Worth the Surrender: Finding Joy in Following Jesus | Adam Walz

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When God calls you to be a missionary, you at the beginning we think, oh, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna sacrifice for God.
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We ain't sacrificing nothing.
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God is allowing us to understand Him more.
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It's not it's not a sacrifice, it's it's a blessing, it's treasure, it's amazing.
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Welcome to Kingdom Without Borders, where we share stories of God's work among the nations and hear firsthand how the gospel is transforming lives around the world.
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Today, we're traveling to the island of Taiwan through my conversation with missionary Adam Walls.
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For nearly seven years, Adam and his wife Ashley have been serving in Taiwan as church planting missionaries with a heart not simply to reach people with the gospel, but to disciple and train Taiwanese believers to carry the work forward.
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In this conversation, you're going to hear what that kind of discipleship actually looks like.
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But you'll also hear about the work that God has done in Adam along the way, from the challenge of learning Mandarin Chinese and navigating culture shock to walking through one of the most painful seasons their family has ever experienced.
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Yet through it all, Adam has learned something that I think every follower of Christ needs to hear.
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Following Jesus may cost us our comfort, but what we gain in knowing him is infinitely greater than anything we could ever give up.
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So, I invite you to sit down and join me for my conversation with Adam Walls as we hear another story of God's work in his kingdom without borders.
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Adam, for someone who's listening who has never had an opportunity to meet you and your wife Ashley, would you take a moment to introduce us to your family and tell us a little about where God has you serving and what ministry looks like for you there?
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Yes, sir.
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Uh well, we are the Walls family.
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My name is Adam, my wife Ashley.
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We have three children, Anna, Micah, and Mariah.
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When my wife and I first got married, my we were in children's evangelism.
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We did evangelism specialized in children's ministry.
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I would go all across the United States and other parts of the world telling boys and girls about Jesus quiet, uh Jesus Christ using um illusions and puppetry and stuff like that.
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And I had a blast doing it.
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Then the Lord burdened our hearts to be become missionaries.
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And so as we followed him, the doors were opened.
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We are now missionaries in the country of Taiwan, have been there for the past six, almost, almost seven years now, and God has been doing a great work there.
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That's awesome.
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Uh, you described yourselves as being church planting missionaries with a particular emphasis on training nationals.
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Uh, what does that really look like uh with boots on the ground for someone that maybe is unfamiliar with some of those uh um phrases or or words that are used to describe your ministry?
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Yes, sir.
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So what we try to do uh by begging the Lord to help us and the guiding of the Holy Spirit is we will meet people with the intention of discipleship.
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We we focused very hard on studying what Jesus did with his 12 disciples.
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It was not a just a book curriculum where they opened up the book of they opened up a disciple book once a week and they would they'd sit around a table with coffee for an hour.
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Uh they did life together.
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And so did Paul.
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Paul followed that ministry, and what Paul did is what we are trying to, we are trying to mimic as well.
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He would go from place to place training nationals because the uh, I mean, just to be blunt and honest, the nationals can do it a whole lot better than you can when they're in their own context, they're in their own culture, they're in their own language.
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And so what we do, uh with as you explained, boots on the ground, we will uh meet with people, and they will our home was always open, our door was always open.
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Uh one of the young men that is now at the church plant, we're in the states right now.
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Uh his English name is Vision.
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When I first met Vision, Vision was going to be my language school teacher.
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And uh language school was four hours a day, every single day, and it was just a lot of paperwork, book work, talking back and forth.
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And so uh during that time, Vision would come to my house and we'd hang out together, we'd we'd play games together, he would show me around what time when these people would do.
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We'd we'd go to markets and we'd uh we we did everything together.
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And so it got to the point where we would meet together about eight in the morning, and he wouldn't go home until, oh goodness sakes, there there are several times when we we'd get back at 11 at night, hang out until about 12, and then he'd go home.
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And that was that was the typical day where he's always with me.
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Uh, and my wife did the same thing.
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She always had ladies with her.
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And so she's inviting people, girls, into her home with our children, teaching them uh basically just you be with me and watch what we do, watch wh how we act.
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And that's a mercy's sakes, that was that took a long time to get used to.
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That's not a typical American thing either.
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We like our sure, yeah.
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Right.
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And when you have people with you all the time, it it challenges you uh to even growing up, I've I've been uh I'm a pastor's kid, so I've grown up in a church life my entire life, and I thank the Lord for that.
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Um so I I could tell you all the right answers.
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I can tell you, oh yeah, you're supposed to disciple.
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Oh yeah, you're supposed to you're supposed to live a life that um that is what's the word I'm looking for?
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It's the same as what you're saying.
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You live in the city.
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Consistent consistent, yes, consistent with what you're saying.
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So it's not just a Sunday Christian, but you're a Monday through you're a Sunday through Saturday, Sunday through Sunday Christian.
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Sure.
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Discipleship having people in your home is going to push that to its limits.
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Because normal people uh bicker with their their spouses sometimes.
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And when people are with you, they're watching how you how you handle that.
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Uh normal people have to discipline their children and they're they're gonna watch how their children push buttons and how they make you mad.
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And when you have people in your house all the time, they're watching how you handle that situation.
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It is sometimes a very stressful thing when you begin leaning on your own strength.
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And so the Lord has taught us in this time that true discipleship, the way that Jesus did it, the way that Paul did it, it was it's a very difficult thing, but it's a blessing.
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Oh my goodness, it's a blessing.
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Because the Lord begins starting to, not in a not in a mean way, but he starts to tear apart every little nook and cranny of your life until you eventually realize just how deprived and nasty and sinful we truly are.
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And he begins working on that.
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And it's a it's a an amazing thing when you allow the Holy Spirit to begin working in those areas and teaching you more of who Jesus truly is.
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Uh, and so because of that hardship of discipling with people always in our house, always with us, uh pushing us to our limits, it we are closer to Christ because of it, and we we're truly grateful for it.
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That's what I was gonna ask.
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So it sounds like as an outflow or an uh outcome of being so heavily involved in discipline one-on-one discipleship, uh, it you're not that you are changing really as much as the disciplee is changing, if you will.
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I'd say more so.
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I mean, goodness sakes.
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Most people will realize that when you start uh when you start teaching, like if you're at a if you're if you're teaching a junior church or a Sunday school class or if you're just teaching, the teacher usually gets more out of it than the than the person you're receiving.
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And I'd say the same thing for discipleship.
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We we are we have changed a lot uh simply because of this method in it in a good way.
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That's good to hear.
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Um take us back to uh before you get to Taiwan.
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How did God start working in your heart towards missions?
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You had mentioned, I think, um, some missions trips or something you had done, maybe as a teenager or college student.
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Um, what was God doing in your heart to prepare you for full-time missionary service?
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Yes, sir.
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So back to when I mentioned that I was in traveling evangelism that specialized in children's ministry.
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The ministry that I worked with, the gentleman that was he was my Paul.
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I was his Timothy.
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His name is Steve Harney with Cool Kids Ministries.
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And back in that time, uh we would uh up until then, we had stayed in the States and we'd go all across the United States telling people about uh doing VBSs and camps and and preaching the gospel.
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Well, one uh year, uh Brother Steve got an invitation to come to the country of Ukraine.
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We were actually raising money that year through penny offerings to be able to build a church, a feeding center, and a school.
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And so while we were doing that, that uh missions uh uh the missionary there invited us to come and see what the money was raised for.
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And so we were excited about that.
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We got to go and actually do a camp there.
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And up until then, I had, I mean, I'd already been giving to missions.
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I think I was maybe 18, 19 years old.
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So I'd been I'd been giving to missions faithfully.
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The Lord I was very blessed to have parents to taught me how to give to missions.
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And um so I knew there was a need, but there's something different about knowing it with your head knowledge and then seeing it with your eyes.
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Sure.
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When we got to the Ukraine, I was blown away that I didn't see churches like you see in America, where you just down the road that you'll you'll pass two or three uh on the same road.
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And in Ukraine, I saw nothing.
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And I saw people hungry for the gospel, hungry for God's word.
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And even though I had a hard time, they were speaking Ukrainian, so I had a hard time understanding them.
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Uh you through the translator, just going around, my eyes were open to see a world that had not even heard once of Jesus Christ, let alone there we have the wonderful blessing of hearing about Jesus over and over and over again here in the States.
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It wasn't long after that that we got to go to Haiti.
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And when I went to Haiti, oh mercy's sake, oh goodness.
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Uh, I was watching children eating out of the garbage to get their meal that day.
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Um once again, no hardly any churches.
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It's the world deprived of Jesus, and my heart was burdened.
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And then right after Haiti, about two weeks later, we went to Taiwan.
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And when I got to Taiwan, the book of Acts just came to life.
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I'm walking the streets and thinking of how Paul's talking about all these different temples of all these different gods.
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Oh yeah.
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And here it is.
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I mean, in Taiwan, there's tons of temples, tons of gods.
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In fact, where we live right now in Taiwan, uh, our apartment, we are on the 13th floor, and when you look out of our window, there's this ginormous statue, the size of the size of if you put two uh houses on top of each other, it's a huge statue of one of their gods.
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And he's just looking directly at our house.
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And he's the oh, it's that's common though.
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You you see that all the time.
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And these they have gods for everything.
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And my heart was broken.
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And so I would ask people, have you heard about Jesus?
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Oh, yeah, he's he's a god, one of many, one of many.
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And uh the Lord began to burden my.
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So by this time, I wasn't even I wasn't married yet.
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In fact, we were talking about getting married.
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In fact, right before I left for Taiwan, uh, we left on Monday.
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I asked my wife to marry me that Sunday, and I figured it worked out perfectly because if her dad was mad here, I mean, I'm out of the country anyway.
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What do you do?
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Yeah, exactly.
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So I wasn't worried.
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Up until then, I told my wife, sweetheart, this is children's ministry, is what I'm gonna do the rest of my life.
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I hope you're if if you're not ready, if you don't want to do that, then tell me now, because this is what God has called me to do.
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But then it was during that trip and the trips previous that the Lord had really beginning burdening my heart.
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And when I came back from that trip, uh God had begun He He really started making it clear there's other people in the world that have not heard once, and I want you to go to them.
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And so uh I came back, my wife and I got married, and the next year we were invited to go back again.
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Now I was extremely excited about it.
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I could not wait.
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My wife was So you're still doing, are you still doing the children's ministry in between?
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Yes, okay.
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We're still we're this is still a full-time job.
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This is what we did.
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Um, in fact, because So you're going to Taiwan to do children's ministry work.
