Recent News

On our trip in Fulong

Well, we have been up to a lot since our last post.  In December, we had some time off so we went on a little trip as a family to another part of the island to get some rest before Titus Project started. During the month of January, the two of us staffed Titus Project here in Taiwan.  It was a great school and we sent out 7 teams to different locations around the world.  They are all on outreach right now teaching God's word in these locations. Our team has 5 people (Keith, Magan, Elliot, and two single guys).  Our plans were to spend the month of February in Japan and the month of March in Taiwan teaching in several churches.

While in Japan we were going to be in Okinawa and Osaka.  Our team arrived in Okinawa on the evening of January 27.  We both taught on the 28th.  Magan started out our time by teaching a Bible Overview seminar to the YWAM staff for some staff training.  Keith spoke that evening at the YWAM community base meeting.  He spoke on the importance of evangelism.  Japan is in great need of the gospel.



(Picture above is our outreach team, picture right is us leaving Japan to come to Arkansas)

The next day, Magan took the team to a church to teach an Inductive Bible Study seminar.  One of our team members was teaching through Galatians 1.  During the seminar, Keith was at a nearby park playing with Elliot.  While at the park, he received some shocking news that Magan's father had passed away suddenly due to a heart attack.  Keith then went to the seminar to tell Magan, and we went to talk to her family.  The next day we headed back to Taiwan. Then the following day we flew from Taiwan to Arkansas for the funeral.  We will be here in Arkansas until March 4rth, and then we will head back to Taiwan to join our team and finish the Taiwan portion of the outreach.

These last couple months have been up and down emotionally. We had some much needed rest in December and then started a very busy season with Titus Project.  Since our plans changed so suddenly, we are now spending as much time with Magan's mother as we can and helping with the legal and financial processes that she must go through.  We appreciate your prayers as we continue to deal with the loss of a great father.  Also prayer is appreciated for Magan's mother, since they were married for 41 years and this is a big adjustment and shock for her.

Aki

I wanted to share a short testimony of a man that we met in our 2 1/2 days in  Japan.  His name is Aki and we stayed in his home while we were in Okinawa.  After Keith spoke in their community meeting on evangelism, that night while in his home, he shared with Keith how much he loves sharing Jesus with people.  He shared that he was in prison for 10 years and while he was in prison, people were coming in and sharing about Jesus.  He said at first he didn't want anything to do with Jesus, but over time God started to soften his heart.  Mid-way through his sentence, he became a believer, and as soon as he got out of prison, he got baptized.  After he got baptized he married the woman that led him to the Lord! :) They did YWAM's discipleship training school and he joined staff to continue sharing the gospel.  I love hearing testimonies like his because often people with the roughest backgrounds understand and demonstrate to others the power of God's grace like other people will never be able to do.  Sometimes it is hard for us, coming from church backgrounds to truly understand God's saving grace like Aki.  We are thankful to have met him and we can learn a lot from his heart for evangelism.  He truly shares with everyone he meets, because he knows the freedom God has given him and wants everyone to experience it.

Remember, Remember

For this month's post we wanted to show a few Elliot pictures but wanted to dedicate most of it to a friend/leader that recently passed away.

Ready to Ride!

Elliot showing off at our bible study and wearing Pomelo fruit skin

For me, personally (Keith), I am not sure if I would be here in Taiwan if it weren't for Don.  When he spoke in my DTS in 2006 in Montana, I knew that this was a man that I could learn a lot from, especially, about what it really means to follow Christ.  He was someone that was always pressing forward and carrying our vision.  If we weren't going all out for what God was calling us to, he was right there challenging us and encouraging us.  In one his last teachings he did in the DTS here in Taiwan he said, "What are you willing to die for?  Until you know what you are willing to die for, you won't know what to live for.  We need radical change in our lives where WE don't count, only God does."  That is something that I will be challenged with over and over, what it means to lay down "my rights".  We, as Christians, don't have rights, we only do the will of the Father.  Am I willing to die for Christ?  Am I willing to die for the gospel?  Am I willing to die for the Lost?

Below is a link to a video that a friend of ours made.  It is a bunch of pictures of all the different ministries, and at the end there is a dedication to Don.  It has a recording of a portion of his teaching.  This video will give you a very broad idea of what YWAM Taipei has been up to this year.  Also, I hope the short message you hear from Don is a challenge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1xyLYZ-hUY&feature=share

Back into the swing of things

This month has been a good transition back into our ministry here.  The week after we arrived back, Keith was part of the leadership gathering which basically plans the direction of the ministry of our base  for the next year.  Then the following week both of us were part of meetings with the Titus Project team.  Other then planning for the next year we haven't been up to a lot more than that.

