Heading home!!!

Today is my last day in Taiwan. I fly out at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Thanks to all of you who have kept up on this site. Hopefully it was helpful in keeping you informed. It's been an amazing 5 months. There are so many stories that I look forward to telling. God is good! I look forward to see you all!!!

Taizhong

We've had a good week in Taizhong and are leaving this afternoon for our last stop in Miaoli. We worked and stayed at one chruch but had a varity of ministries this week...feverthing from a couple parks, to some markets, a restaurant, city hall, and a department store. It was very different from anything else we've done in the past couple months. A lot of the work was just getting the gospel message out and sowing seeds. Pray that God will be working in the hearts of those who heard.

I don't know what type of work we'll be doing in Miaoli but we will be working with some full-time YWAM missionaries. We'll be there until Saturday and then we head back to Danshui. We're finished Sunday and have our graduation. It's hard to believe this is our last week of ministry! What a great time it's been!

Wuhan

Mr. Mai's
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

One more pic. This is at Mr. Mai's coffee house. In Wuhan we were on campus a few days but mostly working at this coffee bar/foreign language club. I mentioned it before, but it is surround by many universities...3 that are near have over 30000 students. God has definately been working though this place and it was neat to hear the stories of the lives that have been changed because of it.


We are back in Taiwan and tonight are heading to southern Taiwan. We'll be in Taizhong and Miaoli each for a week. Then I'll be back here 1 week and finally home. If I get a chance I'll post in the next 2 weeks, but if not I'll try to one more time before I head back. Thank you for all your prayers for our travels. It kind of felt like we were returning home when we got back here. :)

Guangzhou to Wuhan

train ride
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

This is a pic from our 17 hour train ride from Guangzhou to Wuhan. It was pretty cool to see the countryside of China. :)

Kaleb

Kaleb
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

We just got back to Taiwan tonight and I wanted to post a couple pics. This is Kaleb(we gave him the english name), who we met in Guangzhou. He worked at the fruit stand we went to and we built a relationship over the first week we were there. He was very hungry to know more about Jesus. He was always asking questions and we were able to share the gospel with him. After, he really wanted a Bible. We were able to get him one and he started reading it the first night. He said he wanted to read more but seemed very close. We left him to God's hands.

one last update from China

greetings from Wuhan

Our time in Wuhan has come to a close and tonight we head to Hong Kong. We'll get there tomorrow morning and will be there 2 nights before heading back to Taiwan. Everyone has really enjoyed our time here. We've been on campus a bit and mostly helping out at a coffee house/foreign language club. The students are wonderful here and most are very open to hearing. Wuhan is a city of around 8 million with over 650,000 university students. It is considered a crossroads of China. In the evenings we were just at the coffee house practing English with the students and building relationships. I'll be sad to leave here. I'm looking forward to being done though and heading home. I'm not sure what our time in Taiwan will look like yet. It's hard to believe that we only have about 3 1/2 weeks to go!! Again, I can't share a whole lot on here because of security but hopefully can share more when we get back to Taiwan. I'll try to update this at least once more but am not sure how much I'll be able to be on in the next few weeks. Keep us in your prayers as we travel. I'll look forward to seeing you in a couple weeks!

In Him, Adam :)

update from China

Happy New Years! I don't have time to write much but just wanted to do a quick update. We made it safely out of Malaysia and actually didn't know what had happend until we got to Hong Kong. We didn't feel anything where we were. We've been in Guangzhou the past week and half doing various types of work. It's been good. I have to be carefull what I type so I can't share much on here until we leave China. This afternoon we're heading to Wuhan and will be there until the 18th. Things are going well and we're all enjoying China. I'll try to write some more once we get to Wuhan. Thanks for all your prayers!

Merry Christmas!!

Sungai Lembing
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

Merry Christmas from Malaysia! J

Let me just say that our time in Malaysia has been amazing! I don't think any of us are ready to leave yet. It’s been a busy 2 weeks here but God has been working in and through our team. We’ve had around 7 or 8 churches that we’ve been working with, visiting some once and some up to 3 times. Although as far as what we do for each program being similar, each ministry has been very unique. For our programs we usually do a few dramas, a couple dances, some testimonies, and a gospel/Christmas message.

We started with a program at one of the churches in Kuantan. Then last Thursday we headed to the small village of Sungai Lembing, about an hour from here, for 3 days. It’s just a small mostly Chinese town of about 1000, the home of the world’s largest underground mine. There is only 1 Christian church in the town. It was pretty cool to see how God has worked through that church since it started about 7 years ago. They just have 1 full-time worker for the church but it is having a huge impact on the town. They had testimonies of many miracles and how God has changed hearts and lives in the town. The church has hardly any money with a simple building with a concrete floor and some chairs, but they we’re so generous. We did 3 programs while we were there: for little kids, for teenagers/high school, and adults. Each one had between 70 and 100+ with the majority being non-Christian. There was a good response and we got to see some people give their lives to Jesus. God is definitely present at that place.

