Hawkins In Taiwan

15/12/2023

24/07/2023

We’re starting our fourth week of SYME Summer Term! Our students have studied hard and played hard! Please be praying for them this week as they will be serving a local church’s after school program through a Bible Club!

15/07/2023

This week, I took my students out on a field trip to work on their English project of critiquing a piece of artwork. They enjoyed the break from the classroom!

29/06/2023

Last week, we were busy preparing for our summer term. This week, we are learning more about local church ministry at a staff conference. Next week, our summer term begins!

14/02/2023

Last week our students were able to bring Bible Club to a local after school program at a church. They did a wonderful job sharing God’s truth and serving others!

10/12/2022

Day 1/2 for the first Rooted Retreat! It’s a lot of fun to learn and have fun with alumni. Can’t wait for tomorrow!

08/12/2022

It's that time again. We have another update live! Click the link below to hear about what's been happening

03/11/2022

Our latest update is out! We are back in Taiwan after a long time waiting for the borders. It's good to be back here and we're excited to share what God is doing here that we get to be a part of! Read about what has been happening since we’ve been back down below.

https://mailchi.mp/497894eabf2b/8274604-11560526

29/09/2022

After more than a year of waiting, we have our Visas and our plane tickets! We will be leaving for Taiwan on Monday and we'll share more about what's next soon.

04/10/2021

We have new prayer cards ready to be sent out! If you want one mailed to you, fill out this form and we’ll get it to you soon.

https://forms.gle/SGHu8W7sasrz4xUf8

Fill in the info to get your very own copy of our latest prayer card!

09/09/2021

Our Latest Prayer Letter is out and ready to be read! Follow the link below to check it out and use the link in the comments to subscribe to our list!

https://mailchi.mp/fc7541df87de/8274604

23/06/2021

There is a new update about Taiwan going out soon!

If you've subscribed to newsletters and haven't gotten the most recent one let me know, I would love for you to be up to date.

If you're not on my mailing list but would like to be, follow the link I've posted in the comments.

30/03/2021

Our SYME program runs every week from Tuesday to Friday. Saturday, Sunday and Monday are days that both ourselves and the students use to prepare for the next week but they are also a really unique time for building relationships. After planning out time for homework and class planning, we are often able to plan out day trips going somewhere together as a group. I have been able to see much more of Taiwan that a lot of other people do because of this, and it gives me a lot of common ground with students from that term, and future students who have been to those places as well.

26/03/2021

Friday Facts!

When I first came to Taiwan, every Monday, in different formats, we would host something we call English Cafe. This was a time where we would invite people from the community around us in to talk to them about the Bible in English. We have about an hour to spend on a topic prepared ahead of time that highlights the relevance and importance of God’s Word. This is not a ministry that I have been involved in heavily, but it is one of the interesting ways we have opportunities to minister to the people of Taiwan through the platform of English.

23/03/2021

For the first three terms that I was here in Taiwan, I had the position of Discipleship Coordinator for the guy's dorm. I was in charge of making sure that the environment of the guy's dorm was conducive for relationships that were encouraging and just making sure things went smoothly in general. I miss having this job because it gave me time to be intentional with the guys that lived in the dorm.

19/03/2021

Friday Facts!

As of about a year now, I have been studying Mandarin Chinese so that I can speak it here. Taiwan has all of their business and schooling in Chinese and most of their conversations in Chinese as well, the only exception being most of the older generation preferring the indigenous languages. This is something that is very daunting to any missionary, myself included, but also something I have very much enjoyed. Chinese is a very fascinating language and I feel very privileged to be in an environment where I can learn and use it regularly.

18/03/2021

Check out my latest Prayer Letter here!!!

https://mailchi.mp/91785a548a8a/wrapping-up-winter-term

17/03/2021

Story Time!

One of the students I worked with during my first term is a man named Isaac. He was in my English class and through that, we began to build a strong relationship. He was one of my closest friends from the time that I new to Taiwan, and it has been an incredible encouragement to watch him continue to grow in his relationship with God after our time together.

15/03/2021

One of the parts of our program that helps teach reading and writing is a journal that is shared between each student and one of our staff members. Every Tuesday and Friday, both people make an entry that can consist of anything, but is often very deep. There is something intangible about the privacy of sharing something with just one person, and not even doing that out loud. It leads to some very personal conversations that people are often too afraid to have otherwise.

12/03/2021

Friday Facts!

For one week every term, I have been given the opportunity to teach the daily chapel messages for SYME. I teach for four days in a row, two days with a translator and two days without one. The variety of students in terms of their English level and their Bible knowledge makes it challenging to teach in a way that is both engaging but also digestible. I’ve had to learn to be much more creative with illustrations, as well as find ways to take big truths about God’s Word and teach them very plainly. I have loved learning how simple God’s Word really is, and how the truth does not require a great teacher, it stands on its own.

08/03/2021

Testimony Time!

This is a student who stayed for the first two terms that I was serving at SYME. His name is Jack, and He is from South Korea. My relationship with him was really special because we were both discovering much of Taiwan at the same time. Jack arrived at the dorm I would be staying in just a few hours before I did. Jack had a very real relationship with God that I learned much from during our time together, and even now I’ve been able to keep up with Him after he moved back to Korea. This relationship is a phenomenal example of the way the gospel unites people from totally different walks of life. I am consistently encouraged by the relationship I have with Jack, and I am thankful we were able to build it in the short time we were together.

05/03/2021

Friday Facts!
One of the important parts of a day at SYME is chapel time. Every day we have an hour-long service put on mostly by the students themselves. This is to help develop skills that could be useful for service to a local church. I have had the opportunity to be a coach for one of the jobs at chapel time for four out of my five terms. Over those terms, I coached MC, and Skit teams. I enjoy this job because it gives space for us to remind ourselves and our students the heart behind why we do different things; to please God and rather than please man.

01/03/2021

Monday Ministry!

Teaching English is something I never had an ambition to do before I came to Taiwan. However, after being here I have begun to understand the importance of it. Being a native speaker, it is hard to understand how much someone can be driven to learn the language that dominates so much of the world today. It’s not something that I’ve ever had to live through myself, but through teaching English I have begun to understand how complicated it is. Our students rely on us very much for what they want to learn, and this environment can be made into something deeply personal and relational. I have quickly learned since coming to Taiwan, that teaching English can be more than just bait to bring people into a ministry, but also a ministry in and of itself.

25/02/2021

When I first came to Taiwan in January of 2020, I was only expecting to stay for a few months. Much longer than that has passed by already and I am still here, serving with Word of Life Taiwan. Because the way that I came was different from most missionaries, I am here full-time without time before I came to raise support, and share what I would be doing here. So this page exists to bridge that gap a little bit. Starting this week, every Friday and Monday, I will post about one aspect of ministry that I’ve done here in Taiwan with a short explanation on it so that anyone who wants to know, can learn what I’ve been doing here. God is very exciting, and I hope you will enjoy hearing the things He has been doing on this little island I get to call home.

16/02/2021

My most recent Prayer-Letter is ready to be sent! You can check it out here and add yourself to the mailing list by following the link in the comments.

https://mailchi.mp/980019708850/winter-term-and-lunar-new-year

This term, most of our students only stayed for four weeks instead of eight. This was to accommodate the fact that most of them are university students and need to return to their studies. This term, that schedule falls right in the middle of the SYME term. The term usually has a fair amount of its...