Bit by Bit - How Nintendo is a Byproduct of the Great Commission

 (Bit by Bit is a series expressing gospel
truths through gaming metaphors. The title refers to our progressive sanctification. And, you know, 1's and 0's)

No doubt, you doubt my premise. How could the Great Commission have anything to do with what is arguably the classic of all classic video games?

Hear me out... it's a closer correlation than you're probably expecting.

In 1541, Francis Xavier (former classmate of Ignatius of Loyola) set sail from Portugal to Goa, India. He did so at the request of Henry III of Portugal, who wanted him to address the reportedly declining state of the Church among Portuguese in India. Goa was Portugal's massively important colonial trading center in India, and from there Xavier was to spread the gospel in the East Indies. (Basically India to Indonesia)

Before his departure, Xavier (with Ignatius and others) had been involved in founding the Jesuit order. He thus went out as the first Jesuit missionary. (Of the Jesuit missions movement much can be said, both good and bad, but it brought Christ to many, many people around the world, and is something of which more evangelicals should be aware)

I won't spend this whole entry recounting Xavier's fascinating story (parts of his wikipedia article are quite poorly written, so I'd recommend looking elsewhere), but it is worth noting that in many ways he was ahead of his time as a missionary, employing methods we might call incarnational while those that followed after him often took more of a colonialist approach.

Xavier ministered in a variety of places around Asia, but one important and well-known period of ministry near the end of his life was the 2+ years he spent working in Japan, beginning in 1549.

While Xavier was making efforts to reach Japan with the permission of its rulers, a course of action he felt would be more culturally appropriate there, the Portuguese crew of his ships also quite naturally interacted with the local Japanese people. Seemingly not feeling personally invested in Xavier's missionary purpose, they began teaching a new game to the local people who enjoyed gambling, using a deck of Portuguese playing cards they'd brought with them. This caught on, and variants of the game spread widely. Gambling card games based on this European style 48-card deck became very popular, and were banned in the 1600's as Japan entered its centuries of isolation, closing itself off to the outside world and trying to rid itself of foreign influences. People who enjoyed the card games found various ways around this ban, however, often by changing the look of the cards. Over the next century or two the decks involved into what became known as the Hanafuda, a numberless deck with flowers designating the different suits.

From the creation of the hanafuda deck, still with 48 cards organized similarly to the Portuguese deck, though now with very different art, we now fast forward to the Meiji Era, in which Japan sought to leave behind the old days and become a modern power. Many bittersweet stories are told of this time of loss and renewal, some historical (in 1876 the remnants of the samurai were banned from carrying swords; in 1877 the last samurai rebellion occurred, was eventually stamped out, and the era of the samurai was ended), and many imaginary tales, as it is a common setting for Japanese period fiction.

In these storied days, not long after Japan had moved its capital from its ancient seat in Kyoto to what is now Tokyo and just after telegraph lines had begun going up, a young entrepreneur named Fusajiro Yamauchi started a company selling high-quality hanafuda cards, which the government had finally decided were far enough removed from the original gambling cards to stop banning them.
Mr. Yamauchi opened his first hanafuda store in 1889, named "Nintendo Koppai."

Therefore it was that, 340 years after Portuguese playing cards were introduced (unintentionally) by Francis Xavier as he sought to establish a foothold for the church in Japan (and did see many Japanese accept Christ, though the history of the church in Japan has been a largely tragic one), the Nintendo company was founded to sell an updated Japanese version of those cards.

It was managed well and expanded rapidly, and after 1959, when Fusajiro's grandson Hiroshi acquired the rights to put Disney characters on Nintendo's playing cards, it became Japan's most successful playing card company. Following a trip to the US, however, feeling underwhelmed after his visit to the world's largest playing card manufacturer there, Hiroshi realized there was little future in remaining solely a playing card manufacturer. The company began experimenting with different product lines, finally settling on toys, then by the 70's, early electronic games. (Some of you will at this point be familiar with Nintendo's history, with the Game and Watch device coming onto the market in 1980.)

