Hey all, time for another update. Hope you all are doing well half way across the world. Life here has been crazy busy as usual. I have been learning a lot and growing a lot in my walk with the Lord. Life here for me has been more difficult since I last updated you, but God has been faithful to continue to restore me to him and has been doing awesome things in and through me here in Taiwan.
One day a week here we get a Sabbath to rest on, I have learned not only to work hard on the six days we work, but to play hard with the little free time have throughout the week and on my Sabbath. Last week a group of us went to some hot springs and after that went out to a major night market in Taiwan. Today a group of us are headed off to see Ironman 3. I've also been playing basketball and soccer about once a week as well, which is most of my playing during the week.
God has been doing some awesome work here in Taiwan. A couple of weeks ago we went through the book of Acts. Every book study we have a regular application for that book, but for Acts, we had a different application. The application for Acts, because Acts focuses so heavily on the preaching of the gospel, was to share the gospel with one person. I have ministry on Friday nights teaching guitar to beginner guitar players, and after that I spend time in a ministry that our YWAM base here runs called the Rock. The Rock is a coffee bar and we give away free coffee. This brings the Taiwanese in to learn English with our main goal of sharing the gospel with them. The week of Acts, after I had done the guitar class I was going to share the gospel, but that plan got hindered when I got downstairs and found out that I was supposed to go sit and talk with a Taiwanese American who was in the Rock often and who had said he was a Christian. Another student, Elizabeth, got up to just preach the gospel to the whole room full of people and in that time the man I was sitting with left. After Elizabeth finished sharing, she gave the opportunity for anyone who wanted to to accept Christ and stand up, but no one got up. After this, I went and found another table of people to sit at in hopes of sharing the gospel with someone even though they had all already heard it and not responded. I sat down by a Taiwanese DTS (Discipleship Training School) Student named Abraham and a couple of other Taiwanese at the table. Abraham told me that one girl, whose name was Debby, wanted to learn more, but the language barrier made me think that she just wanted to know more about American culture. I took that as an opportunity to share my testimony with this girl and further expound on what Elizabeth had already shared about the gospel. Debby seemed very interested and even began sharing that she thought God had brought her to the Rock because she was going through a difficult time because her and her boyfriend had broken up. At that point I began to realize it might not be a good idea for me to have the whole conversation with her and shortly after that, Elizabeth came and sat down at the table with her while I found someone from the Rock Church to get connected with Debby. Elizabeth continued the conversation with her and she got saved and received the Holy Spirit that night. I still have joy thinking back to that and praise God because of what He did.
School itself has been going really well as well even with the daily struggles that come up. Since I last updated you we finished studying through Luke
, and we went through Acts, Philippians and Colossians, and now we have started 1 Timothy. The most impactful book, not just of the most recent books we have studied but of them all has been Colossians. The reason for Colossians being such an impactful book for me was seeing that Christ is sufficient for believers in all things. It says that in him, that is in Christ, all things hold together, that believers can reach the riches of full assurance of understanding, and that believers have been made alive with him. The whole book just screamed that everything a believer has comes from, through, and in Christ and that Christ himself is enough for every true believer in him. I want to challenge you all to read through the book of Colossians and seek these things out for yourself. Especially in Colossians 1:15-20 Paul uses the word all a lot and talks about Christ being enough in all things, and just the phrases in him with him and through him.
I want to thank you all for your support of me in being here and your love for me. I know I say this pretty much every time, but I really do appreciate it and I want you all to know that I really do appreciate all of your support in all the ways you have given it.
Prayer requests this time would be really just be to continue to seek heart change in this time because it is really easy for me to just get into my work and not really want or seek heart change. Also, just pray for unity within all of the students and staff and that God would grow those. There are no major problems by any means, but we do need God just to build the relationships.
Also, just for finances. I am still about three thousand dollars short of where I would like to be. I have enough for this term and probably next term, but I sill need to get supported for that time. I would appreciate prayer that God would provide that money, but also if you would pray about supporting me financially. If you would like to support you can make the check payable to me personally and it can be sent to 805 12th St. SE Watford City, ND 58854.
