Small Group (#20)

Another AWESOME thing that relates to post #18 is: Eating the last piece of dessert somebody left at your house. Which made me think of my small group. I have taught different kinds of English bible studies throughout my years in Taiwan, and I'm even writing a paper on it this semester. But this year is the first time I've hosted a home group. The focus is bilingual and rather than an English class, it's more like a bible study/discussion. I have about 8-10 people, and I host it in my house, which is great for a few reasons. First, it forces me to keep it clean! Also, as mentioned above, people bring yummy things to share, plus some interesting items like two bags of disposable plastic gloves. Last week is a perfect example of this. We didn't plan to have a potluck, but ended up with a feast! I baked Christmas cookies just for fun. Debbie brought kiwi from her recent trip to the mountains in Taiwan. Andy brought organic "ugly" oranges that he grew himself. Lona came a little later and brought all kinds of yummy goodness from the shop she works at, including fresh onion pancakes which she fried up in my kitchen. It was a veritable feast!
The week before, we decorated my Christmas tree, which was also a lot of fun. Everyone enjoyed looking at the different decorations I have accumulated over the past few years. Most of them didn't put up a Christmas tree in their own house, so it was really fun for them. Plus I didn't have to put it up by myself!
We've been going through the book of James, and so far have had some interesting and challenging discussions! Most of the group members are English teachers, but there are a few others as well. Our discussions take place in both English and Chinese, but I know they're really digging deep when it switches to all Chinese!
I'm really loving this group of people and taking this approach.  I'm not sure whether or not next semester I'll go back to doing a second "English Bible study" but I'm definitely planning to keep this small group going as long as there are people interested in coming.

P. S. My apologies for the EXTREMELY crappy picture quality, I'm trying to figure out the problem. Until then, please DON'T bother to click for larger images...

P.P.S. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!