In 1983, Nintendo began selling the Family Computer (Famicom) entertainment system in Japan, then from 1985-1987 in the West as well, where it was known as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), and came bundled with a game featuring everyone's favorite princess-saving Italian plumber. The Game Boy handheld system followed in 1989, bundled with a little Russian game that had recently begun gaining popularity in the US, called... "Tetris."

The rest, I think, you know. (Though you might not have known that Nintendo still sells hanafuda cards)

So, next time you play a Nintendo game, remember Francis Xavier, first Jesuit missionary to Japan.
Today, Japan's percentage of believers is less than 1%, and it remains one of the world's most secular countries. Early efforts to bring the gospel to Japan resulted, by the vagaries of history, in the export of Nintendo to the world. Maybe it's time for the world's Nintendo generation to take the gospel back there.

TL;DR: The founding of the church in Japan led to you having Nintendo games.
Next time you're playing a Nintendo game, pause it, and pray for the church in Japan.

Bit by Bit - You are Not an NPC

 (Bit by Bit is a series I'll do from time to time expressing gospel
truths through gaming metaphors. The title refers to our progressive sanctification. And, you know,
1's and 0's)

Anyone who has played an RPG or MMORPG (not to mention table-top role-playing games) will be familiar with the idea of an NPC. (If you're not, it means "non-player character" or "non-playable character")

Simply put, it is a character which is part of your game experience, but which you do not control. These characters range from allies that can join your party (often providing witty banter in addition to their combat assistance), to sellers in a market, to the various enemies you encounter, to those frustrating hostages in rescue scenario levels that seem to run lemming-like* to their doom given the slightest opportunity.

*- Lemmings don't actually run off cliffs en masse and kill themselves, it's a persistent urban legend. In one famous documentary they even used a device to launch them off the cliffs so they could film it happening as if the lemmings were doing it. Google or Snope it if you don't believe me.

An NPC doesn't have to care about the game because they -are- the game, existing as part of the game for you, the player, to interact with. They're typically just a computer-controlled character, usually responding to some kind of input from you as well, but of course lacking the means to make any real decisions on their own. (Unless the singularity has already occurred and the so-called AI in games has become real AI and is just toying with us, waiting for its change to go Skynet. But real AI is impossible, of course, for reasons I might explain in a future post.)

Incidentally, this is a convenient metaphor for explaining the idea of scriptural inspiration. We say that the Bible is "inspired" by God, with the Holy Spirit guiding godly men as they wrote. Theologians have often pondered exactly by what means this took place. While there are different schools of thought, the tradition I was taught (and hold to) and that most evangelicals would ascribe to based on their views of scriptural infallibility and inerrancy is Verbal Plenary inspiration, which considers Biblical authors to have been "carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21) and that every word of scripture is "God-breathed." (theopneustos, from 2 Tim 3:16, a cool word Paul seems to have coined for a concept he wanted to convey, Koine Greek being a language which let you do that sort of thing as English does today)

What this means is that Biblical writers were not NPCs, uninvolved spectators who suddenly woke up from a nap one day and found a glowing scroll and empty ink bottle in their inventory. They really did write the books and letters (or, as evidence seems to suggest for some NT books, dictated them to an amanuensis to copy down for them. Either way, they were generating the content..), and the books beautifully reflect the literary genres of the time and the personality of the human author. At the same time, it is not merely the important thoughts and insights of those writers that were communicated, but the Spirit guided them so that what they wrote was scripture, the true words of God, breathed out by Him. There is a gracious and powerful way in which almighty God works in conjunction with fallible humans to bring forth His own desired work. From the building of the tabernacle, to the writing of the scriptures, to the Incarnation itself, and our sanctification and ministry today; we are not NPCs either.

We can act like it, though. We can claim we have no responsibility, claim that God's sovereignty means we can be fatalistic and not fulfill the tasks to which He has called all believers, and those which he reveals to us and calls us to pursue as individuals or couples or teams. "If it's God's will, it will happen," may be true of His revealed will, but maybe it is His will for you to go do that thing today, and not doing it would be sin.

Paul said, regarding our lives in Christ, that we should run in such a way as to win the prize. In the previous post, I suggested a paraphrased adaptation for the gaming generation might be "play in such a way as to win the game." (2 Tim 2:5 makes it clear this doesn't mean cheating is an option.) So would it make a whole lot of sense to play the game by getting a house in an NPC village and just kind of loitering around? Or trying to stand by the village gate and suggest quests to other people while not starting any?

God has given us a mission, a quest, a calling, and it's to bring the gospel to every person, everywhere. Not to save them; only God can do that. And we can't believe -for- anyone else, as much as we sometimes want to (God knows -and that is not taking His name in vain- how I have wanted to). But we can share the reality of what God has revealed to us, about Himself and our human condition. 2000 years later, the campaign is ongoing. The world has been forever changed, previous generations did and are doing their part, but large portions of it remain unreached, and that's our part.

Half of all online free multiplayer RPGs, it seems, start with the same task: go to the [grassy field], collect 7 [gopher pelts], and bring them back so this NPC can make a [jaunty hat]. You will receive [a tattered cloak] or some other thing that's only useful for the next 5min of the game as your reward.

It's not a surprise to anyone who's played an RPG or two, let alone many, that you have to start with small tasks and work your way up to big ones. Before you can receive the quest to slay the Vermicious Knid that dwells in the Stygian Pit of the Fire Swamp, there are those gopher pelts. Some believers, typically younger believers but not necessarily, want to "change the world for God." I'm not mocking this desire, I think it's wonderful and necessary, if coming from a desire to see God's kingdom advancing and a willingness to "become less, that He might become greater" and be a living sacrifice to see that happen for His glory.

What I would encourage those people to understand is that you have to start with the gopher pelts. As a missionary, I've observed that a lot of people think missionaries are magically transformed into conduits of God's grace and power either by taking on the role itself, or by going to live far away for the sake of the gospel. While both of those things can have a profound effect on our walk with God, both through suffering of all kinds that makes you rely on Him and from seeing how brightly His glory shines when your surroundings are especially dark (and there are different kinds of darkness) -it's not magic. It's much more like 'grinding' quests than most people know. Gopher pelts every day, from gophers that rarely drop them.

But: once you've taught the little kids Bible stories and caught their colds, or spent time listening to the homeless and impoverished and begun to question fundamental aspects of your own worldview, or patiently served the disabled elderly with no glory and little thanks, or shared the gospel with that curious but resistant friend for the 11th time, and then God calls you from the Sunny Labyrinth of Suburbia or Concrete Canyons of the Inner City to serve Him in the far away Jungle Encampment or Mountain Village or Grand Market of Cydonia, after you've done all that...

You suddenly find that those little +3 to Patience and +5 to Courage and God-Moment drops you've been collecting in familiar and even boring settings have prepared you to be able to attempt and sometimes succeed at the exotic and unfamiliar missionary quests you discover in your new home-far-away-from-home. And what are those quests, you ask?

Well, there's lot of...

Teaching little kids Bible stories, spending time with homeless and impoverished people, serving the elderly, sharing the gospel repeatedly-hey, sound familiar? It turns out much of what you'd do overseas as a missionary is what you could have already been doing where you are now.* And, the more you did it in your "normal life," -which is anything but normal, it is a defiant stand of goodness and love against a world reeling from sin and stained in darkness- the more successful you'll be at it in your missionary life, should God call you to that. If not, it turns out you have the opportunity to be the Church that withstands the gates of hell wherever He has currently placed you. (He has, you know.)

*- Yes, missionaries have cool adventures and bizarre experiences too, but that's not a average picture of your typical missionary life day-to-day. Like I said, gopher pelts. Although those quests like rescuing Crown Prince Huang from the Ancestral Demons dwelling in the Haunted Iron Fortress with the Sword of the Spirit and the power of the Name really do happen too... we have good stories for a reason.

In conclusion we are not NPCs, not non-playable characters, we are the ones who are called to serve wherever we find ourselves. Whether the adventure on our plate is loving our irritable coworker or smuggling Bibles into a closed country, it is not "for those people who do those things" to take care of while we wonder whether God will call us to serve Him. Because we are those people. We are the called.

TL;DR: We are the called. Start collecting those gopher pelts.

First, You've Got to Get There

It is widely acknowledged that the missionary lifestyle is not an easy one. Historically this was reinforced by things like missionaries packing their belongings in coffins when traveling to their ministry fields, knowing there was a good chance they'd be returning in them. Today the task is less dangerous in that sense (in most parts of the world), though it is arguably somewhat more complicated.

