To know God and to make Him known.
That is exactly what Jereme and Rebecca Doole are doing in the Deaf community in Taipei, Taiwan YWAM base. This amazing couple from Canada has heard the call from God to serve Him in Taiwan long-term focusing on making God known in the Deaf community. The last four days in Taiwan I spent with this couple and learned more about their jounrey and call into missions, the YWAM base and what God is doing in the Deaf community in Taiwan.
Rebecca developed a heart for Taiwan in High School as she did a student exchange program for a year in Taipei. She did her DTS in Hong Kong in March of 2008 and then moved to the Taiwan base. Jereme and Rebecca met in Canada when Rebecca was back home for the holidays. They kept in touch and Jereme said when you come back I will drive 10 hours to see you. Rebecca thought he was kidding but she let him know and he did the long drive to see her. He soon decided to follow this beautiful girl with a heart for the Deaf in Taiwan. So he moved to Taiwan and did his DTS at the Taipei base in Sept 2011 and has never looked back.
YWAM Taiwan has a strong focus of training and sending out. I met the YWAM Taiwan directors and saw the office headquarters for all of Taiwan. One cultural ascent of Taiwan is that when you enter an office or a house you take off your outside shoes and put on inside sandals. So every time we visited a new office or classroom, which were on different floors in one building, I was taking off shoes and putting on new ones. The up and down and on and off was getting to me as baby is growing so I just kept my shoes off while we were touring in the same building. :)
I also got to see the base in Taipei and attended base worship on Monday morning, which was amazing to worship in another language again just like in Costa Rica. The most commonly used language of Taiwan, Mandarin, so most of the worship was in Mandarin and English. As we worshiped, I could not help but allow my body to dance. It was so easy to connect to Jesus as my heart was so grateful for what He has done and is doing in Taiwan and all the beautiful things and people I met over the last week there.
I also got to see the classrooms for all of the schools. There was a speaker who was teaching in the DTS on Forgiveness that week shared during base worship time. As I listened to him share, I knew one of his topics he spoke on was the Father Heart of God, I just knew it! Afterwards, I had to ask. And guess what? Yep, you guessed it he teaches a variety of topics in DTSs and one of them is Father Heart of God. I could not help be reminded of how Father was with me the whole trip.
They run DTSs and School of Biblical Studies (SBS), which is basically is the intense bible school that Dan and I did in Costa Rica but is is 9 months and they go through every book of the Bible, as the first step in training youth to be sent out into the nations. Jereme and Rebecca have done this school, and Jereme did it engaged and planning a wedding in Canada.
YWAM Taiwan has a coffee shop called the ROCK, where people from Taiwan can come in and get a free drink while they practice learning English with YWAMers. The heart of the Rock is to create a place for people to interact with locals sharing Jesus with them as they develop conversional skills.
The base has a 2 year language program called Chinese Language Learning Team (CLLT). This program is for YWAMers who are long-term in Taiwan to learn the language. Rebecca completed this 2 year program and serving as the scheduler for all the language classes. They get local people to teach class who do not know Jesus. The prayer is that the international YWAMers will learn the language and the local teachers will learn about Jesus. Great idea! Jereme is currently finishing up his 2 years in April of 2015. The people on this language team serve at the Rock 2X a week.
On the taxi to the airport to drop me off, Jereme sat in front and practiced his Mandarin with Henry the taxi driver we met the night before. Henry was just talking talking talking about his family and life! Many of his sisters are believers and was very open to Jesus. He shared that he was taking a community college class in English so every once in a while I was hear an English word, like brother.
Jereme took the opportunity and shared about the Rock as a place to hang out and practice his English. The week, he did go to the Rock and hung out with Jereme and Rebecca. They are praying for him to continue to develop a relationship with them and to know Jesus!
I loved how relational and intentional this couple is with the people they met everyday.
Finally, the base runs a School of Frontier Missions (SOFM), which is a 3 month school focused on starting church building movements in unreached people groups around the world. Rebecca completed this school and the Dooles are now starting a 2 year internship which will transition them to the Frontier Missions Dept. in March after finishing language school, focusing on the need to develop a church building movement in Deaf community in Taiwan.
I had the opportunity to meet with Tammy (above), Rebecca and Jereme's coach throughout their time of taking the schools in Frontier Missions and developing a prospal for launching their ministry in Taiwan to the Deaf Community. As well as have dinner with Wanger and his wife, (below) from Brazil who are the Frontier Missions National Directors. Our time was filled with sharing what God has already done in our lives, what He is doing in America and DC and Taiwan, dreaming, vision casting and praying for what God wants to continue to do in the Deaf community worldwide.
So I realized that I have only shared on 2 days of the 4 that I stayed with Jereme and Rebecca and only shared the background of YWAMers serving in another country and of how they arrived to where they are now! I have not even shared about all the Deaf people that we met in Taipei and their heart for the next two years! As well as some funny stories that happened and cool places they showed me in Taipei.
(The street walking to the YWAM base and offices).
So I am going to end this blog here but want you to know that the next one is really really FUN! It was Rebecca's prayer that we would meet a lot of Deaf people during the couple days that I was there and wow did God answer that prayer! Keep your eyes out for the next blog!
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