Dear Friends,

About 2 weeks ago, I (Erich) joined a group of guys from our church, and went river tracing south of Taipei. Basically this involved picking your own path following a branch of the Xin Dian river upstream. Sometimes the water was shallow and fast, at other times deep and calm. It was a sunny day, so dipping into the cold water felt great!

Towards the end of our short adventure, we came upon a man-made waterfall. The water below seemed deep enough, so we decided to jump off the edge. It took some courage to make the first jump. But after the initial shock, the water below sure felt great!

This got me thinking about risk-taking. As I thought back on our short missionary career I recounted some of the big risks it took for us to get to the place we are today. Among these are:

• following God's leading to long-term service in Taiwan, instead of North Africa (which very much surprised us, as we're sure it did others too!)
• trusting the Lord to help us raise the support needed to begin our long-term missionary service in Taiwan in just 4 months!
• selling all our belongings except some clothes, books, and laptop, to move halfway around the world to embark on an adventure of loving those different from ourselves

We were not guaranteed success for taking any of these risks. But we know for certain how deeply we would have regretted not having taken them in favor of a more safe and comfortable life.

If you are in the place we were a few years ago, with God asking BIG things of you, take courage! Living in the center of His will is the best place to be, after all - even if getting there feels like jumping off a 30 foot waterfall.

My dad commented on the below video:
"Looks like you had a lot of fun jumping down that waterfall.
  It’s almost a metaphor for the Christian life."

- We couldn't agree more :D