Hmmm.....

Well, Luke has been back a few days and so my brain can finally function. I will admit that the two weeks he was gone seemed like an eternity..................I admit exhaustion!!! And those who know me, that is not something I do often:p

Monday started off with a bang and the rest of the week has followed suit. Monday we had a case that we have been talking to via hotline. Well, she called to say she was at our front door 0.0  So we all ran down to meet her. She is a sweetie. Her story is sweet and sad, and unique.

See, this mom is a Christian and has a 19month old with the same man. She says that her mom (single mom) was hurt alot over the first baby, she can't bare to tell her about the second one. Her church forgave her and took her under their wings, allowed her to serve with the teens at church. She feels HOW can she serve now at church? what about the testimony to the teens? what will people say? Being at church is so hard for her.

The father? He is not a Christian and at first was saying marriage ONLY if she stopped going to church, stopped being a Christian and did the temple worship and held incense and all. She said no. He said bye. His parents? sure get married, have an abortion and start anew....that was a new one!! Never heard get married and then have an abortion......whatever.

She is struggling with her faith as she has falled AGAIN. She has one person at church (Charasmatic) who knows and says we need to have some type of healing/repentance prayer. Now, Luke and I were talking to our team, repentance prayer is nothing we can do for her, it has to come from her heart, not ours. We can pray God leads her in prayer, softens her heart and opens her heart to what she needs. I cannot say she is not a Christian, that is not for me to say. But I can pray for her.

This is the 2nd young Christian momma we have had recently. Both have hidden from church and fear of what church members say. That so breaks my heart. Unfortunately, churches around the world are so judgemental that they turn people away. I am sure you can think of someone in your church who has had a baby out of wedlock, how did your church handle it? how did you? Should we as Christians be able to handle it better? God has forgiven us accepted us, should we do the same for others?

What her final decision will be with the baby, we don't know for sure. She is early on in her pregnancy. The great news is that she knows she WILL NOT abort!! PRAISE THE LORD!!! she has thought about it, but she says she has nightmares then.....um....yeah..... the important part is that here she can work through issues and move on. We pray that here she can come closer to the Lord and see HIS purpose in all of this.  We pray that our mommas can be changed when they leave her!!
Pray with us as we work with them!

our schedule begins....

Well, today we got an email and a phone call from our first "booking" for the semester. We were asked to go to Chang Bing Junior High School, with a total of 120 students for the entire school. Grades are 7-9th grade. Last year was our first year teaching. This school is awesome. At our Respect Life Rally we had tents for people to sell things. Well, this school decided to make crafts and  sell them. At the end of the rally, they brought the entire days worth of money and donated it to  Morning Light. It was almost $100US!!!
Now, you are probably saying "oh, wow". But let me tell you.....this group of students and teachers had to travel by bus or car. It is almost 3hours ONE WAY!!! they paid for the trip themselves....left EARLY in the morning to come and didn't get home til late. Many come from rural area (well, ok...ALL as there is no train that even goes there!! only a bus!!). Now, are you saying "OH WOW!!!" we were quite encouraged by them.
So, when we saw their email......we immediately let them know YES!!! so excited. This school is right on the water, beautiful scenery. But being so far out in the country, they are the last to get money so the school is rather pathetic with leaks and broken things and all. Honestly, we are excited to go there and visit. It will be for a long day, but worth it.

Our banner runs next week in our neighboring county. Please pray for this. Normally each time it runs, we get at least one phone call. Now that abortion month is coming up, we are hoping to rescue more babies.

Pray that we can get more people in our area on the "anti abortion" team. Unforutnately, many churches tell people it is the mom's body and she can do what she wants. Yes, this comes from pastors and taught at seminary!!! scary eh? we are praying about being more vocal in the community about pro life. Pray that we can do that and it not cause any problems!!

Still need Morning Light Angels.......the angels will cover the costs of the Unwed mother's home so we can continue to have our services for free!! so please consider what you can do.

