Christmas at our House

Packages have been arriving almost daily for the past week for the eight teachers on our team here in Pingtung.  It's pretty exciting and will definitely be a new experience for me to celebrate Christmas without my family.  It's been a blessing to be able to share about what we are celebrating with all of our friends.  Having Christmas in a different country opens up opportunities right and left to explain about Jesus coming to earth so many years ago.  

I hope that everyone is having a special Christmas and I thank God for all of you back home.  Thank you for the Christmas cards and packages you've sent... Merry Christmas from me in Taiwan!

Mama Mia!! It'za Pizza!!

This week our school celebrated it's 26th anniversary.  Friday night was band and musical competitions.  nearly 3000 people there, and they wanted the Americans to sing - so sing we did.  The eight of us filed onto the stage and did our routine of the round 'King of Kings'.  I used to think my second grade Christmas programs were bad...I now understand the reason for stage lights.  

As I mentioned in my last post, we were in charge of making pizzas for the event.  Friday was a late night, and we spent all day at school mixing and baking 50 pizza crusts in the school kitchen classroom.  We had 'helpers' coming in and out to stick their fingers in the dough and keep us company (and also maybe take a break from all the decorating outside)...After 14 hours at school, we finally got home and around 10:00 and caught some sleep before we had to be back at the school by 7:00 the next morning (Saturday morning, I might add!!).  We assembled the pizza and baked them six at a time, then sliced and ferried out too our booth.  More curious students came for taste tests, and to help carry trays out to the stand.  At about 12:30 ish, we sold out and it was time for the races.  All of the students competed in relays around the 1/4 mile track (and some of the teachers too).  4:00 came, and we jumped on a train into Kaohsiung for a Christmas concert...the Christmas carols were a delight to hear after months of thinking they didn't even celebrate Christmas here.  The choir was exceptional and the saxophonist and opera singer were fun to hear too.  

This Saturday I will go to a sports meet at one of the schools I taught at this past month.  After that, one of the teachers will take us to a traditional Taiwanese Opera, and then to see a boat that will be burned next year for the town's tri-annual boat-burning festival.  An interesting tradition where they believe that all the bad spirits can be put onto a boat and destroyed by fire.  The theory is definitely familiar to me, but unlike the fire they will use, the fire I believe in doesn't ever die...

Saturday night is also our church's Christmas party, and then Monday we will host another party at the EV for our teacher friends and Nan Jung students.  Mint hot cocoa and a white elephant exchange are on the agenda as well as decorating Christmas cookies.

Tomorrow we will teach a group of professors and college students with English majors at the EV and host a Q and A time for them after classes.  I find it almost ironic that I will be 'teaching' people older than myself and people who probably have more experience in the teaching department to begin with.  I just happen to be one of the more fortunate people on the planet who is a native speaker of English.  Needless to say, it will be entirely different to teach while being scrutinized than standing in front of little elementary students who just would probably just be content to stare at the American for the whole class period.  I'm pretty sure that coming back to America and not being the center of attention is going to be quite the humbling experience. :D 

I had the best students today in class, full of questions and excitement.  They loved hearing me speak my minimal Chinese, and exchanging vocabulary words.  Some days teaching are better than others, and this was definitely a good day...good week...good month...it's all I can do to give the praise to God, who brought me to this place, and knew that it was the perfect thing for me to do this year.

A Hand Over Me...

There really is only one reason that I'm alive right now, and that is because someone has been watching over me.  Out of the hundred times that I have almost died over here (maybe that is being a little dramatic), the fact that God is protecting me flashes across my mind as I am once again almost sideswiped by a moped.  Also this weekend, I almost ran over a bus.  As I stared into the oncoming traffic and waited for the chance to be able to get out of the crowded road, I think I experienced the 'deer in the headlights' feeling for the first time.  I am so thankful to be constantly reminded that my name is graven on the palm of God's hand...there is no way anything could happen to me without him knowing.

We spent the weekend up in Taipei, the capitol city, and attended a wedding reception for two of our friends from the VOICE ministry - a English program for Taiwanese youth, and also a reunion with students from this summer's program.  Sunday brought all the English teachers over here together for the first time this year - for a baby shower.  Our team leader's wife is going to have a baby in March, and all the VOICE students from years past, and many friends and then us teachers were there.  It was so amazing to see so many friends and familiar faces after such a long time. Yesterday marked my fourth month in Taiwan.

This Friday is our school's anniversary celebration, and the students have been decorating the campus for the ceremonies.  Us American teachers will run a pizza booth among all the other food stands that will sell who knows what.  Also on the agenda is a Christmas concert held by our friends from the Kaohsiung church.  When we into the city last month to go to the church for the first time, we were blessed to have a translator for the service - we haven't been able to understand church messages since we have been here.  God has definitely given us a busy time of year, and who knows how crazy things will get over Chinese New Year.  I can't imagine being anywhere else!

There's an Earthquake Brewing...

Tuesday of this week at the English Village we experienced our first earthquake tremor for the year here.  Our teaching assistants were much perturbed and ran up to us asking "Did you feel that?!! Was it scary?!!" The earthquake was a small one (I think about a 5 or 6 on the Richter scale and was a part of the Sumatra fault line that we are on.  Apparently, there is still tension along the fault line and more earthquakes are expected soon.  Japan was also hit by a minor earthquake on Thursday.  It's pretty exciting over here all in all.