Our CLLT Team with our Teachers

Our Titus Project Team

In the month of September, there are a couple holidays.  One is the Moon Festival and another is Teacher's Day.  During Moon Festival it has become a tradition (due to some great marketing) to  barbecue outside under the moon.  So during our Titus meetings one evening we all had a barbecue on our leader's roof.  Then to celebrate Teacher's Day, we wanted to honor and bless our Chinese teachers so we cooked them a meal.

We met again with our Bible study and it was really good to see them after our long break for furlough.  Everyone was excited to be back studying the Word together again.  We've decided to go through the book of Mark with them.  More non-believers have expressed interest in studying with us, so our little home Bible study may be expanding soon.  Please continue to pray for James, Andrew, and John as we study the life and teachings of Jesus in the book of Mark with them.

Elliot is literally running everywhere now and speaking jibberish constantly.  He only sits still for a few seconds before he must go and do something else.  Keith has become his favorite jungle gym but if he gets hurt, only Mom is of any comfort.

It is time to head back

These past 12 weeks have gone by so fast.  We have had a great time connecting with everybody.  Although, we are sad to leave everybody again, we are looking forward to working with Titus Project again.  We are excited to see what God has in store for us these upcoming years.  We have shared links   about Titus Project on here, so if you would like to know how it got started and the heart behind Titus Project, please watch the videos.  We have worked with Titus Project in the past and really believe in what Titus does.  Also, it was through Titus Project that we met, and then later, started dating and got married :).  So Titus is very special to us.  We have committed to working the next 2 years with Titus, and we hope to lead some teaching teams throughout Taiwan.  If you think of us please pray as we prepare for this transition.  

On another note, Elliot is walking...EVERYWHERE.  He has not been the most daring in taking his first steps, but now that he has gained confidence, he doesn't seem to want to stop.  For the longest time he thought he needed to hold on to something, whether it was our fingers or a table or chair.  Now he just walks and pumps his fists as he goes :)  Since we have left Taiwan 12 weeks ago, he has grown up so much.  We feel like he went from a baby to a toddler in such a short period.

From now on, we are planning to update this blog the beginning of every month.  We are going to post pictures and videos so keep checking in to see what is going on with the Lapps.

Wow, it has been way too long since we have written an update on our blog!!  We started this blog with the intention to write our thoughts, our challenges, and just to give random updates/prayer requests.  Now it has been a year and a half and this is our first update! :)  We are resolved to not let this happen again.

A lot has happened between now and our last writing of course.  Here are a few of them:  1. We have an amazing little boy named Elliot.  2. We are now the leaders of the Chinese Language Learners Team.  3. We had a huge struggle the beginning of the year with our visas.  We were denied a few times, but God was faithful in the end to keep us in Taiwan.

                                           Chinese Language Learners Team (Nov. 2011)


As most of you may know, the last 2 years we have been studying Chinese.  At the end of our two years of study, we were praying about what God would have us do next.  We felt Him leading us back to Titus Project.  Titus is a bible teaching school that trains new teachers how to teach and also builds up and strengthens the church.  This means we will be doing some traveling to lead outreach teams.  We will be teaching Bible Overview seminars as well as how to study the Bible using the Inductive Method. We absolutely love working with Titus Project and feel honored and humbled that God would call us to work with it again.  We will still be based in Taiwan and will take teams from there to other locations within Taiwan and Asia.  One of the main goals of Titus is multiplication in that we are teaching the locals to minister in their own countries.

Some firsts and...Commitment?

 Danshui River, where we live

Well, here is the start of many firsts...hopefully.  First off, this is our first Lapp family blog, we had our first anniversary in September and for those that don't know our first child is on the way.  This is our first year as a couple living in a foreign country and our first place of permanent residence.  And I Keith, write my very first blog on our site, which took me almost an entire year to get around to doing.

We have been studying Chinese for about 7 months now.  The longer I study and the more I talk with the Taiwanese in their language, the more Taiwan feels like home.  This is good because Magan and I feel called here for a long time. 

But just recently, one of my leaders here challenged us, as a base, in our commitment.  As I was sitting there listening to what God was saying through her, I could see Taiwanese flash through my mind.  As these people were going through my mind, God was challenging me by saying, "Will you commit to these people?  Even if you don't see any results for a long period of time, will you continue to speak truth and disciple?"  Wow...it is so easy to move onto something else when we aren't seeing results instantaneously.  I guess that is a fault in my generation...commitment.  I have prided myself in thinking I don't struggle with commitment but God humbled my heart and showed me a blind spot.  God is so good and he will continue to challenge and help us grow if we allow him.