Hey Friends!
On Saturday, April 28, our Taiwan Missions team is going to be having a garage sale to help raise support for our trip. It’s going to be at the Kuo’s Residence (my house) starting early at 7AM until about 12PM noon.
If you guys have anything you want to donate, we would really appreciate it! and Please stop by if you can! We would love to see you there =]
If you want to know more about the mission trip and the team, send me a facebook message! I’d love to share more. If you don’t want to know more… send me one anyway. I love friends :D
If you want a support letter, let me know! They’re coming out soon…. I know I said that before, but seriously this time. I’m almost done! haha
mom: “Katie, our high schoolers really want to go to Taiwan for missions this summer and their excited…. but we don’t have anyone to lead the team…”
me: “ohhh… that’s tough”
*short silence*
mom: “well… I was thinking youuuu could lead the team….”
me: “what? ha… no.”
mom: “what are we going to do! They need someone to lead the team and they really want to go..”
me: “…….fine…. I’ll pray about it….. and see what God says about it..”
Two months later… here I am, on my tumblr, sharing with my friends that God has put it on my heart to go on missions this summer to Taiwan.
As you can tell. I really struggled with this decision. As much as I have a heart for missions, I really didn’t want to go. I had my eyes on South East Asia. Thailand? Philippines? I didn’t know where exactly, but I do know that God has broken my heart for the people there and I really wanted to go back. Since I came back from Thailand in 2010, I prayed hard for a missions opportunity and God answered me… except it wasn’t where I was expecting to go.
Initially, my heart was super upset that my parents asked me to do this. Although I am a proud Taiwanese girl, I have a rebellious bias against going to Taiwan for missions because it seems like all the Taiwanese people around me ONLY want to go to Taiwan for missions. Everything is always Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan and I felt if I had a bias against going to Taiwan, it would somehow balance out their desire to only go to Taiwan. I know it doesn’t work like this, but in my head, it did. My parents knew that I felt this way… but they still asked me to lead this team.
Grudgingly, I asked God if He wanted me on this project. After about a week I started to feel convicted. God challenged me: “Are you going to pass an opportunity to share my gospel to the lost in Taiwan merely because you’re rebellious spirit doesn’t like it when people around you talk about Taiwan more than you like?” Are you going to keep my good news from the people that need it for your own selfish reasons?”.
So here I am. I’m going to be leading a team of high schoolers (and possibly one adult) from my church to Taiwan this July. I don’t have all the details of the trip yet… I have yet to plan that part. but for now, I’m taking it one step at a time. We’ve booked our tickets and planed which weeks this is going to happen. Next step, making a timeline and training up our team.
My heart is still a little conflicted, but God is changing that. The more I pray about the trip, the more excited i’m geting. This is the first overseas mission trip for my team and I’m really excited that I get to be a part of their first trip.
Please pray that God would continue to change my heart and to prepare me for this trip! My support letter should be coming out in a few weeks once plans become a little solidified. Let me know if you want one! =]
I am so exhausted. life just seems like nonstop papers, projects, midterms, worship practices, ministry, friends, life. It’s all good things, just need a breather. it’s good to know when life is busy an hard that God is faithful to carry us through and that He is in control of everything.
anyway, yesterday at aacf we actually had a full worship team and the very first song we lead was “Hosanna” by Hillsongs. I love this song and everyone’s favorite part seems to be the bridge
“Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me
Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I walk from earth into
Eternity”
that has always been my favorite part too but the 2 months I spent in Thailand changed this song for me forever.
The night we ended up at Patpong Night bazaar - the red light district- was my single most difficult night in Thailand. I know i’ll never be able to fully communicate what i experienced that night, nor do i really ever want to… The street was lined with girls waiting for their customers that night and loud party music with flashing neon lights surrounded us. The darkness in that place was so thick that it felt heavy on my chest. I remember little girls running around the venders while men stood around “ordering” what they wanted from the girls. People kept coming up to us farangs (foreigners) assuming that that’s what we were here for. I peered inside one of the bars, curious to see what was like inside.. but i could only handle a few seconds. it was gross.. and dirty.. and a place that desperately needed Jesus. I know that every single one of the 4000 prostitutes on that street sit alone in the morning when their work is done and wonder if there is anyone who truly loves them. Their heart aches for someone tell them they love them in a pure way. They don’t know that Jesus is jealous for their hearts and he wants them.
We we finally made our way out of Patpong, our taxi ride back was silent at first. Our hearts were broken for what we saw. We cried for the girls, the kids, and even the men in that place. and thats when those words of Hosanna “break my heart for what breaks yours” came back to me. What an answered prayer. God sees prostitution every single day… he sees sin destroying our lives and his heart breaks… He broke my heart for what breaks his. and it was so painful. I think what a lot of us don’t realize is what a scary prayer it can be to ask God to break our hearts. That night is forever imprinted in my heart… and it still hurts when I remember the brokeness in that place. and so last night while we were singing the Hosanna… i was almost afraid to sing the words. There is so much brokeness that only God sees. and tho it can be almost scary to have our hearts break, it is also special to catch a glimpse of God’s heart… that I may learn to care for the things God cares about.. that i may love those who God loves.
It’s a blessing to join God in his ministry and to be used by him.
and so… I pray that God will give me the strength for the next time he breaks my heart for what breaks his.
c: blee
This is one of the girls from the world vision day we helped out with while we were in thailand. I don’t know this little girl’s name… but i remember her face very distinctly. and i cant help but be a little sad when i see this picture of her sitting all alone with no one to share her meal with. but what this really reminds me of are the prostitutes from the red light district. After their long work night at Patpong, selling themselves to men all night long, they probably go home, sit all alone in a room and wonder “is there anyone out there who really loves me? Does anyone even notice I’m alive? and that i’m not just something to be bought night after night? They might not show or think about it when they’re out working or out with their friends, but when they’re all alone that God shaped hole in their heart that only God can fill probably seems bigger than ever. Pray that these girls in Patpong would recognize that nothing is going to fill that hole but Jesus. That their eyes would be open to Rahab Ministries right in the middle of their street and they would go learn about Jesus.
Also, eat with someone eating alone this week (: share some Jesus love.
Here’s the picture of mabhang i was looking for in the last post (:
