Sunday after the meeting I had the privilege of witnessing at Suao Port. My friend Bara (from Prague) stayed with us for the weekend, so we joined up with the brothers going out to coast for their monthly trip to Suao. On every full moon they have been making the trek to the East coast to find fisherman. (Full moon= bad fishing, so this is when they dock) We all piled into the back of a brother's little 4wd van on the floor and drove an hour and a half out to the coast. It was a lot of fun. When we arrived it was dark and raining and of course none of us was equipped with an umbrella. But we didn't mind being soaked to the skin, because within 5 minutes of being there we placed 4 bibles, several magazines, a couple Bible teach books, and extended several invitations to the bible study meeting that was about to take place. As soon as you talk to one of the Filipinos, they go and find their buddy and bring them to you so that they can get some literature too. Then that guy will find two more of his buddies to talk to, etc. Some come up to you and wave and say 'Hi sister!' and they will pull out magazines that they've been keeping in their coat pocket from the last visit. Others have never even seen the magazines, so there's plenty of work to be done.
The amazing thing is, one of the elders in the congregation that has been taking the lead in the port witnessing at Suao, managed to find a restaurant near the docks where the owner has graciously allowed us to use the upstairs portion of his restaurant to hold a bible discussion open to all the fisherman. Now, the Filipinos and Indonesians are not highly regarded here in Taiwan. Sadly they are usually ignored and treated rather badly, like scum or slaves. But amazingly, this Taiwanese restaurant owner has allowed these poor, dirty, fisherman to come inside- during business hours, without needing to order anything, not having to pay any kind of fee, and use the restaurant to study the Bible with the brothers. This is no small feat, only by Jehovah's spirit would this ever be possible. And the beautiful thing is, the fisherman that come to join the study bring their own study material, they highlight every scripture in their Bibles, ask questions, and fight over who gets to read the scriptures. And without a word from any of us- after the study is over, they all put the tables back the way they were, and start mopping the floor. They are so incredibly respectful and enthused, it's really heartwarming. We had the chance to talk to quite a few fisherman that were wandering around, and got their phone numbers so that on the next full moon they can come and join the study too. We are currently waiting for the 'okay' from the branch to start conducting a public talk out there once a month.
*Last night, Melissa and I took our clunky, rust bucket, bicycles out for their first endurance test. We rode through the city and out of town to a river that winds down along side of Taipei. There is a bike trail within an enormous, awesome park that runs for MILES down the river. It was so nice to go for a real bike ride again! The park was mostly empty (because it was dark and starting to rain), so we had it all to ourselves. There is a spectacular view of the city all lit up and reflecting off the river. I think we found our new favorite quick get-away. Pictures below.
*The next couple weeks should be quite busy- I have my first talk in my hall on Thursday, in a little over a week Melissa 1 and Melissa 2, and I are flying to Hong Kong for visa runs (which should be quite an adventure especially because it's right smack dab in the middle of Chinese New Year), and we have our C.O. visit the day we come home from China. So, expect lots of stories and experiences to come soon!
...visual aids....
A few of the unique publications we have here that I had never seen in the states...
This is our literature drawer at home, I have to keep around 8 or 9 different languages stocked at all times to be prepared for field service.
Our bike ride along the river in the rain...
The car ride on our way to the coast in the back of a van on the floor. (Come to think of it, we had people from 5 different countries crammed in that van: Australia, USA, Czech Republic, Taiwan, and Philippines- all here to help the English field)
(Front seat passengers not pictures obviously)
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