Time is up in Taiwan

Hi!
Well I can't thank you enough for your prayers and support because the last two weeks have been fantastic. First off we had a typhoon that went right around our team, forecasters were predicting a lot of flooding and stuff in the area we were in because it was headed straight for us... we barely got wet. But while our team was not getting wet, we were pretty busy with a lot of other stuff., The first week of our time down south we worked with the pastor of the only church in a town of 200,000, running a children's program in the morning, teenagers discipleship training in the afternoon and evangelism or adult bible studies in the evenings. With the kids we had lots of fun, and learned some Chinese songs and games as well as sharing a lot of bible stories. With the adults we were able to pray for a lot of people the pastor has been talking with, and who are interested in Christianity, but have not made commitments to Christ yet. We got to hear some incredible praise reports from that group before we left of physical healing and God restoring relationships. The greatest thing was each one that shared wanted to give the glory to God for what was happening in their lives. He is doing something in their hearts, breaking the chains of ancestor worship and spiritual oppression as they see Jesus is the name above all names.
My favorite times from this week were with the teenagers, about 20 of them that have accepted Christ and have a discipleship group led by the pastor's son. We taught subjects like evangelism, spiritual warfare and hearing God's voice. These kids really got excited about evangelism after our session on that. I talked about the way Christ communicated personally when he was on earth and we had a really good discussion on the "cultural keys" for Taiwanese to come to the realization of who Jesus is, and what the Kingdom of God looks like for a Taiwanese person. It really is an amazing culture here, and there are a lot of things we identified with this group that God has put into the culture, things he can use to draw their friends and neighbors to Himself. One of the things I had sensed since being here was that Taiwanese Christians really felt like they needed to separate themselves completely from their culture when they became Christians, It was really awesome to see God opening their eyes to His dreams for the nation and culture of Taiwan.
This past week was the busiest we have had yet, as we ran a summer camp for a public school (just the 7 of us and 4 translators, close to 200 kids). We were running 4 classes simultaneously, so while two of my students taught music, two taught English, two taught sports and I taught drama. It was a fun time, but really draining, summer camp is so much easier when the kids speak the same language as you! But the DTS students did amazing, and on Friday we had a camp performance, where students who had never heard the gospel performed an amazing rendition of "Amazing Grace" they learned in Music class. In our drama class the main theme was how drama tells a story, and I shared with them the story of the Firey Furnace in Daniel and the Gospel message of Jesus coming to earth to save us. The kids did a great job with skits and fun activities, but most importantly, I think they came away with an understanding of who Jesus is, and what it means to have faith in Him! We were technically not supposed to "preach..." of course not, it's summer camp!
Again we have felt the prayers being lifted up for us every day in the areas of wisdom, energy, protection, typhoons and traveling mercies! God truly has gone before us and been the guard behind us each place we go. We leave for Hong Kong in a few days, really excited, not quite sure what the next few weeks will look like. I predict more Chinese food, chopsticks and Asian looking people, but I've been wrong before :-)
Blessings,
Andrew

Two weeks in Taiwan

And God is blowing my mind each and every day!
My team and I are currently working with a minority people group in western Taiwan called the Hakka people. There is a .3% christian presence in this area, and in a township of over 100,000 people, we are working with one of the only two churches, while the decorated rooftops of over 90 Daoist temples litter the skyline. Since arriving, our entire team has been able to physically sense the spiritual oppression here, we spent the entire morning this morning in spiritual warfare for this area, and I really believe God has done something through that time, as I felt oppression lift during that time pushing back the darkness and claiming God's promises for the people who live here.

This week we have been able to run programs each day for middle school students as well as high school students, also doing an evening evangelism event for adults. My team has been amazing, spending any free time we get creating and practicing new dramas and witnessing tools (in the last week I have taught them dramas, kids games, magic tricks, how to make balloon animals etc. and I have been learning a lot from them as well). We have seen God answer prayer for healing as well as we did a program in a hospital a few days ago, sharing songs, a skit, some testimonies and most importantly, hope in Jesus Christ. At least one woman was instantly healed when we placed our hands on her, there were several young children I prayed for as well I believe God is healing.

Pray for us this week, we have a full program running a summer camp for a public school. The program was set up by the local church, but will be run completely by our team, and we are doing English, Music, Sports and Drama programs. Pray for the teenagers we have already talked and prayed with who have made decisions to follow Christ. In this culture it is extremely difficult for the teenagers to break with tradition, but many have already taken the first step in deciding to follow Christ, pray that God gives them wisdom as well as strength as they walk their new faith out, especially in the way they relate to their parents.

