The Dragon Lady

I'll explain the picture you see above in just a moment, but first I'm sure you're wondering just who is "The Dragon Lady"

She's actually a member of my church. Her last name in Chinese is the word for Dragon and so, we call her, "Dragon Lady!" Let me share with you how I met her.

Since we returned to Taiwan from the states, I have been praying and planning how I would begin campus ministry on some additional campuses here in Taichung.

After church a couple of weeks ago, Lilly, one of my friends at church, asked me about my plans this fall and when she heard it involved college students, she immediately said she had someone she wanted me to meet. But I needed to come to the ladies prayer meeting on Tuesday morning.

So, Tuesday morning, I showed up at 10 a.m. as instructed toward the end of their prayer time. The ladies who had met to pray were about to break before Bible study and asked why I had come. Lilly wasn't there, so I was on my own. I shared that Lilly had invited me to come and meet someone in particular, what I was hoping to do and asked if there was a lady who had some connection to college students that might be that person.

One of the ladies turned around and said, well, she must have been talking about me. We started talking and I learned that she and her husband had been praying for an opportunity to reach out to the college students that he worked with since he was a professor at one of the local universities. Connection made! I thought....

About that time, Lilly walked in and said, what are you doing talking with her, that's not who I was talking about.

We quickly brought her into the conversation, and then another lady joined in whose husband is the dean of students for another college nearby!!! Again, not the right lady. And then Lilly said, the person I want you to meet is Dragon Lady, she's been praying for college students for years, but she's not here yet, so come back at 11:00.

Well, after we started plans in motion with the other two ladies, I left to run some errands and returned promptly at 11:00 a.m. to meet, The Dragon Lady. As I introduced myself, she quickly said, Oh, we know who you are, we've been praying for you for a long time.

She's a small, but formidable elderly woman with whom I quickly hit it off. She shared her ideas (different and better than mine) for connecting with the universities and offered her help and connections (also better than mine) to make things happen.

As we wrapped things up and began to set things in motion, she and Lilly called the women over and we had an impromptu prayer meeting right there for God's wisdom and guidance as well as for the tens of thousands of college students to hear the message of the Gospel.

One day, maybe on the other side of glory, you'll have a chance to meet these special women - I call them, "The Dragon Lady's Prayer Team".

Please join us in praying for God to provide us with wisdom, relationships and open doors so that many more students and teachers will have the opportunity to hear the Gospel this fall. Even today as I was writing this e-mail, I received a message from another church member (not in this group) inviting me to come to her University through an open door she has been given.

God answers prayer - so please do it!

Todd & Crista

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Ghost Month

Colossian 1:13 says that Christians have been delivered from the domain of darkness

What you see in the pictures above are people still in bondage to that domain.

Taiwan continues to be held in darkness. Temple ceremonies, demonic rituals, ancestor worship, and many other forms of Satanic bondage happen daily throughout Taiwan.

These pictures were taken at an event that happened just about two hundred yards from the back of our apartment building. A large set of tents was set up next to the temple along with hundreds of tables and an altar for the temple priests and necromancers to perform their dark arts. Taiwanese people believe that they must offer their ancestors and other spirits who have passed away these offerings of food, money and things in order to provide for them in the afterlife.

This first video below was taken from the same ceremony as mentioned above. It is a necromancing ceremony where the priests and shamans are "calling" the dead relatives out of the afterlife to come and take the items that you see placed on the table.

The second video is from another temple taken just a few days ago. I and a new arrival were out doing some exploration and learning about Taiwan culture when we stumbled upon the ceremony you see in the video. The priests were also performing a similar ritual to the one you see in the previous video. The interesting piece you will notice in the second video is the branch with flags standing upright in the back right in front of the table. This is used in their ceremonies to lead lost souls back to where they are supposed to be.

If families fail to perform these rituals regularly or improperly, their ancestors can become angry ghosts which can then come and haunt them. In addition, there are other wandering spirits in the afterlife which were never properly reunited with their family after death. These wandering spirits also can become angry ghosts, so during this lunar month, almost all Taiwanese people will perform ritual offerings to appease and placate these spirits to keep them happy and satisfied.

Young and old, educated and uneducated, it doesn't matter - almost every part of Taiwanese society participates in and has some belief in this twisted and sick lie of Satan.

Please pray for us, our other missionary friends and local believers to clearly share the Gospel - the only thing which can set them free from the domain of darkness and transfers us into the kingdom of his beloved Son!

Would you do us a favor? Share our story with a friend, relative or your pastor. We sure would appreciate it. We want more people to be involved in reaching Taiwan for Jesus Christ.

Forward

Click the picture to learn more about our family and Mission Taiwan, read past newsletters, and find out how you can get involved.

