Ridiculously So

Two things quickly. As I should SO be packing and not on this computer....

Thing 1. You may be pleased to know that I passed the eye exam, the written test, AND the scooter driving test yesterday so that I now am now a license holder and legal scooter driver. YAY! Praise the Lord! More details I may give at a different time. The whole process was rather hilarious. But no time for that now. Someone had described the driving portion as a circus before I went, and I'll leave it at that! :)

Thing 2. I leave for my Indonesia trip in a matter or hours. (Though we don't fly out of Taipei until tomororw morning.) I found out I'll be teaching 90-minute English periods to classes of 30-40 junior high students... and all the foreigners will be at different schools as each school in Aceh would like an opportunity to work with one of us while we are there. This is ridiculously.... ridiculously out of my comfort zone. So much so in fact, that I kind of have no choice but to let out a laugh and be like, "Okay. Lord, You say when we are weak, You are strong... so You're going to have to be strong cause me alone with that many junior high students for that long is, well, makes me feel ridiculously weak."

But the hope is that the English program there can really get a boost of encouragement as we work with the teachers and students at these schools. Oh. And they just plain really could use English teachers. If you know anyone that would like to teach English there for a few months or a year, I could tell you who to talk to, and they would be so happy to have you!

Okay. I've got to pack.

Blessings to you all in Christ.

Some December/January Picutres

These are pictures from a variety of events during Decmeber and January here in ChiaYi/MinShiung. :) These events may include but may not be limited to the CMS tree decorating contest on campus, Christmas Eve Extravaganza at Salvation Church, Christmas Day at Salvation Church, the CELA Christmas program, and my parents' visit. They may or may not be in any particular order. :) Enjoy!

耶穌說:我愛你

Translation:

耶穌 - Jesus
說 - said
我 - I
愛 - love
你 - you

耶穌說:我愛你
Jesus said, "I love you."

Tonight at Bible study, I wrote my first sentence in Mandarin Chinese, and there you have it! I pieced it together from the bits of Chinese we had on our Bible study sheet tonight. Granted, I couldn't remember how to say the third character (interestingly enough, the verb, "said") nor could I find the character for "love" anywhere to write it, so my friend Mikey helped me with that one (it's pretty complicated, so I didn't feel too bad). But the rest I wrote out with my own hand. This is HUGE, folks. So yeah, I was really excited to actually have put together my first sentence and wanted to share this little celebration with you!

School is officially dismissed for the semester. Grades have been sent home. This, this is also huge. And I only had one mother come in concered about one test score. That's a great record. Now two full days of school cleaning await and then I will Lord willingly be safely off to Indonesia via Taipei. Prayers about this trip and its impact on both those going and those already there would be greatly appreciated. I really don't know what to expect. I hope I can share about it though and perhaps open up your eyes and hearts to another corner of the world upon my return after a 10 day stay.

Thank you for the encouragement, and the prayers. I'm ever amazed at the... effectiveness(?) as the Body of Christ. Did that makes sense? We have each other to encourage each other, support each other, be watchmen for each other (in the good sense... not speck/plank in eye sense), PRAY for each other, witness to each other, and offer that shoulder literally or across the miles.

Oh, and I've discovered there are many songs out and about that relate to some of the struggles I've been attacked by lately. But get a load of this Steven Curtis Chapman song, "This Day."

Yesterday the sky was bright and clear
I could see the sun and I could hear the song
Faith flowed like a river free and deep
And grace was not so hard to be believed
But that was yesterday
And what was close enough to touch
Now seems a world away
So what about this day

This day all His mercies are new
This day every promise is true
Father, help me to believe
Give me faith I need to know You
And trust You this day
This day

And that's great and a very helpful reminder.

To give more insight into what's been going on in my head, here it is. As much as my mind knows that God is good and God has given us salvation through Jesus Christ, and as much as I want to believe it and find peace and solace in that, sometimes the thoughts that plague me are, "You're already condemed. You're going to go to hell anyway, so why fight it? As much faith as you have now or as many lives as you may touch, you're evil and will fall away, so you might as well give up and give in."

Hmm. Let's see. Are those thoughts of God? Nope. Are they probably from sin and/or satan? Yes. Identification is the first step, right. Thankfully, as I write this, the Lord has calmed my heart and has encouraged me, reminded me of His promises, of His call to me and claim of me through baptism, of His grace, and of the truth and goodness of Him and His word. Um, but when those thoughts are in my mind, that is scary. And fear is probably one of the worst things in the world to feel.

