Sheena De Wall, Newport Harbor High School, CA

Awesome connection with the Lord and amazing surprises sharing with the students about Jesus! (China)

Christy White, Mariners Church, Irvine, CA

The time I spent teaching in Taiwan was amazing! I learned to forget about myself and to focus on ministering to the children. The Taiwanese children have such a hunger to learn not only English, but also about the Jesus Christ. I will never forget the words of the boys we (the other missionaries and I) spent time with: "you should not forget us, you should not forget us." I definitely want to serve again in the Far East, whether it is next summer-- or for a couple of years-- I do not know. What I do know is that the harvest is ripe and that the workers are few. Please do not let an opportunity like this one pass you by. 

Jeremy Norwood, Graduate School, Spring Arbor University, Spring Arbor, Michigan

The summer mission experience last year gave me an everlasting transformation in my personal intercultural perspectives. It was more than pleasurable, in fact, it is God's grace and mercy that I was able to serve Him and His people by teaching English as a second language. I just hope that I have given out more than what I have received from this experience.

Ben Wong, UCLA, Los Angles, CA

I was expecting to have a hum-drum summer vacation in 2002. Although I was entering my senior year at Biola University, I didn't have anything huge planned. . .but God did. I didn't even know about OSM until about 2 months before I was in Japan serving the church through teaching English. As soon as the plane touched down, I knew that I was home. I had never been to Japan before, nor did I know the language or even where I was going, but throughout the time I spent there God continually reaffirmed my desire to see Japan changed for Him. I taught English at Otsu Baptist Church, near Osaka, and we had evangelistic parties for our students on the weekends. God chose to use me to bring Himself to Naoko. I know that through faith and trusting in Him, she and others who were presented with the gospel will have the opportunity to accept Christ, and that the 2 1/2 weeks have in fact made and eternal difference. In addition, that time also opened my eyes to the need in Asia. Therefore I am planning to return to Japan for long-term service to the church and seeing Christ's name glorified regardless of the culture and obstacles that seem to be in the way. Our very purpose in this life is to fulfill some of the last words of Christ on this earth: "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

Jennifer Ford, Biola University, La Mirada, CA

During my two week missions trip to Taichung, Taiwan; I saw God work in incredible ways! He taught me so many things and changed so many lives there, it was truly miraculous. In fact, despite the brevity of the trip, by the end of it the attendance of high school fellowship at Taichung Banner Church had doubled. God is so great to cause such a drastic change so quickly! This trip was completely surprising in so many ways, even from the very start. A year or so before I heard about this trip to Taiwan, I had been very excited about a trip to Chile. I felt God was calling me to go on that trip and to witness and grow in my faith through it. Praise be to God that it was not His plan for me to go on that trip! I say this, because it set the stage perfectly for me to go to Taiwan and be stretched and challenged and changed more than I could have hoped for or imagined. I witnessed so much spontaneity and fellowship, from the first hours of the journey to the last. While we were still in the LAX airport, waiting to board our plane, many of us spontaneously broke out in song-- one of worship to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We continued to sing worship songs practically until we boarded the plane. How priceless it was to begin this new and exciting experience with an acknowledgement of the One who guides us every step of the way! It was yet another sweet reminder of God's presence with us on the venture and of the community we have together as fellow believers. In fact, some days we woke up singing God's praise, and then those praises stayed on our lips on the buses to school and back, and then during free time in the afternoons until evening worship, and then we kept singing as we were driven home. Those, of course, were the best days, because we felt close to each other, close to God, and full of zeal and exuberance. Our schedule was incredibly full and teaching was hard work, which got frustrating and exhausting sometimes. However, every time I felt ready to drop to the ground with exhaustion God provided something for me; whether a Bible verse, a rest, or a compassionate chat and a hug, and he always sustained me. No matter how tired I felt, the Good Shepherd was always there to make me lie down in green pasture, lead me beside quiet waters, and restore my soul (Psalm 23). All in all, God blessed me immeasurably by planning this trip for me. He caused me to grow by leaps and bounds in confidence and faith. He gave me energy and encouragement daily. He drew our team together in fellowship, worship, and purpose. He performed miracles in growth of the church and in changing people's hearts and lives forever. He is truly the One and Only God and He is so incredible words cannot describe Him. To Him be all the glory for this trip and its success and how it has changed everyone who was involved. :)

