"To a heart formed for friendship and affection...

the charms of solitude are very short-lived."

So says a quote in my "Cryptogram a Day" puzzle book by a woman named Fanny Burney, who according to Google was a servant to the royals of England in the late 1700's. Well, I don't know what inspired her to write that quote, but I can say when I read it this week I could relate to it. I do enjoy a good bit of solitude, but this week I've found myself in the throes of cultural dissonance. (I know this because I became intensely annoyed yesterday by the giggling of all the staff at the drink shop I stopped at when I couldn't communicate to the guy behind the counter that I wanted an iced coffee with milk. He told me there was no milk, which is ridiculous since most of the drinks they offer come with milk. But since neither of us could communicate our thoughts, I just said, "o.k., coffee." And then I watched them make a large iced coffee with whipped cream on top. No problem...in the end, but I have to tell you, inside I was thinking "you folks better stop laughing at me, 'cause I could bounce over this counter and crack your skinny behinds! I know you don't want to see that, so you better stop!" That's about the time I realized, the honeymoon is OVER!) So, Fanny had it right, the charms of being on one's own in a strange place where you neither "know" others nor are you "known by" others has worn thin and I long once again for my friends and community, the place of peace and familiarity I call "home"..."163" ...and all that comes with it.

I know this is a natural part of assimilating to a new place, but knowing and liking are very different things, and right now I'm not liking the adjusting. Mainly this feeling may be brought on by two things...I moved into my new place on Monday, and I love it. It's clean, it's modern and beautiful and my roommate is very kind. Buuuttt...I keep getting lost every time I try to venture out anywhere and it's getting old very fast. I eventually find "a way" to where I'm going, but not until I've gotten really frustrated and annoyed that I can't seem to get the feel of this neighborhood. (For those of you who have enjoyed my navigation help around the city of San Francisco, you can really understand how this feels for me.) This gives me a daily reminder that I am helpless here and this is not a good feeling.

The second thing that I believe may have caused my "turn toward the abyss" is that my manager (not my boss, but the gal that manages my branch of the school) came to me on Wednesday to tell me I'll probably have to take another beginning class in the next few weeks since there are so many inquiries about the school from new students. The reason I get this is because one of my classes only has 6 students in it, E2, and the school has an 8 student minimum for a class to continue. I love E2, and although one of my students in that class, Neco, annoys me a lot with his silly antics and insistent "Teacher, me no" shouts at me when he wants to say "Teacher, I don't...(whatever it is we're doing at the time)", I love him! And I really enjoy that class. (Show me a teacher that wouldn't enjoy teaching 6 children eager to learn, right? Of course I love it!) I'll try to post some pics of this class before they break it up into other existing classes to make room for the new one...ugh! You know how I blogged about A11? Well, I think this one will be called A13...and I ain't feelin' like 13's gonna be a very lucky number for Mama! Alas, if this is part of the job, then I must do it, but I don't like it, and I'm really hoping there's another solution. As always, I covet your prayers around this and for my continued adjustment to life and living here...not only because it's a different place, but also because it's away from the people I love.

So, all in all, this has been a good weekend. Yesterday, I set my room up (pictures to come in future blogs) and prepared dinner for my two Canadian colleagues and my roommate. We had fun just eating and chillin' together at the new place. My roommate had to teach during the day so I felt like treating her to dinner. (Shout out to Anneloe, pronounced Annalu, for letting me stay here rent free for the last week. God is good!) We did a reconnaissance mission where we all four went out to the corner traffic light to video tape the count down of the little "don't walk" graphic. Here are two very short clips of me interpreting the little walking dude.



Today, I led worship at church, went to lunch with some of the folks on the worship team, and then had rehearsal afterwards. It went pretty well, and I can sense the team beginning to gel and trust one another. I'm so thankful for a new couple in our church from Pennsylvania, Phillip and Jennifer. He's on the worship team and can really rock the guitar, plus he's got a real heart for worship and for youth, so he's an amazing addition to what God's putting together at Victory English Fellowship (VEF)! After rehearsal, I rode out about 20 miles or so on the scooter with Ryno (pronounced Rrraino), another guy who plays guitar on my worship team, and another South African...I'm surrounded! He lives out near Chutung where I used to live, and he was showing me his special way to get into Hsinchu. It was fun, but after we had a coffee and I scooted back to the apartment, I was so dirty from the dust that was blowing around, I had to have a shower. I've been relaxing in my room ever since and now it's almost time for bed.

