Austin's Adventures in Taiwan

From the Hands of a Potter...

2008-11-13T17:58:00.000-08:00

This past summer, while I was teaching summer English camps, we would tell a story to the kids that went like this.

"I was a lump of clay. Every day I lay by the side of the road while many people passed by and I longed to be of more worth...I wanted to be big and important! I wanted people to look at me and say, "Oooohh!! Ahhhhh!! Beautiful!" But I was just a lump of clay. One day a man came by and to my excitement he was looking at clay! He began to pick up different lumps of clay, examining them closely, and turning them over and over in his hand. As I watched him, I cried out, "Pick me!! Oh, please pick me!" I hoped he would take me back and possibly do something great with me! I wanted people to look at me and say, "Ooooohh!! Ahhhhhh!! Beautiful!!" But he did not. He picked another lump of clay and left. Day after day the man came back to find clay, and day after day as he passed by I cried, "PLEASE pick me!!" Then one day, as his eyes passed over the lumps of clay lying around me, he suddenly stopped. His eyes rested on me. His hand reached out and then picked me up. It was big and strong and it turned me over slowly. In my heart I cried, "Pick me!! Oh PLEASE pick me!" I thought, "Maybe now is my chance to become something great!! Maybe I will someday be in a very important place, and people will look at me and say, "Ooooohh!! Ahhhhhh!! Beautiful!!" Then the man took me and placed me gently in his bucket and carried me home. I was so excited! I thought, "NOW is the time! Finally he will make me into something great!!" But the man simply took me out of the bucket and placed me on a shelf. My hopes were dashed to the ground! Is this all I was made for? Is this what he brought me back for? All I wanted was to be something big and great. I wanted people to look at me and say, "Oooooohh!! Ahhhhh!! Beautiful!" But how would that ever happen if all I did was sit on a shelf?

I sat there for a very long time. As I sat there I saw other lumps of clay be taken into the man's hands and fashioned into beautiful vases and pots. I dreamed of the day when I would also become something big and important...maybe even a vase that would sit in the King's house! Oh!!! When I thought of that I felt tingly and excited all over! To be something that the King Himself would consider worthy to sit in His house! Then SURELY when people looked at me they would say, "Ooooohh!! Ahhhhh!! Beautiful!!" Still I sat on the shelf. Until one day, at long last, the man came over to me, took me into his hands, and began to push and shove me. It hurt!! I didn't like it at all! I cried out! But still he continued to mold me, twist me, turn me, and press me. I thought to myself that I didn't think becoming something beautiful would be so painful. But I remembered my dream of becoming a beautiful vase and sitting one day in the King's house...and I put up with the pain as best I could. Surely after all this suffering I would be made into something worthy of anyone's notice! I thrilled with excitement at the thought of how it would feel for people to look at me and say, "Ooooohh!! Ahhhhh!! Beautiful!"

When finally the man stopped pushing and shoving me, I looked down at myself to see how beautiful a vase I had become! I was stricken with shock disappointment to find that I was not beautiful at all! Instead I was a rather simple, rather plain, rather ugly pot. "Oh no!" I cried! "How could this be?! I was supposed to be something amazing, unique, and beautiful! I was supposed to be something that the King would admire and place in His house!" Now all my hopes were gone. How would anyone ever look at me and say, "Ooooohh! Ahhhhh!! Beautiful?!" I was placed on a shelf next to many other rather simple, rather plain, rather ugly pots. Every day people passed in and out. They would walk around, choose a pot they wanted, and then leave. But they never chose me. And every day I thought how drab and boring my life was. I had wanted to be something great! And now here I was, a plain, simple, ugly old pot who no one ever looked at and no one wanted.

Then one day a man came into the shop. He was big, and strong, and he smelled like hard work and sweat. He began to look around at the simple, plain, ugly pots. Inside I cried out, "Please, DON'T pick me!" He was NOT the King! He smelled bad! If this man took me home with him, I would never become something great. I would never sit in the King's house. People would never look at me and say, "Ooooohh! Ahhhhhh!! Beautiful!!" But the man picked me up and to my horror I heard him say the words, "I want this one. Yes, this one will do just fine!" He carried me to a camp where there were many men who smelled just like him and placed me in his tent and went to sleep. I heard some of the men say that they were preparing for a battle! A battle?! Oh no! That meant fighting and danger! This was nothing like my dream! Was it never to come true?! Then suddenly the man picked me up and there was a great shout, and then I was thrown down to the ground and I broke into many pieces. I was trampled upon over and over as men ran back and forth yelling and shouting and fighting. When all was over and things finally quieted down there I lay on the ground...broken into pieces, shattered just as my dreams were shattered. Now I would certainly never sit in the King's house. I would certainly never be anything big or great. People would never ever look at me and say, "Ooooohh!! Ahhhhh!! Beautiful!"

Days passed. Months passed. Years passed. Still I lay on the ground. No one looked at me. No one wanted me. I was just a broken pot. Then after 500 years or more, I heard a noise. It was people, and they were coming my way. They seemed to be looking for something. "There should be something around here," I heard one of them say. Then one of them gave a cry and knelt down. He called his friend over and they began talking excitedly. I wondered what could be exciting them so much. Then one of them reached down and carefully, gently, Oh, so gently picked me up. Me! The broken pot! They were talking about me! They were excited about me! "This is it!" they said, joyfully to each other! "This is his pot!" "His pot?" Whose pot? And why were they so excited about finding an old broken pot? They carried me back to a huge place with many, many old things...special things...things that people came from miles away to see. They placed me in a display with a sign that simply said, "Gideon's pot." And to my surprise as people came by to see me they stopped and stared. They gasped in amazement! They said, "Ooooohh!! Ahhhhh!! Beautiful!"

I was so confused at first! Why, I wasn't beautiful! I was nothing but an old, broken pot. Then I heard them say it again..."This is Gideon's pot!" And suddenly it clicked. The truth dawned on me. I realized that I was treasured not for what I was, but for who I belonged to. It didn't really matter if I was big or great. I didn't matter if I ever sat in the King's house, or did great things, or received great fame. The important thing was not what I was, but whose I was. The man named Gideon, who took me back to his tent that day was a great military leader who led a small group of men in a battle against an army many times their size and defeated the enemy. That day on the battlefield he held me high and used me to give the signal to his men to begin their surprise attack that resulted in victory. Because I belonged to him, and he had done great things with me, I was famous. Not because I was big or great or beautiful. But because I was his. When I understood this, my heart swelled with pride and suddenly I didn't care if people said, "Ooooohh!! Ahhhhhh!! Beautiful!" or not. I just wanted to sit there forever and rejoice in the glory and delight of being his."

This is a simple story... and it is a children's story... but I have been thinking about it and pondering it ever since camp. But in this story there are two things that stick out to me.

This first thing that sticks out to me is when the clay is being turned into a pot. Like the story says, it was very painful for the clay to be turned into a pot. It hurt alot... it was uncomfortable... and it didn't feel good. But, it was for a purpose. This clay was being formed and made into something that the potter had in mind. The clay had one idea... and wanted it SO bad. But the potter knew what would be better for the clay. Last night, I was reading my Bible. Right now I am working through the book of Jeremiah. In the 18th chapter it talks about a potter. The Lord wanted to show Jeremiah something so this is what He told him to do.

"'Arise, go down to the potter's house, and there will I cause thee to hear my words.' Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel the he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it. The the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'Oh house of Israel, cannot I do with you as the potter?' saith the Lord. 'Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in mine hand, O house of Israel.'"

Jeremiah 18:2-6

I don't think that this was any accident that I came across this passage of Scripture. I think that the Lord is in a constant state of moulding is and making us into the vessels that He wants us to be. But like in the story, it is going to be painful... and there will be times when we will not want to go through the pain that we have to go through. But the Potter knows what is right for the clay. And the Potter will never lead you wrong.

The second thing that stood out to me in the story of the pot, is that the pot had an owner. The owner (much like the potter) had a purpose for the pot. And (much like the potter) it was going to require some pain. At first, the pot did not see the "big picture." The pot just wanted everyone to look at it, admire it, and see how beautiful it was. But the pot was not a beautiful pot. The pot was designed for a different purpose. The owner of the pot had a purpose for the pot that would save many people... so he used the pot for that purpose.
So often I feel like the pot... wanting to be used and stared at... and for people to see how beautiful I am. But the Lord has a different idea in mind. The Lord has a purpose for me... and if I just submit myslef to Him.... then He can form me... make me.... and mould me to be what He wants me to be.
But, all of the pain... all of the hard times.... and all of the tears... are all because of one thing. Because I am loved, and I am His!

"As the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in mine..."