Cardboard boxes don't have quite the symbolic effect...

What is less commonly known is that one of the most difficult parts of many missionaries' work is getting onto the field in the first place. Ironically, one part that many people seem to consider the most difficult -actually deciding to go- was for me the easiest. God made it clear He wanted me to go; I could but say yes or no. (And saying "no" to God is not recommended.) Having said yes, I began to discover the truth that the difficulties didn't start once I was "over there," but began to immediately present themselves.

For many difficult tasks, it is possible to simply power through them. If asked to roll a heavy log up a hill, most people could do it if they had to. Simply dig down and refuse to quit, push as hard as you can, and get it up to the top by any way possible. Or for less difficult but longer and more boring tasks, like a pile of paperwork, one simply plods forward until eventually the whole thing is done. Unpleasant, but eventually overcome.

For getting onto the field, I found the complexity of the task to be that it's neither a matter of simply plowing ahead through any difficulty that arises, or waiting it out, but of accomplishing a number of things simultaneously, with a sort of default timer ticking beyond which people will begin to lose faith in either your calling or abilities. Going back to the log example, imagine being told to roll the log up the hill, within a certain time frame, and also to not crush any of the numerous wildflowers growing on the hill. Suddenly pushing with all your might is not an option. You are not allowed to "try as hard as you can," in the straightforward sense, and "try harder" is not an effective strategy. Nor can you do this task in small chunks with nice breaks in between; if pushed up only partway, the log will roll back down. (Thank God, sometimes He chocks the log for you, and moments of rest are supplied when He knows they are necessary.)

I did not write this to complain! God has called all of us to participate in spreading His kingdom to every part of the world, and He has given me a love for the field to which He is calling me. The labor in this sense is joyful. But I am trying to define the difficulty of a task which can't simply be pushed through, as it depends on the cooperation of volunteers on both an individual and a church level, nor always done in a logical step-by-step fashion, as the "next step" is often a preparation for something coming much later or a setback which forces one to rely on God and wait for Him to reveal a new and unexpected opportunity in another direction.

If only it were this straightforward!

In other words, the dance to the missions field is not so much "three steps forward, two steps back," as "three steps forward, five steps diagonally back to the left, a big jump forward landing on one foot, hopping there while waiting for a place to put the other one, sliding sideways, another step forward, two steps back, cha cha cha," etc. It's learning to trust God to provide the way forward through unfamiliar territory at the very time when other people begin to expect familiar-looking progress in exchange for their trust.

And it's a difficult thing for missionaries to be learning how to move along God's perfect but unpredictable path while many spectators expect them to be moving in the most productive, sensible, and competent direction (as an engineer by trade, this indeed makes the most sense by default, so I do fully understand this way of thinking). Put another way, it's like crossing a major street. People expect you to use the crosswalk in an inspirational sort of way, while it feels much more like God is calling you to play Simon Says in the heavy traffic.

If I can be very straightforward for a moment, it can be rather frustrating to be criticized from time to time by people who would themselves never dream of surrendering all hopes of a career and stable future in the normal sense, because of Very Important Reasons which any reasonable person would see prevent it from being an option for them. (Nevermind those reasons might have just as equally applied to you as well.) They expect you to overcome your unfamiliar difficulties as they overcome their familiar ones, and can adopt the attitude of making sure you "measure up," that support money is not being wasted on you. Unfortunately, this kind of judgmental scrutiny, while not helpful, is also not entirely unfounded. It must be recognized that there are career missionaries who are simply not up to the task, or who have gone onto the field for reasons entirely other than a calling or obedience to the Great Commission, or who spend their support money wastefully and accomplish little in their fields or even do great damage through willful sin. This is sadly the reality, and I believe accountability for missionaries is entirely appropriate. Exactly what form this could take in the sense of measurable goals is a great question which merits further discussion, but the willingness of someone to sacrifice what life they had to pursue God's call should perhaps merit good faith at the outset until proven otherwise, and indeed in most cases and churches it seems to do so.

