Operation Jericho

I had previously used a paid host, but I discovered that there are many free blog host out there, and since I am using wordpress (and it meets most of my needs) I just moved my page to wordpress and paid a 10 dollar per year payment (rather than per month) to host my domain, so the web address are unchanged.

Here are more pictures taken that day:

Flash used

Trying to do macro on the 50 1.8

Taken of a street light

2009 has been a rough yet interesting year for me. It was in 2009 that my life took a rather dramatic turn, with the loss of my previous job (its not much of a job but it does pay the bill), going to Germany for the DTS and discovering that God had wanted me to reach the Muslims. After coming back to Taiwan my faith in the Lord has been tested again and again, having to trust God alone for my finances since I had none and its amazing seeing the Lord bring me through all of this, showing that I really don’t need to be wealthy or have wealthy churches backing me to do missions. I pray that this year God will send me out once again back into Europe where I may have my faith in him tested more, and be strengthened in the process. I also pray that I can find a ministry to work under where I can learn how to evangelize with people who aren’t known for their tolerance. Finally I really pray that this year will be the year where people recognize that Muslims need the gospel more than ever and that people will make an effort to reach out to them.

After continuous downtime with my last host (110mb) I got fed up and switched to a paid host, the address doesn’t change but now you will notice that the page will load faster. Please forgive me for any inconvenience caused by constant downtime. Let me know if there are any broken link and I will fix it.

Thanks for your support

This is one topic that is often overlooked but vital to success as a missionary nevertheless. Paul said in 1 Corinthians that to reach out to a Jew he acts like a Jew, to those under the law he acts like those under the law, even if he is not under the law. To the Gentiles he acts like a Gentile but doesn’t sin like they do. I think this illustrate a very important point. When we reach out to the lost, often they will be clouded by their cultural glasses and they may see us as what we are not. Therefore it is important to be sensitive to local culture when ministering so that they might actually take us seriously. For example, in the Middle East women are generally expected to dress modestly and even wear head covering. While the Bible says nothing about woman having to cover her hair at all times (although there is one verse in 1 Corinthians that says something about it, but let’s not get too off topic) and makes no specific rule about anything of that nature, it would be very hard to be taken seriously when women, especially those from the West doesn’t dress modestly, since people think of the West as a sinful/lustful nation and why should they take our God seriously? This might not seem like much but when we go into other culture with respect, we are more likely to get respect in return.

This post isn’t meant to discourage or discriminate or even expose anyone, but I felt this is a very important topic to share in light of some of the reputations that some missionaries have established over the years. Our job as missionary is to make God known and respected, and that everything we do as missionary is for HIS glory, not ours. We need to send a message out there that we come in peace, that we proclaim the good news, not to invade or undermine the local culture but to make known that God is a God of all culture and people group. There has been some feelings in the Muslim world that Christianity is just a religion of the West and many of them still think we worship three gods! So please, next time you go into Muslim communities please try and blend in. For those men with long hair you don’t need to cut your hair or anything but many Muslim men does wear head covering of some kind as well, and it’s wise to use them to avoid sticking out.