Damien and Oliver
As some of you may know, I’m staying with a Taiwanese family here in Taiwan, who are members of the church I’m working at. I wanted to introduce you to Damien and Oliver. They are in their last year of Elementary School and are preparing for Junior High. I don’t get to see them very much because of their demanding schedules. Yesterday I got to hang out with them for a little bit and they shared with me what a typical week looks like for them. Here is what they shared with me:
Monday:
7am-4pm — school
4:30(ish)-7(ish) — dinner & rest
7pm-11pm (sometimes midnight) — study/homework
Tuesday:
7am-4pm — school
4:30-6:30 — dinner & rest
7pm-8:30pm — piano lessons
until 11pm or midnight — study/homework
Wednesday:
7am-Noon — school
12:30-5:30 — homework/dinner/rest
6pm-9pm — extra school (called a “bushi ban”;
not required but helps students get ahead)
9:30-midnight — study/homework
Thursday:
7am-4pm — school
4:30-6:30 — dinner & rest
7pm-8:30pm — bushi ban
9pm-midnight — study/homework
Friday:
7am-4pm — school
4:30-6pm — piano lesson
6:30pm — dinner
7:30-midnight — study/homework
Saturday:
10am-6pm — bushi ban
7pm-8pm — piano lesson
8:30-10pm — study/homework
10-midnight — free time
Sunday:
10:30-Noon — church
Noon-??? — They usually get to use Sundays
to do what they enjoy doing.
For these boys, it’s usually
reading comic books or playing games.
Education if very important all across the island. These boy’s schedule is an example of what a child’s life might be like growing up in Taiwan and why it’s difficult at times to get school age kids involved in church. Damien and Oliver haven’t been able to attend our midweek activities, but have been pretty consistent with attending on Sundays. However, right now, they’ve been taking exams the past couple of Sundays, which isn’t uncommon here (to have tests on Sundays). But I’ve definitely enjoyed the time I have been able to spend with them. We had a good time the other day taking crazy pictures on my laptop. Enjoy!
Easter
Sorry this is a little bit late, but I wanted to share a picture with you from Easter. This is a picture of the kids after the
Easter egg hunt. We actually picked up a few new kids at the hunt site who were finding the eggs and eating the candy inside before we got there with the church kids. It’s kind of a funny story. Dave wanted one of the eggs to be empty. Whoever found that egg was to go to Dave and explain to him what that signified (the idea of the empty tomb and that Christ rose from the dead). If they did so correctly, he was going to give them $100NT (about $3.25US). Well, the kids who were hunting before we got there were eating the candy and putting the eggs back, so there turned out to be several eggs without any candy in them. But of course we accepted these kids as our own and enjoyed this time together.
Buh Puh Muh Fuh
No I’m not cussing at you. This is what I have spent time learning during my first couple weeks of language school. I think I can best describe this as the “alphabet of sounds” that are used to form words in Chinese. “Buh, puh, muh, fuh” are the first four sounds of this “a
lphabet”. Their characters are on the far right side, from top to bottom. So I spent the first several lessons working on memorizing these characters and their sounds. Now I’m starting to put these characters together to form words and reading sentences. Granted, I have no idea what these words or sentences mean most of the time, but I’m just practicing recognizing the “buh puh muh fuh” so I can learn to pronounce Chinese words correctly. This week I just started learning vocabulary. So it’s kind of starting to come together a little bit.
Prayer Update 3-17-08
Chinese is hard…
I’m confident that with all the time I’m devoting to learning this language, that it will eventually come, but my first impression of the language is that it is very complicated. But I am excited about the prospects of one day being able to communicate effectively. Until then, this will be a weekly prayer request for quite some time.
Kimberly is currently on a plane heading back to the states for a brief two week period where she hopes to tackle a few items on our wedding plan list. It will also be a great time for her to spend time with her family, who she’s been away from since August! Pray for her safe travel!
Pray for our Easter Sunday coming up. Dave has been encouraging our church members to invite friends to the service. Pray that they would have boldness to do so and that hearts and minds would be open to the Easter message.
A couple of other events that you can be praying for in advance:
1) Taiwan Missionary Fellowship, which Dave in heading up this summer, will be July 7-12. I’ll be organizing the evening sessions for teenagers during that week.
2) Sports and English Camp will be the following week. This is big event each year for reaching out to young people here in Taiwan. Many Team Expansion missionaries on the island come and help out with this event.
I’ll be sharing more about these two events along the way!
Thank you so much for your faithful prayers!
Prayer Update 3-6-08
Thank you so much for continuing to remember me in your prayers. I’ve been here nearly a week now and, so far, the adjustments haven’t been too difficult. I didn’t struggle too much with jet lag; maybe the first couple of days. It has been great spending time learning about some of things I will be doing and familiarizing myself with the surrounding areas.
I bought a small, inexpensive scooter the other day. Not having the experience with such modes of transportation, it didn’t come as easily as I had hoped. But as I continue to ride it around, I’m getting there. Please pray for safety, both for myself and for those who happen to be riding around in my general area, as I continue to learn.
I also begin language school today. I’m already starting to feel a little frustration with not being able to communicate with people here. Pray that I will be patient as I learn.
It’s so wonderful having friends like you who believe in the power of prayer! Thank you so much for supporting me in this way!
I Made It
I arrived in Taiwan Friday night at 9pm (8am Indiana time). From the airport I purchased a bus ticket, which wasn’t as nerve-wracking as I expected it to be, and hopped on my bus for Taichung. My team leader, David Atkin, gave me really good instructions on how to do all of this. When I arrived in Taichung, a member from the church met me at the bus stop to take me to my host family’s house. It was about Midnight when I got to the house. I got an abbreviated tour of the house and then I went to bed. I was pretty exhausted after the long flights.
