Typhoon Holiday

Hi All,

I'm having a nice quiet day in the office during our first typhoon holiday and decided that its about time we get back to blogging! Last night the government raised a typhoon warning at a level that is so serious that all business (except malls and restaurants of course) are shut down. So far, it looks like a false alarm so I decided to come by the office and get things done before the hectic pace of work starts again. This is typhoon warning number three since we've been here and all have been uneventful. The last one was when I was in HK and the typhoon 8 signal scheduled to be raised just 30 minutes before my flight time. Between all the fussing and excitement of the people at the office, I finally decided to head to the airport late. Not being able to catch a taxi during the craze in central, I finally made it to the airport 25 minutes before flight time. After a short scolding, I found myself on the plane upgraded to business class because coach was filled up. I love typhoons and late checkins at the airport! So much for lessons learned...

Things have been well for Sandra and I. The last few weeks have been intense both for our work and personal life - in a good way. Sandra started teaching again. She's already blogged about this before, but we are more and more impressed with Morrison Christian Academy where Sandra works. The school's history, administration, teachers, parents and children are 100%+ committed to the vision of providing top educational and family life for the children in a Christ centred way. Despite Sandra's positive experience with her sabbatical, it is also clear that God has made her to be a teacher. She is in her element and is loving every moment of teaching - I'll let her share more details herself.

MCA also highly encourages the teachers and their families to be a part of the MCA community and its ministries. We've had staff retreats / outings that last two weekends. It's been wonderful getting to know some more experienced missionaries and "spiritual giants" who have devoted much of their life to teaching here in Taiwan. I've been encouraged by their passion and commitment. For those of you who are parents, it's also amazing to see not only the teachers come together, but the parents. The parents, most of them missionaries themselves, pray for the teachers and the school every week! It's a different space for Sandra, but so far, it's been a wonderful learning experience.

For myself, the past few months have been filled with intense, but rewarding change. We have put in place new leadership and the vision and direction is clear. The tough (but personally very interesting) work ahead is the implementation and leading the change. We are also in the midst of integrating the Taiwan firm with Greater China... so it creates very interesting and challenging opportunities and initiatives for me to be involved in over the next year or two. My travel schedule will stabilize by the year-end and I'll be able to take on more responsibilities in Taiwan. It's something I didn't think would happen so soon, but it's also exactly in the space that I have an interest in - people, culture and operational excellence.

So.. that's the quick update. We are both just getting deep into our calling in the workplace. We've been praying about how to represent our faith in the workplace and how to bring the Kingdom of God into everything we do or impact. The pace of change here is absolutely amazing and now we've very happy that there are other like minded people who we've been introduced to.. people starting the journey like ourselves and people who have left a legacy and are being called by God to rest.

ray