Goal: To reach out the high-schoolers and college students in Taiwan

Target audience - Local high-schoolers and college kids (Live-in campers)

Who is needed: Christian workers needed from US, Collegians and Adults

Speaker: 1 keynote speaker + 1-2 interpreters

What: Short-Term Mission, gospel spreading, Summer Camp, English teaching

How: Live-in workers (partnership with the US + local co-workers)

Where: Taiwan - Neihli, Tao Yuan, Yuan-Ze University (YZU) www.yzu.edu.tw (English version) (~20 minutes from International Airport)

When: July 3-11, 2004

Significance: (check www.mccc.org/mission page for updates constantly)Collegians are called back to mother church MCCC to join church organized mission project.

COLLEGIATE MEMBERS: Diana Cheng, Frances Cheng, Eric Lin, Ozzie Liu, Chris Pai, Derek Tsai, Paige Tsai, and Georgia Yu

ADULT MEMBERS: Pastor Al and Miss Ruth, Ying Cheng, Henk Chu, Mooi-Choo Chuah, Liang Hwang, Sharon Lin (director), and Cher Lo.

REFERENCES (what we have for you on this SEC mission in Taiwan)

- Testimony booklet (www.mccc.org/mission)

- VCD of Pastor Al’s 7 messages, available after church move. Or http://www-zion.eed.yzu.edu.tw/ click on ‘Christianity’

- Camp Handbook

- Camp Flag

- Talk to team members for insight & stories

Dear MCCC,

Ni hao from Taiwan! This is Frances, writing to you from the site of our mission field, Yuan Ze University in Neihli. Neihli is about an hour from Taipei. Throughout the week, I will be updating you on our progress here in Yuan Ze University. I am happy to report that our team, comprised of 8 college / post- college students, 6 adult counselors, Pastor Al and Ms. Ruth, arrived safely by Saturday night July 2^nd and that we are well underway in the preparation for our activities.

Our arrival: Praise God the typhoon missed Taipei and dissipated off the east coast of Taiwan. On Saturday the winds were very strong. We were anxious about the arrival of our last two team members, Georgia Yu and Chris Pai who were set to arrive by plane in Taipei. Though Georgia’s flight was delayed one hour, they arrived safely on campus at 1:30 am. It was great to see God answer our prayers for a safe arrival!

Our activities: So far, our activities have included moving into the dorms, prayer meetings, meeting the local team members, attending Sunday worship service with Pastor Al and Ms. Ruth, and preparing for the upcoming week by practicing body worship and skit presentations. One highlight of the past couple of days was the joint Sunday worship service with both Mandarin and English speakers. Pastor Al’s message on God’s faithfulness (1 Cor. 1:1-9) was expertly translated by Mrs. Sharon Lin. Georgia also commented on the language, "That was the first time I heard Ms. Ruth’s Children’s sermon translated into Chinese!" It was a great time of fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ on a different continent!

Our preparations for the upcoming week: These past two days have seen us busily preparing for the English classes, singspiration, messages, and activities for the campers. Paige Tsai suggested a prayer meeting in the mornings before breakfast, at 6:30 am. Though we will have to wake up earlier, we agreed to the prayer meeting. After all, we cannot trust our own strength for this week and need to rely on the Lord’s!

Our expectations: Ozzie, the youngest member of our team at age 17, wants to share his expectations for the upcoming week. He said, "With only about 40 students in the camp, I think it’s going to be hard to get all the students excited and enthusiastic in activities. I want to see that they really enjoy this week and I want to see God making the student’s life entirely different when they leave." We hope to learn more about the camper’s culture and share our own with them. As you can see, our whole missions team is excited about building relationships with them and seeing God work miracles in their hearts!

Your prayers: So far, your prayers have sustained us and we would appreciate your continued spiritual support. Please pray for our health (since the heat and humidity take some getting used to), smooth operations for the camp, unity between the locals and the MCCC team, and open hearts of the campers to receive the gospel message.

Until next time, Frances J

Dear MCCC,

Hello again from Taiwan! As we enter the last day of classes for our campers, we praise the Lord for his mighty power and faithfulness. Throughout the week we have consistently seen his Hand working through all our activities. Please read on to learn more about our week…

Our first day of the camp was a learning experience. Many of us were filled with anxiety about what the campers were like and their level of English. Since "The Power of Character" is a new English camp, we didn’t know if things would run smoothly. Besides our relationship with the campers, we also had to find out what our relationship with the locals (the Yuan Zi team) would be like. The registration, opening ceremonies, English singspiration, and message were a "trial and error" experience. Georgia led worship, and Chris gave an exciting introduction of our team. Pastor Al gave his first message on "Choosing my Standard", encouraging us to ground our values in the absolute truth of God. The majority of today’s people, especially in America, are led astray by confusing philosophies like individualism, secularism, and relativism. Diana started a new tradition that proved to be very helpful to our campers- typing notes of his message on the computer and projecting it for everyone to see. This way, the campers could write down in English some of Pastor Al’s most important points while simultaneously learning English. Ms. Lin did a great job of translating (it is harder than she makes it look!). We had our first meeting with our small group as well. Each group consisted of a college student and an adult from the MCCC team, and one local, with about 7-11 campers. At the end of the day, we had a debriefing meeting to discuss with the locals any improvements we could make and to point out the things that went well.