A Work in Progress

2008-09-16T02:50:00.000-07:00

I was thinking the other day while I was on the train, "Why do I love Taiwan?" I was thinking about all of the things that are so easy to not like about this place... but yet I still love it. I love the people, I love the opportunities, I love the kids... and yes, I love the country. I love the way that the Lord shows me how to love the people here. I love the way that He shows me that its not about me... and that its ALL about Him. I love how He shows me different things about myself... some good... and other quite to the contrary.
At the end of last semester, I was counting down the days until I would return home. But when I got home, there was a piece of my heart that was missing. That piece was left in Taiwan. Don't get me wrong, every second I was home I loved. I loved that I got to see my family and friends. I liked not having to wake up early every morning. I liked that there was food that I was familiar with. I liked that I could read signs and understand what they were talking about. I liked how I could understand what people were saying when they would talk to me. But one of the first things I remember thinking when I got home was, "how long until I go home?"
You know how the old saying goes, "home is where the heart is," well... my heart is in two places... so where is my home? I know that there will always be a home for me where my parents are... because they just love me like that. But, for now, the Lord has my heart in Taiwan. Why? Well, to tell you the truth, I really have no clue. But I know that this is where the Lord has me. He has me here to love... and to learn to be loved.
Before I went home for the summer, I was working doing some summer English camps. We were going through a particularly hard time, and I was reading my Bible one morning. And I had been working through the book of Isaiah. And I came to this passage and it stuck with me. I had been praying that the Lord would give me a vision for the coming year. One of my friends called them "marching orders." :-) But I came across this passage that I believe that the Lord was using as my "marching orders." It says,

"Thus saith God the Lord, He that created the heavens and stretched them out; He that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it, He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein. I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light to the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house."

Isaiah 42:5-7

Me being in Taiwan is an amazing opportunity. I am SO grateful for it. And even though I am here as an English teacher, I can still show the love of our awesome God by the way I live my life. And the way that I love. One thing that I felt like the Lord was asking me after showing me this verse was, "Are you willing to hold my hand?" When I think of holding hands, I think of relationships and especially couples. There is not doubt in ones mind that they are in love. There is not doubt that they have an awesome relationship. But God was asking me if I was willing to make it known to the world that I was holding His hand. That I loved Him beyond a shadow of a doubt. He says that He will never leave us or forsake us... that being the same for me, I should never leave Him or forsake Him.
Guys, the Lord is at work in Taiwan. He is raising up many people that love Him and want to make Him known. I am SO encouraged that I get to work at a school where the principle is a 4th generation Christian. She loves the Lord and love kids... the same that I wish could be said about me.
So I guess, in the end, I love Taiwan... because God loves Taiwan... and He has put a love in my heart for this amazing country. And because of this, my heart is a work in progress. I pray the Lord will always be working on it... and helping me to love more... and not just people... but most of all... Him.

These Three Words...

2008-05-21T07:36:00.000-07:00

Its been too long. The days of teaching in Taiwan are growing shorter and shorter. We have less than 6 weeks of teaching left. The remaining weeks are already beginning to fill with many things. This week has been a week of many deadlines. But, the Lord has been with us to help us finish everything. I have began to write a blog twice now... and as you can see... I have not finished. I hope to have a chance to finish them soon. :-)
I have been pondering what I should write about for a couple days. But, I think that the Lord has finally showed me what to share.
I was writing in my journal the other day. I was kind of down and discouraged. And, as I do so much in my journal, I asked myself a semi-rhetorical question. I don't think that I ever answered it while I was writing in my journal (I do it quite often). But my question was, "Am I really making a difference in Taiwan?" Meaning, am I Austin making a difference by teaching English in Taiwan? Will what I do... or not do for that matter... make a difference in the lives of the people of Taiwan. I know that so many people would say, "Of course! You left familiarity and the comforts of home to go and teach English in another country." But, personally I don't see that I am making a difference by just coming to another country. People go to other counties everyday... how am I any different?
But, I guess that the "difference" that I talk about would really depend on what my definition of "difference" is. But... I really don't know what my definition of "difference" is. I guess that kind of a problem huh? :-) I would like to see whole towns go to the Lord, repent of their sins, and believe that He has died on the cross and rose again to save them of their sins. I would like to see fathers turn their hearts to their wives and children. I would like to see parents love their children... and love them enough to let their children live with them (I would say that a good 1/4 of my students don't live with both parents. A large percentage of them don't even live with 1 of their parents). I guess... the difference that I would like to see is love. And not just an easy "I Love You" love. A true unfailing love. A love for God. A love for family. A love for others.
Recently, I feel like this is an area that the Lord has been working on in my life. To have a true love for others. And not just an easy "I love you" love... but a true love. Not a romantic love... more of a brotherly love. The Lord has shown me that I get annoyed far to easily with people. But, the reason that I am usually getting annoyed is not because of what others have done... but usually in some way my pride has been hurt. But, when I get annoyed I am not showing love. One of the verses that has been running through my head recently is from 1 John 4. It says,

"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is God;
and everyone that loveth is born of God, and
knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God;
for God is love."
1 John 4:7-8

I think that it is just so powerful how this shows how we should be loving. It doesn't say that it's going to be easy to love someone... it just says to love them. God does not just want us to love someone because they are your friend, or because they are cool, or because they love you. He just says to love them. The Lord wants me to love my authority figures that make rules, the Lord wants me to love the teacher that makes things hard and makes me have to stay up a couple of extra hours to get thing ready for the next day, the Lord wants me to love the people who are hard to love. I think that there is a difference between loving someone, and condoning what they are doing. I think that we can love someone, without condoning their sin. I am FAR away from loving all people. There are still people that I have a hard time loving. But, with the grace and help from my Heavenly Father, I will learn to love those people too.
Ok, now you have to be thinking to yourself, "Where is he going with this?" and "How does this tie into the whole beginning question?" Well, it does. This week as I have been pondering this question... a couple things came up in conversations. But the main thing that I have held on to was when I was coming home from a night program that I do with Lauren, our driver was talking about some of the kids that attend the program. But he said, "What these kids really need is a mother and father who live with them, and take care of them, and love them." I cannot give each child here in Taiwan who does not have parents a parent, but I can do everything in my power to love these kids with all of the love that the Lord has given me. I know that the Lord does not make mistakes when he gives children to parents. But the Lord also did not bring me here to Taiwan to not love these kids. I have heard some heart wrenching stories about the everyday lives of many kids. Lives that most people could not even imagine. But, I am here to love these kids, to love them fully, to love them unconditionally, to love them with all of the love that the Lord gives me. I hope that through this, the kids will see the love of my Heavenly Father shining forth through me.
So, I think all-in-all the difference the Lord has shown me that I am making here in Taiwan, is that I can love, with only a love that He can give.

This is who I am here to Love...

Prayer for Guidance...

2008-02-24T07:42:00.000-08:00

Well... I started writing a blog post last week... and as you can see it has yet to be posted. I am very sorry that I have not been keeping up on my blog very well. I just wanted to ask everyone to keep me in your prayers as far as guidance for next year. I feel that the Lord wants me to come back, I just don't know where He wants me here. There are about 5 or 6 different places that I can potentially go. I just want Him to lead me where He wants me. Anyway, I am off to bed. I have an early morning tomorrow. I will try and get a real post up soon. Love and miss you all!

Inseperable...

2008-02-13T02:19:00.000-08:00

Life is often referred to as a roller coaster. I think I finally understand why people use this metaphor. For some, it is the only way to explain the happenings that go on in ones life. And for others, they see that life has its ups and downs. Its loops and twists and twirls. Personally, I enjoy riding roller coasters. They give you a thrill. That little... well usually big, pump of adrenalin that makes you scream with excitement and throw your hands up in the air as you plummet to the bottom of a huge drop.
Lately, I have see this "roller coaster" metaphor in real life. There has been plenty of laughter... and also plenty of tears... but the tears have not all been out of sadness. Quite to the contrary in fact. Most of them have been tears of joy.
After all of the happenings of Lauren and her accident, life was pretty busy. Making preperations for our Yuli English camp... and then watching them smoothly play out before our eyes in what seemed like symphony-like precision. But there was one thing, we were not the conductor. The conductor of the camp was our Lord, Savior and Friend... Jesus Christ. It could not have run as well as it did unless He was dwelling among the children and TA's (teacher's assistants) and guiding our each and every word. Relationships were built with the kids that most of us had not built with our regular school kids in a semester. The Lord opened up each one of these kids heart with a willingness to learn English. Every day we were able to share a verse with the kids pertaining to the lesson. We taught them a song which we sung before every meal and played it very quietly while we ate our meals. By the end of the week you could hear the kids singing the words. This is a song that we had learned in Chinese class many months ago. Its a song that is in both English and Chinese. Its says,

"Thank You Lord for this great morning!
Thank You Lord for this new day!
Thank You Lord for you are simply awesome!
Thank You Lord for you are great!"

