Hello and welcome to read on about our most recent baptism!

One of the most amazing things about doing missions, or even ministry in general no matter where you are, is to see someone choose to follow Jesus for the rest of their life, and to want to publicly declare that to the world.  On the fourth of July we went to a beach nearby Taipei city called Fulong Beach and baptised my Taiwanese friend Carmelo. 

With Carmelo it has been quite a journey.  He started attending church back in 2018.  The way he was introduced to church was through a free language exchange at a church called LifeHouse Taipei, (now New Hope Taipei).  Carmelo also loves America (so he was very excited to get baptised on the fourth of July), and he loves to watch certain podcasters and YouTubers who are patriotic, but are also open about their faith in Jesus.  These influences were also a positive influence in his faith journey.  In 2022, Carmelo also started attending the previous bilingual service that I ran at Torch church, also through a free language exchange.  This is where I met Carmelo, and after we closed down that bilingual service and moved to Aroma, he also started to come to Aroma, again originally through the English outreach that we run at Aroma called Coffee Talk.  In 2024 he started to attend church services more regularly and also small group, both at Aroma and also at New Hope Taipei. (I love when churches work together for the glory of the gospel.) 

In the beginning of this year we had another Taiwanese in our small group who was seeking to know more about the gospel.  During one small group he was asking a lot of questions, and Carmelo was able to answer all of them with theological accuracy.  After seeing this I discussed more with him deeply about who Jesus was to him.  Carmelo’s family is deeply Buddhist, and sometimes Taiwanese bring a Buddhist or Daoist mindset to Christianity, they think they need to achieve a certain level of understanding or goodness before they can be considered a Christian, a very works based mindset.  After our senior pastor and I talked to him though he realised that all he has to do is repent, and accept Jesus’ work on the cross and choose to follow Jesus, no need to be perfect, and he can be saved.  This was the point that he decided he wanted to get baptised.  

Originally we were going to baptise 3 people at the beach, but unfortunately 2 of them got sick and have been postponed to August 9th.  However we are so glad that we could take this trip to baptise Carmelo and celebrate this moment with him.  I am currently doing 1 on 1 discipleship with Carmelo to help his faith develop even more.

Please pray that Carmelo continues to grow in his faith, and lives out his public declaration to follow Jesus, and is a light to his still Buddhist family, and his co-workers and friends.  Also pray that those who are getting baptised on August 9th will stay healthy this time, and nothing will stop them this time. 

Thank you for reading, and for your support through prayers or financially.

Ben, Annie, Sophie and Lucia

Website: https://franzmissions.com/