In Him,
Travis
One day a week here we get a Sabbath to rest on, I have learned not only to work hard on the six days we work, but to play hard with the little free time have throughout the week and on my Sabbath. Last week a group of us went to some hot springs and after that went out to a major night market in Taiwan. Today a group of us are headed off to see Ironman 3. I've also been playing basketball and soccer about once a week as well, which is most of my playing during the week.
God has been doing some awesome work here in Taiwan. A couple of weeks ago we went through the book of Acts. Every book study we have a regular application for that book, but for Acts, we had a different application. The application for Acts, because Acts focuses so heavily on the preaching of the gospel, was to share the gospel with one person. I have ministry on Friday nights teaching guitar to beginner guitar players, and after that I spend time in a ministry that our YWAM base here runs called the Rock. The Rock is a coffee bar and we give away free coffee. This brings the Taiwanese in to learn English with our main goal of sharing the gospel with them. The week of Acts, after I had done the guitar class I was going to share the gospel, but that plan got hindered when I got downstairs and found out that I was supposed to go sit and talk with a Taiwanese American who was in the Rock often and who had said he was a Christian. Another student, Elizabeth, got up to just preach the gospel to the whole room full of people and in that time the man I was sitting with left. After Elizabeth finished sharing, she gave the opportunity for anyone who wanted to to accept Christ and stand up, but no one got up. After this, I went and found another table of people to sit at in hopes of sharing the gospel with someone even though they had all already heard it and not responded. I sat down by a Taiwanese DTS (Discipleship Training School) Student named Abraham and a couple of other Taiwanese at the table. Abraham told me that one girl, whose name was Debby, wanted to learn more, but the language barrier made me think that she just wanted to know more about American culture. I took that as an opportunity to share my testimony with this girl and further expound on what Elizabeth had already shared about the gospel. Debby seemed very interested and even began sharing that she thought God had brought her to the Rock because she was going through a difficult time because her and her boyfriend had broken up. At that point I began to realize it might not be a good idea for me to have the whole conversation with her and shortly after that, Elizabeth came and sat down at the table with her while I found someone from the Rock Church to get connected with Debby. Elizabeth continued the conversation with her and she got saved and received the Holy Spirit that night. I still have joy thinking back to that and praise God because of what He did.
School itself has been going really well as well even with the daily struggles that come up. Since I last updated you we finished studying through Luke
, and we went through Acts, Philippians and Colossians, and now we have started 1 Timothy. The most impactful book, not just of the most recent books we have studied but of them all has been Colossians. The reason for Colossians being such an impactful book for me was seeing that Christ is sufficient for believers in all things. It says that in him, that is in Christ, all things hold together, that believers can reach the riches of full assurance of understanding, and that believers have been made alive with him. The whole book just screamed that everything a believer has comes from, through, and in Christ and that Christ himself is enough for every true believer in him. I want to challenge you all to read through the book of Colossians and seek these things out for yourself. Especially in Colossians 1:15-20 Paul uses the word all a lot and talks about Christ being enough in all things, and just the phrases in him with him and through him.
I want to thank you all for your support of me in being here and your love for me. I know I say this pretty much every time, but I really do appreciate it and I want you all to know that I really do appreciate all of your support in all the ways you have given it.
Prayer requests this time would be really just be to continue to seek heart change in this time because it is really easy for me to just get into my work and not really want or seek heart change. Also, just pray for unity within all of the students and staff and that God would grow those. There are no major problems by any means, but we do need God just to build the relationships.
Also, just for finances. I am still about three thousand dollars short of where I would like to be. I have enough for this term and probably next term, but I sill need to get supported for that time. I would appreciate prayer that God would provide that money, but also if you would pray about supporting me financially. If you would like to support you can make the check payable to me personally and it can be sent to 805 12th St. SE Watford City, ND 58854.
In Him,
Travis
