Dear brothers and sisters,
As I am writing this letter, our family is preparing ourselves to leave Pittsburgh for Taiwan for a journey we have been waiting for. It feels a little bit unreal, but God is the one who makes the way. We will be traveling to Taipei on Feb 2nd and stay there for a few months. I plan to finish the scriptwriting for this mini movie series “One of Us”(tentative title) and produce a short promotional video with other Christian filmmakers in Taiwan.
It was not an easy decision to leave the place where I call it home and my identity which I love and accustomed to, even just for a few months. As I take the steps to follow God’s lead, what God wants me to put on his altar is my desire to accompany both of my children full-time as they are experiencing precious developmental stages in their lives; my sense of security from the relationship and routine in my own home; the brothers and sisters I care and find spiritual support from; a stable and comfortable life that I can have control over.
As the time gets closer, my heart gets tightened and the struggles are stronger. However, this is the calling God has put in my heart since 2013. He asked me to walk out of my comfort zone and follow Him. I have been praying for many things and He answered me one by one. Now is the time to respond to Him and learn to live by faith, not by sight.
In the past year, I am so grateful that God has prepared a group of faithful and wise board members to form our organization, to help me build a foundation to start the important preparation stage of movie production. We saw the urgency of using media to outreach this generation, but the field is in desperate need of high quality gospel centered media content. This is a mission field that requires more investment and efforts, especially among Chinese churches. Visual
communication and story-telling has great potential to engage young people, particularly in cultural related topics, such as LGBT topics which the opinions of our students are mostly shaped by their peers, teachers,
and other secular influences in the society and campuses. We need qualified Christian workers to serve in this area, to own this powerful communication tool and to translate Biblical worldviews on these topics into the language that’s easily accessible for the postmodern generation.
As we embark on this journey, we are constantly reminded that life is always before work. Please join me to pray that this truth can be deeply planted in my heart that God is not unable, and He needs us to work for Him. What He is longing for is that His children can enjoy Him in any circumstances. It’s His mercy to show us how big the field is so that we can see how lacking we are and how much we need to rely on Him. Our true fulfillment is to please His heart, to be molded like Him, not even the sense of achievement from the completion of our work.
We have a few prayer requests:
- We are sensing a lot of pressure and spiritual attack since we decided to have this trip as a family. Please pray for our family’s unity, spiritual protection, a good communication pattern and trust between Steve(my husband) and I in the face of pressure.
- Please pray for my emotions and self-identity to be guarded by God. As an artist He gives me a lot of emotions to help me create and inspire, however it’s always a constant struggle because in reality overwhelming emotions can bring damages in
relationships. Please pray for my heart to think about “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy” (Philippians 4:8) and filled with God’s truth, not lies.
- Please pray for our family’s adjustment in Taipei. We will be staying with my parents. I will be working during the day and my older daughter Teresa will be going to fourth grade in a new school,
speaking and learning every subject in Chinese, a language she has never used in a formal setting.
- I will need to finish our script, and a movie promotional video with my filmmaker missionary friend Mina Cheng, during the time while I am in Taiwan (Feb 2nd-May 6th).
Financially, we need USD$3069 in the first quarter of 2020 to cover the script writing expense in Taiwan, which includes location scout, office rental, and fundraising expenses such as postage, and producing flyers. In April, we hope to finish a promotional video, and we will need USD$3900 to rent location, equipment, hire crew and actors….etc.
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
We are so grateful that we can serve together with you and God can use us to bring a vision to reality. With your prayers and support, we are looking forward to amazing things to happen this year! Wish you a blessed year of 2020!
In Him,
Phoebe Sheng
Producer of Two Springs Media