Lauren, Christy, Rachel, Jane

Lauren, Nichole, Rachel, Jane - we went to "The Spaghetti House" for dinner one night. We had to wait for a long time to be seated so were trying to figure out what we would order from the menu. It was all in English - so many choices!

Some Hong Kong pictures

So sorry I haven't updated in a while - life has been rather busy! I had a great trip to Hong Kong! I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with friends from around Taiwan while visiting this very international city.

Meiling

Happy Sunday, everyone!

I am glad to report that I am feeling much better from my cold! Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Today was a "family" day, and I enjoyed a trip around Chiayi County with a student's family. We started off the day by heading up to Meiling, an area famed for its beautiful flowers. Here are some pictures:

We ate lunch in Meiling as well. Here is part of my lunch and guess what? You eat the whole thing, crunchy legs & eyes and all! They actually tasted really good and I managed to down five or six of the fresh river shrimp.

We then went to a "farm", where the children had fun feeding goats, cows and ostriches. There was some big open space as well where they could run around and play.

My little "hosts", Joy, a first-grader, and her 5-year-old brother, Eric.

A few more stops to eat various traditional food and we were home! 'Twas a fun day.

Hope you all are well!

Much love,

Christy

Ramblings...

It's Saturday. Ahhh....

I have a cold, too, so it has been so lovely to have a day to rest.

Last night Myra and I went to the Tomato restaurant again. This time I had the green noodles with a beef sauce and it tasted like something from home. We shared an order of tofu with tomato and it was REALLY excellent! I will definitely order that again. It was simply chilled tofu with what tasted like homemade fresh salsa on top - tomato, onion, cilantro, etc. I wonder if I can buy a container of that fresh tomato sauce. I wonder how I would ask in Chinese... =)

So today I slept in until about 11:00 (gasp!), had my quiet time in bed, made some hot lemon drink and sipped that in bed and ate breakfast in bed, too. I finally dragged myself out of bed and over to my computer, where I was really happy to talk with Mom online. Then I thought about lesson planning as I read friends' blogs, read email and looked through pictures over the past 1/2 year. The thinking about lesson planning actually turned to productive work and I planned out about five lessons for next week. I still have to finish planning four more, but it's almost done!

I did manage to get outside and go for a walk today. I also managed to do a load of laundry. Hopefully I'll manage to get some viola practicing in as well before I make another cup of hot lemon drink and crawl back to bed. =)

This morning I read Titus 2. It's such an excellent chapter, and I was glad for the reminder in verses 9-10: "Exhort servants to be obedient to their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; not purloining, but showing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things." This word 'adorn' means "to put in proper order" or "to decorate". Very interesting. As I show love by being an obedient servant to those above me, God's teaching - His doctrine - is evident by its proper order in my life. Those are just some thoughts - anything comments, friends?

Well, I hope that you all are well! Hopefully with a good sleep, together with a good dose of vitamin C, echinacea, zinc, and oregano oil, I'll be back up and running tomorrow!!

Much love from,
Christy

Tomato restaurant

In my attempts to blog more faithfully, I am hereby blogging. :-)

Hello everyone! I hope that you have all had a wonderful weekend! Today was back to work for me. I enjoy the children so much that it doesn't really feel like "work", though. Plus, it was a short day - I only taught for three hours in the morning and then spent my afternoon lesson planning, talking with the school director and responding to email. So good!

Tonight Myra and I went out to a new "tomato" restaurant. Apparently everything in this restaurant has tomato in it, but it was a little hard to tell because the menu was entirely in Chinese and none of the workers really spoke any English. Usually we do okay in restaurants because we know how to order chicken or beef, but we had no idea for this tomato restaurant. The people at table next to us had an assortment of things - tofu with tomato, tomato juice, something that looked like spaghetti, tomato sauce on rice, etc. We (ahem) ended up "ordering" by gesturing to what looked good on the table next to us. I'm not sure what the people thought (oops). The food was REALLY, really good!! I ended up with green pasta and chicken in a cheese & fresh tomato sauce with a side of fresh tomato soup. It was a large meal and only cost about $5 US for the two of us. So delicious - we've both decided to come back again and next time we'll know which line to point to on the menu!