The second day, we changed the "English singspiration" time to include fun activities for the campers as well. Again, our day started off at 6:30 am when we met for prayer with the locals- we cannot rely on our own strength, but must look to God for His strength. Our first English class was also a "trial and error." Many of us were nervous during the first English class. We were still trying to get to know and understand the campers. By the end of the first English class, we mostly knew their level of English (as Barbara Livingston said we would). The afternoon activities of "outdoor games", set up by the locals, was very fun. It was a great time of bonding for each small group. Through Pastor Al’s messages, the campers learned about living out Biblical values and God’s love. During the small group time at night, we discussed Pastor Al’s message on "Developing Trust" and helped them to understand it better. Again, at the debriefing meeting we discussed changes to the schedule, which was very tight.

The third day brought many challenges as well as lessons to our team. Ozzie came down with a cold and Diana had a toothache. Another challenge was, in the words of Georgia, "there was definitely a language barrier". But as many of us agree, having an adult from the MCCC team was a great blessing. Not only did they help translate, but were able to share their wisdom and faith with the campers. They could relate to the campers better, since they also grew up in Taiwan. Thus both the MCCC team and campers could learn about each other’s culture. The small groups proved to be a great time of sharing our faith. Diana said, "Our small group was able to discuss spiritual matters. The campers asked many questions about why we need God, and Mrs. Lo shared her testimony."

On Thursday, we had each group prepare a skit for the Talent show. The MCCC team performed body worship as well. The campers worked very hard on their skits, the MCCC team would agree that they were creative and dedicated- they memorized their lines in English! We all enjoyed watching each group’s presentation, which reinforced the values that Pastor Al spoke about during his messages. One light-hearted moment was when Eric, who led the games, told the campers that the game was to make Derek laugh. This task proved to be too easy, as the first camper who went up merely had to trip as he was walking on stage to set Derek off. After that, there was no hope for Derek. Afterwards, Ozzie gave a stirring testimony. Amazingly, he translated for himself, and told the campers how he experienced God’s love. Many of us were tearing by the end of the testimony. We also had a spiritual attack, on our health- Diana’s toothache turned out to be more than just one day, and the locals insisted on bringing her to see a dentist. The tendon in her jaw was strained and she had trouble talking. Lastly, we celebrated Ozzie’s 18^th birthday! The locals bought him a birthday cake and we presented him with a card.

As always, your continued prayer support sustains us. God’s power is our source of strength, and He has already done more things at this camp than we could have thought of ourselves. We would appreciate your prayers. Please pray for Diana’s jaw since it still hurts. Please also pray for our energy, since the schedule is very demanding and many of us are tired (but still having fun!). Please also pray for the camper’s hearts, as Pastor Al will give his last message in Taiwan today. Please pray that the campers will find the Lord. Thanks so much. Until next time, Frances

JOURNAL ENTRY 3: Sunday, July 11, 2004

Dear MCCC,

The last two days of our camp brought closure to our week in Taiwan. We wrapped up our English classes, heard the last of Pastor Al’s messages, and met in the last of our small group meetings. The Saturday of our closing ceremonies, we had an open-mic time where anyone could come up to speak about their experience. Surprisingly, every single camper went up to the microphone to share. Praise God, many of them shared how they had accepted Christ. In many others, a small seed had been planted; they had asked many questions during the week about Christianity and would continue to seek answers. They all agreed that their English had improved, and one camper said, "This camp should be a month long!" The goodbye with the campers and locals was tearful for everyone.

We formed many great relationships during our time in Taiwan, and we were sad to part with the people we met. We also learned many valuable lessons of God’s love, power, and strength during our week. Thank you for your faithful prayers that supported us while we were there. God truly answers prayer, and He is always faithful in His guidance. We ask that you continue to pray for the campers and that they will find God if they seek Him wholeheartedly.

In Him, Frances

The impact of our trip to Taiwan is very hard for Ruth and me to put into words.  It all began when we boarded Eva Airlines at Newark on June 29.
The flight attendants were so helpful, attending to our every need.  We were met at the Taiwan Airport by a young man whose name was Abin. Ruth and I did not realize at that time how close we would become to Abin and his girlfriend Fang. On our drives back and forth from the University to Pastor Yao's home where we stayed, we had many opportunities to share
with Abin what it means to be a Christian. We are continuing to keep in touch with him by Email.
I was very apprehensive about our daily messages at the University, but I prayed that God's Word would have an impact on lives as God has
promised.  I was not disappointed, as many of the young people who attended the sessions came away with a better understanding of the God that we love and serve. Several spoke to me and indicated that they
wanted to learn more about Jesus and some even made a commitment to invite Jesus into their lives.
Working with our MCCC college students and watching them in action was a beautiful and heartwarming experience and we thank God for each one.
After the mission ended, Ruth and I had the privilege of visiting several areas of Taiwan.  It was great to visit the country that has been home to so many of our brothers and sisters from MCCC. The mission trip to Taiwan was a trip that we will never forget.

While I was in high school and attending MCCC, I promised God that I would do at least one missions trip in my life. Up until this summer, I had never fulfilled that promise. In my senior undergraduate year, my dad told me about this missions opportunity. This trip, my first to Taiwan in 12 years, allowed me to teach English and share God’s love.

