It is truly incredible to serve an awesome God. I can not imagine life without the direction and love of Jesus Christ. The ability to live life to the fullest is available only through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is so vitality important to keep Christ as the center of all things as you are serving Him.
My week went great, as usual. :) Teaching is going well, and as Christmas is approaching I have been having the opportunity to tell my students about how I celebrate Christmas in America with my family, in the snow... Sometimes I also am able to talk about what Christmas is really about. Next Monday, I will be giving a short talk to the whole school (700+) about the origin of Christmas, and then some of my classes will be singing Christmas songs. Lots of fun.
Our character classes on Friday went very good as well. Both of the schools we taught at were very small, and so we were able to have time for more personal contact with the students. For one of the class hours we went outside and the students could pick which one of us they wanted to be with, and we would talk with them and play games. It was very good. I really like our Friday classes as they are much more relaxed, and we can have fun with the students!
Today I went to Chung Ho, my Tuesday school, for their school track and field day. There are 600+ students at that school, and I teach them all :) It was great to see them and to hang out with them outside of the classroom. I also like all of the teachers at that school, and the principal is a very nice man as well. So much fun!!! My students made me join the rest of the teachers in a relay race at the end of the day... I think I did alright, because ten minutes later I had learned how to say "you run very fast" in Chinese ;) I even got a free umbrella out of it.
With Christmas a week away, we are getting ready to celebrate the birth of Christ together. It will be a little hard to be away from home during the holiday season, but we will do our best to have fun. As you may have noticed, some of us like to have a lot of fun :) I am so thankful this year for the gift God gave of his Son. Pray that we will be able to share this gift with as many people as we can. Our team doing great together, and it is such a blessing to have such an encouraging group to work with. Pray that we will continue to be unified in Christ as we all focus on the same goal. Please remember our students and teachers, and everyone else we come in contact with, that they will see the love of Christ in us, and want to know the reason for the hope that is in us.
Faith, Hope, Love.
From Nantou,
~ Joel