But of course while having spiritual gifts which are appropriate to the task, cross-cultural missionaries have no special dispensation of knowledge or abilities from God beyond any other believer. God always supplies what is necessary to accomplish what He has called us to do, and so we are just servants of the Kingdom who have been called to exchange familiar neighborhoods for unfamiliar ones. And while the calling is sure (The Great Commission was not a suggestion), we're not always sure the best way to go about doing it. But the passion God has placed in me for His glory among the Taiwanese people compels me forward. That burning fire, lit by the Spirit, continues through the waves of spiritual opposition and temptation, the dark mists of disappointment or confusion about what to do next, or the storms of hardship and setbacks.

"Taiwan is still the only major Han Chinese population in the world
where a significant spiritual breakthrough has not occurred." Operation World

I have been very blessed to have many people trust me, even some people who are not naturally the trusting sort. I feel the weight of this trust very acutely, and pray that I will never betray it, the more so as I have personally been a witness to the grievous results of such downfalls. Yet I know that the ability to merit that trust is not in myself, but in the God who sustains me. He has promised to continue to do so; my task is to walk in obedience and communion with Him, down this strange road which has led through Huntsville, and Texas, and across the Pacific. May He grant the strength to do so, and if you have read this far, I would appreciate your prayers as well.

(And feel free to comment with any of your own prayer requests. I'm always happy to lift them up. It is becoming increasingly obvious to me that sometimes our insurmountable obstacles are not due to a lack of strategy, but a lack of time spent demonstrating our dependence on God through prayer.)

Introverts as Missionaries?

So I've both noticed many and received a few questions about ministry (especially missions) and introversion lately. There seems to be a widespread feeling that missions is something which so heavily involves constant interaction with other people that introverts are ill-suited at best to pursue this kind of ministry.

As an introvert who is going into cross-cultural ministry, I want to specifically engage this issue and perhaps address the concerns of some introverts who are considering going into missions, yet are worried they won't be able to handle the social load.

For starters, let's look at what it means to be an introvert.

The common perception: You're socially underdeveloped/deficient
Introversion is usually not considered a positive trait (or even a neutral one) at least in America, where "putting yourself out there" and fearlessly engaging and thriving in the social scene is considered almost de facto necessary for success.

In the church, a similar way of thinking persists, though under another name. We are called to love and serve other people, so how can you not be a people person? Perhaps you are simply not a mature enough Christian to have developed a strong love for other people. I am only somewhat hyperbolizing, and could tell stories... People-people are sometimes incapable of understanding how you could want to do anything but spend your time in the company of other people. And the introverts twitch a little, feeling their very sanity depends on getting away for a little while to a quiet cup of tea and book that needs finishing.

In Susan Cain's book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (a book which I highly, highly recommend for introverts or extroverts wishing to understand your introverted friends, family, and colleagues), the author discusses at one point how American churches often demand extroversion as a qualification when looking to fill leadership positions:

"A senior priest at another church confesses online that he has advised parishes recruiting a new rector to ask what his or her Myers-Briggs score is. "If the first letter isn't an 'E' [for extrovert]," he tells them, "think twice ... I'm sure our Lord was an [extrovert]." (Cain, Susan; Quiet; p65)

The above example is a Catholic church, but I would argue from experience that this phenomenon is even more common in Evangelical churches. Contrast this to what we know about Christ; He often slipped away from the crowds, spending the night alone in prayer. Whether in His humanity Jesus was an introvert, extrovert, ambivert, or transcending all of these, we should follow His example of spending much time with people, and much time alone with the Father.

Seriously.. introverts (and extroverts) need to read this book.

The reality: You simply relate to people differently
Due partially to books such as the one quoted above and an increase in online materials regarding introversion (Google "myths about introverts" for many insightful articles), there is a growing awareness that introverts are not, in fact, people who necessarily dislike other people or the company of other people.

As it turns out, introverts simply are refreshed and energized by spending time alone, and not with other people. I have often been assumed to be an extrovert because I am friendly, have a very large circle of acquaintances, and am fairly active socially. But people who see these factors and assume extroversion don't see how I often return home from a long day of (profitable and enjoyable) meetings totally drained, and spend hours silently reading and listening to music before I sleep. This has not prevented me from meeting and keeping up with large numbers of people in multiple states and countries; it just means every now and then I need a break from people, and I must take care to make sure I get it. Those alone times can be highly productive as well; my spiritual gift of teaching is much less effective without periodic times of reflection to process the lessons God has been teaching me recently, and obviously any writing I do occurs during those alone times.

