Ellis Family January Missions Update!

jan2011newsletter

Ellis family November Missions Update

Ellis family November Missions Update

Cambodia: Floods and Reincarnation

Cambodia: floods & reincarnation

Trying to put all of my experiences in Cambodia into words is quite a challenge.

I went to Cambodia to teach the book of Romans in the Bible school, but felt like I was the one who had so much to learn during my time there. I had just finished reading an excellent book called “First They Killed My Father”, a first hand account of a woman who was 5 years old when the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot took over Cambodia. Her horrific tale of suffering can only give us a glimpse into the pain these people have gone through. 1 out of every 4 Cambodians was killed during this time of their history. Despite this, I found the Khmer people to be full of life, often breaking out in smiles and laughter.

Reincarnation?

One of the things that left a lasting impression on me was a question and answer time that we had with the students and staff of the Bible school. Typically, I field questions on the Bible from “Who was Cain’s wife?” to “What is Revelation about anyway?”. I was not prepared for our discussion that night, which was dominated by the topic of reincarnation. Reincarnation is a central teaching within Buddhism, the major religion of Cambodia. These young, intelligent Christians have to struggle not only with their views on reincarnation, but their families who think that they are crazy for not believing in it. I had never thought through what the Bible has to say about this, and was challenged to have a well thought through response. The whole night showed me again the need for the Bible school in Cambodia, and the struggle for truth that lies ahead of the church there.

The Flood

The last part of the time that I was in Cambodia, there was heavy rainfall. Without proper drainage and sewer systems, things flood quickly in Cambodia. One day, I was coming back from a run early in the morning. While running, I had seen extensive flooding like you see in the picture above. The first floor of the simple homes were mostly underwater. As I came back to the house, the Bible school leader and his family drove up. They had woken up that morning to find the house had flooded while they slept. Their little boy was sleeping in a Pack-n-Play just right on the floor! Not only had God protected him from drowning, but he had slept through it all. When my friend woke up, he tried to save his laptop computer. Reaching for the cord, he began to be electrocuted. He still doesn’t know how he let go, except for a miracle from God. He was shaken up, but was fine later. Unfortunately, much of their furniture and belongings were ruined. All of this reminded me of the price of being in missions, and how fragile life really is. Things we hold onto can be gone overnight, and our very lives are the most precious gift from God.

Project Updates

We listed out some of our financial needs and projects in our last update. Since then, we have had some praise reports.

School Tuition

We had a donation of $500 come in! This leaves us with only $2,500 to go.

Cambodia trip

All the money to cover my trip came in! Airfare, visa, and travel expenses were all covered.

If you would like to give, you can do so in one of three ways:

1. Online: you can go directly to www.ellisupdateonline.com and click on “Donate” in the top right of the page. This is set up through Paypal, and you can give with your credit/debit card or Paypal accounts. This is an easy way to give, but we aren’t able to send a tax receipt for this.

2. Send a check to Youth With A Mission Montana, Attn: Accounting Department, 501 Blacktail Road, Lakeside, MT 59922. Do not write our names on the check, but make them out to YWAM. Include a slip of paper saying it is for us, and they will send you a tax-deductible receipt in the mail.

3. Put your check directly into the offering plate at Living Waters Christian Church in Kentucky.

Thank you for all of your prayers and generous donations! We couldn’t be in missions without you.

oevemb

The Bible School Hub Begins- Singapore!

Our main goal in moving to Taiwan was to create a resource center, or hub, for all of the Youth With A Mission Bible Schools throughout Asia. We currently have 11 Bible schools with 2 more being added this year. It was wonderful to get going on this vision by traveling to Singapore and begin to build relationship with the staff there. I taught Isaiah in the school which was made up of students from Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, the U.S., England, Fiji, and South Korea. Many of these students are headed to China long term for missions.

Great Opportunities

Cambodia

A wonderful opportunity has come up for me to travel to Cambodia and teach in our new Bible School there. You may remember that one of the leaders of the school, Rady Huch, was my student a few years ago, when I was leading the program in Montana. Rady and his team have asked me if I can come and teach the book of Romans, as well as continue to help with their staff training. This is exactly the kind of ministry that I was praying for with our Asian Resource Hub. The cost is fairly low, and I believe I can do this trip for under $500. If you would like to partner with us in this trip, you can see the donation instructions in the right column. We have a giving option online now through Paypal on this website. If you need a tax deductible receipt, you would need to send the money through Montana or Kentucky, and can see how to do that on our Financial Team page.

Chinese

Katie has now been studying Chinese full time for over 6 months! With the tones and vocabulary, Chinese has been a challenge, but Katie loves a new adventure. She has made several Chinese friends and has been reaching out to them with her limited language. One of her friends is named Sue, and she has been doing street cleaning for over 20 years! She is 62 now, and Katie talks with her most mornings as she begins her work. Another of her friends is Yamen, a spry 92 year old woman, who was one of the first generation of Christians in Taiwan. Yamen has been a wealth of encouragement for Katie's vision for Christianity in Taiwan.

