Christy's Lovely Life: August 2006

Tomorrow is the first day of school!

Hello all!
Tomorrow is the first day of school! Being the first week, I think that I am mostly observing, but have been told to be prepared to do some teaching as well.

The last couple of days have been interesting; here are a few highlights...

...falling off my bike resulting in a trip to Emergency and stitches (wish I had taken pictures of Taiwan ER),
...having fun with my team making our living space more homey,
...meeting Myra, a new American teacher here to teach English as well (and she plays the cello),
...a lovely lunch party held at the school for the new English teachers,
...meetings with the teachers we will be teaching with,
...discovering that I have 36 first-graders for at least five of my classes (should be fun!!!)
...and right now, just busy planning lessons and gearing up for this school year!!

Thanks for you love and prayers!!!! I miss all of you and know that I think of you often.

"For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth." (Psalm 74:12)

Love,
Christy

"My Home is God"

"My Home is God Himself"; Christ brought me there.
I laid me down within His mighty arms;
He took me up, and safe from all alarms
He bore me "where no foot but His hath trod,"
Within the holiest at Home with God,
And bade me dwell in Him, rejoicing there.
O Holy Place! O Home divinely fair!
And we, God's little ones, abiding there.

"My Home is God Himself"; it was not so!
A long, long road I traveled night and day,
And sought to find within myself some way,
Aught I could do, or feel to bring me near;
Self effort failed, and I was filled with fear,
And then I found Christ was the only way,
That I must come to Him and in Him stay,
And God had told me so.

And now "my Home is God," and sheltered there,
God meets the trials of my earthly life,
God compasses me round from storm and strife,
God takes the burden of my daily care.
O Wondrous Place! O Home divinely fair!
And I, God's little one, safe hidden there.
Lord, as I dwell in Thee and Thou in me,
So make me dead to everything but Thee;
That as I rest within my Home most fair,
My soul may evermore and only see
My God in everything and everywhere;
My Home is God.

Unknown

"Let the little children come to me..."

Korean Restaurant

There's a traditional Korean restaurant two doors down from our house. The TAs and I went out there for dinner a couple days ago. YUMMY!

"So, Leslen, tell me what to order (and what it is and how to say it)!"

The food was cooked right at the table and then set before us in a steaming hot dish. Very tasty!

"Cheers!"

A day at camp includes...

Reading time

Rest time

Large group time

and activity time.
(As well as actual sitting in the classroom and learning something time!)

Random pictures...

Stinky tofu...

"Good Dog/Bad Dog" skit

Gimme Hands skit

King's Feast skit

This past week

Hello friends,
This past week we have been busy with a day camp held at the Siang-He Elementary School in Puzhi, Chiayi County. The school is one that I will be teaching in, and it has been good to get acquainted with the director, principal and some of the teachers.

Overall, the camp has gone well. I am leading it and so am doing the large groups which includes telling stories and leading songs. :) The team of English teachers here with me are doing a wonderful job in the small groups, keeping the children well entertained while teaching them English. At times I am not too busy, and at other times I am kept almost racing with the different questions, filling in for a small group, and doing a little one-on-one with a child! When the day is over, we pretty much just collapse in our lovely apartment before preparing for the next day. The camp will be held next week as well, after which we will ease in to our school teaching schedule, getting up to full speed the week of September 4th.

On Wednesday evening, my team and the TAs went out to the Chiayi night market! It was a fun adventure and I got to try eating a number of traditional Taiwanese food such as octopus, "stinky tofu" and pig blood. It was... interesting... to say the least! :)

The pictures below are from our trip to Tainan to see some Taiwnese history.

Today has been a lovely, restful day. We all slept in rather late, had breakfast, and then had "church" with just our team. It was so encouraging to share all together, to pray for eachother and sing!! After a few weeks without it (because we were busy doing camps 7 days/week) I sure needed it! Afterwards, Lauren and I took out our bikes and explored around a little bit, which was just a perfect Sunday afternoon thing to do!

I have now just finished cleaning up my room and posting pictures to this site and will close for now. Thank you all so much for your love, prayers and support.

Love,
Christy

Chihkan Tower

Emma & Me

Pictures from another fort

Octopus

Pictures from bomb shelter

Restaurant

For lunch we went to a restaurant that was constructed over a bomb shelter used during WWII. The food was pretty yummy, especially the little "bread coffins", which were reminiscent of chicken pot pie.

Jay, me, Ruthie, Lauren and Zack