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
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
Friday was Moon Festival and Tuesday is Double 10 day so we had a five day weekend. At first I thought this would be a good time to rest up and recover a little from the initial plunge into this semester. Not to be; we have been going non-stop and having a lot of fun too.
Here in Taiwan, Moon Festival is a big deal and the legend behind it is rather interesting. Once there was a great Emperor who wanted to live for ever. Somehow he acquired a magic elixir that was supposed to accomplish his wish. However, before he could drink it, his wife, thinking that he had become too proud, stole the elixir. So now she is living forever on the moon with a little rabbit. There is a story about the rabbit, too, but the details are a little vague.
Moon festival is on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month when the moon is the biggest and brightest. It is celebrated with barbecues, fireworks, eating pamelos, and looking at the moon. On Friday, we went out with some friends and in the evening had a barbecue at their family’s house. It was the best barbecue I’ve had here. Afterwards, we set off fireworks and played monkey in the middle. Then on Saturday we had a barbecue at our house and had several friends over. Teaching them to play Dutch Blitz was a lot of fun. Sunday morning we were able to help with the music in the worship service. I pray that we were a blessing.
Although these last few days have been busy, spending time with our friends has been wonderful. The Lord continually blesses us with strength, joy, and an ever expanding ministry. Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement.
God bless,
Kristen
From Nantou
]]>Mixed in with the challenges that come with the job description of “Foreign
English Teacher” are all of the amazing blessings that the Lord provides. I
have been very blessed by my students. We have lots of fun together in and
out of class. Discussions/debates/arguments about baseball (Mariners vs.
Yankees), whether I dye my hair to make it blonde, whether or not I am just
pretending to not know Chinese, and just life in general make each day
interesting. I have been given the opportunity of a life-time: the chance to
invest in the lives of hundreds of kids each week. These are kids that may
not have any other chance to learn about the love that God has for each one
of them. I truly hope that I can give them a small glimpse of what that
unconditional love looks like.
We have also had so opportunities to share with some of our students,
parents and families. These people seem to be much more open to talking
about deeper matters of life than most people back home in the States. The
questions that they ask really force me to rely more and more on God for the
answers, because often-times I simply don’t know what to say. Talk about
convicting! I am constantly remembering the words of 1 Peter 3:19- “…be
ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the
hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” It is my prayer for this year
that I will make the most of every opportunity that is given me and truly
show God’s amazing love to those around me.
We are in our fourth week of English teaching, and so are settling into our routine for the year. Some highlights have been…
…Being greeted by bright, shining faces of students eager to learn and have fun.
…Sharing our many adventures together as a team and growing together.
…Spending time with some of our students' parents - they've been wonderfully generous with their time in taking us all over the county.
…Trying all sorts of new an interesting food including: pig blood, chicken feet, fish eyes, octopus and "stinky tofu"! Most of the food here is really yummy, though.
For me, the past six weeks that I have been in Chiayi have been ones of learning to trust in the Lord more and rely only upon Him for the task that He has called me to. God is faithful to bring me out of my "comfort zone" so that I will lean on Him more fully. How glad I am that those "everlasting arms" are always under me!! When I look at my circumstances, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. When I remember that God is in control of my circumstances, it is much easier to rejoice in Him! Surely the joy of the Lord is the strength of His people (and the students love enthusiastic & joyful teachers)!
My first class this morning was a first-grade, to whom I am teaching the alphabet and phonics. Most of my students did not have English names, so I was given the privilege of naming them this morning. After teaching, the students all raced to the front to give me a hug. Chubby (and not so chubby) little arms around my neck give me a boost like none other! How I love these precious children.
My other morning classes today were the 5th & 6th grade. The students are a little older, of course, and know a bit more English, which makes conversation with them a little more meaningful. In between classes I usually have a crowd of students around my desk, asking me questions, getting my email address, and generally just wanting to hang around. Then there are the students who like to sweep and clean up the English classroom between every single class. How can I not thank them? They're so sweet!!
