Always an Adventure...

This past Sunday, my local church put on a Tomb sweeping service. It’s the first our church has ever done, and the first I have ever attended. And I found it to be deeply meaningful. Growing up in a Lutheran church for a while, and being part of this generation that seems to be moving away from consumerism and entertainment-driven worship and toward liturgy and a deeper connection to past, future, and community, I found it refreshing to be a part of this service. Now for those unfamiliar with the holiday, Taiwan celebrates Tomb Sweeping Festival on April 5. It’s a day off when families traditionally visit the family plot where their ancestors are buried, and, literally, sweep or clean it up. Cemeteries in Taiwan do not, to my knowledge, have groundskeepers or other employees. Thus it is the family’s duty to make sure grave sites are maintained. Traditionally this would be accompanied with burning incense or ghost money, making food offerings, and prayers to the ancestors for blessing...

I was helping out a friend this weekend who works at a Catholic school here in Taiwan, as she was asked to undertake the difficult task of translating legal/doctrinal statements from English into Chinese. To make matters worse, they were originally written in Italian! But the interesting thing about it was how the document was relating the vow of poverty that nuns take to the financial administration of an institution. The idea is that if our own Savior emptied himself and took on the nature of a servant, if he had no place to lay his head, and if the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, shouldn't followers of Christ also choose to live a certain kind of lifestyle? To our modern way of thinking the idea of renouncing your rights and/or possessions, much less committing to never acquiring anything except as you plan to offer it for the good of the community, well it seems outdated, impossible, and maybe even crazy!  The next morning I went to a church where the speake...

I just got back from the Christmas outreach service put on by the local church I attend here in Taiwan, during which I started putting this post together in my mind. 8. Expect variety, a LOT of variety.... the variety show is an extremely popular form of entertainment here and a formula a lot of churches follow... we had performances by groups of all ages and in many different genres tonight. 7. Expect at least one aboriginal dance or song, which will be amazing... Ok I've lived on the east coast for all of my 8 years here, so this might be different elsewhere... Tonight's dance represented at least three generations and three different tribes. They were great. 6. If you dare to wear red, or put on a red hat, someone will excitedly say that you look like Santa Claus... even if you're a woman. Who doesn't have a beard. I skipped it this year.  5. You might sing one or two actual Christmas carols. One of them will be "Silent Night." 4. You wil...

Life just keeps going at breakneck speed. It is just over two weeks until my birthday, and I have 4 more blogs to write! This week has been a pretty typical week:  Teaching at the girls school (their annual school fair is this weekend, which I'm looking forward to) English bible study (a small but sweet group of low level students in the small town of Zhuang-Wei outside of Yilan)  Small group (meeting in my home since October, we're in James chapter 4 now)  Writing tests (never ending)  Doing homework (ironically, my project due Monday is to create an achievement test)  Teaching in Hualian (funny story - the school has been asking me to do more classes, even offered to pay me directly. I really do like the school, so I emailed our office and recommended that we could add a couple more classes this semester. I got back a proposed schedule of 8 more classes in the next two months which would have me going to Hualian almost every week... inch - meet mile....

Easter is coming! It's one of my favorite holidays. It's a time of reflection, mourning and rejoicing, and the promise of new life. Last Friday, I was at church when the pastor asked me if I had any ideas for a Good Friday service. We talked for about an hour, and by the end, we had put together a really cool program! I'm really excited about the opportunity to be involved in this way, and that my church is willing to try something a little different, that will hopefully be meaningful to them. We're doing a partial candlelight service that includes video, singing, silent reflection, spontaneous prayer and dramatic scripture readings. The major church holidays aren't really celebrated in Taiwan, even in the churches, so I'm glad that we can spend a little more time on Easter this year. I also wanted to share my Easter playlist, partially inspired by my friends Amanda and Hope who have both shared some of these songs with me. I'm making them links to yout...

I had the pleasure of seeing a band I really like in concert last night! They're a Taiwanese worship band called Joshua that has translated a lot of Hillsongs and other English songs into Chinese. I have 3 or 4 of their cds. It's always been a blessing to have a familiar song in the middle of an unfamiliar church service/language, especially when I first came to Taiwan! They came to Yilan last night and I had an almost front row seat! I got to chat with lots of students both before and after, and just had a really sweet night of worship, which was as the Taiwanese would say "超HIGH!" (this expression doesn't have anything to do with drugs, but was somehow brought over from English and means "exciting" or an energized atmosphere, like a concert.) One funny thing I noticed was that one of the lead singers was wearing a necklace with a marijuana leaf on it. I don't think he knew what it meant, but interestingly, he slipped it off shortly after I noticed ...

Happy Easter everyone! Jesus is risen! I celebrated Easter from Sunday morning to Monday evening. I joined the worship team on Sunday morning and we sang about 10 songs in Chinese. Fortunately they were almost all songs I know in English, so I figured if I forgot the words, I could just switch to English. We got to wear choir robes, which were really hot.. haha, no literally, I was sweating, and I just had short sleeves underneath. After church we had a big lunch. I spent the afternoon making a cake which I kind of botched, but was able to recover (thanks to LOTS of icing!), and getting ready for the Easter party in my class Monday evening. At the party we colored eggs, watched part of the Jesus video, sang songs, made a craft, and had a scavenger hunt. My students LOVED the scavenger hunt, though they got quite competitive. There are some pictures of the class here (it's all in Chinese, posted by another class member, but you CAN see pictures). Oh and speaking of new life, my hai...

Last Sunday we had an English Christmas party at church! It was fun but a little stressful as I was organizing/leading it! It reminded me of some of the things we used to do in youth group...except that I wasn't one of the students! It was the first of hopefully many English services. It went really well I think, we had a great time! We sang Christmas songs, watched a movie, played games, and I gave a message! That was the scariest part perhaps, though it went well despite a few translation difficulties. After we finished there was a discussion time and then we had snacks! I made about 80 cookies and they didn't last that long... well I guess there were about 60 people who went! Someone 'confessed' to me that she had eaten 3! You can see more pictures of the day here . Christmas is coming fast, and I spent the morning doing songs and gift exchanges with my classes! I'm heading to Taipei as usual on Wednesday night after spending the afternoon judging a drama compet...

Well, with Christmas only 32 days away, I thought it would be a good time to adopt a more wintry theme. Let me know if you have any problems viewing it! I received a package from my parents last week with some Christmas gifts in it! My mom wrapped them so I'll have something to open on Christmas. Isn't that sweet? Oh that reminds me, I should be putting my package together pretty quick too. Tonight I went to a new English fellowship that's starting up here in Yilan. It was really cool. It's held every Sunday night and really had the feel of a house church, though it had a number of seekers too. I had an interesting conversation with someone who said he didn't believe the Bible because he's a vegetarian... Anyways, another busy week coming up, i need to finish up my Thanksgiving lesson before bed!