It was very encouraging to hear the kids singing this as the week progressed. The Lord was really at work among the camp. One of the key points in the weeks was on Thursday night when we had our Goodbye party with the kids. First, we played some games and just spent some time with the kids. But then, we had our friend Michelle come and share about Jon E. who was here in Yuli last year and ended up dieing here. But, she was able to share about his love for God, children, teaching, and Taiwan. And then we had asked Lauren to share what the Lord had been doing in her life. It never crossed my mind until she mentioned it in her testimony that it had been a week since her accident... the Lord showed me through that that He is the one that is all powerful and He is the one who heals. Alas, we had to say goodbye... but for me, that was not the end of camps. The next day I was on a train headed to Taoyuan. I had volunteered to do another English camp there. This camp did not take as much preparation. The Lord put me with a really good team and working with another really great teacher. I thank that Lord so much for Wes. I met him when I took my TESOL course before I came to Taiwan. He is the person that is basically in charge of us all. But the last 2 days of camp I got sick. And Wes let me rest and took over the full brunt of the class. But even still, I was able to build relationships with my kids. This camp was over after a short week. It was then off to Hong Kong for a way to short trip. We have to leave the country every 6 months because our visa's cannot be renewed unless we leave. In Hong Kong I was able to see some of my friends that I had met over the summer at TESOL. It was very good to see all of them. After our 3 day trip to Hong Kong, it was time to head back to good 'ole Taiwan...

I began to write this blog post many weeks ago... and have today come back to finish it. The Lord has ceased to amaze me with His endless power, might, and Love for His people. As much as the Lord is at work in the hearts of the people here in Taiwan... I think that He is even more so at work in my heart and mind. Before coming to Taiwan, I thought that I would be the one ministering to other... not being ministered to by my Heavenly Father. There have been time since I have been here where things have been going along smooth... I was following alongside with the one who loves me more than anything... but then there was also the times where I started to stray off onto my own path. I must admit to you, that though I am here serving the Lord, I have strayed away from the pasture. The Lord has really shown this to me the last couple weeks. But the Lord is a good shepherd, He takes care of His sheep. I am continually having to remind myself of my purpose of being here. It is not so that Austin can go and do what I want to do. It is so that Austin and shine forth the love of our Almighty God. There are 2 things that we, as man, were created to do. Glorify God, and enjoy Him forever. That's it. Not glorify Austin and the things that my flesh want to do. But to simply Glorify God. It is so hard to just glory in the Lord. We can say until we are blue in the face that we glory in the Lord... but do we really? Do we enjoy Him? Do we like to go to Him and just talk... about whatever. Like what annoys you, the day, the slow driver in front of you, or whatever is on your mind. God should be like our best friend... but we often treat Him like that family member that you will maybe get a Christmas card from and see them occasionally here and there. God wants more than that from us... He wants to be our best friend... He wants to be our longing... He wants to be our love. Is the Lord all of these things to me? Absolutely not! But, I will, with the grace of God, work on this until my last breath of this world.
Just as life is full of ups and downs, highs and lows, and twists and turns... so is our Christan walk. But out of anything, this should be the one thing that stays constant. I feel that the Lord is calling me to come back to Taiwan for another year. But much like last year, I am going to leave where the Lord would have me to go in His hands. He will send me where He wants me to be. And, in the end. I want to be able to grow where the Lord sends me... and not have to have total control over my future... but leave it in the hands of the Lord.

"Trust in the Lord with all your hear,
and lean not on your own understandings.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will direct your path."

You might think that the title of the blog is really random. But its not. The Lord gave me a verse a couple weeks ago that just makes me marvel at how much love that He has... especially for me.

"Nay, in all theses things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 8:37-39

The Lord is working in Taiwan... but not just in the lives of the Taiwanese... but in mine. Pray for me as I continue to follow the Lord's leading in my life...

Safe in the Arms of my Loving Savior

2008-01-21T08:26:00.000-08:00

As I sit in front of what I feel has been my lifeline these last couple of days... well other than my Bible... and my Savior... I feel at a loss of things to say. My happy-go-lucky, every thing's good world has been rocked. But the rocking has not been negative... I have seen my God work and make me see Him in some of the most unlikely situations.
It all started when I was busily bumbling around the house cramming a ton of camp preparations into a couple of days... when I heard my cell phone ring... in my room. So I ran like a madman and got there in just enough time... It was Lauren... but this was not the same Lauren that I talk to everyday... this was a very... calm Lauren (not that Lauren is not calm). She told me not to freak out... but she had been in an accident and was bleeding really bad. My heart sank to the farthest depths of the house... I didn't know what to do... but crying would not help anything. And asked her if she was going to the hospital and she said that she was... I told her that we would meet her there... the next couple of minutes were a blur... I told Jonathan who was in our room... and then ran upstairs to tell the girls. They say that I was really calm and that I left out the blood part... All I remember is I was trying to keep the tears from flooding down my face. I'm a guy... I have to be strong for the girls. While I was telling the girls Jonathan had called Hannah who, by the time we were ready, was waiting for us outside with her car. The car ride was very quiet... the only thing you could hear was whispers of prayers being sent up to our loving Savior. When I walked through the doors of the ER I could hear Lauren crying from the pain. Sarah ran to her side. I was too afraid that I would pass out from the blood. I walked aimlessly around the waiting room frantically sending texts all over Taiwan and back to the states asking for prayer for Lauren. The damage was unknown, but the stories from the translators was scary. Friends gathered together with more friends, family gathered together and lifted up prayers and petitions to our loving Savior. I can't begin to even tell you how much time we spent at the hospital... at some point we were told that there was something in her eye and that they needed to transport her to Hualien City. We all wanted to be there by her side... holding her hand and telling her that it was going to be alright. Only two people could ride in the ambulance. So Sarah and our friend Michelle (to do the translating) went along. When they left the hospital, it was off to our house to pray, and cry out for our friend Lauren. It was an amazing time of prayer...
I find it so amazing that our Savior has no language barriers... He is never closed... We will never get a busy signal... He is always there... In the midst of all of what seems on the outside to be turmoil, we had a English camp starting in a matter of days. We had planned to share many things with the kids related to God and the Bible. We saw these things that had been happening as attacks from our enemy... Satan. He did not want the love of our loving Savior shared with these kids. Even after Lauren began to heal, he threw us another fiery dart. Sarah found out that her little brother had had a seizure and was in the hospital. Sarah was very distrait. She has spent every waking hour for the past many days with Lauren, she had gone on little sleep, and had the same clothes on for a couple of days. We again, went running to out loving Savior... He is the only one that will provide true strength, healing, and comfort. Jonathan and I decided that we would let Sarah spend time taking care of Lauren and relaxing... we now needed to fill the spot of two teachers at our camp. The Lord provided us with another teacher, who was willing to come down from the English Village and help us attack this camp.
But Satan still had more darts to throw our way. After eating lunch today, Naomi (the other teacher) began to feel very sick. She thinks that it might just be something in what she ate. So again, we went running back to the one who loves us so... our loving Savior.
He lets all of these things happen for a reason... He wants everything that we do to be done for His glory. He is letting all of this happen for a reason... He will be glorified in the end. And the outcome will not be because of anything that we have done... it will all be because of what He has done... I am reminded through all of this of a couple of things...
The first thing is a hymn that I remember singing in Church. It says,

"Leaning, leaning, leaning safe and secure from all alarms
leaning, leaning, leaning on the Everlastings arms."

When we lean on our loving Savior, we will be safe and secure. The Lord is the one that was keeping Lauren safe in that car... the Lord is the one that is healing her body... the Lord is the one that is letting all of this happen.
Another thing that I am reminded of is a Bible verse. It's in Psalms and it says,

"Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright."
Psalms 20:7-8

We do not have to worry about trusting in anything else... except trusting in our loving Savior.
The last thing that I am reminded of, is that nothing is to difficult for my God. Even when things are not going our way... when things are looking grim and bleak... I can find strength, comfort, safety, and peace in the arms of my Loving Savior...

新年快樂!

2008-01-04T03:40:00.000-08:00

新年快樂!
Xin Nian Kuai Le!
(sheen kneeon qui luh)

Happy New Year!