The first thing I noticed at the camp was that the campers showed so much respect to the missions team because we were their teachers. They would get soup for me during lunch and take my trash from the table. If only my American high school students would show that much respect to me! Taiwanese students are eager to learn, and they respect the person delivering knowledge.

During the small group sharing times after Pastor Al’s messages, my students asked deep questions. I could tell they really wanted to know the answers, since they were so diligent in taking notes. Mrs. Lo and I explained why we need God and how God lets us have a relationship with Him. Praise God that during the week, someone in my group accepted Christ!

I’m praying that he will continue searching for God, because in Taiwan, the students study so hard that they don’t make time for anything else. My students said that they attend extra school every day of the week, including Sundays. It’s hard for a student to decide to go to church instead, if college acceptances are based on exam scores and everyone else is getting the extra school. Students do wonder about the meaning of life, it’s just that they don’t have time to explore it because they’re worried about competing academically, and the college exams don’t ask you to study theology.

During this trip, I’ve seen the paradoxical conditions that my parents had in Taiwan—rich academics and hard work, with the most studious aspiring to earn degrees overseas, yet the English instruction in public schools left much to be desired. My dad had told me that his English was not good because the English instruction in Taiwan was poor, but now I see that my parents’ English has improved a long way since their time in Taiwan. One of my students said he had more conversations with me in that week than he had with his English teachers in three years. I saw the need for better English conversational instruction in Taiwan—if the Taiwanese students aspire to study or work in America, they need to improve their listening and speaking skills.

Overall this was an enriching and rewarding experience for me.

FRANCES CHENG

Below I have included my journal entry for the Sunday my family returned from Taiwan on July 12.

"Just got back from a long journey of traveling on the plane. Tired as I am, I have grown a lot this week. These are the lessons I learned:

Trust God. You never know if what you are doing is correct, or stirring something in people’s hearts, but you must trust God that He is working for His glory.

Work for God’s glory, not our own.

People like to be understood and encouraged. Nothing can be forced, it must be of their own effort.

To teach people you must share your life with them, and respect them."

During the week I met with many challenges: I had never worked so closely with my dad and my sister on anything before, and I also felt a little uncertain of my capabilities as a spiritual and English teacher. But God reminded me of Paul’s words in 2 Co. 12:19, "He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’" I began to focus on building relationships with the campers more instead of worrying about what I was doing right or wrong. By the end of the week, I truly saw how God blesses us. He waits for us to give over our troubles to Him, and then He surprises us with more things than we could ever imagine. I came to love my campers very much, and serving with my dad in a small group strengthened our relationship.

I was also amazed by how much respect the campers had for us (they were always early for class!), and how diligent they were in improving their English. For our skit, the girls stayed up all night drafting and putting together a script about a frog prince and the character of responsibility. During rehearsal time, everyone was having fun learning their lines and acting it out. They worked hard at putting together props, costumes, and memorizing everything in English. The skit turned out to be a great success, as well as a time of bonding and speaking English. One of our campers said during the open-mic time, "Before I did not have Jesus in my heart, but now I do." The campers were such a joy to be around and never failed to make me smile. I’m very thankful for my time in Taiwan. The campers are in my prayers, and I hope that we will keep in touch for a long time.

Coming into the Taiwan missions trip this year, I did not know what to expect. In my mind, I could not stop thinking about all the things that could go wrong because of the fact that our whole team had never even met together once. The first time our whole team had a chance to actually meet together was the Sunday before the English camp was supposed to start. This really pushed me to rely on God a lot more since we did not get to meet as a team beforehand.

Doing worship with Georgia was not as easy as we thought it would be. At first we thought we could just wing everything and do it all on the spot, but after the first day, we realized that more planning and preparation were needed. I’m pretty happy with the way everything turned out. The students of the camp became more responsive to songs that were more interactive and required motions.

In leading an actual English class, I could really feel that God was working in me. I was able to communicate surprisingly well with my students. They were able to carry on basic normal conversations with me as well as their own classmates. I’m very thankful for the students that I got because they made my job very easy in that I acted only as a supervisor as they spoke to each other in English, correcting them only when needed.

Overall, I think this missions trip was a huge success, granted that there are some logistical things that can be tweaked and changed around for future mission trips to Taiwan.

OZZIE LIU

We bow our hearts

We bend our knees

O Spirit come make us humble

We turn our eyes from evil things

O Lord we cast down our idols.

Charlie Hall’s "Give Us Clean Hands" was our English camp’s theme song, and it came as a surprise to me how student really enjoyed this song too. I think the song speaks to all our hearts. It spoke to me because I was really humbled in that one week. Everyone else on the team all seemed to be incredibly talented. Some people are from great schools, and some can play musical instruments really well. Halfway through the camp, I had students that came up to me and asked me if I was there just to have fun. Nevertheless, preach the gospel always, use words if necessary, right? I’m not great at talking, but I felt a burden to share my testimony even before being asked to do it. I can relate to the students because I grew up in Taiwan and have studied there. I know what it is like experiencing the things that they go through. Taiwan High school students are lost in direction; college students face great fear of the future. The pop culture there won’t help. A communist takeover won’t help. And religion won’t help them either. I wanted to share with them how my life was transformed by God. Maybe that is what they are searching for as they come to a character camp. They wanted to learn the characters to get them through life. And maybe that is why "we cast down our idols" and "let us not lift our souls to another" appeal to them. I think they’re not just searching for a "life" as Americans call it, but that ultimate thing to fill their hearts. Jesus said he came so that we may have life, and have it abundantly. It’s great that we can teach them E nglish, and Pastor Al can speak on characters that are essential to a good life, but how much greater when we have the opportunity to share with them the Life. Let us keep praying for those that we have been with that they may be connected to a church and O God let us truly be a generation that seeks your face.