8/20

***I just had a big post all done and all, but erased it....it might seem overwhelming:p.... normally when I say...I have been thinking, everyone runs ---LOL!!!

On 8/20 we have the last of our two meetings to form our association. Morning Light Christian Association will be formal and then we just go on from there:-). Why are we doing this? According to statistics Taitung population is 20% of single parents. Though this does NOT include grandparents taking care of grandchildren, disabled parents and low income families.  The need is great. Unfortunately, it seems that helping  certain people in society is a fad. I have seen a trend. Everyone gung ho on getting "healthy lunches" to the villages. It happens for a year or two....then slowly money is placed somewhere else. Right now a big thing on helping single parents, and I am sure in a few years, that it will change to something else. Haven't heard of those helping drop out teens (a rarity), just like places like to cover up unwed mothers. Seems that things that might "bring disgrace" to the county or city are quietly done. But things that are done to help make the politician look good are done LOUDLY.............this is a topic that bugs me......so I will stop here:p

These ministries will be with the church and our new association.MLCA wants to do more. Simple. Through MLCA we can get better grants from USA and Taiwan, we can do fundraising within Taiwan and well, we can work more with those in need. Our ministries will be Garden of Grace (daycare for needy families), Blessings Food Closet (not the official name), after school classes for children of low income and single parents, and an office working with in need teenagers (aka, drop outs and dysfuntional families.).....The last one is a need that is great.  I was personally approached by a judge asking if we accepted teens! The gov't has had such a big problem with teens recently that they do not know what to do. So we have plans (don't I always!!LOL!).....so prayers.

WE WILL CONTINUE to do our MLH/CPC. According to the gov't, this is private home so we don't need money (HAHAHA!! if they only knew!). Just our resources will be spread out more, our opportunities to reach out to the forgotten people will be greater. So keep your eyes and ears open...and your hearts!!

saddened.....but encouraged

Don't you just love it when our Heavenly Father speaks to us and shows us things at the right moment? Just so awesome....shows how much HE loves us!!

This week has been hard. We have had a 17yr old who gave birth already and a 14yr old special needs student who is 7 months pregnant under our ministry at Morning Light. Both cases have given our team a not to great view of the gov't, though we know they have restricitions due to finances and honestly help. Anyway, both, due to their were reported (in Taiwan, girls who are pregnant but under 16 must be reported), and of course it was not til MUCH later that the gov't does their job. (trying to control myself here and be Christian like!). The 17 year old we find out, her case was not as simple as "meeting someone on the internet." AND it seems that her father knew about. Unfortunately, there are more and more cases of poor young girls being used to make money for their family (another story on its own and DON'T get me started!!).
The 14yr old, she does have a GREAT gov't social worker, that I will say. This worker cared enough to call us (ok....tearing up here) and tell us...."Deana, it is has taken a turn for the worse, not what we thought. Her mom lied to all of us and made her daughter lie."***sigh***I don't know who I am more mad at.....the adult relative who did this to a special needs girl or to her mom who ignored it and had her lie!!!!!
We have never run into cases like these, and then BOOM! two at one time. Though one thing Alexia said to me "maybe God is showing us there is a need for another home". We know where the two girls are being kept at, it is a home with the gov't. They have 12 beds and right now 13 girls.......where as we have 8 beds and now down to 2 girls.........nice eh?.........so don't want to get started on that!!

That was the saddened part. The encouraged part was yesterday afternoon, a local pastor came to talk to me (well, Luke is not here) about our church being a spot for "teenager welfare"....well, not welfare as we think in the USA. Let's see (after 15yrs in Taiwan, my brain doesn't function well in English!).......it will be a small center of sorts for teens. We can have classes of all kinds but it will be a place where teens come to and we go and care about them. I am really excited!!!! Then guess what....RIGHT after the pastor left.....a former foster daughter came up on her bike walked in and hugged me!!!"Hi mommy!" ***sniff sniff*** after being with us for 3 years (had rough times, rough love), she stops by. She is still in gov't care due to some circumstances. She really wants to come back and live with us, but that is not possible. BUT she will start transitioning to dormitory for school and so that is great!!!! we have more freedom to visit her and bring her to church on Sundays....I am really excited about that!!

