6/28/15

This morning we went to church at 9:30am so that the Harbours can host Sunday School at their church. A solid group of about 15 kids came out and sang the Papaya song, played Bible verses games, and heard a message about the feeding of the 5000. The name of this Sunday School is called "WHIZ" for "Wisdom, Happy, Intelligent & Zealous". These kids were very good at memorizing verses (especially in english) and helping each other memorize verses. Sadly, this was the last Sunday School of the academic year, so the Harbours won't see some of the kids for about a month.

For lunch, we ate this awesome food:

The regular church worship service was held at 3pm in Taiwanese. However, at 2pm, we went out to pick up a carload of people that the Harbours take to church every week. On the way to picking up a dad and his two sons, we passed by this giant 11 story tall statue and temple.

When we arrived at church at 3pm, we heard a special message from a Taiwanese Send International missionary, Tina, who is serving full-time in Japan. She shared with me about how Japan's population is only .3% Christian, and is easily one of the most non-Christian countries out there right now. Pray that God will start a revival in Japan through the work of the missionaries who are serving there!

After Tina's special message and another message from the pastor, the Harbours congratulated the graduating students by giving them bibles and some cake!

Mrs. Harbour praying over the graduating students

Later in the afternoon, Mrs. Harbour hosted her youth English class (which was also the last class of the semester). This class is specially geared to introduce biblical themes, verses and the Gospel without using the Bible itself. It was perfect for the group that Mrs. Harbour taught because none of them are Christian yet (but a couple are very close to accepting Christ!). Like I mentioned earlier, it was a blessing to see how hard these kids were trying to learn and how much they enjoyed it too. Mrs. Harbour did a great job in teaching english words and pointing them back towards God!

Mrs. Harbours last English class of the semester!

After English class, we picked up the Harbours' neighbors/church attendees/friends and went to the night market! I tried deep fried squid, a mystery meat sausage, and passionfruit juice! It was all very good and, of course, cheap.

Overall, I learned a lot about church planting and the amount of work and effort it takes to start one. The Harbours have a really great gift of inviting people to church, taking them to church, and engaging them in church. The Harbours are slowly making their community into their church. Seeing this is very encouraging because its a great example of patience, perseverance, and investment in others. It reminded me about my purpose at SDSU and how important it is to build up a community with people through meet ups, hang outs and Bible studies. The Harbours made it clear that building up churches is definitely not easy, but the process makes you stronger, more faithful, and more appreciative of God.

Taiwan Day 3 - Sunday Church & Night Market!