Always an Adventure...

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...

2004-2012. Who would have imagined I'd be here for so long? I still remember that nervous girl who got on the airplane from Castlegar, promising her mom she'd only be gone for a year. Who didn't know a word of Chinese. A passport. A suitcase. A job waiting on the other end. What an adventure it has truly been. My 7th year marked a season of milestones, what will the 8th year bring? So far, it seems to be a season of change. A lot of people here who have been in my life for a long time seem to be taking their leave. Saying goodbye is hard, though a part of life for expats. When we are far away from our families, the people around us become like family. So much more so in Christ.  So maybe my 8th year will be a year of change. A year of being commissioned (commanded to mission) and making space in my life for new things. If you somehow missed it, I also updated the title photo for this blog. The hymn Come Thou Fount has been playing in my head this week, and part of the...

There have been quite a few typhoons in Taiwan this year, including one just two days before I returned to Taiwan. This past week has kind of felt like a waiting game, since we had slow moving Typhoon Tembin moving past, and then looping around for another pass. We got almost no rain in Yilan, but people in the south as usual were hit pretty hard. People were really preparing for this one in a way I don't usually see though, literally battening down the hatches, taking down signs, taping up windows and so on. But fortunately, this one was a near miss. Still a couple of months left in typhoon season, especially if this ends up being like my first year in Taiwan, 2004, when we had a typhoon as late as December. Anyways, all that to say, I found this fascinating blog/site with visualizations of tropical storms on a world map. It's definitely worth checking out! IDV User Experience: Hurricanes Flip-Book Style : Here are 33 years of hurricane seasons lobbed into a bloated and c...

 ( I took this picture!!! ) I took this picture on a little photography trip, and my friend told me that in Chinese, these sunbeams are called "Jesus Light." I thought it was very appropriate! Last night at bible study, we were talking about who God is and different names for God. I asked my students why God has so many different names. Some websites  list over 700!  We teased out the idea that God is everything to everyone. He has different names because he comes through for us in different ways and in different circumstances. Sometimes we need him to be our refuge or healer, other times we need the master and shepherd, and still other times we need the lover of our souls. God has been doing a new work in my life in this past year, and it has been hard at times. But last night when I got home, a paper literally fell out of my bag and onto my lap. It was some verses our professor had given to us on the last day of class back in July. But they were exactly what I need...

As you saw in the previous post, I got to attend commencement when I was at home, and a lot of people have been asking me "What next?" The answer is a little complicated, but the simple answer is: hopefully the same thing I've been doing for awhile, just better. That being said, I'm actually not quite done with my coursework, nor do I hold that piece of paper that gives me a new set of qualifications. Since this past summer was the last time we would all meet together, we got to join the graduation ceremony, but we actually still have a semester's worth of coursework still left to do, so I'll be working on assignments until the end of the year. But, I'm already done the big one as we finished our grad research last semester. It was tough. It was long. I often felt like I didn't really know what I was doing. But now it's done! At the end of this entry, I will post my abstract for those of you who want to know more about what I researched. For ...