Laura Hannesson, High School Team, Mariners Church, Irvine, CA

The month that I was able to spend teaching in Taiwan was an unforgettable time of growth on an individual basis, as well as with the believers around me. I learned to depend on the Lord for my every need, and he proved to be faithful time and time again. I had so much fun with my students playing word games and P.E. games, laughing, doing artwork, "shopping" in our classroom, going on field trips, and much more. I was able to build relationships with them and share the love of God in my daily lessons that was such an amazing opportunity and would not have been possible without this program and the anointing that the Lord has placed on it! 

Alison Teel, Biola University, La Mirada, CA

God really blessed me in Tainan and Taichung. The churches were wonderful. They really love the Lord. The way they took care of me was very special. I will never forget it. There is no English word to say what the trip meant to me. All I know is that God showed me were I belong. After the first week there I felt a great sense of what God has in store for me. A powerful burden for the people of Taiwan came into my soul. It is my destiny to be part of the harvest in Taiwan. Lord willing, I hope and pray that I will be able to go and serve in a long-term capacity.

Jerry Hendricks, Covenant Community Church, Princeton, West Virginia

Through my travels in the Middle East, I fell in love with the culture, the land, and the history, but after spending time in Taiwan, I soon realized it was different -- there I fell in love with the people. And that was not something I could ignore -- it is very unusual for me to allow anyone or anyplace to have such an impact on me. Even before I went to Taiwan, I had made up my mind to go and come back just as I went, completely unchanged. But I was also praying that God would soften my heart to Him and to His call so I would hear it, and He did just that, and I did hear His call, and now I'm going to answer it.

Michelle Borozinski, New Strawn Community Church, New Strawn, Kansas (Michelle is currently serving our Lord in Taiwan)

Last summer I was able to join Overseas Summer Missions (OSM) and went to Taichung to teach English to Taiwanese people and to share the gospel. Our team is about 120 students came from the U.S. and Canada, we were all placed into various churches around the Taichung area. I taught English to 3 different classes, ages ranging from 9 to mid 20’s, four days a week. The class was incorporating the Gospel into each English topic for the day, and to come up with a full lesson plan. God was faithful! Through it all, I have learned some very valuable things that I would like to share with you.
1)People are HUNGRY for the truth in life and for their spiritual hunger to be quenched! And we have the answer!
2)We are given SO many opportunities to share the truth. Let’s do it and be ready!
3)God will give us words to speak.
4)We don’t know if we are the ones who plant the seed, or water it. God does the growing. You never know how God can use you, so act now and always be a living testimony!
5)“If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit, apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4). I learned once again that when we serve, we must depend on God and the leading of the Holy Spirit or our works are done in vain. The success of my trip was because I was with Him, in His word, on my knees praying before, during, and after the trip.
6)God’s grace overflows beyond our imagination. It was through the little things that occurred each day that touched me as God opened my eyes to see His graciousness.
7)Prayer makes a difference. Through praying and the prayer of those around the world, God was able to use me and to make a difference in my life and in the lives of others. Love, Power, wisdom, strength, protection, boldness come through prayers and these were all essential for my survival and the work of God in Taiwan. God answers even the littlest of things like asking a kid to fall asleep in a Christian concert because he’s distracting!
                                    
Jennifer Chen, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Michigan

Japan was an amazing adventure.  In teaching, we got to show how much we could help the students and how we were willing to share our skills in English with them.  In our great amount of free time, we were able to share more than English with them.  I'm so thankful that we were able to spend time around Tokyo with our students on a frequent basis. 
The mission was wonderful, and I can think of nothing I would have had different.  Finances are always a hard thing to deal with, but God is good.  Thank you for organizing things for a smooth trip OSM.  Many praises to our King. 

