Date:
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
It has
now been 1 year since my departure from the Minneapolis International Airport
to begin my 6 month adventure in Taipei, Taiwan. So much has changed; so
much I've experienced—all because of the faithfulness of God and your support
either through prayer or by your tangible financial gifts. I want to use
this time to update you on where I am, and what God has in store for me in the
near future.
Before I begin, I want to summarize, as briefly as I can my
motivation for going to Taiwan, and what God has done to strengthen and grow my
faith through this cross-cultural experience. It all began when I decided
to take a class on the book of Revelations, taught by Dr. Chris Vlachos during my last semester of my senior
at Wheaton College,
IL. One of the greatest takeaways from this course to me was the
significance of missions. God used this course to completely change my
opinion on global missions, and where I would fit into His kingdom plan.
Previously, I thought missions were a bit outdated, and not
the ministry-focus for my life. But as the book study continued and Dr. Vlachos began to unpack the deeper meanings in
Revelations, I realized just how wrong I was. As the world begins to
crumble, and all normalcy fades away, the need for missions becomes greater not
less. I began to understand the importance of missions in the life of the
Christian--particularly its ability to provide direction and meaning to an
otherwise directionless and meaningless life. Furthermore, after a
prolonged inner searching, I came to the conclusion that as a Christian I could
not, in good conscience, live a life separate from the Great Commission.
Though I did not (and still don't) feel a calling to an active missionary
role, I felt I had a responsibility to be deeply involved in a supporting role.
Having come to this conclusion, I began a search for
organizations and programs that might give me an opportunity to test myself to
see if this really was God's will for me, or if it was just a fleeting opinion
of mine. After months of calling and emailing to various missions
organizations along with sporadic email conversations with my missions’ pastor
at my home church, I came up empty. Shoot, I really thought this was what
God wanted me to do. After all that I had experienced in college, I
really thought that He wanted this for me. This was before finals.
Afterwards, during a family dinner before commencement, my mom asked me
if I had any plans for my mission’s trip. After telling her that despite
my best efforts and the aid of my missions’ pastor, we had come up with
nothing. No one was taking mid-term applicants. None of my church's
global partners could take an intern. There was nothing.
But God had other plans.
In the months before, my mother was calling her friends to
tell them of my plans for the summer and fall. One of the friends she
called was one that I would eventually work for in Taiwan. Mr. and Mrs.
Yang are pastors at Taipei Truth Lutheran Church in downtown Taipei.
After telling them briefly, of my plans and my desire to study family
counseling in addition to my desire for a cross-cultural experience, they
express a desire to host me and provide every opportunity to me to both grow as
a Christian in an overseas experience and to open up their church to assist in
my growth both as a disciple of Christ and also to assist my growth as a future
counselor! Throughout my entire experience, they have always been so
helpful and hospitable to me and wisdom an endless source of praise.
During the first half of my time in Taiwan, I was involved
in an after-school program known as Love Net. It is a program specially
tailored to at-risk teens, providing them with tutors, a bible study, and
sports camps. These kids are usually either at-risk of being
institutionalized for bad behavior or failing a grade in school. The
children represented in Love Net are supposed to represent the worst Taipei
has, the "problem" kids. Children labeled as failures and rejects.
The reality, however, was markedly different. Having been raised in
an environment that constantly reminded them of their failures; they began to
accept their new identities and live up to all that was being said of them,
whether or not it was true to begin with or not. This is not to say they
did not have problems, who doesn't, but their behavior and success are a
testament to the power of Gospel love.
The second half of my 6 month experience in Taiwan, God
provided me with the opportunity to mentor a child in Grace Catholic Christian
School (GCCS) in the Songshan district of Taipei. In addition
to this mentorship, I also became involved in the
child/teen counseling ministries in Truth Lutheran Church (TLC). After
months of praying for counseling experiences, God provided not one but two
opportunities to grow as a counselor. All told, by the time I had
concluded my overseas experience I had the opportunity to minister to 3
teens/young adults in the two venues: GCCS and TLC.
The more I think back to all that I have experienced in
Taiwan, the more I am amazing at God's ability to provide and answer prayers.
One of the most amazing testimonies of His faithfulness was God's
financial provision to me over the 6 months. In the beginning, I went to
Taiwan with the promise of being partially support by TLC, which affected how
much I raised prior to leaving the States. But as the trip progressed it
became clearer that TLC would not be able to provide the support they had
promised me in the early planning stages of the trip. However, as the
trip came to an end, I realized that the amount God provided me when I sent out
my support letters was the perfect amount down to the cent! Despite all
my anxiety and nights spent worrying over whether the money would last, God's
provision proved enough--His grace WAS sufficient.
As I reflect upon my many blessings this past year, I will
never forget God's all sufficiency, faithfulness, and the joy found in devoted
service to His will.
Since returning to the States, I've been working part-time
as an IT assistant at the Short-Term Ministry and Mobilization department
located in the downtown campus of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN.
My current responsibilities involve maintaining and organizing the
department's website and Google apps accounts and multi-media organization and
editing. It has been such a blessing to be in-tune with all that God is
doing throughout the world through our short-term teams and global partners.
It has been such a privilege to be informed and plugged into a different
news cycle: God's news.
So what's next? Well, by God's grace I was accepted
to Fuller Seminary's Masters of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy graduate
program. The plan now is to move to Pasadena, CA, in late July; classes
start late September. This 2 year graduate program will prepare me for licensure in the states of Arizona and
California. Eventually I want to specialize in child psychology
specifically in teens and young adults. In addition to being a therapist,
my experience in Love Net has given me a passion for at-risk individuals.
Consequently, I would like to volunteer for the Crisis Hot line in
California. In addition to all of these interests, I would like to pursue
involvement in a missions supporting capacity. Namely, I would like to
either participate in a non-profit organization that provides services to
missionary families or possibly start my own ministry. God has definitely
laid a lot on my heart, a lot of ministries to be involve in and people that
need an advocate, someone that believes in them even with the world and their
family has years since stopped believing in them.
I want to thank all of you for all that you are doing and
have done to make me who I am today. Many of you have given so much of
yourselves in helping develop me into the person I am today. My faith and
identity in Christ wouldn't have been possible without your ministry in my
life. And for that I am eternally indebted to you. Thank you so
much.