A great opportunity has also come up for Katie. There is an intensive Chinese training program that we found out about in Taipei. It is broken up into 3 month blocks, and gives the student 15 hours of class per week, with lots of practice in speaking Chinese. The institute has been training people in Chinese for over 30 years. The challenge for us is that they require all the tuition up front, whereas her past lessons could be paid month by month. We don't have that much money upfront, and would need $800 for Katie to enroll. Would you pray about partnering with us in this as well?

Financial Projects Update

$8,000 came in for the kids' school

$3,000 scholarship given by the kids' school

Still need:

$4,000-$8,000 for a van for the family

$3,000 to finish off the kids' school fees for next term

Thank you so much for being co-workers with us in missions, and we greatly appreciate your prayers and encouragement.

What are we building with our lives?

Hello everyone,

Ni hao ma? That means "howdy" in Chinese. We pray that our Ellis family missions update finds you all doing well.

Recently, we have had the blessing of a visit from Aunt Chelsea from California, one of Katie's sisters. All of us had a wonderful time introducing Chelsea to our new home, Taiwan. From the distinct smell of the chodofu (a local tofu), to the bright lights and people of the night market street, it gave us an opportunity to think through what we love about Taiwan and how it is truly becoming a place we call "home". One of the sights of Taipei that we visited was Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper in Taiwan, and the tallest in the world from 2004 until 2010. I have attached some pictures of that, as well as some interesting information about the skyscraper itself.

Taipei 101 is a landmark skyscraper located in Taipei, Taiwan. Taipei 101 received the 2004 Emporis Skyscraper Award and was hailed as one of the Seven New Wonders of the World (Newsweek magazine, 2006) and Seven Wonders of Engineering (Discovery Channel, 2005). The tower has served as an icon of modern Taiwan ever since its opening. Taipei 101 comprises 101 floors above ground and 5 floors underground. The name of the tower reflects its floor count. The tower is designed to withstand typhoons and earthquakes. Taipei 101 is designed to withstand the typhoon winds and earthquake tremors common in its area of the Asia-Pacific. Planners aimed for a structure that could withstand gale winds of 60 m/s (197 ft/s, 216 km/h, 134 mph) and the strongest earthquakes likely to occur in a 2,500 year cycle. Skyscrapers must be flexible in strong winds yet remain rigid enough to prevent large sideways movement (lateral drift). These features combine with the solidity of its foundation to make Taipei 101 one of the most stable buildings ever constructed. The foundation is reinforced by 380 piles driven 80 m (262 ft) into the ground, extending as far as 30 m (98 ft) into the bedrock. Each pile is 1.5 m (5 ft) in diameter and can bear a load of 1,000 metric tons (1,100 short tons) - 1,320 metric tons (1,460 short tons). The stability of the design became evident during construction when, on March 31, 2002, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Taipei. The tremor was strong enough to topple two construction cranes from the 56th floor, then the highest. Five people died in the accident, but an inspection showed no structural damage to the building, and construction soon resumed. Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers along with Evergreen Consulting Engineering designed a 660 metric tons (728 short tons) steel pendulum that serves as a tuned mass damper, at a cost of NT$132 million (US$4 million). Suspended from the 92nd to the 88th floor, the pendulum sways to offset movements in the building caused by strong gusts. Its sphere, the largest damper sphere in the world, consists of 41 circular steel plates, each with a height of 125 mm (4.92 in) being welded together to form a 5.5 m (18 ft) diameter sphere. Another two tuned mass dampers, each weighing 6 metric tons (7 short tons) sit at the tip of the spire. These prevent damage to the structure due to strong wind loads

Taipei 101 was the first building in the world to break the half-kilometer mark in height and the first record-setting skyscraper constructed in the new millennium. The record it claimed for greatest height from ground to pinnacle now rests with the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (UAE): 828 m (2,717 ft). Taipei 101's records for roof height and highest occupied floor briefly passed to the Shanghai World Financial Center in 2009, which in turn yielded these records as well to the Burj. Taipei 101 displaced the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as the tallest building in the world by 57.2 m (188 ft).

(me again) You can't help but think about the story in Genesis 11 when you are standing next to this building^{. "} Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." You have to wonder if you aren't looking up at a modern day tower of Babel. Are we still that consumed with "making a name for ourselves"? The irony struck me that the builders of Taipei 101 worked so hard to grab the title of "world's tallest building". For 6 glorious years, they could boast that Taiwan had the undisputed title. Then Dubai decided to enter into the competition, and just like that, the world's tallest building was the Burj Khalifa, not Taipei 101. How much longer until Taipei 101 becomes the 3rd or 4th tallest building? who really knows what the 5th tallest building in the world is? God challenged me to think about what I am trying to build in this life. What do I spend my time, money, and dreams on? Am I building my own Taipei 101 or am I part of building something more lasting? Being a part of building God's kingdom is something that will last. Helping others in this world, serving the poor and needy, and sharing the life changing story of Jesus will build a structure that will be taller than anything ever built (Revelation says the "new city" is into the stratosphere!) Paul talks about this spiritual building in 1 Corinthians 3:14 when he says, "If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward."

