November 2006 Archives

Greetings from the beautiful Island of Kinmen.
Life has been wonderful over the past couple months of living here. I am so grateful to the Lord for the opportunity to be here serving Him. Life never ceases to be full of adventures and surprises! Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the nursing home that is close to my dorm. I went with 2 Nuns that live here on Kinmen, whom I have enjoyed getting to know better during my stay here. Well, we met on the street corner that was close to the facility and then walked the rest of the way there together. It had to be a funny sight since both of them are shorter than me. Sister Cathleen is about shoulder height and Sister Winnie is about mid upper arm height.

When we arrived, a lot of the residents were sitting outside watching and listening to a music video. Memories came flooding back from my job back home, and I couldn't help but cry as I interacted with the sweet elderly people. Oh! How I miss my dear sweet friends from Rosewood. One of the ladies I met was so sweet. She is 100 years old but I would never have guessed by her actions. She couldn't speak at all but she smiled like there was no tomorrow! She had one tooth left in her mouth which was quite evident since she smiled constantly. As I walked up to her she got excited and grabbed my hand. She motioned for me to sit with her, which I did. As we sat there she just held my hand and moved it in time with the music as she beamed with joy. After sitting with her for awhile Sister Cathleen took me inside the building to meet more of the dear folks. I can't describe how much joy I received from visiting all those people. I saw so many different personalities just like back home. I love elderly people!

On the way out, a man approached me and started talking in English. His name was Jimmy. He was elated when I told him that some people call my dad that. He told me that he was a musician (a cellist) and had traveled to America many times to be with different symphonies. He told me he wants me to come back and talk with him in English so he doesn't forget how to use it. He also made sure I knew that he studied English, Spanish'o, German, and Italian'o. He was such a cute old gentleman. I am thinking about going back and taking my violin to see if he would want to play a duet.

Teaching is going well. I love all the schools I go to. Don't be mistaken, there are challenges, but God is faithful to help me through them. As I see the kids and different attitudes they have, I am reminded of how, so many times I act the same way in my walk with the Lord. But, he is always there waiting, ever so patiently for me to understand His purpose and plan and totally rest in him. Oh, that I would learn from the best Teacher of all how to teach my students effectively. Over the past few days I have been totally overwhelmed by the unconditional love of the Lord. How good he is to me. I don't deserve anything that I have and it is only by his mercy and grace I am here. I thank him and praise him for his overabundance of grace.

"Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our
salvation! Our God is the God of salvation; and to God the Lord belong
escapes from death."
~Psalm 68:19-20~

May the Lord bless you this week!

~Lauren~
Kinmen, Taiwan

Today I read the account of Jesus walking on the water in Matthew 14. The disciples were in the boat, tossed by the storm and tempest. When they saw Jesus and cried out to Him, He said to be of good cheer, for He was there. At which point Peter, at the bidding of Jesus, stepped out of the boat and into the waves to be with Jesus. But he got distracted by the turmoil around him and began to sink.

I know that God has called me here to Taiwan and it really has been quite an adventure so far!! I am so glad to know that He is here with me and so I can be of good cheer. But sometimes it is easy for me to look at the challenges around me, take my eyes off of Jesus and begin to sink. Then I cry out to the Lord, and he bids my heart to rest in Him. This doesn't mean that the challenges don't need to be dealt with, but that in the midst of it I can "be of good cheer" for He is with me. That about sums up my last month. =)

Overall, the teaching is going well, though. I am settling into my routine and enjoy seeing progress that the students are making. Sometimes they are so funny, I end up laughing in class, especially when teams of students get really into competition with each other in various English games. Most students are just delightful to teach!

I have appreciated seeing a little bit of Taiwan over the past few weekends. One family took me to the zoo, another family took me to Shi Tou (a lovely "mountainous" park in Nantou), and I spent last weekend in Tainan visiting some dear missionary friends. God is so good to send these refreshments to the soul in the middle of busy teaching weeks!!

I'll leave you all with a little poem by Harriet Beecher Stow that has been an encouragement to me recently:

When winds are raging o'er the upper ocean,
And billows wild contend with angry roar,
'Tis said, far down beneath the wild commotion,
That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore.

Far, far beneath, the noise of tempest dieth,
And silver waves chime ever peacefully,
And no rude storm, how fierce soe'er it flieth,
Disturbs the Sabbath of that deeper sea.

So to the heart that knows Thy love, O Purest,
There is a temple sacred evermore,
And all the babble of life's angry voices
Dies in hushed silence at its peaceful door.

Far, far away, the roar of passion dieth,
And loving thoughts rise calm and peacefully,
And no rude storm, how fierce soe'er it flieth,
Disturbs the soul that dwells, O Lord, in Thee.

May God bless you all!

With love,
Christy

Chia Yi, Taiwan

It has now been a little over 4 months since I first set foot on Taiwanese soil. For the most part, time seems to be flying by. In fact, pretty much the only time it seems to drag along is when I’m in Chinese class or waiting for a bus. So far, the most challenging aspect of living here has been, believe it or not, teaching English.

Teaching, I’ve learned, can be very exhausting. Besides the standing and talking aspect of teaching English, there is also lesson planning and the task of teaching a lesson to children who have different levels of English comprehension. All told, I teach between 23 and 26 classes each week and quite often I come home and collapse. However, despite the hard work, teaching English can be very fun and at this point, there is absolutely nothing I would rather be doing.

Yesterday was a great example of why I love to teach English here in Taiwan. At this particular school, I teach the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade English classes. The 4th grade class has some of the cutest kids and they all really enjoy the class time that I teach. I played a game with them the second week of school that they all enjoyed so much that every time I get near their classroom they drag me inside and keep repeating “one more time”, meaning play the game again. The game is really quite simple; I divide the class into two teams and have one child from each team come to the front of the class. After answering a language question, usually a word or phrase from their textbook, the two students play “paper-scissor-stone” and the winner selects an empty space from a grid that I have drawn on the blackboard. Each space is worth 100, 50, or –50 points. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins. This game becomes really fun, as most of the students in the class get EXTREMELY involved in the game. From dancing up and down and falling to the floor when playing paper-scissor-stone, to chanting –50 whenever the other team is selecting a square. Although in the end, I’m not sure who has more fun, me or my students.

Zack Feig
Nantou, Taiwan