Linking our Blog

PLEASE, can we ask that those of you who enjoy our blog, not put a public link to our blog from your website/blog? See January 24, 2007 entry for some further thoughts on this. Thanks for understanding.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Lost and Found

The Story of the Lost Coin

"Or imagine a woman who has ten coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and scour the house, looking in every nook and cranny until she finds it? And when she finds it you can be sure she'll call her friends and neighbors: 'Celebrate with me! I found my lost coin!' Count on it—that's the kind of party God's angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God." ~ Luke 15:8-10


We lost our cell phone on Saturday night while riding the local Taipei Bus. Bus Route #278. We unfortunately didn't notice that we had lost it until the next afternoon and by that time worries of somebody using the phone to make outrageous calls were haunting our thoughts. How much would the phone bill come out to? Who picked it up? And we have to buy a new phone too?!

Needless to say we hunted everywhere in the house in hopes of finding the phone hidden in some corner of our apartment. Eventually we resigned to the fact that we had really lost the phone and called the phone company to suspend the phone number.

Miraculously, within the hour, our friend B's aunt called us and said that some employee at the Bus station had found her number on our phone and called her telling her that they had our phone at the main bus station for Route #278. After repeating the instructions to retrieve the phone 4-5 times (the instructions were to take bus #278 to the main station, and retrieve the phone at the service counter) we finally hung up.

Ray and I were thoroughly shocked. One by the miraculous way in which God had provided for us. Two, by the surprisingly honest character of the Taiwanese people. Other places, I'm not sure if even the bus driver would have been that honest, let alone having bothered to hunt down the owner of the phone. They had called many times to make sure we went to pick up the phone. Not only that, when I picked up the phone they did a security check to make sure I was the owner of the phone.

Pretty cool!


Friday, July 20, 2007

Daunting Steps

"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."~Isaiah 41:10

I'm planning and prepping for the new school year. Once again I feel like I'm a new teacher. I've felt like a new teacher so many times. When I started teaching. When I moved to Grade 2. When I moved to Grade 4....and now as I teach Grade 4, although that is consistent, it's a new curriculum to learn and it's a brand new school environment.

I've been teaching at Joyce PS for my entire teaching career so far. The staff, the routines, the students were all familiar to me. Starting August I have to relearn all of that. I'll be trying to figure my way around the school again. I'll be meeting a whole school of new staff. Learning new routines (recess, lunch, photocopying, supplies, parents) and have a whole school of students to get to know. I know, I know, start with my class, but some of the teachers are going to know some history about the students, their siblings, their strengths...sigh. And then...there's the whole issue of being in a Christian school now where I've always taught and studied in the public school system. Prayer meetings, Bible classes, Chapel...that'll be all new too!

So needless to say, all of this preparation is quite daunting. I've been picking away at my to do list in my head slowly and I've gotten through reading through the curriculum with a fine tooth comb. My next tasks will be scheduling, long-term plan and short-term plan. Next Wednesday I'll start tackling my classroom and setting it up. I'm excited..but I'm nervous.

So today's Bible Gateway Verse of the Day on my Google Desktop was definitely very comforting. It actually reminded me of that Footprints poem. I love that poem, it has such a rich imagery.



It's funny, while trying to find the poem to post on the blog I found out all of this sticky copyright legal battle behind the poem. Kind of sad that such a meaningful poem has such a non-peaceful story behind it.

It reminds me so much more that as a human being I can only do so much, and with God by me, I do not need to be fearful, but I can be strengthened by the fact that God is lifting me up with his right hand.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Learning to rest



So my "sabbatical" is soon coming to an end. I hadn't planned this to be a "sabbatical" but I have to say that it has been a most wonderful time. I've had time to rest, sleep, read, learn, develop relationships, travel, adapt to Taiwan, cook, clean... I think everybody should take sabbaticals!

So being a Type-A personality, INFJ for Myers-Briggs, Gold on the Four Colours test and probably an Administrator as one of my spiritual gifts here is a breakdown of my Sabbatical in point form.

January 2007
  • Exploration and getting to know Taipei
  • Hung out with Ray's mom and sister + our friend D
  • Apartment hunting
  • Sorting through Visa situation
  • Job hunting
  • Applied for Mandarin classes at Shida
  • Shopping for household items
February 2007
  • Setting up our apartment
  • Adjusting to life in Taiwan (learning garbage system, fighting mosquitoes)
  • Getting to know landlady SF and exploring the neighbourhood with her
  • Shopping for household items (our cutlery set took the longest!)
  • Found church and fellowship to attend
  • Visited new school campus and taught a lesson on "measurement" on the SmartBoard
  • Cooking for Ray and being a good housewife
  • Reading lots
  • Trip to Hongkong, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shenzhen
  • Visit from R in Canada
March 2007
  • Started Mandarin class
  • Touring Taipei with classmates and building relationships with them
  • Reading lots, I discovered the Taipei public library
  • Getting more involved in Evergreen fellowship
  • A typical school day
    • 9:30 a.m. wake-up
    • 9:45 a.m. check e-mail/read
    • 11:30 a.m. start heading to class by bus, stop at breakfast stand along the way for sandwich and milk tea
    • 12:10 p.m. Class starts
    • 2:00 p.m. lunch with classmates around Shida Nightmarket
    • 3:30 p.m. walk home leisurely stopping along the way to buy groceries
    • 5:00 p.m. read/watch TV
    • 6:00 p.m. start cooking dinner OR get ready to go to prayer meeting or Alpha classes
    • 7:00 p.m. Ray home for dinner
    • 8:00 p.m. watch TV with Ray
    • 9:00 p.m. garbage truck arrives
    • 9:15 p.m. snack time
    • 10:00 p.m. shower, read, get ready for bed
  • Trip to Kuala Lumpur where we met our friend J
April 2007
  • Learning Mandarin rigorously at Shida, started writing essays
  • Reading lots of books from the library
  • Several outings with classmates
  • Trip to Beijing
  • Visit from Ray's co-worker A, friend W from Calgary and N from TO
May 2007
  • Started Intermediate Mandarin book at Shida, took Chinese proficiency test
  • Preparing to say goodbye to classmates
  • Still reading lots of books from the library (Shopoholics, Alchemist, Hemingway, Sisterhood of travelling pants)
  • Visited the Doulos ship and bought a devotional journal book
  • Evergreen Fellowship weekend retreat
  • Trip to Singapore
  • Visit from K&M
June 2007
  • Getting ready for trip home
  • Still reading lots!
  • School visit to see classroom and get a taste of 2007-2008 school year
  • Packing stuff for Taiwan
  • Trip home (focus: catching up with family, church community, Joyce PS teachers and students)
  • Attended TCK-PFO conference in Houghton, New York and met many interesting people, learned a lot about myself, felt more prepared for being in Taiwan
July 2007
  • Finished TCK-PFO training
  • Reading is going strong! (Legend of Jimmy Spoon, Little house in the Big woods)
  • Weekend trip with godsons' family to New Jersey & Appalachian Trail
  • Dinner at Susur's for Ray's mom's retirement. Yummy!
  • Returning home to Taipei
  • Hanging out with J&B visiting from TO with a trip to Hualien and Jiufen
  • Prepping for new school year
Feeling like a Sabbatical too now? :)