simple children’s songs, we should think about who exactly we’re singing to and about. The King of kings, the Creator of the universe, the Holy One, the one who invites us to call him Father. Words cannot describe the praise He deserves, but

in our attempts to, it’s so encouraging to see the children and Taiwanese youth unabashedly singing of His glory. Please pray for our continual meditation and growing understanding of the importance of worship throughout this trip!

Our meeting was also supplemented with an article on changes in the missions field (http://www.thetravelingteam.org/articles/the-changing-face-of-world-missions-the-strategic-context) It talks about how the aspects of missions such as teamwork, money, technology, and contextualization are changing and how they affect the global church. In essence, the means may change but they should never overpower or detract from the consistent end goal of sharing the Good News. 

Once the logistics were discussed, we spent the remainder of the meal playing a game we dubbed the "Industry Game". In pairs, we each simultaneously said a random word and based on those words, we then tried to narrow it down with more rounds of guessing until both people said the same word. What started out as a simple game turned quickly into something deeper, as we bonded over fits of laughter at the absurd word combinations we came up with. Though I have known many of the members for years and even saw most of them on a daily basis in high school and church, it was beginning with these meetings that I really began to see our team come together. We are now united in one specific goal: to reach the Taiwanese children and show them God's love. As we start counting down the days until our trip, please keep us in your prayers! In particular, that we would be adaptable in the midst of the changing missions field and allow God to work freely and mightily, that our team would trust and support one another, and that we prepare our hearts for the important work that lies ahead.

Thank you for following our blogs, we really appreciate your prayers and support!