(Display Name not set)February 2005 Archives

This is Christine Jefferies. I have just joined the Kinmen team for winter/spring semester. I was here for a month last year, and I am really glad to be back. My life was not the same after seeing the needs of Kinmen. It felt almost cruel to leave. The people here are beautiful, friendly, kind. It's painful to see them in darkness. As I walk down the narrow, winding streets, passing temples for their many gods, I am reminded what my purpose is in being here. Teaching Engish is just the open door that God has provided. The goal is to let God's light shine through me to the people of this land. It seems I need to be reminded of this (my true focus) far too many times.

The team here is wonderful. We all get along so incredibly well. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the people here are supposed to be here. God chose each one of us individually to be on this little island off the coast of China. My sister and I are sharing a room, and it is sooooo awesome! Being in our room gives me a little taste of home.

For these next few months God has personally given me some verses to meditate on: "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him" (James 1:2-5).

Those have been such encouraging words already. Another verse he has given me is "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." That comforts me to know that I don't have to trust in myself, that God wants to lead me in the way of holiness. I had the opportunity to witness to a TA at winter camp. We were going through a Chinese museum which had articles and artifacts of their religious beliefs. Penny (the TA) was explaining to me their meaning and purpose. As she spoke God told me to ask her a question. "Penny, what do you personally believe?" She looked at me a little suprised, and said, "My family believes in the gods, and worships them at the right times." I wasn't sure what to say to this and we moved on. Soon after God told me to ask the same question again "Penny, what do you personally believe?" this time she said "I believe in myself, whatever I want to do, all I have to do is believe that I can do it" We continued on, looking at the many rather beautiful carvings and work of her people. She then asked me "Well, what do you believe?" My heart gave a leap! (I have learned, that unless someone asks me directly what I believe I do not share unless God tells me otherwise) I had been waiting for her to ask me that exact question. Now I knew that God wanted me to share the gospel with her. For the rest of the museum tour I explained the way to salvation. She was very intrested, and listened with rapt attention. When I was finished, she had a questioning, thoughtful look, but she didn't say anything. I so wanted her to ask questions, to be hungry for the word of God. But then I heard God tell me that she was ready to hear but not ready to accept. I am beginning to realize that God using me to plant the seeds of faith in Christ is just as exciting as God using me to harvest them, and they are equally important jobs.


Thank you for your time and intrest in the ministry here in Taiwan, I pray that the Lord will bless you for the energy you all put forth.
Loving HIM- Christine

"Hey Shawn, by the way, you have an update due tomorrow," was one of the last things I heard from Ginger before I went to bed Wednesday night...

"An update?" I thought to myself, "I don't even remember reading the updates that others have put on the Light2Taiwan website!" I didn't have a clue as to what kind of content an 'update' included! "Besides, who reads them anyway?"

That disillusioned question quickly disappeared as I caught up on some of the recent updates from other Taiwan TESOL members and even some of my own team members here in Kinmen. I found out things that were going on with other teams that I had not known about, even people on my own team here on Kinmen who I see every day!!! For example... I had NO IDEA that my roomate was the "Coolest Guy in Taiwan!!!" I'm in shock! To think that I've roomed with him for over 3 weeks and didn't even know that he held that title, until I read his update! So all you people out there, keep reading these updates, it is a great source of information on us TESOL teachers (seriously).

Now I shall start the actual "update" part of this entry. Today I completed my first week of teaching!! YAHOO! It was a real blessing to be able to have Ginger introduce me to most of her schools, teachers, and students my first week, since I am going to be teaching at her schools for this semester. I wasn't sure how the whole process worked, me being an "assistant teacher" and everything. It was a new experience for me, because the only English teaching I had ever done was at English camps. However, now that the week is over, and I have experienced most of the classes, I feel more prepared for the role that I will be playing this semester.

One thing that I had been encouraged to do when I began teaching at the schools was: "maintain classroom order." That has never been easy for me! I sometimes can act worse than the class-clown! Needless to say, I prayed a lot! I really asked God to help me with being firm with the kids, yet likable too. God answered my prayers. I was pleasantly suprised at how little the classes got disorganized and rowdy! It probably was a combo of prayer, my good looks, and large muscular build.... oh and not to mention my very humble attitude(just joking). With all kidding aside... I know that God really helped me through this week, and I am greatly appreciative to Him and His grace. I'm also thankful for all my family and friends who have been (and hopefully will continue too) praying for me.