So, not bad, and tomorrow begins a new week full of fun and adventure teaching English in Taiwan. I really can't complain. There is never a shortage of things to blog about and it seems like several of my friends enjoy reading it. Thanks.

This brings me to my two last things to share with you. I recently purchased my own helmet for my scooter ventures. I had seen these helmets that had the name SCOTLAND on the side and something as a subtitle, and they always made me smile, for obvious reasons. But, when I found them for sale at the store I like to go to, I couldn't resist. And the subtitle reads "Every day is so nice." No doubt!!! As this is the first September in the past three that I've not been in Scotland, I can concur, "Scotland, every day is so nice!"





Lastly, I was alone in my apartment this evening putzing around making some dinner when I noticed the sky outside of the living room window. The sun was setting and it was beautiful.

So, that's all from me for now. Sorry I've been slow to post this week. For a short work week, it really felt very long! Work, huh? That's why it's called work, cause it's work. No more profound thought.

Until next time,
LC from TW

Touring...Chinese Style!

Apparently the Chinese are notorious for a certain type of touring. They like to get up very early, go to the airport, fly to an island, get on a bus, go to at least 8 different historical sites, eat Chinese food twice in different but similar looking warehouse style restaurants, before going to the hotel to check in after about a 15 hour day! And that was just DAY 1! Well, that's what happened on Saturday. I had a hard time sleeping the night before and probably nodded off for about two hours when the alarm went off at 4:30. I had to get to the neighboring village of Chutung/Jhudung (I've seen it spelled at least four different ways on official signs) by 6:30 on the scooter. (The distance for readers familiar with the Bay area, would be similar to riding a scooter from Serramonte Mall to the Golden Gate Bridge. For readers in Oklahoma, it would be like riding a scooter from Del City to Moore, without the freeway.) So, I was a weary traveler from the beginning of the day, and with the heat and humidity, I was so TIRED by the time we got to dinner that night. However, my roommate was looking to me for some entertainment on Saturday night and I think she was surprised when I turned the other teachers down on their invitation to go sing Karaoke in the hotel. Instead, we called a couple of the Teacher's Assistants (T.A.'s), two young Chinese girls not long out of college, and they came over for "girl talk". It was fun and we all laughed a lot. It was a good end to a long day. Sunday was much the same as Saturday with the wonderful exception of a 45 minute stop at a huge and deserted beach. (Chinese people here are apparently afraid of the water.) I think the stop was supposed to be much shorter but all the Western teachers took off down the beach splashing in the waves and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. I took a video of Erin and Sam, the two Canadian teachers that arrived with me. I teach with Erin (the one in the yellow shirt) and Sam teaches at the other campus. I hadn't had much of an opportunity to speak with Sam until this weekend, so that was fun. In the video they're wearing a shirt that says Pandy Happy Day (it should say Panda), and it has at least four other English mistakes, including the word "stweet" instead of "sweet". Funny stuff for an English teacher.

As I was walking on that beach for even just a short time, I thought of how blessed I've been this year, to have walked on three beaches in three different countries over the last three months. (Actually it made me tired to think about it.) But what a blessing to be with friends and family in Hawaii in July, Nicaragua in August and now China/Taiwan in September. I loved 'em all, but have to give a shout out to my favorite...Kailua still takes first prize for me! :)

Just a quick thanks to all of you who prayed for me with my roommate situation for the weekend. I didn't have a hard time "living" with her and actually found some compassion for her as I listened to the things she talked about. Yesterday at work she said her father's in the hospital and I think she's really worried about him, so I believe I may have a chance to offer prayer for her. Her name is Sharon, and although she has lived in this area most of her life, her family are from Shanghai in mainland China. It would be great if you could pray for her and her family. Gotta run for now, but more later.
Until next time, LC from TW

Cute picture of my boss and her niece.
Me in the waves on Kinmen.

Erin, the Canadian, in the waves on Kinmen Island.

Mike, Karen & Claudia on Kailua Beach in July.

Joe and I on the beach in Nicaragua in August.

