TEAM Taiwan

Pastor Zhong, Dale Noland,  and I will be visiting these location over the next two days.  Taking off this afternoon at 2:30 and returning Saturday morning.

Every time Pastor Zhong sends me an update picture from these groups, they continue to grow.

The Gao Xiong group may turn into a church plant in the future.  Pastor Zhong has already asked me to pray with him concerning this.

Pray for our trip, safe travels.  Pray for our time together, united mind and spirit.  Pray for those who are hearing basic truth for the first time. 

This week, Steve Calmes and a friend will make a trip to Nepal for five workshops in the Far/Mid West regions of Nepal.  I will not be on this trip, but I know Steve will continue to promote the Directions ministry in this part of Nepal effectively.

The first time I met with contacts in Nepal, I asked them to show me areas they wanted to take the ministry.  Steve and I have worked together over the past few years coming up with and showing different methods for Churches to utilize.  Dinesh and his dedicated Church Ministry planter Prem will lead this trip to their part of the country.  This will be one of the final areas we have committed resources to.

Pray for this trip 04/26 – 05/04, that they clearly present the material in a way for the hears to respond effectively.  Pray for their safety and new contacts.  Pray for his relationship with Dinesh to continue to grow.

Last week, Kunthy Prak reported of his Directions ministry progress in his local church.  He is taking the time to understand the process of sharing God’s word into other peoples lives.  One thing he mentioned was, he needed to have the book in an audio format.  What a great idea.  But just as encouraging is he will followup with the Pastors from last month’s conference.

Today, he started a four day trip to visit as many Pastor as he could to find out how they were doing with their Directions study.  If you take a look at the 02/25 and 04/05 posts, you will see that four district areas were introduced with the ministry.

Kunthy has taken it upon himself to make this a priority for his fellow Pastor friends.  2 Ti 2:2

Pray for his safe travels.  Pray for his discernment when giving advice.  Pray for future contact with these Pastors to reach out to their areas of influence.

I have a lot to tell you concerning the Nan Tou Pres. Church.  A quick review of current activities in the church are as follows:  We continued our Compass (D2) study and are nearing completion.  Perhaps by the end of June we will complete the study.  Their Directions small groups continue to meet weekly.  As these  ministries continue, there are three upcoming events which will help this church change at the adult/youth level.  We took time to talk about an upcoming SYME Club introduction 04/29th, the May trip 5/17 – 5/26 to Nepal, and finally, we discussed the Summer camp 7/9-7/12.

04/29, SYME Dale Noland and Anne Marie, along with help from the SYME ministry will visit this church.  They will provide a Club meeting then show them how they can prepare a Club themselves.

In May, 5/17-26, Pastor Xie will accompany me to Nepal, where he will participate in three workshops and a D2 conference.  Their church will also supply one of the workshops with Directions books.

In July 7/9-12, Graceway is bring a TEAM to help with a SYME sponsored camp, encouraging the youth ministry to start building their outreach.

Please pray for their ongoing Directions/D2 ministries, encouraging people to strengthen their faith in God’s word.  Pray for next weeks SYME Club introduction, that people would step up and participate in the ministry.  Pray for the Nepal trip, that Pastor Xie will see the benefit of a mentoring ministry within the body of a Local Church.  Finally, pray for this coming Summer’s Youth Camp, that students will be interested in participating in youth actives, leading to Salvation.  

 

 

We went for an interview today at Morrison Academy.  We met with Alicia (Administrator) and Mr. Shu (Counselor).  Alicia gave us a quick tour of the campus.  She showed us the High School portion of the school and the student lounge, where we met with Mr. Shu.

Mr. Shu was a Taiwanese man who grew up in the United States and finished his High school in Taiwan.  Listening to him, we knew that Abbey would be in good hands for the coming two years.  He asked some important questions and professional let us know, he understood where Abbey’s strengths and weaknesses will be in the future.  It was very comforting knowing she will have a great support team.  Also, we met our old Chinese teacher from 20 years ago.

She did well on all the English but was weak in her writing abilities.  I am sure this will change in a short time, her gift is language.  We know she will thrive there and find new avenues to grow.  There is a lot of emphasis on Bible education, a must in these times.  We were assured she is in.  Thank you for your prayers and support.  We are very proud of her, go Ab go.

Pray for Abbey:  1) She will need to finish her time at Shin Min High School.  2) She will need to begin reading more English.  3) She will be entering a new environment, a US school, where the education system is quite different than her current school. 

Abbey continues her quest to enter Morrison Academy.  Next week, Thursday, we will all meet with the Principle of the school to discuss her next two year plan.  This will be quit the change for her, leaving the Taiwanese School culture and changing her way of thinking and studying.

Pray for her, and allow God to open her heart in a different way.  Allow her to embrace her culture in the light of her preparation for the future.  Pray for the final confirmation of her acceptance into her new school. 

In the 03/09 Gao Xiong/Ping Dong Directions plants (Update) post, I mentioned to you how God was using Pastor Zhong to plant Directions groups in the Southern part of Taiwan.

This post is to report the expansion and renaming of the Ping Dong small group.  It is now the San Di men group.  It is specifically reaching an Aboriginal church in this location.  he had mentioned that he wanted to change the meeting time to Friday night, allowing more people to participate.

I receive a quick update and picture from Pastor Zhong today, and saw the group had grown from three to over ten individuals.  As you already know, we are trying to start as many groups as possible, preparing for the future of the ministry.

Pray for Pastor Zhong, as he continues to reach out to his people along with all who wish to grow in the Grace of the Lord.  Pray for my participation, that I may be a useful tool for Pastor Zhong, and allow him to use me where he needs. 

This Church continues 2 Ti 2:2.  They have a core group of about 10 individuals about to finish up D2.

Three Directions groups have been started by those who have come through that portion of the mentoring process.  It is moving toward a deeper Biblical based membership.  Because of the time spent over the past three years, the Pastor and church leaders are open to help with their youth ministry.

Today, I visited their youth group.  Many of the youth are leaving because the church in the past has not been willing to change to meet the needs of their young people. The leadership earlier this month saw a SYME youth group presentation at another local church.  Because of this, well….they want to make a change.

Dale & Anne Marie Noland and SYME are teaming up to help them start a revised youth ministry in their church.  April 29th, they will come in lead their youth group and to demonstrate a new approach to youth ministry.  Afterward, they will give the youth leaders a workshop to show them how they can run their own exciting youth group.  During May and June, they will practice the new method, preparing for new youth coming to their church after a 07/09-12 SYME Camp.

I am only a facilitator, but our family and a visiting group from Graceway will be helping in their ministry change.

Pray for the upcoming demonstration and workshop.  Pray for youth to step up and be willing to help.  Also, pray for someone to step up and help manage this ministry into the future.  Pray for the Noland’s as they speak into the lives of believers in this Local Church.