Well, I shall stop with my ramblings and go find my roomie and ask for his autograph... =D

Blessings,

Shawn Searle, from Kinmen

Things are good here. We had a nice break for Chinese New Year and spent some time with the Pastor's family. Pray for us as school starts up again, especially the three people who are going to start teaching Juinor High from next week! God bless

Kinmen Team

question of the day: Have you ever won a race... with a ceiling fan?

thought of the day: 'Those who trust in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint.'

Wow, time sure flies by! I think I'll cheat and just give y'all part of an email that I wrote to Samuel:

(Note of encouragement to the "antsy reader," (those, like me, who don't usually get all the way through people's updates): This starts out pretty boring, but gets more interesting later on. ;-P If you absolutely can't stand the first paragraph, then just skip to the second one. However, if you actually make it all the way through the first paragraph, then I give you a big, "Congratulations!" You must have found the right ADD medication.

We were really dreading the two camps this second week. The first week/camp was all of the kids whose families paid for them to come, and this second week is two camps of kids that are all being sponsored, (by whom I'm not sure...maybe the government). We figured the sponsored kids would be ones whose families didn't really care too much about the camp, but just saw it as free baby-sitting for one week, and that the "paid kids" would be the ones whose parents would want to make them learn and get their money's worth out of the camp. It turned out to be exactly the opposite, though! :-o Only a hand-ful of the 97 kids at the first camp were not students from Jing-Hu Elementary, (the second-largest elementary school on the island). Ginger teaches most of the classes at that school, (Rebekah teaches a few of them, too), and she has often noted that the kids at that school seem to be rather well-to-do *and* quite spoiled, both by their families and by the school. Oh my word, they were quite the handful! Thankfully, most of my kids were pretty decent, and a few were really great, because I had team G- the highest level.(Almost everyone seems hesitant to take the highest level team, but I love it! It's no coincident that the kids who have learned the most are also usually the best-behaved in class. But I'm not going to enlighten anyone else as long as they're willing to keep giving me the highest level everytime. ;-)) So, needless-to-say, since we were expecting the second week's kids to be *even more* ill-behaved than the Jing-Hu kids, we were all pretty apprehensive. Were we ever surprised! It seems that they picked the higher-level and best-behaved kids from all of the poorer schools, and they're all really grateful for the chance to come to camp. More than half of the kids at my location are from the Jin-Sha area (where I taught last semester and Lucas teaches now), and it seems that the rest are from Rebekah's small schools. I believe most of the kids at the other location are from Andrew's schools, (all pretty small), plus a few from a *tiny* school that I taught at this semester and a few of the good kids from my "Wednesday school." (Interpretation: When a Kinmen team-member (except for Megan or Andrew, :-P) says "Wednesday school," you should think "BAD school.") Anyway, we're all so glad that we're getting the nicer kids when we're more tired, and that we're going to get to end on such a nice note. All of us -- TA's and American teachers -- just keep marveling to each other every day about how wonderful our students are this week. :-)

Oh, and another thing about Jin-Sha kids versus Jing-Hu and Jing-Cheng kids. Last year, when I taught in Jin-Sha, I had kids "in my hair" all the time, but they generally never pulled my hair out. This past semester, though!! I was teaching in and around Jin-Cheng. Oh, my. I really had to wonder why an alarming number of my students enjoyed pulling my hair out. Was it....Because I changed conditioners this semester?? Because I got a slightly "Chinese" haircut when I arrived back in Kinmen??? Due to a change in the atmospheric ionic stratusplane???? I just couldn't seem to come up with a satisfactory answer, but I began to suspect that it was simply some sort of mental issue affecting the kids here in Jing-Cheng. Alas! That theory was blown out of the water last week when the Jing-Hoo kids at camp also enjoyed pulling my hair out. I got a little bit of comfort on the last day of camp, however, when about half of the kids on my team decided that they each wanted a collection of the American teachers' hair. Finally, somebody else was loosing their hair, too!! :-) The kids managed to get one hair each from Tony, Megan, and I, and then they carefully put the hairs in their name tags. So, then I knew that I'd been right about the mental issue part, but I could no longer confine it to Jin-Cheng. :-\ Since being re-exposed to some Jin-Sha kids this week, though, I've come up with a different theory: Jin-Sha kids are just generally sweeter than Jin-Cheng or Jing-Hu kids.

Disclaimer: This is a brand-new theory and, therefore, subject to change without notice. BJ, inc., The Kinmen Team, or any of their subsidiaries, are not responsible for any damages, losses, deaths, insanities, embarrasments, explosions, or purple freckles resulting from reliance on this theory.

That's all folks!

May God bless each one of you, and may He bring in a harvest, on Kinmen and in Taiwan, from these past two weeks of camps!

~BJ, for the Kinmen team