I don't know if you've read the comments, but one verse that my uncle shared was really encouraging. Check this out from 2 Corinthians 1:9ff, "Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many."

Two things jumped out at me right away about that. First, feeling the sentence of death and being delivered from that by God! And then second, the encouragement to pray. When I'm afraid, ironically, I find it very very hard to pray. But gosh, what better help than to be in continual conversation with our loving Lord concerning our own sitauation perhaps, but also the others God has put in our life to support and care for in that way.

Other helpful things for me have been the idea of the Armor of God (Ephesians 6: 10-20) and the encouragement to think on those things that are true, right, lovely, and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8). I encourage you to check out both those passages and the surrounding verses as well (esp. in Philippians there!) if you have the opportunity.

So I think I opened up quite a bit here, and I hope that was okay. In the midst of fear and anxiety attacks and what not, I know God is still good. This isn't the first time in life that something like this has struck, though perhaps its always manifested in slightly different ways, and God has been faithful thus far. Here I raise my Ebenezer and say, "Thus far has the Lord helped me." And I have to trust that He will continue to see me through, and to deliver me. As He will continue to see you through and deliver you.

I really intended to just keep this a one or two liner about that Chinese sentence. ha! But since I expanded a bit more than initially intended, maybe I can bring it round full circle and end it with this truth to you and to me both: 耶穌說:我愛你.

the encouragement pic :)

A picture to go with the latest blog entry. :)

Encouragement...

It's been a tough past couple weeks for me. I could go into a lot of theories on why, but I really don't know. Oh, and my parents' visit was wonderful... so don't try to start making correlations! :) That was a blessing. Unfortunately, I had been feeling down and anxious before they came and it got worse then in the past few days. However, tonight was encouraging and I just wanted to share a little bit about that. :)

Hmm. I'm considering how to go into this, because I could start going into all sorts of things that have been going on in my mind, but I really don't have time. Grades are due tomorrow, and guess who still has to calculate them all...

I think I'll just try to share this as simply as possible. I was invited to have dinner at a nearby Christian church tonight. One of the CELA teachers goes there and said some Korean people would be there, would cook some food and do some dances. I wasn't going to go, but surprise, surprise, I changed my mind. I think it was the promise of food.

It was really great. A lady dressed in traditional Korean attire showed us how to make this beef dish that was really really good. There was a little gas stove and skillet on each table and we got to cook it up ourselves after she showed us (very much like a cooking show) and as it was all being translated form Korean into Mandarin. :)

After eating, all the food items were cleared away and the dancing began! Five Korean people came out and did a hip hop dance to a Korean song that was the tune of "Every Move I Make" (or the "Na Na Song" as it's called at camp and in the Ellisville preschool :D).. it was really cool.... hip hop remixed. I just thought to myself now that I should have asked where I could have gotten a copy of it. Man. It was great. I couldn't help but sing and move along!

Oh, and let me rewind. Just initially walking into this little tiny place tonight gave my heart joy. Sometimes, I think we just really need to be in fellowship with others whose joy and strength is in the Lord... and they can't help but have that shine through their words, faces, and actions. Hmm. And I don't know how many people there knew Jesus before or who were hearing the message for the first time... I didn't know to whom this event had been publicized. But there were probably nearly 30 Korean mission people there and then at least that many Taiwanese, which was really cool. And it was just great. I loved hearing the Gospel, even though I couldn't understand the words, in Korean, or Mandarin, I could hear the words "Jesus" and "love" being sung. (It was also interesting though that a few times the Korean and Taiwanese would speak English to each other since they didn't know each other's languages.)

After the hip hop, there was a kind of liturgical dance/ballet-ish dance that was very beautiful. Then five more people came out and did a mime to music performance of Creation, the Fall, Sin's destruction, Christ's crucifixion, and the Resurrection, the defeat of sin, and the redemption of the sinner.

After that, there was talking, and after guessing it was the Gospel message being shared, someone who could understand all of the Mandarin translation confirmed to me that yes, they were sharing verses like John 3:16, some from Romans, and other Bible verses.

