Fair Warning

So here's what I found on my bathroom door when I returned from work. :)



Pretty clever, really! I had run into the guys working on the bathroom a couple times, and they must have known without a doubt that there was no use even trying to write Chinese words for this one. I was in need of pictures.

I learned something about people who come into your home to work. They are free to take naps there. In Taiwan, everyone has a nap time after lunch. Not everyone takes it, but most people do. I had walked into the P.H. on Tuesday after lunch and was shocked to see the worker men sleeping on the furniture cushions on the floor. After school, the same time I found this sign on my bathroom door, I saw someone had set up a fan in my room pointing toward the couch and had moved a pillow, probably to support a napping head.... this weirded me out. I felt a little bit like Baby Bear must have felt about Goldilocks. Asking a Taiwanese teacher friend about it later, however, she explained that was normal. So there you go!

Also, as I was posting this picture, I suddenly thought.... "Hey... they used pencil... and marker... and paper... nice... but...where did...." Ah ha! As my eyes scan my desk, all questions are answered. I'm quite glad they made themselves at home. They were working hard to help me out, so I'm glad my room could be of service to them! I mean, I can hardly call this my room anyway, right? It's the school's that they are graciously letting me use while I work here. And except for some dust and dirt and the stray fan, everything was back as I left it. Cool. :)

Well, praise God for helping hands, working bathrooms, and a roof over my head. Can I get an amen? Amen!

Of Pencils and Bathtubs

I always thought the beginning of the school year was exciting. I loved getting all the new supplies. And pretty much nothing's changed as I've grown up. The only differences are now I get excited about supplies like posters and planning books rather than a backpack, crayons, and saddle shoes. But I got a few new pencils last night (mechanical! :)) and discovered that new pencils are a treat at any age.

That really is neither here nor there, however. I just wanted to post and say that I've met about half of my students so far, and they're adorable. I'm going to have right around 110 kindergarteners this school year in four different classes twice a week and then 18 fourth graders every day. I'm pumped. I have one kindergartner named Hermes. He's pretty much the cutest thing ever, probably because he's one of the teeny-tiny ones and it's impossible to say his name without your mouth going into a silly grin. I pray that God fills my heart with love for these students and that they can grow and learn so much this year. May Jesus touch their lives and fill them with hope and assurance in Him!

Alright. I'm in the office, so back to work, but I wanted to share. :)

P.S. I almost forgot. There's been a big crack in the bathtub in my bathroom since at least 2 years before I ever saw it. That's as far back as we can testify with the remaining teachers here. No one could ever get the right wheels rolling to get it fixed... until now. Actually, the Practice Hotel is undergoing a serious, all-around correction phase to the tune of new flooring, working light bulbs, and new paint. YES! But here's a picture of the tub that used to be in my room... so, rub-a-dub-dub.

Batten down the hatches!

The anticipation of typhoons is much more exciting than the typhoons themselves. Especially when they piddle out - well, maybe only when they piddle out. Like this one appears to be doing. But ah well. It was fun collecting supplies and making NO PLANS for the day. :)

The title of this entry links to a typhoon/hurricane tracking sight. Please keep those being seriously affected by these storms in your prayers as the storms can quickly turn from exciting/school canceling to horrifying.

But so you know, as of this morning, we in Chia Yi are doing well with only sprinkles.

God's blessings and peace to you today!

A Single Sensation

This is kind of a strange entry. It's rather personal. I felt a little strange writing it, but I think it's a good thing to address? Feel free to disagree. :)

When I'm in the States, I realize, though it is well intentioned I know, that people really push relationships. Yikes. I guess it's our culture, or at least my own experience with the American culture, that some people get married out of school and that some others seem driven by the idea that life isn't fulfilled until you tie the knot. And my coming to work in Taiwan, for some, has seemed to really make them worry if I'll ever find a guy. This is RIDICULOUS. Seriously. What kind of God is God? I'm not going to hang out in the States, waiting for Mr. Right to show up even though I feel called to serve overseas. Heck no! When the time is right, regardless of where I am, I trust that God will bring him into my life. And though I've had that conviction challenged this summer and though I've been brought to the point where I reevaluated it, I'm convinced even more that that's the case. God provides in His time. He's won me salvation. That's really all I need. He's got the bases covered.

