One Night at a Concert

If you've ever been in high school then you have probably heard the "One night at Band Camp..." joke. Usually the punch line is cheesy and moderately inappropriate. However, this story really does start "One night at a concert...", and it's not a joke at all.

I don't know if you have ever heard of the Big Church Night Out concert tour or not, but it came through Amarillo, Texas, at the beginning of October. If you know anything about us, you probably know that we are almost always relying on the grace of God to pay our bills. So although I had planned to go, the funds were low...again...and it didn't look like it was going to happen. That's when my friend called and asked if I would like to go with her because she had received two tickets for er birthday and didn't want to go alone. That was the first act of God.

So the big night came. We enjoyed an amazing dinner at the local Indian place and headed off to enjoy Blanca, Seventh Time Down, Adam Agee, Sidewalk Prophets, Derek Minor, and the Newsboys (of course). The night also encompassed a fair amount of praise and worship and was truly an amazing experience. Toward the end of the night, Adam Agee introduced the mission trip which God had called him to start three years ago called God's Not Dead Missions (GNDM).They specialize in taking teams to the Baja region of Mexico and building houses.

My friend (Tiffany) and I were both excited by Adam's presentation of the trip, and we talked about it throughout the rest of the night and on the ride home. Once I got out of her car and bid her goodnight, I didn't really think much more of the trip until I casually mentioned it to Jimmy. Surprisingly, he was all about it! Evidently, Jimmy had been praying about the desire to go on an international mission trip next summer, and he either hadn't told me about it or I had forgotten (both being equally possible).

So we started praying...

Long story short-er, we decided that after about a week of prayer that God was calling us to take part in the 2018 GNDM trip. So stay tuned for more information, and in the meantime, check out our FUNDRAISING PAGE on GoFundMe.

WHAT IS THE FOCUS?

We have in our new home of Taiwan for 2 months now! I cant believe it. Going from the mindset of thinking there is no way I could ever live in a foreign country (pre surgery) to actually living, working and acclimating to a different land is still mind blowing.  Very thankful to The Lord and everyone who helped us get here. Blessed we truly are (a little yoda for ya)

So what is the focus of these past two months? Well coming in we knew that three was a three part focus for the first 6 months.  I will write about each one in depth a little later but now I can give you a quick overview of what we are up to.  

1. Getting settled and finding work. 
HA? Are we settled? Settled in the sense of having a place to live, cell phones and jobs. Settled in the sense of relaxed and comfortable. Not quite there yet.  We both have jobs which we are extremely grateful.  There are pros and cons to each of our schools and work but overall we are pleased. Still yet to get paid but still pleased.  We are slowly still learning our way around Taichung. We know at least around neighborhood now.  I think. 

2. Building relationships and learning culture. 
This is my favorite part about the move here. We have met the most amazing people.  Not just locals but amazing helpful foreigners that dont know us at all but have lent an helpful ear and hand to us.  This is the most important aspect to me.  I am people person and i think its very important that when we do find or start a ministry we have already built a support system.  We have found people here that we already feel will be life long friends. Just stunning and amazing that God brought us here. 

3. Find a ministry. 
After 13yrs of working in the local church it is very freeing and scary to be wide open in what God wants and can do.  Seriously, just going to church as a regular church attender is a very foreign experience (ha, see what I did there!). So we feel that God is going to show exactly where and what to do. Is it a drama ministry? Is it concert ministry? Youth? Children? Teaching a bible study? Dont know that is the scary and great part about it. 

So that is and was the main focus of the past two months. Please continue to pray for us.  

Jimmy and Christiana