The 101

Today we walked the Ximen Ding district in Taipei. It was an awesome experience seeing all the different things. We visited to Dao temples and they were very depressing. Basically people offer up prayers to the "gods" that their dead ancestors will have a good day. If they don't then they think they will have a bad day. Kind of simplified but the basic concept is it is a religion run on fear and sadness. There really is no hope. It is great that there is a group of people that are living here looking to bring hope to these people. The primary "in" to people's lives here is teaching them English. I met a few different people here who were learning English and their text was the Bible. Cool Stuff. In fact we hung out with about 5-6 different people today just because they wanted to try and speak English to us. What a great opportunity of influence that American's can have in this culture. There is immediate respect and honor given to those who speak English.

The Ximen Ding district is actually built over an ancient burial ground so by the older generation the district is looked down upon. But there are thousands and thousands of young people who hang out there. Everyone is friendly and willing to carry on a conversation with you. This will be a great place to take a team to help them start a church here. It is very relational ministry here and very powerful.


We visited the 101 which was the tallest building in the world until Dubai built one taller in September. We walked out on the observatory deck which was awesome. We had great food at the base of the building and even took home the chop sticks:)


Here are some pics:

Some people who are on the trip: Chris (live in missionary), Erik (colorado), ryan (portland), Me, Jason (National Office), Epong (works the store)



The 101 Building
Some people we hung out with in the Ximen Ding(Eric, Ryan, Dave, girl, Jason, Eric, Me)


Ximen Ding at Night(Somewhat similar to Times Square though not as big)

Me In Front of the Ximen Ding