Telling God Yes: Jen and Derik Devries, Serving in Taiwan

Derik and Jen DeVries are missionaries in Taichung Taiwan. On a recent visit to the US we got the chance to film them as they shared some of the trials, triumphs, and hopes for Taiwan and mission fields around the world. Watch the video here or read the transcript below.

JEN

I’m Jen and this is Derik; we’re the DeVrieses, and we work in Taichung, Taiwan, with Team Expansion.

DISCIPLES WHO MAKE DISCIPLES

JEN

One of the greatest gifts we have is having to leave Taiwan once every couple years. It really sets the believers in a place where they don’t rely on us.

DERIK

The more we work with them the more they realize, “I have spiritual gifts, I have a part in this,” and so we actually have people that are starting their own groups, and leading their own groups that are Taiwanese people teaching Taiwanese people. And their teaching is just powerful and amazing. And so it’s good to have them as coworkers with the gospel.

JEN

One of our young leaders came to us and said, “We hate that you’re leaving, but it’s the absolute best thing we need right now. We need to do this work with us and the Holy Spirit, and we needed you to leave so that we can grow and know that we’ve got this with God. And we love that you have walked with us this far. We also love and hate that you’re leaving, but it is what we need.”

JEN

So 5-6 years ago, Derik got the idea that he absolutely had to eat a restaurant one day, that we don’t even really like. And it’s been a funny thing, we follow his stomach to places, and God gives us introductions. So we met a group of ladies that day that we still know and that we meet with for Bible study every week. Not a single one of them has had the courage to step out and commit their lives, but almost the entire group has said, “Wow, now we believe in this God and we know that he’s real. We’re scared for what this means for the future.” But they’re meeting with each other to read the Bible even when we’re not there, because they say, “We couldn’t live without this now.”

DERIK

To be honest, sometimes being a missionary is really hard. It’s not always just rainbows and butterflies. But for us, we’re encouraged when we see a Taiwanese person when they first understand that there is actually peace offered to them by a God that loves them. And that they can have hope for their future. Just the encouragement that we get when we see somebody actually come to faith and come to understand, “This is the God who cares about me.” That just, all those difficult things just kind of fade into the background because people are coming to God and it’s a beautiful thing.

SPORTS AND ENGLISH CAMP

JEN

So we do a thing called sports and English camp. A missionary about 13 years ago started it, probably having no idea what it would turn into. It has turned into one of the best methods for us to find people who are seeking. Jr. high and high school students come for one week. Basically, think church camp, but they’ve never had any experience like this, ever. So the idea of having a low pressure situation where they can meet new people, they can try new things without any tests that are associate with them. Nobody is getting ranked. A very cool thing we did this year, our staff came up on stage and said, “We commit to walking with you for this entire year if you want us to walk with you, everybody on this stage, 100% is committed to you.” And I don’t think the Taiwanese youth have ever had an adult say anything like that to them. And so several of our youth said that was the thing when you said whatever I need, you’re there for me, and then they understand the reason is because there is a God that’s there for us. It changes their lives.

MORE WORKERS

DERIK

The Gospel is the most important thing in the world. And there’s a lot of people that have never heard. We live in a place where we need people to come alongside us to reach these people. We have more people than we can handle. And we expect to have even more coming to us. And the reality is we need people to walk with us, to handle all of the people who want to know about Jesus. That’s what we need, people to come alongside us and say, “let’s win Taiwan for Jesus. Let’s bring people to Jesus.”

JEN

So here’s the deal. Taiwan’s not an easy place to live. Chinese, it’s insanely hard. The weather, it’s not the best. But the paybacks for the things we do, it’s unreal. The people that we meet are starving for not food, and they’re dying to be covered, not with a house, but they need the gospel. They need love. They need peace. And they’ve searched everywhere – that they can even imagine to find it, and everyone we meet says, “Your God is the only thing we’ve ever seen that gives any of these things.” But 23 million people is way out of our league. We can’t do this. Our team can’t do this.

JEN

We need you. We need you to say, “You know what? I don’t care about the weather and I don’t care about the language, I can do these things, I can live in Taiwan. I don’t care about the weather, I don’t care about the language, I can live in Russia. Wherever it is, there are people who don’t know God, they need you there.

WHAT CAN I DO?

DERIK

I really feel like young people are some of the most important people with the Gospel. A lot of Jesus’ disciples were really  young. We’ve seen the success on our field has come almost exclusively out of HS/college age students. We’re passing off the keys of the kingdom to people who are 18, 19, 20 years old, and they are discipling people, and leading groups, and if it wasn’t for the younger generation in Taiwan I don’t think we would have any traction. And especially like having interns come over that they can bring some of that energy and some of that excitement to ministry. And it really draws a lot of people to us that we would not necessarily attract otherwise.

JEN

I think that an amazing thing that we have is the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit don’t care about age. So when someone comes and says, “Hey I wanna work in a place and I wanna do the work for the Gospel,“ they’ve got the same Holy Spirit we do. And the Spirit gives the gifts to do the work. And so it truly doesn’t matter if you wanna do the work, then the Spirit’s got the gifts and it’s going to work for the Kingdom.

DERIK

I would say follow God first no matter what he says. Be willing to go anywhere, do any ministry. But the reality is there’s lost people in countries that have never heard of Jesus. They have no idea the hope that we have, they have no idea the grace that covers us. People that are living in just terrible life situations, not because of poverty, but because they are spiritually starving to death. We have the greatest gift ever. It’s our responsibility to make sure that those people hear the gospel.

JEN

A long time ago we decided to say yes. And then ask God, “What do you want?” And that’s kinda scary. It led us away from our family first in the States. And then led us away from our family halfway across the world. And we have zero regrets. But the “Yes,” whatever it is, the “Yes,” was this amazing thing; it’s given us so much, and I dare you to try that.

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