A type of goodbye...

Hi, friends,

Well, it has come - the time to say goodbye for a little while. But what a joy, that in Christ, really it is more accurate to call each goodbye a "see you later!"

I don't know how to start expressing how much my friends and "Taiwan family" have meant to me over the past five years. My heart is full as I sit here, with tears, and think about all the new experiences, challenges, fear, weakness, joys, laughter, but through all of it - God's faithfulness - that I have experienced during my time overseas. But I am very sorry to leave, even as I am very excited for new opportunities and to see old friends and family back in America.

Thank you for your support, love, patience, and encouragement over the years. I hope to continue to blog as the adventures don't stop. In fact, teaching preschool in America is sure to give me just as many if not more interesting things to share.

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks:

Something every teacher knows...

So every teacher knows that no two students are exactly alike. There will be a vast array of personalities, strengths, weaknesses, challenges, likes, interests, etc. in every class.

In one of our 5th grade lessons the other day, we were supposed to do a little bit of research on either bees or whales and then write a paragraph about how one of those creatures communicates. We ran out of time in class, but I asked the students to write a short paragraph as homework. I want to share an example of the range of student responses, exemplifying their varying levels of comprehension:

Student A:
Worker bees perform what is known as a "waggle dance" where foraging bees return to the hive and dance to indicate to others where the good spots are for collecting pollen and nectar. The dance is quite complicated and determines with relation to the solar angle which direction the other should be heading and approximately how far it is in that direction.

Student B:
The whale and bee talk about language. "How many languages can you speak?" Whale said. "I can speak Chinese, English, French, and Japanese!" Bee said. "Wow, that is so cool! You can teach me!" Whale said. "Wow that is cool, but my mom said not to teach anybody, sorry," Bee said. "That's ok. Good bye Bee!" Whale said. "Good bye, Whale," Bee said.

So Student A probably found those exact words online somewhere, but she understood the assignment. Student B, bless his heart, was creative, but missed the whole point.

So, as usual, I've got my work cut out for me on both ends...

Cheers to all the teachers out there! Keep on keeping on!

Putting on the costume!

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Colossians 3:12

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
Romans 13:14

This Halloween, I dressed up as Katara, the last water-bender of the Southern Water Tribe in Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender.

It was a dream come true. I've had a childish fetish for that cartoon ever since my brother introduced it to me a while back.

I'm thrilled for the movie version coming out this coming summer.

But anyway, that show definitely has nothing to do real life truth. So the point of this blog is not the show. However, after getting all set for our annual costume party, it struck me how much I was wanting to act like Katara after putting on her costume. I wanted to say her "lines." I wanted to learn tai-chi and fling around water, fighting the 'bad guys.' I wanted to try to make her facial expressions and mimic her behaviors. The same thing with the people I was walking with to the costume party - Aang the Avatar was trying to get the laugh down right, Wall-E was trying to say everyone's name with the perfect Wall-E accent, and our German Amish friend was practicing the German phrases he'd picked up for the roll. Putting on those costumes transformed all of us into those characters!

I thought, "Wait! Doesn't the Bible say something about this? We should clothe ourselves with Christ, right? And what does that mean? Wow, well, it means, we want to act like Him. We want to mimic Him. We want to be Him when we are clothed in Him!"

I thought that was pretty neat.

I also thought of that other verse from Colossians - clothing ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Wow. That means we want to act that way and be that!

Cool to think about. I pray that God can help us to everyday put on Christ and to be Christ to all those around us!

I Stand Corrected

In our E5 classroom this year, we have a mango plant growing, an avocado plant growing, and a couple of houseplants. I told the students that this is our classroom garden and that they are welcome to bring in other things to grow in our garden. One day, one of my students brought in a cup with a leaf covered over the middle with a little bit of loose dirt.

"Oh... what's this?" I asked.
"I got it at school."
"Okay....um, do you think it will grow?"
*shrug*
"Alright, well, we can try it. Thanks for bringing it in."
I'm sure my own skepticism was evident.