CHRISTOPHER PAI

Missions. That word evokes a multitude of thoughts and emotions in all of us. For some it can be an arduous journey of endless struggle. For others the word conjures up thoughts of exotic foreign locales where running water and electricity are luxuries. For me, missions means an opportunity to spread God’s word. I’m very lucky to have been able to go on missions trips to China, Mexico and even more locally in inner city Baltimore. Those opportunities were truly gifts from God and I’ve learned so much from those trips.

I have never thought, in all my life, that I would see God work so tangibly as He did during our Taiwan short term missions trip. When I was first approached to go on this trip I never really gave it much thought. I finally committed because it didn’t take up too much time and I figured it would be a great chance to visit Taiwan again. As we started preparing for the trip I kept thinking to myself, what in the world are we going to do in 5 days? What can we possibly teach in such an abbreviated time? I know that everyone was thinking the same thing. I was asking myself those very same questions even up until the first day of camp.

As the camp started to unfold I felt so at ease. Nothing could seem to penetrate it. Not the disgusting hot and humid weather, not the lack of teaching material, not the non-responsive students, not even the hectic schedule we had to adhere to. It was as if I were on auto pilot and someone else was controlling me. Never again did any of those nagging questions from before surface again.

Somehow in just five days we were able to establish relationships that sometimes take months to form. Somehow in just five days we were able to teach the campers a little bit more about English, whether it was to get them to speak with confidence or learning a new vocabulary word such as demeanor. To me these two things alone would make this trip a wonderful success. But wait!!! The best is yet to come!!!!!

So, it’s the night before the final day of camp and as always the local group as well as the English group are debriefing. After some time of organizing the next day’s schedule someone asks if we should have a time available for the camper s to go up on stage and share their camp experience with everybody. We all looked at each other all with the same thought, "There’s no way any of these campers are going to go up on stage to talk". I didn’t think it would be possible to even have more than three people that would voluntarily go up to speak. Paige was joking saying that she would have to drag her students on stage. I felt the same way. So finally we agreed to put aside a little bit of time for those few brave souls that would want to speak.

The final day sadly arrives and I’m making sure that everything is running according to the schedule. Around 9:30 I look down, oh boy, its that open-mic time for any of the campers to come up to speak. With my fingers crossed I go up to let everybody know that now is the time to come up and share their camp experiences. Immediately people raise their hands. I was dumbfounded, I was expecting to have to stall for time while somebody worked up the courage to come up. I was so sure that no one would go up.

I was so sure of it that the previous night I had tricked some boys into thinking that they had to share their thoughts, so they ended up spending the whole night on what they would be saying. That in itself was awesome to be a part of. I stayed up late with them editing their testimonies. And it was amazing to read them. All four of the boys were in high school and they pretty much all had the same things to say- that although they had heard of God before and that for some their parents had even made them go to church, they had never truly understood who God was until coming to the camp and listening to Pastor Al’s messages and from meeting us. They all said that since attending the camp they really have a desire to know God more. It gets even better!!!!! Because not only were there people eagerly awaiting their turn to go up and share their thoughts, but it turns out that EVERY single camper went up to share how their camp experience had affected them.

It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. Person after person literally waiting to go up to share with everybody their wonderful experiences. The most gratifying of all though, was that many of the campers shared how they were really impacted by Pastor Al’s messages and how their camp experience had created a desire to know more about God.

God’s presence was truly felt in a most glorious way!!!!!

Can I get an AMEN!!!!!

I want desperately the opportunity to once again go back to Taiwan to cultivate the seeds that have been sown this year. Along with that I want very much to continue the relationships that I've built during the camp. I had a (words can not describe) time during this missions trip. Thanks to everybody who helped make it a reality, especially God.

This was my second short-term missions trip in Taiwan; my first had been in the summer of 2002, same area but different circumstances. Coming into the program, I felt slightly unprepared because I'd been in Taiwan since May and hadn't been able to take part in the planning process during the two months before the trip.  In fact, because of my
irregular job schedule, I was uncertain whether or not I was going to even be part of the team.  However, it truly seems that God led me to attend the camp for nearly the entire duration - the only day I was absent was to tell my supervisors that I would be missing work for the week.
I was unsure of what to expect at the camp. I had never really been around local Taiwanese teenagers and young adults, and I didn't know
whether we would be able to communicate and relate to each other, whether they would treat us like outsiders or as friends.  Luckily with God's blessing, as the week passed, all of us teachers and students came to know each other quite well.  While we team members taught them English and witnessed to them through both words and actions, they taught us through their genuine willingness to learn and
their expression of curiosity and interest towards what we believed. By the end of the camp, more and more students were asking us questions that were not English-related but about Jesus and what He
did and why He did it.  While it may not have been a full-blown conversion experience for all of them, I feel that seeds were planted there this time, in those students, and we hope to continue to nurture
their growth by following up and keeping in touch with their lives. Praise God that we were able to influence these students as much as we did in such a short time! Many of them said it was an experience they would never forget, and the closing session was an emotional time for everyone.
We would gladly share more about our trip for those who are interested; don't hesitate to ask us.
Thank all of you at MCCC for your support through prayers.