A Truth: Global Missions would be impossible without Introverts

This might seem a bold statement to some, but the whole range of spiritual gifts that accompany introversion are extremely important to any mission team. Not all countries and cultures value the super-extroverted American ideal, and some may even find it offensive. The ability to empathize with people and slowly build a small circle of meaningful relationships, something which comes very naturally to many introverts, allows for a more enduring presence in a community and the chance for long-term partnerships to accomplish real change, when the dynamic speakers and event-based outreach ministries have passed on.

This is, of course, not meant to suggest at all that extroverts are not capable of these kinds of relationships or that their ministries do not have long-term focus. But there is a "soft power" of introversion which endures quietly in difficult situations. Transplanted into a new ministry field, they might not shoot out many branches at first, but they may be putting down deep roots which will help them weather the storms that any cross-cultural ministry eventually faces. Introverts may often be better at "leading from behind," being comfortable with letting local leadership-in-training take center stage while continuing to provide support and direction until they are able to fully lead on their own.

Another example might be seen in the way new missionaries learn the language of their host culture:
In the beginning there seems to be a clear advantage to the extroverts, who are quick to "get out there" and try their new language skills in the streets and with the many new friends they've probably already made. The introverts, by contrast, may still be adjusting to the new environment and not have made many friends yet. It may be easy for them to let the extroverts do the talking at first. However wait a few years down the road, and the introverts' typical love of books may have propelled them into higher levels of literacy, and their small circles of close friends will provide many opportunities for socially safe but effective language progress.

In the end, it should be obvious that both extroverts and introverts have skills and abilities which make them effective in ministry, and that they are able to cover each others' weaknesses.

Extroverts should be careful not to judge introverts for not jumping into socializing with them, and introverts should be careful to develop their people skills as much as possible. In my own case, as an introvert I try to develop my "social endurance" just as an athlete develops their physical endurance. I'll never be a natural at it like some of my friends are, but I am much better at it now than I used to be, and have been blessed by the increased chances for meaningful meetings and relationships that have happened as a result.

So the answer to introverts wondering if they are cut out for cross-cultural missions is a resounding: maybe!
The issue is not your intro or extroversion, but whether this is God's will for you. If it is, He who calls will supply everything you need to answer the call. Pray that He will open and close doors as necessary to lead you in His will, and never let introversion be a reason to hesitate. (Remember Joshua 1:9!)

For life on the field itself, simply be self-aware, recognize that you need to set aside rest times (keeping one day a week at least partially free is a good idea, God created the sabbath for a reason), and at the same time don't let your introversion become an excuse for self-isolation or social laziness.
Since the inner life of the mind is such a constant reality for introverts, remember to "take every thought captive" to Christ. As a famous pastor and teacher was fond of saying,  "You are not what you think, but what you think, you are."

Your introversion is a gift that God has given you, that comes with its own benefits and abilities, to serve Him in the ways for which He has created you!

Why I'm Going to Taiwan, Part Three

This is the last of a three-part series on why I'm going to Taiwan for long-term missions.

Reason I'm going to Taiwan #3: The gospel is barely present there.

This might seem like a very obvious reason, but I have listed it third for a reason. While it indeed is a perfectly appropriate motive for taking the gospel cross-culturally in general (An all-consuming zealousness for God's greater glory in all the world would seemingly be the highest motive, but wiser men than I have weighed in on this issue), it does not necessarily lead us directly to a particular ministry field. We must be careful not to substitute pragmatism or even splagchnizomai for God's leading. Many places in the world lack widespread gospel presence, and while that fact obviously shows we have much work ahead of us to fulfill the Great Commission, we must still go through the process of seeking God's will and determining to which ministry field we will go.

Missiologists would identify our current phase of world mission as focusing on unreached people groups. This is as it should be, as our responsibility is to take the gospel to every culture, and not to move through cultures one by one until the gospel is accepted by a majority in each (something which we know from Scripture (Matt 7:14) will sadly seldom occur).

