Quick and Current News (65 second read) :)

Hello everybody,

We are very sorry it has been so long since we updated last and for that we apologize.  Things have been very busy here and it has been hard to do update you on what is going on.

We wanted to update you on three brief things:

1) Keith just finished the School of Frontier Missions.  He really enjoyed this school.  It was a very practical school and he feels like he has an even bigger heart for frontier missions.  We will probably write more about this experience in the future.

2) We bought a car!!!  Unfortunately the car we originally wanted to buy did not work out, but we were able to find another within our budget.  We really want to thank everybody for your generosity.  We would not have been able to buy this car without all of you partnering with us.  We feel very blessed by everyone and are so thankful for this vehicle. The kids have more space and also love the new car. Elliot always asks, "Are we going in the new car?"

3) This week Keith is going along with a few people from our TaiDong team down to TaiDong for 4 days.  They will be taking a film crew from Montana to do interviews and film different places in the area.  They are doing this to put together promotional videos.  Montana has partnered with Taiwan Ministries for the next three years in what they are calling a "Surge"(Please click the link below for more details on what the Surge is).  While Keith is in TaiDong, he will be looking for a house for us to live in.  So if you think of us, please pray for him while he looks for a place and also for safety while traveling.

http://vimeo.com/108255853 

Recent pictures and news

Titus grad

It has been a great couple of months for us here in Taiwan.  In our last post we gave a big push to support our newly trained Bible teachers to be able to go out and equip the church in how to study the Bible inductively.  They have come back with amazing reports and it has been so cool to hear how God used them to be a huge blessing to the nations.  We sent 6 teams to seven different countries in Asia. We heard many stories of people saying that the Bible has come alive for them and how these teachings were so life giving.  Every team said that in their locations they were asked to return and come back longer because the people are hungry for Bible teaching.  They did everything from teaching in youth bible studies, or at universities as part of their accredited course, in churches, at pastor seminars, in YWAM DTSs and even on military bases.  They did whatever was necessary to serve the locals as much as possible.  God is so good and it has been such a blessing to lead this school.

Here is a link to a video that one of the participants had made from footage from all the outreach locations. http://vimeo.com/93127911

In family news, Elliot has recently turned 3 and Ezra 1.  It is amazing how fast these years have gone.  Ezra has started to walk around EVERYWHERE.  The most fun part for us though, as Ezra gets older, is watching the two boys interact and play together.  We pray that they will be best friends as they get older.

Celebrating Elliot's birthday

Ezra turned 1!

Elliot doesn't like it when Ezra gets gifts

In other news we will be heading back to the US for our bi-annual furlough.  We really look forward to seeing everybody again and spending quality time with each one of you as we catch up.  We will arrive in Arkansas on June 11 and then will go to Pennsylvania on July 17.

Titus Project 2014

We want to take this time to share about our training program that we are currently leading.  We have spent the last three weeks training up graduates of YWAM's School of Biblical Studies to go out as Bible teachers.  It has been an exciting 3 weeks of lectures as they are preparing to go on outreach.

We are sending out 6 teams!  They are leaving this weekend to teach and preach in nations that are desperate for the word of God. They will be teaching in churches as well as Bible schools.  Many of them will have the opportunity to provide Bible training for pastors that have no other way to receive it.

Magan's Bible Overview model lecture

Here are some shocking  facts that show the need for Bible teaching in our world.  This is why we do what we do.

85% of the 2.2 million evangelical churches worldwide are led by pastors with no training.

90% of Christians will not read through the entire Bible in their lifetime.

It has been projected that 20,000 people become Christians every day in East Asia.  If the average house church gathering can hold 10-20 people, then there is a need for 1000-2000 new pastors every day.

There is a formally trained church leader for ever 230 people in the US.  There is one formally trained church leader for every 450,000 people in the rest of the world.

These statistics are absolutely mind blowing.  The world needs Bible teaching and it is our life mission to not only teach the Bible ourselves, but to train up others to teach and therefore multiply the truth among the nations.

Here are the teams we are sending out this weekend for two months!
a security sensitive country in east Asia
Cambodia
Taiwan/Indonesia (1 month in each)
Phillippines/Taiwan (1 month in each)
Japan
North East India (Nagaland)

I also want to share with you a way that you can be a part of this.  Several of our students are in need of finances before they are able to go on outreach.  Please consider giving to help these teams take truth to the nations.

We want to just highlight one of our students so you can meet them more personally.  This is Tam.  She is Vietnamese and she has a heart to bring Bible teaching to her country.  She came to Taiwan to go to Bible school and we've been blessed to get to know her over the past several months.  If you would like to get to know her more, you can check out her blog http://tamfaithjourney.wordpress.com/.  If you want to partner with any of our students to help them go on outreach, you can donate directly by using our donate button on this page.  They need to leave this weekend so the deadline is Sunday. The overall need of our students is between $6,000 and $7,000.

If you would like to donate and get a tax deductible receipt, please contact us and we will tell you how that is possible.

Please be in prayer for us and for this great need.