Wow! The God we serve is so amazing! As I look back over the last year of my life I am amazed at where the Lord has taken me... where, at times, I have taken myself... my struggles, my feats, my failures, and my victories. He has been right by me the whole time... holding my hand... even in the times when I didn't want it to be held.
I was thinking back earlier this week on one of my marathon train rides to Taipei... where was I a year ago? And, where have I gone in a year? Last year started with a new job in San Antonio. I was so excited that I had the chance to be a "businessman." Its most kids dream. I had not been to college and I thought that this is what I would spend the next 10+ years doing... boy was I wrong. So I moved to San Antonio, TX. I moved into an apartment. I was on my own... I had me to worry about... and that was it. How stupid my thoughts were. When I had originally gone to SA I had the blessing of my parents... but my Mom was no to happy. As I spent more time on my own... my relationship with my parents began to grow farther and farther apart. Anyways, over time at where I was working... the Lord began to show me that this is not where or what what He had for me. I did not like this... I wanted to be here. I mean I had been to Mexico once to do mission work there... so I was serving His people. I was not ready to submit to the Lord. I remember going through a particularly hard week... and I was on the phone with Andrew and I told him that I wanted to go on a missions trip to somewhere far away. I think that the Lord heard my cry. After life started to get back to normal... I began to spend a little more time with Him... and I started to see that I should probably move on. So I told this to my parents. I told them that I think that it was about time to give my two-weeks notice. I just wanted to finish up a project that I was working on. I was talking to my Mom late one night on the phone, and she was telling me about a class that she had been reading about. It was a class that would teach you how to teach English to people who spoke other languages. So we both researched it... the class was starting in less than a week... in Oklahoma City. She told me to pray about it... and to make sure that this is what the Lord would have me to do. So, I prayed about it... and called the next day... there was no answer... so I went back to the Lord... then I called again... this time I got an answer. The person I talked to said that she would get back to me. Well she called back and there was openings in the class. But it started the next week... so I had a thousand things to do before I left... and I was still working for a company. So I gave everything to the Lord... and then went out to conquer the task that was at hand. Well... everything worked out and the next week I was on a plane headed to Oklahoma City. I spent spent the next two weeks here... not only learning to teach English... but meeting, spending time with, and getting to know about 25 students from Taiwan and Hong Kong. I I felt that the Lord was calling me to go to Taiwan and teach English. I did not know why because I did not ever know where Taiwan was... much less anything about it. But the Lord worked all of my visa paperwork and everything else out. But alas, my time with the VOICE students and staff was over. It was a very sad time. But we had to say goodbye (I was going to see them again in a couple of days because they were at my next stop on my "prep for Taiwan" trip around the US) and I had to go back to SA and pack up my apartment. One of the requirements for going to Taiwan was that I attend a course called "Journey to the Heart." It was a 10 day course that was supposed to help you to clean up your heart... and spend some quality time with the Lord. I did not want to go one bit. I was scared about what I would find out about myself... and aboutt was one of the most memorable and exciting experiences that I have ever had a chance to get to be a part of. Well, while all of this was going on what others would think about me. So toward to end of VOICE I asked for prayer for mt time at JTTH. One thing that Karen Chen who is one of the people who is in charge of the VOICE program is to be myself, and to be real because they had gotten to know the real Austin. So, that is what I set out to do. Well, it turned out that I made a really good friend at JTTH and also had a chance to spend some time just listening to God. Before this point the Lord had never really given direction from His word to go to Taiwan. I was sort of doubting, and thinking that I had done this all and that is was not from the Lord. Well... one, this was a bad thing to think because things had happened that only the Lord could orchestrate, and two, He decided that He would show me. One of the passages that He gave me may seem kind of cliche, but it was from Him. It was from Matthew 28:18-20. It says,

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

I felt that this was the Lord telling me to go... and that he would guide my steps... and that He was in everything that had taken place up to this point. Well, the last day of JTTH happened to be on the same day of the VOICE graduation. So, I had permission to attend. It was such an awesome time. The leaders of the different groups that the students were in said something about each of the students. Well, during the VOICE program two of the students called upon the Lord, and repented of their sins, and believed in Him. It was such and awesome time when they relived these moments at the graduation for Cynthia and Henry. I don't think that anyone there made it through the graduation without crying. Well, the final alas had come, and I had to say "goodbye." The next stop on my trip was Myrtle Beach, SC. Here I was meeting up with Aaron... and our friends that we have had for... pretty much ever... Yannick, Kingsley, and their Dad. This was a good time to just have a time to relax on the beach and just have some fun. Well... after that, we headed back home... and this time it was home home. Well... for me, it was home for three days and then... off to Taiwan. Well... I finally arrived in Taiwan... and by the time that we got to the hotel it was in the early morning hours. Well... the enemy did not take to long before he began his attacks. One of the guys that came over with us had a seizure. I was VERY scared... while he was laying on the bed Wes was standing over him praying for him while his brother and I attacked his bags looking for his medicine. Then... praise the Lord we found it... and then we all began to pray. The Lord heard the cries of his children, and it did not last to long... but it seemed like an eternity. The rest of the time in Taoyuen was covered in prayer... our hotel was covered in prayer... and everything that we did was covered in prayer. I still did not know where I was going to be going in Taiwan. I knew that it would be one of two places. I would either stay in Taoyuen... or go to Yuli, Hualien. Well, after about a week of praying that the Lord would send me where He would have me, I was on a train headed to Yuli. While I was on the train I decided to read my Bible. The last day of JTTH our leader had given us a passage of scripture that he wanted to give to us. It was Isaiah 55. Well, the Lord spoke to me through a portion of it. It says,

"Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee. Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

Isaiah 55:4-7

I just felt like this was my marching orders from the Lord. Well... I would love to say that since I have been in Yuli that it has been all happiness and rainbows... and that I have learned to go to the Lord with whatever problems that I am having... but it has not. I love each person that the Lord has brought onto this team... but there are times when I have a very bad attitude toward them or about them. The Lord has showed me that this is not how I need to be. He has showed me that this will only cause division. Recently, I was "pinned" by the Mormons which are very active here in Yuli. I felt very threatened by them... and after talking to them... I began to doubt again. It seems like that is a defense mechanism that I have... but for a couple of days I was having some major battles. But one morning I was reading in my quiet time... and all through it the battles were being waged inside of me. But then the Lord spoke to me through His word. I was reading in John. It was after Jesus had resurrected and he had appeared to the disciples. And so the disciples went and told Thomas. But he said that he did not believe and that he would not believe unless he could see and feel for himself. And then in John 20:26-29 it says,

"And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My LORD and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."

The Lord really spoke to me through this passage. I felt that the Lord was telling me not to doubt Him, but to trust Him... and rely on Him. Well... the past couple of weeks have been very... interesting to say the least. They have been very stressful and to spend the Holidays away from my family only added to the stress. But about a week ago, I had been going through a particularly hard time... and decided to go up into a mountain that is down the road... It was just me... my Bible... my cell phone (just in case of an emergency)... and God. I had a chance to just be still and silent before the Lord. I had not been able to do this since I was in MI at JTTH. It was an awesome time. Well... to wrap things up, for New Years, I went to Taipei with Lauren and Sarah, and then on the first there was a VOICE reunion. It was such a fun time! VOICE seems like it just helps me to re-focus on the Lord. I think to easily my focus starts to shift to Austin and what he wants... and off of the Lord and what He wants.
Well... I thank you all for praying for me... they are much appreciated. I want to encourage you to never loose site of the Lord... He is an awesome God! Nothing is to difficult for the God that I serve. He is always there for me... no matter what I am going through. I am glad that I have a friend that is always there for me no matter what I am going through. I pray that I will keep Him by my side during this year... that He would be who I run to in difficult times... in times of trials... in times when I don't think that I can go on... He is there for me. Keep us in your prayers...

2007 Travel Breakdown:
2 Continents
3 Counrties
15 States
13 Airports
30 Airplanes
100,000's miles

A Taiwan Thanksgiving... with a twist

2007-11-25T01:51:00.000-08:00

Ok... so I think now is about the time to write this blog post... I have had it created with nothing written for a couple of days. So here goes the story of the first Taiwanese Thanksgiving (not to be confused with the first Thanksgiving).
This is the first year that Austin has been away from the people he loves for Thanksgiving. I was thinking about it the other day and my family has been getting together in some sort of fashion for about 12 or 13 years... that would make it be since I was about 8. That seems like close to an eternity for my small mind. To be honest with you, I was starting to get very homesick when I was thinking on this matter. So I talked it out with my fellow living buddies... our conclusion. Lets have our Taiwanese "family" over for Thanksgiving dinner. This was very exciting for many of the because they had never had turkey (pwo-gee) before. They had also never had many of the other delectable things that accompany Thanksgiving.
So, each of us decided to split up the Thanksgiving staples.