So one can see that the least-reached areas deserve special attention and focus, and many are called, as was Paul, to preach the gospel where Christ is not known, so as not to "build on someone else's foundation." (Rom 15:20) But the appropriate ministry area for any particular missionary, however, is not necessarily the "least-reached" one, but the one to which God leads him.

For me, realizing (really realizing, not just acknowledging as a fact) just how few Taiwanese know God or have a chance to hear about Him in a relevant way rocked me to my core. Knowing that for every 100 Taiwanese people I saw on the crowded streets, at least 97 of them did not know Christ, and would die unreconciled to God and be eternally away from His presence, was almost more than I could bear. (For more info on the state of the church in Taiwan or anywhere else, I recommend looking at the latest edition of Operation World.)

That was one of the primary motivators for me to consider missions in general. (I hadn't yet decided on Taiwan in particular, that process is described more in the first two parts of this series.) I enjoyed my job as an engineer, and knew it was a blessing from God. But I could no longer in good conscience merely sit at my desk every day and make a very good income knowing that halfway around the world, people I had become quite aware of through my trips were living and dying almost wholly without the knowledge of the gospel. I could not do it.

So I began to open myself to the idea of missions, although I had never considered myself missionary-material before. Honestly, I wasn't crazy about working with people at all at this point. I did C++ programming mostly at work, and it made sense. Tell the computer to do A, and if it didn't do A, you could be more or less certain that you had told it wrong. People, on the other hand, were unpredictable, and seemed to get emotional over the strangest things. (On the Myers-Briggs personality test I am an INTP, aka the Rational-Architect, which is not at all what people generally consider "a missionary personality.")
So I prayed to God, and suggested that if He wanted me to be a missionary, He would have to help me develop a heart for people in reality and not merely the abstract. This prayer He has been continually answering since I prayed it; I am a very different person now, though still an INTP. (I have also learned that there is no "missionary personality," and that INTP's or ESFJ's are equally able to love people and serve God cross-culturally. I am living testimony that someone whose idea of a satisfying night was reading books on Chess strategy alone with some hot tea can be used by God just as much as someone whose idea of a satisfying night is sharing your deepest feelings with two dozen of the new best friends you met last week... but more on that in a later blog entry!)

Concurrent with this growing missional awareness was the realization that God had plans for me that involved Taiwan specifically. During my second trip to Taiwan, while praying at the gospel-sharing evening of our summer camp, God spoke to me as clearly as He ever has, and let me know that I needed to go back to Taiwan. I asked the missionary field leader there what to do. He recommended I stay in Taiwan for a year and experience life and ministry there, and then make a decision about longer-term ministry, if that was applicable. After prayer, I felt strongly that this was the next step God was leading me towards, and so I agreed to do it.

Then it was a question of quitting my engineering job. Strangely, this was one of the easier parts. Once God had made something as clear as He had made this to me, it was simply a question of whether or not I would obey Him. And I had no desire to end up in whatever the equivalent of a big fish's stomach for three days would turn out to be for me... so I thanked my boss for the opportunity to work at my company and the experience I'd had there, and gave notice. To say that the next year I spent in Taiwan was life-changing would be both trite and an understatement. By the end of that time, I was not only convinced that long-term service in Taiwan was something God had prepared me to do, but that I would be happy to do it, if that was His will. (The process of determining that with confidence is dealt with in the previous two entries.)

So that completes the story of why I am going to Taiwan, and I would welcome any additional questions you might have.

Praise be to the Lord Most High for calling each of us in our weakness and imperfection as vessels of His own gospel, that we might share in the eternal blessing of bringing glory to His name!

Why I'm Going to Taiwan, Part One

This is probably one of the most common questions I'm asked when sharing that I'm going overseas for missionary work. It seems like an appropriate way to start the posting here as well, so here goes:

Reason I'm going to Taiwan #1: I have a Calling

The idea of a calling can be misinterpreted, and sadly often is. Some Christians wait for some kind of Gideon-esque sign from God, and others for some intangible sensation that will "confirm" the call in some definitive-enough sense that they can feel the decision can be made with minimum uncertainty. Neither is necessarily required for the decision to pursue cross-cultural missionary work, and many organizations now discourage the use of this term for that reason. How many Christians are waiting on a "sign" from God to go, when Jesus has commanded us all to go? For someone who is clearly led towards and qualified for a certain ministry, "waiting for a calling" could in fact be a way of clothing their own fears and hesitation in godly-sounding language.