Lori Schleppenbach, California State University, Sacramento 2003 

.....I really, really enjoyed the adult class and being able to talk with them about things, but there are just something extra special about the children, especially the three girls that were with us the whole time. They quickly found a special spot in my heart where they remain to this very moment..... In addition to God's ministry to the Japanese through me, He also used them to bless me. I was very impressed by the character of the Japanese people. They are the most gracious and humble people I've ever met. I felt as if I was blessed more than I was being a blessing and it was an incredible feeling. Beyond that, God also did many other wonderful things for me on this trip. I can't even begin to tell you of all the ways He blessed me. He taught me so much on this trip, but the main thing was trust. I learned that I must trust God in all situations, even when they don't make sense. This trip was a time of spiritual growth for me. It helped get me outside of my comfort cage and be willing to take risks for God. It helped me learn to trust Him in all situations and to rely more and more on prayers. It was also great to meet and get to know other brothers and sisters in Christ in Japan. Being able to see Japanese culture was also a very enriching experience. Overall, my experience in Japan was challenging but completely wonderful. I enjoyed myself so much and I just want to thank you all for supporting me and helping me to get there. 
Jason Vanderlaan, Hamburg, Pennsylvania 

I would like to thank OSM for giving me this opportunity to Japan. This was a very rewarding experience where I learned a lot, and I am so glad that I chose to go through OSM this year. One of the things I am most grateful for is my partner Haruyo. I am not sure how you choose partners, but it seems to me that God had a hand in this partnership. I am blessed in knowing her, in hearing her testimony, in working with her, in seeing her humility, and in continuing to know her. I think we were well suited to each other, in personality and in gifts and talents, and we really grew to love one another. We got to participate in some of the church activities. One thing that Dan and Karen did was hold a coffee house at the cellchurch on Wednesdays. We got a chance to participate in this, and we met alot of college girls, and that was alot of fun. I learned alot through this experience. For example, I usually shy away from being a leader, and I had no choice this time. Because I was the only native English speaker in the class, Dan and Karen and Haruyo and I all agreed that I should take the lead, which I did not necessarily want to do, but God gave me the strength to do so. Also, on trips like this, it is hard to avoid the fact that one cannot do what is needed on one's own. I needed to depend on God for His strength, because it was often more than obvious I did not have the strength to make it. Relying on God becomes imperative on trips like this. And I realize that this is always the case. We always need God. There is never a point when we can stop relying on God. He is always all we have and all we need. But I am grateful for this trip for reminding me of this. And I pray that I would live with this in the forefront of my mind as I live my life from now on.
Kimberly Beam, Church in the Vally, Diamond Bar, California

Annie and Debbie are alive, safe and sweating profusely in Taiwan. We have moved from our respective host families to a room on the church's fourth floor for our last two weeks here. Two of our teammates already returned to the States last week, so now it's just the two of us. When our teammates were saying goodbye to the kids, our students got confused and thought we were leaving too. Three students just started bawling like there was no tomorrow and we had to take them to another room to comfort them. It's great to know that our students are experiencing His awesome love as we bond and create relationships with them. The church here is alive with the Spirit and prayer and we are blessed to be a part of it. We can see such a passion within the church members we work with as they commit themselves to knowing and serving Him in a deeper way. Worship here is an unashamed and joyful celebration of His love. Members young and old jump shout dance and rejoice in one spirit. Please continue to lift us up in your thoughts: 
.Annie is fighting a cold, so hope for her restoration to full strength
.for our continued safety during the rest of our time here 
. we would daily seek to share the good news with our students
.we would keep up our energy after long days of teaching
.the church would continue to minister to the community through our English program 
Now for some Taiwan fun:
.Annie got to ride on the back of a motorcycle up to the mountains
.we got to visit aboriginal homes from the Rukkai tribe, as well as sample traditional food, art and jewelry (aka Annie loves to wear her pig tooth necklace any chance she can)
.we also got cool aboriginal names, Annie- sagisublueblan (grace), Debbie- madiadiragaigaiayayame (happy bird, from my Chinese name)
That's all folks! Hope this email finds everyone doing well.