Due to the political tensions in Thailand recently, our scheduled winter camps there have been cancelled, and we will be sent somewhere else for our visa trip in January.  I was sad to hear that, but as soon as we break for Chinese New Year, I will be traveling to Singapore and Malaysia... I wasn't expecting to really see any other countries while I was here, but I'm so glad that God gave me this opportunity and I know that he might be using it to open my eyes to other mission fields that he has...fields that are 'white unto the harvest' and waiting for labourers.

Taiwanese Thanksgiving

This week I was a little bit apprehensive about celebrating my first holiday away from home.  I wondered how anything would be the same - no family - strange food - and we don't even have real oven!  How on earth were we supposed to cook everything?  We started baking on Wednesday, and we used four separate toaster ovens that were on rotation.  The pies and stuffing and cranberry sauce were all finished around 1:00 am.  The next day, our two turkeys (we were thankful for Costco this year :) were taken to the school and baked in the commercial ovens.  Everything else was made at our three apartments.  By 6:00, all the cooking was done, and we headed over to dinner.  We had over our all of our close Taiwanese friends, and we got to share a little bit of how American celebrate a traditional Thanksgiving.  Out of all the things that I am thankful for this year, I think it is that God has given us a sort of family over here - with co-workers, roomates, and new friends, and I am so grateful that we were able to be together on a day when everyone is aware of how much goodness we have been given.  

"The Days Are Just Packed..."

Friday night kicked off a full weekend with almost every spare minute filled with opportunities.  Two of our Taiwanese friends came over (Phoebe and Kitty) and we worked on a puzzle that we had bought at the night market last week.  When we got really hungry...we biked into the Chaojhou night market for dinner.  On the menu: Japanese cabbage and egg cakes.  It wouldn't have been too bad except for the gross mayonnaise they use over here for icing.  Saturday we left home around 11:00 to go into Pingtung and watch our school compete in a sports day.  After our school won the relay, Kitty picked us up and we went to the Taiwan sugarcane factory.  We had the best pineapple ice cream ever!  On Sunday, we went into Kaohsiung with two teachers that were visiting us for the weekend and went to church with Florence and Jennifer, who are teaching assistants from summer camps.  We were fortunate enough to have someone translate the service for us, and afterwards, they wouldn't let us leave without eating their traditional Taiwanese potluck with them.  

As a result of all the business that has bombarded us lately, I managed to develop a small amount of sympathy (or tolerance) for the people who have ever complained to me about pulled muscles.  I used to think... "What a baby, it can't be that bad...just toughen up!"  It was a new experience for me to suffer any serious physical malady usually only incurred by brunt manual labour, but now, I have three smarting muscles in my back just asking for people to feel sorry for them.  But I have tried to learn from this experience...from now on, if anyone comes to me with a pulled muscle, I will make it an earnest endeavour to give them the compassion they are looking for :D

How To Express...

If you have been having doubts concerning your ability to communicate with others, my advice is that you travel to a foreign country, where they not only don't understand what you are trying to say, but they don't understand what you are saying to begin with.

This past Tuesday, one of my co-teachers and I were driven to an elementary school where we were going to be teaching for the afternoon.  Our driver came into the school to pick us up, and ironically, on the day that our teaching aid was not going with us, the driver did not speak English.  We remembered how to ask "What is your name?", but that was about it, and after about fifteen minutes of driving silently through the country, "Where are we going?!" was a question we wished we knew how to ask - normally, our schools are less than five minutes away.  Finally we arrived, and taught three classes each of our youngest grades yet.  Usually we teach the fifth and sixth graders, but this time, it was 1-3 graders...they were so adorable!  When it was time to go home, we told the driver that we needed to go back to our train station...however, 'train' was the only part of what we said that he understood.  We found ourselves in the little town's own train station, and it was up to the two of our combined three months worth of Chinese abilities to get home.  We looked at each other and grinned - if anything, this would definitely be an adventure.  We remembered how to buy the tickets, but we really needed to figure out when our train actually left.  Between the station master and the reader board, we finally understood that our train left in about forty minutes, so we set out to explore the town.  We decided that snacks were a positive thing and both of us picked up smoothies (ordering in Chinese) and had a conversation with one of the locals, who spoke quite a bit of English.  Many conversations here involve piecing together of Chinese and English (which is the next common language after Chinese).  It makes for quite interesting and animated discussions at times.

I think that every day here, I learn a little bit more of how little sometimes you really need language to communicate (at least - in the most minor of dramatic circumstances), whether it's by me trying to say something, or someone else trying to speak to me....my little students demonstrated this to me in class one day when I couldn't understand one of their questions.  It was a matter of quite urgent importance, and as they watched me shake my head with the blank look that creeps onto my face much too often here, they realized that if the matter was to be resolved, they had to make me understand - and fast... one little kid kept blurting out the one word in English that they knew - "WC! WC!"  Of course, between all the chaos, I was not focused enough to get it - until one of the students finally stood up and 'mimed' to me the dilemma.  For those of you who know what 'WC' means, I think you will appreciate the humour of the particular dilemma that I found myself in...

Every time I speak in Chinese here, I always hold my breath until I see them nod and exclaim... then procure the item I requested.  It's definitely fun to be able to speak another language, but as someone told me, 'I'm not just learning the language, but I'm learning how to learn another language..."  I know that God brought me here for a reason, and I'm pretty sure that the things I learn here are going to be a part of His future plans for me...even though I don't know what exactly that is yet.  

