TiBs: more than bubble tea

So I’ve hesitated to write this entry. And I’ve been trying to think up of a wise way to talk about this. I’ve actually been staring at my lovely stucco ceiling for many nights in mental constipation. It’s quite distressing. So this is my heave-ho.

I guess the only way to start this is to make one thing is very clear: 

Dang. God is so faithful.

 

Sometime last year, an almost silly idea from a friend took the form of group called Taiwanese Outreach. I’m not sure if we were meant to do something more, but all we did was pray. Watered with weekly prayer with yo-yoing attendance from a hodgepodge group of us, something took root. We prayed for our people, just a random group of 2nd gen Taiwanese Americans. Spring came, and it began to weigh heavily: to love the lost and bring them home.

There was a burden that was placed right in front of us through the Taiwanese American community. I could write endlessly and rap albums about how TiBs came to be– maybe I’ll save that for another post and go platinum. But let me tell you, TiBs attests to something that is far more important.

What God can listen to such broken prayers and respond with such powerful grace? What God can so faithfully orchestrate this crazy chain of events with such purposeful elegance? What God can love a people so displaced, so nondescript in that you can’t tell us apart until we speak Mandarin, so different in our own ethnicity, and somehow joined together by the fact that we love bubble tea, stinky tofu (maybe not the smell), and identify ourselves as Taiwanese Americans? What God can do all this and will blow our minds with the prospect of this year?

A God of the small, of the last and lost, of the ones that have run away. He is a God of love. He has come to save.

As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. — John 12:47

Please partner with Taiwanese Investigative Bible Study (TiBs) in prayer! Pray for softened hearts in the TaiAm community and that we would always remember that in the chaos, drama, tears and laughter, and the hustle and bustle of this year, sweet sweet salvation is by His grace alone.

In fact, just pray for everything. Its kind of disgusting at how much doubt and fear I have about this year. Even in spite of God’s faithfulness and His gentle reminders to just look at Him, I just gape at the winds around me. Its gonna be tough. Holler please if you’re interested. I would love to talk about this anytime.