I'm definitely open to Mr. Right if/when God reveals him. In the meantime, however, there's a harvest waiting. There are mouths to be fed. There are children to be taught. There is love to be shown. There are shoulders, helping hands, and listening ears to offer. There are hearts to be touched. And that's awesome. If my life on earth ends today, I don't have to count it any less of a life because I wasn't a wife or a mother. Though I hope to be a wife and mother someday, there's no rush. I know that each day, God is teaching me lessons of selflessness, of love, of wisdom, of being more like Christ. And if He's not going to make me a wife and mother today, that just means if/when the time comes later, hopefully I'll be an even better one. Looking at our Savior, Jesus Christ, we find Him to be our all in all. He is enough. And he also really does beautifully care about the "details" of life. He knows the number of our hairs. He knows the desires of our hearts.

And I can't lie. I'm downright PUMPED about being a wife and mom. But I know that I'm not missing anything in the meantime... or in other words, I'm not worried, and I don't think anyone else should be either. Jesus himself says, "Seek first God's kingdom and righteousness and all else will be added." The Psalms call us to delight in the Lord and He will fulfill the desires of our hearts. God will provide. He has ever proven Himself faithful and will be again, with a husband in my life or without.

PLUS, someone said something very wise to me once. If we worry about "finding our someone" does that mean we stop worrying when we've found them? No, cause then we could worry, "Oh no! Will this person always be there? Will I lose them?" SO... the answer is just not to worry, right? Take each day as the gift it is, cherish those with whom we can share our life, but don't ruin it with worry. They, like we, are in God's hands, right?

Each day is a gift full of blessings of LIFE. Singlehood is a great time where a person can go and grow and learn and experience and serve and explore the talents and opportunties that God has provided. So to all of those singles out there - may you be encouraged! And to all those not-singles - may you be encouraged too! Because in whatever situation we're in, there are opportunities to serve and love and encourage each other in unique ways. Everyone's timeline, everyone's story is different, right? So we walk by faith.

Welcome back!

Taiwan has welcomed me back with style. Style of a sort. Style that could be classified into the "series of ridiculous events" that IS living overseas. Ah. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Since my computer is refusing to work with the internet here for the time being, I'm borrowing a few moments on a gracious friend's computer. But I'm going to limit this entry from what it could be. I know what you're thinking... maybe this is a good thing.

Okay, actually, let's just cut to the chase. I ended up getting into Chia Yi around 2am last evening/this morning. At church today I loved seeing people and things were looking good. Only one torrential downpour had gotten in my way on my way to church, and thankfully God had endowed me with enough sense to bring my rain jacket along in my scooter. So all was right.. as right as rain, if you will.

After church, I decided to get some grocery shopping done. And purchase a hair dryer. I discovered mine to have been mistakingly disposed of in the feverous cleaning activities of the summer. At any rate, I decided the place to shop for all these things would be Carrefour... da da da daa! Apparently the rest of Chia Yi city thought that would be the place to shop today too. I kid you not, I spent 3 hours there trying to maneuver from one section of the store to the other. And I was getting stared at - a lot. I always notice it a ton more when I first come in from the States... do I still have the essence of an American wafting from me for the first few weeks that later wears off? Or am I just more acutely aware of the stares immediately after "fitting in" in the States? Who knows. At any rate, it was a experience, a slow experience shopping. I didn't mind. I enjoyed the time with no where else to be. I had a couple good conversations too, one with some friends I ran into, one with a 9 year old whose English was incredible. Except whenever I'd ask her a question, she'd first exclaim, "MeeEE?!" i.e. "How old are you?" "MeeEE?! I'm 9 years old." "What do you like to do in the summer?" "MeeEE?! I like to play pirates with my friend."

