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

Back in Switzerland

Well when my team left europe the french train workers went on strike, so I guess the airport workers felt it only fitting to return the favor for our return. So after some delays and redirection to another airport, our plane finally set down in Paris in time to catch our train to Switzerland. Thanks for all your prayers, we could definitely feel Gods hand on our group as we traveled these past few days.
A comment I recieved after my last update was "Thanks for the news. The time has gone so quickly, it's hard to believe that you are nearing the end of your time there. It sounds amazing. Does ywam, or anyne else send follow-up to the places you visit? It's hard to imagine a church being started and fed by people who know so little about God, as we know him...just wondering." Thats a great question, so I wanted to say that our work as a short term team is part of a long term ministry focused on community development and church planting already working in Madagascar. Our group has worked together with this ministry, and has had training in areas such as the ministry's vision and strategy in bush villages. The work we were able to do in the bush will be followed up by the long term workers and hopefully more DTS teams in the future, continuing discipleship and evangelism in the bush.
So the main reason for this update is to let everyone know our travels are over and we arrived safely. We have three weeks of outreach left in Switzerland, we have already been able to share with one youh group, do worship a teaching and some testimonies, and we have a bunch of similar meetings lined up. So take care and I will fill you in on our last stage of outreach as it unfolds,
Andrew

Last update from Madagascar

Well our time in the bush is offically over. This past 10 days has
been incredible. We had a week in the Bush; followed by an amazing
team debrief time on the Island of Santa Marie. Through a long and
complex series of events, Jason, Cedric and myself, along with our
translator Theo, were by ourselves in the bush... and we felt God was
telling us to do some trecking. So we found out about nearbye
villages without churches, sent letters telling them we were coming;
and journeyed into the bush to villages that no white person has been
to before, or so they told us. We did evangelism, testimonies from
our lives, stories from the bible and played a few games of soccer
while managing to travel about 75 Kilometers, by foot, in 5 days.
46 people prayed to recieve Jesus, and the villlage we visited
farthest away from civilization was planning on starting a church
after we shared with them. We were not around sunday to see how that
went, but you can be praying for the village; which name translated
means village of many stones, which has 46 new believers, and
hopefully a new church. Pray that many stones would become living
stones through the work that the Holy spirit is doing there. We also
were able to preach again in the village we planted a church the first
week. Saw some new faces, and some friends, and I think the church
was really encouraged to see us again. That is the same village the
lame boy was healed last month, he came running out to meet us, no
trace of a limp or deformation or anything, God is amazing.
Thursday we met the rest of the team, along with Pierre; our
schools co leader. We took a bush taxi, then a boat to the Island of
Santa Marie; which you all should google right now and see pictures
because it is amazing. We had three days of really nice weather; and
great teambuilding and fellowship time, snorkeling, fishing, hiking,
visiting pirate graveyards... you know. Our day of departure turned
out to be a hurricane, the boat was canceled and we were stuck for an
extra day; watching the rain come down in sheets. The next day the
boat was in danger of being canceled again, and it eventually was, so
we ended up getting on a little puddle jumper plane and flying back to
Tamatave so we wouldnt miss our departure arrangements. So, a little
crazy, a little hecktic, but God is good and we are on our way. God
bless you guys, thanks for all the prayers, remember us as we have a
day of car travel, a day of plane travel and a day of train travel
still ahead of us before we reach burtigny.
Andrew

Another day another story

Dear friends,
Well our third trip to the bush has been fantastic, We got to go
back to the village where we had planted a church on our first visit,
and really worked on some discipleship and relationship building with
the Christians there. Being back with the English speaking team was
great... dont know why that is. The part of the team Ive been with
for the past 10 days had experienced some spiritual attack the week
before, and some of our mornings were devoted to processing that; in
bible study; prayer and worship, but I saw the students all grow so
much through those times, and they were able to take what they are
learning and apply it in discipling others.
Much of our ministry has been relational, as we invite people to
our house for meals, and bible studies; as well as visiting them in
their own homes. We were able to do church services both in the
church in the villge we have been staying at, and the new church plant
in the village across the river. In our team, I would lead the group
in morning devotions and bible study; then in the afternoons the
students would take turns leading bible studies for the believers
there. We were also able to do some ministry with the children as
well as the youth there, hosting a soccer game and then sharing
testimonies afterwards.
On the days we would go to visit peple in their houses; sometimes
we would visit christians, encouraging and praying for them. We saw
several people get healed, children with malaria symptoms and one of
the village elders, who had been sick the week before we came. We
were also able to speak with an old man who has been a witch doctor in
the village for 10 years. We shared with him the gospel message, and
got to pray with him, as he renounced witchcraft and gave his heart to
Jesus. He has started coming to church, and also attended some of the
bible studies we had for adults. Praise God,
I dont think I have ever written a more sparatic update before. I
dont know exactly what is going on; but I am finidng it extremely
difficult to think in a linear progression, or produce a written
report that reflects such thought, hope you like the attempt. Please
keep us in your prayers as we finish our time in Madagascar these next
two weeks. Pray that we would finish strong in the work God has
called us here to do. Pray for continued health for everyone here on
the team and pray for continued good weather. There was supposed to be
a Typhoon here this week; but one of you must have been praying
because it shrunk... into a low pressure zone, and passed us to the
south. Hope you all are having a great winter. Its about 95 degrees
here. Love In Christ,
Andrew