Kailua Beach at Sunrise! Wow!

No News is Good News...right?

It's not really that I have no news, it's just that I have no time to deliver the news. It's Wednesday morning here and I need to be getting on the bike heading toward school a little earlier than usual today. We've had a long weekend (more on that later) and I thoroughly unplugged, so I am now behind on prepping for the week. One of the joys of teaching is the stuff you have to do when you're not teaching...preparing, planning, grading, praying...it's an almost never-ending job. (So, all those mugs and t-shirts that say "My 3 favorite things about being a teacher? June, July and August!" are indicative of just how much teachers work and NEED the down time.) Well, one of the things that we have to do at Kang Ning is twice every 12 weeks we have to assign our students a reading passage for them to record on a cassette and turn into us to grade. Several of my classes hit that time in the semester together and I have a sea of cassettes on my desk at work waiting for me to wade through them. So, I'm off to work early today.

With that, I will bid you adieu and encourage you to "HUG A TEACHER TODAY" and "If you can read this, thank a teacher!" and "Just say no!" (I wanted to throw that one in there because I couldn't think of anything else.)

Thanks for the prayers.

Until next time,
LC from TW

Be careful what you ask for...

have you ever heard that before?

Well, I asked you all to pray today that I would be focused on my purpose for being here and that there would be some miracle with A11 while my boss came to observe me. Prayer is key, people! You've got to ask people to pray for you when you need it and even if they don't do it in the time frame you were hoping for, God somehow (sovereign that He is) knows that the one in need has asked for prayer from others and He honors our prayers even before we utter them.

So, off the sermon and on to the news from today...Serena (my boss) was a little late to the class, so I got to get the stuff that I know she wouldn't like out of the way. (Don't be alarmed, no children were hurt during these few minutes!) I know she wants us to be superhuman, and be entertaining to all 16 children at once (I had 19 until today when my colleague "promoted" three of them to other classes - shout out to Sharon, my roommate for this weekend, for helpin' a sistah out!) Well, when you're trying to check and record that they did their homework and you're trying to give them individual feedback, you just can't keep all of the others from speaking Chinese to one another. Suffice to say, I was happy she was late. I was able to check homework, give the spelling test, and record both of them before she came in.

The children were miraculously calmer than normal, and I was able to handle them. Today was their preparation for a test next week, and I feel that many of them have been well prepared, so I did my job. (Some of them need more prayer!) At the end of the grueling 90 minutes (well, maybe about 80 with the boss watching), she said as they were leaving, "Wow, they seem like a totally different class than what I saw four weeks ago. You're really getting through to them." Pick my jaw up off the floor, 'cause I know it wasn't me today...but I'll accept the encouragement. The only problem now is...I have to keep this class, 'cause the boss thinks I can handle it! Argh!!

Thanks again for praying and keep 'em coming! There's always tomorrow, and never a dull moment in TW! Come visit.

Until next time,
LC

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Yesterday was Thursday, and on Thursday I teach a full load of classes, some of which are enjoyable ;) Well, I was enjoying the freedom of the borrowed scooter, so I set out to pick up a few goodies on my way to work. (My Chinese colleague, Scarlet graciously loaned me her scooter that she's had for over 12 years but doesn't drive it anymore. She's had so many wrecks, and one of them caused the left hand break handle to curl inward, making a perfect handle!) It's an awesome feeling to know where to go to find things you like when you are new to a country. So, I picked up this yummy iced tea with milk and pearl gummy balls and strapped it to the scooter to ride out to work. (Shout out to all you lovers of the "Quickly" shops in the states. They have them here and many other varieties of drink shops.) I made it through the traffic and negotiated all the obstacles to arrive at work safely, park the scooter and promptly knock the back off of the bike. It only fell a few inches, but it cracked a hole in the bottom of the cup and my yummy tea (which I hadn't taken one sip of) was seeping out the hole and into the bag. There was nothing for a girl to do, but drink it out of the bag, which I did as you can see. I was laughing at myself so much, I had to take a photo and share it with all my peeps.

This is a picture of one of the classes I like on Tuesday and Thursday. It's B3 and this little guy is Gaga. Don't know how he got this name, but alas many things are a mystery. He is very bright and helps me manage the rest of the class, including his silly buddy Max behind him and the child I like to call Slow Stanley on the back left, since he is slower to move than any other child in the class. These guys make me smile, and I wanted to share them with you.

