Typhoon'd, but not marooned!

Just a quick entry to say thanks for everyone who's been praying for me. You know I've been disconnecting from Taiwan for several months and will spend the next three weeks getting more and more excited about that. This process always creates dissonance between the present and the future, and my experience here is no different. So, I've been unhappy about much of what's happening in my work situation, and as a blog is a place for rants and personal thoughts, I've shared my unhappiness with my readers. Well, this weekend, we are having (although it's died down a lot now as I write on Sunday afternoon) a typhoon, and I've been chillin' at the casa letting it roar outside. (This doesn't look much different than my usual weekend, just perhaps the howling wind makes it more distracting for naps.) Yesterday, Saturday, I woke up and made my roomies a light breakfast of muffins and fruit in honor of Anneloe's birthday. Then the day was spent getting some chocolate chip cookie dough prepared for last minute baking, and cooking Mexican food for her party last night (which had a guest list of 26 people). It was not too stressful and actually a lot of fun...the climax of which was being in the apartment with 21 (typhoon deterred some attendees) South Africans boisterously speaking their native tongue, Afrikaans, and laughing as they enjoyed the Mexican food, bought in an international store and prepared by an American in Taiwan. It was a very relaxing atmosphere, full of love and laughs. South Africans are raised to be polite and genuinely gracious people. I believe every person told me at least once how much they enjoyed the food (burritos, nachos and salad) and they did it with varying expressions of praise and gratitude. It was heart-warming and precious to me, a memory I will cherish as I look at three weeks until leaving.

This morning, we had a smaller crowd and they trickled in even slower than usual as I'm sure everyone waited til they got up to decide if they would brave the storm for church. My pastors sermon was on the first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" and two other gals and I sang a follow up prayer to the sermon with "Captivate Us" by Watermark. I've been wanting to do that for some time, and had to make today the day since my genious guitarist is heading back to the states for university again at the end of this week. I was really blessed by worship this morning (we also managed Indescribable and I Am a Friend of God) and was so happy to have such a Spirit-led experience here in Taiwan, where I've found such times infrequent and challenging to create.

Icing on the cake: my pastor bought my scooter after worship for the amount I was asking. I'm excited to get that done, and now just ask for prayer as I need to drive it for the next three weeks and don't want to have any problems, mechanically or accident induced.

Thanks for caring about me...and praying. I'm typhoon'd but not marooned! (Oh, teachuh, so funny!!)

Until next time,
LC from the TW