Choujhou Elementary

I looked down at my hands - gritty from all the chalk - and back up at my little students. I wrinkled my nose as I tried to brush my hands off. "Teacher, this way!" they exclaimed, and pulled me down the hallway to the outdoor sinks. They watch me wash my hands, and whisper among themselves about me. I turn around and they all point at my eyes "Teacher! Blue!" I point at their eyes and say "Students! Brown! Brown! Brown!" When I show them pictures of my family, they all gasp at how many brothers I have... "Five brothers!" they repeat again and again... "WOW!!!!!" they say when they finally understand what I just said.

My tiny fourth graders all ran up to me during the break today, and each was carrying the sheet that their teacher had them prepare with questions (in English) to ask 'the foreign teacher'. We all start laughing as I try to think of the foods that I like that I can also say in Chinese. The question list is forgotten as the whole classroom latches onto me and tears down the three flights of stairs into the courtyard to the play structure. They make sure that I cross the rickety bridge and go down the slide with them before we have to run back in when the bell rings. Two of my little girls hold my hands as we all rush back to our classroom. When I finally have to leave, everyone crowds in for a picture and we put up our 'happy fingers'.

Here we are!...

To: USA From: Me

Dear America, I know that these past couple of weeks have probably been pretty intense as the elections came to an end. I can't imagine what it was like on Tuesday night as you found out who your next president was. I would love to tell you how amazing it is to be over here in Taiwan and unaffected thus far by any American political tensions or poor leadership decisions that are just around the corner (maybe January 20th), but I would hate to begin a mass exodus from the U.S. to other countries. It was my first time voting in a presidential election and (bummer) the guy that I voted for lost. Oh well, there's always next time...unless of course the rapture comes (and that might have just become more of a possibility)...

On a more serious note, I have been praying for my home country especially over the past few days. My thoughts have been with my church family, and I pray that you will be continually encouraged and constantly reminded that our faith is in God, and not in a man - even a president. I am assured that God has power even over men that are not seeking Him, and the Lord is watching over His people.

In Hosea 13:11, God is lamenting for His people. I wonder if He feels the same about America right now... "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help." Hosea 14:1-"O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity." God promises in 14:4-"I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him." God is jealous over His children, and no matter how many times we fall, His mercy is turned toward us.

Joel 2:21, 25-27- "Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things. (25) And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.

God is going to do amazing things through the results of this election. He tells us not to be afraid about anything. When He comes, He will restore everything that was ever done wrong...

Joel 3:16- "The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel."

Because You Never Know Who You Might Meet...

I once read a quote somewhere along the lines of 'you should never go out of the house without make-up on because you never know who you might meet'. Well...I met Superman the other day. He was pretty much everything I had ever imagined Superman would be like...cool, suave, and very 'cute'. The only thing was...he was a little bit shorter than I was expecting...and much younger. As my fifth grade class introduced themselves to me at the beginning of the morning, I was slightly taken aback as one of the tiny boys pulled out his muscles and whispered his name dramatically - "Supermaaaann." The class all cracked up at my reaction as I laughed and then raised my eyebrows a little. I went over to look at his name tag, and sure enough, his name really was 'Superman'. Over here, English names are given and taken by necessity without really a second thought, and you can also change your name as many times as you want. On the whiteboard in our office we teachers have a list of the more unique names of the children that come through the EV. Among them are 'Watt', 'Rock', 'Jizzle', 'Skill', and 'Tank'. They sound like nick-names from an eighties war movie! The whole English vocabulary is pretty much up for grabs when it comes to what you want 'the foreigners' to call you. If you could pick out any name for yourself in the English language, what would you choose?

I got back on Sunday from a trip to Nantou, located in central Taiwan where we have another team of teachers working. We went to an American church in Tai-chung, and it was the first time that I have been around that many 'foreigners' since I have been here. It was rather a strange feeling as I looked around during the service to see so many people like...well...me! You could definitely sense an 'American feel'. I felt a little bit out of place, and wondered if that's just part of being away from home for so long. It also occurred to me that by the time I get home it will be a new thing for people I talk with on an everyday basis in the store or at the train station to be talking to me and me actually understanding them... and then realizing that "Oh yes, I can say something back..."

God has shown me more and more while I have been here how important kids really are to me... and how if I was doing anything else right now, I would be crazy. I hate to say this, but I don't think that I ever fully realized the value in a tiny little kid. I have learned to appreciate so much about them, mostly their innocence, and openness... I know that may sound cliche, but it is striking me for the first time. They reach out to learn so willingly and with so much excitement that it makes me want to be able to teach them better. I thank God so much for this chance to be here even though I know that there are others much more qualified than I am.

We taught our largest school ever last week... there were almost 120 students. All of us teachers play the clapping game with them for the introduction, and when we say goodbye, many times the students will stand and as a group give us a thank you cheer in Chinese. When we are sent out into schools in the city, after each class period, my kids will bow and say thank you in English to me before they run up and confiscate my flashcards to quiz me the vocabulary words in Chinese that I just taught them in English. God has used each child I meet here to show me how precious it is to work with them and help them learn for the tiny bit of time that I am with them.

All Sorts of Things...

We got back late Sunday night from a visit to our co-teachers in the cities Hualien and Yuli which are on the other side of the island. We had the chance to walk through the campus of the Hualien school, and it was a blessing to see everything the Lord has been doing there...the program at the school there is really unique and it made a big impression on me that I should look harder for small ways to reach out to the students I teach, even though after that day I won't ever see them again.

