Why Taiwan?
Author: Rachel Kleppen
A few years ago, my pastor invited a tall skinny guy to the stage at the end of the church service. He was wearing gray high top sneakers with bright blue shoelaces and was preparing to move to Taiwan in a few days. (Sidenote: I did not know at the time that I would be marrying him just over a year later).
When he asked Travis why he was moving to Taiwan, he responded by saying there were two reasons.
He listed them simply and quickly:
- Jesus is worthy
- He is calling me to go there
There wasn’t any fanfare, he didn’t mention anything about the weather or the food or the people or the religion. Here was a guy that had every reason to stay in America (high-paying job, good friends, family, a girlfriend..), yet he was moving to Taiwan simply because God asked him to.
Of course he had his moments of doubt and tears were not absent when I dropped him off at the airport, but he was determined to be obedient to the God who had called him out of slavery and into new life.
My Call to Missions
Travis has since told me that his awareness of missions was present within his first year of conversion. It seemed so central to the work of the gospel to go and make disciples that he assumed he was supposed to be a part of it, it was just a matter of when and where.
I would not say a call to missions was in my vision until several years after I gave my life to Christ. Sure I led Bible studies and pursued freshman college students until they hid from me, but the global pursuit was to be someone else’s, not mine.
In 2013, I set aside the entire year to read the Bible from cover to cover – sometimes studying for hours each morning (bartending has it’s perks if you can wake up before noon). But I’ll never forget the day I read Matthew 24. It stopped me so heavily in my tracks I couldn’t even get out of my chair.
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
The words “and then” turned to bold on the page, and I realized these were two events that had to happen in this specific order.
To put it into context, this was a time where apocalyptic vocabulary and predictions were at the height of popularity. We had just survived the Mayan’s prediction of the world’s end in 2012, and even Christians were believing that Jesus’ return was imminent because of the moral backsliding of the American nation.
But this passage put it so simply. Jesus wasn’t coming back because the mission had failed miserably and he was throwing in the towel. Jesus would come back when His initial command for the church to reach every nation on Earth was complete.
As author David Platt puts it, “Church, we are Plan A and there is no plan B.”
It started to come together for me – go out to highways and byways and invite them to the great banquet! Some may say no and some may say yes, but everyone needs to be invited!
It doesn’t take too many google searches to realize that not just millions, but billions of people on this Earth have yet to receive their invitation. Statistics show that 86% of Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims do not even know a single Christian. They can’t name a single person they’ve met that follows Christ!
Why Taiwan?
Travis and I are in Taiwan because only 4% of the people on this island have responded yes to the invitation. That means over 22 million people on this tiny island are going to hell if they do not receive the gospel before they die.
We don’t know if we’ll get 22 million invitations out in our lifetime, but we’re going to hand out as many as we possibly can. Not only do we want to see Jesus come back before we die, we want as many people as will say yes to experience and spread God’s goodness in this life. God has so deeply changed who we are and what we hope for and live for that we hope many others can experience it too.
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?
And the best part is! His Spirit leads us, and only His Spirit can unlock closed hearts to receive this message of freedom and new life. We are not alone in this endeavor and we believe the greatest force on Earth is on our side.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
As we establish our lives in Taiwan and learn their language our hearts are growing toward this place. Many days we long for home and hugs from our moms and home cooking, we don’t always walk in joy. But I’m continually reminded of that lanky missionary’s words: Jesus is worthy, and He’s calling us to go.
