This is a small church, as you see the handful of congregation. There are mostly moms and kids, but very few fathers and men attending church services and activities.
Here's hubby Mark sharing about our family's desire to learn from & help their church!
When we visited EFC church in San-hai Guan for the very first time, we fell in love with it. It was a small church of about 40 people, located in two converted apartment units. We saw many kids (20+) and were touched by their innocence and joy, though many of them came from dysfunctional families. The children either lived with grandparents, relatives, or with one parent. Divorce and unemployment rate is extremely high here as well.
In the harbors of Keelung, there were many illegal activities such as prostitution, drug smuggling, and gambling. Many children had no fathers, as these men either abandoned their families or were incarcerated for crimes.
It was humbling to see that though the resources were scarce and workers were few, the 26-year-old missionary Miss Huei-Jen and a few moms in the church reached out to these children and the community as well. We felt right at home upon arrival, as the church members welcomed us with warmth and homemade soy milk!
Abbie loved visiting EFC at San-hai Guan! Oops, the church name was blocked by that tree.
This is handsome "Jingle Bell", a Schnauzer who lived to share the true meaning of Christmas! He is officially the "Church Mascot", as he was abandoned and stumbled into our church (smart choice, little pooch!) a few days before we arrived. The missionary adopted him, fed him antibiotics, and spent $800 N.T. to groom him and cure his skin disorder. And Voila! He now attends church and loves playing with all of the children and adults! His Christmas 'testimony' reminded me of how God took raggedy me home and nurtured me back to health, and now my life has purpose and meaning! HELP!!!!! BLOWN AWAY!
This is such a humid and windy place! If you turn the volume on you can hear the windstorm in this video. The weather is very much like Seattle. We're located one mile from the harbor and it rains a lot here! We were almost blown away the first day we were here! Here we're walking from a 7-Eleven store to the church one block away.
2 comments:
Waiting for more sharing in the Taiwan mission.
Jerry
My daughter Sophie is in class with Caleb. I enjoyed reading a bit about your exciting trip!
A sister in Christ,
Moshelle Carlson
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