read our story

(Read our story in 中文.)

God has been performing many miracles among the people of Ximen, including physical, spiritual and emotional healing.  The Ximen Loft partners with many churches in both Taiwan and the US.  We are carrying out the vision to plant a church in Ximen that will support itself, be led by Taiwanese people, and send missionaries to other parts of Taiwan, Asia, and the world.

Our purpose is to be the Aroma of Christ (2 Cor. 2:14-16) and see people grow personally (Acts 20:23-24), in community (2:42-47), and in mission (1:8, 2:17-19) for the purpose of

1. seeing the area of Ximen, the nation of Taiwan, Taiwan and the world transformed (Matthew 28:19),
2. advancing His Kingdom and
3. accomplishing His will (Matthew 6:10).

This is how it all began.

Back in 2003, two men toured Taiwan looking for a place where they could start sending short-term missions teams.  They went all over the island, but didn’t sense a particular area to work with.  On their last day, their Taiwanese contact took them to a place in Taipei City called Ximen Ding to go shopping before they returned home.  As they rode the escalator out of the MRT station (the subway) and walked to the edge of the Exit 6 platform, they were overwhelmed with the number of people walking the streets of Ximen. It hit them immediately. This was the exact place where God was calling them to work .

A few years later, they were finally able to send their first short-term missions team out to Ximen.  In the summer of 2005, Jamie O’Dell led a team from Crown College to Ximen to share about Jesus.  In 2006, she led another team out to Ximen, and that was the trip that current team members Chris O’Dell and Victoria Crowley joined.  Jamie led another team out the next year, and soon her journey with Taiwan (and Chris O’Dell) began to take a more permanent turn.

One time, while praying for Taiwan, Chris saw a vision on the map hanging on the wall of the prayer room at Crown College.  Taiwan was 2-3 times bigger than it usually is and arrows were going out from Taiwan to all the nations of the world.  It was then that Chris and Jamie knew that Taiwan was a very special place. God was going to bring revival to Taiwan so he could partner with Taiwanese people to spread the gospel to all of the nations of the world!

In 2008, Jamie and Chris O’Dell both felt called by God to move out to Ximen after they graduated from college. With no jobs and only a limited understanding of the situation in Ximen, a group of 5 other Americans moved out here the summer of 2008 to join them.  This was the first Ximen Loft team, and the evolution, growth, and development of the ministry was about to begin.

All of them found jobs teaching English to support themselves, began taking Chinese lessons, and spent every spare minute in Ximen sharing the love of Jesus with the people of Ximen.  Since then, many have joined the team for an amount of time ranging anywhere from two weeks to a year, and together these people have established outreaches, free English classes, Bible studies, and worship services.  Each year, there are people who leave and join the team, but since the first summer of 2009, a veteran core of members are still living here in Ximen.

The Ximen Loft team has seen a lot of change and growth since that first summer, and the church in Ximen Ding has truly begun to take root.