Taipei, Taiwan
Taipei, Taiwan
Hi, my name is Ben Franz and I have been an overseas missionary since I was 19 years old. My young adults pastor and fellow church band member were going to plant a church in Japan when they invited me to join them. After working in an ice-cream factory to save enough money, in May 2009 I moved to Osaka Japan, this started my journey in overseas missions. My time there, the great things I saw God do in people’s lives, seeing so many young people including Japanese, Australians, Koreans and other nationalities choosing to follow Jesus, changed my life. It also made me see the great commision in a whole new way.
Summer camp in Sapporo, Japan.
My wife and I doing streetband on the streets of Taipei.
My wife Annie is a first generation Taiwanese Christian, her college roommate shared the gospel with her, and she decided to follow Jesus back in 2013. We met in late 2013, serving in church together, and got married in 2016. We now have one beautiful daughter and another one on the way.
The Eastern half of Asia alone is 50% of the world’s population, 4.5 billion people. However only 3.5% of the world’s Christians live here. This was made apparent to me, after meeting over a 1000 people on the streets of Japan in my 2 years there, and I only ever met one other Christian that wasn’t from our church.
The Yuxi Circle, 50% of the world’s population lives here.
I never planned to be a missionary, but after returning from my first year in Japan to Australia, I was compelled by the Holy Spirit to return. The need for the gospel was too strong. “The Harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” Matthew 9:37. I couldn’t simply enjoy a good life in Australia and not be bothered by my conscious every day. So I returned to Japan for another year, then God called me to Taiwan, where I have been doing tent maker missions the last 12 years. Now I am working as an associate pastor for Aroma Church Taipei. A bilingual church with English outreach ministries, and a passion for sharing the gospel in Taiwan.
I have served in many areas of church, from cleaning toilets, street outreaches, to preaching. I am conversational in Japanese, and semi-fluent in Chinese. My wife also loves serving in translation, media, singing, and running small groups. We are currently dedicated to serving in Taipei, Taiwan. Taiwan is a country of 24 million people, only 6% of the population is Christian. 90% of our church members are the first generation Christians in their families. East Asia is truly an unreached people group for the gospel, but they are so open and eager to hear and accept the good news, but the workers are few.
Please pray that God would continue to use us to share the good news here in Taipei, Taiwan. Taiwan is full of temples, just like when Paul visits Athens in the book of Acts. Most people are Buhdists or Taoist or a mix of both. It has the highest divorce rate in Asia, and mental health is also a big issue here. Pray that God will shine a light into the darkness in people’s lives, open their hearts to the gospel, and be willing to go against family if need be in choosing to follow Jesus.
Until next time,
God bless
The Franz Family, Ben, Annie, Sophie, and Lucia