In case it sounds like this is just the dream job, it is and it isn't. There are real challenges, and you can pray for these. Most of my first-grade classes tend to get a little wild and I need wisdom in reining in little boys' energy and channeling it appropriately. Communicating with teachers and directors has its own difficulties as we have language and cultural barriers to cross. The teachers and directors are GREAT, though, and I enjoy working with them.
Various members of my team have had opportunities of sharing with Chinese teachers and parents. Pray that we would truly shine God's light and speak His truth to those we meet here in Taiwan. Thank you muchly for your prayers!!
~Chia Yi
~Christy
This website is an extension of that. We feel like this is our way of doing a little “payback” for all the praying you do in the states on our behalf. You have the right to know how God is working here in Taiwan though our program and so if all goes well we’ll have an update every week from each team. Also, look in the photo gallery for images of your friends and family as they teach their way through the year. We’ve had some pretty crazy things happen over here and a thousands words just won’t cut it at times. Sometimes you just need to see it to believe it.
Look around the site if you will, you’ll find blogs, photos, personal profiles of all the teams members, images and location info for each team, e-mail addresses for some of our team members, as well as the weekly updates from our lives. Please e-mail the admins if you think of something you’d like to see on the site. We’re also very interested in knowing if something doesn’t work. You can contact us by clicking on any of the “contact us” links found around the site.
As a basic update on what’s happening this year we’ve 4 teams serving around the island of Tawian.
One team in Nantou County which is on the main island pretty much right in the middle. Nantou is a mountainous area with many little villages near by. Although the villages are often less than 500 people Nantou city itself is around 300,000. Our (I’m part of the Nantou team) teaching involves mostly smaller schools though there are one or two fairly large ones. We have an after school program in the afternoon, Jr. Highschool every other Friday, and a special “English day” program where we travel to small mountain schools to teach on the Friday we don’t have Jr. High. Nantou County is considered the religious capitol of Taiwan and boasts more temples than any other county. You can imagine that we deal a lot with spiritual warfare here. The Nantou team members are Joel Feig, Zack Feig, Daniel Neu, Kristen Richmond, Mai Lewis, and Nicole Simpson.
Another team is in Chia Yi. Chia Yi is the County on the south border of Nantou. Chia Yi is home to one of the most beautiful national parks in Taiwan, the Ali San Nantional Park. The teaching area around Chia Yi is very similer to that of Nantou. Both smaller and larger schools. This is a new location for our program and so I really don’t know a whole lot about daily life in Chia Yi. I’ll let the team tell you about it in future updates. The Chia Yi team members are Christy Langemann, Jessica Lindley, Sarah Lindley, Lauren Little, and Ruth Hug.
Yet another team can be found in Hualian. This beautiful county can be found on the east coast of Taiwan. It’s perhaps the most remote of the teaching locations in the fact that it’s not near any large city areas. It’s also known for having a large amount of indigenous aboriginal people. In both Hualian and Nantou counties it’s easy to find the aboriginal people. I’ve been told by the teachers in Hualian that they mainly have the Amei tribe but also the Bunong people as you also find in Nantou. The Hualian team members are Jocelyn Krauter, John-Eric Hope, Adam O’Conner, Ruth Strickler, Regina Lehman, Catherine Leskowat, and Naomi Leskowat.
Lastly we have the Kinmen team (pronounced Jean Men…don’t ask me why it’s spelled with a “K”) Kinmen is a small island west of Taiwan that is actually closer to China than the Taiwan mainland. On a clear day it is possible to see the mountains of mainland China right across the strait. As you would imagine being on a small island tends not to lend itself to traveling very much. This doesn’t bother our teachers in Kinmen. They’ve taken it as an opportunity to build strong relationships with several of the people they know and see every day. They get to teach every single school on the island and so because of this they know nearly every child. Kinmen is known as being a close knit world where not only are our teachers workers on the island, they’re also friends to a large part of the island. The Kinmen teachers are Andrew Stewart, Lucas Stewart, Megan Jefferies, Rebekah Gilley, Dominique Coffing, Jarita Kulp, Lauren Cyrus, Jane Turner, and Rachel Grindall.
