Happy Thanksgiving

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." Colossians 2:6-7

Thanksgiving here in Taiwan, specifically at CELA, means serving pounds and pounds of mashed potatoes, corn, chicken, pumpkin seeds, and apple cider to excited... or doubtful... students. Tuesday, we served all 260 kindergarteners throughout the course of the day. I was glad I could help out, but also glad that I wasn't the person heading up that endeavor this year. On Thrusday, actual Thanksgiving Day, we will serve the 220 elementary students. Along with eating at our festivities, we also sing a Thanksgiving song with the kids, and the staff performs the "Thanksgiving Pageant" skit by Jenny Meier, a reprise of last year's premiere. Those parts played by people no longer among us from last year's performance were taken up joyfully by the new staff. But don't fear, Michael still plays the turkey.

Okay, I just wanted to post and say, "Happy Thanksgiving!" to you all. Regardless of the struggles, the blessings of life sometimes overwhelm me when I stop and think of them or attempt to count them. Really, the single and most wonderful blessing of forgiveness and life in Christ Jesus is enough to be "overflowing with thankfulness" eternally! Praise God!

The Big Race

As a follow up of sorts to my next-to-most-recent post, I wanted to share this video. Some of us periodically lead a chapel service for the middle school students and for our latest one, we made a video based on Hebrews 12:1-3. Emilie did a great job editing it/piecing it together. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctpby95pIGg

Trick or Treat!

The boys on the team hosted a Halloween party at their house. Lots of people came - Taiwanese and foreigners. Here are most of the foreigners decked out in quite the array. :) I was a "Newsie." If you don't know what a Newsie is, go rent the Disney movie called "Newsies." It's worth it.


One family who came acted out the story when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. It was really great! I couldn't believe I had never thought about that before on Halloween - how perfect! Jesus defeats death! Lazarus rises from the tomb! What a great way to share the Gospel message on Halloween! Then the family sang the song, "I Am the Resurrection." It was really cool!


Here I am as a cowgirl with some of my kindergarten kiddos!


A special treat this year was that there were little pumpkins for sale at one store. I got a couple and carved them. The kids here were fascinated. I don't think many of them had ever seen a real pumpkin, let alone a pumpkin carved into a Jack-o-lantern. In my E4 class, we talked about the similarities between a Jack-o-lantern and a Christian. God picks us up, washes us off, takes out the icky goop of sin and seeds of greed and selfishness. Then God puts his light in us that shines out for all the world to see!

We Fall Down, We Get Up

A couple weekends back, we had our annual track and field weekend at Concordia Middle School. Concordia English Language Academy (CELA) was well represented this year with three relay teams competing in the 4x100 and two runners in the 1500m. I was a blessed to be a runner in both! Also, the Concordia Kindergarten students ran, which is always such a neat thing to watch. It's at the same time ridiculously cute and impressive. Some of those little guys can really zip around their quarter of the track. Actually, my eyes welled up with tears at one point as I watched one little girl whose feet just hadn't quite gotten the hang (coordination) of running yet. She took the baton, ran a couple steps, fell down. She got back up, baton in hand, ran a couple more steps, and fell down. She got right back up, and, though slowing her pace a big, made it to the next hand-off. I was on the sidelines yelling, "Oh! You can do it! Get up! You can make it! Go, go, go!" But what a trooper.

I feel like that little girl sometimes. I want to move on in faith. But I get tripped up. I try to move forward, my hearts telling me to go, but my self fails me and I fall.

It's a frustrating feeling to fall, to have to pick oneself up and start moving again. There's a song by... who... Bob Carlisle maybe? I saw a short skit of sorts performed to it once, and I remember being moved by it. Some chorus, "We fall down, we get up, we fall down, we get up, and saints are just the sinners who fall down and get up."

A couple verses come to mind. The first from Romans 7:24-25. "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!" or from 1 Corinthians 15:56-57, "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

When we fall, God picks us back up in grace. Actually, we can't even stand back up on our own when we fall in sin. God picks us up and gives us faith and strength to keep going.

Then also, when I think of running, I think of Hebrews 12:1-3, "...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith..." I recommend that whole section.

Well, there are some thoughts, and here are some pictures from the two race days!

CELA, team "Blue." I was on team CELA team "Yellow"... and did I mention, we got first! Out of six womens teams! We were so pumped!




CELA representing! We had a guys' team too... I don't know where they went for this picture.


Here's the start of the 1500m.


The contagiousness of raw enthusiasm. This is why I teach. (Well, one reason among many!)