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Yes, that was it.
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I was in children's ministry.
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Nothing happened.
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Uh and because I was still a little nervous, I didn't know, Lord, is this what you really want me to do?
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Is this what I mean?
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I don't, I don't, I didn't understand.
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I'm I'm still a I was still just a small kid.
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Uh did anyone besides Ashley know about your your interest in missions at this point?
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She didn't even know.
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I I was just aware.
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Yes.
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Okay.
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I just tripped this.
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I tripped I just tripped the most beautiful girl in the world to marry me.
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And okay, I was at least telling her we're gonna stay in the States, don't worry.
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This is so she's tagging along for this mission strip.
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So she thinks that we're just doing a small missions trip.
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Uh but so that time I was thinking, Lord, if this really is what you want, then would you would you work in my wife's heart?
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Because I I want to, I want us to truly be a team.
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If if this is something that you want us to do, then I know you've brought us together.
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And you're not gonna separate our desires.
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You're gonna give us the one will, one goal.
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Uh and so I began to pray about that.
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Well, the Lord doesn't work the same way that we would like him to sometimes.
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Uh that trip, brother Steve, we were still with him, he got miserably sick, and then my wife got miserably sick.
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Oh my.
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They're just dying to go home.
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They they do not want to be there any longer.
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Well, I got miserable too, but not the same way.
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Because I, my eyes once again are open to children, uh, and not just children, but people hungry for God's word, and no one that I knew was was going.
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I mean, I've not even heard of Taiwan up until that point.
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It's just a dinky little island.
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One other reason I was miserable about it is because my wife was ready to go home.
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She didn't want anything to do with that country anymore.
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She was tired.
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And I was thinking, Lord, you're not making this easy, because it was that time the Lord made it clear to me, Adam, it's it's time that you uh accept what I want you to do.
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And so we got back, and I'm still terrified to talk to my wife.
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We were just getting over jet lags.
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She started feeling better.
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I told my wife, sweetheart, I think the Lord wants us to be missionaries to the country of Taiwan.
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And it was her response that told me for sure.
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I mean, I'd already knew it, but I knew that I had married one of the most godly women I've ever met in my entire life.
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And she was the girl for me.
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She said, I'm not saying no, but would you give me time to pray about it so God will give me that desire too?
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And we did.
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We began to pray about it together as a married couple for a year.
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Uh, I told the Lord, I'm willing, I want to, I will go, but please change my wife's heart before I just drag her along.
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And it was a year later that we were still doing children's ministry, and one day she looked at me and she said, It's time.
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Let's go.
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Let's do what we need to do.
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And that's how we got to where we're at now.
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That's a pretty impressive story.
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And it's really neat to see how God was working in your heart.
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Um, and even through I guess it would be fair to say that your fear to let other people know maybe what God was impressing, he was still doing a work.
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Um, he didn't let you get away from it.
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Let me put it that way.
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Yes, I pretty much escaped that pull.
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And then, you know, to see that he also gave the same desire to your wife is a beautiful picture, a reminder to us that God um who can orchestrate our paths and our steps perfectly for his glory and for our good.
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Yes, sir.
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Um you said that you had quite a few stories about language blunders, and you even mentioned yourself about uh language school.
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Of course, um in Taiwan they speak Mandarin Chinese, is that correct?
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Yes, sir.
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Do you have a story you could share with us?
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One of the things that uh when I first got to Taiwan and learning the language, I had been in language school for maybe two months.
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And I mean, two months you think, oh, well, at least you can order coffee.
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No, this is Mandarin Chinese.
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You're you're barely saying uh what, where, why.
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You're barely saying those words correctly.
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So uh during language school, you're always encouraged to take take what you can, push yourself, go out, order something, buy something, have fun with the language.
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Well, I'd always wanted a fish tank.
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And so I thought, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna use this to motivate me to go and learn the language.
00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:31.200
So I'm gonna I'm gonna learn certain things that I need to get a fish tank, I need the fish, and all these things.
00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:31.759
Sure.
00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:34.240
So those are the words that I'm working on.
00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:38.480
And I'm going to the store and talking to people, trying to talk to people.
00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:52.799
And so I I had bought everything that I wanted, had it set up, and I finally I I read online that if you get a couple small shrimp to put in your fish tank, then they will take care of the greenery inside.
00:18:52.799 --> 00:18:55.599
So I go and I I pick out the shrimp that I want.
00:18:55.599 --> 00:18:57.200
I tell them I would say that.
00:18:57.200 --> 00:18:58.640
That's it.
00:18:58.640 --> 00:18:59.920
And how many?
00:18:59.920 --> 00:19:01.279
10, and that's it.
00:19:01.279 --> 00:19:04.799
Well, finally, I need to, I don't know what shrimp eat.
00:19:04.799 --> 00:19:06.480
I mean, I don't know anything about that.
00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:10.960
So I need to ask that question, what do these eat?
00:19:10.960 --> 00:19:12.559
What do shrimp eat?
00:19:12.559 --> 00:19:17.200
But I I mean that's the longest sentence I would have ever said up until that point.
00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:21.039
So I hold up the bag of shrimp that the lady just gave me.
00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:23.839
And instead of saying, What do these eat?
00:19:23.839 --> 00:19:26.880
in Chinese, I said, Can I eat these?
00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:38.559
And the face that I got as some Taiwanese person looking at this crazy white foreigner, thinking, What is what do you people do in your country?
00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:41.680
So she looked at me and she said, No, you can't eat those.
00:19:41.680 --> 00:19:42.960
She switched to English.
00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:45.279
Like, she she she spoke fine English.
00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:47.759
That was the time she decided to show me.
00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:49.119
Like, oh, thanks.
00:19:49.119 --> 00:19:55.039
Uh that's I realized what I said, yeah, that was that was one blunder that I messed up.
00:19:55.039 --> 00:19:58.000
And then they get they get different from there.
00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:01.359
Uh I have cussed from the pulpit, not meaning to.
00:20:01.359 --> 00:20:02.000
Sure.
00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:08.240
And you know, you have those people that are just they're sitting there and they're slightly starting to daze off.
00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:09.920
I had everybody's attention after that.
00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:13.759
I didn't know that I didn't know I had their attention or why I had their attention.
00:20:13.759 --> 00:20:15.680
I thought, man, this sermon must be good.
00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:22.880
And it wasn't until afterwards that the young man I was talking about, vision, he's like, Yeah, did you tell you cussed during your preaching?
00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:25.359
That's why everybody started paying really close attention.
00:20:25.359 --> 00:20:26.319
Well, praise the Lord.
00:20:26.319 --> 00:20:27.440
He used that somehow.
00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:28.640
So it's funny.
00:20:28.799 --> 00:20:32.160
I've done it's funny, I've done all those mess ups.
00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:48.640
So, do you find then that um while obviously Mandarin Chinese would be the heart language of the people, are there quite a few people that speak English, or is it really just kind of shot in the dark, like you said, like the storekeeper was able to tell you in English to not eat the shrimp?
00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:51.119
Is that common or is that less common?
00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:53.759
It is it's a it's a somewhat common.
00:20:53.759 --> 00:21:02.240
So anyone, if you reach or you meet anyone by the age of around 30 and below, their English is going to be okay.
00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:04.559
They're going to understand you.
00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:14.079
They may not feel confident enough to speak it because in in Taiwan, when they're going to school, one of their big things that they have to learn is English.
00:21:14.079 --> 00:21:17.359
And so they their reading is phenomenal.
00:21:17.359 --> 00:21:20.000
They can read English no problem at all.
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:27.839
They can understand it because the teacher's always speaking English, but they are very insecure about speaking it themselves.
00:21:27.839 --> 00:21:35.119
So most people won't speak it to you, but they'll understand what you're trying to say if it's about within the age of 30 and younger.
00:21:35.119 --> 00:21:37.200
Up above that, it's a shot in the dark.
00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:40.240
Most of the time, people aren't going to understand what you're saying.
00:21:40.559 --> 00:21:49.599
You mentioned a little bit about uh culture shock and you know, kind of uh the experience of of living in a foreign country.
00:21:49.599 --> 00:21:52.160
Um, is there anything you want to share with us about that?
00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:59.119
Or maybe even like, you know, uh what was that at what point did the excitement of being a missionary in Taiwan wear off?
00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:02.880
Uh The culture shock, how some of those things come together.
00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:08.400
When we finally started understanding, I mean, we had read books on it.
00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:16.720
The missions agency that we uh have come with that helped us prepare for missions is a blessing, Vision Baptist missions.
00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:22.640
And they they would push over and over and over again and have us read books on culture shock.
00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:31.039
And culture shock is something that somebody cannot understand until you've just gone through it.
00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:36.079
And culture shock normally doesn't hit until about six months in.
00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:40.880
So you're not going to experience true culture shock until after the honeymoon wears off.
00:22:40.880 --> 00:22:42.640
Yes, it's just gone.
00:22:42.640 --> 00:22:43.440
Yeah.
00:22:43.440 --> 00:22:45.759
So it was around that time.
00:22:45.759 --> 00:22:51.119
My been about been there about six months, maybe a little over, maybe a little longer than that.
00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:55.839
My uncle, by that time, praise God, my uncle's a missionary there, and he's been very kind to us.
00:22:55.839 --> 00:22:58.799
We were under his ministry learning the language.
00:22:58.799 --> 00:23:02.240
And he would occasionally ask, How are you guys doing?
00:23:02.240 --> 00:23:04.079
Are you feeling it yet?
00:23:04.079 --> 00:23:06.559
Uh do you do you need anything?
00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:08.079
What's are you all right?
00:23:08.079 --> 00:23:10.559
And I'm like, Well, you're fine, what's going on?
00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:15.119
Is also around that time, my wife and I found out that she was pregnant.
00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:17.359
And we were very excited about that.
00:23:17.359 --> 00:23:26.079
Um, we had been up until this point, we had only had Anna, our firstborn, and uh our other two children were not there yet.
00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:28.640
So we were excited uh to have more children.
00:23:28.640 --> 00:23:35.279
We were excited to to grow our little family, and we were excited to be able to have, we were gonna have the baby in Taiwan.
00:23:35.279 --> 00:23:39.680
Uh it was so it was around that time, still excited.
00:23:39.680 --> 00:23:44.559
Um, and then my wife started coming to me and she said, you know, I've been having some complications.
00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:47.359
I'm I'm hurting, and it's a different hurt.
00:23:47.359 --> 00:23:50.559
It's not a normal early pregnancy hurt.
