“What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.”
(Psalm 56:3)
This was the verse I passed on to my family as the house was shaking around them. That morning, I was headed to meet A___ for an early Wednesday morning Bible study. I concluded that today it would be fastest to get there by taking the subway. I headed down the street, got into the subway station, and headed down the last escalator to the platform. I noticed as I got to the bottom that the train arrived at the same time—what a blessing! I stopped at a door and noticed there were not too many seats, which was okay. I could stand; it was only a few stops anyway. I crossed to the other side of the train car and adjusted my feet for balance when the car started to move. I adjusted my feet again . . . then again, trying to get what felt like a good balance. Then I looked at the gap between the platform and the train car. Something wasn’t right; the train car was swaying. I didn’t remember this phenomenon happening the last time I was on the train. Then came the announcement: “This train will be delayed for several minutes due to an ongoing earthquake.”
I quickly texted my wife, who was with our girls in our eighth-floor apartment, and sheepishly asked, “Are you okay?” “Everything is still shaking,” was her reply. A few minutes later, all was calm. The train doors closed, and we sped off through the tunnel. I got an alert on my earthquake app saying it was a 7.3 near Hualien. A few stops later, I got off and headed up to the surface to go find A___. Everything was normal. People were eating breakfast, and sellers were selling their fruits and vegetables at the market. No one seemed to think much about it. I called my wife to make sure all was okay. She said they were feeling another one. I questioned it, until another notice showed up on my phone. It was a 6.3 aftershock near Hualien. The rest of the day was similar. Each hour, there were several earthquake alerts. Initially, they started off between 5.0 and 6.0. By the end of the day they were mostly 4.0 to 5.0.
Our city has no immediate threat. As I am sure you have seen in the news, there are several buildings knocked down. Amazing to me is the low number of deaths. Praise the Lord for His mercy! Compared to the work that needs to be done, there are few Gospel-preaching churches on the eastern side of the island. Interestingly, we had previously planned an outreach trip to an area about an hour north of the epicenter. We have only heard of one possible Gospel-preaching Baptist church in this city of nearly 100,000, which sits on a fault line. This outreach trip has been rescheduled a couple of times. This particular time slot seemed to have worked out beautifully. In light of the recent events, it seems the Lord may be preparing hearts to be more receptive to the Gospel.
Please be in prayer for the people in Hualien, as well as the pastors in that area. Specifically, please pray for the hearts of the people to be softened toward Christ and the Gospel. Please also pray for wisdom for any soul winners who are or will be in those regions. Thank you for all the prayers! May the Lord be glorified!
Bound to His service,
Missionary #6004
