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.