Taiwanese love English, it’s one of the biggest differences I noticed between Japan and Taiwan after moving here. When I lived in Japan, almost nobody spoke English, however in Taiwan, especially the capital Taipei, people love to speak and learn English. So, at Aroma church we are using this desire to learn English to help share the gospel. Twice a week we have two English outreaches. The biggest one is on Friday night and we call it Coffee Talk, as people attending need to buy a coffee from the café, and then they can join a table. Each table has a foreigner at it, almost all the foreigners who serve are volunteers, and all are Christians. One of us will help lead the lesson, we teach them some vocabulary, talk about a topic, and then let the table leaders foster discussion and conversation practice at that table with all the Taiwanese who have attended. (Sometimes we also get people from other nationalities like Filipino or Swedish.)
Me (Ben) leading coffee talk
A regular night at Coffee Talk
We have 2 main evangelistic goals with Coffee Talk. The first goal is to have gospel conversations at the table on the night if the opportunity arises. Whoever is leading the lesson for the night, they will have deliberately added 1 or 2 questions based on the topic that could lead to a gospel conversation. For example, one of the lessons I lead was about “Gift Giving Around the World”, and one of the questions I had for discussion was “What is the best gift you have ever received?” For us as Christians the answer is “Jesus, and his redemptive work on the cross.” (Of course, articulated in simpler terms.) That particular night I was able to use this question to share the gospel with 2 members at the table in greater detail after Coffee Talk “officially” ended. We officially end at 9:30pm, but we keep talking with those on our table or others until 10pm or 10:30pm if the conversations are good. The second goal is to use it as a conduit to bring people to church. At the end of the night, we always mention that the venue is a church, and we have a bilingual service on Sundays which is good for practicing their English listening ability, or to meet other foreigners. This second option is actually more fruitful in terms of salvations.
On Tuesday night we also have EC talk, which stands for Easy Coffee Talk, the topics, vocabulary and questions are easier. This is to attract Taiwanese whose English is not good enough to attend Friday nights Coffee Talk.
In this picture, right of me Taiwanese Samuel, Zoe, James, then the Taiwanese in the back Sylvia, and the Filippino Mel to the left of Sylvia all came to church through Coffee Talk, and Mel will get baptised on August 9th.
Through Coffee Talk and EC talk, many Taiwanese and people of other nationalities have come to church and accepted Jesus as their LORD and savior. Last Saturday we just had baptisms, and we had one Taiwanese man get baptized, and one of the ways he connected to Aroma was through Coffee Talk. We also had a Filipino lady who will get baptised on August 9th; she also came to Aroma through Coffee Talk. Currently one of the small groups also has a non-believing girl from EC Talk attending almost weekly, because she wants to know more about Jesus. The leader of this small group volunteers every Tuesday night at EC talk, so it’s great to see that her service is producing fruit. 90% of my small group is made of people who came to Aroma through Coffee Talk or EC Talk. We also have a lot of Christians who had stopped going to church for a while attend Coffee Talk or EC talk, and through these connections have started coming to our church regularly. It’s great to see the positive impacts that these English outreach ministries have on the people living in Taiwan.
I am thankful that Aroma Church has these English outreach ministries, and how fruitful they are. Taiwanese truly love learning English and other languages, and I love that we can turn this love of English into a way that we can share the gospel with them.
Aroma Sunday Service
Please pray that God will continue to use Coffee Talk and EC talk to help many more Taiwanese and other non-believers in Taiwan to come to know the love of God and will choose to accept Jesus as their LORD and savior. Pray that we will always have enough volunteers to lead tables. And pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to lead and guide our conversations, especially in a way that helps to spread the good news.
Thankyou
Until Next time,
Ben, Annie, Sophie and Lucia
Website: https://franzmissions.com/