The Menu

Main Course:
Turkey
Dressing
Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans
Corn (compliments of someone)
Sweet Potatoes
Biscuits
Fruit Salad
Deviled Eggs
Gravy
Cranberry Sauce

Dessert:
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie
Peach Cobbler

Lemon Meringue Pie

Egg Tarts (compliments of our friend Phoebe)

So, in order to get everything that we needed... many things needed to be done. First, we needed to find a turkey. We had our friend Hannah to look around to see if she could find one. She could not... so that led her to the internet... she found a mail-order turkey place in Taipei... they Turkey would arrive by the next day... of course you had to pay... which we did. Second, we needed to make a trip to Hualien City to go to Carefore which is a big supermarket that has lots of things that we can't get in Yuli. So we took a train to Hualien... Sarah, Lauren, Jonathan, Michelle (part of our "family"), and I. We had decided to leave home early so that we could do some shopping. But shopping led to Starbucks (a must while in Hualien city), which led to more shopping, which led to dinner... which led to about 45 minutes at Carefore. Needless to say, we did not get everything that we had set out to get. Third, Carefore trip number two. Lauren, Sarah, and I decided that we would go on Wednesday to Carefore again because we all had a half day and so it would give us a little time there. Well, much like the first visit, we decided to do some shopping... and some Starbucks... oh yeah... and we went to this little coffee shop that we found one say when we went to Hualien City a couple weeks ago. Well... by the time we called Johnny (our English speaking taxi driver) and by the time we got to Carefore (I didn't mention that President Chen of Taiwan was in Hualien City) we only had like 20 minutes to get the things that we needed. Praise God that it was not very much. And Johnny helped us do our shopping, kept us under time, and got us to the train station on time. Needless to say, he got a good tip. And finally, Fourth, we needed a place to cook our turkey. We had asked one of our friends and she said that one of her students had a big oven... well apparently there was some miscommunication but what we ended up with was barely big enough to cook the pies. The Lord was faithful to our cry for help in the last hours. He provided us with an oven at some people that we go to churches with house (does that make sense?). Anyway, this oven was big enough to cook both turkeys. The only down side was Hannah had to take us there by car. The people said that they would watch it for us (they even decided to taste some of it).
It was a blessing that the that the turkeys even came out. None of us had ever done a turkey before. We had all seen it done plenty of times... but had never been the ones doing it. It worked out... everything worked out without a hitch. It was an amazing night just fellowshipping together and thanking the Lord for everything that He has done for us in the last year... but just in general. The Lord is so amazing! It is evident in His creation. I am bombarded with it everyday as I go out to school... actually everywhere I go. This weekend we will kick off our Bible study. We are all very excited. We are inviting our friends and teachers. I invited one of mine today and she said that she would tell others about it as well. It is amazing to watch the Lord work right in front of your eyes.

Our Guest List:
(from left and around)
Mary (Hannah's Daughter)
Sam (Hannah's Son)
Esther (Hannah's Daughter)
Hannah (Our "Mother")
Dr. Chen (Hannah's Husband)
Phoebe (Robert's Wife)
Echo (Robert's Daughter)
Peter (Yah Mama's Grandson)
Yah Ma (Hannah's hired help)
Brian (Sarah and Lauren's friend)
Sarah
April (Robert's Daughter)
Michelle (Our very good friend)
Robert
Susanna
Lauren
Me
(Jonathan is taking the picture)

This is our Taiwan family. Robert owns a cram school here and that is where we go and do Chinese class. He is a Christian and so are most of the people that work there. All of these people are very special to us. There are many more... but some could not make it... and others... would not have been able to fit at the table.

Our Baking Supplies

We Robbed a Poultry Farm

Late Night Baking

Like My Rolling Pin?
(its a chopstick)

I am still alive...

2007-11-18T02:46:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to post for the last couple of days... the blog site must have been down or something... since I could not post I decided to write out what I would post when I had the chance... here is what I came up with...

It has been an incredibly long time since my last post… I wish I could say that it’s because I am too busy… that’s not really the case… I like to… make myself busy with what I like to do… shopping, talking, and generally hanging out. I especially like to do this when there are other things that need to be done… such as keep the people who love me and pray for me updated. So… that is what I shall do… update you on the goings on of Austin… the weary traveler/happy teacher/tired student/child of a God who hears and loves me. This last point has been something that has been on my mind lately. A child of a God who hears and loves me... A couple weeks ago, we had some of our friends come down from Taoyuen… well… I had no clue they were coming until I came home from 7-11 one night and there they were, standing in my living room. But one morning while they were here I was going to go out and get some breakfast, so I asked if they wanted anything and what they wanted. So I headed out to a breakfast place that I had never been before. So I go and order the mass of food… and while I was sitting in “My Warm Day” (the breakfast place) I started to hear a loud noise coming from across the street. It was actually a pretty annoying ruckus. It was none other than some parade for some god. I sat there, and could not help but to watch… it is so amazing what these people do and put themselves through in order to try and “please” a “god” who is nothing but a statue made by the hands of man. Lauren was with me and I turned to her and said, “I’m glad that I serve the God that I do!” My God does not need paper money burned when we hit an animal while driving down the road. My God does not need me to lay out food, drinks, and other random things so that He can “eat.” My God does not need me to where a necklace, bracelets, rings, or any other type of accessory to show that I serve Him. My God all in all does not need me at all… I am the one who needs Him. Without God, I can do nothing on my own. It will only be fruitless and futile. With God, on the other hand, all things are possible. In order to do the simplest things, I need God.

Almost every day, I take a 20 minute train ride to school. This is one of the most beautiful trips I have ever been on. In order to get to Fuli, which is where most of my schools are, I must take a train that winds through the valley between the mountains. It is GORGEOUS! I am daily reminded of the power that God has. That it only took Him 7 days to create the whole earth and everything that is in it. And that on one of those days he did nothing at all... except rest. God did not need to consult Austin when He was making the Kiwi bird, to see if the colors matched or not. God did not need Austin when He was making monkeys to make sure that it was ok to have hands for feet and fingers for toes. But, Austin does need to consult with God when he gets out of bed in the morning. He does need to consult with God when things just aren’t working the way that I would like.

Over last weekend I was up in Taoyuen because some of the teachers of a local cram school that we are friends with were going to be in the area and wanted to see the English Village. We had made arrangements for them to have a tour and we also told them that at least one of us would be up there. Well, while I was there, I was standing on a flight of stairs where I really like to stand because it is a pretty view of the city. All you can see is buildings of all shapes, sizes, and colors. So, while I was standing there I decided that I wanted to go and get my camera and take some pictures. I got some pretty amazing shots. But after looking over the pictures later, there was one that I really liked. It was one where the camera was focused in some bricks of the building and then blurry in the background is a bunch of buildings. I loved this picture so much! I wanted to make it the background on my computer. But I wanted to add a Bible verse on it… so I opened my Bible and began flipping through the Psalms. My eye caught onto a couple of verses that I remember going over in team prayer one night that I thought would be perfect for the picture. Its from Psalm 114:5-8. It says,

“Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dweleth on high, who humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in Heaven, and on Earth, raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth them out of the dunghill; that He may set them with princes, even with the princes of His people.”

With this view of the city and the beauty that I saw from it... I can only imagine the view that God sees. He is such and amazing God to have brought me to this place... to be teaching these children. I love each one of them so much... they are all such bright children. At their young ages they have been through so much... and are daily put through things that some cannot imagine. Jonathan recently went to the town that my Monday morning school is in. He want with the owner of the cram school that is in Yuli. Most of the kids that were there where kids that are in my classes. He was telling me about one of the little girls who Dad is a drunkard... and I don't think that he said anything about the Mom... but anyway, when this little girls Dad runs out of alcohol he sends her a couple of kilometers away to buy him his drinks. And sometimes he sends her at night. This is just some of the struggles that these kids face on a regular basis. It's sad to see... but the Lord has these children where they are for a reason. We pray for our kids on a regular basis... we also pray for our unsaved teachers... which covers most of them. One of people that we work with on a regular basis, her name is Kitty. And very soon after we moved in here she had said that she had wanted a Chinese-English Bible. Lauren just so happened to have a Chinese-English Bible that she had brought from the states. So she gave it to her. About a month or so ago she asked if she could come over once a week to read the Bible with us. So she now comes over and we read... well she does... very slowly with her... She is very excited about it. She has even invited one of the teachers that Jonathan and I work with to come read with her... this teachers name is Becca. She has been through a bunch of stuff recently because one of her students parents said that she was abusing her students... so she has been going through many court battles recently. She does not seem like the type of person that would do this. She is always very quiet in the classroom. I think that now she is just gun shy. Anyways, Kitty invited her to come over too... so last Wednesday when she came Jonathan asked her why she wanted to come if it was because she wanted to work on her English or what. She told Jonathan that she knew that the Lord was the only thing that could give her peace in her heart. This was very encouraging to us. So just keep both Kitty and Becca in your prayers.