Thursday night, we were running errands after school, and we ran into one of our Junior High students. We talked to her for about twenty minutes, and found out that she lives right above our drink stand down the street. When we asked her to come over on Saturday to play frisbee...she mentioned that she did school all day Saturday... the kids here work so hard...a lot of times school is a six days for them it sounds like - especially for the students getting ready to graduate junior high - and then 'cram school' on top of that. So much importance is placed on education here and what grades you get can make or break your future.

We got to see the lighter side of a lot of our Nan Jung students when we played volleyball with them for P.E. class. For over two hours we played out with the students in the sticky heat. Watching them play together, I could see that even with all the importance on education, importance is also put on as working as a true team, even if it means laughing as a team at mistakes.

Military Time

Chaojhou Train Station
October 9, 2008
8:27 P.M.

"Sooo, where's our train?" Joanna asked, as we stood staring at the station readerboard...
"Ummm..." Austin fumbled with our tickets for a minute and then sheepishly looked up... "I think..." he showed us our tickets and pointed at the scheduled departure time - there it was... 19:33 ... "I think our train left an hour ago..." his voice trailed off as we all stared down the tracks...as if we could somehow back the train up by our wistful looks...so yes, instead of leaving at 9:33, our train had left at 7:33...
Seeing as there was going to be some rearranging of plans...Joanna and I promptly left our luggage in the corner and started a video documentary of the dilemma...including Austin standing in line for refunds and new tickets... Joanna and I were pretty impressed with the situation and fired off quick texts to the girls back home...
It was finally decided that we would take the next train - that doesn't leave until tomorrow morning...which gives us the chance to recuperate at home from teaching in Liouciou, the small island we have been on for the past two days...
The second school we taught at was on a cliff, and I was teaching on the third floor of the school. As I walked into my first classroom, the salty breeze from the wall of open windows swept by me, and I looked outside to see the ocean crashing on the rocks below. I had never in my life imagined myself teaching English, and never in my life had I even thought about Taiwan, I had no idea what it would be like to stand in front of a class full of kids that couldn't even speak my language...and if I couldn't imagine that...I certainly never dreamed of being a teacher in a 'castle on the sea'. Going back to the hotel that night, I thought about what an unspeakable gift it was to have been in that classroom - with the kids staring back at me with wide eyes and big smiles. Sometimes (and I know this is sooo cliche) I still cannot believe that I am here...God knew the perfect plan for me this year, and His timing for me to come here was also perfect. He has taught me so much in just the short time that I have been here...mostly of how much I still need to learn. A good friend told me that sometimes, when you go out to teach, you end up being taught the most...
Out of the hundreds of students we have taught already, I have not heard one child mention anything of Jesus...I was reading in Third John today, and verse 4 says "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." After being followed around by little students all morning...I know that nothing could make me happier to know that they are smiling not because they got to meet an American teacher, but because they know Jesus, and how much he loves them. I am so challenged by this verse to remember every day that I came here to show God's love. I came expecting it to be easier than it is to share about Jesus, but because of the language barriers, sometimes just being able to find out a child's name is an accomplishment.
"Teacher...I like banana!", "Teacher...I like apple!" Lunchtime with the students yesterday made me realize that much of our communication depends on the way that we act, and teach, and play with these kids who are so tiny and precious... God really used these past two days to show me how every day - no matter how routine - is a chance to show them how much they are really loved.

Illegal Immigration 101

One: Overstay your original visa and pretend like nothing happened...(maybe, take a sightseeing tour, or go and get your hair done...)

Okay...we didn't actually overstay our visas...but we came pretty close. Jo and Kara and I have all been together in Taiwan for two months...we didn't realize until yesterday - when we were looking at tickets to Singapore - that we had actually been here for almost 60 days. We let our supervisor know and thought little else about it after that, thinking that everything was taken care of...until the next afternoon. We were out searching for the perfect pet fishes, when the cell phone rang... they needed me back at the apartment - pronto - to go downtown with Jo and Kara to get pictures taken (before the photo-shop closed) for the new visas. After picking out Gunnar (the blue fish), Gezee (the one with the speckled tail) and Puck (a cupid sort of fish) we booked it back home so I could fill out paperwork for the new visa. While we waited in the shop, we took turns aggravating their pet bird and watching him try to snap our fingers off. The next day, thinking everything was taking care of, we headed out of town to Kenting - a beach town and also where they are opening a second English Village in December. I should probably mention that Kenting is almost two hours south of where we live...and we were only about fifteen minutes away when Wes came to the back of the bus, and told the three of us that someone from our school was coming to pick us up because something had gone wrong with the applications and they needed us back at the school as soon as possible to sign more papers. We had about an hour before our driver would reach Kenting, so we all headed for the beach so the three of us could jump in the ocean before having to go home. Drenched to our satisfaction, we separated from the rest of the group for the long drive back... three hours later, our papers signed, and back at our apartment...I kick back, my mind at peace knowing that I am - still - a legal resident of Taiwan.

Super Typhoon

This week is going to bring in typhoon 'Charming'...that's his name, and it's actually a super typhoon. This is the third typhoon we have had in the season, and we are in an area that doesn't get hit as hard normally; however, it is only the first day, and already we have seen incredible winds that shake our building with gusts that were predicted at 155 mph. Our team from Nantou was visiting us this weekend, and we had heard that all the trains were cancelled...fortunately, we got them safely on their way back home in one of the last trains going out of our station. Their area is impacted much harder by the typhoons than we are, and the last one did a lot of damage...there were at least ten people who died, and around ten missing at the last report that we received...if you could pray for safety for all of the people here, many who are so unaware that they are held in God's hand, and cannot depend on him for their protection...