Taipei 101 is a great place to visit and marvel at what man can accomplish. Nothing, however, will ever compare to what God is building in our lives.

Praise Reports

* All of the $8,000 tuition we needed for the first semester of the kids' Christian school came in! In just under 2 1/2 weeks!

* We had a great visit with Aunt Chelsea from California.

* Sophia and Max will start their Chinese tutoring next week.

Prayer Requests

* We would love to have a van so that we could get around to places that the bus or metro don't go.

* We need some extra tuition money to pay for the Chinese lessons this summer for Katie and the kids.

* Wisdom on planning out an outreach this fall for our family.

* Super language learning abilities for all of us with Chinese.

* Wisdom for Sean; he has been meeting for over one month with 3 college guys who are interested in Christianity.

Thank you all again for your prayers and support. We miss you all greatly, and want you to know that you are in our prayers and hearts.

blessings,

Sean, Katie, Sophia, Max, Joseph, and Kai Ellis

Final 80 for Education Ellis family fundraiser update!

Hey everyone,
This is the final 80 for Education Ellis family fundraiser update. The reason that this is the final update is that God has provided all of the $8,000 for our kids to go to school while we do missions here in Taiwan! Praise God! We had some more $100 and $200 donations, and then one donor let us know that they are giving us the last $2,000. Wow! We wanted to thank you all for your prayers and generosity. Words can't describe how blessed we are to see everyone join in to help us be here in Taiwan. Our kids are thrilled that they get to go back to the Christian school with their friends, and continue to learn Chinese.
Just one week ago, I was teaching the book of Zechariah. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I was actually teaching our Bible School in South Africa through the Internet. Israel was struggling during the time of Zechariah's ministry, as their return to Jerusalem from exile wasn't matching what they expected. They had expected to reestablish Israel's kingship and independence, and see the prosperity of Solomon's kingdom come back. Instead, they were surrounded by enemies, living in the ruins of Jerusalem, and had even stopped rebuilding the temple. Even though God had taken a whole empire down to allow them to return, they still struggled to be grateful because it didn't all happen as they "expected". God began to speak to me about my expectations in what being in Taiwan would be like. Despite the challenges of moving overseas, He has shown me how He wants me to live in a place of gratefulness, and celebrate what He has done. We intend to celebrate big time for what God has just done for us and our kids! There will always be financial challenges as well as "stuff" we think we need and don't have, but we can't miss the "empires" that God is tearing down all around us in order for the eternal Gospel to go forward.
If any of you wanted to give toward the fundraiser but didn't get to, we still have some other projects that we are raising funds for. We are still looking for a used van ($4,000) and need some more tuition towards Chinese lessons this summer for Katie and the kids ($1,200). As always you can give through clicking on "Donate" on this website, mailing a check into YWAM Montana, or placing money into the offering at Living Waters Church.
Check out the beginning of our celebration in the video below.

6th 80 for Education Ellis family fundraiser update

Hey everyone!
Many of you have emailed us to see what happened with the fundraiser, since yesterday was our deadline of June 1st for the tuition for our kids here in Taiwan. A little over two weeks ago, we had nothing (zero, zip, nada) toward sending our kids to school in the fall. With all of your generosity and prayers, we had $6,000 come in! Praise God! Unfortunately, that was $2,000 short of what we needed. After talking with the school, they agreed to let us pay what we had, and gave us until the end of July to pay the rest. We only had to pay a $100 late fee, and avoided having to pay interest. So, if you would like to help us finish off this last $2,000, you can click on "Donate" in the top right corner, or you can send a check in to YWAM Montana, 501 Blacktail Road, Lakeside, MT 59901 and make the check out to YWAM including a slip of paper indicating it is for Sean and Katie Ellis (you have to mail a check in if you want a tax deductible receipt).
It has been such an incredible thing for our children to see God provide. When we told them that we were moving away from their home to go to Taiwan to do missions, it was a difficult time of saying goodbye to friends and their own country. God has continued to meet them just where they are at, helping us send them to the Christian school this year, providing new friendships, and encouraging them that He is with them. Our prayer was that we would do missions as a family; the children just as involved as we are in this faith journey. As we have prayed with the children these last two weeks, it has been great to see the look on their faces when we tell them of another donation coming in. God also answered one of our prayers by providing someone who can help Max and Sophia with their Chinese this summer. They are actually excited about this, even though it is their summer break from school. Max teaches me new words in Chinese all the time (like french fries and ice cream!).
Thank you again for helping us be here in Taiwan as missionaries! Check out our new video update below.