After a few days there it was back to Kuantan. Throughout the week we did a variety of ministries. I with I could share about all of them. We did everything from a small house church with around 10 people, to a Christmas program for 350 little kids, to a couple of church services, to a youth home for troubled children, and everything in between. We had something for every age group. We’ve gotten to see quite a few give their lives to Christ over the past 2 weeks, both children and adults. Even when we were worn out and tired as a team, we still saw God working. One quick story…a guy from one of the churches came up to me after our program there. He said a friend of his was there who he had shared the gospel with before but had never accepted Christ. After the program his friend came to him and said he was ready to give his live to Jesus!

I’d like to write more but were packing up to head out today. This is just a brief summary of our 2 weeks here. Malaysia is a beautiful place with a very diverse culture. I didn’t really know much about it before coming but it’s a pretty neat place. It’s a Muslim country but we have been able to see how God is moving in the lives of people here. I’ll share more stories when I get back!

Today we head to Kuala Lumpar airport for the night and then off to China tomorrow morning. I hope all of you had a merry Christmas. Ours was nice but not it’s not quite the same when it 90 degrees and humid. J Thanks for your prayers and I’ll continue to keep you updated.

Christmas eve on the beach

Christmas eve on the beach
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

it's a little different to walk on the beach Christmas eve :) this is a pic of the beautiful Malaysia coast

Christmas lunch

Christmas lunch
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

This is Chrismas day with the church we did a Christmas morning service for.

signing out from Taiwan...

Just wanted to give you our schedule for the next 2 months:

December 13 - to Kuantan, Malaysia
December 27 - to 1st China stop via Hong Kong
January 6 - to 2nd China stop
January 18 - to Hong Kong (2 nights)
January 21 - to Taizhong, Taiwan
January 28 - to Miaoli, Taiwan
February 5 - return to Danshui
February 11 - home to Ohio

God Bless!

Malaysia here we come

Wugu church
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

Greetings one last time from Taiwan. I cant believe that our time here is up! The last 3 months have flown by. In some ways it seems like we've been here a while and others like we just arrived. Individually and as a team we have grown and learned so much. We've had great speakers every week and have been challenged in many ways. I can't really describe it in words here, so I'll just leave it at that for now. :)

This pic is from a church we went to this morning. We did about an hour program with a video, drama, and dance.

This past week we had a lighter week just getting prepared for outreach. I'm excited to head out even though it doesnt completely seem like we're going yet. I'll miss our place here. But we'll be back in six weeks to Taiwan.

Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this. It all depends on our internet access. But I'll try to still update it once a week. I cant believe it's less than 2 weeks till Christmas. I'm going to miss being around home...an 80 degree Christmas in Malaysia just wont be the same. :) It'll be fun though.

Keep our team in your prayers as we head out. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning (Monday 13th) around 6:30. Pray for our time in Malaysia that we would be able to share with people the love of Christ. Also be praying for our Christmas programs that we'll be helping with.

I think that's all. Again, I'd love to hear from any of you who have been reading this, either post on the site or email me. I should be on before Christmas, but if not, hope you have a very merry Christmas!

1 week to go...

sunset
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

Hard to believe this is our last week in Taiwan! Our time here has flown by. This coming week is going to be a week of prep for heading out on outreach. We'll have some final teachings and just wrap things up around here.

This past week we had Fono, the national YWAM director in Taiwan, speak on Faith and Finances. It was definately a week that challenged my current view of my faith and how I handle my finances. It seems that every one of these past 11 weeks have challenged my thinking towards God or principles of the Christian faith in a new way. I'm excited to now take all that we've learned and really start to apply it more as we leave here.

Our outreach team is going to be Cassidy, Ling, Mirjam, Scott, Mayi, Amy, Sunny, Mikyoung, and myself. As of Friday, people still needed around 60,000(~1,550US) in support to be able to go. But God has been faithful and as of today all the money is in! Continue to keep us in your prayers as we come to the final planning and preparation.

(this is a picture of the sunset from our roof)

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you back at home. I miss being home for the holiday! Thanksgiving isn't celebrated here in Taiwan other than YWAM. This pic is from Friday night. We had a little celebration at the Coffee Bar and did a short program about the history of it. It's just not the same being here though. I was thinking of all of you.

Tonight was nice though. Scott & Anna, staff here, invited us over for a real home cooked Thanksgiving dinner. It was wonderful...turkey, stuffing, mashed potatos & gravy, sweet potatos, rolls, cranberries, and to top it off, pumpkin pie! It made me feel right at home. :)

Yesterday we went to a church to do a youth program. It's been cool to be able to do that throughout the school and share with the youth.

Thats all for now. Tomorrow we start the last week of teaching. Pretty crazy! This past week was about the Character of God. Let me just say that our God is pretty amazing!

Week #9

team picture
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

I didn't have pictures that were that great of this weekend so I figured I just post this team picture we took last week. Don Gillman, the director of YWAM in Danshui, was our speaker for the week. His topic was team building and servanthood. The team part was similar to David's teaching 2 weeks ago but it was still good to hear. He also talked about how we are called to be servants to one another. We are to give up our own rights in obedience to God and service to those around us. One big area was looking at Paul as as an example of a servant. He gave up all that he had in obedience to God. He knew that his life belonged to Jesus and that the things he did have were given to him by God. My reminder for the week was that all "my stuff" isnt really mine and never was. All that I have has been given to me from God and I am to use all of it to serve Him. It's a tough mindset to attain, but something to strive after.

