Goodbye to Tai-ching and the Jiangs

I don't have Jenna Detter to proof read for me and the keyboard here at my host homeis different and old so the keys get stuck and because I don't type well, what I say doesn't always make sense. Sorry.

I have been here in Tai-chung, Taiwan for almost 8 (ba...8 in Mandarin) days now and it has been quite the experience both physically, spiritually, socially, mentally...

Activities:

Language classes - Monday-Wednesday I got to take Mandarin classes and have learned a lot but comparatively very little. I got a book and made flash cards from a deck of "poker" cards from a 7Eleven fromwhich I will continue to practice.

Tai-ping Ministry - Tai-ping is a city near Tai-chuing that the missionaries and some Taiwanese have invested in because of the high population of Vietnamese brides there. It appears that the majority of their ministry is concentrated there. On Sunday's they have a Bible story time for discussion in Mandarin and Vietnamese. The style is catered to the Taiwanese where it is open for them to come and go as they please, be loud and informal, but in a clean, safe environment they might not find in other places. We have a rented "gospel center" there and they offer Mandarin classes on Saturdays for the Vietnamese brides, a tea time on Thursdays where the Taiwanese husbands can come and smoke and talk, and the missionaries make house visits and meet in the parks during the week to have devotions and encourage and pray with the families. Most of the days I go and observe and "listen".

Church in Tai-chung - The whole service was in Mandarin, but some of the songs I recognized and could sing along in English and the sermon had somany Bible references that I could at least follow the pattern of thought even though I don't know what he said. It was so wonderful though to worship the same God with believers on the other side of our world!

Missionary fellowship - between World Team and their co-workers from OMF in Taiwan, there is the largest variety of nationalities I have ever seen at one time, apart from the UN. We had a cookout on Tuesday night and there were missionaries from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and United States (...and maybe China.) A new family just arrived from Australia and they shared their journay and God leading them to Taiwan, which was amazing and encouraging. Taiwan is somewhat of a hub in the Asian world because of it's location, which explains the amount of ex-patriots and foreigners here.

Youth ministry - I was supposed to speak at a Bible club in the Tai-ping highschool yesterday, but classes were all out for holiday so I didn't get a chnce, but Robb Branch, the missionary I work with here, goes just about every week and talks to the kids. They are allowed to join a club through the school and although there are 25 members, only about 5 are actually Christians, so it allows for much ministry. The youth here are sooo driven though their studies and competition that they rarely make timefor religion and when/if they goto college, then is when the most youth may start beinginterested in religion and/or the gospel. The daughter in my host family, Linda Jiang is going to be taking the entrance exam to get into college in a month or so and she studies almost non-stop through "cram schools" until 11pm sometimes and tutors on holiday and the weekends. She wants to study Biology, but she didn't have very good interviews with the colleges, so please pray for her. If the interviews go well in February and they are accepted to college, students don't have to finish their senior year or take entrance exams.
This morning I got to share at a small bible study of yound adults about my testimony and it was a nice time of fellowship, low pressure.

Temple visits - I got a chance to visit Taiwan's largest temple, a Buddhist temple, and a folk religion temple. The Buddist temple had a large gold smiling Buddah statue as big as a house. The folk religion templewas the only one we really went into and looked at and it was a little bit frightening, just knowing someof the things that go on in there. People move about from one god to another praying and burning incense. Matsu (Mazu) is the patron goddess here in Taiwan and you see her picture everywhere. It is interesting though because the people aren't really concerned with truth of their religion. You will hear a different story about the god's histrory depending on which person you talk to. And many of the gods are pulled from ancient stories or fables. But there are many people in the temple throwing these cresent shaped blocks to see what the answer to their questions are from the gods. Both blocks up mean no, one up one down means yes, and both down means the god is busy and try again.

Prayer walking - There is a practice here of themissionaries to walk around and just pray over the people and the city. Most stores have "god shelves" in then which you can see clearly by the 2 red lights on them. Even my host home has a shrine to ancestors on the top floor i believe, because only the mom and 1 daughter are Christians.

Food and Fun:

I have already written too much, but I rarely have this much timeto write.

I have eaten: a whole squid on a stick, freid tofu, oyster noodles, clams, fried eel, hot soy milk, bamboo soup, rice dumplings, nose fruit, dragon hair candy, cow tongue cookie, pearl milk tea, TONS of rice, and many other questionable or unidentifiable things this week so far.

I have seen: many beautiful parks, much beautiful architecture, swimming pools (that's an interesting experience i'll tell you later if you remind me), restaraunts, schools, homes, old shopping streets, new shopping malls, small shops (i even had a "chop" Chinese signature stamp name with my Chinese name "He rou en"), night markets, temples, many many people!

OK, that's all for now because I could go on forever with my new experiences (my journalsometimes I write 9 pages a day) but I wanted to focus on the spiritual state of Taiwan today. Miss you all!

LB