The second week of October will be busy for us as we Americans are 'in demand'. We will be travelling to the island Lei Cho for two days to teach in the schools there... the island is about a forty-five minute boat ride from our part of the island...we are all pretty excited about being able to travel out to other schools. We will be teaching in several schools while we are on the island, and then probably go and visit one of the English Villages that is in Taoyuan, in northern Taiwan. All of the students at Nan Jung will be taking mid-terms during that week, and we will miss being at our home school. There is no possible way that we can know every one of the two thousand students there, but every morning as we come into work, we are warmly greeted - often by name - by the kids... but there are only eight of us, so it's easier on them to remember our names...

Last night, we made dumplings with one of our neighbors in the complex here...her two children helped us wrap the pork and green onion mixture into the dough circles...they were actually very delicious...but the seaweed soup that went with them was a little bit less delicious...

This evening after coming back from the city, we went up to the roof on our apartment complex (which is only about eleven stories) and stood out at the top of the rain and wind... I think that this was the first time that it has been cold enough to wear a sweatshirt here...because of the typhoon, we get the day off tomorrow, and we are all like little kids - excited to have a whole day to go out and play in the rain.

A Day With the Kids

This Saturday we got the chance to play ultimate frisbee with some of our Junior High students...Lily and Frank go to the Nan Tung Junior High school where the EV is located, and Tony is Lily's older brother... we all walked down to the field and played an awesome game of ultimate. It was really neat to be able to spend time with them outside of the school, where they were just kids - not students, and we weren't English teachers, just...well, Americans...

At night we went to youth group in the local church we have been going to, and met up with 'Hungry', another student from Nan Tung. The church is small, so there were only about ten to twelve kids there. They were practicing to lead the singing for Sunday morning service. Even though we couldn't understand most of the Chinese songs, when they played "Amazing Grace", we could all sing with them, and the Chinese and English words blended together in praise to our God who is the same to all of us and hears our songs in every language.

The Great Deluge

Today was a very soggy day... on Friday, we pulled in all the fruit from our market classroom as the typhoon threatened to blow it off the balcony... that was a good idea, but we should have brought the whole classroom inside...this morning, our feet got a surprise as we stepped out into a good two inches of water... our trees had blown over, and all of the barkdust was floating around the open air classroom...as we surveyed the rest of the catastrophe, we discovered that our brand new clock for the market was no more, and our vegetable stand display sign teetered from one hook... it was quite a scene, but we had fun mopping all the water down the outside back stairs (and throwing buckets of it over the balcony into the rice fields), and putting our little classroom back in order...

The typhoon has been going on for several days now, and every day the wind will pick up and rain will start around dinner-time as the sky turns a dark purple-y colour...it usually storms through the night. God truly has blessed me with all this rain...we've gone out in it almost every evening... it makes everything feel so much like home in Oregon.

'Monday Morning'

The day was bright... the sky was clear... and we eight teachers were making our way across the dewy track field, with only the birds singing in our ears...at least, for the moment...

As we opened the door to the EV (English Village), we were greeted by our very own alarm system...you could almost feel the entire rest of the Nan Jung school vibrating as the bells rang out over the neighborhood... "The foreigners are here!" Junes commented as we trooped into the office where the police scanner report for the alarm was going off... we derived much humour out the fact that, as if we didn't attract enough attention on our own just by being Americans, it was being broadcasted (accidentally) to the school that we had arrived for the morning.

Our meeting yesterday with the Taiwanese English teachers went well...our prayers were answered as we were able to just sit back and talk over some of the concerns they had about the EV, and everyone's anticipations for this coming year. This past week has brought to my mind Ephesians 2:19 "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;" - this verse only makes a stronger hope in me to be able to settle in with the teachers here, and not be just a 'foreigner', but truly a 'fellow' teacher, and also a witness 'of the household of God'.

Team Ping Tung

Last weekend my teammates and I headed for the city...we hopped on the train for a scenic trip to our very own Ping Tung. 'Carrefoure' is the superstore where you can find just about everything (including special imported microwave popcorn). We bought our shelving there and spent the day lazily shopping around... carrying the shelves back (via train) proved to be quite an adventure...but we were up for it. We each hefted up a shelf and made our way on board. The other passengers derived much amusement from our situation and we were fortunate enough to meet several taxi drivers who -being sympathetic to our cause - took on the five of us and our rather expansive cargo. This weekend our destination was Kaohsiung...home of the second largest mall in Asia. The 'Dream Mall' is topped off with an amusement park (complete with a ferris wheel) on the roof. We shopped around for much needed cell phones, and ate comfortingly American food at T.G.I. Friday's. Our weekend ended nicely with a much appreciated downpour on our walk back to the bus station.

Our first official teaching date has been postphoned until the 22nd, but we have already had several test classes in the new English Village, and will be hosting classes of school principals in the third week of September. Tuesday afternoon will be a luncheon for the teachers that we will be working with this year in the Village. We will have the chance to introduce the new school, and how we will be utilizing the the simulated classrooms. Our hope is to complement the English teacher's regular classes with the kids, and work together with them towards our common goal of helping these kids learn English. Our team came together in prayer for this goal, and we are all excited to see how the Lord will provide opportunities to serve with the other teachers.

