by Tim Iverson, Alliance international worker serving in Taiwan
About a dozen years ago, God led us Alliance missionaries in Taiwan to leave the cities and move to the country. These remote areas are dark and traditional. People do not come to Christ in numbers there. We often say, “Nobody comes to Christ in our town.”
But last spring, a woman at the end of her rope walked into our mission office. My wife, Penny, and our mission secretary, Wendy, were working. This woman began asking questions about Christianity. Penny sat down with her, and Wendy joined them. They spent about an hour talking with this woman.
A month later, I got a message through social media from Fungyee Lam, an Alliance international worker at the Sihhu Alliance Church, which meets in our mission office. She explained Miss Huang, the woman who stopped in the office, had been reading the Bible and she believes Jesus is a true and powerful God. Fungyee explained the gospel to her.
“She became a Christian today,” Fungyee wrote. “She wants to get rid of all the god stuff in her house. What should we do?”
“Do it now; catch the moment,” I replied.
The next day we went to Miss Huang’s house and tore down her god shelf and pictures of the goddess Mazu. Someone from the Sihhu Alliance Church and I carried one of the idols into the courtyard. The wooden statue was about three-feet tall. Later, I found out this god was worth thousands of U.S. dollars, yet Miss Huang was willing to give it all up for Jesus.
We burned all the items and had a great service.
Today, Miss Huang is a member of the Sihhu Alliance Church. She tells everyone she meets about Jesus and how He changed her. Soon after she became a Christian, she led her mother-in-law to Christ and then her daughter. She plans to be baptized in December.