Peace, Annie and Deb (to Southern tip of Taiwan tropical area)

Thanks for the info--it will be much appreciated for the coming year! I really haven't spent much yet and I have been amazed at how inexpensive things are here. The most expensive thing I bought was orange juice (about $1.25 US) :) I will be at the Foshan school teaching Kindergarten. I will contact Heidi once I am slightly settled back in Guangzhou--we leave tomorrow. Kunming has been amazing and I loved Li Jiang even more. Our Father has been so good and has done amazing things! We only had 15 students (Kunming), but we got to plant seeds in all of them. Six or seven joined The Family and each one got the Book. Grace asked me to tell you that we had a change of plans and three teachers (Charity, Nathan, & Janice) will be remaining in Kunming for the second camp session. We are expecting 20+ kids--PTL! I am excited to go to Guangzhou, but part of me would love to stay and be part of the follow-up work for our King with the students that return. I know that His plan will be great, whatever it looks like! =) The team has been great--such wonderful family members! Thank-you for your upward thoughts for us. You remain in our hearts as well!!
Serving the King from afar - Vania, 07/15/2005

Vania H. China Team to Kuming, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, Waushara Community Church, Berlin, Wisconsin

My portion of summer missions in Taiwancame to a rest on last Sunday. Though I can't say that I have changed dramatically, the trip was very encouraging to me. It was such a wonderful experience. I was always exhausted usually fell asleep right away every night, but the night before my last day I was near sleepless. Maybe it was because I was nervous about the testimony I had to give on the next day, or maybe it was because I was missing the people I met during the trip already--either way, I couldn't sleep. As I was lying there, I reflected on what I have gained through this trip.

First of all, I learned that I am capable of doing a lot more than I thought I could. Just as what I have said on the previous emails, the teaching, worship leading, and translating were areas I had never served before, but I did them all.

Second, I realized how much I love to sing and translate. Before this trip I was not confident enough to translate or sing in front of people.  But after I got "forced" into doing severing in these two ways, I actually like doing them a lot! Especially singing. There was one day that I had a sore throat and couldn't sing. It was so painful. I felt as if I were a kid who was "timed out" during recess and could only watch other kids play out of my window. Third, I am more open to sharing the gospel with people around me. In some funny ways, my sharing with non-believers peaked after my official mission ended. During the camp I was too busy being involved with little kids to share much with adult seekers. The adults I encountered were mostly people who go to church already. It was edifying to share with Christians, but I didn't encounter opportunities to share with non-believers. My missions ended after Sunday's service. After Sunday service, my uncle-in-law came to drive me from Ban-Ciao to Hsinchu (where my Taiwan's home is). He is a non-believer. Soon after we hit the road, his 9-year-old son brought up the "death" topic since the boy knew one of our cousins has cancer. The topic opened the door for spiritual discussions. We were so into our discussion that my uncle was surprised when he realized that we were at Hsinchu already. The trip seemed too short. Other than sharing with my uncle-in-law, I also shared with a good friend of mine yesterday. She is homosexual, so we talked about Christian's perspective on homosexuality.  I also got to share with a hair stylist today. Two days after my missions, I shared three times already. I was too often scared to talk about Christianity before this mission, and God has trained me to share more. Fourth, I have more faith in miracles now. I realized that my beliefs in "culture" and "science" can be too strong that they work against me accepting Christian beliefs. In the case of miracles, sometimes I often rely too much on "scientific explanation" that it prevents me from accepting miracles. But some works just can't be explained by science. My last missions update centered on this topic already, so I won't expand too much. Last but not least, I learned to give more. The hospitality of the Christians in Ban-Ciao is incredible. They gave more than all they have to us. The main bedroom is a very private area to a Chinese family (at least in my house), but a lady even let co-workers nap in her main bedroom so we didn't have to walk back to our host families. A couple ladies also cooked for us for two weeks straight, lunch and dinner. Other than the Taiwanese Christians, I was also impressed by the Ron & Nancy Angerers. They didn't want to go up to Taipei 101 since they have been up there for 3 times already, but they bought like 7 tickets ($10 each) for the Taiwanese helpers to go up. There were so many great examples of Christians that I can model in the trip. I am not quiet sure how to end this update, since other than these 5 main points, I still have so much I can write about. I am thankful of what I experienced in Taiwan, and I hope I can missions there again next summer. Again, thank you for praying; I hope you felt you were with me on this mission. I couldn't have done it without your prayers supporting me--you were part of our team!

While I have finished my term the rest of the team is still in Taiwan. Please still pray for their safety, health, and openness to the Holy Spirit.

Blessings, Evelyn Huang,  Twin City Bible Church, Urbana, Illinois, 2007 Taiwan Summer Team, 7/22/2007