PAIGE TSAI

It took me a while to figure out what to write.  I still feel I was at missions since I still hangout with my small group people and Neihli local team members.  Not until this past week, my last week there in Taiwan that I realized I was not at missions and on the campus anymore, and then it made sense to me that I should write down my "missions testimony".

We know that God can work through our weakness, we can always learn something from each experience; therefore, this mission is not an exception.

When times come to things like rebuking and encouraging people, I think I have not done a great job in doing so; sometimes I feel like that I became a fool in such areas. For example, I didn’t know if I should have kept reminding people about practicing or organizing events because we were not on task, and due to my weakness and fear of rejection and the possibility of breaking the team unity, I gave up on pushing people, and hoping that we would learn through our mistakes. For the first couple days, I was very frustrated and upset with our program progress. One question that kept popping into my mind is that I believe God’s work will be done no matter what, but what would happen if we didn’t even try, and have an attitude of "whatever" because we know that we can leave everything to God. Through praying and some team members’ encouragements and wise words, I came to the realization that one’s best is not necessarily the same as another person’s best. Even though it does not look like people are trying their best to serve God and it doesn’t seem like that they have done all they can do for God’s task, we are not the ones to judge because we all have different levels of doing our "best". Your best might not be the same as my best. I can’t use my standard to define what the others should do. However, it is important to examine ourselves whether or not we are doing our best for God. It is necessary to ask ourselves: is there anything more that I can do to serve God because that’s the reason why we are here on this earth; we are here to live every moment for His purpose. Nevertheless, God is the one who is doing all the work during missions; we are just His instruments.

The reason it took me a long time to write this testimony is that I realize this testimony shouldn’t be all about things what need to be improved for the future or give suggestions on how team could have been more effective. Certainly those things are important, but at the same time, the point of a testimony is to let others see what God has done during this 7-day missions trip.  It was a long story how I decided to go on this Taiwan missions trip. I thank God for the opportunity and his perfect plan of paving the road for me to go.

This short term trip has been a rewarding experience because for the very first time my missions audiences are teenagers (high-schoolers and collegians). From past missions trips, we have always focused on VBS and the younger kids. It is definitely more encouraging when you are able to receive feedback and have more interactions with older people. To the children, for most of the time, you are only planting the seeds in their hearts, you can’t really have deep conversations with them. Even though I love kids and VBS, I found that I wanted to reach out to our generation right now because the world out there is so absurd and out of control sometimes. God is seriously so amazing when He learned that I had the desire to expand my mission field and ask for more opportunities of just to reaching out, He brought people to me and me to others during the week at Yuan Ze University in such a way that the non-Christians can only say "wow…your God is good." God just continued to amaze me everyday and He will never cease to amaze me. I just can’t express how good God is. Not only was I able to use my life experience that God has carefully planned for me to help others, I also made several long term friendships and relationships in God’s kingdom. Once again, just as I always like to say, things happen in life for a reason so that you will have the ability to understand how others feel, and have empathy and compassion for them, and yet the most important thing is that you know The way out. You can help them by point to the right direction so they will be able to find a resolution in our Lord Jesus Christ, our dear friend. He is sooooo awesome…hehe…=)

I hadn’t served on a missions team in four years so I was very surprised when Mrs. Lin asked me about going to Taiwan. I couldn’t say no. To say the least, I felt ill- prepared for the trip. Our team was only able to meet two or three times (not everyone attended) and most of our correspondence was through email. So in a sense, I was going to Taiwan practically empty-handed (no materials or props) and faithless. Well, faithless wouldn’t be the right word- I only had a little faith. But then again, as long as you have faith as small as a mustard seed, God can use it to do amazing things…

The first few days were interesting. Not only did we have to get used to our very crazy schedule, with hardly any time to rest in between, but we also had to prepare English teaching material for our students every day. As worship leader, it meant preparing song sets for two sessions almost every day.

It was hard to know the spiritual level- in essence, the heart- of the group I would be serving. I have never ministered to a group of Christians and non-Christians in that type of setting before and I didn’t know what I was doing. But once during one particular session, I started to share a little of my testimony, something that was very different from what I would usually share and that was relevant to them- idol worship. I’m not sure if my message got across, but it did help me to understand where they were coming from, and why it was so important to love and serve a God who was and is the true and living God. It was really neat to hear them ask questions about God and the Bible, to explain why God wasn’t considered an idol, and the difference between the Old and New Testaments.