Later, I was talking with some of the other teachers about it. I said patronizingly, "Oh, this poor guy, he thinks this leaf is going to start to grow. Can you believe it? Hee hee... silly boy."

Well, a few days later, I looked into the cup, and much to my surprise, there were little root like things growing from all the points of the leaf. I was stunned. And I felt foolish for doubting the leaf. I stood corrected.

I was so excited to tell this student later that, much to my surprise, his leaf was indeed beginning to.... grow!

When I told him, his face looked surprised at first (perhaps my own skepticism had affected him?) and then very very... happy! He put his V-fingers into the air and celebrated with his classmates. "Yah!" they said.

Oh, me of little faith. How could I put the abilities of the leaf in a box? And how much more do I but the abilities of God in a box. The leaf surprised me... just as God surprises me again and again! :)

Just like Sarah laughing at God's promise of a child (Genesis 18:12). We say, "Impossible... hahaha..."

And God says, "You just wait and see!"

Earthquake Class

Today, during a lesson on realistic stories and fantasy stories, my E5 students and I experienced an earthquake.

The room and the floor started to shake. "Oh my! An earthquake!" I observed. And at that moment, we all kind of froze and looked at each other with wide eyes. I've experienced quite a few here, but none that I can remember ever feeling while teaching. My students seemed to want direction of some kind, but coming from Midwest America, I have yet to master the art of earthquake survival. Tornado? I know what to do. Fire? I got that down pat. Earthquake? Still haven't figured it out. So I simply said, "Ah... okay, it's okay. Just wait."

Then it dawned on me that they, being Taiwanese, may know what to do. Plus, this was a rather long earthquake and I figured we might want to do something.... run to a doorway? I asked, "Well, do you know? What should we do?" "Go under the tables!" was their unanimous answer. "Alright! Go! Go! Go!" I encouraged them. We all crawled under the tables.

The earthquake continued. It felt long. We watched as our overhead projector screen swung back and forth on the ceiling at the front of the classroom impressing the students.

It was exciting. And praise God we're all okay. The students kept telling me about "9-21" which was a horrible earthquake here in 1999. They were all babies then, but they talk about it with fear and wonder. I looked up the earthquake at this website: http://www.cwb.gov.tw/eng/index.htm and found out it was a 6.0. That website has Taiwan's earthquake reports as well as weather, typhoon news, and more if you ever want to check it out. It's pretty interesting.

God be with you and bless you this day!

Mark 5

As the 5th grade students come in to English class each day, I ask them to do a brief "daily journal" assignment. This is simply answering one question a day. It can be a one sentence answer, or they can write as much as they want or have time to write.

Yesterday's question was "What is one of your favorite stories from the Bible?"

Many students put down Jesus' birth, Jesus' death, "Jesus is alive again", or Noah. :)

But one student wrote, "I think the best is Mark 5."

I blinked at the simple sentence, amazed that a student had written a reference rather than a title, looked up Mark chapter five and responded in this student's journal, "Wow, good choice. I agree."

The fifth chapter in Mark's Gospel holds three amazing accounts, one of which, over the course of the past couple of years, has become one of my favorites in the Bible. In this chapter, Christ heals a man possessed by demons, raises and dead girl to life, and in the midst of it all, while walking, heals a woman who had been sick and suffering for a long time.

I admire this woman's faith. In verses 25-29, we read:

25And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." 29Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At this point, Jesus stops walking along, asks who touched him, his disciples think he's crazy because so many people are touching him. The woman comes forward, falls at Jesus's feet, shaking with fear and tells Him the whole truth. In verse 34, Jesus says:

34He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

Those words are amazing to me. Oh, to hear Jesus speak those words to me! And that's exactly what he does through His Word! The kindness, power, and mercy of Christ are something for us all to remember daily.