Then all of them got up at the front and sang a song and just looking at their faces made me ask, "God, please give me that joyful confidence in You... please give me that faith..." I realized that yeah, as Christians, we aren't promised a rose garden. In fact, we're promised that there WILL be trouble in this world. However, walking around, caught up in myself, in my fear, in my doubt, in my worry and joyLESSness... how does that convey any message of hope. Now, I'm not saying it's a sin to not be smiling. That's ridiculous. And maybe our hearts are heavey and burdened and as much as we call out to God, He doesn't lift it for some time... BUT... BUT.... I love how our God is all about the BUT... let us not forget that there is a hope. Let us not forget that we are a part of a Body, Christ's Body. We are not alone. There are people out there, from all corners of this crazy world, who are going against the despair, fighting against the discouragement, standing on the firm foundation that is Jesus Christ... and it has nothing to do with the English language. I love that the message wasn't in English at all tonight. I'm sure glad it is in English often and that language has provided such opportunity to share the Gospel, but it was just refreshing to have God apart from English for once. Do you get what I'm saying?

And the way those people sang at the end, I wanted to go up and ask them to give a reason for the hope they had... but then I realized, I do know and I too have that hope... I just am finding it really hard to remember it... or believe it for some reason.

Why does my heart so often doubt and fear? I don't know. But God tells us perfect love drives out fear and perfect love can only come from the One True God, reveled to us in Christ Jesus. So, I stand on that in faith... not feeling it necessarily all the time, but knowing I've been called in Baptism, knowing the promises of God's word that have never failed and will never fail, and I pray that as God continues to teach and grant me growth and grace... that He would continue to drive out the fears that plagues, drive out the doubt that plagues and drive out the dispair that plagues with the power of His Love. I think those plagues are deliberate attacks by the enemy to throw us into states of joylessness and fear... the opposite of how God would have us live. Golly, praise be to God who rescues us time and time again and patiently rebukes, forgives, guides, teaches, and loves us so so much.

I really hope this made sense. I haven't posted musings like this for a while and I feel that I'm not expressing myself well, but I hope that it shares a bit of something I learned tonight.

God's blessings to you all. I think I'm just plain missing people right now too.

Yeah.

With love, in Christ,
Anna

Across the Pond

My parents made a brave trip across the Pacific Ocean to visit me. It was amazing to have them here for a few days! Such a blessing and such a treasure of time! There were many highlights and I was thrilled to share with them the people and places that I am learning to love here! There are quite a few pictures from the past few days, but here are just a few funny ones.

I'll hope to post some more at some point... along with some long promised Christmas pictures. We'll have to see. It's the last week of school before break, and things are busy. Also, I'm getting ready to spend 10 days in Indonesia helping at a school in Aceh. I'm nervous, to be honest. If you could pray and ask God to ease anxiety, grant renewed peace, joy, and strength, and to protect and strengthen health too, that would be great!

And I hope to write a more formal thank you soon, but a huge THANK YOU to the ladies of the St. John Ruth Guild. Not only was the package of Christmas music hugely appreciated and used, but the provisions and gifts you sent along with my parents were amazing surprises and treats! Thank you for the encouragement and support!

Alright.... a few photos...

Getting ready to brave the streets (well, we really only went on one street) of ChiaYi on a bicycle!


Dad and Mom helping with my students... the students LOVED having these special guests!


My father and I on the scooter. I took my parents one at a time to a relatively nearby fruit market. My mom loved scootering, but I'm not sure my dad shared that enthusiasm. :) (Perhaps as shown by his expression here!)


Here we are with a bamboo-selling man we met on a morning hike with Yule.


After Saturday School, my dad and Frank played some pretty fierce badmitton. When the Sat. School kids saw there was a picture being taken, they couldn't resist the opportunity to join in.

Fiddler on Taiwan

I found out that one of my fellow teacher's mother is a professional matchmaker.

Amazing. (When I heard this, I was rather speechless and in my lack of words, began humming the only song that could pop into a person's head at such a moment. Cue music... and thus the title of this entry.)

I was informed that hiring matchmakers, though an old tradition, is riding a new wave of popularity as people become "too busy to date." Businesses will even go and hire a professional matchmaker to find suitable spouses for their hard working emplyees who do not have time to date.

Again. I'm speechless.

Apparently, though, matchmakers only get paid for their work if the relationship works (i.e. leads to marriage).

Talking with a national about it, I realized that people all over do this really... except it's called eHarmony or something like that.

Fascinating.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Jesus be with you this day. :)

New Year Hopes

These "New Year Hopes" are brought to you by E3-A. This was a writing assignment. I thought some of these were worth sharing... both to make you smile... and to allow you to glimpse the inner workings of these young minds.

I just took a few parts of their writing to share, but these will be direct quotes.

