When worship time ended we did some brain storm on how to make Aroma better. It is cool to see how far they have come. Their numbers from one year to the next have been increasing. In 2013 about 40 people came into the store a day and in total spent NT$4,500 ($150 US). So far in 2014 they have an average of 65 people come in a day and do NT$8,000 ($267 US). I am not a business specialist, but this seems really good to me. We got to see their business plan along with share ideas that we thought would make Aroma better.
We had a little lunch of dumplings with Mark and the 13 year old boy we like to call our little brother, (Shelter wants to make sure you know his name so here it is even though you may not be able to pronounce it Shao Liang). Our little brother just met Mark and Nancy the other night when they were playing ultimate frisbee in the park. They do not know a lot about him right now, but it seems that his parents both died and he may be living with a step mother. When you see him you can tell he craves attention from the guys. We don't think he has many guys to look up to or spend time with. He does the normal things that 13 year old boys do, like pick on the girls and wrestle with the guys. He knows English, but is shy to share too much. When you pray today, pray for this little guy and just thank God for him finding friends here at the Aroma. Pray that his heart will be opened and that he will learn to openly and honestly share with those whom he is closest.
 |
| lunch with our little brother |
 |
| 1, 2, 3, 4, I declare thumb war... |
We had a little bit of rest time before we made our way onto the treasure hunt. You may ask what is a treasure hunt (we didn't know either)? There is a book called "The Ultimate Treasure Hunt" by Kevin Dedmon, in the book it goes through how to quietly listen for God's voice. You take some time to list things like name, clothes, medical, location, and other on an already formed sheet. Whatever comes to mind you right down. We did this then prayed and went looking for people who fit any of the descriptions on our Treasure sheet. If we saw some one and had a feeling they needed to prayed for we went to them, stopped them, told them how we are on a treasure hunt and that God wants us to let them know He loves them. We would spend some time sharing the gospel if they didn't know then asking if we could pray for them. We were in 3 teams for this. Team 1 was Shelter, Anna, Sarah, and Greg. Team 2 was Annette, Mark, Jane, and Zoie. Team 3 was Beth, Chang, Victoria, and our little brother. Some teams found all of their treasures, some teams had the different things on their list tied together to form a treasure and others will continue to search for their treasures throughout the rest of our time here.
We took a brief break then went to the hospital to visit some friends of Aroma. We started by visiting a lady who is currently homeless and whose kids will not come to visit her or take care of her. It was really cool, because we got to take her some fresh fruit and eggs, along with getting to pray with her. We went to visit Eli next. He has a compromised immune system and had stomach surgery a few weeks before that. He was in good spirits and was to be released the next day. He spoke some English so we could speak directly to him and he would respond as best he could. It was great! We got to pray with him before we left.
 |
| Fruit market |
 |
| these are smaller than our Guam bananas (about the size of an index finger) |
We came back to Aroma and headed to dinner with Cloud. Cloud is one of the workers here who left his engineering career to follow what he felt God was calling him to do. He is hoping to go to seminary and come back as the Pastor at Aroma. We ate delicious rice, fish balls, soups, and greens. We ended our day a little earlier than usual and managed a little more sleep.
 |
| To eat or to play?!?! |
No comments:
Post a Comment