why live in taiwan?

So, first I am going to share the "why of being" in Taiwan and then share the "why Taiwan." I figure it will take me a few posts to do this; I will just write for 15 min and then continue the story later linking them all together in the end.

Ok, so first, "why do I live in Taiwan?"  Well . . . we must first go back to a night long, long ago:

As we drove down LiuHe Street, the neon signs flashed strange looking symbols so different from anything I had ever seen before.  The driver of the car was teaching my friends how to say, “It tastes good,” in a harsh tonal language that I could not stand to hear and absolutely refused to speak. Suddenly a sinking feeling flooded my stomach; I could not tell if it was from the unidentifiable object that I ate for dinner or from my dislike for this strange place.

Almost nine years have passed since I sat in the back of that black Honda in Taiwan. Years filled with unique experiences, bouts of culture shock, and immense change. In these nine years, I have learned to enjoy and be a part of the Taiwanese culture so much that it is now my home away from home.

God has done an incredible thing, and I stand in awe. He has changed my heart’s desire so drastically that now living in Taiwan gives me great joy! I count it a privilage to be able to live here--there really is no where else I'd rather be at this time in my life!

You see, growing up in church, I knew we needed "missionaries," but I did not know that "regular" people still daily worship idols made of their own hands—images that cannot hear, cannot see, cannot speak, cannot understand.

The desire to live in Taiwan lies deep within; I desire to offer hope to the people of Taiwan—people who want success in life, people who crave peace, people who long to be loved, people who desire the best for their family, people who need Jesus, the One, True God.

The Lord’s heart for the nations, for the peoples of this world, is clear in Scripture.  I desire to be to Taiwan, not to make converts to a certain faith system, but to share with them a God who is able to set them free through faith in Jesus Christ, in order that they may also have the joy of worshiping my Father and may be able to rejoice in Him with me for time and for eternity.

If you wanna know why I ended up in Taiwan and not some other place, you can read the story starting with: "Yeah, but why TAIWAN?"