This weekend we went to Zhongli, about an hour from where we live. A group of churches were sponsoring a flea market and we set up a booth to try to raise money for the students in our team that still need funds for our outreach. Saturday night we did a program for the youth group at one of the churches and Sunday morning we led the youth service. It was a fun weekend away.

We're back at school now with 3 weeks left here. We have 2 more weeks of teaching then a week of preparation for our outreach. I don't think I've posted on here where we're going. We leave December 13th and head first to Malaysia for 2 weeks. From there we go to 2 different cities in China for 2 weeks each. Then we return to central Taiwan for the last 2 weeks.

Hope all is well there. Drop me an email if you've been reading this site and we haven't talked for a while. I'd love you hear from you! :)

Hot springs

Hot springs
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

OK...one more picture from the weekend. This is the hot springs we were at in Taroko. It's just like a huge hot tub beside a river. How come we don't have these in Ohio??

waterfall

waterfall
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

We stopped here on the drive back. Beside me is Nash and next to him is his friend Vic. This was a beautiful waterfall, and this picture only shows about half the height.

Qixingtan Beach

Qixingtan Beach
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

This was our home for the night Saturday. When we arrived it was dark and wasn't until this morning that we discoverd the mountains. What a great place to sleep! :)

Weekend road trip

East Coast
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

Another great week and weekend! This week our teaching was on spiritual warfare. Our speaker was originally from Holland, then was on staff with YWAM here for about 15 years, and is now leading a school in Hawaii. They were really good teachings, and it's something I don't think many of us are aware of. That there is a constant battle going on around us between forces that we can't see. Ephesians 6:12 was our verse for the week talking about how our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the evil spiritual forces. Anyways, it was good to hear.

This weekend we took a road trip to Taroko Gorge, close to Hualien on the east coast of Taiwan. Nash, Vic, Mirjam, Cassidy, and I went and it was about a 7 hour drive. It was a beautiful place! We drove though the night Friday, slept in a train station, then arrived yesterday morning. We did some hiking, hung out at a hot springs, and then slept on the beach last night. It was a lot of driving but a lot of fun. Now it's back to week 9. :)

This picture is from the road on the way to the gorge.

Coffee House

Coffee House
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

This is The Rock coffee bar. We are there for about 3 hours Wednesday and Friday evenings. It's a great time just to hang out and get to know people. I've gotten to know quite a few students through it and it's been fun to get to know them. A lot come to practice their English, but some just come to have a drink and chat.

Fisherman's Wharf

Danshui
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

Here is a pic taken from Fisherman's Wharf looking towards the city of Danshui. It's more of a touristy area but really pretty. Behind the city is Yangmingshan mountain. We live just at the foot of it.

Convalescent home

Convalescent home
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

Dont laugh to much. :) This is a picture from our convelescent home ministry we do on Wednesdays. We do something different each week...skits, dances, songs, games, etc. This past week we did a short skit of David and Goliath...guess who they made Goliath? :) It's a different type of ministry but it's fun to get to interact with the older people, even though I cant communicate with them at all.

This week we had a speaker from China who shared on relationships. It wasn't much new but he talked a lot on team relationships. It came at a good point in the DTS.

Saturday night we went to Taipei and did a program for a youth group. It was fun time. Other than that I cant think of much new. Id love to hear from any of you guys who are reading. You can comment here or feel free to send me an email: s04.aleu@wittenberg.edu. Hope all is well back home!

Yehliu

Yehliu
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

Yesterday we went to Yehliu on the northern tip of Taiwan. From left to right in the picture are: Cassidy(California), Mirjam(Germany), Sunny(Taiwan), me, Vic(Taiwan), and Owen(Tonga). It was a beautiful area where the water has carved out rock sculptures in the sandstone. After that we went to Taoyuan to see the other YWAM DTS house there.

Baishawan

Baishawan - nash-daniel-me
Originally uploaded by BigLeu.

Ok, the pictures are working. This is a picture of my roomate Daniel(middle), and Nash. Nash has been our translator for the class time and we've got to be good friends. It's at a beach we went to Thursday about a 1/2 hour north of where we're living.

this week

Hello all...I was planning on posting some pictures today but the website is not working. So I'll just share a bit about this past week. One of our staff guys taught this week on Bible study and grace. Every week is so different and exciting. Each week we have class for about 2 1/2-3 hours in the morning. If the afternoon and evenings we have different activities each day. On Wednesday and Friday we help out with the Coffee Bar in the city. It is their main outreach in Danshui. It's hard to believe that our time in Taiwan is half over! We just have 6 weeks left and then we head out on our outreach. Things are going really good here and I'm making some great friends. Not much else is new so I'll hopefully be able to post some pictures later, but if not I will next weekend. You're in my thoughts and prayers!