00:23:50.559 --> 00:23:53.599
We thought, let's just go figure out what's going on, let's go to the doctor.
00:23:53.599 --> 00:23:55.440
Well, there's a problem.
00:23:55.440 --> 00:23:58.559
You can't understand anybody, and they can't understand you.
00:23:58.559 --> 00:24:00.960
Everybody in the doctor's older than 30.
00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:02.720
Their English is amazing.
00:24:02.720 --> 00:24:09.839
And so you're trying to break the, or you're trying to to talk to them about what's going on.
00:24:09.839 --> 00:24:14.640
And so finally, the the first doctor that she went to see said, You're all right.
00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:18.720
It's just, it's just regular pregnancy feelings.
00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:22.000
Everybody has problems in pregnancy.
00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:24.079
They're thinking it's her first kid.
00:24:24.079 --> 00:24:27.279
So they send her back and say, just rest a little bit.
00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:29.359
Well, she comes back and rests.
00:24:29.359 --> 00:24:37.200
And we're trying to trust that the doctor knows what they're talking about and still trying to learn the language and understand culture.
00:24:37.200 --> 00:24:41.839
And uh, they didn't hardly do any tests, they just listened to her and they said, just do this.
00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:46.960
Well, finally, she started bleeding very, very bad.
00:24:46.960 --> 00:25:02.960
And so we rushed through the hospital, and uh my uncle finally comes with us to this one, and they tell her that she has a ectopic pregnancy, which is when the the baby gets stuck in the tube.
00:25:02.960 --> 00:25:10.799
And uh by that time there was a heartbeat, but the heart, the heartbeat had stopped.
00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:22.799
And they are telling my wife and us in different languages, different culture, everything, that if we don't have surgery on your wife right now, she's going to, she could die.
00:25:22.799 --> 00:25:25.920
So that was an interesting time.
00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:28.880
They immediately take her into surgery.
00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:36.240
I'm sitting there with my uncle, and I'm I'm going through a my first true culture shock moment.
00:25:36.240 --> 00:25:40.720
Why couldn't these people catch this earlier?
00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:42.559
Why am I in this country?
00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:46.640
Why do people not do things right here in this in this country?
00:25:46.640 --> 00:25:49.359
Why uh this wouldn't have happened in America.
00:25:49.359 --> 00:25:51.359
These are all culture shock questions.
00:25:51.359 --> 00:25:55.119
Uh, if I if we were in my country, then this wouldn't have happened.
00:25:55.119 --> 00:26:03.279
If so that it went from anger towards the Taiwanese people and then questioning God Himself, Lord, why are you doing this to me?
00:26:03.279 --> 00:26:04.640
Why are you doing this to my family?
00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:06.319
What don't don't do this to her?
00:26:06.319 --> 00:26:11.759
Take uh bother me, challenge me, hurt me.
00:26:11.759 --> 00:26:13.519
Please don't touch my wife.
00:26:13.519 --> 00:26:22.319
And then as I'm as I'm there praying, and I wouldn't say terribly angry with God, but questioning God, what's going on?
00:26:22.319 --> 00:26:24.880
This is this is terrifying.
00:26:24.880 --> 00:26:28.480
And then in another thing in Taiwan, that's culture.
00:26:28.480 --> 00:26:30.480
My wife is still sedated.
00:26:30.480 --> 00:26:33.039
There, they're still she's on the operating table.
00:26:33.039 --> 00:26:34.400
They call me in.
00:26:34.400 --> 00:26:40.000
And there's my wife still on the table asleep.
00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:43.599
Her uh stomach is wide open, they've got her cut open.
00:26:43.599 --> 00:26:45.119
I see everything.
00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:49.519
And they just they just want to show me that they've done the job right.
00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:53.279
And I almost, I mean, I didn't know what do you do?
00:26:53.279 --> 00:26:54.799
Like, I don't show me this.
00:26:54.799 --> 00:26:56.160
I don't want to see this.
00:26:56.160 --> 00:26:57.440
This isn't my job.
00:26:57.440 --> 00:27:00.559
I don't, I wouldn't be able to tell you if it did it right or wrong anyway.
00:27:00.559 --> 00:27:01.920
Oh my soul.
00:27:01.920 --> 00:27:04.799
And that was so I just okay, yeah.
00:27:04.799 --> 00:27:06.000
I walked out.
00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:06.480
Sure.
00:27:06.480 --> 00:27:20.400
And uh that was my first true culture shock moment where I just at that moment, now I'm gonna I I beg the Lord to forgive me every day, but true culture shock is when you just hate the people.
00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:24.240
And at that moment, I didn't care if any of them went to hell.
00:27:24.240 --> 00:27:25.680
I was done.
00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:27.359
And that's terrible.
00:27:27.359 --> 00:27:28.079
It really is.
00:27:28.079 --> 00:27:33.279
And God has worked on my heart and I've begged him to forgive me, but that's culture shock.
00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:34.640
You're just you're angry.
00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:36.079
You're just angry.
00:27:36.079 --> 00:27:39.519
Um, I know now that that's just what they do.
00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:49.920
They, they're doing the best they could, trying to show up, show me that they're trying to take care of my wife, that they're fixing the problem, that it's not being left out or left alone.
00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:52.160
But at that moment, I didn't care.
00:27:52.160 --> 00:27:55.279
And I couldn't do anything to protect my wife.
00:27:55.279 --> 00:27:56.799
I couldn't speak for her.
00:27:56.799 --> 00:27:59.119
I couldn't, I couldn't do anything.
00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:05.680
And so it was during that time that the Lord had to teach me as well that I need to trust him in an even stronger way than I've ever done before.
00:28:05.680 --> 00:28:07.279
And that hasn't changed.
00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:15.039
Uh people, my uncle still goes through culture shock, and he's been there for over uh 12 years.
00:28:15.039 --> 00:28:18.640
So I I still go, we still go through culture shock.
00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:18.880
Sure.
00:28:18.880 --> 00:28:24.799
Every once in a while, you just you have to you have to ask yourself, why am I angry with these people?
00:28:24.799 --> 00:28:25.920
They haven't done anything to me.
00:28:25.920 --> 00:28:29.119
They're very, they're still sweet, they're still here, they're still caring.
00:28:29.119 --> 00:28:30.480
That's just culture shock.
00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:37.039
One day you go outside and you're mad at the world, you're mad at everybody, and you have to learn to abide in Christ.
00:28:37.039 --> 00:28:39.279
Um, and that that really does help.
00:28:39.279 --> 00:28:41.279
But most people don't understand culture shock.
00:28:41.279 --> 00:28:45.279
That's not something that you can you can understand until you've just gone through it.
00:28:45.599 --> 00:28:46.960
Sure, you have to live there.
00:28:46.960 --> 00:28:49.519
I I totally um get it.
00:28:49.519 --> 00:28:53.119
I when I was in high school, my family lived in Europe for several years.
00:28:53.119 --> 00:29:03.519
And I think until you live in a situation like that, you don't realize that that people in other parts of the world carry on their lives and they think differently, they do things differently.
00:29:03.519 --> 00:29:12.240
Not because the way that you do things and thought and were raised are necessarily right, but just because you it's your culture.
00:29:12.400 --> 00:29:12.720
Right.
00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:16.000
Uh it's just it's the frame of reference in which you live.
00:29:16.079 --> 00:29:16.480
Yep.
00:29:16.799 --> 00:29:30.799
And whenever you are facing something that's so deeply ingrained inside of you, and now you're in a place where you're the odd man out and everyone else is doing it, it definitely can bring feelings, I'm sure, of frustration.
00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:31.279
Absolutely.
00:29:31.279 --> 00:29:38.880
I would think even probably fear, um, like you said, anger, uh, just all of those things building up.
00:29:38.880 --> 00:29:53.279
And it's a great reminder that in those moments, uh, you would have to run back to Christ because uh the reason that you're that you're living in Taiwan isn't because it was this great um vacation spot, right?
00:29:53.279 --> 00:29:58.720
You're there because God called you, God called you to minister to these people.
00:29:58.720 --> 00:30:07.599
And you know, I think this is kind of a silly uh correlation and it definitely pales in comparison.
00:30:07.599 --> 00:30:20.799
But and I understand God is not human in the sense that he's above us and thinks above us, but imagine the culture shock, if you will, of Jesus coming to a world filled with sin.
00:30:20.799 --> 00:30:29.519
And you know, the fact that he saw us, the Bible tells us that he saw us and he was moved with compassion when he saw the when he saw the multitudes.
00:30:29.519 --> 00:30:55.359
And what a great reminder to us that sometimes in our life God brings situations and circumstances that force us in in our humanness, if you will, um which we're completely human, but forces us in our humanness to realize that we are completely incapable uh to do this thing that he's called us to do, whatever it is, wherever we are, um and that he is more than able.
00:30:55.359 --> 00:31:04.000
That experience with your wife and in the hospital and that ectopic pregnancy, did it change the way that you began to relate to the people around you?
00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:12.640
Once you got over that initial uh frustration and shock, you said you mentioned, I think, that God began doing a work.
00:31:12.640 --> 00:31:15.759
Uh what was it that he was doing in your heart through that?
00:31:16.319 --> 00:31:24.400
He was so that's where the Lord began to teach me that uh the American way isn't necessarily the right way or the wrong way.
00:31:24.400 --> 00:31:26.799
Uh it's just God Himself.
00:31:26.799 --> 00:31:29.119
Yes, it is a way.
00:31:29.119 --> 00:31:49.279
We I've that we in America, one of our big things that I I believe truly is um a wrong heart and a wrong attitude, even in our local churches, just simply because of culture, is that if it's not the American way, and we wouldn't say it that way, but it's but we we live it out.
00:31:49.279 --> 00:31:51.920
If it's not the American way, it's not right.
00:31:51.920 --> 00:31:57.599
But God is the designer of all countries, of all different people.
00:31:57.599 --> 00:32:00.079
God Himself likes differences.
00:32:00.079 --> 00:32:06.079
Um and there are things that are culturally different that are not sin.
00:32:06.079 --> 00:32:12.720
And so there are things that the Asian people, the the Chinese and the Taiwanese people will do that are they're not wrong.
00:32:12.720 --> 00:32:14.319
They're not biblically wrong.
00:32:14.319 --> 00:32:17.119
Uh, it's just who they are, it's what they do.
00:32:17.119 --> 00:32:18.880
Yes, yes, sir.
00:32:18.880 --> 00:32:22.720
And so that story helped me.
00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:26.240
By that time, I had not yet met vision.
