Anybody living on the north end of the island of Taiwan is becoming very good friends with rain. I seems like it has been going nonstop for months now.
You’ve heard “When life gives you lemons, make lemonaid!” Well when Taiwan gives you rain . . . .

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1ZYhVpdXbQ

Happy New Year to all our friends and prayer partners!

 It is our prayer that you have seen God’s mighty hand at work in your life over the past year and that you enter this coming year with great anticipation of what the Lord will do in your life and the lives of those dear to you. God bless you all! 

Check out the **Taiwan in Focus section below for some really good info and a link to a short video . . .

December 2011

Big plans for Christmas

“I knew the Father had big plans for my Christmas that would ultimately lead to His glory, yet I had no idea He would be taking me to the other side of the earth to spend it with people I had never even met.” Hundreds of university students will spend this Christmas in China. A firsthand account will be posted December 21 at http://eastasianpeoples.imb.org/student-blog/first-person-my-christmas-in-china.

Give to the nations this Christmas

The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering provides 57 percent of the support for the Southern Baptist missionary force of 4,952 missionaries worldwide. This year’s goal is $175 million. Give so that others can hear of Christ’s love. Go to http://www.imb.org/.”We thank you for your sacrificial giving, and your prayer and support of us as we serve the Father here.”   Worker in EA “If not for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, I don’t think we’d have the opportunity to be here doing what we’re doing.”   Worker in EA

The gift of prayer

Radical needs call for radical prayerJoin us in praying all year long for the East Asian Peoples and encourage others to do so too. Order multiple copies of the 2012 East Asian Peoples Prayer Calendar through the IMB Resource Center at 1-800-999-3113 or online at http://imbresources.org/. The resource is free and is also available in Chinese, Korean and Japanese. It can be previewed or downloaded at http://eastasianpeoples.imb.org/resources/.Christmas prayer requests from frontline workers Please ask God to lead university students who will brave the cold of Mongolia to bring the Light of Jesus to those in darkness. Pray that local believers will have boldness to share the true meaning of Christmas. Pray for groups of believers who will do a mass-distribution project to get the Good News message out to thousands. Followers of Christ are inviting friends, relatives and acquaintances to a true celebration this Christmas. Pray that the true meaning of Christmas will be proclaimed and received. Please lift up the Christmas outreaches by local believers as well as visitors, asking that the Messiah will be boldly proclaimed and many will receive Him. Pray that this year, the multitude in this city will know that unto them a Child was born. Go to http://eastasianpeoples.imb.org/prayer-blog/christmas-prayer-requests/for more Christmas requests. Prayer for Tibetans, Muslims and Mongolians Download the December PEAP (Praying for the East Asian Peoples) calendar in English or Chinese at http://eastasianpeoples.imb.org/pray/ and pray for specific needs among the Tibetan, Muslims and Mongolians.

What Christmas is all about

“They may be getting harder to find in America, but you can locate people all over the world who know what Christmas is all about. They’re in some surprising places …” Read the story at http://eastasianpeoples.imb.org.

Japan in recovery

**Taiwan in focus

Churches reaching outDecember is the busiest month of the year in Taiwan’s evangelical churches, 212 of which are Baptist. Beginning in early December and lasting through Christmas Day, outreaches are held in homes, parks, schools and on the streets. Almost every church building will be packed on Christmas Eve, with many of the churches winding up their festivities in the wee hours of Christmas morning with caroling throughout the community. Pray with Taiwan Christians that a huge segment of its 23 million people will accept Christ this season.Idols on parade“She froze — partly because the road was blocked and she had to stop, but mostly because she was shocked at what she saw. For 45 minutes, she watched a parade of idols, carried on floats, proceed down a main road in Taipei.” Read the story at http://eastasianpeoples.imb.org/portraits-of-an-east-asian-city-taipei-taiwan/ Visit fascinating Taipei online at http://vimeo.com/channels/245669#33505849.

