March Update
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Hello from Taiwan! We hope that you are doing fantastic and enjoying 2011 so far. With the new year came a new resolution to send out an update every of couple of months on what God is doing in Taiwan and what is going on in the life of the Gillmans. For some of you, we talk to you often and others, it isn’t as often as we would like but either way, here is a short update to catch you up on what has been happening with us and to keep you updated on how to be praying for us. Family Business There have been two birthdays since our last update within our family. Faith turned 3 and Joel turned 28! We had a big b-day bash for Faith with many of our close friends over to celebrate. News with Liam - Teeth, teeth and more teeth! With the increase in teeth, there has been a decrease is sleep for all of us but we are taking it one day at a time and he is a trooper! Not only has Liam picked up a few new teeth but also has mastered the skill of crawling. “Oh vey!” :) God doesn’t take Holiday Imagine a Holiday as big as the combination of both Christmas and Thanksgiving and you begin to get a taste of Chinese New Year. We celebrated CNY in January and so did the rest of Taiwan. With this Holiday, the nation pretty much comes to a stand-still. Stores close and everyone spends time with their family indoors! This is a hard time for the local Christians because there is a lot of ancestor worship that goes on over this Holiday breaks that the Christians don’t participate in but are pressured a lot by their family to do so. However, although these past few months had this big Holiday, God wasn’t taking any days off. Nope. Instead, he was planting seeds of interest in the Gospel in many Taiwanese hearts and so when our coffee shop (The Rock) re-opened, we were shocked beyond words with the increased level of interest and guests ASKING people to share the Gospel with them. In the past month, I (Grace) have been able to sit down with 6 different people and share about God with them. Please pray that God keeps tugging at the locals hearts to know Him! Story time? Sure One quick story about the last couple of weeks. I met a girl named Olivia who is a 20-year old University student who went to our coffee shop. After a long conversation with her, she shared with me that although she would’nt consider herself a Christian, she wants to pursue Christian studies. She was telling me that her parents are very against Christianity and would in no way support her decision to become Christian if she were to make that decision. I told her I would pray for her and I explained to her that she could pray too. The next week she came in excited. She told me that over the last week, she shared with her parents her desire to follow God. They supported it. Not only that though.... they told her that for the past FIVE YEARS they have been putting money into a secret savings account every month. They told her that she isn’t allowed to take money out of it until July 2012 but when that time comes, they will allow her to use that money towards “Christian Studies”. This convinced her that God is real and hears our prayers and now she is 100% wanting to serve Him! Please continue to pray for her. School of Biblical Studies starts March 25th Joel is very excited for the start of a new school. A new school means fresh beginnings. 60
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March update on the Gillmans
Transcript of March Update
Hello from Taiwan!We hope that you are doing fantastic and enjoying 2011 so far. With the new year came a new resolution to send out an update every of couple of months on what God is doing in Taiwan and what is going on in the life of the Gillmans. For some of you, we talk to you often and others, it isn’t as often as we would like but either way, here is a short update to catch you up on what has been happening with us and to keep you updated on how to be praying for us. Family BusinessThere have been two birthdays since our last update within our family. Faith turned 3 and Joel turned 28! We had a big b-day bash for Faith with many of our close friends over to celebrate. News with Liam - Teeth, teeth and more teeth! With the increase in teeth, there has been a decrease is sleep for all of us but we are taking it one day at a time and he is a trooper! Not only has Liam picked up a few new teeth but also has mastered the skill of crawling. “Oh vey!” :) God doesn’t take HolidayImagine a Holiday as big as the combination of both Christmas and Thanksgiving and you begin to get a taste of Chinese New Year. We celebrated CNY in January and so did the rest of Taiwan. With this Holiday, the nation pretty much comes to a stand-still. Stores close and everyone spends time with their family indoors! This is a hard time for the local Christians because there is a lot of ancestor worship that goes on over this Holiday breaks that the