Today, I have a HUGE prayer request. It's Friday, I'm tired and looking at a four class teaching schedule, so that's a concern to start with. But I learned two days ago that my boss will be sitting in on my NIGHTMARE A11 class today. That happens at 4:25 p.m. so if any of you read this before then, please throw some good prayers my way. She will also sit in on the class that follows, A7, but those children are eating out of the palm of my hand since they had a party last class session and they are raring to go to learn some more English. They love "teachuh". ("R"s are hard for second language learners in TW.)

Tomorrow, I need more prayer, as I set off on a three day trip with the rest of the staff. We are flying to an island, Kinmen, very near to China but still in Taiwan's possession...don't understand but I'm going. It will be challenging to be around all these folks for the whole weekend and I heard yesterday I found out I will be rooming with a gal from my office. She speaks great English, but her attitude is sort of crappy. She's not slow to express disdain for others in the office that she doesn't really care for. So, pray that I will have some good opportunities to talk with her and for my energy to stay high enough that my attitude doesn't get crappy.

You guys are great to comment on my blog and to pray for me when you think of it. I can sure tell you're praying...so thanks!

Until next time,
LC from TW

Homeless in a Hurricane and Happy Birthdays

Today was a typhoon day in my county, which is akin to a snow day in the states...nobody goes to work and all the schools are closed. (Typhoon's are like Hurricane's, consult Wikipedia for more info.) Although I was thankful for that, I can't help but think that it's a bummer it didn't happen tomorrow, since I have A11 tomorrow. Alas, it was today. I had a good day and I really shouldn't complain. But...where shall I begin.

Not only are we having a killer typhoon/hurricane, but I'm homeless again! Yesterday when I got to work, there was a message for me to say I would not be able to move into the house I'd planned to move into. Apparently the landlord decided to sell the house and Julie and I are not going to move into it. So, I'm homeless...sort of. Thankfully, I have a place to stay until next Monday, and today, during the typhoon, I went to look at an apartment to share with a South African gal who's been teaching here for 2 and a half years. She goes to my church and works with the youth, and she's got a great personality. All this to say, I will be moving in with her at least in the short term, as little as one month, and as long as four months. I like the place but I'm reserving the right to move for several reasons: the rent is higher than I wanted to pay, Julie and I may be able to move into the house in the future, we may find somewhere else we like, and/or Annaloe (pronounced Annalu) has four months left on her lease and she may wish to move at that time. I'm thankful that I have a place to go to, and it's nice, modern apartment with cool yellow leather furniture. In the words of Jon Lovitz, "jealous?" (shout out to Lisa!)

This brings me to Happy Birthday's, which I owe to my friend Kim, overdue from last Saturday. Kim, just for you, I had my children from A8 sing you a little song and say a few words. (Please disregard the annoyed sound in my voice at the end of the video. Sometimes it's like herding cats.) Follow this link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L85INqVnvKI, to meet Lee-Sheen, the very loud and bright boy who's mother is a United flight attendant, Jessie and Juliana who are inseparable, Sunny - the future Miss Taiwan, Ava - otherwise known as sleepy girl or "why am I here?", Roger the fumbler, always messing with his books and/or pencil case, Claire - the raspy voice child who says "Teachuh, teachuh!" like a linebacker, Charles, who rarely understands anything I'm saying, but is very cute, and Leo - I don't think you get to see Leo because the girls all gather around behind me and start squeeling so I cut it off. Well, that's my Monday and Thursday 2:30 challenge. But I like this class. They crack me up. I hope they learn something. Truthfully, I think several of them will be good English speakers one day, so I have hope. Kim, hope your birthday was great. Many happy returns.

Well, that's all from me over here in TW.

Until next time,
Larissa

A11 is my nightmare class!

