Taiwan: Typhoon hits Taichung

We awoke early on Friday morning to the sounds of wind and rain.
A typhoon had come ashore and was hitting the city of Taichung with lots of rain.
The city received a foot of water between midnight and 8 am on Friday morning.
I went out in a car with David Atkin looking to buy some rain ponchos.
Several city streets were flooded with water several feet deep.
Back at the camp, the girls sleeping in the lower gym here at Morrison Christian Academy had to be moved to one side of the gym as the water began coming in and flooding the floor.
We had a difficult time, but were able to transport the campers between buildings this morning by using vans.
The area between buildings looked like a lake as water began to back up.
All of the outdoor activities (sports classes) were cancelled and most of the day's programing moved to the auditorium.
I was disappointed as I was looking forward to one more day with the baseball group.

We're praying the distraction of the rain will not take away from the real focus of the week: introducing the kids to Jesus Christ.

Ted Skiles (a missionary here in Taiwan since 1969) will be bringing the evening message and offering an invitation.

Camp will end tomorrow morning.

God bless,
Greg H

Taiwan: Facing Fear

It's Thursday, July 17th, here in Taiwan.
The phone lines have been down for a few days here at Morrison Christian Academy. Therefore, I haven't been able to access the Internet.
The week is going great.

Yesterday's lesson was on Elijah and overcoming fear.
The prophet Elijah was scared for his life and felt alone after the contest on Mt Carmel.
For the evening message, a few Taiwanese Christians shared about overcoming their traditional beliefs in spirits and idol worship.
The folk religions here seem to keep many people in fear all the time.
People are trying to appease the spirits because many think that evil spirits will do bad things to them unless they are pleased.
It is not until they met Jesus Christ that they experienced true freedom from fear.
I'm convinced that fear is one of Satan's strongest tools in discouraging Christians. Fear will hold us back from being the people Christ wants us to be.

The sports have continue to go well, too.
Yesterday, the students defeated the faculty in a softball game, 5-3.
The outcome was somewhat contested, though, as many of the calls went the way of the kids.
Today, however, the teachers evened things by winning big in basketball.
The game was close early, but the play of Justin Livingston, Chad Edwards and Scott Pagel proved to be too much for the young campers.
Tomorrow's match will be on the soccer field and the campers appear to have the edge.

Tomorrow (Friday) will be the last full day of camp. We're hoping and praying for many decisions for Christ.

God bless,
Greg H

Taiwan: Camp in Full Swing

Things have gone fairly smooth after our first full day of Sports & English camp here in Taiwan.
We have 12 young people (10 boys, 2 girls) in my baseball class. I'm helping David Atkin (host missionary) with that.
I also have 6 students in my advanced English class. We're looking at the lives of Bible characters each day. Yesterday, we studied Joseph. Today, we're looking at Daniel and his friends.

It's pretty hot here. They tell me it could be hotter.
I know I haven't sweat this much since Junior High school.
If my voice starts changing and I break out with acne, I'm going home.

We ended the day (yesterday) with a game of competitive dodge ball.
A few girls got hit in the face and two boys knocked heads going for a ball. Besides that, I think we made it through without any serious casualties.
Keep praying for those here who do not yet know Christ as the Lord and Savior.

God bless,
Greg H

Taiwan: Sport & English Camp Begins

The Sports & English Camp began yesterday (Sunday, July 13th).
This year's theme is "It's Gonna Be Alright."
We have well over 100 Middle & High School students here this week.
The students and faculty were divided up into family groups.
My group has 10 young people.
Our classes will begin today (Monday, July 14th).
I'm doing baseball for my sport and teaching an advanced English class (me teaching advanced English to kids in Taiwan; yes, God has a sense of humor).
I'll keep you posted on how the weeks goes.

God bless,
Greg H

Taiwan: Adjusting & Gearing Up

We're starting Day 3 here in Taiwan (Sunday, July 13th).
We will worship here on the campus of Morrison Christian Academy this morning with the Community Church of Taichung.
Later today, the 3rd annual Sports & English Camp will begin here at Morrison.
There are more students expected this year than either of the first two years.
Please keep the camp in your prayers. There will be many young people attending who do not yet know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Yesterday (July 12th), the Taiwan Missionary Fellowship wrapped up and we took some time to look around Taichung.
We went to a wood-carving village outside of town as well as the Tiger City mall here in Taichung.
I'll keep you posted as the Sports & English progresses through the upcoming week.

God bless,
Greg H

Taiwan: We've Arrived Safely

After nearly 50 hours and 10,000 miles, we have arrived safely in Taiwan.
With a long layover in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 9th, our team was able to take a tour of the city of Angels.
We were able to see some famous sights such as Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive and Venice Beach.
Our flight left LA at 2 am (PST), arriving in Taiwan early on Friday morning (July 11th).
It was already over 80 degrees at 6 am this morning.
The Atkins were busy with the Taiwan Missionary Fellowship conference this week, so we had to get ourselves from Taipei to Taichung.
No problem, though, for us experienced travelers (3 of our 4 team members came to Taiwan in 2006).
Everything worked fine and we arrived in Taichung around 9 am local time.
Brenda Atkin came and picked us up from the bus stop and took us straight to the Morrison Christian Academy.
Morrison is the site of this week's missionary conference and next week's Sports & English camp.
We've enjoyed the fellowship of many missionaries and some of the finest Kingdom workers.
We even witnessed a baptism this afternoon.
Dr David Roadcup of Cincinnati Christian University has spoken a couple of times today about discipleship. It's been really good stuff!
Please continue to pray for our team and next week's Sports & English camp (starts Sunday, July 13th).

God bless,
Greg H

Taiwan Mission Journey (July 9-23)

I’m leaving early tomorrow (Wednesday, July 9th) for a 2-week mission trip to Taiwan.
I helped with a mission project there in 2006 and have been looking forward to returning ever since.

Here's a little more about the ministry going on in Taiwan:

Taiwan is a mountainous island located just off the coast of mainland China. It is a non-Christian society with only about 5% of Taiwan's 25 million population claiming to be Christian. The majority follow a unique Chinese blend of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.

The Good News Christian Church in Kaohsiung (pronounced Gow Shung) began nearly 20 years ago.
However, the church struggled for its first 10 years of existence with only 15-20 members. One missionary couple (the Foremans) worked with the church, but was on the brink of coming home to the United States in frustration.
That all changed in 1996. Two families from the United States and Team Expansion (the Atkins and the Dunns) came to help the Foremans with the church.
The church began to flourish shortly after their arrival and is now very healthy with nearly 150 in attendance.
In 2003, David & Brenda Atkin moved to the city of Taichung to begin a new church work there.

Our team's main project will be helping David & Brenda Atkin (our host missionaries) conduct a Sports & English camp for over 100 Taiwanese teenagers.
The Sports & English camp has its own web site: http://www.sportsandenglish.com/.

Young people from all over the island will come to learn more about different sports and the English language. We will teach a lot about Jesus, too, as most of the campers (75-80%) will not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

The first-ever Sports & English camp, held in 2006, was a great success!
We had 35 young people come forward at decision time on Friday night, with 15 of them being baptized into Christ on Saturday morning before we left the camp.

This year, I will have 3 others traveling with me to help with the camp. They are: Justin Livingston (Iowa) and Rick & Emily Kemple (Indiana).
Please pray for safety for our team in travels and effectiveness of sharing the gospel.
I'll try to post updates throughout the trip.

God bless,
Greg H