I should probably draw this to a close... It is pretty long. I hope that I have caught all of you up on whats new. We are also going to start a Bible study very soon. We are just working on getting the books sent. They are only coming from Taipei but someone has to be home to sign for them when they come. We have the English ones... we are just waiting on the Chinese ones... Well thats about all. I hope and pray that you all have an amazing Thanksgiving. We are attempting to through a Thanksgiving bash with our Taiwan "family" on Saturday. We just have to finish finding what we need... like a turkey... pray that we find one. I thank the Lord for each one of you who reads this. I love you all... miss you tons.

(sorry that there is no pictures... the internet here is being very weird)

At last.... a video... well a slideshow

2007-10-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick slideshow that I quickly put together... it starts out from the flight over here... and goes until the other day. I hope you all like it. The song is a song that we are learning in Chinese class. I pray that you are all doing well. We are all doing pretty good. Sarah is just getting over a cold that left her home from school one day. The weather here is just starting to turn cold... the last week I was wearing a jacket to teach in. Its really nice. I will post more when I have more time. I need some sleep after two Chinese classes today. We do a total of three. I love you all!

School Profile: Yung Fong Primary School

2007-10-10T01:46:00.000-07:00

So I thought that I would would introduce you to some of my schools. I was wondering where to start... so I figured the best place would be at the beginning. So my Monday morning schools is called Yung Fong Primary School. This is the smallest school that I teach at. It is outside a town called Fuli which is about a 20 minute train ride and a 15 minute car ride from Yuli where I live. I love the kids at this school so much. I teach 3rd through 6th grade. Well... I actually am like an assistant teacher. The English teacher of the school does most of the teaching. I will usually help with reviewing the vocabulary words, reading the language patterns, and playing review games. So I am pretty much the fun teacher... thats why the kids love me so much. :-) My 3rd graders will come in and some of the boys will come over and wrap themselves around my legs and hold on. They are so much fun! When I first started teaching there and the English teacher would play games the kids would always ask me to play... and they would also fight for me to be on their team. The teacher is a really nice lady to. She is one of the best speaking English teachers that I work with. It is pretty funny that not all of the English teachers speak very good English. Anyway, my 6th grade class is also a very fun class. They are full of a ton of energy. They will come in and try out their English on me. Its very funny. They speak enough to have a very simple conversation with. They have probably had an English class since at least 3rd grade. One of the other teachers that is here with me teaches English to 1st and 2nd graders. It is a bit of a challenge teaching to the grade that I do... I can only imagine teaching to 1st and 2nd graders. Anyway, that is pretty much all there is to know about the school. Keep us in your prayers. We will start to have a Bible study at our house soon. One of the guys that is here asked us to have one and he will translate it. We are headed up to Taoyuen again this weekend. We will leave tomorrow right after school. We will watch the English Village in Action om Friday and in the evening we will head in to Taipei which is about 30-40 minute train ride. While we are there we will go to Taipei 101 which is the worlds tallest building and we will go to a night market which is pretty much where a bunch of people (and in Taipei's case... TONS) will sell there goods at night. In Taipei we have been told that they cover city block upon city block. So that should be fun. I thank you all for your prayers. They mean a lot to me.

Typhoon Krosa Update...

2007-10-06T00:52:00.000-07:00

Just in case you are following the typhoon that is headed this way, I just thought that I would let you all know that we are fine. The power just came back on... it was only out for like 5 minutes... it keeps flickering though so who knows how long it will be on. Yesterday we went out and bought plenty of water and stuff to eat in case we are without power. We have a gas stove so we will be able to cook. They say it should not get to bad here. All we have had thus far is wind and rain. And the gust of wind are very random. Just keep us in your prayers along with the other teams that are over here. There is a team in Taoyuen which is right near Taipei. There is a team in Nantou which is on the other side of the island than us. And there is a team on Jimgman Island... I'm not quite sure where they sit. But if you could, just keep us all in your prayers.

Mid-Autumn Festival aka. The Moon Festival-Part 2

2007-09-27T23:16:00.000-07:00

Ok, so here is the rest of the story... sorry that it has taken so long...
So after we got our ice cream which was actually really good (I got mint-chocolate... it was some of the best I have had since I have been over here) we headed for an aboriginal arts center. After getting lost about 4 times in a bus... and heading down little tiny roads and attempting to turn around, we finally found it. What we did there was watched the tribal dances... it was very... interesting. They did many different types of dance. After that we headed back to our place that we were staying. The original plans were for us to have a traditional Moon Festival BBQ. But, because of the rain and all of that fun stuff we did not. So they just decided to give us money and drop us off in a part of Hualian City that has many places to eat. Which made us happy. The next thing to do was for our group to figure out what we wanted to eat. After many options were weighed we decided to go to Pizza Hut. The only problem was we didn't know where it was. We knew that there was one because three of the people that were in my group had been here last year and they had gone there. So we just kept walking down the road and we found it. It was so nice to have pizza! I had been wanting some for a couple of weeks. It cost more than we had been given for dinner... but it was worth it! After that we couldn't resist going to Starbucks. It was right down the road from where we were. Then all of the sudden it started to pour down raining. We still had to walk about a mile or so to where the bus was going to pick us up. And one thing thats different from America is sidewalk are few and far between (the same thing with garbage cans) so we ended up having to run through the rain to get to where the bus was. We were soaking dripping wet by the time we got to where the bus was going to pick us up. Praise God there was something for us to stand under while we waited for the bus because we had to wait about 15 minutes for the bus. After our night of adventures, we headed back to our sleeping quarters. On our way there, they told us when the other group would be leaving and that they were probably going to be stopping in Taipei to go to the 101 (the tallest building in the world). The whole Yuli team thought that that sounded like fun so we asked if we could go. They said that we could we just had to pay for our way home. We decided that we would, so we left at 8:00 the next morning to head to Taoyuen by way of Taipei (they are maybe an hour train ride from each other). It is one of the most beautiful drives from Hualian City to Taoyuen. Especially in the rain! It is also one of the most sickening rides. The roads are very bumpy and they are all two lanes and one side goes straight down into the water. It was crazy! And also the traffic was very bad because it was a Holiday and also the rain had made many mudslides and so some places the road was only one lane. So you had to wait your turn in order to pass by it. It was a looooooooooong trip. At one point we were taking so many pictures on the bus of the scenery so the driver of the bus was kind enough to pull over and let us take some pictures. At one point I was sitting on the guardrail to get a picture... it was so much fun. Well... to make a long journey short... we did not end up going to Taipei because by the time we made it there it was about 5:00 and we still had another hour or so to drive. So we just went to the English Village (EV) in Taoyuen. It felt like coming home... that is where my time in Taiwan started. It was so much fun. After we had been there for awhile and eaten dinner we went out to play a game of basketball. Basketball is not my strongest sport... I actually don't think that I have a strong sport. Anyway, we ended up playing a game with some of the local kids. It was so much fun. At one point I was on a team with a guy named Andrew and it was just me and him. We actually ended up winning... somehow. I was totally shocked! After we finished basketball we headed back to the EV to get clean. We then decided to finish our game of Phase 10 that we had started the night before... we actually ended up starting a new game. It was about 4:00am before we finished the game and I had to be ready to leave to head back to Yuli at 8:00. So needless to say I did not get much sleep that night. The next morning we had to get two taxis in order to get all of us to the train station. So we made it there about 8 minutes before our train was going to leave. So we decided to just head to Taipei and we would get a different train there. The only tickets that were left on the train were standing tickets. So we were standing in the aisles of the train with about 40 other people. It was quite amusing. After getting off in Taipei, we had to find where you bought tickets... it was up three floors from where we were. So we finally found it and all of the trains that were headed to where we live were full. So Lauren and I decided to ask for a train headed to Hualian. They had tickets! It was the nicest train that I have been on over here. We probably paid for the niceness but... It made for a pretty comfortable sleep. We then got to Hualian City and had to wait about 3 hours before the next available train left. This was ok because it was around lunch time and so we decided to find a place to eat. We were first going to go to a place that we went to when Lauren, Sarah and I had gone before. But they place was full. Lauren and I ended up walking around the block to see what the different places had. We ended up finding this place that sold what they called a hamburger... it was basically a chicken sandwich. It was really good. Oh, and a nice thing about the place was that the people spoke English. It was actually really good for most people over here. Especially to be working at a food place. We got on the train and then we made it home safe... so that was the end of my exciting weekend.