(Although sometimes God does indeed make it that obvious; I recall hearing a friend tell of his friend committing to ministry in China after having a dream in which "CHINA" was written in giant fiery letters. Without the context of seeking God's will in a matter, however, this could be easily explained as merely a result of thinking very hard about the decision during waking hours. Looking at the examples of Moses, Gideon, and others, scripture suggests that this kind of sign from God is typically a response to prayerful inquiries and appropriate in the context of a revelation from God which has already been given, not a trumpet call "out of the blue.")

In my own experience, the confirmation went hand-in-hand with the commitment, and both strengthened each other to some extent. My own wet/dry fleece moment could be said to have occurred when praying repeatedly and earnestly for confirmation that I was indeed on the right path in my pursuing Taiwan missions.
After helping my small group organize a week of prayer for our upcoming missions conference at seminary, I randomly chose a time slot which was open on an afternoon I knew I was free, without giving much thought to the particular time I was choosing. Upon arriving at the prayer chapel, I found a document had been supplied which provided a list of countries, American cities, and missionary organizations as possible prayer options. Each day had one each of these, and upon finding my day I discovered to my considerable surprise that the country was Taiwan, and the organization was TEAM -the very organization I'd been intending to join and with whose missionaries my Taiwan ministry experience had been accomplished.

This alone would have been a poor method of picking a ministry destination and organization, but coming after years of Taiwan ministry experience and hours spent in prayer over the decision, and already being at seminary for the purpose of being more prepared for ministry in Taiwan, I believe it was a gracious answer to my fervent prayers for confirmation that I was indeed in God's will. At other crossroads in the journey, I needed confidence again, and each time God provided evidence that I was in His will. Sometimes it was a new local ministry opportunity which tied into my ongoing progress to overseas ministry, sometimes an improbable meeting with the exactly right person to help me take the next step; the God who calls will provide what is necessary to obey the call.

The most interesting moment in my pursuit of Taiwan ministry came during TEAM's annual conference in Taiwan when I was spending a visionary year of ministry there to explore the potential of longer-term service. I was praying outside, enjoying the warm air and starlight (Visible when far enough away from urban environments; Asian cities tend to be glorious, multi-splendored beacons of light pollution and Taiwanese cities are certainly no exception.), and more or less directly asked God if I was supposed to come back there. I received an interesting silence back in answer. This I was not sure how to interpret. It was certainly not a "no," yet I didn't feel any sort of confirmation.

Later after more prayer I realized that I had been trying to foist off the decision on God.
Basically, I wanted God to tell me to go, in no uncertain terms, so I didn't have to shoulder the responsibility for my own decision to do so and whatever ramifications that might have in my own life or the lives of others. I was worried that if I chose wrong, or misinterpreted His will, I might end up somewhere far away from where I ought to be, and then have to try to uproot myself from wherever that was and try to get back into the thing that really was His will for my life.

God in His merciful and infinite wisdom did not comply with my attempt to obtain "decision insurance," and instead allowed me to learn what seems clear now; that God does not test us in this way. Certainly, He will test our obedience by asking us to do things which are more difficult than we can accomplish without His aid, or things we don't understand at the time (and sometimes ever in this life), but God will not set an open, righteous and God-glorifying path in front of you and then punish you for following it because you honestly mistook it for His will.

Yet, I knew that it would be difficult to distinguish obstacles the enemy threw in my path from God re-directing me. So I prayed that, as my goal was to find His will, I would try to overcome every obstacle and trust that if I was going out of His will, He would close the door effectively enough that I wouldn't mistake it merely as spiritual opposition. By the time I finished that year in Taiwan, I had made the decision that, unless He closed the door and locked it, I would pursue Taiwanese ministry and not let any difficulty stop me. Praise be to our glorious God: that was many open doors ago.