Stay in Touch

Go to http://eastasianpeoples.imb.org/
to read the latest stories and features. Our East Asian Peoples Twitter
and Facebook are also updated frequently. Sign on to stay in the know! http://www.facebook.com/pages/IMB-East-Asian-Peoples/156767504344205?v=wall http://twitter.com/#!/eapeoples

Double celebration

Most of the East Asian Peoples will celebrate two New Years in
January: January 1 and the Lunar New Year that will fall on January 23,
2012. This is a great time to share Christ with your Chinese friends
and neighbors anywhere in the world. Special Chinese New Year’s
evangelistic resources will be posted on December 26 at http://eastasianpeoples.imb.org/resources/.

http://eastasianpeoples.imb.org

Forward email East Asian Peoples Affinity | P.O. Box 6767 | Richmond | VA | 23230-0767

Every once in a while we go north of town to an area where there are a few stores that carry more products that Americans & European people want. Since we are in the middle of a three day weekend (Monday is a holiday – Taiwan’s independence anniversary) we decided to make a run. Here is a picture of the loot – $53 worth.

bag of 7 limes – 2 bags microwave popcorn – box of 2 pkgs crackers – 10 oz Brown sugar – 2 lbs flour – Lea & Perins Worchester Sauce – Can of lima beans – Can of Chili – Jar of peperoncini peppers – 2 bananas – Ground Nutmeg – Marjoram leaves – Celery powder – can of pinto beans – Can of black beans – Mandarin oranges – Salad dressing – sm bag Cheetos – sm bag Sour Cream & Onion Ruffles.

Here are a couple of things that we did not buy:

Seaweed Wasabi potato chips  yummmmmmm

Noodles Oodles facebook credits  !@#$%^&*???

A couple of days ago we were out running errands when we saw the tire delivery guy . . . .

Ministry of Interior celebrates religious diversity in Taiwan

GLOBAL VILLAGE:The ministry said that the fact that 27 different officially registered religions could coexist peacefully was a sign of Taiwan’s tolerance

By Loa Iok-sin  /  Staff Reporter

There are more than 15,000 religious establishments in the country, including nearly 12,000 Buddhist or Taoist temples and about 3,000 Christian churches of various denominations, which shows that Taiwan is a religiously diverse country, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said yesterday.

“On average, there are 41 religious establishments — including temples and churches — in each township or municipal district,” Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah said in a statement.

“The density of religious establishments in Taiwan is very high compared to most countries. This shows that we are a religiously tolerant and diverse country,” Jiang said.

That all different religions in the country could coexist peacefully and respect each other is also proof that Taiwan is a tolerant society, the minister added.

According to the MOI, there are a total of 27 officially registered religions in the country, including the major religions of Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Protestantism and Islam, as well as smaller or locally developed religions such as Confucianism, I-kuan Tao, Maitreyaism, and the Unification Church.

As far as Taoism and Buddhism are concerned, Taoist temples account for 78.3 percent of all 11,875 officially registered temples in the country, while Buddhist temples account for 19.6 percent, MOI statistics show.

For Christianity, 76.5 percent of the country’s 3,336 churches are Protestant, while Catholic churches account for 22.2 percent, according to the MOI.

Regarding the geographic location of religious establishments, more than 30 percent of all temples are in Greater Tainan, Greater Kaohsiung City and Pingtung County, while more than 30 percent of Christian churches are located in Taipei City, Greater Kaohsiung and Hualien County, the MOI statement said.

“From the figures, we see that different religions enjoy popularity in different regions,” the press release said. “Taoism and Buddhism are popular in southern Taiwan, and Protestantism and Catholicism are popular in northern and eastern Taiwan.”

Published on 6-19-2011 in the Taipei Times
Because things often disappear from the online archives. I have copied the complete article here.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/06/19/2003506165

I know, you’re saying – uh . . . Jackie that was last month.

True. However, over on this side of the planet, people today are all going around wishing each other Happy New Year! It’s the lunar calendar and this is THE biggest celebration of the year – think Christmas for Americans. Tuesday is New Year’s eve and Wednesday is the first day of the lunar year. This year is the year of the Rabbit.

I’m told across the top it says “Best Wishes to you”. The left column says “New Spring covers the land” and the right column “Blessings upon all people”. So – if you haven’t heard it lately, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

During the Christmas break we took a couple of days vacation and did some driving around this beautiful island that we live on. Here are a few of the pictures we took . . .
Click any picture to see a larger version of it. Click HERE to go to Flickr and see a slide show of all the pictures.

After a too long hiatus we have finally issued a new newsletter. You can read it here:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

If it wasn’t sent to your mailbox, you can subscribe here:
SUBSCRIBE

Click the link below for a really good article that highlights the work of another couple serving with our company in Taiwan.

“In America, people have a good background of what a Christian is, but they don’t have that here,” Schexnayder said. “They are truly a baby. Oftentimes they add Jesus to their existing dichotomy of gods. It sometimes takes a while for those other gods to fall away.”

Baptist Press – Taiwanese churches needing American help – News with a Christian Perspective.