Rachel Hampton

Life in Taiwan… April 15, 2009

So I am still working on my Mandarin but it’s not that great…I’ve got “hello”, “thank you”, “you’re welcome”, and “sorry” down. The essentials. A tonal language is very difficult to speak for many people on board. Thankfully we have wonderful local translators. Speaking of, that is a big prayer request. Many of the locals that are working with us are not Christians. We have a great opportunity to speak to them about Christ. They are all curious and interested in hearing more about why we serve together. In fact, I got to speak to one girl named Nina who is not a believer. In fact, she says she’s not religious at all. She was telling me how she wanted to serve on Doulos but heard you had to be a Christian. I asked her if she understood what we believed and she said no so I started sharing the message of salvation with her. When I was telling her about Jesus and his years of ministry, she responded, “In America?”  She really had no idea at all. I was able to talk to her for a little bit and when she asked if I would marry someone who wasn’t a Christian, I explained to her why and told her “Even though I don’t know you well, I care about you and want you to have the assurance of where you’ll go when you die.” She was genuinely touched that I cared about her in that way. We were interrupted and didn’t get to finish but I know she’s open.  So please pray for Nina and the other volunteers that their hearts would be open to God while we are here and that some seeds would be planted. And even that some would turn their lives over to Christ before we leave.

Our Easter service was different than I’m used to. We had a sunrise service on the deck of the ship at 5:30am and then another service at 11am. Many of the songs we sang I did not know and I love worshiping through music so that was different for me. My home church, Thomas Road Baptist Church has amazing musicians and the music is so wonderful! But in the past few days I’ve felt God telling me, “Rachel, I want you to learn to worship me with all your heart whether the music is professional or amateur. Can you praise me even if there are mistakes in the notes or singing? That isn’t important, it’s the heart that is important.” And I know that worship is a lifestyle, it’s not music…but when you hear a beautiful song with blended voices and swelling music and know God designed it all…you can’t help but worship. But God doesn’t want me to only be able to worship through song when it’s perfect. And I am trying to adapt to that mindset.

We did have an amazing reflection/communion service on Friday night. There was worship, dramas, communion, and just a moving time of reflection. It was my favorite thing of the weekend. Then we had a showing of the Passion of the Christ. I hadn’t seen it in years and was definitely overwhelmed. It is impossible to watch that movie without ending at a loss for words. Jesus is one awesome Savior!

We have been able to travel around the area some and visit the city we are in. One of the big things the city is known for is their night markets. This city comes alive at night. In fact, I was working one night and a young boy came up to me and said his college started back that day and his class is at 11pm. They are night people. So every night they have different areas you can go and shop along streets packed with carts and tables. There are some markets solely for food and some that are mixed food and clothes. We went to the latter. I didn’t buy anything, but enjoyed walking around and sampling some of the foods others had bought. One thing I didn’t try…fried fish eyes. No thanks. On the way back to the ship we were running a little late for curfew. We took the MRT (their Subway) and had to switch trains at one point. Well, as we are coming up to the second one we see that it’s there and getting ready to leave. We didn’t have time to wait for the next one so we all took off running. I make it in the door and turn to see the doors closing and three from our group still outside. Then suddenly, like Incredible Hulk, Adam throws his upper body in the doors and pushes them back open. Everyone made it safely thanks to his selfless sacrifice. God rest His soul. Just kidding! He made it safely….though I don’t know if he was sore the next day.

We have some really interesting people come to the ship. Last week we had a guy who makes all kinds of animals out of drinking straws. It was amazing. He made me a butterfly that I will try to take a photo of and post soon. We also get drunk guys who cause a scene and try to sneak up the gangway. Yeah, that always makes for an interesting night too Well, that’s about all the update I have for now. I hope you all had an amazing Easter and were able to praise the mighty God we serve. I have uploaded a video to my flickr site of some of the waves we experienced on the way to Taiwan. You’ll want to check it out! I’ve also uploaded my latest newsletters for those who aren’t on my email list. Love and miss you all!