In 1996 four YWAMer's (Jo Van Bakel, John Mark Derbyshire, Don Gillman and Tim Gillette) spent time in a vacant flat on Ying Juan Road praying and asking God if this was the place that He wanted them to start a Coffee Bar that would become an evangelism center. Although the rent was set at a reasonable price it seemed exorbitant to a group of guys who didn't have any money. Yet all of us had experienced the faithfulness of God over the years in YWAM and sensed in our hearts that the Lord was saying to go for it. From that prayer time "The Rock" Coffee Bar was birthed in November of 1996.
Dan Shui had never had a YWAM presence before so it was slow going in the beginning as there was not a lot of staff. There would need to be a lot of construction and repairs if this place was going to ever resemble a coffee bar. The Lord sent a CDTS outreach team from Texas which turned out to be just what was needed. The team had no idea what they would be doing on outreach, but the Lord did. The team was equipped with carpenters, plumbers, painters, artists and just about everything else necessary to turn that dirty shell of a building into "The Rock."
With only a couple of staff (Jo, Paul, Francis and John Mark Derbyshire) it was difficult to stay open a couple of nights a week. Don was leading the SBS at the time which was located in Taipei City and the staff and participants made a commitment to do evangelism a couple of nights a week at "The Rock." With the pressure of SBS work this was a challenge, but as they walked in obedience to it they saw souls come to the Lord. At that time the DTS was located in Yang Mei which was even further away (at least an hour and a half each way). The DTS also began to come a couple of nights a week to support the ministry. Although the courses had a heart for evangelism not having regular staff was taking a toll on the few staff they had. It was also a strain on the participants that were traveling such far distances.
In 1998 the Lord began to speak to Don & Denise Gillman that He wanted to take The Rock to the next level. It had been birthed as an evangelism center, but people who did slowly come to the Lord were not getting plugged into local churches and discipled. After a lot of prayer Don and Denise felt that the Lord was calling them to lay the SBS down for a year. The purpose was to recruit a team to move to Dan Shui to be full-time staff and plant a Church. Don shared with the SBS staff that the school would temporarily be put on hold for a year to pioneer this new work. After prayer all but one of the SBS staff felt the Lord call them to this work as well as a couple of SBS participants. Don, Denise, Tammie, Agnes, Frank, Audrey, Paul, Francis, Share and Jocelyn all began the work together. They were also joined by Jo one of the pioneers of The Rock and Mayi.
They began in August of 1998. There was a lot of excitement which was followed by a lot of hard work which has continued up until this day. As the ministry grew at "The Rock" a Church plant began. The mission statement of the Church stated: "We are called to share the gospel with the people of Dan Shui to lead them into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, to disciple them and to release them into missions."
Because Don was also the Frontier Missions Director of Taiwan, Dan Shui also became the center for frontier missions and the sending of missionaries from this location. From the beginning evangelism and the frontiers was to be central to all that we would do.
Our team spent a lot of time seeking God on what to do and how to do it. Through this process all kinds of new ministries were birthed in Dan Shui. In the second year of ministry September 1999 the SBS started up again, this time in Dan Shui.
Eventually we felt that the Lord wanted the Yang Mei DTS (Taipei DTS) to move to Dan Shui and once again through prayer this became a reality. The Lord provided a house that met our needs at that time. In the spring of 2000 the first DTS was run in Dan Shui. This was followed by our first SOFM in 2002 with 20 participants.
