Greetings to all our family and friends from the island of Taiwan.

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" -- which means, "God with us." Christmas answers life's two main questions: Is there a God? And if there is, what is his attitude toward me? At Christmas, God kept his promise to send to us "Immanuel"- God With Us. Jesus said that anyone who saw him also saw the Father. The true God became a human being to also let us know "God Is For Us." As Luther says, Jesus reveals to us the heart of God. God loves us and wants to bless us through Jesus. That's the message God has given us to believe and to share, wherever we are in this world.

Family

Our family enjoyed good health this past year. It was a joy to watch our children grow in every way. And we continue to enjoy living here and facing the special challenges of living in Asia.

This year we had a chance to be in the states for 3 weeks while I was attending a conference on translating Lutheran literature into other languages. We saw our parents and enjoyed meeting a few Taiwan friends who were also in the Minneapolis area.

The biggest change in our family life came when we sent Aaron away to Morrison Academy, a Christian boarding high school located a little over a two hour drive from Taipei. He's loving it. He participates in soccer, basketball, 2 choirs, and diligently works for good grades.

Robin is in 8th grade at Bethany School in Taipei. She got contact lenses this fall. She's also busy with volleyball, softball, soccer and basketball, concert band and chorus. She's especially busy as class president.

One neat thing that Judy and I have both noticed is that having teenagers has been a lot more fun and satisfying than we had ever imagined. I hope it stays that way! Talking with them, and watching all the activities they participate in has become more and more entertaining and enjoyable.

Judy is an excellent missionary wife. She contributes so much to our family as homework consultant, chief baker and cook, as well as mother and wife. She's adapted especially well to life here, which is no easy task. She has been regularly busy this year with editing English medical papers. She's also getting paid to do one of the things she likes most- being around books. She works one day a week at the Bethany library. At church she still plays piano regularly, but has been happy to have several new pianists take turns with her. For those of you who know Judy "loves"  computers, it will be of interest to you to know she actually gets on the Internet occasionally- for work purposes- and for checking up on the other love in her life, the Green Bay Packers.

My main hobby is keeping the computer sufficiently upgraded, surfing the net and keeping up with my email. I helped out again this year with Robin's softball team. I had a chance to travel to Hong Kong with Chinese church leaders in June to meet with leaders from our sister church. I've also gone to Okinawa twice to lead church services for a group of WELS service people stationed there.

Our family traveled to Kenting in Southern Taiwan for Easter, and to the mountains for Thanksgiving. The photo at the left was taken at that time.

Ministry

We're thankful that the return of Hong Kong to China has not had any serious repercussions here- or there. In Taiwan we remain free politically, and free to share the gospel. The question, however, of if and when Taiwan will be united with China still remains.

We have been serving the Lord in Taiwan for almost 14 years. As a missionary of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, I am working with the Lutheran Evangelical Church in Taiwan. We have close to 200 members in five congregations. I've been pastoring a church in Taipei for most of my years and eagerly look forward to handing over this responsibility to a Chinese coworker. We hope and pray that 1998 will see this happen.

One good step to that goal is going to occur in early 1998. We will have a Chinese man working fulltime in one of our churches, and taking seminary classes with me on a parttime basis. This is going to make things increasingly busy. We ask for your prayers as we look to 1998 as a time of strengthening our congregations and training local leadership to take up a greater part of the ministry.

May this Christmas bring you a fresh love and appreciation for all the baby Jesus did and still does for us.

Love,
Rob, Judy, Aaron and Robin Siirila

Taipei, Taiwan
Christmas 1997