The Journey Continues……

This blog, (When God Said Go....) was created with the intention of documenting my adventures in Taiwan. It was created to show people how God is using me here in Taiwan. Most of you/all of you reading this blog, know that I am/have been serving in Taiwan the past seven months. It occurred to me, that not all of you know how God led me to come to serve in Taiwan. I have never shared with you the events that led up to me being in Taiwan teaching English. For that I am sorry. I would like to now share with you a brief summary of what God has been doing in my life this past year.

As most of you know, I grew up in a Christian home, but for me, Christianity was just a front that I put up every day, so I would be accepted by my Christian friends, and Christian peers. I knew all the “right” words, and all the “right” actions, but inside I wanted nothing to do with God. I was a man filled with a lot of bitterness, malice, rage, anger, hatred, and immorality. I was headed for destruction, and was blinded to a lot of things. On March 31^st, 2009 at a Journey to the Heart that I attended under the will of my parents, God miraculously changed my life! I repented of my sins, I accepted Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, and my faith became real to me for the first time!

The Fulfillment of a Promise

After I got home from the Journey, I had many opportunities to share my testimony. Each time I would willingly share my testimony, and give glory to God for what He did in my life, God opened the door for me to share my story again. At that time, I was less than three months away from graduating from high school; honestly, I had no idea of what I was supposed to do with myself. However, the Bible says in Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Each time I did that – acknowledged God – He made his path clear to me. And as I continued to give God glory for what he had done at the Journey, He began to show me what He wanted me to do after graduation. In other words, God did exactly what that verse promises He will do: He directed my steps through circumstances and showed me which way to go. He “made my paths straight!” and it was amazing!

The Planting of a Seed

One of the direction seeds was planted when my family and I attended theRegional ATI conference last May in Big Sandy, Texas. At the end of the week, having heard my testimony a few times, Mr. Gothard suggested

to my parents, that I apply for the teaching trip in Taiwan. They shared his proposal with me, and at first, I had no interest at all. I thought to myself, “Me teach English? I hate English.” Obviously then, teaching English hadn’t even entered my mind; in fact, I thought it was ridiculous and therefore responded, “No way!” However, as we drove home, my parents and I discussed the opportunity and through those conversations, the Lord “watered” the seed. I actually pondered the possibility. I prayed about it. Having a new desire to walk in God’s will, not mine, I decided to apply for the position. I trusted that if God didn’t want me in Taiwan, He would “shut the door.” Interestingly, the more I thought about this incredible opportunity, the more excited I became!

A few weeks after I applied, I was accepted to join the t

eam of people traveling to Taiwan to teach English! All doors were left open…… At that point, I had all the required prerequisites completed, except one. I had just become a Christian, I had just turned 18, and I had just completed a Journey to the Heart. The timing for me to go was perfect. My parents were at peace about it; in fact they were encouraging me to faithfully pursue this prospect. Praise the Lord for awesome parents! The last thing I needed, was my TESOL certification….oh yeah, and $1300 to pay for the course. My parents prayed…I prayed. God heard…and God responded. I’m from a small country town, where jobs are sparse, but the good Lord opened a door for me; He gave me a six-week summer job that allowed me to earn the exact amount of money, to the dollar, that I needed for my TESOL training! Without a doubt, He “made my path straight!”

The Equipping of the Called

As time went on and the reality of my departure set in, I became really stressed out. I had a long list of things to do and I thought I

would never finish in time. Also, I allowed fear to set in. Once again I thought, “I don’t know anything about teaching English!” My human reasoning took over and I thought I was going to fail. Just days before leaving, I had an emotional breakdown, and really started freaking out. My dad shared some words of encouragement, which I have stuck with me the entire time: “God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called.” This gave me peace, in the midst of my fear and stress. As I trusted in God, He was faithful and in His proper timing, God worked everything out!

My prayers and my mom’s was that I would be placed on a team who had been in Taiwan before, and that they knew what they were doing. In addition to that, my mom prayed that there would be another guy on the team. God answered both of those prayers! First, I was placed on the Dudley’s team, the directors of the teaching English in Taiwan through IBLP opportunity. And second, out of six potential teams, God put me on a team with my new friend, David. We had met, and become really good friends, during the TESOL course in Oklahoma. God answered our prayers above and beyond what we had even asked!

The Experience of a Lifetime

Ephesians 3:20 says that God can do “exceeding abundantly above all we can ask” and that is exactly what He has done for me! First of all, I LOVE teaching English! I LOVE these kids! I am so thankful that I was encouraged to walk in faith, and not in fear! These past seven months in Taiwan, have been filled with

exciting new adventures, and opportunities, that I never once thought I ever get to do! I have had the opportunity to work with rural mountain kids in Thailand! I experienced scuba diving, and snorkeling in the ocean, mountain hiking, touring the oldest city in Taiwan, and the list goes on and on. One of the things that I love most about being in Taiwan is my team! God has blessed me with an AMAZING team of teachers! I appreciate each one of them so much. I could not have asked for a better team! God has truly blessed me this past year in Taiwan. I have come to realize that my sole purpose in coming to Taiwan was not to be an English teacher, or a missionary. Rather, the most important reason God brought me to Taiwan, was for my own personal growth as a man, and in the Lord. God paved the way for me to spend time here for personal refining! These past seven months, have been an incredible time of growing in my relationship with God…..and I am thankful!

It all started with a Journey, and the Journey still continues…….All Glory to

Christ Jesus!

Recap...

