Library Hours

This week is office work week at CELA, and it's always a readjustment from the freedom of summer. We work on our semester plans, lessons, meet with cooperating teachers, get our schedules, clean, and do all that general prep work.

This year, we have extra organizing work to do too because the other two CELA sister schools (Beigong and Chia Yi) were closed at the end of last school year. This was really disappointing for everyone as the other two schools were supposed to be much needed outreach to the community. All the materials from the other schools were brought to our campus over the summer, so everyone has been busy finding spots and making room for the additional books, desks, etc.

One special task today, however, was assigned to all the foreign teachers. The Taiwanese teachers were busy cleaning and organizing the main office and our "office 2" or overflow office and resource room. But the other foreigners and I were specifically assigned to the... NEW LIBRARY! This was great for a variety of reasons. First, we HAVE a new library! (It's not really new new, but CELA gained a couple classrooms this year, which opened up an entire classroom - rather than just a hallway - to use as a library.) I was thrilled when I heard that this would be our task for the day. We had air conditioning in there! We got to listen to music, turn organizing into a game, and do tangibly productive work! We went through boxes of books from the other CELAs and worked to categorize and and shelve them. We color-sticker-coded books according to some preset categories, and we had lively discussions as to which children's books should go in which categories. Probably my favorite moment of the day was when we were doing the initial organization into various piles and another teacher held up a small picture book about a dancing bunny and said, "This is probably upper level fiction." For some reason, that really struck me as funny. I laughed until I had tears popping out of my eyes. Then someone also kept insisting there be a "read propaganda to your bunny" category. We found lots of books about bunnies.

Oh, good times.

On a more serious note, though, please keep this area and Taiwan in your prayers as there is a lot of need here for Christian leadership. We are going on our second year without a pastor at our congregation in Chia Yi. Please pray that God would raise up leaders among His people. Also, with the other CELAs closed down this year, there is disappointment. Please pray that despite disappointments, God would continue to open doors of opportunity for the people of Taiwan to learn about the truth of His Law and His Grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Please also pray for me at the team - that we will be bold to step up and help with needs that we see and that Christ would continue to make us vessels of His selfless love to each other and to all the people around us.

Thank God that He is faithful and He always will be!

Blessings to you!

Back in the Saddle

Hey, all!

Anna Meyer here, reporting from Taiwan. The weather is windy due to the typhoon to the west of us. Thankfully, we haven't had any really destructive weather here, just wind enough to make biking burn a few extra calories.

Summer school is officially finished. (Yay!) I taught the last week of it and went on a field trip to a science museum in Taichung. It was crazy. I like regular school better. But the field trip was fun.

We have four fabulous new members of the team, and I praise God for them! They have new energy, ideas, and hearts for service here in Taiwan! Please pray that God will encourage them and strengthen them in their time here as He works through them in amazing ways. Please also pray for the team, that we can support each other and build each other up as brothers and sisters in Christ.

The apartment is coming right along. With the help of many, and one student's mother in particular, we are well on our way to a fully functional kitchen! The most exciting part for me is that our refrigerator now works! WOOHOO! We also now have internet at the apartment and I hope to make good use of that and blog a little bit more to keep everyone up to date with what's going on here!

This past week, a few of us were blessed with the opportunity to relax, get to know the new teammembers, and vacation a bit around the island. We spent Thursday in Taipei, exploring the tallest building in the world, admiring Chinese art and artifacts at the National Palace Museum, running up the stairs of the Chang Kai Shek memorial as they closed the door in our faces at sundown, eating at T.G.I. Fridays, and riding in taxis, buses, and on the MRT. It was pretty neat. Especially in such good company. Here are a couple pictures (courtesy of Beka) from Thursday:

The group that went on Thursday, minus Beka who was taking the picture.


We were showing off our martial art skills.


We got shut out of the memorial. Maybe we'll see it next time.