Green Island

Yesterday, I went back to teaching after a very nice 4-day weekend for the Moon Festival. For this Chinese holiday, I went to a minute island off the coast of Taiwan called Green Island. It's so small that you probably can't even see it on a worldwide map. It used to be an island only where prisoners went and was also famous for its deer population. There is still a prison there, but is now a big tourist spot. It has one road that runs around it and you can drive all the way around the island in about 1 hour.

On the ferry to the island, the waves were rought and the ride was pretty rocky. About 15 minutes into the ride, people around me and my co-workers starting getting sick, left and right. One of my roomates and I both got sick. Both of us had never gotten sea sick in our lives or had had sensitive stomachs when it came to fast moving objects. But this really affected us. I felt like I was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie with everyone around us literally getting sick. After that, though, everything was fine.

Although it was a very small island, it was composed of some of God's most beautiful landforms and sea creatures. I saw some of the most gorgeous mountains I had ever seen in my life! I also had the priviledge to go snorkeling and saw some fish that I had never seen before. I was simply in awe of God's creation to say the least. I was reminded of how detailed God is. I wondered to myself: How can someone look at all this beauty and not believe that there is a God from which all this came from? While riding the scooter around the island, I would just gaze with my mouth drooped open and smile. The mountains, the fish, the coral, the seafloor....God is soo creative!

Next month in school is designated as "Kindness Month." The students get rewarded for doing kind deeds. They have to do a certain number of kind actions to receive their "ticket" to the fall festival at the end of October. Please pray for them. They really need this month to learn what it means to be kind to one another. Pray that they won't do these actions to just receive their "ticket," but that they will want to be kind to others and will see its importance. After all, it is one of the fruit of the spirit.

Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers!

Cool Stuff

Last Thursday, the 4th and 5th graders took their first field trip of the school year. We took them to the postal museum about 30 minutes away from the school. On the way there, I supervised the 5th grade girls. One of the girls randomly started me asking about Heaven and Hell and what kind of people go to both places. It was a very interesting and God worked through that conversation in some pretty cool ways. I just hope and pray that she will continue to inquire about God and will want to learn more about him. Keep her (her English name is Joanna) and the other students in your prayers.

On Saturday night, I had the opportunity to go to a orchestra and chorus production. One of the Chinese teachers at the school I teach at...her son recomposed many songs and that's what the production was about. There was another concert last Sunday that I went to...it was only with the orchestra. But on Saturday night, the orchestra played and the choir sung church hymns. It was beautiful! It was quite a big place and it was nearly packed...Praise the Lord! All of it was in Chinese, of course, but I recognized the majority of the hymns. Near the end of this glorious event, a lady came out on stage and gave her testimony of how she found God. So, all of these people that were present got to hear about Jesus in their own language!!! I bought one of the CDs...excitement!

God is mightily working here in Taiwan and I'm getting to be a part of it! He was working on the hearts of the people here long before I came.

Positive Anger

A few weeks before I left to come to Taiwan, I heard Rev. Mark Whitt preach at Westside Baptist Church in Murray, KY. On that particular Sunday night, his sermon was about anger. But, he came from a different viewpoint than what is usually preached on this topic. He talked about how we should become angry whenever people are being mistreated...are hurting...etc. Whenever others are being put down, we should be upset about it. Whenever there are people all over the world suffering because they don't have food, shelter, water...we should be angry and try to do something to help out.

I have felt this way for the past week or so. I have seen my students mistreat each other in some harsh ways. They have drawn negative-viewed pictures about other students. They have called other students hurting names. They have made fun of those different from them. My heart is broken for the lack of respect and kindness from the students who are performing these acts and hurting others. I am seriously angry about the situations at hand. I'm not talking about anger that leads to sin...I'm speaking of the kind of anger that comes out of concern and a kind that results in positive reactions.

Please pray for these 4th and 5th grade students. Pray that they will come to an understanding of how hurtful their words and actions can be. Pray for salvation.

Also, please pray for next week. Every day in the afternoons next week, we have parent/teacher conferences. May those go smoothly and may God give us (the teachers) the right words to say.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! Love you all!