Leaving the store was where the crazy happened. First, it was raining harder now than it had been all day. We're talking sheets of rain. I was entertaining myself on my scooter ride trying to think of how to best describe the experience of driving a scooter, balancing shopping bags, through sheets of rain and flooding streets. There's no way to do it justice. You should just experience it for yourself. It's better.... and quite possibly wetter... than any water park.

But get this. I'm coming out of the parking lot when I look a bit ahead of me at a scooter who's trying to get out, but stopped because of the excess of vehicals trying to get into Carrefour. I notice a spider near the back wheel. This spider is huge. We're talking the size of my hand or bigger. Its body wasn't particularly fat, but its legs were definitely longer than my fingers, skinner, but still thick as far as spiders go and covered with light tan hair. The whold thing was a light tan color. I've never seen anything like it. It looked fake, except that it was clearly chasing, feeling it's legs up after this scooter. I kid you not. The scooter would move forward a bit and this huge spider would chase the hind wheel. I kept blinking at it to see if I was seeing it right and if the spider was real. The driver of the scooter seemed oblivious. After a little bit of this rear wheel chasing, the driver of the scooter turned the front wheel toward the left in hopes, I suspect, of making it through two cars on that side. At this, the spider left the rear wheel, ran up to the front wheel, got a hold of the tread in the front wheel, and then when the driver started driving, the spider rode the wheel up into the body of the scooter. I followed, watching the ground, expecting to see the spider squashed with a wheel track... but nope. It must have jumped off as the wheel went round and was now riding on the inside of the front of this fellow's scooter.

It was bizarre. It seriously was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen - right along with the dog walking around Carrefour on its two hind legs that I saw my first year in Taiwan. But a huge spider who chases down a scooter and hops a ride? What?! I hope that it wasn't dangerous. I thought about trying to chase down the driver and warn him, but I've not the foggiest idea how to say "spider" in Chinese and what with my scooter laden with groceries and the rain coming down in barrel-fulls, there wasn't much chance of that.

I wish I had a video of it. And I wish I could tell you exactly how big this giant thing was. Probably the rain water had just chased it out of the sewers where it had grown to be so mutantly large and it was looking for higher ground... like on top of a scooter wheel.

Weird.

Blast. I'll always be a painter with my stories rather than a pointer. Even with limited time. Here's to you, patient readers!

Round 3 and Musings

I'm all packed and ready to head over the ocean again for my third year of teaching in Taiwan. I can't say I'm looking forward to the 24+ hours of travel, but it will be good to see the students and the other teachers again. Presently, I'm working on a list of things to look forward to in Taiwan this year. This summer it was way harder to say "see you later" to people than last summer. I'm not exactly sure why. But I think a list of things to look forward to will help.

Prayers are hugely appreciated as God's work in Taiwan continues, as we welcome new teachers, as people are traveling back for the school year, and as we look at our goals for the coming year.

When I was visiting St. Louis at one point this summer, I attended a Sunday worship service St. John's in Ellisville where I had done my student teaching in 2005. The Bible text for the message was from Joshua. It made me remember my confirmation verse, Joshua 1:9, that was always very special to me, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." The pastor talked about strength and courage in the Lord.

The pastor also mentioned Joshua 5:13-14. There, the Israelites are about ready to take the city of Jericho... 'Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come."'

I love that. I love that Joshua asks God, "Are you on my side, or their side?" And God's like, "Um, neither. I'm God. I don't join these 'sides.' The question is, Joshua, are you with me?" At least that's how it goes in my head when I read that... :) And it reminds me to ask myself, am I demanding that God be on 'my side' and do things how I see best, or am I trusting Him and going to Him to lead me in serving, in loving, in life.

You know, even though the Old Testament seems many times full of confusing or harsh stories of destruction, God's mercy and grace through the coming Messiah are still the promise for all people and the overarching theme. We see evidence of that even in the story of Jericho - Rahab, a citizen of a doomed city and a prostitute, had faith and her and her family were spared. And she was even then part of Jesus' genealogy!

I didn't think I'd actually write much, but that came to mind, so there we go! But now, it's time to sleep. God be with you and bless you this day. :)