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The Breakfast Club - Taiwanese Style
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The Breakfast Club

New Friends & New Names

Some of you may remember the 1985 John Hughes movie by the same name. It was and is one of my all-time favorites from the 1980's. I want you to meet the members of my Taichung breakfast club. In the picture above from left to right are Venson, Daniel, David and Esther.

For the past few weeks, I have been eating breakfast several times a week at a neighborhood breakfast shop near our apartment. One morning while I was sitting there, observing everything and eating, one of the workers came up to talk to me and asked me if we could be friends. It was such a great moment and a providential encounter if there ever was one. His name is Venson. He wanted a chance to know a foreigner and practice his English and I was praying God would send new friends into my life that I could share my love for Jesus with.

We began looking for an opportunity to get together when his schedule allowed outside of work and I began to learn more about he and his co-workers every time I would stop by. 

I've since learned that 70% of the workers in Taichung, like these young people, work 26 or more days a month with shifts of 10-12 hours a day. The minimum wage in Taiwan is around US $3 and there are no guaranteed progressive increases.  You can imagine what that does to a group of people. They are tired, worn out, hurting and when they do have time off, they usually choose to spend it sleeping or doing something with their friends.

Crista and I knew this was a group of people God had placed in our path and so we invited the whole crew over for dinner. Since most of them speak little English, we also invited our friends Mark Jeng and Glennda Cook to join us to help with the conversation. 

The evening was amazing. The picture above was taken in the elevator on the way down to say goodbye. We learned so much about our new friends and their lives and families. David, in the back right corner, lost his father a little over a year ago. Esther, the young lady is a senior in high school. One of the great moments in the evening came when Daniel, the young man with the V fingers (very Taiwanese!) asked why we came to Taiwan.

I shared how every person is compelled to do certain things because of what they believe in their hearts.  I told him that we do much of what we do because of what we believe about God, and that He had moved us to come to Taiwan, (that's the short version of the conversation). Then I asked each of them about their beliefs and we had this really poignant moment where the three young men told us they didn't believe in anything but themselves. They thought their parents' and grandparents' beliefs in the traditional Taiwanese religions were just stories used to scare children to do good instead of bad.

I was so thankful to have Mark Jeng with us. After each of them shared I turned to Mark and asked him what he believed. He was able to share the Gospel in Chinese and share personally what Jesus had done to save him. 

We have been praying for these young people for several weeks now and I want to ask you to begin praying for them with us. Maybe as you eat breakfast each morning or one day a week, you could name these young people and pray that God would open their hearts and draw them to His Son. The door is now open for us to continue talking about spiritual things. We liked these kids before dinner, but now we love them. They all live in our neighborhood near our home and we'll be spending more time together and make them a part of our lives. 

Oh - and if you're wondering about their names. Venson already had an English name. The other three came to dinner with only Chinese names. We asked them if they had ever thought about having English names. They had not although they would like to. We talked about the meaning of their Chinese names and chose names from Bible stories for each of them. We told them we would tell them the stories behind their names in the next few weeks. Daniel, in the turquoise plaid shirt, his Chinese name came from a famous Chinese governor. Esther's Chinese name had the idea of graceful and quiet. David's name meant Champion. When we told him he was named for a great Champion, he quickly said he could never live up to his name. 

It is an awesome thing to be named in any culture and we certainly don't take it lightly. When we received our Chinese names, it was an event that still resonates in our lives today. But isn't that something like what being "in Christ" is all about. The Bible tells us that every one who is in Christ will one day be given a new name. A name chosen for us by someone who loves us more than we deserve. A name we could never live up to, but because of what He has done and what He has accomplished, it all becomes true about us. This is the truth about being a Christian. I pray that one day soon, these young people get a new name, "in Christ"!

Todd & Crista
Katelyn, Ashlyn & Andrew

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