Christians don’t participate in but are pressured a lot by their family to do so. However, although these past few months had this big Holiday, God wasn’t taking any days off. Nope. Instead, he was planting seeds of interest in the Gospel in many Taiwanese hearts and so when our coffee shop (The Rock) re-opened, we were shocked beyond words with the increased level of interest and guests ASKING people to share the Gospel with them. In the past month, I (Grace) have been able to sit down with 6 different people and share about God with them. Please pray that God keeps tugging at the locals hearts to know Him! Story time? SureOne quick story about the last couple of weeks. I met a girl named Olivia who is a 20-year old University student who went to our coffee shop. After a long conversation with her, she shared with me that although she would’nt consider herself a Christian, she wants to pursue Christian studies. She was telling me that her parents are very against Christianity and would in no way support her decision to become Christian if she were to make that decision. I told her I would pray for her and I explained to her that she could pray too. The next week she came in excited. She told me that over the last week, she shared with her parents her desire to follow God. They supported it. Not only that though.... they told her that for the past FIVE YEARS they have been putting money into a secret savings account every month. They told her that she isn’t allowed to take money out of it until July 2012 but when that time comes, they will allow her to use that money towards “Christian Studies”. This convinced her that God is real and hears our prayers and now she is 100% wanting to serve Him! Please continue to pray for her. School of Biblical Studies starts March 25thJoel is very excited for the start of a new school. A new school means fresh beginnings. 60
new students coming hungry and excited to learn more about God, more about Jesus, more about the Bible as they dive into it for the next 9 months. Joel will be teaching Romans and will also be teaching a week on Biblical Truth this Spring in our Discipleship Training School. Visa’s = the thorn in our sideThis is where we can desperately use your prayers. I will save you the little details and will just cut to the point. YWAM’ers are at a serious risk of getting kicked out of Taiwan as they are refusing to extend/renew our visas! If you want to know the details, just ask and I will write you individually and explain. No, we haven’t done anything wrong. Basically, strict rules, tighter ropes, change in government, and being Christian volunteers in a Buddhist country; those are some of the top reasons why we are having problems. So needless to say, we know and believe that God wants us to be here but we need your prayers that God will make a way where there seems to be no way. Remember the Red Sea story - yep, we feel like that is the kind of situation we are in but hey, they turned out okay, right?! :) Just please pray! Everything else I am wanting to keep this as short as possible for you although there are many other things that I would like to update you on.... but here is a quick run-through of those things:
● Our surf ministry did an around the island tour in January and got to share with a lot of surfers about Christ.
● Joel is back to teaching the doctors at the University. He looks forward to the new things that he will be doing with them... let’s just say somebody is going to be teaching Drama!
● One of our dearest friends here have been trying for 5 years to get pregnant with no success and the doctors didn’t have anything positive to say. We are seeing a miracle before our eyes as she pregnant and due in September!
● Joel’s brother, Josh, is getting married on July 9th in San Diego which means that we will be heading back at the end of June for 4-5 weeks!
Can you please pray with us and for us?
1. Visa situation - that God will give us wisdom on how to fix the problem and patience for the mean-time.
2. School and students - that as the arrival date is quickly approaching, that the students will come with great attitudes and ready to learn. Also, that the staff will be excited with high anticipation for a great school ahead of us all.
3. Ministry - that God keeps bringing in people who really want to know Him.4. Family - for wisdom, peace and grace while raising a 3 year old and a teething baby!
Also that in the midst of tiredness and business, that we won’t forget to keep our eyes on Jesus and keep him at the center of it all.
5. Finances - for more one-time or monthly offerings! 700 dollars more a month is our need!
Thank you for taking time to read this and to pray with us and for us. We love you all and are thankful for your love, prayers and support. We miss you all a ton and wish that we can just grab a coffee at Starbucks and catch up face to face with you! Maybe this summer! :)
Love you all,The Gillmans