00:32:26.240 --> 00:32:39.440
And later, vision was going to push my buttons in so many different directions because he thinks, he acts, he walks, he breathes differently.
00:32:39.440 --> 00:32:41.200
Because he's Taiwanese.
00:32:41.200 --> 00:32:42.640
Because he's Taiwanese.
00:32:42.640 --> 00:32:55.599
And that story was going to catapult me into an understanding that would help uh with that relationship.
00:32:55.599 --> 00:33:07.599
Because I truly believe that if it wasn't for that story, then me and Vision's relationship would not have lasted as long as it did because we're gonna, we would butt heads terribly.
00:33:07.599 --> 00:33:11.759
Uh there would be things that I did that he didn't understand.
00:33:11.759 --> 00:33:14.960
And he doesn't, he doesn't have an understanding like that.
00:33:14.960 --> 00:33:19.839
He doesn't understand in the sense of I understand that there's cultural differences.
00:33:19.839 --> 00:33:26.559
And so there'd be things that I did that he's he would just get mad at and walk out sometimes, and I don't even know what happened.
00:33:26.559 --> 00:33:37.680
And so it it took an extra amount of grace that I wouldn't have had because I didn't understand the situation before, but now I do.
00:33:37.680 --> 00:33:38.079
Right.
00:33:38.079 --> 00:33:39.279
Here I am.
00:33:39.279 --> 00:33:44.319
I need to learn to be patient with him because I I've been through that.
00:33:44.319 --> 00:33:50.319
I understand a little bit more, just a little bit more than he understands now of cultural differences.
00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:52.799
And so God, God did use that.
00:33:52.799 --> 00:34:02.799
And and I mean we serve an amazing God who can take anything that we think is terrible and turn it into a blessing or a an extremely good thing.
00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:08.960
Uh so there, I mean, there'd be times, honestly, that me and Vision would just butt heads and rival and fight.
00:34:08.960 --> 00:34:12.000
And then the Lord had to remind me of the situation.
00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:17.599
You guys aren't fighting for anything other than cultural differences.
00:34:17.599 --> 00:34:20.800
Neither of you are right, neither of you are wrong.
00:34:20.800 --> 00:34:25.119
So get over it, humble yourself and follow me.
00:34:25.119 --> 00:34:28.960
And I mean, it was a lot of humbling of myself.
00:34:29.280 --> 00:34:35.280
That's I was gonna say, but there's a there's a lot of humility having to be learned in this process as well.
00:34:35.280 --> 00:34:37.119
Yes, sir, tons of it.
00:34:37.119 --> 00:34:41.679
When you say that, it makes me think about the responsibility again.
00:34:41.679 --> 00:34:50.079
Um, I would assume that in a situation like this, you're gonna have to go back again and again and again to why are we in Taiwan, right?
00:34:50.079 --> 00:34:53.119
It's not about me being comfortable.
00:34:53.119 --> 00:34:55.920
I'm not saying comfort's wrong, it's not sinful.
00:34:55.920 --> 00:34:59.519
Um, but ultimately it isn't about that.
00:34:59.519 --> 00:35:01.280
It's obviously the gospel.
00:35:01.280 --> 00:35:21.039
Absolutely and and this um relationship with the vision that God has used really to prepare, I think it it appears, at least from what I can tell, that kind of the next step in your ministry there as you continue to disciple him, Lord willing to take over and run on his own.
00:35:21.280 --> 00:35:21.760
Yes, sir.
00:35:21.920 --> 00:35:28.159
Um, in the in the in order that you guys can can replicate what you're doing now elsewhere.
00:35:28.159 --> 00:35:34.480
Um, you told me that vision came into your life as your um language instructor, correct?
00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:35.280
Yes, sir.
00:35:35.280 --> 00:35:39.519
Okay, where was vision spiritually when you first met him?
00:35:40.159 --> 00:35:46.480
So when uh when I was going through language school, I went through eight language school teachers.
00:35:46.480 --> 00:35:51.840
And it was not because uh they just, you know, you get one, you get another.
00:35:51.840 --> 00:35:56.159
It was because all of them quit on me saying, you'll never learn this language.
00:35:56.159 --> 00:35:58.000
And so I'd rather go do anything else.
00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:01.440
I mean, it was that was a blessing too.
00:36:01.840 --> 00:36:02.559
Encouraging.
00:36:02.880 --> 00:36:03.760
Oh my goodness.
00:36:03.760 --> 00:36:09.360
My first language school teacher was one of the young men that my uncle was training as a pastor.
00:36:09.360 --> 00:36:12.639
So he had not yet surrendered into full-time pastorate yet.
00:36:12.639 --> 00:36:14.559
He was just working at the church.
00:36:14.559 --> 00:36:16.000
His name's Josh.
00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:17.760
Uh, I love Josh to death.
00:36:17.760 --> 00:36:24.880
So he was my first language school teacher, and he was with me for maybe five, possibly six months.
00:36:24.880 --> 00:36:34.559
Finally, Josh comes to me one day during language school and he says, I've never done anything this hard in my entire life.
00:36:34.559 --> 00:36:40.719
And he says, So if word for word, he says, if I'm gonna suffer like this, I might as well do it for Jesus.
00:36:40.719 --> 00:36:42.719
I'm gonna become a full-time pastor.
00:36:42.719 --> 00:36:43.760
Wow.
00:36:43.760 --> 00:36:51.119
He told me he's done and he's gonna start, he's gonna start uh he's gonna start training for being a full-time pastor.
00:36:51.119 --> 00:36:56.719
Uh so a blessing in disguise, I guess you could say.
00:36:56.719 --> 00:37:01.039
Uh, and so I needed to start learning to find a different language school teacher.
00:37:01.039 --> 00:37:03.519
Well, my uncle tried to help me find a couple more.
00:37:03.519 --> 00:37:04.880
None of them lasted.
00:37:04.880 --> 00:37:08.239
Finally, I found my own, and this is the guy before vision.
00:37:08.239 --> 00:37:10.639
He, his name's Levi.
00:37:10.639 --> 00:37:11.760
English name is Levi.
00:37:11.760 --> 00:37:19.039
Levi was with me for about uh seven, eight months, and I enjoyed my relationship with him.
00:37:19.039 --> 00:37:26.320
He he was a good teacher, but in Taiwan, the men are required to go to military school.
00:37:26.320 --> 00:37:27.599
They have to go to military.
00:37:27.599 --> 00:37:29.360
And so he was called up.
00:37:29.360 --> 00:37:29.840
He had to go.
00:37:29.840 --> 00:37:32.239
So I said, Can you help me find a language school teacher?
00:37:32.239 --> 00:37:37.599
He had a friend that would just move to the city we were in in Gal Shil, and that was Vision.
00:37:37.599 --> 00:37:44.960
And so Levi told me, Well, this guy, by that time, I'd been reading the Bible with Leo with Levi too.
00:37:44.960 --> 00:37:51.920
Uh, we had discussed Christianity, uh, Jesus, the cross every day.
00:37:51.920 --> 00:38:00.320
He had still not become a Christian, but he would probably he probably knew more about the Bible than so-called Christians in Taiwan.
00:38:00.320 --> 00:38:04.719
And so he said, Levi, word for word, he told me, this guy thinks he's a Christian.
00:38:04.719 --> 00:38:08.159
He's not a Christian, based on what we had read from the Bible.
00:38:08.159 --> 00:38:08.880
Okay.
00:38:08.880 --> 00:38:12.159
So he said, I'll call and see if he'll he'll be your language school teacher.
00:38:12.159 --> 00:38:13.519
So he calls Vision.
00:38:13.519 --> 00:38:16.000
And I'm listening to it over the phone.
00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:20.159
Uh, by this time, my language is decent enough to understand what he's saying.
00:38:20.159 --> 00:38:23.599
And so Levi says, Hey, I've got this foreigner here.
00:38:23.599 --> 00:38:25.440
He needs a language school teacher.
00:38:25.440 --> 00:38:27.199
And would you be willing to teach him?
00:38:27.199 --> 00:38:29.280
And Vision said, Yeah, I need a job right now.
00:38:29.280 --> 00:38:30.239
That'd be that'd be great.
00:38:30.239 --> 00:38:36.559
Levi said, Well, I need to warn you, this guy is gonna try to make you become a Christian.
00:38:36.559 --> 00:38:38.719
All he does is talk about Jesus.
00:38:38.719 --> 00:38:41.920
And Vision over the phone, I heard, well, that's okay, yeah, that's great.
00:38:41.920 --> 00:38:43.679
I'm already a Christian, so that's that's fine.
00:38:43.679 --> 00:38:44.559
It doesn't bother me.
00:38:44.559 --> 00:38:49.360
And Levi said, You're not a Christian compared to what this guy in his Bible says.
00:38:49.360 --> 00:38:53.119
He's going to try to tell you about Jesus, and you're not gonna like it.
00:38:53.119 --> 00:38:54.559
And he's like, Yeah, fine.
00:38:54.559 --> 00:38:55.360
I'm already a Christian.
00:38:55.360 --> 00:38:56.239
That's great, fine.
00:38:56.239 --> 00:39:02.960
So the next day, vision comes, and we get to meet each other, and he agrees to be my language school teacher.
00:39:02.960 --> 00:39:09.440
So we start meeting every day for language, and uh, I get to know vision a little bit.
00:39:09.440 --> 00:39:12.320
Well, he tells me he's a Christian, that he he's been to church.
00:39:12.320 --> 00:39:14.000
His father was Catholic.
00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:17.599
He went to a he went to a church since he was a kid.
00:39:17.599 --> 00:39:19.760
Um, he knew who Jesus was.
00:39:19.760 --> 00:39:22.400
He knew that Jesus died on the cross for his sins.
00:39:22.400 --> 00:39:24.559
He uh he knew all that stuff.
00:39:24.559 --> 00:39:25.440
Okay.
00:39:25.440 --> 00:39:28.559
Well, it was Wednesday night.
00:39:28.559 --> 00:39:30.800
And I said, Well, don't you come to church with me tonight?
00:39:30.800 --> 00:39:33.039
And he said, No, you know, I'm I'm really tired.
00:39:33.039 --> 00:39:35.840
I I gotta, I'm gonna go play Minecraft.
00:39:35.840 --> 00:39:45.440
Uh I asked him, What do you think Jesus would think about one of his followers not wanting to be with him and reading the Bible, studying and just playing video games?
00:39:45.440 --> 00:39:48.000
He's like, Well, Jesus is fine with that.
00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:49.599
Like, okay, I didn't push it.
00:39:49.599 --> 00:39:51.280
I didn't say, oh, okay.
