Another First...

This past Sunday morning, Alexa (remember french fries in the nose) and her friend RuRu, who have been coming to our Evangelistic Bible study at the teacher's university came to church with us. The picture above is how we welcome first time guests at Taichung Baptist - everybody goes to the front and has their picture taken with the pastor - truly old school baptist! From the right it's Sophie, Alexa, Ruru, Somebody and Pastor Lu. Sorry for the poor quality of the picture, but I usually sit in the back.

This was the first time these two young women had ever stepped in the door of a church and their first experience (outside of our weekly evangelistic Bible study) with anything related to the Christian faith. Praise God that their older university sister Sophie (in Chinese culture this is a much bigger deal than in western culture) from the university was sitting right in front of us and has just walked through coming to faith herself.

Today when we met for Bible study on campus, she said that although church was somewhat like she expected it might be, she didn't understand anything that was happening. It was a great reminder to me about what people experience when they come for the first time and how important the relational aspect of our work is as Christians. I'm very thankful to be part of a vibrant and healthy church that loves and welcomes people well.

After church on Sunday, Sophie spent the afternoon with Alexa answering questions and getting to know her and then brought her to our English Fellowship (which celebrated our One Year Anniversary Sunday Evening!!!).

Sophie now gets the opportunity to put her faith into practice in the context of her church family.

Would you take a moment and pray specifically for Alexa whom God is calling to faith would listen and respond to the Holy Spirit's work in her life?

A Life Well Lived

Crista's grandmother, Crystal Yeakey Horne, passed away peacefully at her home in Clovis, NM this week. She had just turned 90 on Monday.

Crista will be flying home this Saturday to be with her family and be at the funeral services in Clovis. She'll return to Taiwan on the 24th.

Crystal was an amazing Bible teacher and when Crista was in Junior High, she taught her how to study the Bible and would bring Crista and her friends over to teach them. She had the heart of a teacher which she passed on to both Kendra and Crista. Another one of her sweet characteristics which she kept to the end was always seeing the good in others. She passed that on to her children as well. I'm thankful to say that my wife has that character trait in abundance thanks to her grandmother and the work of Christ in her life.

We would appreciate your prayers for our family - we don't grieve her passing, as we know she is with the Lord and we'll be reunited one day. We grieve the temporary loss of her presence. Lord willing, Crista will be at Trinity Baptist in Amarillo this Sunday the 15th and then possibly in Amarillo for a couple of days as she prepares to see her family. Hopefully she can see some of you while she is in town.

Who's this? For all of you who gave to Mission Taiwan in 2016, you'll soon find out. We not only reached our goal at the end of the year, we surpassed it!

In all of Taiwan, there are only a couple of people who still make what is called Rainbow Calligraphy - and this is one of them. I went this week and had this custom art piece made for you. It will be delivered to you shortly with a note explaining it's meaning. You can watch the video of it being made by clicking the above picture. Thank you again for the incredible support you have given to Mission Taiwan and our family - God uses you in such a significant way to encourage and keep us here. These stories are your stories. Thank you! Todd, Crista, Katelyn, Ashlyn & Andrew