The Gecko In the Cupboard

The second night after we got to our apartments, we discovered that we were not the only ones staying there. In the cubby above our stove, two little geckos had already taken up residence. Calabash and Felipe felt quite comfortable roaming around the place, and we didn't really care what they did - as long as they weren't too loud. However, the next morning, Calabash had been bold enough to explore our girls' bathroom. We drew the line at that, and indignantly ousted the little creature down from the ceiling. Refraining from tossing him over the balcony (we live on the fourth floor) we calmly (and humanely) had him relocated to 'outside'. Felipe has yet to aggravate us in such a fashion, so (since we can't find him) we decided to let him stay - for now...

Home at Last

Seven moves after landing at the airport in Taipei ...I have finally arrived in Ping Tung - my home for the next year. Our apartment is so charming! God surely blessed us with the place that we have. We had so much fun moving everything in and rearranging furniture, and shopping for supplies. Vanessa - who oversees our schedule - had arranged for us to have pizza our apartment that night with several others that we will be working with throughout the year. That was definitely a positive for our first night, and a very agreeable welcome.

On Monday we went down and waited for our ride to the school...six of us had never been there, and as we pulled into the driveway...an appreciative sigh went through everyone in the car... the school was beautiful, and all the kids were outside playing on the campus lawns. I came here not having any idea what to expect, not even sure what I was supposed to expect as a teacher...and I was put in the most acedemically accomplished junior high school in southern Taiwan. We walked into the English Village section of the school, and the simulated airport was the first thing we saw - they actually have part of a real airplane!!...down the hallway is the simulated fashion store, where the kids can try on the clothes they want to 'buy', a bank with an actual ATM machine...and the simulated Mr. Brown Coffee shop...which is like the Taiwanese version of Starbucks (even though they do have Starbuck here, only not so many). Outside on the balcony we have a market classroom set up with produce carts... come this Monday, that village will be filled with 120 kids...our first official class for the year (with fifty more little people than we had originally planned for) Our team really is up for the challenge...and I cannot wait to get into teaching...by the end of this year there will have been almost 10,000 kids through those classrooms...the schools here all take turns to make trips to this English Village... and our goal here is to get the children excited about learning English, and to help our fellow Taiwanese English teachers.

Yesterday and today was a chance to really get familiar with the school, and work on some lesson planning...also, this afternoon, our school's principal - who is a Christian - invited us to a Taiwanese wedding...two of the teachers who had met at the Junior High were having their first marriage ceremonies...and it was an incredible honour for us to be invited. It was really neat for me, because so many people who have been over here for much longer, have never been to a traditional wedding here. There was more seafood served than I had ever thought possible to see in one meal - it was pretty amazing. However, there was no pig intestine, which I was fortunate enough to have the experience of trying last week...I must confess though, that at the time, I had no idea what I was eating.


There has been so much going on for the past week and so many different issues that we have come across...yesterday, I was reading 1 Peter 1:7 "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" ... no matter what tests might come, or how 'bumpy' the road may get... God tells us that His trying of our faith is more precious to him than anything else in the world...and that when He has finished his work in us, our faith will ultimately glorify Him and bring Him honour - that will be an answer to prayer.

Camp at the Farm

After the temple, we made our way down to the fishing village, and were given a tour of a small shop that specialized in...'coral jello'. It seemed like a safe enough thing to try, but after a small taste, I gagged discreetly and calmly decided to let Pinky finish it for me. He put coffee creamer on it and that made it a little better, but I still let him eat the rest of it. Sometimes I wonder if God really intended for us to eat some of the things that I have recently put into my mouth.

That night (our first night of the Yilan camp) our activity was to make a sky lantern. This particular craft apparantly evolved from a practice of writing down prayer to Buddha or other gods, and sending the lantern up like small hot air balloon. However, our team's lantern went up with blessings and requests to God. We lit the torch inside and it rose higher and higher. All of the kids could see the Americans' prayers going up to God, who maybe they had never heard of before then. I wondered if God was made happy with our tiny offering, and he reassured me from Psalm 50:23 that "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me..." in that case..."I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations." -Psalm 57:9


One of the last nights at the Yilan camp we went on (of all things) an insect watch. I wasn't exactly thrilled about the whole thing (as most of you can imagine) and tried to conjure up some sort of deathly physical ailment that would have prevented me from going. However, nighttime came and found me in perfect health. Our very enthusiastic guide tried to make us all feel a little better about the hike...apparently, he'd been doing this insect watch for twenty-plus years. He would beam his flashlight on some creeping thing and draw us all in to get a -in my opinion- much too close of a look. At one point, he saw something through the trees and charged forward to investigate. Something about the trees here: a spider as big as your hand hangs from every single one...our little group was content to watch and wait. He was gone for quite a while and I thought for sure that whatever he had gone to look for had eaten him. Fortunately for us, he had a safe passage through the jungle, and took us safely (through foliage full of gleaming beetle eyes) back to our camp for the night.