People will call us crazy....I call myself crazy!!....... but we just do as God leads.....no one ever said following God's will will be easy, nor did anyone say you will be rich........nope.....Satan attacks via relationships, health, finances.......you know.......pray for us as we follow God's lead. It would be great to have another missionary couple or even a native couple standing beside us. We need extra help...........where is it? pray for hearts to be burdened to come and minister to Taiwan in unusual ways:-)

Rejoicing in HIM.....

Today, I was able to finally find some quiet time with the Lord. I will be quite honest and tell you that unfortunately, this has been rare lately. It seems like Satan always finds something to distract me, and well, I fall easily. But so thankful that today I was reading in Psalms 4 and 5 and read this (though I'd like to put all of it up, I will spare you, go read it yourself:p): ¹¹But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.
For some of you, you might understand why this is so special. It was a great reminder today to keep trusting in HIM and HIM alone! And how to keep trusting? by rejoicing, be joyful...shout for joy!!! God defends us, why should we be afraid.

We have had some situations lately. I will be honest, it has been hard when someone, whether a moron doctor or a freshout of college social worker picks on a momma. We recently have had a few mommas that are underage. Due to their age, the gov't here labels it as "s3x abuse" and on behalf of the "child" (momma) try to find and press charges. I so agree and understand that, I do, really. BUT why is it that they do nothing at the time of the report? they do not see if the momma is getting prenatals, or her environment is safe and healthy.........why do they wait til 2-3 weeks AFTER baby is born to start the process? just for DNA? seriously people.

We have our mommas a short time. We not only work on the physical and spiritual side of things,but habits. We had one momma who never had a mom, her dad and brothers, well you get the point. Female hygeine was never taught, she never had a mother. Praise the Lord while here some of her habits have changed. Not only that, she was here only a month and people have noticed a change in her. She is happy and sharing and really starting to think!!! Now she instead of putting things behind her and moving forward, she has to be put back in time. I am rather annoyed............NO.ONE.MESSES.WITH.MY.MOMMAS!!!!

We are hopefully going to start our fundraiser soon. So if you know of any companies who are interested in donating equipement (laptop, ipod;p, kindle, books, jewelry,etc.) anything, please contact me and I will put you to the right person.

We are also working on our framed art and tshirts......so keep watching!! (for the life of me I cannot get this smaller!!! sorry!!!) look below please:


The framed art is as follows: $35US/framed art not including shipping

Choose:
1. Taiwan print to be in : Hakka, Minnan, aborigine (name the tribe)
2. Top left corner to say: Taiwan or family names in Chinese, or family surname
3. Bottom right corner to say: Hakka,Minnan, aborigine tribe, or family surname, or just Taiwan

**the picture above has 1: Hakka print 2.family names 3. Taiwan

Please email me about your order, we have already gotten lots of requests!!!

getting back at it....

Well, I see it has been awhile since I wrote. Let's see, since then, there has been two youth camps (our family went to one and only dh and ds1 went to the other), and many many other things that I wish I could on about here, I can't. But, nevertheless, we can say, things have been exciting!!

Next week we have our first of two meetings for our association. Morning Light Home Association will give us more freedom in fundraising and doing some other community projects for families without too much gov't eyes. While we totally understand the gov't need to be involved, we minister in an area that they don't want the affects of it to be public. Does that make sense? Way back when attempting to start all this, we had the name "unwed mother's home" in our title. We found out later that that was not approved, yet they didn't come out and tell us, it was one of those things that they felt they didn't need to tell us.

