Preparation Days 5, 6, & 7 - 6/19/18 - How Great is the Love of the Father

The Law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul;

Psalm 19:7

As we near our departure date, part of our team (Jon, Josh, Adam, and I) has been fortunate enough to meet three times this past week to work on our curriculum, learn from leaders in the church, and study the Word together.

Curriculum Day 6/15
Last Friday, we were able to meet for a large part of the day to work on our curriculum. Up until this point, a lot of our logistical work had been done individually because of conflicting schedules and mostly due to a greater focus on group spiritual preparation this year instead of curriculum planning. However, we set aside this day to help the newer members with their presentations and to make sure we were still being faithful to our tasks, even the logistical ones. We are overjoyed to share with all of you that we are now nearly done our preparations!

David and Hwa-Chi/Pauline Mentor Meetings 6/17
We are really blessed to have such great leaders who are so willing to share their wisdom with us. Following Trinity's church service, we engaged in very fruitful conversation with Pastor David over lunch. He strongly encouraged us to pray constantly for this trip, something we hope to be more diligent about! Later in the afternoon, we met up with Hwa-Chi and Pauline, who as always had much wisdom to share. Hwa-Chi reminded us to serve each other first and continue to build relationships with the Taiwanese youth. He also shared with us a very profound quote from St. Francis, who said, "I preach always. If necessary, I use words." This is a great reminder that our goal is not to bombard these kids with information, but to preach the gospel through genuine love & devotion to them. It is a great encouragement that though our Chinese may be inadequate to communicate the intricacies of the gospel, it is our actions that shed light on the beauty of this message. Pauline added some more practical advice, reminding us to speak slower and use more body language around the kids.

Revelation Ch. 2-3 Bible Study 6/19
One of the things Pastor David recommended to us was to read the Word together, help each other develop a habit of prayer, and for us to each lead devotions. In light of that advice, we got together Tuesday night to focus on that. We perused Revelation Ch 2 v.18 - Ch 3 v. 6, which are Jesus's messages to the churches of Thyatira and Sardis. The Church in Thyatira was known for their works, love, faith, service, and patient endurance, but they tolerated the false prophetess, Jezebel. Meanwhile, the Church in Sardis had a repuation of being alive, but were actually dead. Like Thyatira we too are often two-faced. Simultaneously, we seem to be serving multiple gods. And like Sardis, our outward works often clothe us with a reputation of life, but in actuality, we harbor all kinds of dead works. It's so hard to lead clean and blameless lives; we all have the same issues the seven churches had back then. Yet our God is so merciful and loving, always chasing after us despite our shortcomings. At the end of every church's description, there is the reward for those who remain faithful:

24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not
learned Satan's so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you):
25 Only hold on to what you have until I come.
26 To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations--
27 ´He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery'-- just as I
have received authority from my Father.
28 I will also give him the morning star.

4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me,
dressed in white, for they are worthy.
5 He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the
book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.

It's so incredible to know that we will rule with Christ. He will give us authority over nations. He will proclaim our names to the angels and to God, our names will NEVER be blotted out. What an encouraging, unfathomable promise we have from God:)
We ended our time together by each praying, remembering what we had just discussed about God's holiness, power, and reverence.


It's crazy to think that in just a few more days, we'll be on our way to Taiwan. God has really been faithful during this preparation time. The next time you'll hear from us will probably be in Taiwan! We're so excited to begin this trip and see what God has planned. Please keep us in your prayers!

Prayer Requests:
- Praise God for how much He's been preparing our hearts for His mission
- Diligence and focused hearts during the mission
- Safe travels, energy, get over jetlag quickly