00:39:51.280 --> 00:39:55.360
For months we would do this and I would invite him to church and he would tell me no.
00:39:55.360 --> 00:39:57.039
One day I said, So you know what?
00:39:57.039 --> 00:39:58.480
What's your favorite Bible verse?
00:39:58.480 --> 00:40:00.639
He said, Well, I don't have a favorite Bible verse.
00:40:00.639 --> 00:40:01.840
I said, Really?
00:40:01.840 --> 00:40:06.559
A Christian that doesn't because he told me after that, he's he said, I don't really read the Bible.
00:40:06.559 --> 00:40:07.760
And I said, Really?
00:40:07.760 --> 00:40:13.599
You know, that's odd because the Bible tells us that Christians have a hunger for God's word.
00:40:13.599 --> 00:40:18.400
And if you don't have a favorite Bible verse, if you don't even read the Bible, there might be something wrong.
00:40:18.400 --> 00:40:29.119
And he'll tell you in his testimony now that there was I mean, I've already I've been trying, I'm thinking strategically, I'm a failure at it, but how to reach him with the gospel.
00:40:29.119 --> 00:40:34.000
Little did I realize that the Lord would use that simple question to start getting him to think.
00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:37.199
Well, we would continue with Bible or with language school.
00:40:37.199 --> 00:40:42.000
By that time, like I said, we we do language school forward hours a day every day.
00:40:42.000 --> 00:40:44.159
The last hour was simply reading the Bible.
00:40:44.159 --> 00:40:45.199
I couldn't do anything else.
00:40:45.199 --> 00:40:48.400
All I did was read the, I wanted them to read the Bible.
00:40:48.400 --> 00:40:50.320
I wanted to learn how to read the Bible.
00:40:50.320 --> 00:40:50.800
Sure.
00:40:50.800 --> 00:40:56.559
And so I let the Bible start teaching, and I was just gonna stop trying to do it myself.
00:40:56.559 --> 00:41:01.199
So we would read a passage and I could learn, I learned the phrase, what does this mean?
00:41:01.199 --> 00:41:01.920
What does this mean?
00:41:01.920 --> 00:41:02.639
What does this mean?
00:41:02.639 --> 00:41:04.239
And he would try to explain it to me.
00:41:04.239 --> 00:41:06.960
I have no idea if he was explaining it right or wrong.
00:41:06.960 --> 00:41:07.920
I didn't care.
00:41:07.920 --> 00:41:12.480
The point was I was gonna let God's word start breaking his heart and start convicting him.
00:41:12.480 --> 00:41:20.320
Four months from the time that we begin language school teacher together, vision turned to me one day and he said, I'm not saved.
00:41:20.320 --> 00:41:22.159
And I said, Really?
00:41:22.159 --> 00:41:24.320
Well, what do you think you should do about that?
00:41:24.320 --> 00:41:27.360
And he said, I think I need to get saved.
00:41:27.360 --> 00:41:28.239
What should I do?
00:41:28.239 --> 00:41:31.039
I said, Well, you've read the Bible with me long enough.
00:41:31.039 --> 00:41:32.239
What do you think you should do?
00:41:32.239 --> 00:41:34.960
And he said, I'm going home.
00:41:34.960 --> 00:41:37.119
He just left.
00:41:37.119 --> 00:41:38.079
He went home.
00:41:38.079 --> 00:41:40.639
I said, Okay, well, maybe I did it wrong.
00:41:40.639 --> 00:41:41.039
Maybe I didn't know.
00:41:41.039 --> 00:41:42.079
That would have expected, right?
00:41:42.079 --> 00:41:44.400
Yeah, maybe I should have led him in a prayer, maybe I should have done something.
00:41:44.400 --> 00:41:50.400
Well, anyway, the the next day he comes to class and he said, I got saved.
00:41:50.400 --> 00:41:53.679
I asked God to forgive me of my sins and I want to follow him.
00:41:53.679 --> 00:41:55.199
What do I do next?
00:41:55.199 --> 00:41:57.920
And I said, Well, that's that's great, vision.
00:41:57.920 --> 00:42:00.000
Uh, it's time that you need to get baptized.
00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.079
And so the a couple weeks later, I baptized him in the ocean.
00:42:04.079 --> 00:42:13.599
Um, and it wasn't long after that, maybe a month or two, uh, we had, I was getting ready to finish language school.
00:42:13.599 --> 00:42:21.679
And we were already talking about possibly going to this the city he grew up in, which is Taijong, which is where we are now.
00:42:21.679 --> 00:42:22.159
Okay.
00:42:22.159 --> 00:42:24.239
And I told him, I'd like to go here.
00:42:24.239 --> 00:42:26.400
Can you take me since you already know the area?
00:42:26.639 --> 00:42:28.239
So he wasn't living in his hometown.
00:42:28.480 --> 00:42:34.400
No, he was living in Gaussian, where we were at is about a about a three-hour drive south, or one about an hour train right.
00:42:34.400 --> 00:42:35.760
Yeah.
00:42:35.760 --> 00:42:39.519
So we both went up together and we met his mom.
00:42:39.519 --> 00:42:44.000
She's driving us around, and we're in the back of the car, and I'm listening to him.
00:42:44.000 --> 00:42:55.119
By this time, I can, I'm still picking out every other word, but I'm listening to them both speaking Chinese and his mom saying, You better watch out for these Christian people and all this.
00:42:55.119 --> 00:42:58.079
And Vision told her, I'm gonna be a pastor.
00:42:58.079 --> 00:42:59.119
I want to be a pastor.
00:42:59.119 --> 00:43:00.639
And I'm like, This is the first time I've ever heard it.
00:43:00.639 --> 00:43:01.199
I'm like, What?
00:43:01.199 --> 00:43:02.320
You're gonna do what?
00:43:02.320 --> 00:43:05.760
Uh he said, Yeah, I want to be, I want to be talking to his mom.
00:43:05.760 --> 00:43:09.440
I want to be a pastor, I want to preach the gospel, I want to tell people here about Jesus.
00:43:09.440 --> 00:43:12.400
And so little did I realize God was working him on that.
00:43:12.400 --> 00:43:24.480
So it was at that time that when we were driving, when we were taking a train back, he said, Will you train me to become a pastor to teach my people about what Jesus wants them to know?
00:43:24.800 --> 00:43:25.920
That's awesome.
00:43:25.920 --> 00:43:35.599
Um, so you're back in the States right now, so now you're kind of watching, right, from thousands of miles away uh what's taking place.
00:43:35.599 --> 00:43:41.760
Um, what is it like to see what God is doing uh without you there right now?
00:43:42.800 --> 00:43:44.239
It's a humbling thing.
00:43:44.239 --> 00:43:54.320
If you read the book of Philippians, I've been going over uh since then, the Lord has brought more people than just vision into our life, and I'm excited about it.
00:43:54.320 --> 00:44:08.880
Uh, if anybody listening to this podcast would like to see the the people that I've Been talking about see their faces, then you can look at our look go to our Facebook page and uh or find me on Facebook, and you can I I share pictures of them all the time.
00:44:08.960 --> 00:44:11.039
They're doing sure, they're doing a great job.
00:44:11.039 --> 00:44:13.599
Uh and we can link to that by the way in the show notes.
00:44:13.599 --> 00:44:14.159
Okay.
00:44:14.480 --> 00:44:17.440
Uh so we have a it's just it's a small little church.
00:44:17.440 --> 00:44:24.320
Uh we've got six members that are Taiwanese, and they have become family.
00:44:24.320 --> 00:44:42.079
And when when I when I'm mentioned is when Paul is talking, so if you've ever if you've anybody has ever read the book of Philippians, Paul is in prison, he's been beaten, he's been, mercy, he's he's handcuffed to prison guards all day long.
00:44:42.079 --> 00:44:46.000
And yet somehow this weirdo is still talking about joy.
00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:49.280
Joy and in what this church is doing.
00:44:49.280 --> 00:44:50.880
That's I understand that.
00:44:50.880 --> 00:44:52.960
I understand that more so now.
00:44:52.960 --> 00:44:56.960
I I thought I understood it before, but this is what I mean.
00:44:56.960 --> 00:45:03.599
When God calls you to be a missionary, you at the beginning we think, oh, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna sacrifice for God.
00:45:03.599 --> 00:45:05.840
We ain't sacrificing nothing.
00:45:05.840 --> 00:45:09.760
Uh God is allowing us to understand Him more.
00:45:09.760 --> 00:45:14.800
It's not it's not a sacrifice, it's it's a blessing, it's treasure, it's amazing.
00:45:14.800 --> 00:45:16.480
And that's that's what it's become.
00:45:16.480 --> 00:45:17.599
It's not a sacrifice.
00:45:17.599 --> 00:45:23.440
It's I get to understand Jesus and understand the Bible in a whole new way.
00:45:23.440 --> 00:45:29.280
Um here, vision, he he's only been saved for four years.
00:45:29.280 --> 00:45:30.800
He's leading a church.
00:45:30.800 --> 00:45:33.280
Uh, he's not, we haven't laid hands on him yet.
00:45:33.280 --> 00:45:35.920
He's still he's still a baby Christian.
00:45:35.920 --> 00:45:44.719
But I when I say baby Christian, I mean he can, I'd put him up against most American, even pastors, to be honest.
00:45:44.719 --> 00:45:46.639
That boy knows his Bible.
00:45:46.639 --> 00:45:48.000
He loves God's word.
00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:49.039
He has studied.
00:45:49.039 --> 00:45:54.320
We have the part of that discipleship is he's with me for 12, 14 hours a day.
00:45:54.320 --> 00:45:55.840
We're pouring into God's word.
00:45:55.840 --> 00:46:01.519
We're uh he's not a novice in a sense of knowing God's word.
00:46:01.519 --> 00:46:05.760
And God has truly blessed in that way.
00:46:05.760 --> 00:46:10.880
I thought, like I mentioned, uh you mentioned how we're back in the States right now.
00:46:10.880 --> 00:46:12.079
We weren't supposed to be here.
00:46:12.079 --> 00:46:13.840
I didn't want to be here, to be honest.
00:46:13.840 --> 00:46:18.719
This is this is completely God doing things that's completely out of my control.
00:46:18.719 --> 00:46:22.639
I couldn't go back right now if I wanted to for health reasons.
00:46:22.639 --> 00:46:25.519
So I didn't expect to tell Vision goodbye yet.
00:46:25.519 --> 00:46:26.719
We it was planned.
00:46:26.719 --> 00:46:30.960
I mean, our original furlough was supposed to start next year anyway.