I often feel like we are a "bad" dream to the gov't here. First, we are doing a work that they don't want to get involved in. Simple. Unwed mother's to them, are low in society. Social workers have been quoted as saying "if the mom is young, unmarried, pregnant and low income, I will only suggest abortion."-.-  That says alot doesn't it. Funny how the gov't knows what we are doing and social workers will say to a momma "go find Deana Pan at this number and address, if she can't help you then come back to us."LOL!!! At times I think they feel we will quickly go away. BUT they can say that in the last two years, they have had less than 5 abandoned babies. We work with the moms and she has a responsibility.

God is so wonderful to us. Each time we feel tired, exhausted, look at the lack of $$, God in HIS goodness shows us at the right time something else. This month alone (yes, I know we are not through July yet) we have counseled at least 2 moms a week. Some are sad stories and really put you into reality.  God is showing us, this is why you are here My child. There are women in need, women in crisis, women who say I don't know what to do, no one wants to listen to me, I can't tell my family I am pregnant............the list goes on. As we minister as God wants us to, in other areas, God is bringing up families and friends who are supporting us through material and financial needs. Our financial needs are great, there is no question about that. But God is letting us know little by little that HE is in control. We need to keep our focus on the ONE who holds tomorrow.

At times I have been afraid to post things. I am not one who is going to post baby pictures or momma pictures. I will though tell their stories. I had not posted because I know that there are people who feel they need to be our enemies. But God has been leading me, letting me realize...........All things work together for good to them that love him.....We rely on a God that owns the cattle on a thousand hills....He could sell a few and we would be fine:-).....really, all that to say..........I hope to share more as time allows. God is good, all is done for HIS glory, not done through me but through our mighty Savior Jesus Christ!!!!

WHAT A WEEK!!!

but not complaining.....I love seeing families together!! I love sitting and chatting and hearing all that God has done for their adoption and all they have learned about their faith via adoption. They love hearing stories of moms and how God is using MLH/CPC in lives here and about the burden God is giving us.

It is things like this that give us encouragement. For our team to see the baby in his/her parents arms, the joy, the tears, the laughter.......how refreshing it is!!

There is a fundraiser blog at:  http://livinghopetaiwan.blogspot.com/  so please check it out. This blog will stay because as we get more and more ministries, it will be more and more of our family and ministry together. The other one will be fundraiser blog. I was informed that the group Calling Levi has already sent cd's and t-shirts for fundraiser drawing!! YEAH!!! we have some more coming....if you have anything or know of someone who can help in sending it out, let us know!! The more money we have the more we can serve!!

We have a name for our baby center: Garden of Grace....I can't wait to share all about it. We have volunteer teens for the summer and just had a rundown of everything. So excited!!! GOD IS WORKING!!!

Stay tuned!!

The countdown

Well, it is Saturday. Sometime this morning, Luke, Joshua and Jeremiah will put our center banner on the front of the church. I wonder if this will bring more attention to the center. Previously we were in an alley, so not like people saw it all the time. Prayers that this will allow those moms who need to see it, to see it. The great thing is: it is 5 blocks from the hospital. While the hospital does not prefer to do abortions, it does first trimester abortions. Who knows, someone might see it and think. That hospital knows us, so we are going to ask about putting up our posters in the ob/gyn section.....prayers please!! any lives we can save!!!

I am nervous.....we don't know how many to expect for Monday morning. Alexia says 20-30....AHHHH!!!.... I have to get up and go through our power point about what is a crisis pregnancy center, who we minister and why...Wuli has the rest:-).

We also have to have our "plans" for the 6months for the gov't. Well, I. DON'T. KNOW!!! We would like to have a speaker from another CPC come and do some teaching in our area......we would like to have someone come and talk about post abortion counseling.

We are starting Morning Light Assoicaition. This will help tremendously as that will allow us to do fundraisers here in Taiwan. So we can fundraise for Hagar's House and/or our babycenter. We will see how God leads.

We see God doing so much. Walking by faith is not easy, but it is the safest. It is a spiritual battle right now. I have read some recently in Proverbs and it talks alot about not envying the rich, watching your mouth (ok, that is my rough translation) and the like......alot seem to point to the situation at hand and say "do what you are doing, don't be mean, just trust in God for HIS riches are more than you will ever know."