The next day, the church was passing out fliers at the park to advertise for the English service I will be leading beginning the middle of April. My te
am leader and myself, as well as the church members, thought this would be a perfect opportunity to surprise Kimberly, as she wasn’t expecting me until next weekend. So I was strategically located on a bench, hiding unconvincingly behind a newspaper that I was pretending to read. Even though she may have recognized that it was me before she actually got to me, it was still great to share that moment with her and the rest of the church. Kimberly and I were able to spend the rest of the evening together, with a nice dinner and enjoying the GREAT WARM WEATHER while sitting outside. I thought this to be a good opportunity to ask her to marry me : ) So that’s what I did, and she said yes!!!
Words won’t describe just how excited I am to be here working with this church plant, learning more about the Chinese culture and how I can best share Christ’s love with them, AND being able to do all of this alongside Kimberly. I’m humbled by how God has chosen to work in my life over the past year and am so excited and anxious to see what the coming months and years will hold.
All Set To Go
I’ve been very humbled at how God has provided over these past couple of weeks. Because of His faithfulness, and the commitments of some very good friends, I have received all of the necessary funds that I need to make it through the next 5 months that I will be in Taiwan, AND I received my visitor visa. Because of this I was able to purchase my plane ticket! There is a lot to do between now and when I leave, but to finally have that date set is very exciting for me and I know it will be a wonderful experience. Thank you all for your prayers and support! My next post will be from my first day in Taiwan!
Prayer Update 2/07/2008
It’s been a productive couple of weeks. I’ve had the opportunity to share my plans to pursue missions in Taiwan with the congregation at Maryland Community Church and have received some positive response from that. My prayer support team has grown to nearly 50 individuals who have committed to lift this ministry up in prayer regularly, and several individuals have expressed interest in giving financially. Here are a few things you can keep in mind as you continue to pray: 1) I sent my visa application to Chicago yesterday. I’m really hoping I filled everything out correctly, although I realized after I mailed it that I’ve been putting January’s date on everything instead of February…..(sigh) Hopefully that won’t be too big of a deal. I’m applying for a visitor visa which is usually a 60 day visa, but we are asking that they would approve a 5 month visa for me. If not, then I will most likely have to travel to Hong Kong every two months to get an extension, which isn’t a terrible thing. Just inconvenient. Pray that the application process would go smoothly and quickly. 2) I’m making progress with support raising, but still need about $500.00 more a month to meet my need for March-August. Pray that I will continue to be able to make contacts with people who will consider it a joy to give financially to this ministry. Also pray for others to join my prayer support team. My goal is to have 100 people on my prayer support team. Thank you for your faithful prayers! If you have any questions or thoughts you would like to share, don’t hesitate to contact me.
A BIG Thank You!
Last Sunday (Jan 20th) was the last time I will have been able to lead worship at Exchange (evening service @ Maryland Community Church) as I will be focusing on raising support for my move to Taiwan from here on out.
A
little over a year ago, I sat down with Scot Longyear (pastor of Exchange) and discussed the possibilities of me getting more involved in worship stuff, as I contemplated pursuing worship ministry. Scot was extremely supportive and encouraging to me, and more than willing to take me on as his apprentice (as he liked to call me…). It really was the best thing that could have happened to me at that time. I attribute much of where I’m at today and things I’m planning to do because of this experience. I’ve grown a lot as a musician and a worship leader, and will be able to use much of what I have learned in Taiwan. So I just wanted to give a great big THANK YOU to Scot and everyone that is involved in the worship ministry at Maryland and to the gracious ears of everyone who allowed me to lead them in worship over the past year. It was a wonderful experience and I loved every minute of it!
THANK YOU!
Prayer Update 01/24/08
I feel like some sense of organization is happening and that things are starting to come together fairly well. This Sunday (1/27/08) I will be sharing my plans and goals for Taiwan with my home church at Exchange (Sunday evening service @ Maryland Community Church). Up until this point, I’ve been preparing materials to hand out to people, working on Team Expansion stuff, and building up my prayer support team. I’ve had a few friends who have expressed interest in supporting me financially, but this Sunday will kick off my search for financial supporters. As you can imagine, I’ve been praying that it goes well, and I would appreciate it if you would join me in that prayer. But I also think it would be really cool if as people hear about what I’m doing in Taiwan and decide whether or not they would like to be a part of this, by joining my prayer support or financial support team, that they might also become more passionate about how God is moving around the world, maybe even specifically in Southeast Asia. There are SO many people who do not know Christ in that area of the world and it’s the most densely populated. In Taiwan, 22 million people call that home, but only about 3% are believed to know Christ. The opportunity is definitely there for God to do some incredible things, and this team I’m preparing to work with in Taiwan are already seeing glimpses of God moving and stirring things up.
Some other things you can keep in mind as you pray:
-Next week I will begin my visa application process when I receive some documents my team leader needed to prepare on my behalf. We’re praying that the government in Taiwan will allow me to come on a visitor visa for 4-5 months without the need for an extension after 60 days. I’m personally praying that I fill the documents out right : )
-Next Sunday I’ll be sharing at EPIC (morning service @ Maryland Community Church) and seeking out more people to join my prayer and financial support team!
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About
Welcome to LanceHampton.org!
My name is Lance Hampton and I've recently made the decision to pursue missions and begin the next chapter of my life. I knew I wanted to do something where I could work closely with people. But I also wanted to be able to do something where I could share my love for music as well.
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