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.