Some thoughts....

Today is Alan's grandpa's funeral. Please continue to pray for him and his family! May they find comfort in Jesus....

So how have I been you might ask? well.... My thoughts are really jumbled, so I'll put them into categories....

Church
I attended the New Life Church this past Sunday. They are a very new church plant that started out from February. Their goal is to reach to the lost of Taiwan. So far, they have about 50 people attending service - so it's the size of our English congregation back in VCMBC! The service is bilingual... but instead of having the sermon be translated from Cantonese to English like the joint service I'm used to at VCMBC, they're preached in English and then translated back into Mandarin! I really like ther church, an I just feel thsi sense of peace there. I know that is the place that God wants me to serve.

I met a girl there named Catherine. She's married to a Taiwanese man, but she's actually from Mainland China and the daughter of an underground church pastor! It's really amazing to see her passion for God and her outlook in life. I really, really like her. And although I only met her once, we've been keeping in touch through email. She's thinking of going to Canada or the States with her husband to do her Masters... so I've been telling her about the programs at UBC. And we've decided to be language partners starting in July! It's all really exciting! =D

Language Lessons
Chinese lessons has been AWESOME! It's really funny because my teacher found out that I took Chinese school in Canada, that I can read Chinese, understand what people are saying (if they say it slow enough), and can sort of speak it =P So I've decided to just take one month of it, and it'll be more cost-efficient to just have language partners. I love the Chinese classes.. it's awesome, and I found that I actually pronounce a lot of the pinyin wrong. For example, I never knew you have to roll up your tongue when you pronounce the "zhi", "chi", "shi", and "ri".... and apparently Cantonese people have a very hard time saying the fourth tone (like how it starts high and goes down?) because we don't really have that in our dialect. Despite the cost, classes has been awesome! And it's quite a witness to the teachers too... to have all these foreigners learning Mandarin and telling them that they're half-missionaries and half-English teachers =P

Financial Situation
So last time when I blogged I was a little upset and discontent over my whole job training thing... in a way I still am. But God has really provided! The day after I sent out my June update, I got a call from a parent whose kid attends the Morrison International School - she wants me to tutor her little boy, along with his classmate! It's really awesome =) And God has prepared me for this since I tutored so much back home! And the amazing thing is, the parent showed me some books she bought for her child to use, and they're the very same books that I used with my tutor kids in Vancouver! I met the children and they're really cool.... their English is as good as any American/Canadian children.... the girl reads "The Baby-sitter Club" series and the boy is trying Harry Potter out... and they're only in Grade 2, going on to Grade 2!!!! AND they have a North American accent when they speak English! So this is all very exciting because I don't think the families are Christian... so this is also a great way to minister to them.
But yes... thank you all for your prayers and encouraging words! =D

ORTV
ORTV is a free Bible-Study for anyone who wants to learn English. It's on Wednesday nights at a church that takes me about 15-20 minutes to bike to. It's really awesome... we always begin with some songs and game.... and the whole purpose is to teach English and to have the locals be taught from the Bible! I joined Ansonia's class (she's another partner) and we were doing Proverbs. In the class was a guy named Jason who's REALLY close to committing his life to Christ, but his mother is quite against it. He's been to ORTV for more than a year... so do keep him in your prayers! He also brought over a friend named Simon, and it's Simon's second time coming over. I can't believe it, but all those skills I learned from being a leader from BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) will certainly be used here! As of now, I'm helping Ansonia out, as she is subbing for Kim, my other room-mate who had left for a holiday.