Visa Extended

Praise God! My visa finally got extended.. for free too! Thank you for all your prayers. Once again God really was looking after us throughout this ordeal.Many thanks to Jasmine who went into the trouble of calling up the place before hand and confirming the documents I needed. I no longer need to do a visa run to Hong Kong. We had a great conversation during our time over in nantou city and it was really a worthwhile time overall. I can now put this worry behind me and focus on the second half of the mission. On another note, please pray for the workers ( A Xiang and Grace) who have had health problems recently. Pray that they will get the rest they need to do the Lord's work. We really hope they won't burn out!

Adios

- Ivan

Video Update 2

Spontaneous video update after lunch.

The wall behind us was painted by us. It's a light green. Yep - Ivan chose it. It looks 80's.

Wednesday

Ok just a quick one.

Internet connection in Taipei is very weak and non-existent. So gotta keep this short.

Today is Wed and no typhoon. Chance of rain for the rest of the week. Everytime we hear of a typhoon alert it doesn't end up coming. God's taking care of it. Although we spent a lot going out to buy a kettle and a pot and 2 minute noodles to survive if the typhoon came. We'll just have to eat it all I guess.

Visa problems. Ivan couldn't get extension coz it was too early to apply and not enough documentation of proof to show there is good reason to stay in Taiwan. We were quite frustrated but there is still another option of getting Church member to come and show that we're helping out at Church and need extension. So coming to Taipei seemed a bit of a waste but it's a good break and I've had good time to do sermon preparation and just rest - coz we both need it. The Visa application has to be done in Nantou county - we don't know where yet. Please pray that Ivan can get his visa extended otherwise he might have to take a few days trip to Hong Kong or something...

All is well. Trust God it will work out either way. He has been so good and faithful to us.

19th October...

Typhoon coming to Taipei on Wednesday.

Ivan wasnt allowed to apply for extension visa in Taipei - so frustrating. We'll be back in YuChih on the weekend. So next week we'll have to go to the immigration office in Nantou County - and trouble someone from the Church to drive us there. We feel bad about that.

They said stuff about it being too early to apply and also we need more documents and evidence about stuff...Really complicated.

We'll be spending the next five days doing some prep and taking a break in Taipei. We're also attending a Missions Conference on Saturday in Taipei and some Church members will be there too.

Please pray for our preparation this week - I am preaching a sermon on the 1st of Nov and we are also doing some testimony sharing and running the youth one morning in November too. Also our Bible studies are still running each Saturday but this week is off because we're in Taipei.

Please also pray that the Typhoon won't come because...it is very damaging. It also means we can't go out and get food - there is no fridge or microwave or kettle or anything in our Taipei apartment.

Ok BYE

Mikey

19th/10

We're going to be in Taipei for this week because Ivan's visa needs to be extended. Please pray that there'll be no problems with extending his visa to 90 days instead of just 60 days. We're here in Taiwan for a total of 75 days. If the visa is rejected...well. We'll let you know what happens. Our net usage is limited in Taipei so we'll update again in a week's time. Thanks everyone.

Dinnertime and a few nice words :)

A few words from the ladies at Church...want me to translate?

Don't remind me - I know I need a haircut.

Walking alters

Yesterday there was a big event in the streets of YuChih and this huge procession of people and alters and costumes were dancing down our street. We filmed this from the 4th floor of our Church and we had to delay our Bible Study coz it was sooo noisy with firecrackers going off every second and loud drumming. They carried around alters and nearly every house was burning incense outside and had fruit laid out. The house next door burnt heaps of 'hell money' for them and the dragons, lions, and the costume ppl danced. It was pretty crazy....

Please pray for this village. It's enshrouded in spirtual darkness and superstition. Even youth that we invite to church say that can't come coz their parents dont allow them and a lot come from families that follow these traditions.

Faith

I've been enormously humbled by today and how God has worked. I personally was a bit worried about how things would turn out but things ended up being fantastic. Praise God.

Today was a busier day than usual. We had youth in the morning, then bible study with the senior high school kids in the afternoon and then went to another Church tonight to share my testimony but also share a bit about our Church back home and to encourage them to evangelise and keep growing. This other Church is in Puli and the youth we shared to was only about 25-30 ppl but a lot of ppl were missing apparently. Last time we went the youth were about 40 - but because of studying in other cities a lot of them couldn't make it back for the weekend.

So this afternoon, we had our second bible study on 'faith in God's grace'. Our studies are basically both an english learning and bible learning activity. They learn more English, and they also get a better understanding of what it means to be a Christian. So encouraged by the attendance today with 7 kids, because last time we only had 5. I think the kids are really learning lots in these Bible studies so praise God. Keep praying for them that they'll want to apply what they learn - may God's Spirit really convict them.

