...And the long day

We started our morning at church around 3am.  We proceeded to the airport with our families once we had all arrived and had a send off prayer.  We had been informed the night before that the flight was delayed until 7am.  We did not know until we arrived that it had been delayed even longer.  Now our departure time was 750am.  We ate some breakfast, did some devos and sat around playing bananagrams.  Around 730am they started boarding the plane.  By a little after 8am we were off on our adventure. 

When we arrived in Taipei we were greeted with a nice long walk to customs then a much shorter one to our bags.  We didn't have too much trouble at customs.  We got our bags which were somehow some of the first and last off of the plane.  We proceeded out through a no declaration area where they didn't even bother to check your bags.  We met Mark and Chris on the other side.  We exchanged our monies then proceeded on to a 45min bus ride, then a 15min taxi ride.  All culminating in us arriving at the house we would stay in. We got about 20min to put our stuff down and see the house then we were off and running.

Our first trip was to have lunch with some of the missionaries (Alexa, Van, Sarah, Jamie) of the Aroma (the coffee shop outreach/church). We had a traditional simple lunch of dumplings and bubble tea.  We took the time to get to know each others names and favorite places we had travelled.  Afterwards we learned about the mission here and what they hope to add in the future.  

Mark took us on a tour to Ximen to see the city where we will be doing most of our ministry.  We finished up then had some free time to wander around and try different foods and do a little shopping.  When we finished up at 630pm it was time to go help set up Aroma for the worship service. 

Squid balls and oyster mushrooms (mmm mmm good)

Ximen

Fun in Ximen

Worship was different and awesome.  We started out singing, then we had what was called testimony time.  I want to clarify testimony time for you, because it was done unlike anything that I had seen.  I always think of someone's personal testimony when I hear the word.  However, when they say testimony it is a testimony of how God is currently moving in their lives.  There was a lot of different people who shared.  It was really neat, because they were so open and honest.  One person shared a story of how she didn't really want to share about God at that point in time and that conversation ended up in an argument with the other person.  Afterward she realized that she needed to apologize to God for not wanting to share about Him.  So about 5 minutes after she asked for forgiveness she received a phone call from that friend apologizing.  We then had a sermon and some more singing.  We had a send off for one of the guys who will head back to the states for college.  After we wrapped everything up it was about 10pm.  We had to wait for someone to take us home on the bus.  We probably got back around 1030pm.  We all needed showers, because believe it or not the middle of the day here is more hot and humid than Guam.  We debriefed from our long day, then it was time for bed. 

Greg sharing a testimony through a translator

Prayer Requests for the day:

• That we won't get lost
• We have the stamina to last all day
• Make more friends and develop relationships