00:46:30.960 --> 00:46:36.079
So, in our back of my mind, in the back of my mind, I would even tell Vision, Vision, I'm preparing you for this.
00:46:36.079 --> 00:46:40.239
I'm gonna be gone for a while, and I need you, you're you're gonna do it.
00:46:40.239 --> 00:46:42.559
But don't ever trust your own strength.
00:46:42.559 --> 00:46:45.360
Always let it the strength come from the Holy Spirit.
00:46:45.360 --> 00:46:47.199
So he knew it was coming.
00:46:47.199 --> 00:46:49.760
We just both didn't know it was coming this soon.
00:46:49.760 --> 00:46:57.119
And so when I finally left, and praise God, we have technology nowadays, I told Vision, don't worry about it.
00:46:57.119 --> 00:47:02.559
I'll be proud of you if you just keep the building there, don't burn it down.
00:47:02.559 --> 00:47:07.519
And if people are if there's even one person left when I get back, praise God.
00:47:07.519 --> 00:47:12.880
Well, silly me and my little faith, there's more people coming now than when I was there.
00:47:12.880 --> 00:47:15.599
Because the nationals do it better.
00:47:15.599 --> 00:47:18.639
And God has truly humbled me and not a bad way.
00:47:18.639 --> 00:47:20.159
I mean, I'm I'm tickled to death.
00:47:20.159 --> 00:47:20.559
No, yeah.
00:47:20.559 --> 00:47:25.360
It's what I've been trying to, we've been my wife and I have been trying to do is pour into them.
00:47:25.360 --> 00:47:27.440
And it let me mention that as well.
00:47:27.440 --> 00:47:29.440
If it wasn't for my wife, none of this would happen.
00:47:29.440 --> 00:47:31.039
I mean, goodness sakes, in the morning.
00:47:31.039 --> 00:47:34.559
My uh, my wife is the reason there's a ministry there.
00:47:34.559 --> 00:47:38.480
She's kept me my head above water, she's encouraged me when I've been down.
00:47:38.480 --> 00:47:45.519
My wife has been uh, she's truly the biggest blessing outside of my salvation that the Lord has ever given me.
00:47:45.519 --> 00:47:57.280
So my wife and I both have poured hours into vision, and the church there is doing a great job, and the Lord is teaching them, and they've got visitors all the time.
00:47:57.280 --> 00:47:59.440
I just needed to step out of the way.
00:47:59.440 --> 00:48:02.639
And the Lord reminding me that it was never me to begin with.
00:48:02.639 --> 00:48:13.039
It was, he did not need me to start a church, he allowed me to watch it happen, and it was the greatest blessing in the world.
00:48:13.039 --> 00:48:14.320
That's awesome.
00:48:14.559 --> 00:48:22.159
Do you think uh there's something missionaries need to learn, have to learn about eventually becoming less necessary?
00:48:23.360 --> 00:48:34.400
I think a big thing that the Lord has been teaching me through that whole time is I guess the greatest story in the Bible that helped me summarize it was John the Baptist.
00:48:34.400 --> 00:48:40.079
John the Baptist says, No man can have any ministry except the Lord give it to him.
00:48:40.079 --> 00:48:51.679
And when the Lord decides to take it back because it was never ours to begin with, our proper and our right way of seeing that should be, he must increase, I must decrease.
00:48:51.679 --> 00:48:58.880
Um that is the proper, the correct response when God says, Let me show you who's really in charge anyway.
00:48:58.880 --> 00:49:13.280
And but that's not a bad thing because if you read that verse, he must increase, I must decrease, for the longest time, and I still dare to say most people, when they read that, think of that phrase, that story as a sad thing.
00:49:13.280 --> 00:49:16.639
I'm humbling myself, I'm sad, it's not as great anymore.
00:49:16.639 --> 00:49:18.320
It's that's going downhill.
00:49:18.320 --> 00:49:25.199
But if you read the verse right before that, John says, I am my joy is fulfilled.
00:49:25.199 --> 00:49:27.760
I am overflown with joy.
00:49:27.760 --> 00:49:40.079
When Jesus increases and we decrease, to a Christian, a true born-again believer whose eyes are fixated on Jesus, there's nothing more joyful than that.
00:49:40.079 --> 00:49:44.639
He fulfills our joy when that happens, when we decrease and he increases.
00:49:44.639 --> 00:49:47.599
Never once should we ever try to do it in our own strength.
00:49:47.599 --> 00:50:00.800
So one of the greatest passages that I still absolutely love to preach, teach, because it was the closest to my heart during that time, is Luke chapter 11, when the disciples ask Jesus, teach us to pray.
00:50:00.800 --> 00:50:08.079
It's a famous passage, most people would know it, but Luke ends his passage a little differently than Matthew.
00:50:08.079 --> 00:50:17.039
So in Matthew Gospel, when Jesus is teaching them, uh, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
00:50:17.039 --> 00:50:18.320
He's going through all these things.
00:50:18.320 --> 00:50:21.599
And then Luke, he he goes even more into it.
00:50:21.599 --> 00:50:30.880
And at the end of it all, the end of this prayer, Jesus says, So he says, You being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children.
00:50:30.880 --> 00:50:37.280
How much more will the Lord give the Holy Spirit to them that ask?
00:50:37.280 --> 00:50:46.320
In prayer, the biggest thing that God wants us to ask for is the strength of the Holy Spirit to do anything, to breathe.
00:50:46.320 --> 00:50:52.480
I can't do a blessed thing without the Holy Spirit's strength to do it in me.
00:50:52.480 --> 00:50:56.800
I am the weakest, most terrified person you have ever met.
00:50:56.800 --> 00:50:58.239
I'm a coward at heart.
00:50:58.239 --> 00:51:04.239
I'm I'd rather be hiding in my house with locked doors, no Taiwanese people inside.
00:51:04.239 --> 00:51:06.239
I I can't do the easiest.
00:51:06.239 --> 00:51:07.519
I mean, I can't speak.
00:51:07.519 --> 00:51:09.280
I can't even speak.
00:51:09.280 --> 00:51:13.840
But the Holy Spirit gives me the strength to do everything.
00:51:13.840 --> 00:51:14.960
And praise God.
00:51:14.960 --> 00:51:22.480
It is because of that, is because of that passage that the Lord has taught me that uh it's not me that does it.
00:51:22.480 --> 00:51:23.679
It's always been him.
00:51:23.679 --> 00:51:32.719
And so coming here, letting go, watching, trusting that God does the same thing with vision and the church there.
00:51:32.719 --> 00:51:34.800
It's just been a blessing.
00:51:35.280 --> 00:51:40.320
We often think of missionaries as being people who go overseas to teach others, right?
00:51:40.320 --> 00:51:43.119
But what have the Taiwanese believers taught you?
00:51:43.119 --> 00:51:44.559
Oh, mercy.
00:51:45.679 --> 00:51:47.920
Um community.
00:51:48.639 --> 00:52:02.639
So the I've learned a lot more about my Bible simply because the Bible was written originally to an Eastern context people group, not a Western individualistic people group.
00:52:02.639 --> 00:52:10.159
I've learned so much by the Taiwanese people of what the Bible truly means by family relationship.
00:52:10.159 --> 00:52:14.239
And when I mean by family, I mean the biggest thing is the church.
00:52:14.239 --> 00:52:21.920
So here in America, still to this day, no matter how much people will say, oh yes, the church is a family, we don't, we don't understand that.
00:52:21.920 --> 00:52:22.719
We don't.
00:52:22.719 --> 00:52:26.159
We get together on Sundays, maybe Wednesdays.
00:52:26.159 --> 00:52:32.239
Very rarely will we invite people from our church to our home uh to do life with us.
00:52:32.239 --> 00:52:33.840
We we just don't do life with each other.
00:52:33.840 --> 00:52:35.360
We don't do discipleship.
00:52:35.360 --> 00:52:41.760
Uh, but the Bible is screaming that in an Eastern context that the church is a family.
00:52:41.760 --> 00:52:45.599
And when it means family, it is so vision.
00:52:45.599 --> 00:52:52.480
When he got saved and he began training for the ministry, his mom looked at him and said, You're no longer my son.
00:52:52.480 --> 00:53:01.119
You you have you've given up our Taiwanese ways, you're you're becoming a white American, so you're no longer my son.
00:53:01.119 --> 00:53:09.920
The church became his family, his mom, his dad, his brothers, his sisters.
00:53:09.920 --> 00:53:17.679
Uh, there's another young man in our church, Leo, and he has a family that says that they're Christians.
00:53:17.679 --> 00:53:20.400
Same context of which vision came from.
00:53:20.400 --> 00:53:25.440
But his family says, You're getting too wrapped up in this Christian thing, this Jesus thing.
00:53:25.440 --> 00:53:26.800
You're you're at church way too much.
00:53:26.800 --> 00:53:28.639
You need to work, you need to earn money.
00:53:28.639 --> 00:53:32.559
So his family has taught kind of written him off.
00:53:32.559 --> 00:53:35.280
The church became his family.
00:53:35.280 --> 00:53:41.599
Uh, another lady in our church, Tracy, her family wants nothing to do with her.
00:53:41.599 --> 00:53:43.119
Her kids are hardly around her.
00:53:43.119 --> 00:53:46.000
They're grown up now, but they still want nothing to do with her.
00:53:46.000 --> 00:53:48.079
Her church is her family.
00:53:48.079 --> 00:54:02.480
What Taiwanese people have taught me is that in America, there's we we don't know one thing about truly suffering for Jesus, like most biblical contexts where they're losing family members.
00:54:02.480 --> 00:54:04.960
And that's what the church was supposed to be.
00:54:04.960 --> 00:54:15.840
Uh you are you are becoming the father, the mother, the brother, the sister, the aunt, the uncle, that they're losing because of their because they're following Jesus.
00:54:15.840 --> 00:54:18.800
Um it's a very big community thing.
00:54:18.800 --> 00:54:21.519
And we just we don't understand that in the Western world.
00:54:21.519 --> 00:54:25.280
We don't understand community like like an Eastern world does.
00:54:25.280 --> 00:54:30.159
So that's one big thing I've learned from being in Taiwan, from watching them.
00:54:30.159 --> 00:54:36.320
Another thing, I'll just point out one passage that comes to mind that blew me away when I finally understood it.
00:54:36.320 --> 00:54:37.760
So the prodigal son.
00:54:37.760 --> 00:54:42.639
This is the best way I can explain the difference between Western and Eastern context.