And here's why. Agassi, James, Nelson and Benson are little boys that are six or seven but look like four year olds. They love to jabber away in Chinese baby talk, and only pay attention when they hear their own names. Actually, that's the case for all my students, they only pay attention when you start the sentence or question with their name, which is impossible to do when you have 18 kids in the same classroom. This class, A11, is on Wednesday and Friday afternoons, and it's an absolute beginner class. I'm often at a loss for what to teach them. I have tried to play preschool games with them, but some of them are 10 and 11 year olds and they won't play the games. (Those are the girls, Jill, Jane, Betty, Cindy and Joyce.) So, if anyone out there in blogger-land has any bright ideas about how to teach English to A11, let me know what you think. Suffice to say that right now I dread Wednesday afternoons and by the time Friday afternoons roll around, I'm thrilled to see the little darlings behinds scooting out the door. I throw my fist in the air and declare it officially the weekend (although I still have two classes after this one, neither of those compare so I don't mind.)

Well, I wanted to get this post up since I told you guys I would show more pics of my students. Here's A11...more to follow.

Until next time,

Larissa




Agassi, Tony, Kevin, and Willy


James, Nelson, and Benson


Benson is very bright, and fun to teach


Jill, Cindy, Joyce,Betty, and Jane


Sarah, Viola, and Emily

"Counting the Cost" was

the title of our sermon this morning at Victory English Fellowship here in Hsinchu. It was taken from the passage in Luke 14 verses 25-33, one of the hard teachings of Christ, where He says, "Whoever comes to me cannot be my disciple unless he loves me more than he loves his father and his mother,...(lots of other people)...and himself as well." Our pastor wanted us to be reminded of what it means to be a believer in Jesus. It made me think of what it's "cost" me to come here, and why I did it. I have to admit that although my main motive for being here is to please God with my life, sometimes I know that I'm here because I love adventure (which is how God made me) and I want to make some money teaching ESL. But, whatever my motive, the cost is the same. On day's like today, it feels a little more costly, because today's my parents anniversary...Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! (pictured below in July at Dad's 50th ordination year celebration)...and on special days it just makes me realize the things I'm missing back in the States. (Don't let me give you the wrong impression. If I was in California, I would not have traveled to Oklahoma for their anniversary today, so that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that on special days, and always on Sundays, I think of being far from family and friends and I miss them.)

However, here I am, and here's where I'm supposed to be, and one of the reasons I know that is because of the way my parents raised me and taught me to live with my eyes open to ways I could be a witness. This week I had a significant and unexpected conversation with one of the people at my school, and it further solidified my reasons for being here. Thanks again for your prayers and your supportive comments. Keep 'em comin'!

Next weekend I will be on a staff trip for Saturday through Monday, so I appreciate your prayers for good conversations and team building.

And, one more time, Happy 56th Anniversary to Mom and Dad! Here's to one more...at least ;)

Until next time,

Larissa

I WAS living at Falls Creek, but now...

I'm living in Dallas. O.K., for all of you that are confused, I'm still living in Taiwan, but it just SEEMED like Falls Creek, and it just SEEMS like Dallas. Sort of. (There are a lot more Chinese people in Dallas than I had remembered.) You see, yesterday morning I moved from a small town, Chutung, where I frequently felt like I was at youth camp in Oklahoma, the camp I grew up going to (check out Falls Creek Baptist Assembly on the www if you want to learn more), to Hsinchu, which is a city, full of traffic and people, but where I'm housesitting in an apartment complex that's huge and new with a pool outside my front door. (Yes, I know that will impress some of you...Kim...more than it does me.) These standards are all very general and contextual, so let me explain a little further. Chutung is a big town really, about 80,000 people with all a westerner could want, according to the Chinese (because there's a Domino's, McDonalds, Pizza Hut and KFC.) But, it has a small town feel with narrow streets and neon lights only on the main street. At night when I would be walking around after work, I would often feel like I was going back to my cabin at Falls Creek after a long day of bible classes, worship, sports, icee's, hanging out with friends and looking for boys. (O.K., some things haven't changed.) Hsinchu, on the other hand, is a city of about half a million or so and it reminds me of Dallas, only because I once lived in Dallas for a summer with some friends. We shared an apartment that overlooked a pool, the weather was hot, and we had the windows open a lot so we could hear all the sounds of the city. That's where the comparison to Dallas stops. (So all you people that want to explain how Dallas cannot be compared to a much smaller city in Northern Taiwan, can just save your breath.)