Wow....I haven't posted an article on here since November 2nd! I'm sorry, I am sure, you have all been wondering: What happened to Kyle? What has he been up to? How are things going for Kyle in Taiwan? What exciting new adventures, has he been on? Well, after a couple of months of being lazy about writing a blog post, I am finally sitting down and writing an article! Whew...Before I go into what has been happening recently, first, let me recap you on what's been happening the last couple of months! I just have one word: AMAZING!! Lol...okay okay, I will be a bit more descriptive than that! God has truly blessed my team and I these past couple of months with some really awesome and exciting opportunities! Since it has been a couple of months, and there is a lot to tell you about, I am going to go month by month, and bullet statement all that we did during that month! If you would like to see pictures, click here to visit my Picasa Web Albums.

December:

• We went to the island of Xiao Leo Choe for two days mostly to have vacation, but also to teach! The island is about a twenty minute boat ride, off the coast of Taiwan! The island was beautiful! The island is also really small, so by the end of the first day, we knew our way around the whole island pretty good! By the end of the trip, we had already been around the island two, three, or four times!

• We went Scuba Diving! That was a blast! We were 8 meters (24 feet) below the surface! It was awesome; everywhere we looked we saw huge pieces of coral! We also, got the chance to hold a non - poisonous puffer fish

• Christmas Caroling, and Christmas Party with the Team! This was my first Christmas away from my family! It was quite the experience!

• Christmas Party at Nan Jung Junior High School!

• Nan Jung Junior High School's Anniversary! Our whole team performed a Chinese Christian song, based off of Psalms 103! David and Grace performed a piano duet! All of the Pingtung Girls performed a dance that they had been preparing for a few weeks!

January:

• Happy New Year!!!!

• David and I went to Taipei for the weekend to stay with our good friend Roy! Roy is a Taiwanese guy we met when we were in Oklahoma for two and a half weeks getting our TESOL certification! Roy was in Oklahoma for the VOICE conference. VOICE and TESOL run at the same time. (For more information on VOICE, see the VOICE journal website under my Blog List section on my home page.) Staying with Roy, was probably one of the best weekends David and I have had since being in Taiwan! We hung out in Taipei, went shrimp fishing, went out to eat at an awesome Thai food restaurant, went to dinner at an awesome Italian restaurant with more friends from VOICE, went to a movie, we played Halo, and even went to Taipei 101! It was a very relaxed weekend! Roy and his family were GREAT hosts! Thank you so much Roy for letting us hang out and thank you for Roy's family for letting us stay in your house! We had so much fun!

• King Car Winter English day/living camps! Two full weeks of nonstop English fun! Day camp was the week, that the students didn’t spend the entire week at the school, they went home at the end of each day, and then returned that next morning. For living camps, the students slept at the school for all four days! We played games, we told stories, we had English class, we had science class, we had dance class, we had art class, and we had an outdoor adventure in the local town of Kanding. The theme for this year camps, was adventure. Each classroom was turned into something with that theme. The store, turned into the camping store, the bank become the cave, the airport became the jeep, and the market became the plant place. We also had an outdoor drama class, and a trail mix making cooking class! We got the chance to work with several Taiwanese King Car teachers. They were known as our TA’s (Teachers Assistant.) Each AT (American Teacher) was assigned a TA. It was their job to help us AT’s in any way they could. King Car camps were a blast! It was so much fun getting to have my own team of students for an entire week.

February:

• Visa renewal trip to Thailand! We spent ten days in northern Thailand teaching English for our visa renewal trip. It was Amazing! The first four days were spentin an extremely rural area up in the mountains. It was a two hour ride up the mountain to where we would be staying. We all rode in these canvas covered pickup trucks. They looked like the vehicles they used to transport soldiers in during World War 2. The town we were staying in was called ChaingRai.The view was beautiful! The kids were so much fun to teach. In all the schools that I have taught since being in Taiwan this school was the hardest one I’ve had to leave. The next four days were spent down the mountain in the local town of ChaingRai Thailand! We only taught one day at this school, the last three days were spent touring the city of ChaingRai Thailand. The last two days, were spent touring Bangkok,the capitol city of Thailand,. While in Thailand, we got the chance to visit and see many different touristy locations. We visited the Golden Triangle, the Royal Queen’s mother’s villa, the Royal Palace, some temples, and the list goes on. One of the highlights for me about being in Thailand was visiting this school that was built to give kids who are at high risk of being forced into the slave trade, or human trafficking a safe place to go.We didn’t go there to teach English, we were there to see the kids and just show them our love, and hang out with them!These kids didn’t speak a word of English, or Chinese, but yet we all got along so great!

March:

• Okay, now that I have you pretty much caught up, here is what has been happening recently: After having quite a few weeks off of school, classes have finally started again. Before classes started, we had to revamp the entire EV, for this next semester of class, as we will be having repeat students. We either came up with new classes entirely, or we just thought of new ways to teach the old classes. Also, starting this semester, each teacher will be going to an outside school once a week, and help teach their English curriculum. This gives us the opportunity to work with the same group of students longer than one day. Teaching has been going really well, these past couple of weeks. We have all been staying busy. Besides teaching at the English Village, and at an outside school, I now have a guy that I privately tutor once a week. I am helping him learn how to improve his English conversational skills.
  

• I praise the Lord, for all these exciting opportunities, he has blessed my team and I with these past few months. I am so grateful to God, that He called me on the incredible journey; I certainly never would have decided this on my own. It has been the experience of a lifetime. I am excited to see what God has in store for us next!