Greater Taipei is an area of 6 million people, many who have never heard the gospel before, and many who are lost in sin, in the trap of Taoism, Buddhism and ancestor worship, an endless cycle of things they must do, with no guarantee of entering heaven, or even moving ahead in life.

One such person we met through our previous church’s language exchange was a Taiwanese girl named Leah, she had just came back from living in Ireland, and wanted to keep practicing her English.  We had prepared the language exchange to finish right before church started, and encouraged people to stay and practice their English listening in our bilingual English/Chinese church service. Leah decided to stay after her first visit, and she kept coming back every week afterwards. At the end of every service we gave people a chance to choose to follow Jesus, after joining church for about 6 weeks, Leah raised her hand, she wanted to follow Jesus. A few months later she was baptised, and is still currently attending church and small group and passionately following Jesus. I am always amazed at how some people’s hearts are just ready to meet Jesus.

Another such person is my Taiwanese friend Carmelo, I met him about 10 years ago in the first church I was in, in Taipei, and also through language exchange. He loves American culture, and wanted to practice his English. Over time he would come to language exchange and church, but then would disappear for some time. When we started the language exchange in the bilingual service at Torch church (the 2nd church I was in in Taipei), Carmelo showed up again, he found us through an app we were using called Meetup. He also joined church sometimes, and would bounce between our church and another church. After we closed that service down, Carmelo followed us to Aroma Church and also joined the English outreach event that we host. He had also been watching a lot of videos about Christianity on YouTube, and was asking a lot of good questions. One day in small group a new member was asking a lot of questions about Christianity, and Carmelo was able to answer them all for him. After this moment, I asked who Jesus was to him, to this he replied, my LORD and saviour, so I asked him if he wanted to get baptised. He originally thought that he wasn’t good enough, but I assured him, none of us are good enough, it’s only by God’s grace we are saved. Carmelo has now decided to get baptised, and will be baptised at our next baptism service in July, praise God!

Some people like Leah, maybe they have had enough seeds planted in their life by others that when we meet them, they are ready to follow Jesus, or their heart is just already ready. Others like Carmelo we meet at the beginning of their journey, and we get to watch it unfold, even if it takes years. God is always working, he is always making the seeds that we plant to grow.

Help us to help more people like Leah and Carmelo in Taiwan to know the good news about Jesus Christ.

Most of my 14 years in the missions field I was a tent maker missionary, working part time or full time to support myself financially. I was blessed that I had about 1.5 years where I received some support from my home church in Australia. In that time I was able to be a part of 12 baptisms.

Now with kids and getting older, I am not able to work full time and serve in church like I used to. I feel so blessed that I can serve as an associate pastor here at Aroma church. They are generous enough to give me a salary of $18,000 a year at the moment. But Taipei is the 15th most expensive city to live in Asia, it’s now more expensive than living in Tokyo, especially if you want to live in a family friendly area. The average yearly cost of living in Taipei for a family of 4 is about $60,000-$90,000 AUD a year. https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/news/6289313

$18,000AUD a year isn’t going to go far, that is why I am asking you, if you are willing and also able to partner with me financially to help share the gospel in Taiwan.

You can give a one time donation of $100, $500, $1000, or more, or you can sign up to give monthly, even $20 a month would be a huge blessing.

You can give online here. Or if you want to give another way, or need some help, just respond to this email.

Ben, Annie, Sophie, and Lucia
www.franzmissions.com