Mid-Autumn Festival aka. The Moon Festival-Part 1

2007-09-25T04:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry its been awhile. I am working on getting over a lingering cold. Most of it has gone away, there is just some left over sinus issues. Anyway, on to what I have been doing since my last post. I have been doing school... well Monday-Wednesday of last week. I had to call in sick on Thursday because I was not well. So school was school. I did not do too much teaching because the teachers of the class wanted to. But it is always a joy to just spend time with the kids. They are some much fun and they will come up to you and just greet you like your their long lost friend. I love them all so much. I also went with Lauren one night because she asked me to come and help out because she was asked to do an after school "club" with the kids. It is actually something the school already does. Its for students to come to the school at night to do there homework and have some fun instead of being at home alone because their parents might work late or their grandparents. It was so much fun... and pretty chaotic. We played musical chairs. But Lauren and I asked if we could do a drama thing with them because we figured that it would help with their English and also give them something else to do. The teacher said that we should probably do it around Christmas time because more parents would be off of work. This made us happy because we get a chance to share the Gospel through the play. And it will help us to grow a stronger relationship with the kids. I think that that pretty much catches you up on what I have been doing over the last week or so. Now on to the topic at hand...
Moon Festival is one of the most random out of the Holidays that have come around since I have been here. From what I can understand of it, its about this women who somehow ends up going to live on the the moon and for some reason they celebrate it. I'm pretty much clueless about what the holiday is all about except for three things:
1. School is off Monday and Tuesday
2. People give you lots of pomelos (a grapefruit type of fruit that is green)
3. People give you enough moon cakes to last you until the next moon festival
So since we were off for Moon Festival King Car (the organization that supports us over here) planned a trip to Hualian City. We had absolutely no clue what the trip would entail except going to Hualian City which is about an hour train ride from Yuli. So we decided to buy the tickets the night before we left... we did not know that it would be such a big deal to buy the tickets... but it was. According to the people at the train station, there were no more tickets left... we at least ones that you could sit. Standing on the train for an hour was not our idea of a good way to start a vacation. We had a very good friend of the teachers here in Yuli with us and she said that we should pray about it, and so we did. She had gone home and went online just to check on the tickets... she found 5 tickets that were very close to each other on the same train that we wanted to be on. Praise the Lord. So she came over to our house and she and our leader, Jonathan, headed about a block or so down the road to the train station. So the next day we made the trek to the train station with all of our luggage in the pouring down rain. Our train left at like 6:30 and we got there at maybe 6:25 so we moved pretty fast once we got there. It was pretty entertaining. We got to the station in Hualian City and had to wait about 30 minutes for the bus to get there with the other teachers that came down from the English Village which is up in Taoyuen. After we were picked up, we went to dinner. A traditional Taiwanese dinner. We had Sashimi (my first sushi-esqu food since I have been here) which is basically raw fish that is sliced really thin its really good, sweet potato leaves (very similar to collards or spinach), broiled fish, soup with tofu and fish balls, and some other things that were really good. We ate family style so you just basically pick up whatever you want with your chopsticks and put it in your bowl of rice, and eat away. After we ate dinner we headed to our place of lodging. It was some sort of French catholic training place... I think. All I really know is that it was catholic. I was on the floor of my friend Trevor's (a guy from the English Village) room. The next day was stocked full of activities. First, we went to the national park. It has been raining so much here recently so we could not do much there. So all we did was watch a movie and looked around the visitors center. It was a really neat... and looked really pretty because of the rain. *the picture is of me, Ruthie, Sarah, Jessika, and Andrew* After that we loaded back into the bus and headed to the beach. Now the beaches here are not like the white sand beaches that I am used to back home. They remind me more of the seashore in England. They had rocks and pebbles and smaller pebbles. It was really neat. It makes a different sound than back home. It was really pretty... the only thing that made it not to nice was it was VERY hot and humid. That part kind of reminded me of home. Overall I could have built a house on the beach and been content for a long time. After that we all loaded back in the bus and headed to lunch. Our lunch was very interesting. It was at this huge restaurant that was geared toward large groups such as ours. It had probably 50 round tables and they just started bring food... and more food... and more food. There was barely room on our table to put our small bowls of rice. In Taiwan they like to make sure that you have plenty of food. It was all much like the food from the first night. Except for this soupy looking stuff that was like solidified fat with grease... needless to say it did not get eaten... I think that a couple of people may have tried it but thats all. After that we went and got ice cream at this very busy... almost outlet mall type place.*in the picture: Junes, Wes, Tyler, Naomi. Jessika, Andrew, ME, Sarah, Ruthie, and Susanna* It had a bunch of stores that sold different handmade things. Like jewelry and key chains and other things. The kind of things that tourists waste money on. :-)

Ok... so this is the end of this post... I have been attempting to write in since the day I got back and that was Tuesday... It now... early Thursday morning. I will finish the trip very soon! I love you all and thank you for your prayers. They are greatly needed.

Introduction of the Cast and Crew

2007-09-14T20:36:00.000-07:00

I have totally forgot to introduce the other teachers that are down here with me in Yuli. There are five of us total. We teach at probably 20-25 different schools. I only have a couple of pictures of the whole team. And none of each person separately so I will post what I think is the best one and work from there.The Cast:
In order of appearance (from left to right)
You already know me so we will skip that introduction...

Lauren- She's 19 and hails from New Jersey. This is her second year in Taiwan. Her Chinese is better than any of ours. If we did not have her I am afraid that we might be lost and malnourished people. She does most of the food ordering. She and I share a class on Tuesday afternoon.

Sarah- She is 20 and hails from Illinois I think. This is also her second year in Taiwan. She and Lauren were on the same team last year. She came over at the same time as I did from the US. She gave me a pretty good crash course in ordering drinks in Taiwan when we first got here. She is also a fellow Air Force child.

Susanna- She is 19 and has lived all over the world in places like Peru and Romania. She now calls Texas home. She has been teaching English camps in Taiwan during the summer. So she has been in Taiwan for about 2 months. She plays the guitar really well.

Jonathan- He is the oldest person on our team. He is 22 and is also the leader of the team here in Yuli. He is from Idaho. And has a degree in Political Science. He is also my roommate. This is his first time in Taiwan and has been here the shortest amount of time. It was one week on Thursday.

So that is us. We make up the Yuli team. There are 3 other teams here in Taiwan. There is a team in Taoyuen which is the largest number of teachers tipping the scale at 25 or so. They are running the English Village which is a brand new project done by The King Car Education Foundation which is the organization that has us come over here. Sarah and I spent about 1 week or so up there help get everything set up and the curriculum written. They had their official opening and press conference on Thursday. Basically what they do there is have different role play scenarios that they have students go through. They have and airport with a pretty scale model airplane, a doctors office and pharmacy, hotel, science class, future class (deals with the environment and the kind of fun stuff, we did not come up with it King Car did, its just our jobs to teach it), multimedia class, cooking class, library, and I think that is pretty much it. Its a really amazing place. I don't have any pictures with it finished because while I was up there it was still being finished. I will be going up there next month though so I will make sure and take pictures and share them. There is also a team in Nantou. I know two of the six teachers there because I took a class before I came to Taiwan with them. There is also a team on an island called Jingman Island. That is one of the first places that had English teachers from King Car. So we are spread all over Taiwan.

“Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord they God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for He hath glorified thee. Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."

Isaiah 55:5-8

(This last picture was taken in the US in MI not in Taiwan)

Back to School

2007-09-10T06:28:00.001-07:00

After a weekend of excitement, we had to go back to school and teach. On Mondays I teach at two schools. They are not in Yuli, so I have to take about a 20 minute train ride. Its not to bad. I am used to it already. My first school that I go to is Yung Feng (Pronounced Yung Fong) which is in a town called Fuli. The school is gorgeous. It was amazing coming back there after a week. I teach 3rd through 6th grade. So I do four classes before lunch and also before heading off to my next school. As soon as the 4th grade class came in they latched on to me. I was sitting in a chair in the back of the classroom because the teacher at the school has chosen to take on the bulk of the teaching (It varies from school to school how much involvement is needed) and all of the little boys wanted to sit at my feet instead of at the table. The teacher told them that they needed to get to their seats, but every chance they could they were back there with me again. All of the children that I get a chance to work with are all very nice. I know that I will enjoy this year. After all of the classes were over, it was time for lunch. School lunch over here is very different then it is back in the states. It is required that you bring a bowl and chopsticks to school. This schools lunch routine is particularly interesting. They different grades take turns serving each other. The food is put on the table on this big lazy susan and the kids fill the bowls for the other kids before they come in. It is really cool. They food is really good to. After lunch I headed off for my last two classes of the day at Heueh Tien (pronounced Shway Tien). This school I go to twice a week (Mondays for 5th and 6th grade, and Fridays for 3rd and 4th grade). This school is doing a school wide project. They are all learning the Chinese Yo-yo. Now this is nothing like what our yo-yo's are like in the states. It is this big round almost spool type thing that you propel with a rope and two wooden dowels. It is very hard. Last week the 4th graders were showing me how to do it. Maybe by the time that I come home I will be a pro. The English speaking and comprehension ability at this school is pretty low. I had two activities planned (one for each class) and after I had tried the first one with the first class I decided to not do the one that I had planned for the next class. This totally threw me for a loop because I had 20 minutes that I had to teach and had nothing planned to do. The Lord put in my mind to do vocabulary word tic-tac-toe. This worked! It took up most of the class time. I was very happy. After classes were over I hung out in the teachers office because the train didn't leave until about an hour or so after that class is over. So my choices are wait at the train station for over an hour, or wait at the school. My choice is the school. Usually I will brain storm activities for the next weeks class. Sometimes, some of the teachers in the school will sit and talk to me to brush up on their English. And also, the principle will ask me how to say different things, or the proper usage of words. All-in-all it was a really fun day. Everything ran very smooth. The Lord is really helping me get through the classes when I just have to make things up on the fly. It is amazing what He will do when we trust in Him. I need to do some lesson planning for my lessons tomorrow that I just got emailed to me. I love you all!