Family Update and Prayer Requests

Since we have been back, Crista has been to five different locations around the island to train over 70 new Fulbright scholars who have just arrived in Taiwan on how to teach Taiwanese children. These Fulbright scholars come from all over the USA and will spend a year volunteering in the Taiwanese school system. She has had the chance to meet some really neat people and even connect with some other Christians along the way. God has really opened some great doors for her and she has developed a great relationship with lots of people in the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. She just received a call from the director this week asking her to come back later this semester and teach again!

Please pray for these two things, first Crista began teaching a new group of second graders yesterday. In addition, she'll be back teaching her Saturday night Bible study at one of our partner churches as well. For both of these groups, there is also the added influence and impact on the children's families.

The kids have had a good start to their year. They were sad to say goodbye to their friends in the states, but jumped right back into their life and relationships here. Katelyn (11th grade), Ashlyn (8th) Andrew (5th). It's hard to believe they are starting their third year here, but I guess so are we! They have all made really good friends and continue to adapt to the culture well. We know that by bringing them across the world, there is a significant price to be paid - and we aren't quite sure how it will play out down the road. We trust that God will help them and us along the way.

Please continue to pray for them, that God would give them soft and tender hearts for Jesus, that He would place people in their lives here that would give them wise and Biblical counsel, and for good friends who will encourage them to not only do good, but be focused on Christ.

For myself - this is actually the beginning. For two years, I have spent almost every day focused on learning Chinese, and now - I can speak, think, read, write and listen to a language that I once thought was impossible. Of course, every day, I learn something new and progress a little more in my ability, but my ability to communicate easily and freely with almost everyone I meet is at a level that makes spiritual conversations a normal part of my life now.

So, what will I be doing? I'll be spending most of my time on the big college campuses down in the center part of Taichung. There are five of them, and by God's grace, He has given us friends at all of them to help open doors. Some through our church friends, others through people we have met over the years. So I'll be going into the dormitories, English language centers, classrooms where we know professors and coffee shops looking for those people that God has prepared for a spiritual encounter. You can pray specifically over these first few weeks of the semester that God will help me and my Chinese friends communicate clearly and well together. Most of our conversations now happen in Chinese and within the context of the Chinese culture. So I have had to adapt to how things get done here, which is quite different from Western society. It is slower and involves a lot more people usually to accomplish something that we might think is relatively simple in our culture.

I want you to know that many of the people you have been praying for are beginning to come to church with me when they can. One of the ways God has gifted me is as a connecting point for people and situations. So many times, I'm able to bring people who would have never thought about being together into contact - and it often involves an unbeliever with a believer. Pray that God will help me know the right people to bring together at the right times.

Let me tell you a really great story. Brett is from New Mexico. He and I started studying Chinese together two years ago. Brett has lived in Taiwan for about eight years now and for most of that time has lived with his Taiwanese girlfriend whom he just married about a month ago. Brett and I sat next to each other in class for almost a year and a half. Although he grew up occasionally going to church with friends or some family members, Brett would in no way consider himself a Christian. We had lots of talks during breaks about life, marriage, kids, and Jesus.

Brett and Crista teach together for Dr. Paul. Not at the same location, but they teach the same age kids and occasionally plan or see each other. Sometimes we run into each other up at the school.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a note on social media in Chinese inviting anyone who was still in Taichung during summer break to join me at church the next morning. No one replied, so I wasn't really expecting anybody to show up. So, I got ready as usual and headed to church. Taichung Baptist Church as I've mentioned before is an all-Chinese church. The people there are great, friendly and loving. As I walked down the sidewalk up to the church, I looked up and there were Brett and Ciara, his wife standing on the sidewalk.

To be honest, I was so shocked, my first thought was that he was there for some other reason. Maybe for a restaurant nearby or something else. So I actually said, "Hey, what are you doing here?". To which he replied, "Well, you did invite us to come, didn't you?"

So - we went to church! After the service, they were able to meet some of my friends, including the pastor and his wife. We went outside to talk for a few minutes. I found out it was the first time that Ciara had ever been inside a church in her entire life. She had so many questions - Why did the pastor talk about Jesus if church was supposed to be about God? (the sermon was about Jesus in the Garden praying). Which then brought up the Trinity. Try explaining that to someone who has never read the Bible before or has any western background - in Chinese. Wow - praise the Lord for opportunities like this which happen to us every week. They were back this past week and told me they intend to come regularly.

In a couple of weeks, I have a trip up to the North Coast city of Yilan planned with two of my good friends that you have prayed for, Mark and Blaze. We're going to one of Taiwan's big festivals, but we are going to have hours and hours together to talk. And we are going to talk about Jesus and the Gospel. I've invited one of their classmates, Roy, who is a Christian to come along with me. Roy is someone God brought into my life last year, one of those people that God brought along so we could work together for the Gospel!