I am so blessed to have such an amazing team with me (as well as prayer warriors daily bringing us before the throne of God.) These six girls and guys seriously have been doing incredible, not only fearlessly preaching teaching and evangelizing, but storming the gates of hell in their prayers for Taiwan and the people here, as well as praying ceaselessly for the other two teams sent out from our school. Pray for continued boldness, as God continues to stretch us in our times of ministry. I hope to send you pictures when I get to a place with better Internet, as it is I am in a small Internet cafe where I can't upload anything. I'll be sure to keep you updated as things move on,

For His glory!

Andrew

Moving right along

So I know I just wrote two days ago,
But God is doing some amazing things, and I wanted to encourage you as you pray for this little team half way around the world! We have only been here two days, but already we have jumped into pretty fast paced ministry. Yesterday we were with two different youth programs, we had chances to share testimonies, songs, games and get to know the teenagers, most of whom are from troubled backgrounds. last night we got to pray with six of them who wanted to give their lives to the Lord, and spend some time personally getting to know them and encourage them. Becoming a Christian here is a really tough step for young people, because it means breaking with centuries of tradition they are expected to follow. Pray that God would encourage and strengthen these new believers, and bring mature Christians into their lives to continue discipling them.
Today we did a Sunday school service for about 100 kids ages 7-12. It was a really fun time, we shared some songs (one in Chinese that I think we did pretty well) and did some stories and testimonies. Got to meet our translator who will be with us the rest of the month, which is a real blessing! We are getting used to the food... yesterday I ate frog, along with a large assortment of tofu, and many other interesting delicacies. Thank you so much for your prayers, we could not be doing what we are doing without you (I probably would still be stuck at the airport come to think of it :-) I'll be in touch soon,
Andrew

Outreach begins in Taiwan

Well,
Our outreach has only been going around 48 hours and we have already seen God's faithfulnes in some pretty amazing ways, starting even before we left Kona. Arriving at the airport at 5:30 AM I was kindly informed that the reservation for my team's tickets had been canceled by china airlines, and we no longer had tickets to Taiwan. This is not what I considered good news (even that early in the morning I could figure that out). I had to talk the airline offical through each name on the reservation, and he found that all of the student's tickets were good to go, but when he got to my ticket he says "oh, here's the problem, the ticket for Andrew Greenplate was canceled, the rest of them are fine" I can't help but feel the irony as looks of panic spread across the faces of my students. Ok, maybe it was spiritual attack and not irony, so as our team prayed I called our travel agent to see what could be done about this ticket. I sent the students ahead (they were with another team and their staff whose tickets had not been canceled) and stayed at the counter to work things out. Bottom line was China arilines gave me my ticket back, I missed my first flight to Honolulu, but got on the next one and met the team before we all flew off to Taiwan.
We almost got detained in Honolulu as well because the security found out how much money YWAM teams were carrying out of the country. For individual teams, none of the teams had enough money that they needed to declare, but there were 6 teams on the same flight. So these security guards thought we were trying to trick them or something, leaving as different teams from the same organization, and were pretty upset about that; I had to get statements from each team leader about how much cash they were taking out of the country, and then stay behind as the plane was boarding to fill out some paperwork and try and explain the situation. They held that plane for me, and I got to witness to the police as I was taking care of those forms. They were eventually convinced YWAM was not trying to launder money out of the US, and they were really blessed that I took the time to witness to them, share with them and get all the money stuff sorted out. They offered me 1st class seating for my trouble, but I decided to sit with my team in coach :-).
So we made it to Taiwan, So far we have been having a great time getting oriented in a new culture. The YWAM base runs a ministry called "the Rock" cafe, which is a free cafe people can come hang out, and we went there last night to talk to people and witness. It is awesome for me to be back in Asia again, and the team is really committed to seeing God move, and we are pressing in with our prayers and worship to see His kingdom come in this place. Our first ministry time is this afternoon with a christian school program, and tomorrow we have a church service, so we are jumping right in. The YWAM has been such a blessing in welcoming us and getting us prepaired for what we will be doing. I know over 50% of the people working here, which is kind of strange, but so good to see some old friends. Please pray for us as we are already sensing the spiritual darkness in this place. Pray that our team will make an impact in bringing the kingdom of heaven to the town of Dan Shui where we are staying, which is a suburb of Taipei. I will make sure to keep you all updated regularly,
In Christ,
Andrew