Journey to the Waterfall

2007-09-09T08:55:00.000-07:00

Today, Michelle (one of the teachers at the cram school) wanted to take us to a waterfall that was in the national park that is very close to Yuli. So our day started out by going to church, then lunch, then some shopping (because I hadn't had enough) and then to the house to get ready for our bike ride. I was anticipating maybe a mile or so... that is not what I had gotten myself into. The starting point was our house. We began the ride and it was not to bad to start with. There was a nice cool breeze blowing, there was good conversation... but then the hills started to get steeper and steeper. And my legs began to burn more and more. I was doing pretty good... and so was the rest of the riders... that is until we were passing by this house, and there was a dog that apparently didn't belong there messing with this ladies dogs. She must have had enough of him so she threw a bowl (yes a bowl) at the dog. This all just so happened to take place right as Susanna was riding by the gate. The dog took off and Susanna hit the dog which in turn made her go tumbling to the ground. But, the good thing was, all parties involved were fine and suffered no life threatening injuries. So we began our ride back up again. We reached this bridge that sat between two mountains and all the sudden it started to pour raining. This did not surprise us because we had anticipated the rain because when we left the house it was very dark over the way that we were headed (it has rained every day since Thursday). The rain was a welcoming cool down because of the already long bike ride. We finally reached the visitors center. We went in to the little gift shop (soaking wet) and looked at the different things that they were selling before heading over to the little park exhibit that they had. It talked about the different trees and wildlife that you could see in the park. And they also had this mock up of one of the indigenous tribes houses. It was pretty cool. We decided to take pictures and that kind of touristy stuff. We then watched a movie (in English) about the park and a bunch of other different things. It was about time that we start heading to the waterfall since that was the whole reason that we took this Tour de Frace-esque joureny. Where the vistors center was was a beautiful place. It backed up to a mountain and across the street in front of it was rice patties with really pretty green and then more mountains. And since it was raining the clouds were low which made it even more pretty. So, we decided to take more pictures. We could not resist. We then got back on the way to the waterfall. We rode along about 4 miles or so before we could see off in the distance many small waterfalls up in the mountains. We finally reached the one that we were headed to! There was one tiny problem... it was blocked off with warning tape with many signs saying "Danger! Falling Rocks! Keep Out!" As you could have well guessed, this did not make us very happy. We had ridden all of this way to have to turn around and go back home without getting the chance to see a waterfall. So where it was closed we ended up taking pictures of the water as it flowed on its way to the river. There was also a smaller waterfall that we had passed about 400 yards back that we decided to go and look at and take more pictures. After all of this we headed our soaking wet selves home to warm up and put some dry clothes on. It was so amazing to take in the beauty of the countryside that God so wonderfully created. So all in all we got to see a waterfall. Not necessarily the one that we had hoped. But it was still an amazing ride... and a very wet one to...

Psalm 148

Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created. He hath

also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass. Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours;

stormy wind fulfilling his word: Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl: Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth:

Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven. He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the LORD.

The Trek to Halian City...

2007-09-08T08:36:00.001-07:00

Today, two of the people that are on my team and I decided that we were going to take an adventure to Hualian City. They had been there before (because they were in Taiwan last year) and after getting lost they decided to turn around and go home. So we decided that we wanted to go and do some shopping. The rest of our team decided that they did not want to join us because they had just gotten here, so we went just as a small group.
We decided that we were going to take the train that left at 11:10 from Yuli. After many failed attempts at leaving the house to get to the train station early, we got to the train station right as the train pulled into the station. We still needed to buy our tickets. There was one problem... we did not know how to say "city" in Chinese. So Lauren decided to pull out her handy English-Chinese dictionary. There was a guy behind us in line who spoke pretty good English and asked us if we needed a hand. We in turn told him of course. We told him where we were headed and he told the guy at the window. We paid for our tickets and made a mad dash toward the train. We made the train! The train went to Hualian City but stopped only at the first stop. We decided that that was where we would get off and head to shopping from there. An hour or so later, we arrived in Hualian City. Nothing screamed "CITY" to us so we decided to get a taxi and asked him to take us to Carefore which is this huge Walmart mixed with a small shopping mall place. We figured that this would be downtown and there would be places to shop around it... To our surprise... there was not. We walked inside because we were going to get something to eat before beginning our search for places to shop. There was nothing inside that we wanted to eat so we left the store. We started down this one road that was a large road and at the start looked promising... but we had no luck. While we were walking down this road we had spotted a place down a much smaller road that looked like a train station. So after we had no luck we decided to head down the lesser road to the "train station." We walked... and walked... and looked at the random food shops, schools, houses, etc. that were on the road. As we were walking down the road the thought was brought up by Sarah that the "train station" looked an awful lot like a police station. Lauren and I disregarded this idea and so we proceeded. We reached the end of the road. It was indeed a police station. Now began the debate on weather or not we should go in and ask them to call a taxi. Me and my chicken self didn't think that this would help us any. Lauren made the final decision by walking through the door of the police station with her handy dictionary. Sarah and I decided that we should follow to be moral support (Lauren speaks the best Chinese out of the group). After getting the conversational words that she needed together in her mind, she began to talk to an officer who then pointed us to another officer. We told him what we would like... and after the 3rd or 4th try he finally understood us. He called us a cab and said that we could have a seat in the little waiting area until the taxi got there. The next hurdle that we needed to jump was telling the taxi driver where we wanted to go. Out popped the handy book. While we were looking through the book the officer who had helped us brought us some water. It was very nice. The taxi got there pretty quick. He understood us and where we wanted to go. He took us right to where shopping was. Where he stopped just so happened to be right across the street from a Starbucks. Now in case you did not know, that is one of my favorite places... EVER! And when my fellow adventurers saw it, they made the decision that we would eat lunch there and also indulge ourselves in some coffee. After hanging out there for awhile, we decided to begin our shopping extravaganza. We shopped... and shopped... and shopped. We went up and down roads... alleyways... big stores... little stores. Shoe stores and clothes stores. Every store we walked into the people that worked there immediately made themselves known. Over here most people have the misconception that all Americans are rich. So in there eyes we could afford everything that was in the store. This of course was not true. We had a very fun time though. At one point we stopped at this place that was selling these little cake things because they were making them in this little... well it was pretty large... machine that put the batter in the molds, and then the filling, and then closed them, and the flipped them. They were pretty amazing. We finally decided that we had done enough shopping... and headed back to Starbucks to get some more coffee and to see when the next train left. It was about 6:15 at this point and the next train heading back to Yuli didn't head there until about 8:15. We still had some more shopping time to use up. After we had absolutely shopped our hearts (and legs... and feet) out we got another taxi and headed to the train station. We got our tickets... and had about 45 minutes before the train left. We decided to get some food to take and eat on the train and got side tracked with the area right outside of the train station. It was pretty cool and we could not resist taking tons of pictures. We then headed across the street to this little place that sold food. And ordered and walked back to the train station. We hopped on the train and headed home. It was about 10:00 before we got home but we had an amazing day. I love it here more and more the longer I am here. I love and miss each one of you. Keep me in your prayers. I need to head to bed because church is in the morning.

My New Blog!

2007-09-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!
This is my blog. I hope that I can keep you up to date on whats going on, and also to share pictures of what I have been up to. Feel free to keep emailing me with your questions or comments. I love to hear from the states. I pray that each one of you is doing well. I miss you all. Please keep me and the rest of my team in your prayers.