Thank you for your patience in receiving this update. We have SO much to praise Jesus for! He has worked amazingly in our lives and answered every one of the 11 prayer requests we asked for. The Lord has used your prayers and generosity to help make them a reality. Thank you to the FBC of Berne for the $5,000 transition-cost gift, as well as CT in Hammond’s $5,000 gift as well! Also, thank you to SBC of Louisville and GBC of DeMotte for taking us on for support! Thank you to every church and individual that increased their support on our behalf also! Thank you for all of the emails, gifts, and well wishes for our birthdays, Christmas, etc. Thank you all so very much!!!
We asked prayer regarding airline details and such with a pregnant wife (due January 20) and young children. It initially appeared that airline tickets for our family would cost in the ballpark of US$4,500. It is amazing how the Lord worked it out for us to get tickets for our whole family for about $1,100! My ticket cost $20 to travel all the way from Chicago to Taipei, Taiwan. Also, there were no issues with my wife being so pregnant and traveling. Praise the Lord!!
The Lord was so good to us in regards to moving and packing. The Lord took such great care of us during this transition time from China to Taiwan. When the situation became clear about our not being able to return to Mainland China and the timing regarding transitioning, we immediately began looking for a place to stay. During our search, a kind businessman in our church contacted us about living rent- free in one of the empty homes that he was selling! It was amazing how the Lord worked all of it out, and hopefully, we were a blessing to them as well. Praise the Lord! They were able to sell one of the houses while we were living in it. Fast forward—it is now time to move out quickly, and we do not have a monthly or yearly contract to worry about. We were mainly able to do the physical moving ourselves with the help of my dad. Praise the Lord for his tremendous help!
Before Taiwan would allow entry, they required Mandatory Negative COVID test results 72 hours before departure for the whole family. I understood there were false positives that might happen, and with the odds of us being a family of seven, there was the possibility of us getting at least one positive. I called around, trying to find a better option, but there was only one available for our whole family that could meet the time requirement. Frankly, I was suspicious, but God had it all figured out . . . as always. We waited in line about two hours. One of the nurses who did our tests attended a church that supports one of the missionaries to Taiwan we met in February, and her name was Valerie, just like my mom. This is a simple thing perhaps, but it just goes to demonstrate that even in the minutiae, God is there! We got our results back as my dad and I were loading up the last of the house, and sure enough, they were all negative! Praise the Lord! Oh, for grace to trust Him more!
We also asked for prayer regarding our household stuff, shipping from China, to arrive on time. God worked it out so wonderfully and perfectly. Several months before while praying one morning, the Lord impressed upon my heart to ask a particular Chinese acquaintance if he knew of anyone who could ship our items. His one-word response, “Me,” shocked me. But the Lord used Bro. S___ and that company to take our items from Mainland China storage (Praise the Lord for a good place to store everything), pack everything appropriately—even cleaning up some items, get it through the Chinese Export Authority, guide us through Taiwan Customs, and get it delivered to the location needed. The Lord gave us favor with the customs official, saving us an estimated $2,500. God also allowed me to witness to the delivery agent, A___, who had been in the business for 50 years!
Long-term housing was something we began looking for online even before leaving for Taiwan. The Lord used a Taiwanese pastor to give us a website to search for housing. The day we exited 14-day quarantine, we were able to go see and, two days later, secure a place to rent. It is an appropriate place for our family and, praise the Lord, a good situation with the landlord’s family, price, and house condition.
Quarantine arrangements and favor with officials was something that the Lord definitely gave us. We were able to rent a nice, out-of-the- way Airbnb in the mountains for a cheap price that ended up having a professing Christian as the host. There were porches to go out onto and a roof that quickly became a favorite spot because of the view. This is where we spent Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. We were very glad when it was over, but God’s grace was sufficient!
The baby was coming, and we needed the right hospital and the right doctor for our son’s birth. A lady in D___ from MBC recommended a good doctor at a local hospital, and we were able to schedule an appointment. Come to find out, she had graduated from the University of California and spoke excellent English and was very understanding of different cultural needs. Again, God worked it all out PERFECTLY (there is MUCH, MUCH more to the story), and again, God can always be trusted! Our son was born Saturday, January 23, at 5:59 a.m., weighing 8 pounds 2.5 ounces. Mother and baby are doing fine.
It is SO OBVIOUS that the Lord wants us here right now at this time. We were not even out of quarantine yet when we received word that Taiwan was closing its doors to even people that held resident visas (like us) from entering as of February 1, and even going so far as to return a missionary family’s paperwork that had already applied, saying they would need to check back in February.
Our family’s health has been good, and the Lord be praised! We got our residence cards (visas) for Taiwan! The C___ family, as well as the good folks of DMTBC, have been such a TREMENDOUS blessing to us. The C___s spent 36 years in Taiwan and are still going strong! They are such loving and helpful people and are looking to start their third church, Lord willing, very soon! Pray that the Lord will help us to do His will and also be a blessing to them as well.
There is so much that could be said and that the Lord can be, should be, and has been praised for; but for time’s sake, I will here conclude. Thank you all so very much for your faithful and consistent prayers and support! You all are the best. Please keep praying for us, and please take just a moment to pray for a few things below if you would.
Joyfully in His service,
Missionary #6011 and Family
Please Pray for:
1. God’s will to be done in our lives; pray that He will receive great glory.
2. Great grace.
3. Wisdom.
4. Getting the right language-learning setup and efficiency in mastery.
5. Souls to be saved, long-term impact, and our neighbors.
6. Taiwan.
7. Permanent vehicle situation.