Now, I doubt that this was the specific part of Mark 5 that my student was referring to. My guess is that he thought the healing of the demon possessed man was the cool part. But I was glad that he mentioned that chapter today to help me remember all that Christ has done, is doing, and will do for me and for you.

Because Christ is here...

Every Friday during summer school (except for the Friday that they didn't have classes because of the typhoon), the students took a trip. One Friday, we went hiking at a place not far away. It was a beautiful kind of part with walking trails and a church. A pastor there came a few years back to work with the community and make it a place of retreat and renewal. It had been a community kind of shut off from the rest of the island. No young adults stuck around. It was only elderly people and young children. In a video we watched there, some of the people in the area shared that they had felt abandoned and hopeless. Then this pastor came with the good news about Jesus Christ. The pastor got the community members involved in making murals along the pathways. The pastor provided the church as a place to meet together. The pastor hopes that the land can be a kind of "promised land" for people who are looking for hope. And we know that only Jesus Christ can give true hope to a person.

One quote that really struck with me from our visit there, was one person who shared in the video, "Because Christ is here, everything has changed."

That is a great testimony to what Jesus Christ can do in a community and in a person.

I love that verse from 2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

May we look at our life and our heart and say the same,"Because Christ is here, everything has changed."

Typhoon!

Arriving back in Taiwan on the evening of Saturday, August 8th, I was a a little alarmed to learn that there was no way I was going to get "home" to Chia Yi that evening. A significant typhoon had hit Taiwan the day before I got back, and it was still causing big problems in transportation. From what I could tell, the storm really hadn't caused any problems for my flight coming in, however (except for a little turbulence) so I hadn't thought there would be any problems once we landed. I figured the worst of it was past. But it seemed like the whole population of Taiwan was at the airport trying to go south at the same time I was and that trains and buses were serverely limited in what they could do due to flooding. The the only answer I got at the bus counters at the airport, when inquiring about how to get to Chia Yi was "may-oh-ban-fa," which I understand to mean, "There is no solution."

The next morning, since I was jet lagged, I was wide awake before the sun was up and decided to try and catch the earliest high speed train I could. A brave taxi driver picked me up and took me to the train station where I learned that only two trains were going to be running that morning and there were only non-reserved tickets available for them. What this translates to is: standing room only. I was very thankful to squeeze on to the first of the two trains of the morning. As we zipped south on the island, flooded roads, flooded fields, and even some flooded buildings flew past the windows. But I ended up making it to Chia Yi just in time for the Sunday morning service at my church, which was pretty cool. What better way to enter back in your city than by having the taxi drop you off with all your luggage on the dripping wet doorstep of your church building? It was a funny and joyful reunion with many of my friends and family in Christ here in Taiwan. (Which was a joy magnified also by the straight-to-church return of a group of teachers who had been stranded south of Chia Yi in Kaohsiung the day before.)

So, now I'm back for year five and already have a day of summer school-camp/camp-school under my belt. My fingers and hands are already rebuilding my guitar and scooter-driving calluses and I'm already back to wondering simultaneously, paradoxically, why on earth I choose to work here and how in the world there will ever be a job I love more.

A Special Gift

This summer, I've been able to enjoy the special gift of family time as we have been all together for a couple weeks this summer. I'm glad God has shared these people with me, and I hope, even as changes come and our family grows, we will always cherish and praise God for the gifts of people and time He shares with us.

Here's my immediate family at the Fireside Theater. We saw High School Musical - On Stage! Very fun(ny).

Graduation

Life is full of various milestones both little and large. The first students I taught in Taiwan as 3rd graders graduated from CELA this year. I'm very proud of them. They've grown both in English, in height, and I pray that they've also grown in faith in their Savior.

Congratulations, CELA graduating class of 2009!




And here is a picture of the fourth grade class I taught this year. As it stands now, I'll be moving up to 5th grade with them... but since flexibility is key in working overseas (and probably working anywhere), I won't know that for sure until the school year begins. :)