a chance to think...

I can breathe but its only for a short second. Finished Isaiah on Monday, Micah in one day, half way through Joel and then onto Jeremiah on Friday with a slice of a test on the side. It makes for a pretty good week if i do say so myself. SBS is coming to a end, I have my paper chain on my wall counting down the days until we leave for Canada and as I walk through the cooler streets in the quiet mornings I am just consistently hit with the fact that my life has been forever changed. I have so much to say with definitely not enough time or the ability to wrap my thoughts around things. I just want to leave you with two things that have been on my heart and mind for the last week especially.

As most of you know I have been doing convalescent home ministry for the past 7 months since i have been here. Some weeks are better than others but every week I am faced with the reality that growing older and death happens to everyone. I am faced with the fact that the gospel is essential in a persons life and at points of sitting in a wheelchair/bed for 20 something hours a day it can be the only hope one has for making it through the day. So there are a few people at the convalescent home that are my favorites...there is the lady that constantly tells EVERYONE they are beautiful in Chinese, the man that always says he is doing bad and shakes you away from him, the cutest little lady ever that always wants me to pray for her knees and ears, the lady that for the majority of the summer sat with her pants off and just in her underwear because it was so hott. I feel like over the last 7 months I have begun to really look at these grandmas and grandpas as people who are truly special to me and have impacted my life in such a cool way. My favorite lady is a woman who always sits in the front row of wheelchairs, some days she looks tired and some days she seems more alert. I make a constant effort to get down to her level and just stare at her right in the eyes and pray for her. She has no idea what I am saying and she is completely mute. I continue to pray every single week that God will heal her, that she will have strength and that she will be able to come to know who he is. Last week the most amazing thing happened. ( I like to call her Ellouise because that is my grandmothers name) I got down to pray for Ellouise and when i finished praying I told her 'Jesus loves you' in Chinese..and the most amazing thing happened. She nodded her head YES!!! She understood what I said and she agreed with it. Then i proceeded to tell her that I loved her in Chinese and tears just filled her eyes. She moved her hand up to wipe away her tears. I was blown away. What one would think was a helpless woman was really a woman that God was doing work in even by us being there for a couple hours each week. God is so good and he is so gracious to us. Please be praying for Ellouise that God would completely heal her and that she would be able to speak. I pray by faith that it will happen and she will talk to me before I leave to go home.

In contrast to that, my heart was broken the other day as I was walking down the street in Dan Shui, there is just so much idolatry and false worship here it blows me away. (There are days when its hard for me to breath outside because they are burning fake money to their false gods.) As I am walking home and just praying for the area, I come upon a puppet show. This is a grand puppet show and there is one little doll which looks quite like some sort of god that they worship here, because they were right across the street from one of the temples, I can assume they were directly related. I walked by to see a family, father, mother and son watching this puppet show and laughing. I couldn't help but be very angry and sad at the same time. These false gods all around them either have absolutely no effect on the people of Taiwan and they are completely apathetic to it or they are bowing down to them believing that these gods are bringing them the things they need or they are being able to reach back to their ancestors. Whatever the case I just proceed to ask God why....

In one week I had seen such contrasts and I realize that as I open my eyes up to the things around me, there is contrast after contrast. God is trying to show me that I have a responsibility. I have a calling. This world is corrupt. They are broken. They are longing to be loved. I have the answer. SO FREELY for everyone. Jesus. He isn't a quick fix to all the problems but he is something that is rooted deep in people that saves their soul. He has been so gracious to give up everything because he does love us and his love never ends. I know it sounds all clique but its true. Its so true. He is the one thing in life that is completely worth living for. If you haven't figured that out yet, you are missing out... I pray that God would continue to stir my hearts and all of our hearts to make him known to those around us that don't know him. That we don't have to be the ones in the wheelchairs years from now who have spent their whole life bowing down to those false gods that we saw in the puppet-shows of life but rather we would be the ones bowing down to the Creator of the Universe awaiting the day that we get to meet him face to face....