As for the English teaching ministry, I accredit my adult teacher, Liang, for helping so much. He really was a great teacher and somehow knew what to say and how to explain in an easier, more coherent way- so much easier than how I would ever explain things. My students were very cooperative and very eager to learn. I was wrong about one of my students not wanting to come back because I thought that he, being a PhD student, would think all this material to be too childish for him. But he only missed one sermon, and joined in the discussions later on. We would review each sermon, read everything over just so they could practice pronouncing correctly, and talk about what the verses meant and their relevance to a particular part of the sermon. Our small group discussions were very engaging. They shared a lot of their experiences and insights into how the topic was pertinent to their lives. I think the best part was when each group had to perform a skit, and my group did such a great job memorizing their lines (sometimes even adding or making up new ones) in such a short period of time. I was so proud of them for being incredibly creative and funny. The whole time I was "directing," I laughed so hard I was crying.

Before this becomes a novel, I just want to end with this: in Matthew, it says that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. There were only so many of us (our team and the local team, who did such an amazing job hosting us) working with all these students. We can only plant a seed in every one of them hoping that something captures them. That’s it. We don’t have to start a revolution or a revival. Someone else will come along and spark something even brighter in them. I just hope that every single one will remember what we taught them. It doesn’t matter if they accepted Christ (and believe me, there were!) or not because either way, God’s doing something awesome in their lives. They just don’t know it yet.

The missions trip gave me the opportunity to reconnect with the youth in Taiwan. I discovered that now they are more liberal and open-minded than the youths were when I left Taiwan twenty some years ago. They are raised in different learning environments than American students are, but they have the same potential to grow.

I observed several excellent examples of the Taiwanese youths' potential to grow. They seldom have the opportunity to know Jesus, but during camp they were quickly open to reading the Bible. The students study diligently to prepare for their college entrance exams - I even helped one student with his math one night- yet they cooperate as a team during the games and are creative for the talent show. I was impressed that the boys in my group stayed up all night with Chris Pai, who struck a bargain with them: he would play cards with them if they would write English reflections to be presented at the testimony session on the last day. Though it was hard for them to write in English, they showed they were responsible by keeping their end of the bargain.

Interacting with these youths in Taiwan was an eye-opening experience for me, even though I had counseled youths at MCCC before I went. It was very fulfilling for me, a Chinese American who was born and raised in Taiwan, to give back to Taiwan. It would be wonderful if MCCC can build up a long-term relationship with Taiwan because the missions trip provides the congregation with opportunities to do meaningful service and spread gospel in our home country.

JONATHAN CHAO

My brother's son and my sister's daughter decided to go to church after attending the SEC. Their parents have noticed their children's change.

This year at Yuan Ze University, I attended a one week missions trip. It was a wonderful opportunity to spread the gospel while teaching English. My small group included both college and high-schoolers, for a total of eleven students.

At first I didn’t have the courage to talk with my students, but on the first night I mustered up the courage to talk to a junior high student. Everyday after that, the student would come to discuss personal matters with me. He would share a lot about himself as well, and we built a deep relationship.

During the small group time, I had the opportunity to give a brief testimony about my life after I had accepted Jesus as my Savior. One student said he was very moved. He told me, "I will always remember your story. I want to learn more about God. Next time you see me, I will be a person who is full of love." Another student said, "You let me feel as if you have a lot of love and kindness. It’s hard to imagine that you used to have a bad temper. I hope that you can tell me more about the gospel." It was moving to see that their hearts were good. Two of my students told me they attended church regularly but could not be baptized because their families were opposed to Christianity.

During the English camp, the MCCC college students were the main players, and we adults were given a supporting role. We did not need to do things that could be handled by them, and I only helped when we needed to. Of course, they would occasionally ask my opinion. Praise God we were able to work so well together.

In the short six days of activities, many of the students changed a lot. A few even made the decision to accept Jesus as their Savior. The main reason they did so was because they saw Jesus’ love flowing through us onto them. "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:34-35)."

MOOI-CHOO CHUAH

I didn't know what to expect before I went. But after the one week, I was amazed at God's grace and mercy. There was one high school male student, Edison, who commented to Paige the first night that it would be hard for him to believe in Jesus, for his family sponsored Buddhist temple. I told Paige we needed to pray for him. Edison gave his testimony the last day. He said his view of Christianity had changed after that week. He prayed with us too throughout the week. Another male student Ian asked how he could pray to accept Christ privately (he was a shy student). There were 3 girls - 2 high schoolers, 1 university student) in my group. Claire is a Christian but she told us that she was baptized without  knowing much about God but that week she was deeply touched by God. Tina is Caire's friend and was invited to church and SEC by Claire. Julie is a non-believer. But by the end of the week, all 3 prayed together at night. Julie will look for opportunities to join a local church near her.  In addition, I found the students in that university very respectful of teachers irrespective of whether they are Christians or not - very different from US.

It was a miracle.

Before the mission trip it was quite unthinkable that I would be going to a mission trip.

I was out of engineering work since January. While continue seeking employment, I was working on home improvement contracting - a different line of work that makes less money and quite toilsome. I only had a vague plan for the summer that I wanted to go back to Taiwan and visit my parents and sister who had just undergone cancer surgery. It was about time. My last Taiwan trip was three years ago. It is the least thing I can do to honor my parents.

When Elizabeth recommended me for the mission trip since she knew my plans I dismissed the idea right away. "Let somebody else who is in better situation do it, I am in a financial drain." "Let somebody else who is more qualified do this, I was just baptized last November." "Why would I do this to waste my week?"