"I hope my chin new year my grandpa grandma can gife me many redmflo." (Sound that last word out loud and keep in mind that the common tradition over the Chinese New Year is to give gifts of red envelopes with money inside.)

"I hope my mother can give me some mony. I hope my mother and my father have many momy. I hope I have many mony. I hope I can fly. I hope I can be a happy doy."

"I hope that dog year my birthday gift is dog." (Note: The new year of the Chinese calendar is going to be a dog year. The Chinese New Year will begin Jan. 29 I believe.)

"I hope that is my teacher Anna is so good."

"I hope in new year can go to uncle house ot live. I hope in new year can eat a birthday cake."

"I hope that mother can give me same money. I hope that mother can give me toy. I have that mother and father can give me some book. I hope that mother can me give CD. I hope that mother can with me to play."

"I hope that I can be tall like friend. I hope I can go to play. I hope my mother and me can make a pie. I hope I can has a baby brother. I hope I can feed some fishes."

"I hope that I can meet Anna in the vacation. I hope I I can be a English teacher like Anna. I hope I can learn some English teacher. I hope My Mom and my dad can learn English. I hope I can speake English to other people, not just Anna."

"I hope I can fly. I hope my mother can give me some money. I hope I can be a teacher, wan I graw up. I hope I will play all day. I hope every one are very good."

"I hope I can go with my father in the car to a place. I hope I have a good friend."

Before my student wrote this next one, he kept repeating outloud, "I hope I can seeeeeee God." As he would say this, he would hold up his hands to his eyes like binoculars. I just smiled at him and after a brief attempt to explain that people DID see God as Jesus Christ on earth... I just smiled and thought, "I hope so too..." What a great hope to have... that we all, in one way, may SEE God this year... His work and love in our lives.
"I hope I can fly in the sky. I hope I can see a God. I hope one year have many day was Thanksgiving. I hope I can be a doctor. I hope I can now everyone name."

And then there was the hope I personally deemed most interesting...
"I hope that can see Anna mary and see her Baby very cool."

ha ha...

What are your hopes for this new year?

You know, I meant to do a mini lesson comparing/contrasting the words "wish" and "hope." I think the way I presented this, these are really more wishes, hey? Hope is something that we KNOW is coming... if it's not really true, not really going to be fulfilled, then it's a false hope. I remember someone telling me that once. Praise God that we have sure hope in His promises, love, and salvation because of Christ Jesus.

God be wtih you and bless you this (and each) day. :)


P.S. I am excitedly awaiting the arrival of my parents for a visit this week! I'm just beside myself with looking forward to showing them my favorite little spots around town and introducing them to the people here... including my students!!! Ha... I can't wait for them to meet my students. Anyone who would like to meet my students, please contact your nearest travel agent because I would love to introduce you! In the meantime, if you could keep my parents in your prayers as they travel, that would be amazing. And may all people involved be encouraged by this special visit! :)

Pomp and Circumstance

This past week, I think I maybe graduated into a new level of being Taiwanese. There were two tests passed.

Test one: Can I drive a passenger on the back of my scooter? YUP! Mark was the first brave soul to trust me to give him transportation back home after Friday Night Bible Study. *applause*

Test Two: Do I have a cell phone, and not just a cell phone, but a cell phone with a "Hello Kitty" cell phone charm hanging off it? YUP! Saturday, one of my friends and fellow teachers in the CELA office took me to a cell phone store and helped me find one. It's a pretty remarkable deal I think. The phone itself, since it's terribly "out of date" in that it doesn't download music and doesn't take pictures, was only 1 NT. This is the equivalent of 3 cents in US currency. My plan is 188 NT a month. This is somewhere between $5-$6. Amazing! Granted, I only get 20 minutes a month, but that will be sufficient for my needs. I was thrilled to now have a cell phone for the first time in my life. And this will allow me to make plans with people more easily and probably most importantly, have a means to call in case of emergencies out on the road. Though I hope that I will never actually have to use it in that way. Oh. And yes. A "Hello Kitty" charm. This was one of my gifts from my "secret angel" in our CELA office gift exchange from this last month. It's very common to have a number of such charms hanging off your cell phone. And now I do. It even matches the blue color of my phone.

In writing this, I think I just passed a third test. Test Three (in becoming more Taiwanese): Do I share openly about how much things cost? Yup. I just did. That's very normal here and usually the first question people ask after you get anything new from a scarf to a car.

Maybe I'm way too excited about this. But I think that's okay. Praise the Lord for these opportunities to feel more and more like a person who really calls this place "home."