So, I moved into the city, only about 15 minutes from my work, 10 minutes from my church, and in another 10 or 12 days, I'll be in my permanent housing, sharing a four story house (4 bedrooms, 3 baths) with a friend from church. The rent is half of what it would normally be, for two reasons...Jacqui's been praying (that's a friend from Temple in SF, thanks, Jacqui!) AND the family that have been living there for 10 years are paying the other half so they can use two rooms for storage. My roommate, Julie, and I don't mind this arrangement, since our rent will then be only about 1/3 of what I paid for my small room in San Francisco. (I'm making you work for those calculations, huh?) Suffice to say, it's a great deal and I'm thrilled.

This morning, I'm off to teach a seminar on worship at a retreat for youth from my church. Many of you remember how difficult it was for me to write the youth bible study curriculum earlier this year...well, it came in handy when I was preparing for this seminar. Matter of fact, my prep lasted about half an hour, since two of those lessons deal directly with the subject of worship. I'm glad I did that...now!

I will check back in later on. As always, thanks for your prayers and comments. Sorry, no pics. I'm using someone else's computer.

Until next time, Larissa

“Davy, (bum, bum) Davy Crockett….

…King of the wild frontier” (imagine the tinty sound of elevator music accompanying these lyrics). If you could complete that song in your mind before you read the words on the blog, you can imagine how obnoxious it is for me to have to hear this tune playing at my school everyday, intermittently with old Carpenters songs (every sha la la la, every whoa whoa still shines), and a bad rendition of Edelweiss, all played without lyrics on a xylophone!!! I’m stuck in “bad musack hell” here and I can’t get out! The next time you are in an elevator or a dentist chair and you hear the musack, think of me having to endure it everyday in TW, and pray I don’t pull the wires out of the wall. I think that might blow my witness.

Well, I had to share that with you, but really I just hope you have a good rest of your week and no matter where you are or what you’re doing today know that I’m praying for all of you to have significant conversations with people around the memories of September 11^th, 2001. I had a good one today but will be sharing that offline. God is still good!

Until next time.

"God is Good!"

This is Sophia 1 (there are 2 Sophia's in her class so she's Sophia 1). Her mother and sister are also my students (stop the insanity) and they all three took me out for the day two weeks ago after church on Sunday. I took this picture after much pleading with Sophia and as you can see she was not very happy about it. I like her a lot and I think she's warming up to me too. I have other pics of my students in class that I will post soon.

It's Sunday night and I've been planning lessons for the week but wanted to share this with you.

We had a great day at worship today. One of those days when you’re absolutely certain it’s not about you, and God shows up powerfully. I’m so thankful for this, since as I said last week, many on the team are from the youth group and they are young in their faith. (They like to play the songs that they can personally sound good on.) We are all still learning that worship isn’t about us and the younger we are the more shocking that discovery is it seems. This morning, we were late getting started, and yet it was still really early so everyone was tired and low-energy (we’re at rehearsal at 7:30 on Sunday mornings). We rehearsed and every song sounded flat and out of tune and frankly sort of embarrassing. I started to worry a little. God gave me the strength to power through the line up of five songs and when it was time to turn the stage over to the worship team from the Chinese church, we went to a back room to continue rehearsing “unplugged”. Today was the last day for two of the youth, one of whom has contributed a lot to the worship team in the last five years. (He’s a little genius child heading to Northwestern University this week to study some ridiculously complicated major). He plays about five instruments and does them all well. So, needless to say, he will be missed by all. But in God’s sovereignty, we have just added two very good musicians to the band, so we’re not going to be hurting too badly. Well, all this to say, we rehearsed as long as we could and none of us felt very certain about the songs when it was time to go out and start. However, we gathered together and prayed. We asked God to be honored in our worship and to not let us take lightly the privilege and responsibility to lead people into God’s presence in their time of corporate worship each week. Well, when worship began a miracle happened (at least one!) The opening song that had been giving me fits in rehearsal was “Trading My Sorrows” (shout out to my Nicaragua team “Si Senor, si si Senor…”) and right on the front row two guys stood up and were clapping right away. I know God sent them because the team got encouragement from that and the presence of God was among us throughout the rest of worship. It was great to be able to say to the team later, that although we knew we were not as prepared as we should have been this morning, God knew our hearts desire was to worship and lead others into worship and He made that possible. I’m thankful tonight for the mercy of God, for all of the team, especially for Kenneth who will be heading to school this week and for Mari, a teacher from South Africa that helps me a lot with the worship team. And I’m thankful for you, for your prayers, and your emails of encouragement.

