August 16

We did play at the department store a week ago, and it went pretty well. We began outside the store, but were later moved into the make-up counter area. It was a good time, and they have asked us to come back in the future. So, hopefully, there is a relationship building there and it is a great place to be seen and for people to ask what we are doing here. Here we are with some of the people who work there.

We went to the Baptist Seminary in Taipei this week and met some people there who had graduated from Southern Seminary in Louisville. We were given a tour of the place and learned more about the training of pastors and missionaries in Taiwan. Here we are on the Seminary's campus, with Taipei 101 in the background.

The campus is like an oasis of sorts in the middle of a busy city....

We also visited the National Palace Museum ...
...and a night market, where we tried some new and yummy food. These are basically candied strawberries...super sweet and super delicious.

We are continuing on in our language and culture learning. It is still enjoyable, and we still need your prayers. It is exciting to learn a new language, but being unable to communicate with people can be frustrating. God has given us a great teacher, a great place to learn, and a great language to learn so there is much to be thankful for.

Last night, we went and played some music outside of a subway station. It was a great experience. We sat down on some benches, played music, and as people would stop to listen, one of us would talk with them, sharing about God. You can be praying opportunities would arise and we would continue to do this kind of thing.

This next week is Jr. High Camp! We went over this evening and decorated our classrooms, which was lots of fun! We are having a camp with 55 students. Jeff is teaching the Bible and character. Matt and Cameron are teaching games and recreation. Paul and Sarah are teaching harmonica and singing songs. A missionary is helping out in each class. Our theme for the week is 'Jesus loves you and so do I!' We want to make sure the students, and teachers who are helping, know that Jesus loves them, and we want to show them that love. Jeff will present the gospel message to them in his class, and we hope to have many opportunities to be obedient and share outside of that time as well. Please pray that we will have love for the people there, energy to make the week a great one, and that God will prepare their hearts for the gospel. Thank God that He has opened the doors for us to go into this school, have an English camp, and tell about Him.

Sorry for the long post. Hopefully, the pictures helped. Hope you have all had a great week and a meaningful Sunday.

We are at the end of our first full week in Taiwan. We've learned a lot thus far and are glad to be here. There was a typhoon that came through yesterday, but God kept us safe and provided much-needed rain. We have a couple of prayer requests. We are playing in front of a department store tomorrow afternoon at 3pm. The missionaries we are working with will be there talking to people while we play. Hopefully, we will be able to speak with people after we finish playing, share the gospel with them, and begin to build friendships with people. Please pray for this event and that many people will come, enjoy some bluegrass music, and hear about God. We have also been learning Mandarin Chinese with a great language teacher, Sam. She has been so helpful. Please pray that we will quickly pick up on the language and use it. It would be great to be able to communicate with people in their first language.

This is bubble tea. It's basically tea, milk, lots of sugar, with tapioca balls in the bottom. It's popular in Taiwan. Part of language and culture learning is trying new foods and drinks.

Here we are playing at a church. We played in the morning at the service and in the evening at a special music event they had.

Here's a picture of us playing in Hong Kong...our first performance in Asia :)

Today, we got to participate in an activity at a church called The Journey. It's a day long activity that people go through, which leads them through a journey to becoming a missionary. We played music in the comfort zone where they had to choose if they wanted to go through the journey to become a missionary in another country or stay where they were comfortable. Then they went to many other stations, including being called by the church, raising support, getting visas, booking plane tickets, going on a trip, going through immigration and customs, then finally meeting the people group they would be working with. After a morning in the comfort zone, we spent the afternoon as serious and mean officers at the border. It was a great thing to be a part of and neat to see a church and people invested in missions and sending people out. The bluegrass music we played also seemed to be received well, so that was great. It was our first time to play in Taiwan. As you'll notice, we are wearing matching shirts. Apparently, matching is appreciated here....and at the very least, it's one more thing that makes us stand out as we travel and meet people. We've got white skin, height, a different language, instruments, name tags, and now matching shirts!

Tomorrow, we are playing a few songs and sharing a little at a church in the morning and then participating in a music outreach event the church is having in the evening. Please pray for us as we do that on Sunday.

We have made it to Taipei!

We are moved into our apartments, have started language training with a great teacher, hung out with the missionaries, and been around the city a little bit. Each of us has received Chinese names, which are pretty cool. We each have 3 names (like in English). The first is something to represent our family names. The 2nd name is the same for all of us, showing we are from the same family, and it means praise through song. Each of our 3rd names is a characteristic of God and a bridge to sharing the gospel with people. We are glad to be here and are staying busy thus far. Thanks for your continued prayers!

So, here are a few pictures from Hong Kong. As it turns out, I haven't really figured out exactly how to do this well, so a couple of the pictures, you might need to turn your head to the side to look at. We leave for Taiwan tomorrow!

We have made it safely to Hong Kong! Thanks for all your prayers. It was a rather easy, yet long, trip. Today we are in our 2nd full day of training. We have been learning about the major religions here, a few phrases in Mandarin Chinese, practical ways to be spiritually and physically well, how to share our own story in a short time, the need for training others to train others in spiritual matters, expectations of us while we are here, and other things as well. We have also been given opportunities to put what we have been learning into practice. Tonight, we are probably going to play a few songs out on the street....our first opportunity to play in Asia! Hope to put up a few pictures soon, but that won't happen until Monday more than likely. In case you were wondering, Hong Kong and Taiwan are 12 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. Hope all is going well with you!

~Sarah

Welcome to our blog!

We are The Long Run Players and are going to Taiwan on a mission project for about 5 1/2 months.  We leave in about 2 1/2 weeks!  We are 5 people whom God has brought together for His purposes.  Our names are Cameron, Jeff, Matt, Paul, and Sarah.  If you are on this website, chances are you know at least one of us.  Here's a little bit about us in case you don't know.  We are a bluegrass group, so we will be playing music in Taiwan, but we will also be doing other things while there.  We will be building relationships, learning more about the culture, helping the missionaries who are there, living in the community, growing, and lots of other stuff.  The purpose of this website is to give periodic updates on what's going on and how you can be praying for us.  Below are a few specific things you can be praying about now.

-preparations and goodbyes as we wrap up our time in the States-

-safe travel (we leave on July 22nd)-

-unity as a group-

-good relationships with people we will meet there-

~Sarah~