We’re all settled in our apartment now, which is nice. After a month of traveling and new things, it’s soothing to come back to one bed every night. I started school 2 weeks ago and have been learning the Mandarin Phonetic System (pronunciation, etc), Michael starts his classes in the morning. We’re a little nervous about how our schedules are going to fit together – our classes are at different campuses of the same school. So, he has to commute 1.5 hours each way every day from our home in Guisan to the Taipei campus, while I walk the 15 minutes to the campus in Guisan. We learned this only after having been here for a week and having paid our full year’s rent, so there was no option to move somewhere in the middle. Oh well. God is good to us and I’m trusting Him right now to show me why this is His plan.
Today has been so wonderful. We found other believers!!!!!! A few times in the past weeks we’ve been on the bus downtown and saw an illuminated cross on a building in the distance – so we thought it might be a church. Yesterday, we went on a walk to find it, but once we saw the building it just didn’t look the part. Sure there was a cross on the outside, but it was 6 or 7 stories high and had doctor’s offices and other random stuff advertised out front. Still, we took a walk around the building and found one glass door that, upon peeking in, revealed a wooden pew for sitting. The only other things inside were an elevator and a few security guards behind a counter. So…not very churchy looking but the pew gave me hope. We convinced each other to go inside, and after saying “Church?” a few times over we were taken in the elevator to the fourth floor, which revealed an actual sanctuary, complete with more of those wooden pews and a stage. Downstairs again, we met the pastor, his wife and his daughter, all who spoke some english and told us when the service times were.
This morning, we decided to go and ended up taking a taxi because we missed the bus (my fault – I was putting on makeup!). We got there ok and everyone was so nice, saying hello and shaking our hands and giving hugs…it was like being in a warm blanket to be around believers again. I didn’t know how much I’d missed it. The service started and although I couldn’t understand a lick of the singing, I felt God’s presence so strongly and started to cry from sheer happiness.
Presbyterian Church Service Picture
Then halfway through the message, a Taiwanese woman came up with little translator devices (one ear piece and a receiver box) and through her translating, we were able to hear the message in perfect English. She came up afterwards to introduce herself: Faith. We met her mother and grandmother too, and all three of them invited us to lunch with them at another church. Happy to have made any acquaintances, we accepted and were whisked away in a car.
Faith’s mother and father are lawyers, and their office space is adjacent to a small church. She explained that even though her family has been going to the Presbyterian church for generations and has responsibilities there, their heart truly lies with this fledgling church family in their office building. OH MY GOSH this little church has made today my best day in this country yet! We met so many open, Godly, transparent and welcoming people. Everyone was quick to include us and make us feel like we’re supposed to – part of the family of God. It seems they are all so eager to be in God’s word and reaching out to their fellow countrymen, 97% of whom do not believe as they do. Among the 15 or so people that we met and talked with, we were introduced to the man who recently retired from running the computer company Acer and an airline pilot for Eva Airlines, who also runs a side business selling Porsche, Mercedes and BMWs. David, the pilot, drove us home. We had such wonderful conversations with everyone and I felt so at home, so in God’s house, so honored to be with people who love and live to serve the Lord of all creation.
Michael, Faith and Emily Picture
Everyone gave us their number and told us to call them “anytime we need anything,” including the former Acer owner guy. We were just blown away with kindness and Christian friendship. So, needless to say we’ll be going back. I am SO excited to be with other Christians, work for the Kingdom here in another country, learn more Chinese and make good friends.
Thank you God for providing us with the chance to meet these people. Thank you for directing us to the right place at the right time. Thank you for keeping us in the palm of your hand!
Emily
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