More later. Love to all. Larissa

an inch is as good as a mile...

that old adage proves true many times a day for me as i walk along the narrow streets next to buses, trucks, cars, scooters, other pedestrians, bicyclists, and dogs, all sort of bobbing in and out of one another's way as if dancing to some tune only distinguishable by the finely tuned chinese ear. i was wondering how long it would take until i found myself in a stand off (or worse). it happened today when i was leaving church. i looked both ways, walked slowly out into the pedestrian crosswalk (these are invisible to the drivers of any motorized vehicle), and from my left and behind me, a little old man (with a wife beater on) driving an old motorcycle slowly drove right for me. we both stopped at the same time just a couple of inches apart, me with a look of exasperation on my face, i'm sure, and him with a big smile on his face, the look of recognition that he had not timed that very well. no one was hurt, i kept walking and had a smile on my face before i got to the other side of the street. just thinking about the old guy on that bike still makes me laugh a little.

so, pray for me. not just for my safety, but also because i began ministering in a new setting today. i led worship for the congregation where i've gone the last three sundays. i had a singing group of five plus me (only one guy), and a band of four (an electric, an acoustic, a bass and a drummer). i sensed the presence of God early on in worship, so God was, as always, faithful and i am thankful that His presence is not determined by my level of familiarity in any one situation. we rehearsed after lunch as we will be doing for the next few weeks to see how it goes with everyones schedules, and that went reasonably well. can't help but feel like the new kid on the block. they are mostly high school students who are bi-cultural. chinese in ethnicity, but american in speech and attitude. ("we were like, and they were like, and i was like..." if you know what i mean.) even though they are young, they want and need leadership, and they know it. however, many times today i heard, "that's not how we do that." so i will need patience and discernment to be effective here i think.

here are a couple of pics from my church. we meet in the basement of an eight floor church building. the picture is of last weeks service, the new pastor, rocky bronson (love that name) from michigan, is praying, and the worship team is on the platform. the other picture was taken today from the eighth floor after rehearsal, and yes, there are about 100 scooters parked on the street, only one section of about five that look exactly the same on this street.

see you next time.

"take your chances" drugstore

ok, seriously, tonight i saw a big store, with the name "take your chances" on it. as i looked at it closer, it said "drugstore" in small letters next to the sign. yet another reminder that i'm living in a country where english is most definitely not the first language. some things get lost in the translation.

i stopped by a cell phone store today to try to get a sim card so i can make calls here in taiwan. it was quite an ordeal, as most things are when you don't speak the language. first, i had to go back to my room and get my spare cell phone, since there is no sim for my blackberry apparently. so, i came back to the store 15 minutes later with my old nokia and the manager, who spoke pretty good english, thankfully, began to try to help me. i didn't have my charger and the phone was dead, so he sold me one for about 5 bucks. then, i had to have a battery, because my battery was no good, so that cost me about 10 bucks. then, he was about to sell me the sim card, but he remembered he needed two forms of i.d. i already knew this and was ready with my passport, which has my visa in it, thus making it two separate i.d.'s. well, this was of great concern for the other manager of the store, who thought i didn't have the right documents to purchase the sim card. (why you need i.d. for this, i don't know.) after about 20 minutes and a phone call to the authorities, they let me purchase the card. then, i had to fill out a form, and didn't have the phone number or address for the school where i'm living (which is a shame since i just received my business cards from my employer this week...but who carries those things?). when i told them i didn't have my info on me, they began to pace a little and speak in rapid fire chinese. then i said, "i am staying at kang ning english school" and they both said "ah, kang ning!" and that seemed to make them both happy. within a few minutes i was walking out of the store a satisfied customer. so glad to know that my school has name recognition in this part of the world. just another day in the life, here in taiwan!

here are a few pictures of the town where i live, standing on a walking overpass looking both ways up the streets, just to give you an idea of what it looks like. on one side of the street, i took this picture of a residence that has been added to the top of a building. it just struck me as interesting. hope you think so too.

see you next time.