Finally, I realized it was God’s calling. As a workaholic who placed work over everything, I almost missed booking my ticket. It was either from my guilt to my parents, or from such disappointment in life, that I can do anything in life. Or it was from such desperation to want to prove that I am good for something for free. God took my hand and made the call. I got the tickets! I am glad he did because it could have been so easy to apologize to my parents for a trip another year. But God takes no excuses.

Then I found myself tired in the devotions, even though I enjoyed it. I needed sleep more from my rough work. With God’s mercy, my previous company called me to work. Now I had to work both there and finish my previous commitments. I could not even make the devotion any more in the last few weeks prior to the trip.

With shame and guilt, I wanted to withdraw from the mission. "If I can not fulfill commitment to people, how could I glorify God?" There was even more stress and disappointment in my life prior to the trip. I was exhausted. Thank God, He let me stay on the mission.

Once I boarded the plane, I felt a relief. So this is it! God wanted me to leave behind all those burdens at least for a while. The moment I arrived Ne-Li and checked in the Dorm, it was a strange feeling. It was as if God wanted me to relive my youth and to reinvigorate me.

Yes, to relive my youth. If you were my age, you’d know there were so many things you would want to do over.

And to invigorate me, for the things He wanted me to do in His name but not mine at that time I had no clue.

In the week that followed, I was impressed and enjoyed every moment. I was impressed by so many who worked such long hours, seamlessly, without complaint and with joyful heart. I was proud with my association with this winning team of God. I was impressed over and over again by Pastor Al’s messages: "Life standard, Responsibility, Trust, Self control, Respect, Balanced life and Moral purity". "If only I had learned this in my youth!" These are like golden words from Pastor Al to me right before his retirement. Though my title was teacher and counselor, I benefited.

And I enjoyed every minute of the camp. The food, the participants, the member of my group, they were so enjoyable. My students were so attentive to both Bible and English teaching. They were so creative in the SKIT. I have not laughed so hard for so long! At the closing, the kids’ testimonies really touched my heart. It was truly invigorating in spirit.

After the mission, I went to see my parents, my family, and my high school friends. When they heard my first stop in Taiwan was a Christian mission, it put a complex expression in their face. It was an expression of disbelief, wonder and puzzles. They had a hard time understanding why a person like me would want to do a missions trip. I think God has planted a seed in them of revelation of why He is the wondrous God above all the idols and temples in Taiwan.

The experience of the missions trip is beyond description how God has shown His mercy and power. It is renewing, reviving, refreshing, redirecting, repositioning, rebuilding, and rewarding spiritually. It is an extremely exciting and challenging mission project.

It was exciting for there are many things we can do. It was challenging, for there were lots of unknown facts ahead of us; we needed to balance what we thought was best and what was His will to do. Above all, this was the very first organized mission project that called back college kids to the home church of MCCC to serve the Lord.

Throughout the whole missions project of SEC, starting from the ‘completely clueless of what to do’, ground zero situation, to the execution of the program in the mission field in YZU, Taiwan, God has demonstrated to me step by step His mercy, grace, power, and faithfulness in a very unique and dynamic way.

Prayer answered – Vision of expanding His kingdom – International Mission project

In the past, when I went back to Taiwan and stayed in the faculty housing of YZU (Yuan Ze University), I would join the faculty fellowship for prayer meetings specifically for Thursday’s general course petitioned by some Christian professors, in the afternoon – "Christianity."

Several Christian teachers sanctified Thursday afternoon, offered their time and money to make this class a wonder of God. Each semester, the class serves about 100 college students by providing seminars not only with Biblical topics but also in practicality by asking them to join local churches for Christmas and Easter celebration and worship, depending on the time of the year. That is, the fellowship regularly gets together to pray for God’s leading. Inviting MCCC VBS and SEC teams to support the need of the local young people in the region is one of the visions that came up in the prayer meeting.

Thy will not mine

Interestingly enough, "when God closes a door, He opens another." In the summer of 2003, we were planning for a Taiwan STM to serve the local kids. The project was aborted due to SARS being wide-spread in Taiwan at the time.

Delightedly, I enjoy serving in many areas; yet going on a missions trip has never been a calling to me. My confession here is that I was sort of relieved that the Lord closed the door so that I did not have to go to Taiwan in the hot summer time of 2003. Come 2004, God surprisingly added on another mission project, SEC (Summer English Camp). Knowing that I was by all means inexperienced and not equipped, I instantly looked for prayer support from all over. Amazing things started to happen one by one, I began to sleep with this mission project ever since. I did not know why God was using me, but I acknowledged that God knew me more deeply than I could imagine. Surely God is very capable of working and molding us in His way!

His Provision – His thoughts are higher than our thoughts

Undoubtedly, I experienced God’s very presence throughout the whole mission project in the planning, preparation, training, and execution stages, before, during, and after the missions trip.

In the beginning I was depending on my efforts and trying very hard to get college kids to join the mission; it felt like it was in vain. Quickly I turned to the Lord with total submission and humility; I recognized my own incapability, helplessness, hopelessness, and weakness. God gave me this verse to start with when recruiting the collegians. "Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field (Mt.9:38)." Fervently and with God’s mercy, I stayed with the Lord and cried out for His help. I acknowledged that one thing only God can do is call the hearts of His people.

