Wed, Mar 19th - 6:37AM

Update

Dear Friends & Relative,

This has been a whirlwind of a month. I am totally blessed and encouraged. Every Wednesday at school we have school prayer. Catholics & Protestants gather together for prayer for the school, faculty, students, families & friends. We sing a song in Chinese and read a passage of Scripture in Chinese then we pray. Usually the total time is about 15 minutes. We only have a 20 minute break. So, by the time everyone gets there it is about 15 minutes. Using this method God has brought all believers together in prayer. We've been averaging around 15 to 17 people each time.

Just prior to this prayer time I have a Bible Study with one teacher. We are using the "Studio Classroom" Bible Study of the Parables of Jesus. It is quite good.

After the prayer time I have another Bible Study with someone from my church who lives close to the school. We are also using a "Studio Classroom" Bible Study called Proverbs. This has been also going quite well.

February our school had a Chinese New Year Celebration with lots of food and fun time. It seems like we are becoming more like family.

We will be having another feast. This time we are going to celebrate Easter together. We will have a feast on Friday the 28th, just after Easter.

On Easter Sunday I have the privilege of leading the youth group in an area wide Easter Sunrise service. We will be singing three songs in English and Chinese. I'll sing one solo. Please pray that those we invite will come and many will get saved.

Finlan and her sister ShoEr's sister is going to be baptized Easter Sunday. Please pray for this dear sister. Her husband is Buddhist and her mother in law is also very Buddhist. They are totally against her getting Baptized. There is great conflict between she and her husband when their child has problems. Her husband and mother-in-law want her to take the son to temple. But she refuses. Instead she chooses to call on the Lord. Please pray for this dear godly woman that God will bless her.

One of the blessing of being at the language school is meeting new people and sharing things.  Well a friend of mine, Mary and her husband Patrick have a very large family.  They are ministering here in Taiwan.  It is sometimes difficult to find certain items here.  But Mary & I were looking for Oat bran and we found some.  She makes the most delicious bran muffins.  So needless to say I am in seventh heaven with these muffins.  She also uses my sugar substitute, xylitol.  Praise the Lord for God's blessings and provisions.

My schedule has changed a little. Instead of Monday being my rest day it is Friday. It has been totally wonderful. In February I took off a week and completed writing a Bible Study for the Book of Esther that Pastor David (Filipino Pastor) and I are using with the Chaplains of the PingDong Christian Hospital. It has been wonderful. I go there every first and second Wednesday of the month. These chaplains are very thirsty. They are like sponges and hang on to everything that we teach them. They are great.

Tuesday evenings I go to a business in Kaohsiung City where some older people, some retired, and some not and we have discipleship. The oldest person is in his 70s. What a blessing. They are memorizing Scripture, doing Bible Study, and trying to understand me. Sometimes I use Chinese, sometimes English. I'm grateful for a CEO who translates for me. Sometime she gets into the study so much that she forgets to translate. What a blessing these people are to me.

We've just started three more Bible Studies and have cancelled Sunday morning English worship. Monday evening from 8:00 p.m. to 9:30 is Advanced English Bible Study. We are going thru the Parables of Jesus. Thursday evenings: 6:30 p.m. - 7:40 p.m. is beginning level English Bible Study using the book called "English in Action" from Dawson Media (Navigators Ministry). It is Bible Story based Easy English. Then from 8:00 p.m. to 9:10 p.m. is the intermediate English Bible Study using Zondervan's Bilingual Bible story book. It has all of the major Bible Stories from Genesis through Revelation. It is quite good.

My team and I went to TaiDong County, the village of Da Ren. The villagers adopted me into their tribe called Pai Wan Zu. They even gave me a vest that is indicative of their tribe. I also went to visit another Pai Wan Village and found people working with leather. They were doing intricate leather art. It was awesome. These tribal people are quite elderly. Their children have moved into the cities of Taiwan to find work. So they are quite lonely. Please pray for them. I believe that God has great plans for these elderly men and women.

Those I have been discipling went with me on this short term missions trip. One of my girls is pregnant. Please pray for her. This is their first child. For many years they were not able to have children. This is a real answer to prayer. Her name is Finlan. She is a great godly woman. Also, the team is planning on going to the Philippines in August. We found tickets for 4000 NT which is about $155 U.S.D. round trip. This is awesome. There is a new airline from the Philippines that is coming to Kaohsiung in June. So we can go to many places in Southeast Asia for a very cheap price right now. PTL!!!!

This summer will be our church's 20th anniversary. We are in the planning stages for this. Please pray for us as we hope to have some great outreach this summer in July because of this. It will be great.

One of my disciplees, YuWen, asked me to share my testimony with the Junior High youth group. So they came to my home this last Saturday. It was great. 10 young people prayed to receive Jesus in their lives. For many of them this was the first time at the youth meeting. Please pray for this group. It is in the growing stage right now and is unstable. Please pray for YuWen as she follows up on these young people. (By the way I showed them my video of sky diving and we also had chocolate fondu. mmmmm mmmm good! They loved it also.)

We are also planning on a trip to Da Ren again in April. Please pray for God's wisdom and guidance.

Another pastor has asked me to help her in her church in training the youth leaders and others as well as herself in discipleship. So this summer, two Sunday evenings a month we will have discipleship classes and she will follow-up with more studies during the in-between-times.

As to discipleship, I've been asked to consider going to Nanze Higher Ground Filipino Church and possibly once a monthor so have modules designed to train leaders in discipleship and bible study. Please pray for me that I will be able to juggle all of this. There are many more opportunities but I do also need to study Chinese as well as Taiwanese. I am only one person. So if God is leading you to come to Taiwan even for a short time, let me know and we will put you to work.

This is about all for now. God bless all of you. Thank you very much for your prayers. Without your prayer support nothing good would happen. God is winning because of your prayers. Keep up the good work.

At the end of May I will go back to the States. Please be in prayer for me during my visit to my home church. I'll be visiting friends and then I'll go to Arizona to visit with my mom and other family members. Thanks! God bless you all!

Please ponder Jeremiah 29:11-13.

Mu Xiao Yang