00:54:42.639 --> 00:54:50.400
When I started teaching, because I'm the master, you know, I'm I I know God's word, I'm the man of God that has showed up in Taiwan.
00:54:50.400 --> 00:54:52.639
And so I start teaching the prodigal son.
00:54:52.639 --> 00:54:59.599
Well, my Western eyes focus on one character, the prodigal son.
00:54:59.599 --> 00:55:05.519
That's that's the when everybody here when you when you preach it, that's just who you focus on.
00:55:05.519 --> 00:55:13.760
So finally, this West, this this prodigal son, his eyes are open one day, and like, man, this is what am I doing?
00:55:13.760 --> 00:55:18.400
My my father's home has this, that, and the other, and I'm over here eating pigs flop.
00:55:18.400 --> 00:55:21.039
So he humbles himself, goes back to the home.
00:55:21.039 --> 00:55:24.320
Do you realize Eastern eyes don't even pay attention to him?
00:55:24.320 --> 00:55:27.360
That's just a little blurt in that story.
00:55:27.360 --> 00:55:33.039
Uh, the main character has always been, always will be, the father.
00:55:33.039 --> 00:55:35.440
The father in an eastern context.
00:55:35.440 --> 00:55:38.000
So that is a shame, honor, shame culture.
00:55:38.000 --> 00:55:40.400
We don't understand honor shame culture in America.
00:55:40.400 --> 00:55:57.599
Uh, what that boy did shamed his father so much that when the Taiwanese people read that story, and the boy comes back and the father embraces him, everybody's focus is on the dad.
00:55:57.599 --> 00:55:59.679
What are you doing?
00:55:59.679 --> 00:56:05.039
What kind of a father would allow such a terrible person to come back?
00:56:05.039 --> 00:56:09.280
Our Western eyes are the way that we view things, of course, he's a good dad.
00:56:09.280 --> 00:56:11.679
He's gonna accept him, but that's not an Eastern culture.
00:56:11.679 --> 00:56:14.639
That's not who these people this story was originally intended for.
00:56:14.639 --> 00:56:15.360
Sure.
00:56:15.360 --> 00:56:19.199
These this dad has just been slapped spit in the face.
00:56:19.199 --> 00:56:22.960
And in original story, that's not how that story would go.
00:56:22.960 --> 00:56:24.719
That father would be like, What are you doing?
00:56:24.719 --> 00:56:25.679
You get out here.
00:56:25.679 --> 00:56:30.960
If anything, uh, it would have been a blessing for him to take him back as a servant.
00:56:30.960 --> 00:56:32.880
And that's what he's trying to go back for.
00:56:32.880 --> 00:56:33.360
Right.
00:56:33.360 --> 00:56:42.079
But the father, not he he runs, which is not a thing that they did, and he embraces them and he he won't even let them get his feel out.
00:56:42.079 --> 00:56:45.599
He he says, put clothes on them, and my son has come home.
00:56:45.599 --> 00:56:47.280
That's where their eyes focus on.
00:56:47.280 --> 00:56:54.239
And that's it, that's the difference between Eastern honor shame culture eyes and and our western eyes.
00:56:54.239 --> 00:57:03.440
That's just a big difference that helped me understand that even the way we read the Bible is sometimes different and as to how it was originally intended.
00:57:03.760 --> 00:57:16.719
Yeah, our cultural context really does um affect so much, even without, even when we think we're not I'm I'm not gonna let this be an issue, or I'm not gonna, it's just it's part of who we are.
00:57:16.880 --> 00:57:17.199
Yep.
00:57:17.440 --> 00:57:31.199
And uh yeah, what a what a beautiful picture um to see a father that's willing to bear the shame of of his son's bad choices so that he can have a relationship with him.
00:57:31.199 --> 00:57:44.480
If there isn't anything more beautiful than the picture of the gospel right there, you know, it's uh it's always a remarkable thing when I think about all that Jesus gave up and and what he got in return, you know.
00:57:44.480 --> 00:57:49.920
It's like it was it was a terrible exchange for him.
00:57:49.920 --> 00:58:00.880
But man, we are we are blessed beyond measure, yeah, that he would take our robes of filth and sin and give us his robes of righteousness.
00:58:00.880 --> 00:58:03.840
Um, Adam, we're kind of wrapping this up.
00:58:03.840 --> 00:58:11.519
After six years of missionary life there in Taiwan, is there something that you wish churches in America understood better about missions?
00:58:12.239 --> 00:58:16.400
I I think I harped on it a little bit and I'll mention it again.
00:58:16.400 --> 00:58:19.920
Yes, being a missionary sometimes is hard.
00:58:19.920 --> 00:58:20.960
It's difficult.
00:58:20.960 --> 00:58:29.360
Uh I would not go back to the deputation times unless the Lord drugged me there.
00:58:29.360 --> 00:58:33.599
It wasn't fun in a sense of because it's it's awkward for everybody.
00:58:33.599 --> 00:58:36.000
It's awkward for the pastor, it's awkward for the missionary.
00:58:36.000 --> 00:58:36.960
I understand that.
00:58:36.960 --> 00:58:39.840
Here you are feeling like you're begging for money.
00:58:39.840 --> 00:58:45.119
And here the pastor has heard he's had that call already five times that day.
00:58:45.119 --> 00:58:49.280
And the pastor doesn't necessarily want to say no, but he he can't say yes.
00:58:49.280 --> 00:58:52.400
And the and the missionary, it's just an awkward feeling.
00:58:52.400 --> 00:58:54.480
So you got awkward times.
00:58:54.480 --> 00:58:57.519
But then when you get to the field, it just increases.
00:58:57.519 --> 00:58:59.119
The difficulties increase.
00:58:59.119 --> 00:59:04.079
I mean, that going back to deputation in the sense of that would be a piece of cake.
00:59:04.079 --> 00:59:07.199
Deputation was nothing compared to what you're doing in the field.
00:59:07.199 --> 00:59:16.960
But I can't emphasize enough that it is not a sacrifice to follow Jesus.
00:59:16.960 --> 00:59:32.239
If you would be so blessed as the Lord saying, Come with me to this country, when the rich young ruler leaves Jesus because Jesus says, Sell all of your goods, give it to the poor, and come and follow me.
00:59:32.239 --> 00:59:37.920
The rich man leaves because he had many riches and he was sad.
00:59:37.920 --> 00:59:43.519
The writer Luke tells us what um big mouth Peter has to say.
00:59:43.519 --> 00:59:51.519
Peter, I just love Peter because Peter gives me a lot of hope that I might be something for Jesus one day.
00:59:51.679 --> 00:59:53.840
Uh you're not a lost cause.
00:59:54.079 --> 00:59:54.480
Yeah, good.
00:59:54.480 --> 00:59:56.960
Praise the Lord for Peter to help encourage us.
00:59:56.960 --> 00:59:58.960
Uh Peter wants to open his mouth.
00:59:58.960 --> 01:00:01.039
Like, Jesus, we've left everything for you.
01:00:01.039 --> 01:00:03.920
I mean, he's he's just trying to like, look at look at me, Peter.
01:00:03.920 --> 01:00:05.039
Look at me, Jesus.
01:00:05.039 --> 01:00:06.639
I did something for you.
01:00:06.639 --> 01:00:20.480
And then Jesus says, when I first read it, he says, There is no man that hath not left father, mother, wife, children, everything that will not receive manifold more in this life and in the life to come.
01:00:20.480 --> 01:00:25.519
And when I first thought, when I first read that, I think, oh, wow, Jesus just being, he's encouraging.
01:00:25.519 --> 01:00:26.480
Like, good job, Peter.
01:00:26.480 --> 01:00:27.280
You did a good job.
01:00:27.280 --> 01:00:29.360
You know what, you know what Jesus is actually saying?
01:00:29.360 --> 01:00:31.280
Peter, you ain't done nothing.
01:00:31.280 --> 01:00:33.119
You ain't gave nothing.
01:00:33.119 --> 01:00:42.880
Because there's nothing that you won't give me that I'm not going to blast it out of the water with how much I give you back in this world and the world to come.
01:00:42.880 --> 01:00:44.480
It's not a comparison.
01:00:44.480 --> 01:00:49.440
It's nothing, it's not a tap ourselves on the shoulder saying, we did a good job.
01:00:49.440 --> 01:00:51.119
I'm giving Jesus this.
01:00:51.119 --> 01:00:56.159
I'm giving him nothing compared to what he is going to give me.
01:00:56.159 --> 01:01:08.559
And if I could encourage anybody thinking about missions, pastors listening to this, potential missionaries listening to this, it's that, yes, you're going to go through a hard time.
01:01:08.559 --> 01:01:12.400
But all of those hard times are just to teach you who Jesus is more.
01:01:12.400 --> 01:01:13.920
So embrace it.
01:01:13.920 --> 01:01:20.239
Um and never look at it as, man, I'm giving up so much.
01:01:20.239 --> 01:01:27.440
Always look at it with the view of Jesus, the way Jesus looked at it is how much am I getting in return?
01:01:27.440 --> 01:01:29.679
I mean, it's not even a comparison.
01:01:30.159 --> 01:01:32.239
What a great reminder and challenge to us.
01:01:32.239 --> 01:01:36.719
You know, I you had mentioned just a brief moment ago, but I hope that there are people.
01:01:36.719 --> 01:01:52.559
My prayer is that there are people that will be listening to this who maybe are struggling with uh considering if God might have them to serve cross-culturally, but maybe fear keeps winning or there's something that's preventing them from going all in.
01:01:52.559 --> 01:01:55.519
Is there any advice that you would give that person?
01:01:55.519 --> 01:01:57.039
Absolutely.
01:01:57.679 --> 01:02:01.679
Find um begin now, start now.
01:02:01.679 --> 01:02:03.760
So the Lord's not gonna call you.
01:02:03.760 --> 01:02:16.960
Um, if you think, well, the Lord's calling me in the missions, but you're not doing anything where you're at now at your local church, that he's not calling you because he's not gonna call you to, he's not gonna tell you to take the ginormous step before you've taken the smaller step.
01:02:16.960 --> 01:02:17.679
Sure.
01:02:17.679 --> 01:02:24.079
If you think that the, and let me reword that, because the Lord might be burdening your heart to do it.
01:02:24.079 --> 01:02:28.159
The way you put that to the test is start where you're at.
01:02:28.159 --> 01:02:31.599
So go to your local pastor now.
01:02:31.599 --> 01:02:34.719
Say, Pastor, what do you need me to do around the church?
01:02:34.719 --> 01:02:36.159
What can I begin doing?