I hope this helps you understand what you’ll be reading over the next several months. We’re real people doing real work for a real God. We need real people back in America to really pray for real miracles every day.
God Bless and I hope you’ll stick with us through all of our updates.
Daniel Neu
Nantou, Taiwan
Light2taiwan.com Administrator
With all that to say, It's been a great reminder to me to keep my trust in Jesus the "Driver"of my life. Even though the road ahead may seem to disappear He will always find a safe way to get across or around the missing patch. In the mean time as I look around and taken the beautiful views of life God has handed to me I'll repeat this verse to myself and expect to see great things!
"Look among the nations and watch-- Be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days Which you would not believe, though it were told you." ~ Hab.1:5
Mai Lewis ~ Nantou Team
The God we serve is an awesome God! As many of you know we taught a couple camps over the winter vacation time, January 22- February 10, before jumping back into teaching and life in Yuli.
The first camp we did here in Yuli with a church. We had about eight students in a rather small area and thankfully we usually only had one or two students that got hurt per day. What I really appreciated about this camp is we got to work with all Christians, so when there was a major problem or concern instead of panicking about it, we would just pray about it either in the morning meeting or in the evening meeting. Instead of having a translator state that those kids are just so bad, they would come asking for pray for their own attitude for when the students misbehaved. During the camp we were able to begin to develop relationships with many of the younger Christians in Yuli.
The second camp was located on the other side of the island so we packed up almost all the supplies we had and made a nine hour trip to a small but beautiful school in the middle of the island. This camp was junior high school student week long overnight music camp. Being an overnight camp is hard all in its self, but teaching music defiantly added a new dimension. We ended up doing a musical with all the students and videoing it so they could enjoy the work they did. At the beginning of the week things looked near impossible and on the second to last day things got even worse. On the last day it was impossible, but God in his mercy did the impossible and the DVD was created, watched by the students, and a copy created for each student before they stepped off the bus in Taipei that evening.
As we get back into teaching and life in Yuli, it is not without is difficulties. We are tired, sick, and our schools are giving us new schedules by which we need to teach. Some of us even had to change schools or teachers. On Saturday when I was out shopping I found out that the store where I get most of the western style foods is gone, it is just one more thing on the pile of pressures we face each day. As a team we need to allow these pressures to draw us to God and together.
Please pray for the following
Testing all the little darlings took ages, but I had about the easiest job since I was the test supervisor. So all I had to do was sit there, sort slips of paper into groups, and look official. Jocelyn, Jon-Eric, Jo and Christina did the actual testing, lucky them! Meanwhile, Ben and the TAs kept the kids (somewhat noisily) occupied in the large group room downstairs. We wondered what they were doing … and so, I’m sure, did our neighbors down the street. And our neighbors in the next county. It was, well, it was LOUD.
When we finally finished with testing, we hauled ourselves and our stacks of scoring papers downstairs where the kids were finishing up in large group. And we found out why they had been so noisy. In one-and-a-half hours, they had learned about eight (or was it eight dozen?) songs, including one of the most unique renditions of “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy” I have ever witnessed in my life. Wow. It wasn’t just a song, it was an experience. Picture seven excited teachers and seventy-one keyed-up kids belting out “I’ve got the joy JOY joy JOY joy JOY joy JOY down in my HEARRRRT…” with about enough electrical energy to keep the entire city of Yuli powered for a week. It was hysterical and the kids were loving it. I would have joined in too except that I was laughing so hard I was crying …
After that, we had about twenty minutes of get-to-know-you time in small groups before the kids were dismissed to go home. I’m teaching the highest level, and it’s so much fun to be able to talk to kids again in English. They’re so much more advanced than the students I teach every day at my small rural schools. They’re plenty rowdy though – I’m very thankful for my TAs, Amy and Alice. What would we ever do without teacher’s assistants?
Please keep us in your prayers … especially me. I hear that tomorrow I get to act in a skit which will involve Ben cracking an egg over my head. *shudder* God gives grace for these moments. There’s also something else called shampoo.
Blessings!
From Hualien, this has been Bethany Ingebretson reporting.