Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Thank you for your prayers and warm greetings in the past few months. After 70 days of traveling, our family safely returned to Pittsburgh on April 16th.
When we arrived Taiwan on February 4th, the number of COVID-19 cases just started to surge there. Governments at all levels began to mobilize communities, companies, and schools to pull up the line of defense against the epidemic. The government’s central command center was established to prepare for a war against the epidemic. We first quarantined in an Airbnb for two days, and then went to Zhongli to participate in a 4-day and 3-night course at the All Nations Worship and Praise Ministries. This was a camp that could not be held at this time, but it still took place as scheduled. It went smoothly. Thank God, our family was able to regain strength in the Spirit and prepare to face the next challenge.
We came back to Taipei after the conference and learned that all schools will postpone the start of the spring semester for two weeks until February 25th. I needed to start working on February 13th when our office rental lease started. Therefore, Steve and my father took turns taking care of the kids when I started working. This was very challenging for Steve as well because he still needed to work and attend conference calls at night to accommodate the USA time zone.
The working hours are always very intense. I worked about 5 hours a day to discuss, develop, design the storylines and background of the characters in our 6-episode mini movie series with Mina Cheng, a Taiwan-based Film Missionary. This is a story about the struggles of sin and humanity as well as God’s divine intervention and redemption. Writing a Christian movie script about homosexuality is like digging up and building a road on a wasteland without a map or directions. We shovel and shovel. Each dig makes you sweat all over, but there is no guarantee you will find the way. We often exhausted every idea and inspiration, but God gradually revealed more of the character’s inner world and emotions to us. Their pain pierced my heart. No, it’s not my heart, it is our Heavenly Father’s heart.
This is a tiny office without any decoration. It is a place where we often felt burnt out and overworked. However, I felt God’s presence so profoundly in this small space. Mina and I often felt overwhelmed just by thinking about how we can finish this amount of work. But time after time, we are pursued and persuaded by God’s overflowing love and compassion towards this group – a lost group who believe our world can bring them peace (which is not true). Therefore, this group resists almost all opportunities of change and true hope. So many testimonies of people who formerly identified as homosexual prove that the LGBTQ+ movement is not their hope. Homosexual people desperately need the Gospel just like anyone of us.
The LGBTQ+ world is an unknown territory to most Chinese churches and Christians. We don’t know them, how to approach them, and sometimes resist entering their world. Attending church can be difficult for that community. A well-known Christian author and teacher Rosaria Butterfield, who formerly identified as homosexual, once said, “The power of a narrative is that it can take people to places they have never been(paraphrasing).” That echoes what we want to do. I hope by using film to tell a story of the LGBTQ+ community, Christians can begin to understand this group. By creating small caring groups, people with sexuality/gender confusions will feel welcomed by the church.
During her time in Taipei, Teresa has adapted more than expected in school. She liked her classmates, had made great progress in Chinese, and enjoyed after-school activities such as pulling bells, inline skating, and taekwondo. We originally scheduled to return to the United States in early May when the scriptwriting was scheduled to finish. However, with the multiple air tickets cancellations, the rapid changes in the epidemic, and the challenges from the reversal of day and night schedule for Steve, we decided to return to the United States earlier as whole family even though my writing has not been completed.
After we returned to the United States, we needed to adapt to a completely different lifestyle under the impact of the epidemic. I still meet with Mina online every Monday night to continue discussing the script. Compared with working face-to-face in Taiwan, the number of working hours has been reduced, and the progress is slower. But this is the reality that we have to accept in this special period. However, to be with the whole family, to worship and serve together, to look to God and experience Him with faith…these are precious and irreplaceable moments!
At this time, when the epidemic is raging in the United States, I urge the brothers and sisters who read this letter to pray for the United States together. As the epidemic continues to spread and many lives are lost, I am saddened for this country. The uncontrollable spread of the epidemic reflects two things to me: the many missteps of the government and the stubbornness in people’s hearts. It’s a generation who wants to satisfy their own pleasure and desire at any moment. They don’t care about this life, or eternal life. I prayed and cried out to God, “Have mercy to heal this land, forgive our transgressions, save our lives, may the plague will calm down.”
Please also continue to pray for the progress of the script writing and our next steps. During the 70 days in Taiwan, we completed the first
round of script writing for the six episodes, which focused on story development and character setting. After returning to Pittsburgh, we are now in the second round of script writing. The second round focuses on the detailed development of each episode and each scene. In the third round, the focus will be on dialogue writing. After returning to the United States, my challenge has been finding enough time to write while my primary role is taking care of the children and housework. The time difference when working with another country also puts a lot of pressure on my routine and rest. Please pray for me to have strong physical strength to stay the course.
The original work plan is to complete the script in June this year and to start raising funds for filming in the second half of the year. We aimed to start filming in 2022. Now because of the epidemic and travel restrictions, we don’t know whether it is possible to meet the original goal. Please pray for us to continue following God on this task. May God’s wonderful plan be fulfilled so that the power of the Gospel will enter the lives of LGBTQ+ community.
Thank you for your financial support. So far this year (2020), the donation we have received is $4,273.89, and the expenditure is $811.87, mainly for the rent of the office in Taipei and the rent of the U.S. Postal Office’s mailbox. In the future we will transfer the unused balance to the film’s shooting fund.
If you feel led to partner with us in this ministry financially, you can write a check to Two Springs Media, and mail to:
Two Springs Media
P.O. Box 81518, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
In Him,
Phoebe Sheng
Producer of Two Springs Media