So, we will keep going. Please pray for Monday (we have alot to clean up now at church!) and pray that this week we can minister to at least one new mom.....just one new mom......that is our prayer.....will you pray for that too? I will let you know when we meet her:-)

And so it goes.....

Well, we made it through a year! God has been good by leading us through our trials and fears and showing us HIS promise of never leaving us is always true.

The past weeks have been rather exhausting, emotionally and physically! Really, when you are emotionally down, it wears you down physically. Between the heat and moving, blah!! yesterday, well, I felt like a walking zombie (hopefully didn't look like one!!).

As it happens, RARELY MIND YOU, a momma did not show up for adoption court date. Wuli had been trying to contact her, we even sent her train tickets! yet, no show. I apologized to the judge and she understood as our moms are normally on time and very cooperative. The judge made another court date and all we can do it keep on the mom to come. She hasn't answered our phone calls though.

Why? I don't know. Her reasons could be numerous. I understand her 3yr old was sick and that could be it. Her dad was just diagnosed as being a vegetable, she could be upset about that. Could be she doesn't want to face the fact of adoption. Lots and lots of reasons and could be's. But I do know that no matter what, she needs your prayers!! All of our moms do. Could you stop and pray for moms in the program today? Unfortunately I don't have the freedom to tell you how many and what not, but pray for the moms being counseled by MLH. They are in crisis, struggling with decisions and over all just needing the extra support. So today, pray for the mommas and their hearts!

On a better note......we have fundraisers in the works!! Two or three musical groups are donating cd's for our fundraiser!!! so stay tuned!!! all are going to keep the cpc ministry going!!!soooooooo........if you know of anyone else who wants to help or can help.....let me know.....keep an eye out!!

Movin' on Up!!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011


On the move!!!

There are only a few things that are scheduled (baby appointments and such), but other than that, it is a rare quiet time that we can use to move. The walls are looking bare and boxes are everywhere (hey that rhymed!), and the move begins. I really despise moving.....



We have reached an agreement to finish out somethings with our previous sponsor, though what we thought were things that we could continue to use for the ministry, they have said they will give us a date or two when they want them back. Those items were purchased not donated. So, families who thought their fees were helping the ministry, it only helped to a certain point. Sad, but if they feel like that must be done to make them feel better, I know our God owns a cattle on a thousands hills......HE WILL PROVIDE!!!



This has all been very testing. I will be honest again and say how discouraging it has been and how tiring it has been. There have been times where it is like "what do I do? what do I do?" Trying to keep from making emotional decisions are quite hard for women!! I want to make decisions that God wants us to make.



Yesterday though, as I was cleaning out things, I found something that Luke made for me after I got back from my first trip to Taiwan. We were not "boyfriend/girlfriend" yet, but he sent me a calligraphy of my favorite verses, Isaiah 43:1, 2 "But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. "



Maybe it was God reassuring me? I don't know. That frame is sitting in my office now. I found comfort in that first as a freshman at Bob Jones University when our family doctor did test and it said that I had cancer of the lymphnodes. THOUGH at surgery, it was a staph infection (doesn't God have a sense of humor!) But that verse brought special comfort to me then and it still does now.



Recent events have given our staff the feeling that we were drowning, physically and emotionally. All the decisions to make, how will it affect the ministry, where will we get the money, will we have food on our tables this month? etc......money suddenly dropped is no laughing matter. But again and again, God brings that verse in Isaiah to me. Along with I Corinthians 10:13 "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." God does not give us more than we can bear, we may not think we can bear it, but we were never asked to bear it alone, and better yet, God has an escape plan:-)...



So, as we go on our next chapter in our ministry to women, please be with us in prayer about our needs. Fitting that this all comes about as our 1yr anniversary shows up!!!



"To God be the glory, great things He has done!"