My team and I were going to go out and play some volleyball this evening but sadly our ball is flat and doesn't want to stay inflated. We'll have to find another ball sometime. Some on my team are really good at volleyball and and we all want to work on our skill so that we can take on the other teams come winter English camp time. Fun times...

That's all for now! Thanks everyone for your prayers! It was a good day.

Love,
Christy

"Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:31-32

My birthday evening

I have really enjoyed attending a Monday evening Bible study at The Grace Place, a little church plant that I have blogged about before. Tonight it was not only my birthday, but also the birthday of the Taiwanese pastor, James. So we had a double celebration including homemade hot pot and chocolate cake. Yum! Delicious! I am so encouraged by this fun evening of sharing, eating, telling stories, and laughing! What a blessing to have found a church family here in Taiwan! Here are some pictures from the evening:
Below is Betty, a little first-grader who comes to the Bible Study with her mother (and today, her father came too!), Elizabeth and Sarah Dodd. These little girls remind me so much of Amy! They are so fun and are quick to give me a big hug whenever we meet.

This is Luke, James and his wife Joyce's 2-month old baby. I think he is just adorable!! I didn't get to hold him tonight, but that is typically a highlight of my week! He just got his hair cut. I guess there is a Taiwanese tradition of making a calligraphy brush out of the first cuttings of a baby's hair. The uncut hair makes for a very fine point on the brush. Interesting...

My team was recently given about 200 oranges (it's orange season here in Taiwan). What to do with them? Make orange juice! This weekend I bought a cute little orange juicer and we have had fun juicing our way through the box of oranges. The bottle of juice you see in the picture below took 30 oranges. They are small and quite sweet, making for good juice.Well, I think that's it for today! I'm much encouraged as I am reminded that God has a purpose for everything - for oranges and for me every day that I am here in Taiwan. God has a special purpose for everything in your life too! Let's hold fast and together keep our eyes on the goal!

Love,

Christy

My Birthday

Last week the Bei-Huei school decided to celebrate my birthday early with the lovely and delicious cake pictured above. What a special treat!! The picture below is of me holding a piece - don't you wish you could try some? =)

Now let me see if I can explain how birthdays work here in Taiwan. When a child is born in Taiwan, they are 1 year old. After their first Chinese New Year, they are 2 years old. With each Chinese New Year after that, their age changes to be one year older. They still celebrate their birthdays, though; their age just doesn't change 'til the New Year. So... I was born on January 1 and would have been considered 1 year old. Chinese New Year was just after that, so then I would have been considered 2 years old. Jumping ahead 26 years makes me 27 years old now, and I will be considered 28 after this Chinese New Year! Hopefully I didn't confuse y'all too much - have fun figuring out your own age!

Pictured above are a few wonderful gifts from my family. Thank you so much!! My birthday was doubly special this year because I got to celebrate my dad's birthday (Dec. 31) and my birthday at the same time, thanks to the 15-hour time difference between Taiwan and Colorado!
And, Happy New Year to all of you, my dear friends! May the Lord bless you bountifully as you continue to put His Kingdom first!

Love,

Christy

Alice & Joanne

Yesterday I had a lovely tea with Cerita, the director of the Siang-He school, and Myra. I have had a couple of new children join my Grade 1 class and learned a little bit more about them. One little girl, Alice, just moved here to Puzih because her parents divorced. She lived with her father for a while, but I guess he wasn't able to take good care of her. So, she is now living with her mother here, but things are still difficult because her mother is having trouble providing for her as well. Siang-He is helping this mother out by providing Alice with a very good lunch and free afternoon classes (which I teach). Alice has now been here for about one week and my heart just goes out to her. Please pray that somehow I can show Jesus' love to this little girl so desperately in need of it.

The other girl is Joanne. She has actually been in my class for a while now and I have found her to be just delightful to teach. Joanne is from Taichung, a large city about 1 1/2 hours from here. She lived with her parents in Taichung but they were too busy with work. So, Joanne would get dropped off at school and then have to get home all by herself. She would be all alone at home for hours at a time. Although addressed, the situation did not change so Joanne has been sent here to Puzih to live with her grandparents. The problem is, her grandparents are still too busy with work so Joanne still walks home from school (quite a little walk, I saw where she lives) all by herself and is at home all alone until her grandparents come back. Please pray for her safety.

Thank you!
Love,
Christy