Dear Brothers and Sisters:

We would like to thank you for your generous grants and prayers for the Taiwan Mission Team at Blacksburg Christian Fellowship (BCF). Because of your support, the whole team could go to villages in Taiwan and continue God's work among the middle school students, whom we call "kids," in 2006. I am also grateful that God chose me to go on this mission and let me experience His abundant blessings during this trip. Here, I would like to share my experience with you in two parts:

Seeing the need of these kids and people in Taiwan
During the entire trip, we deeply experienced what the Lord has revealed to us, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Eph 6:12)." At first, every activity was blessed and went smoothly, and was better than we expected. We all tried whatever we could to relate to those kids and to bring them before the Lord. Every time, when we were about to claim the victory, it seemed that spiritual opposition would descend before us from somewhere.

For example, a heavy rain came on the following-up day and stopped the kids from coming to the Gospel meeting at the first camp. We only had 12 kids come that day. Additionally, that rainy day also prevented an outdoor Gospel meeting held by WuChang Church. We were invited to perform the Gospel event that afternoon and to pray and walk around their community. Because of the rain, they moved the meeting inside the church. Thus, most participants were our brothers and sisters. The prayer-and-walk was also affected, but some brothers and sisters still went with faith.

At the second camp, all of the activities on the fourth day had to be canceled due to a typhoon. But all workers of the body in this camp were able to get together to worship Him, to proclaim God's arriving Kingdom and His victory in ShanTou, and to lift our burdens to Him. Once again, we brought those kids and people in that village before the Lord in our prayers. To our amazement, God answered our prayers and turned the whole situation around during the next two days. In the typhoon day, we, as God's soldiers, were sent to visit some kids, who were in need of concern and His Good News and blessings. One of students was able to hear the Gospel and decided to accept Him into her life. After visiting, all of us were able to get to know more about the kids' backgrounds and their needs. Additionally, all of us got to share our thanks to the Lord with each other. On the following-up day, God brought most of kids to school safely. We were grateful for His fulfillment.

The villages and communities we visited were surrounded by temples. Local people strongly believe in local religion and worship idols. Some of them do not even believe what they are worshiping can bring them any good, but they still follow people to do what they do, including worshiping idols. This climate has rooted into their lives. Therefore, they are driven to worship those idols blindly. These kids are now living under this kind of dark force. Apparently, not only do these kids need our concern, but the whole nation is in need of our prayers. This nation has been under the dark power for so long. What we cannot accomplish, it is possible in God's will. Let us not only pray for the follow-up of local churches to these kids, but also pray for this nation. Pray that the Lord will have mercy on these people and forgive them, for they do not understand what they are doing against Him. Pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to working in these kids' hearts and prepare them for His harvest time to come. And, pray that God would keep sending His servants to this nation, and even raise up His servants in this nation to save His chosen ones.

Experience of God on this trip:
The Bible says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28)." At the second camp, most of students attended our Gospel meeting though it was the real typhoon day. When we saw the terribly heavy rain in the morning, we turned to God immediately and prayed for the students' safe arrival. Because of a misunderstood report, the typhoon day was reported about a day earlier, but the following-up day was the real typhoon day. But, if not for the typhoon, we would not have bound together before the Lord and prayed for the Lord's will to be fulfilled. If God had not sent us to visit some kids, that girl would not have accepted Him, and we would not have gotten to know these kids more and to know their needs. Additionally, we would not have experienced the sharing together and our thanksgiving to the Lord.

Through that sharing, God healed me. As the Bible says, "A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice (Isa 42:3)." In 2005, Kuan-chin had serious hard feelings with local workers and BCF workers in ShanTou. BCF workers joked at me that I was supposed to be a local student worker, not a BCF worker. Therefore, I had a hard time being between the two of them, and thus experienced an identity crisis. I also had a really bad impression of the local student workers because a few of them excluded me, and one was trying to isolate me from two different teams. Their attitude toward me really hurt me though they may not have meant it. But that really decreased my interest of this mission for the next year. That was why I had a difficult time deciding whether I should go on this trip this year because I knew I would have to cooperate with the same group of brothers and sisters again. Besides, I may have made a bad impression on some of them. Because of God's encouragement through His word, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness (2Co 12:9)," I submitted and went. I am really grateful for God's making me go. Otherwise, I would not have shared with those brothers and sisters that my impression of their fellowship had changed (the people who hurt me last year did not attend this year's mission). This year, the BCF workers were especially careful to avoid the identity crisis problem. So I had a very good time teaming with them and sharing with them every morning and evening.

When I was sharing with my godmother about this trip on the phone, she reminded me that God was healing me. She felt I was experiencing His healing power again. I really agree with my godmother. After I went back from the first trip of this mission, I told myself that there is no way I would go on a trip like this again, because I was emotionally and spiritually hurt. At the time, I felt I was embarrassed, and brothers and sisters around me were making me feel useless. Though they may not have meant to, their actions and words had hurt me. This year, God made me do a lot of work during the whole mission. For example, I had chances to share my testimony with these kids, how I came to Him and learned about forgiveness through His own son dying for us on the cross. I had shared at least five times about my testimony with these kids in the Gospel meetings and in the small groups. God used these chances to help me get healed and relieved time by time. Most importantly, I was neither isolated, nor excluded. I experienced how the whole of us could work just like a body when we all focused on Him and His will. However, God used His way to humble me, and then, raised me up again.

Through this trip, God also showed what He has told us, "So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor (1Co 4:7-8)." Because of our previous experience, we knew what we were supposed to prepare before the trip. We had every thing prepared including verses, hymns, skits, props and so on. I thought, as long as we did a good job performing God's message and showing God's Love to these kids, they would follow our expectation to come before Him and accept Him just like we saw last year. This year, we really did a good job interacting with kids, and we saw the kids' good responses. When I was thinking that we deserved to see the same result as last year, God humbled my heart again and again. The heavy rain and the typhoon weather on following days, respectively, made me realize that this was all His work and His mission. My overconfidence was not even capable of transforming these kids' hearts. But He loves His people so much that He wants to show us His glory, His existence, and His work through His own mission. And, we were blessed to be chosen to witness for His work and His power. How He could turn the whole situation around when we simply humbled ourselves before Him to worship and to praise Him. How He amazingly touched and softened these kids' hearts when we brought them before Him and gave them to His hands instead of carrying them as burdens.

As Job said, "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:5-6)." Unabashedly, I had thought how much I could do for these kids and God's mission. On the contrary, I was not even capable of predicting how the weather might be. I should not have deserved this opportunity to serve Him if it were not because of His grace. Additionally, I would not have had the opportunity to experience His power, His healing, and His amazing work without your prayers. I would like to thank you again for your trust, patience (for this report), and your support.

God bless you.

Kuan-chin (Gina) Lin
Email: ginalin80@gmail.com
09/16/06

"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1Pe 5:8)".