Nearing the End...

As our time to leave approaches, the team is gearing down. We are focusing on connecting the readers with local Christians from the Church we are working with, and making sure that they continue to learn more and more about God and His love. It is so exciting to know that we have been able to plant the seed in these peoples lives, and we pray that God waters them abundantly!

Many of our readers are very, very interested in learning more about God as we've said before, and they are asking so many questions! A lot of times we are very shocked by how deep their questions are. God is really at work here, and you can really tell because not only do they go with the lessons, they ask deeper, meaningful life questions about how God can work in their lives, and how He works in ours.

How great is God that He would bless us so that we can bless these people. If anything, they have blessed us so much more than we feel we've been able to bless them.

We have also gotten to go on adventures with many of our readers. This past weekend, we went with two of our readers - Eric and Tweety to a place called Taroko National Park on monday. We took a train to Hualien on the east coast. Then, we rented a car to drive through the park itself. This place was absolutely breath-taking. In all honesty, it had to be the most beautiful country any of use had ever seen. It was like one of those moments where you think, "How truly great is God that He would create something with so much beauty." Cade and Cole were actually able to swim in some water there - which was the bluest water we have ever seen!!! We also got to go to a place called Swallow Grotto where swallows nest in natural caves on the side of a sheer gorge wall that is hundreds of feet tall.

Then on tuesday, we got to go to a water park with a few of the teenagers from the church, and it was SO fun! Got a little sun, enjoyed the water, and definitely got to know the teens ever better! Altogether, it was a nice break from the reading sessions. It is very helpful that we get a few days off each week to relax and think over our reading sessions.

This trip has been a great experience for all of us, and we have learned so much about our faith and God's love and how to share that with others. It is so awesome! Hopefully this blog has helped to show a little of the work we are doing here. Keep praying for us please!

In Him,

ARTech LST Team

You Might Be Crazy If...

1. You smell your shoes before you put them on.
2. You don't ask what you're eating..you just eat it.
3. You walk down the streets yelling.. Mei Guanchi!
4. You drench anything and everything you eat with soy sauce.
5. You creepily walk up behind some foreigners just to hear them speak English.
6. You carry an umbrella EVERYWHERE just in case it starts raining.
7. You see a fruit fly or mesquito, and you automatically reach for the electric fly swatter.
8. You weigh yourself once a day in a church building.
9. You get overly excited as you're walking home because you see a snail.
10. Anti-Itch Relief and Pepto-Bismol are your constant companions.
(To Be Continued...)

The list could go on and on, but our time is limited. This trip has been anything but boring, though. It is filled with interesting food, fun adventures, awesome spiritual friendships, and much prayer.

Keith and Craig left three days ago, and it has hardly even hit us yet. It is still so weird that we are sitting in Taipei, Taiwan on the other side of the world from many of you who are reading this. We are really enjoying the time we get to spend here. It is good for us individually, emotionally, and most importantly spiritually. We are growing so much. God has really used the church and the readers here. The church has an evident love for God, and they are so generous! They make sure that we are never bored! They have played a major part in the teams comfort. We really do feel at home here. Not a day goes by that we do not get something bought for us or a gift given to us.

What's really crazy is all the food that we have consumed! We have eaten so many things. A few of the crazier things are stinky tofu, sharks skin soup, lilies, preserved duck egg, frog eyes, squid on a stick, octopus, tiny quail eggs, all kinds of sushi, and a whoooooole lot more. God has truly blessed us, too, because none of us have been sick (knock on wood!!).

Our readers are asking all kinds of questions that are great! Sometimes they catch us, and we aren't too sure how to respond so we ask each other and try to explain it. I think the craziest question we've received so far is, "What does epiphenomenon mean?" We have also received questions like, "If I get baptized, do I get a free ticket to heaven?", "Did Judas even have a choice to betray Jesus or not?", "Christianity is a lot like communism, isn't it?". Our readers are not just here to better their conversational English. It is very obvious that they are very interested in knowing more about Christianity and what all we have to say about God's love. It has become very clear to us, though, that the easiest way to bring them closer to God is to show them God's love by the way we act with them and each other.

We will definitely have many stories for you when we return!! Hope God is doing many things back home, too!

In Him,
Arkansas Tech LST Team

Stinky Tofu, MRT, LST, Do Di Gu, Cha Chi.. What More Could You Ask For?

Well hello friends and family!

It is with great honor that we get to tell you about the many, many experiences we have had so far on our trip, and it has only just begun! Altogether, I believe the team has about fifty readers. We are averaging about ten each. Please continue to pray that we will receive more who are willing to read. We have many who are not only interested in bettering their conversational English, but who are interested in learning more about the bible - about God. It is very exciting for us because this is what we are here for! God is so great!

