Latest from August

Hi all!

In the blink of an eye, it’s already September! I’ve already been in Taiwan for over three months, and the Taiwanese kids are all going back to school now. By God’s grace, I’ve been settling in very nicely in Kaohsiung – thanks for all your prayers!

I realize that not a lot of people know exactly what I’m doing here in Taiwan, so I’ll draw out a schedule of what a typical week might look like. To start off, I work 11 hours/week at my cram school… and as far as I know at the present time, I tutor 6 hours/week. It’s amazing how God has been sustaining me. Although my tight finances keep me on my toes all the time, God is teaching me that He will always provide!

Sunday

· Tutor in the morning for 2 hours

· Go to church at app. 2pm to prep – either for worship, Sunday School, or set up

· Worship service & lead small group from 4-6pm at the New Life Church (the new church plant)

Monday

· Work from 3:20-4:20, then 6-9pm

Tuesday

· Hang out with a Taiwanese girl in the mornings and afternoon

· Work from 6-9pm

· Go to small group at the Bread of Life Church from 10pm-12am

Wednesday – No work today!

· Hang out with another Taiwanese girl for the whole day

· Tutor in the late afternoon

· Go and lead another Bible Study from 7:00-9:00pm

Thursday

· OMF Partners Meeting/Bible Study in the morning

· Hang out with another local

· Work for an hour at night

· Sometimes I go to another Bread of Life small group…

Friday

· Hang out with a local in the morning and afternoon

· Go in to work for two hours

· Tutor at night

Saturday

· Tutor in the morning

· Disciple/tutor a Korean missionary family’s daughter

· Rest of the day is usually spent hanging out with another local Taiwanese

Sorry if that was very long and boring to read… but in general, I have a lot of time to spend and hang out with the locals. And it’s amazing how God keeps bringing people into our lives! Usually we’ll eat lunch, or just hang out… but the topic of God always gets brought up.

Here are some prayer items for some of the people I meet up with regularly….

Katrina – She’s a 17-year-old student who’s in her last year of senior high. Her English teacher brought her to church to learn English, and he is also witnessing to her and her family. Her family is devout Taoist, yet they’re open to the Gospel.

Pray that she will continue to attend church (or find one that suits her) and hang out with Christians, even though school will be very busy for her.

Emily – She’s an 18-year-old, first year university student who was baptized just two weeks ago. Her mom and sister are very against Christianity due to her father’s aggressive evangelistic methods. She will be leaving the city for university next week.

Pray that God will lead her to a suitable church, and a Christian fellowship at her university, where she will continue to grow in her faith. Also pray for her mother and sister, who have yet to become Christians.

I want to take this time to talk a bit about my school… Out of six foreign teachers at my school, four of us are with OMF. I have been assigned to do most of my teaching at an extended branch, which is smaller and even more relaxed than the main branch. This means there is a lot of time to talk with my co-workers, since we don’t have a lot of students.

Today, one of the teachers asked me where I go to church! Apparently, she’s very interested in attending a Bible Study to learn more about the faith. When I went to small group later on that night, I was talking with one of the other Partners who work at the main branch, and he was telling me how the secretary at school was also interested in attending something similar! Right now, we’re thinking of bringing them to an Alpha Course that will start up in late September.

Please keep my school in your prayers. They’ve constantly have Christian foreigners and it’s not a coincident we’re there. Pray that God will give Ansy, Steven, Cliff, and I (the OMF Partners there) opportunities to share the Gospel with our co-workers. May God soften their hearts for seeds to grow.

That’s it for now! Thanks for all your prayers and support!

PS – here’s a list of some of the other crazy things that has happened…..

· I found a twoonie-size cockroach in my closet…. After screaming and spraying it, I think it drowned in my puddle of RAID

· H1N1 is alive and well… and I ended up with a fever last Friday. I prayed SO hard that it’ll go away, because I don’t have my Health Card yet or any medical insurance. And miraculously, it did go away in a matter of a few hours!

· During typhoon Morakot, Ansy and I got really bored and desperate to see friends. So we ended up walking in the typhoon, wearing our raincoats, to our friend’s place… which was about a 15 minute walk? Yeah… we were THAT desperate

· I went to an Anime Exhibition!!!

- OHOHOH!!! For those who read my blog entry on the cat Alabanza.... she was lost right before the typhoon hit... and apparently, she found her way back into the building after the typhoon! So she is safe and sound at home - what a miracle!!

This is a picture of Emily getting baptized in the sea... it was my first outdoor baptism! We had lovely weather that day, as we all witness her baptism!

A picture of Emily and I =P

Ahhh...... we dressed up all Taiwanese-y for this one! This is how we usually travel on our little 50 cc scooter =P There's Ansy (my roommate) at the front. Helmet is a must, and we wear gloves to keep our hands clean and callouse-free. Ansy is wearing a jacket backwards in this picture, as most Taiwanese girls do, to avoid direct sunlight. I had on UV arm gloves for the same purpose. Hahaha... and of course, we had our tea... and I just happened to be on the cellphone at that time. Oh yes... and mask is also a must since Kaohsiung is heavily polluted!

This was taken during the crazy Typhoon Morakot days.... we were very bored, so we all gathered together to play games XD

On the far left is Vivien, then there's Kim, me, and Ansy. The one in white is Gloria, and the one up at the very front is Deborah - we're all the Downtown OMF Partner girls. The rest are other friends from church - (from left to right) - Katie, Nice, and Jonathan.