Taiwan 2008 Blog

Check out our team's blog for the ROCKHarbor 2008 Taiwan trip.

rhtaiwan.blogspot.com

-Wes

Microscope (work in progress)

Flawed beyond recognition
Who am I?
Reflections don't speak to the deep within.

Where do I find you?
I've been searching far too long
I've lost touch of where my soul belongs

Am I found in You?
Or do you love but not know me?
Like the rest, is it just this mask that you see?

Take the spotlight off me,
This self-serving microscope
Help me look to You for my everlasting hope.

A Meditation

Here is a meditation that was shared to me that I have found freeing.

A Meditation by Cardinal Newman

God has created me
to do him some definite service;
He has committed some work to me
which He has not committed to another.
I have my mission -
I may never know it in this life,
but I shall be told of it in the next.

I am a link in a chain,
a bond of connection between persons.
He has not created me for naught,
I shall do good,
I shall do his work.
I shall be an angel of peace,
a preacher of truth
in my own place
while not intending it -
if I do but keep
His Commandments.

Therefore, I will trust Him.
Whatever, wherever I am,
I can never be thrown away.
If I am in sickness,
my sickness may serve Him;
in perplexity,
my perplexity may serve Him;
if I am in sorrow,
my sorrow may serve Him.
He does nothing in vain.
He knows what He is about.
He may take away my friends.
He may throw me among strangers.
He may make me feel desolate,
make my spirits sink,
hide my future from me -
still He knows
what He is about.

Summer Camp has started

Since arriving here in Taiwan, we have hit the ground running. Just a few highlights of our trip thus far:

-Sun Moon Lake
-Taught an English class at Ling Dong High School. We were able to lead the students in a few games, share a testimony, and lead them in "Shackles" (I just wanna praise You).
-Visited Feng Jia Night Market
-The food
-Camp started yesterday and we put on American Night for the campers yesterday. We performed a play, The Rock Harbor team along with the IPTS team here joined forces and performed the Princess and the Kiss. It's a play about guarding your heart and being true to yourself and God. It went really well, the team really stepped up. We also lead them in a camp-wide game, shared a testimony, and lead them in worship.
-So far three of our team members has shared their testimony (Lisa, Jen, and Angela S.) They did great! God really use their story to speak to the kids.

Today is the second day of camp. I am extremely proud of our team. I've seen each person step up in some way even if some were a bit apprehensive in the beginning. This has been very encouraging for me. Please continue to pray for increased strength and endurance to really make the most of every opportunity we have in Taiwan.

Thanks for all your love and support!

-Wes

I'm here!

I'm here!

After a 13 hour flight and 2 hour bus ride, we're finally here at Banner church in Taiwan. We were greeted by a warm welcome from all the youth at Banner and had a packed day of traveling to beautiful Sun Moon Lake and catching up with old friends. I will probably just start posting blog entries on my blog at taointaiwan.blogspot.com (and @ the Rock Harbor website) instead of sending out mass e-mails so if you're interested, keep a look out for those. It is almost 11pm and I'm beat, so I'm off to bed now.

Good night,
Wes

The Lightest Thing

My dark heart is shallow
On the edge of my seat to see what I'll do
This life is hollow
Offering a smile when I'm dying inside.

When will my rescue come?
Falling down again in front of you
Empty, I've come undone
Wish that these words could be undone too.
It's all for you
It's all for you
It's all for you

Take me to a place where time and space
Point in the direction of hope one day
When the weight of glory will be
The lightest thing.
-Wesley Tao

I am...

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 100% Spider-Man 90% The Flash 75% Robin 60% Green Lantern 60% Supergirl 55% Hulk 50% Batman 50% Iron Man 35% Wonder Woman 35% Catwoman 25%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Dikaiosune

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith." Phil. 3:7-9

I used to think that the only way this scripture applied to my life was for the things that I did before I came to Christ, or the values I had before I came to Christ. Generally when I think of this verse, I think of Paul and how he did some gnarly things to Christians before coming to Christ. Also, Paul, as a Roman Jewish citizen had all of the status anyone would want during that time, but he called all of that rubbish, dung, or any other fecal matter, compared to the true life of faith in Christ. When I would hear preaching on this, it was generally about surrendering your life to Christ. Surrendering all that you valued before coming to Christ (money, power, sex, you dreams just to name a few), which is really, really hard, so that God could use you to your full potential. There's even a song or songs about this verse.

Even though all of this applies and still applies for me today, I can't help but think about how even in our Christians communities, we need to be surrendering to each other. We live in an incredibly competitive society and culture. For the wealthy, we have to have the most expensive toys, cars, houses, and bling, so that people will somehow respect us more. I believe God can redeem us from all of that. But it also seems that as Christians, we have also bought into this competitive mindset. At least for me, there seems to be a "new law" or unspoken code about what it looks like to be a Christian. That if somehow we follow that code well enough we will be respected, or at the very least not be questioned about our faith. There is a bare minimum that we need to do or be perceived to be accepted. But on top of that there is this tendency, ironically as we grow in our faith, for us to want to be "better" than the next guy. To one up each other so that we would be perceived as more mature, more spiritual, and in the case of Paul, more righteous. We want to have all the information and at the same time do it all solo. Though we probably would never admit to it, I know I find myself in this position all the time. I want to feel like I'm different from everyone else. Donald Miller calls it the "lifeboat theory". We don't want to be thrown off the lifeboat with other people vying for our spot and so somehow we want to seem more valuable than the other people, with something to offer or bring to the table. I want to know the right answer, or offer something different worth listening to and in doing this, I'm creating a righteousness of my own. I think that somehow God will say, "wow, that was really impressive Wes! I never heard anything like that before. Could you repeat that one more time?" Even in writing this I realize that I'm fighting the very temptation I'm writing about. But this is old news.

Dikaiosune (Dee-kai-o-su-nay) is Greek for righteousness. For me, I don't want this righteousness to be from something I did or from what I can offer, but completely from what Jesus Christ did on the cross. And like Paul, I want to be able to live out this righteousness in humility, that everything I do or can do is poo compared to knowing God and knowing Jesus.