01:02:36.159 --> 01:02:41.360
How can I can't first and before anything else, ask your pastor, can you start discipling me?
01:02:41.360 --> 01:02:42.639
Can I be discipled?
01:02:42.639 --> 01:02:48.159
But in whatever way that pastor is willing to open him up himself up to you.
01:02:48.159 --> 01:02:54.960
Start getting poured into by your pastor, by your, by, by men of the church that know God's word.
01:02:54.960 --> 01:02:57.599
Umak up every second you possibly can.
01:02:57.599 --> 01:03:00.079
Make yourself available to them.
01:03:00.079 --> 01:03:05.599
If they only have a certain amount of time and you you work your schedule around for them.
01:03:05.599 --> 01:03:10.719
You, you, you jump in where you can, uh, that's convenient for them.
01:03:10.719 --> 01:03:18.079
Uh the next thing I would say is once you're you're being poured into yourself, begin pouring into others.
01:03:18.079 --> 01:03:19.519
Uh, start a Bible study.
01:03:19.519 --> 01:03:21.039
Goodness, start a Bible study.
01:03:21.039 --> 01:03:29.199
There are there are millions of people around us that are not willing to step foot into a church, but they would be willing to sit down for coffee and read a Bible.
01:03:29.199 --> 01:03:30.639
They have questions.
01:03:30.639 --> 01:03:43.280
That's gonna push you to your to your limits as well, because you're gonna find out people have questions, you don't have answers, which is why I said first, have a discipleship with your pastor, because oh, Pastor, uh, I was I made a fool of myself.
01:03:43.280 --> 01:03:45.440
I didn't know this answer to this question.
01:03:45.440 --> 01:03:51.360
First, Pastor, how when I get asked a question that I don't know how to answer, how should I answer that?
01:03:51.360 --> 01:03:54.239
Then how do I answer this question that they just asked me?
01:03:54.239 --> 01:03:58.159
So you've got a lot to talk about when you're doing stuff, when you're serving.
01:03:58.159 --> 01:04:00.800
You don't have a lot to talk about when you're not doing anything.
01:04:00.800 --> 01:04:02.800
You're just there taking a book knowledge.
01:04:03.360 --> 01:04:03.679
Yeah.
01:04:04.480 --> 01:04:06.320
So get involved.
01:04:06.320 --> 01:04:07.440
Start serving.
01:04:07.440 --> 01:04:10.639
Uh, be your right-hand man to your pastor.
01:04:10.639 --> 01:04:18.639
And as the Lord begins to give you more opportunities, he will make it abundantly clear if he's calling you into missions.
01:04:18.639 --> 01:04:27.360
Believe it or not, even the Bible tells us this that if you're called into missions, most of the time, other people in the church know it before you do.
01:04:27.360 --> 01:04:31.760
The pastor will know it before you do, other people in the church will know it before you do.
01:04:31.760 --> 01:04:38.079
Uh, the first time Paul and Barnabas are called into ministry, uh, this is a miraculous thing that took place.
01:04:38.079 --> 01:04:40.320
But the Bible says that he spoke to the church.
01:04:40.320 --> 01:04:44.320
He didn't speak to Paul and Barnabas, he spoke to the church, and the church sent him out.
01:04:44.320 --> 01:04:46.400
So it's the same way.
01:04:46.400 --> 01:04:50.239
Uh, your church will know before you do, most of the time.
01:04:50.639 --> 01:05:05.360
That's a great picture reminder for us that when God calls, he um not only in our own lives gives confidence, but even in believers around us, confidence that he's called us to do that work.
01:05:05.360 --> 01:05:16.400
Um, as we kind of wrap things up today and thinking about you and your family and the work that you're doing in Taiwan, is there anything specifically that we could be praying for in your ministry?
01:05:16.400 --> 01:05:17.679
Yes, please.
01:05:17.920 --> 01:05:23.840
Uh, I would beg everybody to continue to pray for the work in Taiwan, pray for vision.
01:05:23.840 --> 01:05:26.159
Um, pray for our church.
01:05:26.159 --> 01:05:29.599
Here's the things that I'd ask you to pray for in this in that sense.
01:05:29.599 --> 01:05:34.719
Pray for the protection of God's protection over the church, over vision.
01:05:34.719 --> 01:05:44.239
There are spiritual darknesses, spiritual wars that we do not understand that they're fighting every single day.
01:05:44.239 --> 01:05:46.960
Pray for encouragement in the Lord for them.
01:05:46.960 --> 01:05:48.079
Pray for joy.
01:05:48.079 --> 01:05:50.719
Pray that they have joy in serving Jesus.
01:05:50.719 --> 01:05:59.760
And I one of the biggest things I would ask that they would pray for with vision and the church is that continue to pray that the Lord would.
01:05:59.760 --> 01:06:05.199
Be so gracious as to teach them how much Christ loved them.
01:06:05.199 --> 01:06:10.480
Because it is Christ's love that motivates us to go further, to do more.
01:06:10.480 --> 01:06:24.320
And if we just Paul said in Romans 16, 15 or 16, uh, to understand the the width and height and depth uh of God's love.
01:06:24.320 --> 01:06:25.599
That's what his prayer was.
01:06:25.599 --> 01:06:33.199
And his prayer for that simply is because if we don't understand God's love for us, then we're gonna get drugged down very quickly.
01:06:33.199 --> 01:06:38.079
But understanding God's love is has to has you have to have prayer.
01:06:38.079 --> 01:06:43.280
Because once again, our sinful fleshly hearts and minds can't understand that love.
01:06:43.280 --> 01:06:48.480
But if we pray for others to understand that love, uh they're gonna do a work.
01:06:48.480 --> 01:06:52.960
The next thing that I would ask everybody to pray for is our three kids.
01:06:52.960 --> 01:06:59.119
Now they're still young right now, Anna's six, Micah's three, Mariah's uh one.
01:06:59.119 --> 01:07:04.000
But my heart is that our children will come to know Jesus one day.
01:07:04.000 --> 01:07:11.199
That uh our greatest, I don't know how to say it, I don't want to say fear, but I would be broken.
01:07:11.199 --> 01:07:17.039
If I dedicated my life to Taiwan and people in Taiwan got saved, but my children didn't, I would be broken.
01:07:17.039 --> 01:07:19.679
So please pray for the salvation of my children.
01:07:19.679 --> 01:07:24.400
That's one big thing that that weighs heavy on our hearts every single day.
01:07:25.360 --> 01:07:36.400
What a perfect ending uh to this conversation, and what a beautiful picture of your heart cry for your own children.
01:07:36.400 --> 01:07:44.480
Um and I will tell you that one of the most important things as a parent.
01:07:44.480 --> 01:07:55.599
We're our our our oldest is 21, um, our youngest biological child is 14, we're foster parents, we have a a baby in our home right now.
01:07:55.599 --> 01:08:13.760
But uh Adam, just from me to you, uh your example for your children is gonna make all the difference in um in helping them understand the father, um, and helping them understand uh his love for them.
01:08:13.760 --> 01:08:33.039
And um I I will pray that you and Ashley will model that before your children, um, that when the time comes and the Spirit of God begins to draw them to himself, that they will respond because they will respond because they've seen a mom and a dad that have responded appropriately.
01:08:33.039 --> 01:08:34.399
That's really, really important.
01:08:34.399 --> 01:08:39.920
Um, I am closing out this podcast by asking every guest the same question.
01:08:39.920 --> 01:08:42.079
So here's the final question.
01:08:42.079 --> 01:08:50.319
Um, Adam, from where you stand today, uh, what have you learned about God's kingdom that you could never have learned if you would have stayed at home?
01:08:51.199 --> 01:08:52.479
That's a great question.
01:08:52.479 --> 01:09:02.239
Um there is joy in giving up comforts.
01:09:03.279 --> 01:09:07.199
That uh you mentioned that comforts aren't sin, and they're they're not.
01:09:07.199 --> 01:09:18.000
But when I just mentioned the rich young ruler, it was his comforts, it was his riches that kept him from understanding the true blessing, the true riches of Jesus.
01:09:18.000 --> 01:09:21.840
You're not gonna understand that unless you get up and serve the king.
01:09:21.840 --> 01:09:33.279
Um so the greatest thing that I've learned in that in that sense is um be willing to give up the comforts and and you'll never regret it.
01:09:33.279 --> 01:09:34.159
Never.
01:09:35.760 --> 01:09:37.439
That's a good word for us, Adam.
01:09:37.439 --> 01:09:41.439
I appreciate it and thank you so much for taking time to sit down.
01:09:41.439 --> 01:09:43.520
I this has been a huge encouragement to me.
01:09:43.520 --> 01:09:50.159
I cannot wait to share this with others, and uh I hope that it will encourage other believers.
01:09:50.159 --> 01:09:57.199
Maybe there'll be some young people that'll hear it that are you know considering missions in the future.
01:09:57.199 --> 01:10:04.960
I hope to pray there are some old folks that hear it that will be encouraged as well to keep staying faithful to what God's called them to do.
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Thanks, Van, for your time.
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Hope you have a great rest of the day.
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Thank you, Pastor.
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Yes, sir.
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Take care, brother.
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God bless.
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What a great reminder from Adam.
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There is joy on the other side of surrender.
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Following Christ may mean giving up comforts, changing our plans, or going places we never imagined we would go.
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But as Adam reminded us today, when we surrender those things to Christ, we discover that what he gives us in return is infinitely greater.
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We get to know him more deeply, see his faithfulness more clearly, and sometimes even watch him accomplish things we never could have accomplished ourselves.
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And I love the picture we heard today of that little church in Taiwan, continuing to move forward.
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Adam and Ashley may be thousands of miles away, but the gospel hasn't stopped.
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The church hasn't stopped, and God's work hasn't stopped.
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That's what the kingdom of God looks like.
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His work has never depended upon any one missionary.
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Would you take a moment this week to pray for Adam and Ashley, their children, and the believers in Taiwan?
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Pray especially for Vision and the Church, that God would protect and encourage them, give them joy as they serve Christ and help them understand more deeply just how much Christ loves them.
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You can learn more about the Walls family and their ministry in Taiwan at reachingTaiwan.com.
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We'll also include that link along with other ways that you can connect with them in the show notes.
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If this conversation has encouraged you, would you share it with someone else?
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Maybe there's someone in your church who's considering missions, a young person wondering what God might do with their life, or simply another believer who needs the reminder that following Jesus is always worth it.
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Until next time, keep praying for God's work among the nations.
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Keep looking for where he might use you.
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And remember, his kingdom has no borders.