Tonight, we went to this other Church in Puli - the neighbouring town and we've been there in past years too to do outreach with the youth there in teams. This is the 3rd time Ivan and I have gone so I shared my testimony but also really spent a lot of time talking about how important it is to evangelise and to keep growing for God and encouraging them to go out and share the Gospel. Feedback was that they were really encouraged and the Pastor lady there who gave us the opportunity was so good to us and has always welcomed us each year we go. She is a real blessing to that Church and to us. God is spoiling us. The biggest worry of tonight was not having a translator because she only prepared one today, and he hadn't even read our scripts yet and I used heaps of big words like sanctification and regeneration. God smacked me in the face because He really provided for us tonight. Thank you God!! We ended up having a guy who lived in Singapore for about 10 yrs and is now living in Puli and attending that Church to be our translator. I was soooo thankful. Me of little faith. Ah, God is good.
(please also refer to below's video post for latest prayer/praise points!)

Video Update

(was also meant to add that I haven't been getting good sleep coz I can't sleep at night. I have so many thoughts goin through my head of things back in Australia and things over here. there's a whirlwind of thoughts goin thru my mind and it isn't good for my sleep)

Teaching at School

We were at the school today for a 45min period with the grade 8 kids teaching them 'introductions'. Quite a simple class and some kids had better English than others. With these kids, they either know it or they don't. So it's hard to cater for everyone. For some it was too simple, for others, they had no idea. Some of their handwriting though, it's like...so much neater than the handwriting I've seen in Brisbane.

We also were so encouraged today because we received in the mail cards from CCCB's Sunday School!!! It was sooo sweet of them!

Schedule this week

Just a quick update to ask for prayer this week:

Tuesday afternoon, Thursday afternoon, Friday morning we will be going into the school for one hour periods to teach English. Saturday afternoon we have our bible study with the teens. Saturday night we are going to the other Church in Puli to share with them our testimony and why we're in Taiwan (for about 40mins!). Sunday after service we are painting the Church hall.

So please pray for the week ahead :) We are busier than normal...

Typhoon has passed us so we're going to be fine :) (Although we were looking forward to experiencing it...)

Update 4/10

Sorry guys didn't realise we haven't been updating you all on stuff.

Just quickly:

Tuesday: went to the school to play a few 5 minute icebreaker games with Vincent (Preacher's husband) - he gets a one period block (45mins) with grade 7 kids at the junior high school. It's a study period for them but he is allowed to go in and just teach em stuff about Jesus. We went to 2 other classes which had other teachers doing the same thing.

Thursday: we have our own 45 minute period with grade 8 kids where we go in and teach them conversational English as well as share a little about Jesus because we're christians. Pray that we can share more through these classes about our great God :) Next week we have both Thursday and Friday - so two blocks next week of english classes.

Friday: the Church committee about 10 of us, went to a small cheap resort near Sun Moon Lake to have a 'retreat' and relax. We had a couple of devotions and a sermon preached to us. Great fellowship and an edifying time together. We played this neverending board game called "the Appreciation Game" where you go around and you pick up cards and which are 'getting to know you' questions. E.g. Ivan got a card saying "If you came home and your house was trashed, what would you do?" I got a card saying, "what would you want your kids profession to be?" Random hey? The retreat went overnight so it was a good break with fellow Church workers.

Saturday: Had a barbecue at night with the youth. It was at one of their houses and it was very 'ghetto'. I have a video but I'll have to show you it some other time. It wasn't the most exciting bbq I must admit, but just good to spend time with young ppl and take silly photos. Nothing serious.

SO that's about it. There was an earthquake last night at about 1.30am but we both woke up and went back to sleep because we thought it was a dream. haha. After Church service today our friend Nalita, her mum and her brother took us to Taichung to play. We are so blessed to have them look after us and spoil us. They want to drive us everywhere around Taiwan! God is really taking care of us, providing, and giving us more than we could expect or ask for.

So praise God for a great week :) my health has improved a lot but my sleep is still so irregular. I think too much and therefore can't sleep for hours sometimes.

A prayer point is to pray for our safety for this week. Typhoon is coming on monday or tuesday they say. But we'll see how it goes. My mum says, "don't go out to get food. make sure you have enough in the church. if you go out you might get hit by a sign or something". I love my mum.

PS. the picture attached is a picture of Grace - the preacher/pastor here at the Church. She's our boss basically. Her and her husband Vincent run the show here and have taken over leadership now that Janice and Lily have moved on. They are a blessing to this place and treat us very well :)