Crazy times in Titus!

What's going on in Titus around the world?!  It's exciting, it's crazy, some of it sounds like spiritual warfare, and we would all love your prayers!!

Cambodia: Pioneering their first Titus Project -- starting June 28!  Amy will fly out for a week (June 21-29) to help as they get things off the ground.

Europe: The first Titus Project to run in Europe (Sweden) starts July 3!  The leaders just had a baby and the wife/mom/Titus co-leader has just come down with Lyme's disease after being bitten by a tick (imagine a 2-yr-old, a new baby, a new Titus at a new base, moving your family to a new country [headed to Ukraine long term after this], and now being wiped out from Lyme's disease!)  We think of you often Ang!

India: The next Titus starts July 12, and they are expecting 20+ participants, which includes 6 coming from Nepal.  Nepal is planning to get Titus up and running there this next year.  The leader is a teaching machine right now, has been studiously learning Hindi this past year, and will help us pioneer a new Titus in B* early next year. :-)

Montana:  The Titus Montana leader and another Titus staff person are one their way to Cambodia right now as we speak (i.e. type), and will go on from there to India to help with both Tituses.  Getting there has been, well, a bit stressful, yet a testimony to the faithfulness of God!  They sent in their passports in to get India visas and were denied.  They applied again, but when the process took too long, asked for their passports to be sent back.  Their passports still hadn't arrived when they were scheduled to fly out, so a local post office opened up for them at 3:30 a.m. and went through the mail bag to see if they had come in on the last truck.  Nothing.  They decided to go ahead to the airport to see what talking to the agents in person would do (in terms of needing to change tickets, etc.) and on the way, got a call from the Post Office saying their passports were in a town an hour south.  Explaining the situation at the airport, the agents graciously re-routed them, having them fly out of a town 2 hours south -- but, the flight was in 2 hours!  They sped south, stopping at the Post Office where their passports were purported to be, roused the postal workers to open the door for them and found their passports (at about 5:00 am), sped on to the next airport, and just made the flight (no time to check their bags, just get on the plane).  The India consulate kept their $330, but no visa.  Pray for favor when they apply at the Embassy in Thailand/Cambodia (not sure which one?)!

South Africa:  The leaders are expecting their first child, adopting a child at the same time, going back to the States this next week before Titus starts to finalize U.S citizenship, and their next Titus starts June 28!

Taiwan:  (That's us! :-))  We already have 12+ applications in the works, with rumors of many people planning to apply.  In anticipation of 40+ applicants, we are planning to run Titus twice early in the year (Jan & Feb, back-to-back -- start the second while the first are on outreach), and then again in Sept.  Pray for us as we need to recruit several more staff!

If you count the above locations, that's right!  We have 6 Tituses going (or nearly going) right now!  Next year, there should be 3-4 more additional (new) locations!  Stay tuned for more exciting and crazy things/times to come! :-)

It's simple: Just add potatoes, carrots, and WORMS.

As anyone who has tried to learn a tonal language knows, "If you don't remember the tone, you don't remember the word!"  Tonight we had some of our good Taiwanese friends over for dinner.  I made a simple slow-cooker pot roast.  When they asked how to make it, I said (in Chinese), "It's super-simple.  Just put the meat on the bottom, add potatoes, carrots, and "onions"...  I knew from the smirks I hadn't gotten it quite right, so asked what I, in actual, had said.  Apparently my wrong pronunciation on "onion" sounded like, "just add carrots, potatoes, and worms".  We all had a good laugh, and I will probably forever remember the correct tone for onion from now on!  Anyhowz, next time I make a pot roast, maybe I should add a little extra flavor!  Who's on for dinner?!? :-P

Elise's Baptism

Elise has been wanting to get baptized for some time now, and this morning, she and her good friend Elwina (standing to Elise's left [right in the picture]), along with a few other kids and several adult new-believers were all baptized.  She was a bit shy to share in front of the whole church, but she did it!  Rough translation: "Hello everyone.  My name is Shi YunJie (her Chinese name).  I've known Jesus since I was very small, and have wanted to be baptized.  I feel that Jesus is a great help to me, and has taken me out from the darkness."

Titus Times (Montana Edition)

Titus Times (Montana Edition)

Chinese Challenge!

Our local Chinese church has a very good Sunday-school program which all of our kids enjoy. This past quarter, I (Amy) agreed to try out being a Sunday-school assistant once a month.  Well, that was the original agreement, anyway.  It turned into me being the actual teacher instead of just the assistant.  I wasn't too sure about it at the beginning:

"Eee... I've never taught in Chinese before..."
"That's ok, you can teach in English -- a lot of the parents want their kids to learn English anyway."

So, my first Sunday, I started off in English... and that lasted about 5 seconds (as I knew it would) with blank stares from all the 3-4 year-olds (except the two blondies, who were actually understanding everything in Sunday School for the first time! :-P).  So, I tried to go back and forth, saying everything twice in both languages.  (i.e. scrambling in my head for super-simple English, then scrambling for how in the world to translate it all!)  It did take a bit of extra effort, but it was a good challenge, and it gave me some good Chinese practice in front of a fairly non-threatening audience. :-P

An Interview with Amy

Why do we do what we do?  We thought some of you would be interested in hearing the story behind Titus Project and how it all got started.  This interview takes us back to 1996, when Amy was in her 2nd year of SBS staff and tells how the vision for Titus Project came about:



Little did I know back then where we would be today!  God is so amazing and continues to give us so much vision!  Currently, Titus is operating in 4 locations, with 2-3 more coming this next year.  We have trained over 300 new Bible teachers, and have sent out 110 teams to 42 different countries.  We give God all the glory and feel humbled & privileged to serve Him by equipping and sending more Bible teachers to the nations!

What is Titus Project?  Here is a great 3-minute visual overview! (Dec 16 post) :-)

I'll Be Home for Christmas

A better title would probably read, "I'll be at home for Christmas" -- and this would be referring to our kids.  Christmas is not a nationally-celebrated holiday in Taiwan, and as such, if it falls on a normal weekday, it is also a normal school day.  Can you imagine going to school on Christmas day?  Well, we can't really either, so for the past several years, have requested our kids to be able to skip school on Christmas day. :-)

We are looking forward to some family fun & hanging out with friends.  Merry Christmas everyone!

And... She does it again!

Apparently our kids think we should be on a first-name basis with the ER staff at the hospital...

Anaya has just been in for her 3rd set of stitches on her face this year.  Kenna was in for stitches above her eye just weeks previous.  The only one of the kids to not have stitches so far is Nathan!