a new year: engagement

With the passing of the New Year (both Calendar and Chinese), I can't help but to wonder what this coming year may have in store. So far, a lot has happened. The biggest news this year is that I am engaged to a wonderful woman I met last year while in Australia. I proposed to her here in Taiwan. I took her to Kenting, which is one of the most beautiful places in Taiwan. I spent a couple weeks planning the trip. This meant driving down with a friend who knew the area. He showed me the good scenic lookouts, beaches, restaurants and helped me book a hotel. I needed to get a reasonably priced hotel because I needed to book two separate rooms (one for her and one for me). So, I ended up booking two rooms at a "Minzu" which is like a little boutique hotel. The funny thing is, I booked  the nicer suite for her with a nice view while I booked a room down the hall from hers without a view which was half as much. I figured we would spend most of the time talking in her room on the balcony and at the end of the night I would go back to my room which worked out well. 

So onto the night of the proposal. I had a couple options running through my mind which were contingent on the weather. It looked like it might rain or be a but cooler, so I was preparing for this. But, thankfully there was no rain and the temperature was alright. It did end up being a bit windy though. I told her I wanted to dress up a little and go out for dinner. But, before heading out I brought her flowers that I secretly bought earlier in the day and hid in the trunk of the car. Needless to say, she was totally surprised! White flowers are her favorite, specifically lilies which is what I brought. Score!

Next, we went to "Smokey Joe's" which is a Tex-Mex type of restaurant. It was nice, I asked the hostess seat us away from people so that we could have some privacy. At this point, I think she knew that I may propose to her (and afterwards she said that she thought I would propose to her in the restaurant), but as I have kidded with her over the previous weeks: "she will not know the time nor the place that I will propose, but it will happen." So needless to say, it wasn't ever in my plan to propose to her in the restaurant. After dinner, we drove to a little beach area down the street and ended up sitting on a blanket while looking at the surf and stars. 
It was a very romantic moment and this is when I popped the question. While we were holding each other I pulled out the ring and asked her in Chinese: 你願意嫁給我嗎？which is "Will you marry me?" She said "yes!" But this special moment didn't last too long because the wind really picked up and started blowing sand everywhere, so we decided to head back to the hotel. This is where we took some more traditional photos of me on my knee. After spending some time talking on the balcony, we said our goodnights and I headed back to my room. All in all, the night was quietly romantic. No big fanfare, just me and her spending a very special moment together. We spent the next day at a white sand beach where we were the only ones on the beach for a couple hours. It was a sweet first moment together as an engaged couple. God truly blessed us throughout the trip. He made it a very, very special time for us. One that will be an endearing keepsake we will both remember for the rest of our lives. We truly are feeling blessed by God to be in each other's lives.
There is a amazing future waiting for us and we are excited to walk into everything God has planned for us as a married couple. But, as my fiance prayed for us just tonight was that we would always be a Presence driven couple that consciously makes room for Jesus to lead and guide us by showing hospitality to the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and marriage. Now I don't say this naively like we are going to live some fairy tale life where there will be no trials, testings or trouble. No, I say this understanding that all of these will come but I say this from a place of faith, believing that no matter what happens Jesus will be with us releasing love, grace and faith to us as we go through whatever trials, testings or even trouble that may come our way. This is God's promise to us: that He will never leave us nor forsake us, but will be with us always even to the end of this age.
 Jesus gave up everything to make sure that there is no space, no gap between us and Him. Jesus sacrificed everything so that we could be close to Him. Not close in the sense of being next to Him, but so close that we are literally in Him and He is literally in us. That's why He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within everyone of His followers. I can't tell you how excited we both are to spend the rest of our lives together with Jesus. If you know anything about either of us, you would know that it's a miracle that we are even together. We have both been through quite a lot journeying through this life, but those stories are for another time. 
There's a very special song that has deep meaning for both of us called "Bless the Broken Road" by Selah. You see, we have both spent our fair share of time searching for true love, but ended up only finding heartache and heartbreak. It's only after we found the perfect love of God that our journey ended and a new one began. A journey that has brought us into the very heart of God which is not only where we have found each other but also so much more. Do you think it's time for your current journey to end and for a new one to start?

thinking about you...

I know that it's been awhile since we've connected. But, today as I was spending time in God's presence I was reminded of you. I was reminded of the importance of sharing life together and because we are separated by a great distance, sometimes sharing life together means writing and reading about each other's many life adventures. So, here are some highlights of the past couple months and please forgive my absence. 

November: a month of transition. I spent much of this month adjusting to both the culture of Taiwan and the church I am serving. Every church is different. Sure most all church believe the same truths (some may place a greater emphasis on specific truths), but all in all the basic tenants of the Christian faith are in place. What differs from church to church is their core values (what drives the church) and philosophy of ministry (how they minister to people). This is what I have been adjusting to here at the church in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. 

Being Chinese, you'd think I would flow right into the Taiwanese culture, but alas that has not been the case. It took some time for my brain to adjust to hearing and translating Mandarin and an even longer time in growing more confident in speaking Mandarin. Talk about rusty. Though I grew up hearing Mandarin all my life from my parents and their friends, I've always spoken English back to them. So, let's just say it's been awhile in actually having to speak it. 

But even more than the language has been adjusting to a technology laden Pre-Modern society. Pre-Modern in the sense that there are temples and shrines at even turn. Pre-Modern in the sense that many store still offer food and drink offerings to various gods of fortune and prosperity while trying to buy their favor through burning "hell money." Now, I'm not just talking about small family owed businesses but stores like Subway, McDonald's, Nike and Adidas to name a few still practice these traditional offerings. 

December: a month of inner healing and deliverance ministry. God opened up so many opportunities for me to minister to people by bringing both inner healing and deliverance to them. A real consequence of all the idol worship that happens in Taiwan is that people's lives get enshrouded by darkness where suffering and tragedy happens in great frequency. Also, the amount of demonic activity I've seen and experienced here is truly disturbing. But, even so, I've also seen the tremendous compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ come and bring deep healing to people's hearts and great freedom to people's spirit's. God is so faithful and good! 

I wish I could go into some detail here, but let me just say that I have seen demons manifest themselves in people by physically controlling their bodies and by speaking. If you asked me which is more disconcerting I would say both. But, when these demons start speaking, let's just say that it is a bit more challenging. But, I have seen King Jesus time and time again come and exercise His Lordship over these demons by setting people free of them. Sometimes, it's been through Him releasing authority to me through His Name and power to me through of the Holy Spirit. Other times, I've seen Him come and set people free Himself where I haven't had to say or do anything. These times are particularly amazing! 

"You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross" (Colossians 2:13-15 NLT).