A wonderful team

God absolutely amazed me when it was time to finalize the team list. He provided me perfectly with an amazing team. (It consisted of 8 adults and 8 collegians with Pastor Al, and Ms. Ruth). Take another look at the very talents that are needed in a team, and I had to shout joy to the Lord for His wonderful provision. Without a doubt, I knew He was at work. By the way, there were 8 males and 8 females—God is a God of balance.

It is a wonder to look at what God has provided for the talents of the team. Whatever was needed for a team to function, it was His perfect provision. Such as prayer warriors, worship team, hand book editor, journalist, emcee, game host, and pianist, small group leaders, and English teachers.

Diana took the lead and designed a web site for college kids to put their devotion up in turns by reading ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ by Rick Warrens. Adults met weekly to have devotion and team spiritual building, ending with all round prayers.

It was a challenge that was known before the team formed—we had a very difficult time just trying to pull all college kids together to meet. (I found out it is going to remain the nature of the challenge of this team, in the future, if the Lord is willing.) The training was done virtually completely through email.

English teaching training

Offered by Barbara Livingston, it was a very unique spiritual renewal experience; we were receiving very strongly the spirit of her unspeakable, wholehearted love for the people of Taiwan. (I sincerely wish all the young people were there to receive the sensitivity of her true love and spirit for it…) She was trying to pull her whole heart and experience to pass onto our young people.

First Aid training

It was offered by Shufen with enthusiasm and paid off the first day we arrived in Taiwan. The student who picked us up tripped and broke his forehead. Blood was gushing out. Eric, who just received the training, immediately dropped his backpack, unzipped the bag, and took out the glove given during the training session. He started to carry out his practice for first aid. I was amazed by his quick response and the confidence in taking care of the ‘patient’ right on the spot. God prepares us for He knows what is ahead of us.

Evangelism training

Given by Derrick, it was a refreshing experience. It taught the team of one gospel with many ways of sharing depending on the hearer’s heart desire.

The moment we arrived at Taipei International Airport, we were welcomed by typhoon. It was meant to be bad, but God turned it to a blessing, as the whole camp was filled with mostly pleasant days.

Observing how the young co-workers worked together was eye opening. When the local young co-workers and the US first met together, the Taiwan team showed that they were reserved, organized, prepared, and serious. The US team showed that they were funny, with style, versatile, cheerful, and casual.

After a week’s time spent together on worship, meeting, discussion, and playing, many campers told me that they ‘really’ like our ABCs for their unique style, versatilities, and the love they have for them. We were told, "You must come back next year!"

We were scheduled to close the camp at 11:00 am. But the tearing and hugging of the campers and the young co-workers made it difficult for everyone to close the session. We did not have lunch until 1:00 pm that day. One of the campers during the sharing time said this that touched my heart: "I did not know Jesus and did not like him. After Pastor Al talked a lot about Jesus, I really like Jesus and like to know him more."

Pastor Al’s messages with seven Eternal values were pounding clearly and heavily upon each heart. Amazingly, the campers were moved and touched by the Word of God and weeping unstoppably when Pastor Al made the altar call. I was shivering by the power of the Holy Sprit myself at the moment.

"Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." (Eph. 5:15-16)

I have gone back to Taiwan many times like many other people. This time I went with a special mission. It was a great unspeakable feeling of joy, love, and peace. Mainly, I’m thankful for God’s compassion for the poor spiritual state of the people of Taiwan and not knowing true God. With God’s mercy I could pull myself from an extremely busy workplace to work for Him by serving other people in Taiwan. For the first time I experienced the beauty of co-working with Christians in a different continent. "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be given to you (Matt. 6:33)."

God of wonders and miracles

"But if it were I, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him. He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted (Job 5:8)."

Ambassadors of God, for His glory
"We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Co. 5:20)"

Frankly speaking, I’ve never thought about going on a missions trip. I have never felt the burden to go; yet this time I felt there was a calling upon me from God, asking me to go and see.

Many people have asked me how it was when I returned home. I tried to find some words to describe it, but as I thought I couldn’t, the only description that I could give of how the missions trip was, was that it is a feeling that I felt before yet never to such a degree, a feeling of being surrounded by overwhelming love from our heavenly Father, a feeling of the strong presence of Holy Spirit, a feeling of winning a victory for Christ… But then I received an email from one of my group members. I like to quote one sentence of how she felt about this summer camp: "This is a life experience that makes your soul tremble." Indeed, I can’t find better words to describe my feeling than what this student said to me.

When I witnessed to about 40 of the young students, half of them were in high school and the other half in college. Although they grew up in a land filled with idol worshippers and were surrounded with countless temples, they had such an open heart towards God’s words. Some of them were converted because of this camp. Some have a new understanding about Christianity and want to go back to church to know more about God. To witness the power of God’s word and the power of God’s love working among these young people of my blood that, makes my soul tremble…

"Come and help us", this is what I heard from one of the local churches in Taiwan. By offering the Children’s English camp, God has indeed opened a door for them to reach people they couldn’t have reached before. They need a lot of human resources from overseas to team up with them. Will you be one of them??

In Christ,

Cher Lo