Where am I now?

Dear brothers and sisters,
  Peace be with you. Here are updates of my STM (short-term mission) in July and my life. To some of you, I'm sorry for not notifying you in time. Here's a quick summary of the STM.
  My church, DCCC (Davis Chinese Christian Church), sent us to Shanxi, China this summer. From July 7th to 18th, we taught the local church's kids English and held a youth camp. I went to the same STM last year, so I was pleased to see old friends and students. God had once again shown His greatness among the kids, youth, and even our team; we had more young people on the team this year (the first picture below is the youth on our STM team), and we connected better with young people. Some of the youth weren't Christians, but by God's grace, they heard about the gospel through our ministry. The girls in the third picture became believers at our youth camp. I'm here to thank those who prayed for our STM. Thank you for your prayer.  

  The STM ended on the 20th of July, but I didn't go back to Davis. Instead, I went back to Taiwan. I decided to take a break from school and go back to Taiwan to serve the military. I felt lost and unmotivated in my studies, and my grades were falling apart. But God is gracious. He had a plan for me in Taiwan. I was blessed to reunite with my parents and grandparents, to have a part-time job at an after school English program, and to learn more about myself. Coming back to Taiwan gave me a chance to rediscover and readjust myself.

  Even though coming back to Taiwan was a blessing, sometimes I felt lonely and sad. While everyone moved on, I failed to stay on top of my calling of being a student. The process of getting into the service, on the other hand, was having some issues; it had a "traffic jam". There were a lot of people waiting to serve the military, but there weren't enough men power to do boot camps. And now it's been six months since I came back to Taiwan, and I am still waiting. Yet God works through our challenges; we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). 

  Here are some prayer requests:

  1. Pray that I can be in the army soon. News says that all who were waiting for joining the military will be in by the end of this year.

  2. Pray that I can follow God faithfully and understand His will on me. One of the main reason to be back in Taiwan is to know what God wants me to be for His kingdom.

  3. Pray that I use my time well while waiting the military. Hope that the time in Taiwan can be productive and not wasted.

Thank you all for your prayer and support. I will be updating more about my life in the next letter.

Short-Term Mission to Shanxi 2014

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
  Last year, I went to Shanxi (山西), China for a short-term mission trip. This summer, I will be going to Shanxi, again. We will have two short-term mission teams from DCCC (Davis Chinese Christian Church) . One will be serving at Qixian (祁縣) , and the other will be serving at Yuci(榆次). Both cities are located in Shanxi province. I will be serving in Qixian.

From July 7 to 18, our STM team will be serving at Qixian's local church. The first week we will hold an English camp at the church. There will be three levels of English classes: Beginner class, intermediate class, and advance class. I'll be helping out the beginner class this year. The second week we will be holding the Christian Youth Camp at church. Youths from junior high to senior high (maybe some college students) from two main churches: Taigu (太谷) church and Qixian church, will come to the camp and learn more about their faith. We'll be leading worship, Ethical teaching, English Corner (teaching English), games, and story telling for the youths.

The main goal of our trip is to build relationships with the kids and youth, learn more about their faith and their backgrounds, and hopefully help them grow in faith. Some youths may have complicated backgrounds, so our team has been trained to assist them when they need help with dealing things such as families, career, etc. We also use this opportunity to share more about Christ love to help then grow spiritually. Some of them are new believers, seekers, or non-believers. I went last year and built great relationship, so I want to go back this year to follow-up.

Prayer request:
1. Pray for our team's strength. Personally, I'll be leading worship, taking care of beginner English class, which is basically like a VBS (Vacation Bible School) but much longer, leading bible studies and doing English corner. Our other teammates will have more than one task to do, as well. So pray that we will have enough strength to do well in all the ministries.
2. Pray for team's unity: Pray that our team can work together well when we are teaching, leading bible studies and leading worship.
3. Pray for health and spiritual attacks: Last year, most of us got sick during the trip. Also, last year, some cult came into church and shared things that aren't biblical. Pray that these attacks from Satan won't stop us from expanding God's kingdom.

Thank you all for your prayers.

In Christ,
Joseph