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Greetings once again from the hot tropics. We have

kept pretty busy since the last newsletter. April brings

Easter. We always do a “sunrise” service at 6:30am,

but by that time the sun has been up a good hour. This

year attendance was down, but those that slept in

missed a special service. The church asked my wife to

do the “preaching,” and I thought she did better than

any of the years I have done it. During the worshipservice that morning, the children sang a couple of

songs. Before I preached the choir also sang one of my

favorite songs, And Can It Be? as well as a beautiful

Chinese song. One of the things I love in working with

the Taiwanese is their musical abilities.

In the picture on the left, you see an answer to pray-

er sitting at the piano. For years the Tsoying church

has struggled finding people to play the piano.

Around Chinese New Year one of the ladies that

could play left, to become the pastor of a small

church in the outskirts of Kaohsiung. Annie had

started attending church last year, and about the time

the other lady left she agreed to be our main pianist.

Not only is she very competent, but she is a piano

teacher. It sure does add to a worship service when

there is a good pianist!

Right around Easter we found out our landlord for the apartment we had been renting wanted to raise the

rent. We decided it would be better to move. Two doors down, an apartment in the same building was

available. One or two days after we asked about it, someone else inquired. Because our landlord waited

right until the end of the contract to tell us, it was a little unsettling. But, when we found a place right away,

so close, and actually for a little less than we had been paying, a peace from God came over us. The move

meant a lot of work that I would have rather avoided, but we are settled in and happy in the new apartment.

Taiwan Times

Byron and Melissa Manners Newsletter Blog: http://taiwantimesblog.wordpress.com

Summer 2014

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On Mother’s Day, one of the church coworkers arranged

for Timothy (picture on left) to play the offertory. His

mother was leading the worship service that morning,

and she did not know he was going to play his flute.

Come to find out, he and his music teacher had kept it a

big secret until that morning. Another different idea that

same coworker came up with was to have the children

and others make the Mother’s Day gifts. The latest one

to be baptized has her own business. She makes her own

soap and sells it. So she brought her molds the week be-

fore Mother’s Day, and several people came and made

the gifts. It was especially nice that at least two of the

mothers received a gift made by their own child.

On May 26 I got to do something I have never done before. The lady that sells soap had an idol she wanted to

destroy. A pastor’s wife that attends our church told me to be careful and not allow a lot of people to partici-

pate in the ceremony. So we got a carload together on a Monday morning and went way out in the country to

have an idol -removal service and then take it to be burned. I was surprised when I arrived that it was not the

kind of idol I was expecting. On the table in the middle,

there is an orange tiger with black stripes on a piece of

green wood. Evidently there was a ceremony to install

the idol in the home. So we had a service to uninstall the

idol. At the same time the lady in the picture got rid of a

bunch of other stuff connected with idolatry. Her unbe-lieving sister also got rid of some stuff. As we were hav-

ing the service, a god parade went by on the street out-

side, and I was afraid we were about to have a real spir-

itual battle. Thankfully, they had moved on by the time

we were done singing. After the service, we gathered

the stuff up and went out to an isolated place along a

river and burned the stuff and buried the remains. I

came back rejoicing that the kingdom of darkness had suffered a blow.

There are more stories to tell, but not enough space. If you are interested in our work, follow our blog—

taiwantimesblog.wordpress.com. More pictures from these stories and others are available at:

picasaweb.google.com/Melissa71169/SpringActivities02 and also

picasaweb.google.com/Melissa71169/SummerActivities02.

June 28 and 29 is our annual retreat. I am doing all the preaching myself this year and would appreciate your

prayers. This is always a critical time, but especially this year as we will be leaving for a year’s furlough after

the retreat. Your prayers make it possible for the work of God to go forward on this island.