The Yilan Temple

"Just a couple more hours..." Robert told me, as we hiked up the Caoling Historic Trail...(actually, it's a mountain...you know, like you see people climbing over in the movies?) "Hours?" I groaned with everyone else... we and our eighteen students were being initiated into Camp Yilan...the first thing on our camp schedule after picking up the kids at 8:00 in the morning was this hike...and we were only one hour into it. Two of the girls latched onto me and I pulled them up the never-ending stone stairs that led upward to
somewhere we couldn't see. Four hours and a third-degree sunburn later (well, not quite :) we arrived at the peak of the trail. We could see the ocean behind us and in front of us, spread out in a vast expanse of blue and green majesty. Down below was one of the temples that are so easily found here, and then the trail descended to a little fishing village. We had to walk through the temple grounds to get to the village, and I lowered my head, walking quietly down the main steps of the temple - trying to show respect for the religious ceremonies taking place. People carrying handfuls of incense wands slowly passed me with sober looks on their faces. This was my first experience with worship to other gods besides my own true God. I was struck by how the people came with offerings - like I do - and came reverently...humbly. They came with requests - like I do - and with praise to their gods - like I come with praise to my God. The difference is...my God is real. In Isaiah 46,:5 God asks "To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?" There is no comparision to God...in verse 9 he tells us "...for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me," In Isaiah 43:11 God reminds us "I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour." I never really understood why God's plea for us to come to him was so strong, but now I can see a little of how He must feel when we reject him, and turn to other idols who cannot protect us or provide for us like he can. Here, the people worship their gods out of bondage, but we can worship God out of love and thankfulness for everything he has done. Their gods cannot see them or hear them, or appreciate the sweet sacrifices they bring, but our God knows us, and delights in even the small sacrifices that we make for him.

Isaiah 45:20-21 "Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save. Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath toldit from that time? have not I the Lord? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me."

On the Road Again

I have just been kicked out of the hotel with my fellow American teachers and taken to BeiTou, the town where our teacher orientation begins in three days. Our day started out with a quiet church service and leisurely walk back through town. We were anticipating a relaxing weekend lounging around Taipei before having to travel again (we have been in five different towns already in the two weeks that I have been here). But alas!....there was a mix-up with the transportation details, and as soon as we got back to the hotel, we received a call from Robert - our agent (you might say :) - telling us that we had to pack out bags and check out...right now!! because we were moving again. We scrambled around and were able to get our combined 700 pounds of luggage down to the lobby in what must have been record time. We had a two hour wait before our ride could come...so we sat amidst the clutter of our suitcases, staring at the front desk receptionists (probably with a strained, disbelieving look on our faces). We are now at our next to last town (next stop: Ping Tung!!) and we are waiting for the rest of the teachers to arrive in two days.

We had another camp since the end of last week, but I can't skip anything, so we're going back to last Saturday (the last day of our Shinchu camp).

The highlight of that camp for me was probably this journal entry from one of my sweet students....it is purely vanity that causes me to post this (and a little bit of humour)...I must tell you that grammar and punctuation were accurately preserved... ---
"Today, weather is sunny and my moody was so bad! Because Sunday, I was go home! And I can’t see the Hannah everyday! And I can’t see my friends too! I was so sad too so – Hannah – see you!! I like you Hannah – Good night" – -Angel
--That was written on the last day of camp when everyone said goodbye… she was such a sweetheart!

Taxi ride: So that night was free time for everyone. Our students were gone, and we wanted to find someplace to unwind. We decided to go downtown, and find the pizza place, then walk around the night market. Our taxi arrived and as the driver got out, our first impression of him was rather…distasteful. He seemed rather a sullen sort, and the cigarette hanging out of his mouth was what really did him in. We piled into the cab, and Megan –our camp leader- told him where to take us. As soon as we got out of the parking lot, our opinion of him radically changed as he turned up the radio to full blast and started belting out the Chinese lyrics to the song. We started cracking up!! All of the sudden he reached over and put Joanna’s hand on the steering wheel. Our eyes got huge, and we all couldn’t believe it…Joanna was the only one keeping us from a head on collision with the oncoming lane of traffic. She was also the only one keeping the moped drivers in our lane on the side of us (in our lane) from a rather gruesome fate. We stared in disbelief as the driver began bouncing around the driver's seat to the music. He was practically falling out of the taxi – he was dancing so hard!! Finally, Joanna was laughing so much, she couldn’t take the pressure of keeping us alive anymore… she handed the wheel back to him, and we arrived safely at our destination. We probably won’t see that taxi driver again, but we will definitely remember how memorable he made our first night out in Taiwan.

Sunday afternoon we made our way to Taipei. Our hotel was fabulous and the first morning, Sally - who happened to be staying there too - found our room and we made plans to go out that evening. It was so good to be able to see her again after saying goodbye back at the camp. She took us to an underground market and then we had dinner in one of the huge mall towers. She made me feel so welcome even though I couldn't speak her own language, or relate to her culture at all. I see these people demonstrate such a hospitality and selflessness for which Christians seem to struggle. But to Sally and everyone I meet over here...to them it is simply their way of life. I found such an interesting pair of verses for this post that reminded me of Sally coming and finding us... Paul is speaking of Onesiphorus in 1 Timothy 1:17-18 "But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well."

A B Cs and Other Lessons

Buh, puh, muh, fuh, duh, tuh, luh, nuh.

If I learned them right, those are the first eight sounds of the Chinese alphabet. Learning Chinese will be like having to start school -from the beginning- all over again. It's so fun to see the way all of the teaching assistants (TAs) react when I finally pronounce a word right. I made sure to learn two of the most important things to say as a teacher: "be quiet!" sounds like 'ann cheen!", and "come here!" is said like 'dow chu lee lai!' All of my girls students think it's hilarious when I tell the boys to be quiet in their own language. Some of the boys got more than their required dose of mischievousness when they were made. All day I dragged Brian > by the arm to classes - he is *mildly sarcastic 'ahem'* 'a very active child', and more so since Sally (my TA) was sick today.