For many here, this is a new idea. It is like a gift that we have been hiding from them. The other day, someone put it like this: it is as though they have lived their entire lives on one street, not straying farther, not knowing there was anything else beyond that. And then one day, someone takes them by the hand and leads them out to main street, not only to find that there is more than their one street, but that there is MUCH more than they ever fathomed. Being able to share why we believe with our new friends is a very rewarding blessing. I daresay that we are learning more than they are.

This trip has already touched our team very much so, and it will continue to as long as we do the work of God. How His power works throughout the entire world is absolutely beautiful. These people have problems, just like you and me. They have family, friends, pets, jobs, and many other things just the same, too. Yes, there are differences, seeing as we live on one side of the world and they live on the other, but they are people just the same, just like us. And God's love is for everyone.

Sunday was our first Taiwanese church service at the Greater Taipei Church of Christ. It was very beautiful. The congregation worship God with a love that was evident, and they praised Him for our presence. Some of the songs were lead in Mandarin, and some were actually in English. The lesson was in Mandarin, but one of the church members translated for us, and we each had a headset to hear her. At the end of the church service, the congregation sang 'We Love You With the Love of the Lord' in Mandarin! It was amazing. After the service, we had a potluck at the church, and the people from the church made all kinds of dishes. It was a great experience.

We have traveled to several places also. We have gone mountain climbing on the Seven Stars Mountain. We have also visited several museums and a Buddhist temple. Many of the church members want to take us to eat. A few nights ago, we even got to eat at the Sheraton. There was a huge buffet, much bigger than any we had ever seen before. The food ranged from sushi, to Indian curry, to crepes! It was very filling. We have even gone to three or four night markets to shop with our readers.

Our experiences so far have been great. God is truly working here.

Please pray for God's work to be done. Pray for the teams unity. Pray for our readers and what they will be facing these next few weeks. Pray for our family and friends back home. Most importantly pray that the words we say and the things we do show the love of God to the people we come in contact with from this day forward.

God is so good.

"So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it. For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, 'I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.' So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen. " - Romans 9:16-18

In Him,

ARTech LST Team

Jet Lag = Fact.

We arrived in Taiwan two days ago. Everything is going smooth. We've already began reading with our readers. Our official website is http://web.me.com/jamali/Lets_Start_Talking/Welcome.html Come check us out!

God is good. All the time!

In Him,
ARTech LST Group

C'mon, Let's Go Already!!

All right. So we leave in approximately 46 hours for Taipei, Taiwan. The team has been preparing for this trip now for months in advance, and we are completely ready to make like a tree and LEAVE! Hah.

We have all successfully raised the funds we needed to go on the trip, and then some. God has graciously made things fall into place the whole way through. This entire trip is a reminder of how good He truly is.

Not much to update. Just letting you know we're headed out asap! Please keep us in your prayers and follow us through our blog. I'm sure all of us will have skype to communicate back to all our family and friends back home.

God bless and thank you for supporting us thus far!!

Each Day is One Day Closer....

Today is exactly three weeks to the day that the team will be leaving to head out to Taiwan. We have finished our ten training sessions, and are planning our parties out. We have had two training weekends out of town. One in Searcy, AR - GO Weekend - which informed us of last minutes things the team needed to be aware of before we set off for our lovely destination! The other was IT Weekend which kind of helped the teams grow closer together, get to know each other better, and see how well we would work with each other.
Keith and Craig will be going for the first three weeks of the trip, and then they will return back to the states. Cole, Cade and myself will be there for six entire weeks. Each week will involve reading with our readers and helping them better their English conversation. We will also have chances to get to know them outside of our reading sessions by having weekly parties that we are planning beforehand, and just hanging out in our free time.
We finally got our tickets this last week, and all we are waiting on now is for our visas to return! The day is quickly approaching, and we are so excited!!
As of right now, we only have about fifteen readers, but hopefully when we get there we will have more than that! If not, then we will go out and find us some more!

Godspeed!

God is so overwhelmingly great!!!

Today was the day of our benefit garage sale to help raise the rest of our money to be able to go on our trip to Taipei, Taiwan! The team has been preparing for this day for a while, and it is exciting that the day has finally arrived! We hosted it at Sorrells Body Shop and had a room full of donated items inside and the entire store front outside was covered with things, too, from clothes to furniture. Our day began at five oclock in the morning, and surprisingly enough, we were all there on time and awake as much as we could be haha! The day was steady the entire time, and we had the sale from six until about three. Towards the end, we began just giving away things super cheap or even free. We ended up with a lot left over, but God opened that window, too. The team got to give the remainder of the donated items to The Salvation Army. We are really glad that the items are actually going to be put to good use. The final total of all the money that was raised was over $2,000. How awesome is God that He would supply us with the money that we need.