A Birthday in Taiwan: My roommate asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday while I was here. Since I couldn't fly my family over here for the day, I told her (after several days of unusual and peculiar cafeteria food) that all I really wanted was pizza (pizza, pizza, pizza!!) I had been craving pizza since the first day I got here, and I had no idea what pizza meant to me until I had no means of getting any. August 12th came, and when Sally found out from Joanna that it was my birthday, she and all of our students made me a card, and sang Happy Birthday to me in both English and Chinese. That day and the next were two of the busiest for the camp...but on Wednesday night, Megan (the camp director) told us American teachers that the TAs wanted to meet downstairs at 10:30. We all groaned (for those that have ever done children's camps, you will know that going to bed early 'simply isn't done'), but trudged downstairs at the appointed time. All of the TAs were already in a meeting, so we went out to the staff room to wait. After their meeting got out, we walked into the room, and they started singing Happy Birthday to Kara and I (Kara's birthday is three days later than mine). Then they pulled out two boxes of....PIZZA!! They had gone all the way into town to get the pizza so we could celebrate. I leaned back on the couch with pizza in one hand and Reeses in the other...I was surrounded by new and old(er) friends that wanted me to be able to celebrate with them, and I had good and comforting food in my tummy. I looked around and thought of the verse in Psalm 145 that talks about God opening his hand, and how he satisfies even our most trivial desires.

Verse for today: Colossians 4:3 "Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:"
- Every new person I meet and every relationship that is built is a door opened for me by God... if you could pray for my team and I, that there would be 1) a bond of unity, and 2) that doors all around us would be opened and that 3) God would give a singleminded focus to take those opportunities to share about Christ.

Last night we had a Taiwanese-style barbeque for the kids. I learned something as I was standing over the hot grill, plastering BBQ sauce onto fish balls and tofu, while my TA and I waved mosquitos off of us as we made sure all our kids had on bug spray... I learned that... being outside wasn't the worst thing in the world that could happen to me. I learned that... I kind of like the smokiness and the nighttime smell to blend together and settle into my clothes. I learned that... I like to barbeque food that is strange to me for the kids and sprawl out with them to eat it. I learned that I even like the sticky feeling on your skin from the heat that makes you want to go and jump in the water. I learned that no matter how homesick I get - or who I miss - or how terrifying the bugs are... - there is no where else that I could imagine being right now.

Head-first

Verse for today: Judges 18:10 "When ye go, ye shall come unto a people secure, and to a large land: for God hath given it into your hands; a place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth."

I've only known little Susan for two days, but she wraps her fingers tightly around mine as we walk back to the dorm in the dark. She tells me how to say 'moon' in Chinese - 'yueliang'. The aborigine children speak no English at all. Many times the only way we can communicate with each other is with a smile, or shaking our head. Just seeing them struggle with the few English words they have learned makes me want to teach them so that we can talk together. I know they are trying to tell me so many interesting things, just by the way they speak when they want me to understand. They think if they speak louder, or more violently, I will somehow comprehend what they are trying to say.

God has given me the uttermost part of the earth for my possession (Psalm 2:8), and there is a people here that I was sent to teach. "...here will I dwell; for I have desired it." -Psalm 132:14

There is certainly an abundance of creeping things in this place. Arachnids as large as my hand, exoticly colored beetles, and a miscellaneous array of strange and repulsive insects. Fortunately, I have not had to 'lay down the law' in close quarters with any of these bugs - with the ginormous spiders, things could get messy really fast (probably for everyone involved).

I ate squid today.
I don't think it's in any danger of me doing that again. Also, there is another food that I tried that I still don't know what it was (for all of you that know how picky I am, permit me a gloating moment).

These first few days of camp have been so busy for all the kids. It's been so awesome to just be a part of their fun and watch them being able to learn a little bit of my language. I can't wait for when God will give us all one language and they will be able to tell me everything they have been trying to say.

Taiwan: Day One

Verse for the week: Ephesians 1:9 "Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:"

There's no mystery about God's will for this year of my life...he has shown me the hope of his high calling and now my prayer is that the work he has purposed me to do will all be to the praise of the glory of his grace.

After being picked up at the Taipei airport, I got an hours worth of car ride to examine my new home. This week we are staying at a college campus in Hsinchu. We will go to Taipei for next weekend and then to the opposite side of Taipei for the second week of camp. After orientation, Joanna, Kara and I will make our way to Ping Tung, where we will be for the rest of the year. The children for next week's camp arrive tomorrow. All of us here at the campus had a free evening tonight, so the Taiwanese teachers took us out to dinner. Joanna and I shared beef fried rice, and considering we are not native chopstickians, there was quite a deal of rice that was neither on the plate or in our mouths. Near the end of the meal, I tried to come up with a unobvious way to dispose of the scattered rice grains. We decided, that since we had no napkins (apparently they don't use napkins in Taiwan) the best way to deal with the rice would be to inconspicuously gather it and drop it under the table. It might have worked if there had not been so many of us gathered around the table. As I felt the rice slip out of my fingers, I noticed a strange look creep over Joanna's face. Since we were in such close proximity, the rice had dropped on her flip-flopped feet instead of the floor where I had originally intended for it to land. Being the only two Americans at the table (and not desiring our ineptitude with chopsticks to become obvious, we smuggled ourselves out of the restaurant with a couple of the teachers, and came home to watch a movie as we wait for the arrival of our dear Kara, who should be coming into Taipei any moment now.